but do not underestimate the power of colored tabs. They were why I passed anatomy class. When my data starts over I'll have to read some of the webcomics. :3

You guys can't get rid of me now, I found a place with people who are nice and laugh in a good way when I say you should have to roll iniative to see which place in line you get at the DMV.

@ colored tabs... yep.

Hey, whatever works for you to be organized!

Sorry I have not welcomed you sooner Kriea but I'm changing that now. Sooo Hello

As I see the rest of the Inn and other staff are already on top of helping you out all I'll say is you came to the right place. The Inn has been around quite some time and for a great majority of us is a second home. However I see no one has told you that there is a sorta guide to new members here called “Pit F(r)iend's epic guide to getting started for newbies.” located in the Archives section Which itself was written by an Inn member to help new people just like you figure out how to navigate the halls of the Inn.

Well I hope you like what you find here and stick around again Welcome to the Red Dragon Inn.

I'll certainly check it over. Everyone's been most helpful and I've already jumped headfirst into it I suppose. I can see myself spending quite a bit of time here.

Welcome.......

Yes as Tann said a really good place to start here is “Pit F(r)iend's epic guide to getting started for newbies.” That will help you figure out how to navigate the halls of the in.
To meet folks in real time pop into the DragonChat where I act as the current resident bar tender. We offer our very own "Good Old Froth-n-Slosh", the stale pale ale with the foam on the bottom.
Just grab a mug off the mantel and draw a cold frosty one.

My assistant Igor is usually lurking around if I'm not there.

He never says anything, must have something to with having his tongue cut out by his last boss, that nasty bar tender over at the Orc Bar & Grill.
I'll have him put out a plate of "Lady Fingers" in your honor.

Reminds me we need to have another "Ladies Night" and restock.

Anyway the Posting Games are great place to get to know folks and of course the DragonChat is our favorite lounge.

So lurk or play, welcome to the Inn

...I wrote up a blog entry for the site that was approved but never came to fruition (oh well. It happens.) that actually touches on a bit of your 'new to dming' dilemma, but in a very different light. Not too long ago I took the headlong plunge into DMing 3.5. What really made a difference for me was having supportive players/friends. That, and two shots of liquor before I began my game to relax. If you’re underage or are against such things, better skip that tip. At any rate, here’s that entry I wrote a few months ago ~ hope it helps!

Becoming an Epic GM
Last year my husband finally decided that he was no longer able to continue running our D&D game due to time constraints. This put a number of us in a bind since we all loved to play, but were now short a GM. In the same fell swoop, it was decided that I should stay at home. Almost as a joke, I suggested that maybe I should become our new GM since I now had quite a little bit of time on my hands. I had never run a game before, in fact, I still felt like I had a lot of growing to do as a player. But the game had to go on. Thus, a brand new Game Mistress was born.

I quickly learned from my players that I had surpassed “normal GM” and reached “Epic GM” status. Epic GM? This is something I had never heard of before. And how did I manage that in one game? To me, it felt like I had blundered blindly through a couple of encounters, hastily made up NPCs, and looked through the rulebooks far more than any normal GM would do. “No no, it’s not that,” they told me, “it’s your approach!”
So what was it that I had done that seemed to be normal preparation to me, but is apparently lacking in other games?

Miniatures. Playing a game with miniatures allows players to have an idea as to what is going on around them, where and how a battle is happening, and how it all relates to themselves. This doesn’t have to be done with pewter miniatures ~ it can be done with coins, glass pebbles, Splenda packets, whatever you have handy.
Creating a playing board for the miniatures can be cheap and easy, easy and expensive, or somewhere in between. We started with a foam core board (easily found at craft stores, or even big-named store chains) and measured out 1-inch squares with a sharpie. Instant playing board! Just recently we upgraded to a mat that has both squares and hexagons, is three times as big, and can be written on in wet-erase markers.

Maps. This is a big one. Small maps given to players spark curiosity. Large maps made to play on make it easier to imagine the scene; gives the players concrete restrictions (What do you mean I can't go around it… oh wait, there’s a wall here! ); allows them to make decisions based on their surroundings. The first map I made for my campaign was a floor plan of the tavern they were staying in. They have gotten so familiar with it that I get in trouble if it’s placed the wrong way on the table.

You don’t have to be an artist to have maps in your games. There are lots of resources available online to assist or even provide suitable maps. Wizards of the Coast put out a Map-A-Week series of articles. There are a ton of free maps that can be used with a variety of RPG games. A bit of fiddling with printer settings will allow you to print them off at a usable size to play on, or you can use them to base a general structure on your playing field. We used to use everything from dice boxes, erasers, and Lego’s to form playable maps.

Another one of my favorites is Ye Olde Map Maker. This is an easy, two page online map making system, where you drag and place objects and walls to make a floor plan. No fuss, no signing up for anything, just instant map.

