D&D / Pathfinder start up help need

[Dragunai]

I have been talking to some of my friends and we are blessed with a fairly popular warhammer club in my local town. As a result I have organized some interest in a D&D section and now need some help getting started as a DM.

Basically the info I need is what do I need to get started?
Which books and so on.

Also I was chewing over running Pathfinder instead of D&D because D&D is on rule set 4.0 which is terrible when compared to Pathfinder which as I have learned is based on 3.5 and thus the best rule set around.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dragunai

 

[docSpitfire]

Paizo the publishers of pathfinder made this site apparently
www.d20pfsrd.com/
which has all the content of the books they published (and not just core) as well as third party information and a clear distinction of which is which in case you don't want to include 3rd party stuff.
Also in my opinion SRD's are 1000% easier to navigate than the books, so even if you require books at the table (some DM's don't allow computers which is a very reasonable rule and I try to keep mine off as long as no one's looking up rules even if it is allowed) having it available to the players when they are at home saves them time, and it's all marked with which book it is from.

My group just switched to pathfinder from 3.5 and I have to say I like it better for many reasons, there are a few things that I think 3.5 does better, but overall they're both fun and I know nothing about how to play 4.

I think for our group almost everything we've used if you are going to use physical copies has come from the core books advanced players guide and "Ultimate Magic" (again this is pathfinder)

Basically the info I need is what do I need to get started?

I'm going to assume you have 0 DnD knowledge for my answer because it seems like you probably have some, but I don't want to assume knowledge and leave something out.

To play:

Books (or if you allow laptops and srd, but discourage players from using computers unless actually looking something up is a good idea, especially with n00bs)

Dice(I'll assume you have plenty of access):
-d20 (1 or more per player)
-d100 (i.e. 2 d10's per person that are not physically identical)
-d12 (you shouldn't need more than one for the whole table)
-d8 (per player)
-d6 (you'll want a bunch, at least a few per player as even midlevels you may need to roll like 10 at once)
-d4 (any caster will probably want at least one, extras don't hurt)

Minis (again I'm guessing you have access):
- 1 per player and maybe if they have animal companions or familiars.
- if you're trying to save money (which you'll probably have plenty of minis unless the warhammer ones are the wrong size) dice work pretty well... i.e. 6 goblins attack the question "which one?" can be answered by the number face up on the die, easier on the DM, but if you've got the minis use minis.

Game mat-(square grid about 1" squares, laminated or otherwise erasable is best, or we used to use chopsticks to make walls so we could rearrange them because that was faster than drawing a new room all the time.
Paper and Pencil for everyone.

Pre-written campaign (optional) - some DM's prefer to run a pre-written campaign in a pre-written world, however many DM's like to make up a world and a story and there are plenty of places to advise you should you chose to write your own campaign.

Anywho, first time DMing is not easy, DMing with little play experience is not easy (though the first DM couldn't have had any play experience so it's possible) and DMing for newbs is not easy so as you approach game day I suggest you seek advice from anyone you know who plays.

 

[Dragunai]

Thanks alot man, that is some extensive info.
I will defo get the stuff you listed.

Yeah I am a newbie DM with some experience playing as a character, the people I am DMing for are also rookies. Still its a learning curve. Start simple right?

Thanks again dude.

 

[Princess Rose]

Thanks alot man, that is some extensive info.
I will defo get the stuff you listed.

Yeah I am a newbie DM with some experience playing as a character, the people I am DMing for are also rookies. Still its a learning curve. Start simple right?

Thanks again dude.

Wow. As the resident Pathfinder fan (used it since the Alpha playtest) I was about to show up for some tips, but docSpitfire did a really excellent job of it already.

The PSRD is an excellent resource - I use it, even though I have many of those books.

So, instead, I'll go more general.

Do you know what sort of game you want to run?

Are you going to run in a particular universe? Are you going to use Golarion (the Pathfinder Campaign Setting), an old D&D setting (like Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, etc), or a homebrew world (ie one you make up yourself)?

Are you going to use a pre-published adventure (like Rise of the Rulelords, Council of Thieves, etc) or are you going to create the adventure entirely on your own?

BTW: If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to help. I've been GMing since 1997, and I've been running D&D 3.5 since 2000, and Pathfinder since it was first released (and both the Alpha and Beta playtests before that), so I have a lot of experience. ^^ You can ask here (quoting me) or you can PM me, as you prefer.

 

[Dragunai]

Thanks alot man, that is some extensive info.
I will defo get the stuff you listed.

