So it’s your first time as the Dungeon Master. That happened to me some time ago, and I trust my experience makes me qualified to dispense advice. So here’s some words about that:
1. Keep the Game Moving
Remember that you and your players are there to have fun. Getting hung up on something trivial in the rules is going to destroy immersion, cause boredom, and can result in players wandering away from the metaphorical table.
If a rules question arises, and you don’t immediately know the answer, invent a ruling. Usually there’ll be two or three possible interpretations of something a player wants to do. Pick the one that makes the most sense, moves the story forward, or makes the party happy. But it matters much less which ruling you deliver than that you deliver any ruling. Keep the game moving.
2. Prepare, but not Too Much
A group of experienced role players can usually tell which way your railroad is leading. But even the most seasoned level 10 cleric will surprise you, and eventually you will find your party in a situation that you haven’t written up dialogue for. And that’s okay! After all, the whole idea of roleplay, apart from the purely hack-and-slash fun, is to collaboratively tell a story. Maybe you’re interested in telling the story of the five heroic gnomes who save a mine from a rust monster, but your players are more interested in the ‘filler’ NPC you left along the road to give them directions.
Here’s the problem: If your filler NPC is no more than a line of dialogue, then when the rogue decides to investigate his backstory or pick his pockets you’ll need to invent the results on the spot. Right away, the effort spent to prepare the swarthy mine captain—a dwarf named Harinu Hammerfist—is wasted. If, instead of preparing the railroaded encounters with a laser’s focus, you decide to simply produce an entire world for the players to romp in, that problem doesn’t exist entirely.
But creating an entire world is hard, so don’t do it. Cheat! There should be a few characters that matter, with distinct personalities and stories. For the rest of the NPCs the party meets, you can simply tweak and reuse one of a few templates. So, invent a half dozen different NPCs, including at least a brief story and personality, and then insert them where appropriate, improvising dialogue where necessary.
You can do the same for battles, but more caution is needed here. If your sorceror dies because of a poorly-tuned random encounter, shortly before completing an epic Quest, her player would be readily forgiven for getting cranky.
3. Don’t Be Afraid of Murder
At some level, every player expects to die. Some times, they even look forward to it. But in a campaign where nobody dies, your party can start to believe they are invincible, and start to treat their world like it’s beneath them. Nothing ruins the suspense or intrigue of a story worse than a party member who rightly believes they are only an extended rest away from being out of any trouble. If your battles are continually too easy, or if your players are simply too powerful, they can lose their involvement and interest. If you notice your players getting this attitude, kill one of them.
But don’t settle for the cliché and have their death come like a boulder out of the clear sky. Weave their death into the story: If the leader of a cult decides they need a sacrifice, and your warden happens to be the perfect candidate, you could have him abducted from camp at night, dragged off to a cave, and ceremoniously offed just as his would-be rescuers crash through the door.
4. Give ‘em an Out
Don’t do what I just said. At least, not without privately consulting with that player. Roleplayers like to know they can trust cause and effect, and that if they don’t screw up they’ll be alright. If you kill a player’s character without any chance of a resurrection or reprieve, and that player isn’t in on the joke, you’ve likely just caused strife that’s going to ruin at least his evening. If you put your party into a situation they can’t win, or survive, or escape, they’re probably not having fun.
5. When All Else Fails, Summon the Kraken
Dungeons and Dragons players expect epic adventures and sprawling encounters. Why not give it to them? Involve them in the sweep of a country-wide conspiracy, let them take on a god, kill a great elder dragon, and shake the planet. We can all go wander around an inn talking mysteriously any day in the real world, and sparring with a foam sword is just as much fun against a friend as against a kobold. But Dungeons and Dragons is all about doing five impossible things before breakfast.
Now get out there and make some poor sod roll for initiative against a Kraken.
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