1. what have been y'alls experiences with soliciting strangers as DMs (from places like /r/lfg)? where did you look, did you find anyone, did it go fine or was it a disaster?

2. does anyone have experience with pre-made mini campaigns, especially with inexperienced players? we're thinking of trying a "baby's first DMing" thing where one of us mods using a premade as a starting point, or possibly even a round robin where everybody in the group takes a turn being the DM for a single-session campaign.

(for the round robin we were thinking something like a heroes-for-hire setup, where we keep the same characters and universe but each session is a standalone "job")

aaaand I had a 3rd thing that I am totally blanking on

womp womp

I guess I'll add it if it comes back to me

want me to replurk? if not, i can ask on my own since i know i have a lot of nerds. i'm pretty sure someone i know has also helped intro people to dnd online

trilies hmm, sure, I think replurking should be fine

thanks!

i wish i could remember who exactly it was that did newbie game runs.... curse you, shit memory

I GM! I've never solicited a gm, but I have a lot of experience with modules; they're pretty good, but don't generally expect RP, so take longer than they should. Are you going to use roll20?

ArtWildentanzen not sure, none of us has ever done an online tabletop before so we don't know much about the options. is roll20 what you'd recommend?

Absolutely. It's a convenient and free tool for dice-rolling, mapping, AND chat.

Premade campaigns are fine. Also, GMing is definitely hard work, but it's not difficult, it's mentally taxing, if that makes sense.

I'm the usual GM in my group

You can pay a little to access from phones, alternately.

I'm the usual gm in mine!

Okay, so modules can be tricky for a first-time DM.

It's great to have all that information at hand! But at the same time, it can be difficult to go off-road, as players almost inevitably do.

^ That's the effort. Modules describe a place and people. That stuff is just busywork. The mentally taxing part is running a constant simulation of what things do when you poke them. That includes improvising what to do when players jump the railroad

Knowing that, however, is a great way to counteract it. And a GM in that situation should definitely be with a group who understands and is willing to accommodate the basic premise. If you have that, you're honestly in great shape to begin.

In my experience, "good" players will hop the rails just as readily as "bad" players will. The difference is, "good" players just jump to the wrong conclusions. They think the adventure hook is worldbuilding and the worldbuilding is an adventure hook (Happened to me.) The "bad" players are actively trying to break stuff.

The former will be accommodating when you need to try to nudge things back in the right direction. The latter will not stop fucking up your game because that's what they're looking for. The latter should not be in your game unless you're okay with that.

Good players who jump the rails will typically get back on them if you're not too much of an asshole about steering them back

I'm a beginning DM doing a Homebrew and I can say it's a lot of learning in the beginning, but if everyone is a noob then it makes it a little easier since you're all learning together

and if you fuck up a rule you can just retcon shit later and everyone understand s

I've done homebrew and modules and they're right.

Fortunately my favorite AP (adventure path, a set of 6 long modules in pathfinder) is pretty linear at first.

I suppose the question is, what system?

That's what I was about to ask too, what system(s) y'all looking at?

I do think 5E is the best selection for a new group with the caveat that it puts a lot more weight on the DM to improvise.

Yep.

But a trick!

If you have a custom enemy, roll d4 and that's their bonus. That's all.

To whatever.

At low levels.

5e is very improvisation-friendly, IMO, because it's streamlined

It is!

I run 5e, 13th Age, and Pathfinder.

I prefer 3.5e because I enjoy all the crunch and cruft, but then, I'm a certifiable masochist of the highest order.

And very rarely Ironclaw, but that's just cuz my friends are furries.

Improvisation mandatory, more like. The DM is going to get called on to set check difficulties and arbitrate things not covered by the rules a lot more than, say, 3.5. That has its good sides and bad, though overall I still favor it for a new DM.

Well, that also means you can just go with whatever feels right and who's gonna call you on it?

Yep.

Pathfinder is crunchier than even 3.5 ime, but I love it for having rules for everything.

(Pathfinder 2 looks delightfully insane.)

Pathfinder is just 3.5 with more shit, yeah

if PF2 is anything like Starfinder, they can keep it, Starfinder is ass

Starfinder's fine.

PF2 is kinda pathfinder crossed with 5e from what I heard.

I um. Also may have some modules for the more old school D&D, if you need/want some stuff. Especially for RAVENLORFT but I also gots L5R and Dark Sun and etc.