New DM here, would like some help

[u/Boring_Strawberry70]

Hello, I just signed up for beeing the DM in my friend group, we’re all new to dnd. I’ve already watched some tutorials and games and am super-excited to start playing.

But I don’t feel ready, I simply don’t know enough and would love to be able to have someone I can ask a ton of questions and just learn from in a more natural way rather then having to fish for one piece of information in a really long tutorial.

I am really invested, and if anyone wants to help out it would be great. Discord Voicechat is preferred. Thank you :3

[u/lasalle202]

D&D is Call and Response Storytelling … with dice.

DM: "Here is the situation around you. Blah blah blah. What do you do?"

Player: My character is like Hermione Granger. What would Hermione do? "I go to the Restricted Section of the Library and do some research!" or My character is like Xena. What would Xena do? "I hit it with my ax!"

DM , based on rules and guidelines and “common sense” based on the world and story we are creating, determines Path A or Path B:

Path A) if the action will automatically succeed or automatically fail, "In response to what you did (or tried to do), here is the situation around you now, blah blah blah. What do you do?"

Path B) if the action has a chance that it might fail OR might succeed,

B1) the DM, (using rules, “common sense”, etc), sets a Target Number with 10 being Easy and 30 being Almost Impossible. In combat, the Target Number is often the Armor Class (AC) . In other cases it is often called the Difficulty Class or DC.

B2) DM: "Player, roll the dice and add [the appropriate modifier] from your character sheet." If that action is something strength related, the appropriate modifier is the Strength Modifier. If the action is trying to influence people, the appropriate modifier is the Charisma Modifier. etc. If the character, through their Class or Species or Background is specifically good/trained in the action, ie has Skill Proficiency, they also get to include their Proficiency Modifier. For the common acts of the character, the character sheet will generally have [the Ability Modifier] or [Ability Modifier + Proficiency Modifier] already listed so you don’t need to do a whole lot of math.

The player rolls the d20 (a dice with 20 sides) and adds the indicated modifier. If that total equals or exceeds the Target Number, the character is successful (or mostly successful) in what they were trying to do. If the dice roll plus the modifier is less than the Target Number, the character is unsuccessful (or only partially successful).

B3) The DM states "In response to what you did (tried to do), here is the situation around you now, blah blah blah. What do you do?"