If a player character dies, I try to make sure it is meaningful in the moment. They get their last words or their dramatic fall to the ground, and depending on the character, they might receive some vision based on their god or whatever.

Moving on past it, usually the player whose character died chills for the moment. Assuming the party has no way of reviving them at the moment, there is usually an in-game discussion on if reviving them is even an option. Out of game we might also talk briefly about if the player wants a new character, or if they want to be revived.

Assuming the revival can’t happen that session, I’ll have the player make a new character and I’ll make sure they are introduced within the first hour of the next session. I hate, hate, hate nothing more as a player than having a session where I literally sit out waiting to be introduced (happened to me twice) for hours IRL.

The only really hard part is if that character had important backstory stuff tied to the big main stuff going on. Just need to be creative, find a way that the plot can still move forward. Or, perhaps it changes the direction the campaign goes - never be afraid to toss your plans out the window.

As for balancing things, it’s truly a trick. I would start softer and ramp it up. The most important piece is learning what your party is currently capable of, and how much punishment they can take before they would break. But never forget three things.

1. Action economy is king. The more actions one side can take, the sooner they can win. Remember that if one player falls, it not only means that player is down, it means the rest of the party must now fight even harder AND use action economy to perhaps heal/save them or at least protect them from further harm.

2. The dice can truly be a blessing or a bane (hah). You can handcraft a “perfectly balanced” encounter but the dice will force a different story. Even just the initiative roll can decide combat: once I was a player, around lvl 10 or 12 or so. We got ambushed at night by a fire giant. Rolled initiative, fire giant went last, with me just before. Everyone hammered into it, and then I finished it off with Disintegrate. It didn’t even get a chance to move lol. On the flip side, I’ve seen easy encounters become practically deadly because of bad dice rolls.

3. (Super illegal tip, keep this on the hush) You can adjust encounters on the fly. You can change the monsters HP. You can add more monsters in or take them away. You can fudge a roll and say the bugbear trips. You can give the TRex the ability to teleport. You should not get in the habit of doing this - if you are adjusting on the fly, it implies that you are controlling the encounter to go how you want it to go, which means removing player agency. Bad. BUT if you’re a new DM and you accidentally make an encounter WAY TOO easy/hard, this is your secret weapon. Key tip with this: once info is known, don’t change it, unless there’s a reason. So if your players attack a Wyvern and a 15 hits, then a 15 should be a hit every time, unless maybe thematically that hit ruined/removed its scales and so you lower the AC.

Sorry that’s a lot lol

Only very briefly.

I tried to run both of the major Pokémon tabletop games (PTA and PU, I think). Personally they were too “crunchy” for me, and the spreadsheets needed to track all the Pokémon was pretty intense and overwhelming.

It was short lived though. The time with my friends, we all just got overwhelmed and it fizzled out before we even started playing. The time I tried online, honestly one of the players was disturbing and another was a major complainer so I just full on ghosted (the only time I have). In those games, the trainers can fight alongside the Pokémon - like you can be a Karate guy and kick a Pikachu or whatever. This guy went into detail describing how he used his mind powers to torture a Weedle into submission. The other kept complaining when each encounter WASNT a skitty.

Other then that, I briefly started to learn the Genesys system because I was interviewing for a game design position at Fantasy Flight Games, and part of their process was creating a creature and encounter, etc. Personally the system was terrible lol. I did not get the job unfortunately.

So I just stick with good ol DnD 5e / 2024.

Yeah the questionable calls I experienced when I was new were also mechanics related, which is what soured my first time playing.

My recommendation for players aside from usual things you’ll find (learn your characters abilities, show up, be nice to other players, etc) is to remember that DnD is a collaborative experience. Yes you can plan cool stuff for your character, get all into their backstory and motivations, do big stuff in the moment etc. But remember that it’s not about you just doing the coolest thing, it’s about also setting up your fellow players.

When something traumatic happens, ask other characters about it for their opinions. Pry at those cracks they reveal to show their backstory. Involve them in plans, use their skills. People will call it “know when to let others have the spotlight” but really, I would say it’s learning to sense & see the story you’re creating together.

You’re welcome :) goodluck!

Start small with just a town. Create an inviting encounter - maybe it’s attacked by goblins or kobolds or something. Just enough that your players can help.

Keeping it small means you can more easily build it. A blacksmith, a church, a tavern or inn, maybe a general goods store.

Then as you need, build larger. Make the surrounding forest and field. Add a river and small lake nearby. Maybe some foothills that lead to mountains.

Not that you need those things, but the idea is start small and local, build outward. Don’t feel like you need an entire religious pantheon, world creation myth, history of politics and resources and all of that. You just need what your players see for adventure.

Last bit: don’t forget to make it weird. If everything behaves normally and as expected, it can get boring. Maybe the innkeep has a minor fiend chained in the basement. Maybe on the road the party meets a talking tortoise. Maybe in the pile of loot from the goblins, they find a purple metal coin.

Plant those weird little seeds of interest. Your players will seek them, and help you grow them.

That’s an interesting question lol.

So one that really shocked the table was when the party tiefling cleric Hymnal died. The party was mid-high level and deep in a cult stronghold. They needed to enter the core chamber, but did not have a direct route; it was ride a water flume to an unknown end in the hopes it leads there, or go through a long cave system dungeon. They chose the dungeon.

Found an optional obstacle, a monolith with a circle of dust around it. Long story short, the goal is they need to have teleportation, good jumping, or high speed to get there. Then, there’s a check to hold on.

Hymnal attempted, got to the top, but fell off. She landed with “that wasn’t so ba-“ ZAP, disintegrated.

Jaws dropped, tears were shed, and it really changed the campaign - they realized death is actually a risk. It was our first major death for the campaign

Not writing and organizing!

One of the things that really changed how I DM and overall improved my games is writing down session notes, writing and organizing my worldbuilding, and using a calendar to track game events. It really allows you to elevate the game to another level. (I highly recommend Obsidian, OneNote, or Notion. I advise against Google Docs. The reason is efficiency.)

If I have to say something more in-game, it’s don’t be afraid to homebrew. You’re the DM. It’s your table. Imagine what the creature should be able to do, and then find something that already exists and just retool it a bit. Example: giants don’t have written rules about it, but they should totally be able to trample through spaces of other creatures or objects, destroying small buildings etc etc. Just add it! Don’t let WOTC limit what you can do at the table.

I say this is a “questionable call” cause on forums I often see people complain about WOTC stat blocks.

I used to be purely improv, wrote nothing and planned nothing.

But eventually I learned that taking notes and writing stuff helped, and that planning or at least worldbuilding can be fun.

I still do a lot of things improv - one of my groups overall favorite moment was an arc created entirely from a split-second improv moment. And I’m very comfortable just making it as I go.

Probably when one of my players, very early on in my first campaign, jokingly threatened that they should ditch the quest they were on, buy a boat, and sail to some new land. I of course played along and said they would find land eventually. But after that session I drew the rest of the world :) so I like that moment

lol okay this one got me, wasn’t expecting sudden cloudkill

They call it “Soul 4 Sword”

Both of my groups are still in the early parts of campaigns, but they are enjoying them a lot more. We had some minor bumps and learning moments. Overall the rules are nicer, but I wish certain bits were specified better just to prevent RAW-abusing.

Mainly the polymorph / wild shape temp HP issue. RAI obviously if you lose the form you lose the temp HP. But unfortunately this isn’t clearly spelled out in the wildshape section. Led to the only real “argument” we’ve had about the new rules

What a good twist, especially if the guards had no clue lol

They gotta conjure up some new flesh and blood I guess lol

That’s so cruel lol love it