so a friend of mine is DM'ing for the first time, pic related.

>>49557021
You don't. Just let him do his thing and get his feet wet.

>>49557021
He'll figure that out as he goes along. Don't be a dick and start asking about all the far away lands and rolling history checks to fuck with him.

I'd say don't. If he has NPCs in mind, that's probably good enough to start. Just let him know in game that you and your character are interested in who these people are and why they're doing what they're doing
If you can stop short of being annoying with it, he'll probably find it flattering if anything, and might be encouraged to come up with more detailed stuff as you go along
a few sessions of asspull lore before it reaches that stage won't hurt anyone

>>49557081
oh no, I'm not talking about shit like the name of the king's advisor's brother's next door neighbor, I'm talking about not having any actual cities planned out, no developed gods (he doesn't know how clerics/paladins work) we're on 5E D&D, and it seems like it's going to be going from one encounter to another with some super railroading

>>49557134
Still, if he's GMing for the first time, I wouldn't try to put more pressure on him. a bit of railroading won't kill you. just make sure he's aware his players are at least open to the idea of and curious about a more interesting, complex world

>>49557134
I spend like maybe 30 minutes prepping games anymore. I'll make a world and cultures and stuff in my free time, because it's fun for me. But I just use random generators and improv, because no plan survives encounter with Player Characters.

If I were you, I'd equip your friend with a deluge of random gens and short articles about running low-prep. He *doesn't know* how relevant the world will be. If the PCs care, he can just make shit up. Or give some narrative authority to the PCs (like Dungeon World does all over the place). He'll find how much prep he needs or wants as he goes. Railroading isn't fun for people who aren't narcissistic fucknuts.

>>49557021
Get him to run a module.

>>49557134
Just get him to do a simple dungeoncrawl, start in media res kicking in the door. Tell him to make cool locations for the party to explore, and have some sort of branching structure to facilitate that.

t. OSR player

OP here, fairly sure he's running a module, all I know is it involves gricks. I feel way better knowing he's not winging it, and I'm really hoping no railroading occurs. any anons have any ideas on what adventure it could be?

>>49557331
>OP here, fairly sure he's running a module, all I know is it involves gricks. I feel way better knowing he's not winging it, and I'm really hoping no railroading occurs. any anons have any ideas on what adventure it could be?

Why would you want to spoil the surprises? Just roll with it and stop being so uptight. If he railroads, just go along with it. The point is to get him used to the basics of GMing (making decisions for NPCs, etc.).

>>49557331
Oh, if it's a published module, expect a linear sequence of carefully balanced combat encounters.

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This is what modules are for. Tell him to run something premade that none of you have done before.