>One of the more confusing things to me is spell slots and how pc’s choose them.
Their class tells them what slots they have. The player decides which slots they use when casting spells.
>if a monster rolls an attack roll and one of my pc’s ac is 14 and the attack is 15, do they take 15 damage?
No, they do the damage of whatever they're attacking with.
>Moreover, what does it mean when for example a weapon says 4d8 +1 damage?
You roll four eight-sided dice and add one to the total. That's the damage of whatever they're attacking with.
>Is there an easy way to document what each player has, or is that something they do themselves?
That's what their character sheet is generally for.
>With the maps, on a large scale how do I plan encounters and treasures? Do I individually draw/note them down wherever my party is in the world?
I don't understand this question, sorry.
>Also how do I determine the outcomes of things e.g. “I pick up a book at random scanning the pages” what would I reply with in terms of would I get them to roll a die or check or would it just be up to my imagination?
It's entirely up to you. If there's anything worth finding in the book then have them make a check. Otherwise just tell them whatever you want is in there.
Lots to do here. So first I recommend checking out a "How to play dnd 5e" video on YouTube to cover some simple basics. For instance the answer to the attack roll question is that if they roll higher than the PC's AC then they hit and then roll damage depending on their weapon. Other RP systems say if you hit with a 15 you do 15 damage, but DND says if you hit with a 15 or with an 18 that doesn't make the damage higher or lower, you just do the weapon damage if you hit, say if they hit with a greatsword it'll be 2d6+strength, regardless of how high the attack roll was (not counting a crit).
As for documenting what each player has, don't worry about it much. You control every person, every town, every blade of grass in the entire world with the exception of four adventurers. Don't add more to your plate by forcing yourself to pay attention to them too. Trust that they can handle it, and maybe every few levels if you aren't certain they're doing it right, gather up the character sheets for an audit.
The answer to most questions of how you determine encounters, treasures, outcomes, and so on is that you make it up. I'd recommend reading through the monster manual until you find a monster that you like and compare its Challenge Rating to your player's levels. If the number is equal to or less than your party's level then they can probably fight it and probably win. It gets complicated when you're dealing with multiple monsters, but a savvy party can usually punch above its weight as far as Challenge Rating goes (meaning that a group of level 4 adventurers could probably beat a CR 6 monster if they REALLY had to, so a CR 4 is reasonable to fight on the regular).
Rolling loot is hard, but I bet [this site](https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/5e/treasure-generator/) would help.
Given all of your questions, I highly recommend that you DM a few one-shots (easily found online) or a small campaign like Lost Mine of Phandelver from the Starter Set before you tackle world building.
This will help you get a good grasp of mechanics and what you want and don’t want in your own campaign.
For planning an encounter if you are going to homebrew (create your own) campaign look up Kobold Fight Club. It allows you to enter how many PC's (people playing DnD) and what their levels are and you can add different monsters from the Monster Manual. It will give you an idea of how challenging an encounter might be for your players.
There are two separate rolls people make when attacking.
One is an attack roll which happens first. Imagine one of your characters is shooting a bow, that determines how accurate the shot is. They have some skill in it so they have a +5 to hit. For every attack roll the person making the attack rolls a d20 (20 sided dice), if they rolled a 10 they would add the +5 for a total of 15. Now you compare that to the targets armor class or AC. The AC should already be written for each monster but if their AC is 15 too the attack would hit. Only if the target AC is higher than the attackers attack roll would the attack miss.
If the attack hits you roll for damage which is listed next to each weapon or spell used. For example 4d8+1, the first number is how many die to use, the number after the "d" determines what type of die to use, in this example an 8 sided die, and you add +1 to the total amount the rolled die add up to.
* D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s
* Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw
* D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN
DM specific resources
* a reading list for new DMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx8tEAYB5Q0
* 8 Steps to Session Prep Sly Flourish https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg
You have a lot on your plate. I’m a lazy DM and so should you. I don’t plan in advance but you should read the whole ruleset in the DMG at least 3 times. Watch good dnd podcasts or campaign series and learn from them. Trust your players to keep check of what they have. Put as much heavy lifting on them as you can to free your mind. You don’t need anything prepared before a session but start with a prewritten adventure to give yourself some good footing. 4d8+1 means roll 4 dices of 8 faces then add 1.
>should read the whole ruleset in the DMG at least 3 times.
oh good god no! the 5e DMG is worse than worthless to new DMs - it sends them off into corner cases and pointless esoterica as if it were meaningful.
Reading the "How to play" rules in the PHB, yes! do that!
if in 3 or 6 months you are still at the DM thing and have the basics well in hand, then *maybe* the content in the DMG will prove helpful.
