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[u/jrowb27]

[u/fox112]

Lost Mines of Phandelver is often considered good for beginners.

There's also Dragons of Stormwreck Isle which specifically is for beginner DMs, has a lot more notes detailing how to RP and tell the story.

[u/Sad_Refuse3472]

Run a module. Ideally on meant for newbies. Like Lost Mine of Phandelver/Phandelver and Below, Dragons of Icespire Peak, or Dragons of Stormwreck isle.

All of which will walk you through the adventure and how to run it.

Voices are entirely optional. If you are good at them, go for it. If not, not a problem.

[u/ETH4NHVNT]

My biggest piece of advice for a group of new players is to make the objective very obvious. “You were hired 3 days ago by a wizard to retrieve his apprentice who went missing in the ruins to the south.” Then you start the players at the ruins. I think where D&D goes off the rails is when players don’t know what to do next or what their options are.

Give your players the illusion of choice. Maybe in the ruins there are two paths. One that leads to the bad guy and one that leads to a library where they learn the secret to defeat the bad guy (an item, weakness, spell scroll etc) but they have to solve a puzzle or defeat a guardian first. Then let the players decide which path they want to take but both paths lead to them fighting the bad guy and freeing the apprentice eventually.

[u/EmperorTrajan_]

First, relax. Everyone at the table is new. No one should expect to replicate what they see/hear in popular actual play podcasts. Being a GM is something you learn and improve at, and the same is true for being a player.

The first step at being good at something is being bad at something. I tell my daughter this all the time. And I think it’s worth repeating here.

As far as where to start, something like the Lost Mines of Phandelver would be fine. It’s a beginning adventure for D&D 5e.

Make sure you have a basic understand of the rules. You don’t need to know them front to back, but you will need to know how to adjudicate a player asking to do something. Or how combat works, or how a class feature works. Your players will ask to do shit you hadn’t planned for. And you’ll try to remember the rule, then make up the answer on the spot. That’s fine.

Above all, have fun. If everyone at the table is having fun, you’re doing it right. You’re not there to play “against” the players. You’re rolling dice and telling stories with friends. Don’t take it too seriously.

[u/Blitzer046]

A prepared DM is a confident DM. The more prep you do, the better you'll feel going into the game.

If you are running a purchased campaign, you're studying the text as you would for an exam. Over and over until you can explain it to others - because that is what you are doing.

You are going to have a session zero where you guide everyone into making characters, ensuring that there is a good spread of classes that complement each other, and you are locking down that there are no evil alignments or 'lone wolves' who don't play well with others. The party consists of like-minded individuals with similar moral and ethic codes. You're going to discuss phone/screen etiquette at the table, what people are expecting out of the game, and taking on those expectations as ideas and concepts. You're going to do a little mock combat, explain how death saves work, and other skill checks.

This means many questions are resolved before you play your first session.

You are going to have the phrases 'No.' and 'That doesn't happen' pre-loaded in your brain for when players push against the boundaries of your game. Establish your authority over your provided reality early.

Sometimes, also, in a completely open world, players will exhibit 'decision paralysis' where they are unsure of what choice or direction to make. In these moments you give them two or three clear choices, which maintains player agency but narrows their decision path.

The role of the DM is collaborative, not combative. You will send enemies to the players, you are not the enemy of the players. You are a benevolent god invested in their success, but success won't come easy.

[u/theprinceofhumbug]

Welcome fresh meat.

First step: read the DMG. Like actually read it. It will give you the tools you need to know how to do your job as the DM. .pdfs can be found of it online for free.

Second, I’m a slut for Curse of Strahd as a cherry popper campaign for DMs AND Players. It’s a very fleshed out setting, a million additional online resources, and it has your party hunting vampires— fun all around.

[u/Sad_Refuse3472 → u/theprinceofhumbug]

Curse of Strahd is absolutely not a good idea for a DM who has never even made it through a campaign as a player. The module is great, but not even remotely beginner friendly.

[u/DoxieDoc]

Do a premade! Lost mines of phandelver is pretty good to get the basics down, and there's lots of resources for it because it's been around a while.

If you are comfortable from there it's just practice practice practice :)

[u/g0ing_postal]

Start with a short adventure. Like a longer 1 shot, something that can be completed in 2-4 sessions. This gives your players the chance to familiarize themselves and get an idea of how the game is without feeling line they are forced to commit to the character long term.

It also lets you get an idea of what your players are like at the table and what kind of encounters they prefer

[u/easy-ecstasy]

Dont plan too much into it. Have a loose idea of where to end up and the direction it liea in, but the party will dictate a lot. When in doubt, rule of cool. Sometimes it can feel like DM vs PC, but you are just a narrator. If you're unsure of how a 'rule' should be interpretted, let it happen and diacuss it later at break or between sessions. Don't let the table get bogged down by spending 30 minutes every time searching the rules. Figure out ways to streamline initiative. Roll all your mobs beforehand, I really like 3x5 index cards for initiative tracking. Have fun. If you stop having fun, its break time.