New pnp player/dm! Need advice/tips

[Mand O'Lin]

If you are going to run one of the initial 5e boxed sets and you are using miniatures, I would highly recommend you look at:

https://prints.mikeschley.com

You can download & print high resolution maps which really helps with immersion.

 

[Nahual]

I always suggest to new DMs to not be afraid of killing/incapacitating players.

New players will think they are invincible, so will roleplay it as they are either very intimidating or a bully at low levels at the
least appropriate time. This might get in the way of moving the story along.

Yes, your lvl 1 Barbarian engages in combat with the lvl 7 cleric that just inflicted you to death with one spell.
Let them reroll a new character.

The rest of the party will value their chars more and their approach to the sessions will be different.

 

[Ungermax]

Another one is, dont make the players roll the dice just for the sake of it. If the player says they want to jump over a canyon, and you tell them to roll for Athletics, and roll a nat 20, you have backed yourself into a corner where the laws of physics would say the character plummets to their death, despite the nat 20. Also, imagine your players are trying to persuade an NPC to do something, and the player(s) come up with some awesome in character roleplay, you dont necessarily want to undermine that with a persuasion check. If the roleplay was good enough, and convincing enough, it is not out of the question to bypass a persuasion check.