First time D&D DM - few questions

[tilt]

thats damn impressive... I'm more of the improvise and adapt type GM *lol*

[Fuse]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I do have another slight issue though.
I am without a DM's guide or screen.. which isn't really that big a deal I suppose, but to make the game run smoother it would surely help.
Haha, it's funny because the books I do have - don't match. I have a 3e monster manual and a 2e players handbook. Meh, go figure. I haven't played enough 3e to be comfortable enough to DM a 3e game.

Long story short, along the way all the other books I acquired have been stolen or lost.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's an issue, but if someone knows of a place where I can get a printable DM screen for 2e that would be great. I don't even care if it's some home-brew thing. Otherwise it's time to hit up ebay for some books

Thank you, fellow dungeon crawlers.

[Wolf63]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I do have another slight issue though.
I am without a DM's guide or screen.. which isn't really that big a deal I suppose, but to make the game run smoother it would surely help.
Haha, it's funny because the books I do have - don't match. I have a 3e monster manual and a 2e players handbook. Meh, go figure. I haven't played enough 3e to be comfortable enough to DM a 3e game.

Long story short, along the way all the other books I acquired have been stolen or lost.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's an issue, but if someone knows of a place where I can get a printable DM screen for 2e that would be great. I don't even care if it's some home-brew thing. Otherwise it's time to hit up ebay for some books

GM Screen
I've made my own by grabbing 6 clip boards and assembling them with three of the clips face you, for your notes and charts, and three clips face the players for the player maps or pictures

As for combining D&D 2nd and 3rd material, DON'T. In my opinion, running D&D 3rd is a lot easier then running 2nd and the rules are essentually free if you grab the SRD. And another bonus to D&D 3rd is that it uses the D20 core mechanics which is used for other franchises.

For example, I'm running a Stargate X campaign which fuses Stargate, Babylon 5, Star Wars and Starship Troopers. I've been running this campaign for almost 6 years and it's still going strong.

I also run a Mystic West campaign involving gunfighters, martial arts, and a heavy dose of magic

Did I have to come up with any rules? No. They're all available as d20 rules, which is the same rules D&D 3rd uses. One ruleset, many games

[Midgardsormr]

thats damn impressive... I'm more of the improvise and adapt type GM *lol*

Well that's just the thing: With the style of prep that I use, I can wing it much more successfully if the players do something unexpected. Although my anticipated session is very tightly scripted, I have enough information available that if the PCs go off the rails, I can adapt and keep the game running with a minimum of fuss. Since I started this system, I've only had to halt the game for planning a couple of times. At least one of those was because I was using an experimental home-brew system that wasn't working the way I had intended (and it never did—near total failure), so it shouldn't even really count.

Prior to making my binders, I was always having to scramble to keep up with sudden changes, and I sometimes really flubbed the difficulty level of an encounter. Also, I handed out far too much treasure because I wasn't accurately tracking what I was doing. However, my style isn't for everybody. I happen to really love the prep part of gamemastering, so it's not really much of a burden to do it this way.