My First Attempt at D&D

[Halendar]

Hey everyone! So me and my friends from school got talking, and we figured we would try a game of dungeons and dragons. We always talked about it before, but for some reason(probably due to the awesome series critical role on Geek and Sundry's you tube and twitch channel.) we decided to give it a go. I volunteered to DM it since I'm probably the one most into it, and I want to get my friends hooked on it by giving them the best experience with it I can.

Basically this thread is for me to get advice from all of you peoples! Like I said, I've never played D&D before so anything you can tell me would help immensely.

Things I need to know might include stuff like what supplies we need? Are the handbooks worth it? Or would you recommend I make my own story or use a pre-existing one? Other tips and suggestions are again very helpful. I'm super excited for this, and I can't wait to see what I can learn from all of you!

Thank You!

 

[Paint]

Always cast Magic Missile.

But seriously, don't let people have more then one character during a session, keep em at one character during the session, I've seen this go /very/ badly, but thats in my past sessions and imo.

 

[Immerael]

First question what exact version are you getting? 3.5, 4.0, Pathfinder etc? I"m a Pathfinder guy so I can only really help there.

Also best advice overall I can offer is keep the group semi small. Once our groups got beyond 4 people we just kind of lost direction and spent most of our time goofing off than playing. Though I suppose each group is unique.

As for the handbooks the core rule book is basically essential but you can likely find a version online for free. A bestiary of some kind will help a lot too. As for stories if you're new to DM I would base mine off a guide of some sort for the first attempt as a guide unless you're feeling confident.

Don't flip out if you lay out this great wonderfully detailed plan with tons of foreshadowing and stuff and your players decide to go in exactly the opposite direction. Happens all the time.

 

[Halendar]

First question what exact version are you getting? 3.5, 4.0, Pathfinder etc? I"m a Pathfinder guy so I can only really help there.

Also best advice overall I can offer is keep the group semi small. Once our groups got beyond 4 people we just kind of lost direction and spent most of our time goofing off than playing. Though I suppose each group is unique.

As for the handbooks the core rule book is basically essential but you can likely find a version online for free. A bestiary of some kind will help a lot too. As for stories if you're new to DM I would base mine off a guide of some sort for the first attempt as a guide unless you're feeling confident.

Don't flip out if you lay out this great wonderfully detailed plan with tons of foreshadowing and stuff and your players decide to go in exactly the opposite direction. Happens all the time.

In regards to what version I plan on getting I wasn't sure. I heard good things about pathfinder, but also heard 5th edition might be easier to learn. What would you recommend?(Pathfinder if I had to guess since you said you're a Pathfinder guy )

 

[Immerael]

In regards to what version I plan on getting I wasn't sure. I heard good things about pathfinder, but also heard 5th edition might be easier to learn. What would you recommend?(Pathfinder if I had to guess since you said you're a Pathfinder guy )

Yeah I've played pathfinder, 3.5 and 4.0. Never touched 5.0 so I can't really give it a fair shake.

Though of the three I've tried I like Pathfinder the best but again personal bias. I think @Naelwyn probably has a much larger knowledge base on this than I can provide fairer answers.

Also you can find a lot of the Pathfinder books online for free so there is that in its favor