Am I too new to try DMing once?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I am pretty new to Pencil and Paper RPG's, at this point I have been playing a loose interpretation of D&D3.5 for a couple of months. Probably about 6 sessions. But I don't know a lot of the RAW because the world is mostly homebrew, and the rules are somewhat fluid. The DM does not care much for RAW so he pretty much makes things up as we go along. Usually he rules in favor of whatever makes the most sense at that point in the narrative.

I don't mind this, but I think I would like to run a game as close to RAW as I can get. I think this is something that I might enjoy, but as new as I am, I am a little bit nervous about trying to DM. I currently play a lvl 16 Cleric in my other game and even managing her is a lot to take in. Am I too new to try this? Should I wait a few more months? What can you suggest to help me get started? I do not own any core books, I mostly just get my info online. Is the DM Guide mandatory for running games? What is in it? Any help you can give would be great! I am planning on asking my current DM to play, so he can give guidance and support if necessary.

Update: Thank you all for your help and encouragement. I was at my LGS last night for our weekly session, and I found a copy of the DMG for $17.00. I decided that at that price, I had to get it. I will probably pick up a copy of the PHB if he can get it too. So I will most likely be running a game next Thursday 07/17/14. I think I will run it at lvl 5 so the characters are simple, but still have a little flavor. I am restricting characters to PHB1, no matter how much one player complains (he always has to have something convoluted). I told him I don't care if pulls shenanigans I just only have access to core material and need to be able to look it up. Plus, I only want to be looking at core for now anyways. I told him don't worry, this game will most likely just be a 1-off. Then, if I want to keep running games I will start them at lvl 1 in a proper campaign.

Update We just played the first session last night. I couldn't bring myself to play a module, So I went with a world that I made myself. It was so much fun. I think I almost enjoyed it more than playing. The PCs took the game in a way different direction than I was expecting, but, I just kind of went along for the ride. Of course we spent only about 10 minutes in content that I had prepared for, but that's ok, what they came up with was certainly interesting. I had a really easy good campaign in mind where they could be heroes and they went completely evil. They played a CN Rogue, a CE Necromancer, and a CE Warlock who planned on taking hellfire. It wasn't even 10 minutes and they were murdering a homeless man to squat in his abandoned home, and then hiding him under the floorboards and burning the house down to hide their tracks in the morning (LOL, they found three scrolls later, little do they know that one of them is the deed to the building they just burned down.) But I am really excited to continue. I am taking a couple of weeks to flesh out the cities since that is where they seemed to have the most fun, but then we are going to try to continue for a while longer. They want to see if they can take over their own country.