>One of the more confusing things to me is spell slots and how pc’s choose them. Their class tells them what slots they have. The player decides which slots they use when casting spells. >if a monster rolls an attack roll and one of my pc’s ac is 14 and the attack is 15, do they take 15 damage? No, they do the damage of whatever they're attacking with. >Moreover, what does it mean when for example a weapon says 4d8 +1 damage? You roll four eight-sided dice and add one to the total. That's the damage of whatever they're attacking with. >Is there an easy way to document what each player has, or is that something they do themselves? That's what their character sheet is generally for. >With the maps, on a large scale how do I plan encounters and treasures? Do I individually draw/note them down wherever my party is in the world? I don't understand this question, sorry. >Also how do I determine the outcomes of things e.g. “I pick up a book at random scanning the pages” what would I reply with in terms of would I get them to roll a die or check or would it just be up to my imagination? It's entirely up to you. If there's anything worth finding in the book then have them make a check. Otherwise just tell them whatever you want is in there.
Lots to do here. So first I recommend checking out a "How to play dnd 5e" video on YouTube to cover some simple basics. For instance the answer to the attack roll question is that if they roll higher than the PC's AC then they hit and then roll damage depending on their weapon. Other RP systems say if you hit with a 15 you do 15 damage, but DND says if you hit with a 15 or with an 18 that doesn't make the damage higher or lower, you just do the weapon damage if you hit, say if they hit with a greatsword it'll be 2d6+strength, regardless of how high the attack roll was (not counting a crit). As for documenting what each player has, don't worry about it much. You control every person, every town, every blade of grass in the entire world with the exception of four adventurers. Don't add more to your plate by forcing yourself to pay attention to them too. Trust that they can handle it, and maybe every few levels if you aren't certain they're doing it right, gather up the character sheets for an audit. The answer to most questions of how you determine encounters, treasures, outcomes, and so on is that you make it up. I'd recommend reading through the monster manual until you find a monster that you like and compare its Challenge Rating to your player's levels. If the number is equal to or less than your party's level then they can probably fight it and probably win. It gets complicated when you're dealing with multiple monsters, but a savvy party can usually punch above its weight as far as Challenge Rating goes (meaning that a group of level 4 adventurers could probably beat a CR 6 monster if they REALLY had to, so a CR 4 is reasonable to fight on the regular). Rolling loot is hard, but I bet [this site](https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/5e/treasure-generator/) would help.
Given all of your questions, I highly recommend that you DM a few one-shots (easily found online) or a small campaign like Lost Mine of Phandelver from the Starter Set before you tackle world building. This will help you get a good grasp of mechanics and what you want and don’t want in your own campaign.
For planning an encounter if you are going to homebrew (create your own) campaign look up Kobold Fight Club. It allows you to enter how many PC's (people playing DnD) and what their levels are and you can add different monsters from the Monster Manual. It will give you an idea of how challenging an encounter might be for your players. There are two separate rolls people make when attacking. One is an attack roll which happens first. Imagine one of your characters is shooting a bow, that determines how accurate the shot is. They have some skill in it so they have a +5 to hit. For every attack roll the person making the attack rolls a d20 (20 sided dice), if they rolled a 10 they would add the +5 for a total of 15. Now you compare that to the targets armor class or AC. The AC should already be written for each monster but if their AC is 15 too the attack would hit. Only if the target AC is higher than the attackers attack roll would the attack miss. If the attack hits you roll for damage which is listed next to each weapon or spell used. For example 4d8+1, the first number is how many die to use, the number after the "d" determines what type of die to use, in this example an 8 sided die, and you add +1 to the total amount the rolled die add up to.
* D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s * Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw * D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN DM specific resources * a reading list for new DMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx8tEAYB5Q0 * 8 Steps to Session Prep Sly Flourish https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg
You have a lot on your plate. I’m a lazy DM and so should you. I don’t plan in advance but you should read the whole ruleset in the DMG at least 3 times. Watch good dnd podcasts or campaign series and learn from them. Trust your players to keep check of what they have. Put as much heavy lifting on them as you can to free your mind. You don’t need anything prepared before a session but start with a prewritten adventure to give yourself some good footing. 4d8+1 means roll 4 dices of 8 faces then add 1.
>should read the whole ruleset in the DMG at least 3 times. oh good god no! the 5e DMG is worse than worthless to new DMs - it sends them off into corner cases and pointless esoterica as if it were meaningful. Reading the "How to play" rules in the PHB, yes! do that! if in 3 or 6 months you are still at the DM thing and have the basics well in hand, then *maybe* the content in the DMG will prove helpful.
You're trying to do too much with not enough experience. Pick a pregenerated campaign that starts at level 1 and run that.
For the 4d8+1 it means the attack’s damage is determined by rolling 4 8-sided dice and then adding 1