SouldiamondDM
Squire
Stay safe, don't talk to strangers, don't do drugs, only you can prevent forest fires, etc.
Posts: 41 
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Human
Gender: He/Him
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Post by SouldiamondDM on Jan 27, 2017 19:39:20 GMT
I have a bit of a problem. Just recently, I set up a new D&D 5e group. This one is the first one I'll have had in months. But I'm kind of worried that something might happen. You see, all of the players are new to D&D, but I've been flipping through the rulebooks for ages and know most of the mechanics by heart. With my last group, I got frustrated occasionally when my players would forget the rules, and I'm worried the same thing will happen when I have a group to work with that's new to the game. Even worse, I'm afraid that I may teach the rules badly, or wrong, and I'll get upset over something that's my own fault. Does anyone have any advice on how I could keep my cool?
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Post by dmgenisisect on Jan 27, 2017 23:43:11 GMT
Well the first point to make is that you really are going to need to come to terms with the fact that your players will not know the rules, and will not know the rules thoroughly for many sessions to come. Depending on the players you have they may never learn the rules, and that's ok.
It sounds like your a bit of a rules layer, so perhaps this advice won't help but; consider the rules to be more like the pirate code. Guidelines.
If you taught them something wrong and five sessions later you discover that you had interpret the rules wrong ask yourself "is it really worth your time to correct it? Is this new interpretation hurting the fun at my table?"
Remember, your not playing the weird competitive DnD thing where absolute compliance to the rules is required. Just remember that it's just a game and the rules are there to facilitate fun and storytelling. And as they say at the RPG academy if your having fun your doing it right! Also I'm not good at remembering episode numbers but I'm pretty sure there's a DMB episode on managing the rules somewhere...
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Post by nebichan on Jan 27, 2017 23:56:39 GMT
I haven't done this from a GM perspective, but I remember trying to help a friend of mine. My husband was running the game and she and her husband were in it with us. She didn't particularly know the rules and her husband just kept telling her what dice to roll without explanation, but I didn't feel like he was teaching her (at least not well). I took it upon myself to help teach her. At the beginning of each game session I would choose ONE thing to go over and teach her. Skill checks, hitting and damage in combat, etc. (She wasn't a spellcaster so I didn't have to worry about magic at the time). But this might be a good approach to take with your group. Also this way, if each person doesn't remember everything, chances are any one thing will be remembered by someone, which takes a bit of weight off of your shoulders and gives them the opportunity to help each other. "Training Montage" We recently started a Mutants and masterminds game, which was a new system to all but one of us and the GM had us have a training session where we paired off and fought each other. This gave all the players a chance to use their abilities and get used to the rules without any deadly consequences. As far as being worried about teaching badly... maybe try to find some Youtube videos or tutorials that you feel explain things well. And either teach it like they do, or just provide the links to your players for them to reference when needed. (Unfortunately I have not touched 5th ed yet, so I cannot give you any at this time.) I can't help you with patience (deep breaths), but maybe these will help mitigate things that would test it  |
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Post by lasersniper on Jan 28, 2017 6:48:36 GMT
I always encourage any new player to at least learn the basic rules of combat and how to roll a skill check.
Taking the time at the start of each session to teach them a new basic bit of the rules would be helpful as well. Especially if you build the current session around the new rules use. Like a video game introducing a new mechanic. It might take a little bit, but eventually with rules introduced like that, and other rules taught simple by stumbling onto them enough times, they should get the gist of it.
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Post by friartook on Jan 29, 2017 17:37:57 GMT
As dmgenisisect said, you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that your players don't know the rules. I've introduced a fair number of first timers to TTRPGs. In my experience, most newbies to TTRPGs find the "learning the rules" part boring or intimidating. The key to hooking new players is to hook them with story, adventure, and ease of gameplay. Show them the possibilities inherent in the genre, and introduce the limitations of the game (read: rules) as they come up. Really, for D&D, the only piece a player needs to know coming in is the basic mechanic of rolling a d20 against a difficulty. All the intricacies of that will come out as you play. You'll have some players that will become fascinated by the game, and take it upon themselves to read up on the rules and options. There may be some players who will always find that piece boring, but will still be really into playing the game. My general advice for breaking in new players is: Make the game fun, funny, action packed and light. Then, when they least expect it, slam them over the head with intense drama/danger. Spend as little time talking about the rules as possible until your players start to get up to speed on the basics through playing the game. |
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Post by Chaunc3y on Jan 30, 2017 20:14:12 GMT
My group has been playing together for a while but this is my first time DMing and i came up with a great Crawl but one of the players charged in right at the beginning and killed a major plot point enemy without hesitation. my question is how do i organically give the party info so they feel like they earned it or it wasnt just an info dump?
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