Yeah I am a newbie DM with some experience playing as a character, the people I am DMing for are also rookies. Still its a learning curve. Start simple right?

Thanks again dude.

Wow. As the resident Pathfinder fan (used it since the Alpha playtest) I was about to show up for some tips, but docSpitfire did a really excellent job of it already.

The PSRD is an excellent resource - I use it, even though I have many of those books.

So, instead, I'll go more general.

Do you know what sort of game you want to run?

Are you going to run in a particular universe? Are you going to use Golarion (the Pathfinder Campaign Setting), an old D&D setting (like Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, etc), or a homebrew world (ie one you make up yourself)?

Are you going to use a pre-published adventure (like Rise of the Rulelords, Council of Thieves, etc) or are you going to create the adventure entirely on your own?

BTW: If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to help. I've been GMing since 1997, and I've been running D&D 3.5 since 2000, and Pathfinder since it was first released (and both the Alpha and Beta playtests before that), so I have a lot of experience. ^^ You can ask here (quoting me) or you can PM me, as you prefer.

Holy Crap, That's an impressive resumé.

Sort of Game?
Erm... Generic fantasy I guess.

As for the landscape and so on I was thinking of just using premade settings and adventures until I have enough experience and thus confidence to do my own shit.

I'd like progressive though. Start off with my friends raiding like a den of goblins at lvl1 and then work towards killing some Dark Emperor at lvl20 you know?
But I'd like to have the option of switching out to do small sideline quests once in a while to avoid monotone.

If that makes ANY sense haha.

but yeah your offer is reallt kind, thanks.

 

[Princess Rose]

Holy Crap, That's an impressive resumé.

Sort of Game?
Erm... Generic fantasy I guess.

As for the landscape and so on I was thinking of just using premade settings and adventures until I have enough experience and thus confidence to do my own shit.

I'd like progressive though. Start off with my friends raiding like a den of goblins at lvl1 and then work towards killing some Dark Emperor at lvl20 you know?
But I'd like to have the option of switching out to do small sideline quests once in a while to avoid monotone.

If that makes ANY sense haha.

but yeah your offer is reallt kind, thanks.

Huh.

You might want to consider the Pathfinder adventure for D&D 3.5 entitled Rise of the Runelords.

You'd have to do some conversions (since the monsters are all 3.5 monsters) but I think there are conversions that have already been done (by fans) so you might be able to find those.

Rise of the Runelords starts with the party fighting... goblins that are attacking a town.

It ends (around level 15) fighting - you guessed it - the Runelords. Which are sort of like Dark Lords.

So yeah... not a bad place to start.

 

[Macgyvercas]

To start D&D, you need the Player's Handbook (and if you're the DM, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual, as well as either a story idea or adventure modules), and a set of dice for each player. Minifigures and tile sets are very helpful, but not really required.

 

[Dragunai]

I shall investigate this. Thanks a lot <3

 

[docSpitfire]

I'd like progressive though. Start off with my friends raiding like a den of goblins at lvl1 and then work towards killing some Dark Emperor at lvl20 you know?
But I'd like to have the option of switching out to do small sideline quests once in a while to avoid monotone.

If that makes ANY sense haha.

but yeah your offer is reallt kind, thanks.

For experienced players saying "here's your quest go do it" tends to be considered railroading. Even if you only have a set number of things planned, leave it open for how to get there. Also read up on hooks. If you bait a proper hook 9 times out of 10 the party will take it, if you force them to do something they resent it. So while newbies may be more forgiving you may want to practice with hooks.

most pre-written campaigns will have good hooks built in.

As for homebrew campaign vs. published in my mind it's easier to homebrew, you start the players in a town, and there's a rumor of wolves killing livestock to the north... ok so you've got a town and some farm lands (maybe a forest near the farmlands and you don't need to know anything else and when someone asks "what's to the south?" then you add it, where as I ran an ebberon campaign and I just got sick of trying to remember where they were and what was near them because the world was freaking huge and because you didn't make it up it's harder to remember. That also goes for people and history as well. A homebrew world is never bigger than you need it to be which makes keeping track of things a lot easier.

Also one quick thing most campaigns don't go from 1-20 (or at least in my experience) unlike MMO's the point isn't to get to max level. A moderate length campaign with normal experience might go from level 1-6 or so. Early level campaigns will have more levelling obviously. The level of your campaign more or less determines the nature of your campaign. 1-6 local affairs against pretty typical foes, 7-15 foes that threaten entire kingdoms 16+ beings capable of ending the world. (However that is just a rough guidline for what to expect, not by any means the only way to do it.)