First, what is a good number of people for a starting DN to handle?
Second, what books other than the 3 core rule books are needed?
Third, Any other random advice?
quote:
Sashu wrote this stupid crap:
I'm gunna start a DnD game. This would be my first time truly DMing and I want to know a few things. I have already looked through the finder of lost things as well.First, what is a good number of people for a starting DN to handle?
Second, what books other than the 3 core rule books are needed?
Third, Any other random advice?
1.) I'd say 5 max if you are just beginning.
2.) You may want to pick up a few modules to run people through to get a feel about things. Other than that It would depend on your campaign. Book of Vile Darkness is very nice though.
3.) Don't be linear. Don't try and lock people into a certain story. Don't change what mosters are in an area just because they killed them easily.
quote:And here I thought nobody remembered.
Sashu really knows where their towel is...
I have already looked through the finder of lost things as well.
Four is a good starting number. Any less and your party is guaranteed to be missing some vital skill.
Stick with the core rulebooks if you're running 3rd edition. You can choose between 3.0 and 3.5 (3.5 has better class balance, but did bad things with druid companions. Less people own it, and you don't want to force your players to buy both.), or take pieces from one and include them in the other. I wouldn't advise making custom rules unless you have a feel for what needs fixing. (Yeah, this from a guy who added four new races and rebalanced the others 
)
Don't force players to take a particular race or class, but encourage them to diversify. An all-arcane party won't live long at low levels, and all-muscle party gets redundant, an all-rogue party isn't made for combat, and I won't touch an all-divine party with a 10' carbon rod. You can have specialty parties (soldiers, spy ring, etc), but the entire campaign needs to be tailored towards them, which can prove quite difficult. If the party does lack one essential skill (say you've got two fighters, a thief, and a wizard, but no healer), you can use an NPC to fill the role yourself.
Don't coddle the party. If one of them dies, let the player make a new character, and find a reasonable way to bring him into the party. If things get too easy, they'll get bored. At the same time, don't get frustrated if they find ways to overcome tough obstacles. That's the whole point. You don't want to set up adventures they have no chance to live through.
Make sure the world around them changes while they're gone. The best scenarios at higher levels are when the party gets involved with world events that started happening around them before they were experienced enough to get involved. Set up an evolving storyline for the world, not just for the party.
Don't strand the party someplace where humans have never gone before. Because if one of them dies, you can't get a new character into the party (unless you allow monster races, but that comes with problems all its own).
The lower the party starting level, the better it is for roleplay, but the slower they get into the heavy action. Since they can always gain levels, and can't really lose them without making players miserable, it's best to start at level 1. I've seen games start between levels 0 and 3 successfully, but not higher than that.
I might come up with more later, and I might have repeated advice you already read. Meanwhile, time to add this to the list.
