good video. another recommendation if i may: modules for first time dms. i noticed your bookshelf, you could review Lost Mine of Phandelver or Waterdeep Dragon Heist. maybe even some older stuff like Murder in Baldur's Gate, i cant praise that one enough.
Thanks again for another great comment and recommendation! As for the books i have never run a module (only done homebrew) but i have played in a few. But i could read the adventures and review them based on how they are for a first time dm compared to a veteran dm!
Rich, thank you for honestly great advices! I'm loving your content. My wife suggested to play the very first game with her and our relative, so i'm super pumped and excited and nervous too of how this is going to work out. As a suggestion - can you maybe do a video about how to scale the game down or up depending on the number of players / their classes / their experience ? For instance, i want to start with a premade one-shot with premade characters although im not quite sure which to pick. And probably will have only two players for the very first game. Any advice on how to scale the experience for them? Im talking about how many monsters there should be, what items they should be having, should my npc give them free potions of healing at the start etc Both never played dnd and i'm kinda afraid to tpk the very first game 😂 P.s. I'm the guy who's reading the DM guidebook from the comment under previous video :)
Thanks for the great comment and suggestion about scaling (i will do a video on that in the future). As for your first session and scaling what is key to look at is action economy. If your players can make 3 attacks total the closer to three attacks from the enemies the more balanced it may be (depending on magic items etc). Damage output and hp is also something to look at - too high damage output can end in a tpk quickly and too high Hp can result in the encounter lasting too long. With only two players if one drops to 0 it will be too tough for the other (the death spiral). So for your first one try to balance the action economy and remove any extra enemies that could make it tough. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
@@RichtheFirst-TimeDM right after i posted this, read in the dm book that they suggest to use monsters xp as a guide on the difficulty. Sound like a good system (on paper). Basically, you need to add total party xp points based on their level and preferred difficulty (threshold), then add total monster xp that party can gain and add multiplier to that. Comparing both numbers will give you an understanding of difficulty of the encounter for members
That is a good place to start however it does not take into account magic items, feats, special abilities of the party (this is why CR - challenge rating - is broken in D&D). So once you do what the book suggests you should still look at action economy/damage output etc to further fine tune the encounter otherwise your party may curbstomp the enemies (which can be fun for the party) or worse the enemies curbstomp the party.
good video. another recommendation if i may: modules for first time dms. i noticed your bookshelf, you could review Lost Mine of Phandelver or Waterdeep Dragon Heist. maybe even some older stuff like Murder in Baldur's Gate, i cant praise that one enough.
Thanks again for another great comment and recommendation! As for the books i have never run a module (only done homebrew) but i have played in a few. But i could read the adventures and review them based on how they are for a first time dm compared to a veteran dm!
👍
Thanks Amy
Keep particing youre speaking. Youre doing great!
Thank you! Always a work in progress!
Rich, thank you for honestly great advices! I'm loving your content.
My wife suggested to play the very first game with her and our relative, so i'm super pumped and excited and nervous too of how this is going to work out.
As a suggestion - can you maybe do a video about how to scale the game down or up depending on the number of players / their classes / their experience ?
For instance, i want to start with a premade one-shot with premade characters although im not quite sure which to pick. And probably will have only two players for the very first game. Any advice on how to scale the experience for them? Im talking about how many monsters there should be, what items they should be having, should my npc give them free potions of healing at the start etc
Both never played dnd and i'm kinda afraid to tpk the very first game 😂
P.s.
I'm the guy who's reading the DM guidebook from the comment under previous video :)
Thanks for the great comment and suggestion about scaling (i will do a video on that in the future).
As for your first session and scaling what is key to look at is action economy. If your players can make 3 attacks total the closer to three attacks from the enemies the more balanced it may be (depending on magic items etc). Damage output and hp is also something to look at - too high damage output can end in a tpk quickly and too high Hp can result in the encounter lasting too long. With only two players if one drops to 0 it will be too tough for the other (the death spiral). So for your first one try to balance the action economy and remove any extra enemies that could make it tough. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Also giving them a couple extra healing potions definitely helps!
And i would keep it low level at first. Goblins or kobolds work great for that!
@@RichtheFirst-TimeDM right after i posted this, read in the dm book that they suggest to use monsters xp as a guide on the difficulty. Sound like a good system (on paper). Basically, you need to add total party xp points based on their level and preferred difficulty (threshold), then add total monster xp that party can gain and add multiplier to that. Comparing both numbers will give you an understanding of difficulty of the encounter for members
That is a good place to start however it does not take into account magic items, feats, special abilities of the party (this is why CR - challenge rating - is broken in D&D). So once you do what the book suggests you should still look at action economy/damage output etc to further fine tune the encounter otherwise your party may curbstomp the enemies (which can be fun for the party) or worse the enemies curbstomp the party.