I DMed my first D&D game

I recently ran a small Dungeons and Dragons standalone story, and it wasn't a complete disaster.

I know that sounds quite pessimistic and grim, but think about it: This was my first D&D session as the Dungeon Master. I was underprepared, a tad overconfident, and completely out of my depth. There were also 12 people in the party, because I am ambitious. (HEY! I managed to get 12 people, 6 complete newbies and 6 veteran players to work together. That's an achievement!)

For context to our non-D&D nerds: The DM is the one who runs the game, describes the scene and brings everything - from the players' backstories, the lore of the world, to the villain's quest of evil - together.

In other words, I put the players in a scenario with clues and situations hidden behind my descriptions and it's up to the players to find out what to fight and, I don't know, fight it, but instead get distracted by a suspiciously normal door. Yes. I said "suspiciously normal."

Despite my inexperience with DMing, sitting behind my borrowed DM screen, I felt powerful!

But being a complete control freak with a permanent writing-itch, I had decided to homebrew it. As in, not follow any pre-made storyline guides (which exist FOR first-time DMs as a way to avoid feeling trapped, lost or flailing like a baby horse). I let my creativity shine and the lore deepen and deepen - I found that it was a great outlet for all those ideas in my brain who are fighting for attention but never get used.

Let's go back to that first point though - it wasn't a complete disaster.

It wasn't.

Despite having to improvise off of my very few notes, the important stuff was there - a goal, a story, an enemy. The players followed their noses to the big boss, and despite almost running out of time (with a few animal-related distractions), it worked.

I even made a very cool prompt that brought everything together - with a poster! 😄

Introducing....

The Aquatalypse!

I made the setting a school, and the whole thing was a Oneshot - a one-off story with characters, descriptions and bosses they would never have to face again - or that had no prior connection to any prior events their characters had faced. Additionally, because of the newbie to veteran player ratio, I decided to make some modifications.

I redesigned the entire character sheet.

WOW, Red, talk about making things harder for yourself.

I tried making it more engaging, less overwhelming. I focused on simplifying the huge amount of vocab that's just "normal" when you play regularly.

To do this, I designed a "Cheat Sheet" of sorts to outline what different terms meant - like AC for Armour class- what they could do on their turn - move or use a weapon or spell - and every "check" that they could make for more information on their environment - such as perception or insight, with details on how they work.

I cut out complicated stuff like levels and multiclassing, and got them to choose their weapons, spells and cantrips (plus a few useless magical items) out of a hat, at random!

I believe it was a success. For the most part, this D&D session was a coming together of friends, a great chance to connect and be present. We played make-believe for 6 hours! We improvised with the resources we had, and escaped the absolute mayhem of right now with a weird, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, slightly underwater universe with a giant glowing squid. How awesome's that?!

Was this experience fun? Yes.

Was it wacky, weird, unexpected and chaotic? Abso-D&Ding-lutely.

Did I learn something? Yes - that I have an "I'll wait" teacher face, because 12 people talking over me is a LOT to deal with.

The consensus? D&D well and truly has its claws in me, and I'm glad, since it's something that helped me find my closest friends today. And my GOSH. More mega-respect to teachers; you have the patience of saints to deal with constant chatter and still care enough to support and nurture each student.

~

Let me know if you're curious about the Aquatalypse - I can feel a writing itch returning...

I hope you enjoyed this little story of mine!

Thanks for reading and whatnot,

- Red 🌱