There are tons of map making tools available online, it all depends on what you would like to use, and how much you want to spend on it!

And finally, A working town. I had decided that my game was going to be a rich world full of options that my players could choose to follow, or not to follow, depending on their hearts desire. I wanted something open ended, something that seemed real, real enough that events were happening in other places despite what my players were doing. In order to achieve this, I needed to start with the town that the party began in.

The first thing I did was get an empty composition notebook and started with the tavern. It describes the people who run the place, complete with clothing and personality descriptions. It contains the prices of rooms, meals, and how often the minstrel comes around. I’ve made a note that the stairs are a bit rickety (and remind my players on a regular basis when they go up them). I keep track of things that happen there so that it remains a consistent force in the game ~ not something that I have to make up every time we play.

In this book I have each of the shops available in my town, each with a unique name, unique NPCs that run them (names, personalities and all!), and a short list of what is contained in the store with prices. Having that list makes it easier to keep track of how much things cost, plus my players have a habit of getting store credit, so it gives me a place to keep a running total of their balance.

I have created a map for the town (just a regular sheet, creating this at scale would be huge!), and have slowly been marking each one of the buildings for what they are. The map gets set on the table, and now I’ve been getting remarks like “I need to get to the stables. Ah man, that’s like a twenty minute walk from where I’m at,” and “Hey, I’m real close to Thaddeus’ place. I wonder if he has my potion in yet.” This also allows players to grow fond of the town, and gives you a great hook to bring them into an adventure. What hero doesn’t want to protect the town that they know and love from zombies/tyrant/freak planar destruction?

These three things made all the difference in the world when I started my very first campaign. I’ve only been running my own game for about six months now, and I’m still traveling on that somewhat hard but rewarding road of Epic GM.

PS ~ Welcome to the Inn. Find a branch you like since you'll be running around with this pack of squirrels. ^_^

I was under the impression everyone here were nuts, not squirells.

Anywho, that was Insanely helpful!! Thank you much.

There doesn't appear to be too much going on right now, but I actually jumped in on an impromtu chat game earlier which was loads of fun. I want to get involved in a game but I have to go about figuring some things out first and have to survive Friday night.

I'm really enjoying everything on here right now. It's been good to be able to talk about gaming again.

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh... and we like it!

Very nice article, Celeste. I went ahead and added it to the DM's Corner for you, melui.

She was tottally cheering me on. I think she's more excited about tomorrow night than I am. XD I don't have any time for maps or anything for now, but if they get into it and decide they want to keep playing (my maiden voyage may be my ONLY one if my players decide D&D's not their thing) then I'll make up some maps and stuff. I may be a less than stellar artist, but so are they. :3

...and talented and pretty and tasty, too!

We like her pretty well... we'll likely end up keeping her.

I'll gladly take her off your hands. *nods*

I'm still just in awe at how friendly and supportive everyone has been. Maybe I just usually have bad luck with the general populace of the interwebs but the general response to any uncertainty on most sites is to strip the person of their confidence and then devour their young if they leave it unprotected.

Yeah, I kinda like you guys. I might stick around for a while. ^_^

It’s true, Kriea. I’m way excited for you. There are a pleathora of good players out there in the world, but a handful of good GMs. So many people love to play, so it can be really difficult getting someone to take the role on the other side of the table. I hope it works out for you!

And don’t worry about being a good artist. If you do end up doing some maps, be sure to check out the two sites I’ve got listed above. Plus, if you feel like creating your own via the computer, Autorealm is a really nice, free mapping program. It’s a little tricky at first, but worth it in the end. (Especially for those of us who are woefully unskilled at creating such things. Like me. )

Where did you go that they stripped down your confidence? We are always looking for more people for the Inn. We have so much fun here, we want to extend it to other people! Seems like that would be a bad way to get people to join your site. *winks*

Sadly I have no method of making things go from digital to hard copy at the moment. I had to bribe my sister to print me off some character sheets at her office (luckily her boss likes me cuz I babysat for free when his daughter was younger.) I'll probably just look at some on the computer and Get a ruler and rough it with a poster board. XD

D&D's all about ingenuity, see how far you can push the limits of your imagination. If that leaks over into having to learn to draw a straight line... well my mom would be glad I'm finally trying out something artistic (Parents are professional artists.)

edit: Lots of places. Like when I started trying to learn how to sew quilts I joined this quilting circle site for advice and they just all treated me like a little kid every time I asked an apparently obvious question. I've done a lot of sewing my my short life and don't like being treated like I can't thread my own sewing machine.

It's true. Imagination is key, but props are always nice. Good luck with that straight line bit. I use a ruler occasionally, but it still looks crooked.

Darn quilters! Don't they remember that everyone has to start somewhere?