Methodology To DM Again

[Lord Jeff]

Howdy,
I was a DM back in the late 70s, early 80s, and DM'd a smidge again in 2016 with my kids and their friends. I want to get back to DMing a weekly session, but know my skills have atrophied.
I'd welcome recommendations and tips.
Here is my plan:
Get into a weekly group as a player for a few months. I bought LMoP and am playing with it as a DM. Start up a group of family and friends in about 6 months.
I've done some FGUniversity sessions and will the DM focused ones once I know the interface better.
Note: I have Ultimate Edition
_jeff

[LordEntrails]

IMO, once you learn the basics of the interface, such as creating stories, encounters, maps, & parcels and how to run combat, you have all the FG skills you need. After that it's just a matter of when you are confident enough to DM. I know you don't want to mess up, but in my experience players almost never know when you mess up unless you tell them, and if you tell your players you haven't DMs in decades or ever run a game virtually before, they will be tolerant of such and mistakes or stumbles you do make.

So, don't be too hard on yourself. And jump in as soon as you are up to it, the water is great!

[JohnD]

Learning to use FG will be a bigger hurdle to pass than exercising your DMing skills again. Don't feel like you have to use 100% of its functionality from session 1. Start small and as you gain confidence with what you know, add one of two things every couple of sessions.

DMs are outnumbered probably 40:1 if not more, so you won't have a problem attracting people most likely. You will have strangers that are playing so don't be surprised if they attend 1 or 2 sessions and then you never hear from them again; keep recruiting.

And in that light I will say; personally I know at the start the instinct may be to accept anyone who expresses an interest. This would be (IMO) the wrong way to recruit. Look for commonality. Chat a bit or talk on Discord. If you started in the late 70s, you're probably around the age where you can find people in your general age grouping with which you all have things in common with. This may take a bit longer to gather a group, but it will probably last longer with less churn.

[GunnarGreybeard]

And in that light I will say; personally I know at the start the instinct may be to accept anyone who expresses an interest. This would be (IMO) the wrong way to recruit. Look for commonality. Chat a bit or talk on Discord. If you started in the late 70s, you're probably around the age where you can find people in your general age grouping with which you all have things in common with. This may take a bit longer to gather a group, but it will probably last longer with less churn.

^ ^ This right here . . ^ ^