I have a few pointers for you.Â
- Work on time management. This is something you learn through experience but most people DMing for the first time will create this elaborate events with multiple parts but they find that they are only able to get through maybe half of what they planned and they either have to run the event for a LONG time or they have to cut if off. You don't want to have to do either of those. I'd say plan your event for 3 hours max as that's where people may start to burn out. A simple idea can usually last you a long time. I remember when I first started dming, I had an elaborate idea and it took 3 hours to get out of the starting point and get through the first battle because people were talking so much. So try to have a simple idea first.Â
- Try to focus on keeping things simple and maximize RP interactions. What I mean is that a lot of the time I see people do is they plan out very elaborate story sequences with a lot of text and a lot of npcs but what ends up happening is people get lost in the all the dialogue, lose track of the npcs, or just lose interest because it's not fun being in a cutscene and doing nothing while the DM just posts walls of texts. Your events should ideally allow your players to make the choices and lead where it goes and it should be about them. People will lose interest if they are kind of just spectators to your story rather than participants.
- Focus more on the RP rather than the combat/rolls system. This is a mistake I see a LOT of people make. They will create this elaborate system with rolls and stats and such but everyone is here to just RP and interact with the world you make and other characters. If I wanted to play D&D I would do just that. Say you have a boss with x amount of hp. Your rpers might get terrible rolls and the boss might end up taking an eternity. It might get to the point where it feels like a drag where they are just rolling turn after turn to take him down. Don't do this. Just have the boss die when you feel it is appropriate rather than just looking at his hp bar. Also allow people to be creative with their attacks and characters. It's not fun to create a restrictive system where people can't be flexible.
- For the story, I would suggest you start with something simple as well. This is because not all your members can be there all the time so you don't want them to be completely lost when they miss an event. Also, it lets your players be able to influence the story and be the main drivers in it.
