Hey guys.

Today my friend, Divine, was telling me that she has been introduced to D&D. She had been playing with her brothers and cousain and told me how much she loved it. Naturally I was overjoyed to have someone to talk to about D&D. So we were talking about different editions, class and so on.

Then while we were telling funny stories, my friends, Peach and Crown came along. They overhear our conversation and got curious. Divine and I explained the idea of D&D to them so they could understand. Immeditaly both said they wanted to try it.

Divine and I were delighted. While we were talking all three asked that I be the DM. I agreed because I was the one with the most experience. However I am not sure of how to do this. Divine has played 3.5 additon and I play 2.0 edition. Peach and Crown are completely new. How do I do the charatcher sheets and explanation for them? What edition should I use? What modulale?

Any adivce would be appericated

(Note: My friends names are not Divine, Peach and Crown. I made that up.)

While I appreciate you coming to us for advice, you have the grandmaster of all DM's living in your house!

Anyway I would suggest beginning with 4th edition. It's more intuitive and doesn't involve a lot of hard-core roleplaying.

You can find some great pre-generated 4e modules that do all of the hard work for you, and some even come with pre-generated characters.

I disagree with Admiral... but he and I disagree on everything, so don't worry about that.

I say to use the ruleset you are most comfortable with, unless your players just cannot handle it - and you think that you can.

Bottom line, though, is that you need to focus on your story first, then fill the rules in around it. You can absolutely play D&D by worrying about the rules all of the time, but you'll all have more fun if you don't focus on the rules themselves.

I would like to change my answer to this:

Just play DragonStrike!

Welcome to an opportunity. I am very very very (throw a few more very's in there) happy to hear that your friends are interested.

Olan is right, use the rules you are most comfortable with and start with a module. I will definitely help you if you want. But remember that being the DM is not for everyone.

We can talk when I get home tonight. I have edition 2 and 3 upstair on my shelf. But sounds great.

Like others said: pick the rules that you're comfortable with. You have a big pro to most of us and that is that you do know the rules. For fresh DMs to pick up the books and just start without knowing anything is much harder.

I would keep it simple with their characters. You should probably do a round before you start playing asking what each would want to play. Then go ahead and sculpt the character for them (fill in the sheet etc).

After that you just go for the game. Drag them into the story. If an opportunity comes where they'll need their sheet, you can tell them.
This way, they'll learn to read their sheet one step at a time, at moments where they'll actively use the information you provide. It will be easier for them to learn their way around the sheet and the game mechanics if you pick this route.

If they enjoyed it, they can always create new character that suit them better at a later moment.

Like the masters up there said, Pick an edition that you're comfortable with. If you or the players want to try something else after you get a couple game sessions under your belt then that's awesome. No matter what edition you use, no matter what rules you choose to follow (I toss a bunch out because my guys don't need the extra complications,) the only thing that matters is you guys having fun.

If it doesn't work out the first time, don't be discouraged. It can take a while to get the hang of.

New players are fun because they bring a fresh way of thinking to the table. I dunno how many times I've seen my players take the least obvious (to me) path just because they think of things in such a different manner than any experienced group I've played with.

Anyway, I'm blathering.

Edit: Man my spelling's rough today

For new players, character creation can take forever and can be quite dull (especially if you've only got 1 or 2 books between you all). So it can be helpful to have pre-generated characters.

I would use the edition that you know best. And I think AD&D is more fun to DM because it isn't quite as rule heavy as 3rd and 4th.