New DM here.

So I have been Dming for the past month now.  I have been having much fun with it but there are a couple of road blocks that I have been coming acroos that I would like to share with you all and get  your opinion.  The questions I have are as follows and I hope you can give any input you guys have. 1) So the first problem I come across are people talking to eachother or playing on their phones during encoutners.  What should I do to keep everyones attention?  Or should I just suck it up and let it go on? 2) Sometimes I feel discrouged because I create so much content for them to go throught and they don't  seem to apreciate it.  Is this something I have to deal with?  Am I just DMing for the wrong audience? 3) When I give the information that is imporant and they seem to pass it by, should I say,"Hey this is imporant pay attention!" or should I just let keep going and let them know later that if they did this it would have made things easier? Last thing I want to say is that I have created a game that in my opinion is awesome!  I haven't played DnD  very long but have much RPG and MMO experience that I have carried over in this game that I believe makes it very interesting.  Because of the beatuy of Roll20 I wish to share it with everyone out there.  I am interested to find people out there who have played DnD for a long time and want to start a new campeign. I have created tons of content that I can honeslty say would last for at least 20hrs plus.  If you are looking to play DnD 4e starting at level one then send me a PM.  If I get at least 4 people who want to meet once a week for 4hrs if not more.  I am more then happy to entertain you. Anyways, I hope you all can add your imput and help me with my problems.  HOpe to hear from you all soon. Forgive me for my grammer.  It's really late. Zxrnm

Moved to Off-topic - Gauss

1)  Set ground rules prior to playing and be firm about them.  Keep in mind though, that people are in your game to have fun first (this includes socializing) and play a specific game second.  This can be a delicate balancing act, but if you talk to your players openly about the issues you're having you will be able to get feedback and have an idea of why it's going on.  If that fails, then be prepared to stick to your ground rules and remove people from the game as appropriate.   2)  Trying to shoehorn PCs to specific content in the way you expect them to behave leads to your frustration, their frustration or both simultaneously.  It's possible there could be a conflict of expectations (you and the group aren't on the same page), again talking to your players will either show what steps you can take to resolve these issues or reveal a chronic mismatch between you and your group. 3)  That's up to you, your GM style and the type of game you want to run.  Ask your players if they want to be spoiled with the information, have a hint when something is important, or just go past it and let the chips fall where they may. So, talk to your players...they are going to have much better insight into what is going on compared to random strangers on the internet.  Talking to prospective players before a game is a good way of trying to eliminate these kinds of problems before they start.

Hey, I see you are having some problems and figured I would offer some advice. 1) The problem with cell phones can easily be handled by telling people not to play on them or they shall be penalized. Dock them experience points, give them penalties to their rolls, give monsters bonuses to hit or damage them etc. This should be enough to put a stop to it. Now for the talking thing it is hard to give advice about that. If they are talking quietly amongst themselves and aren't really disrupting the game then just let it be, but if they are talking loudly or talking when they should be paying attention then it becomes a problem. It is at that point where you have to step in and try and get everyone back on track. There is no right or wrong way to do that, as long as it works. 2) Creating material that goes unappreciated can in fact be a peril of being a DM however it is also quite possible that you are merely gaming with the wrong group, at least with the type of material you are preparing. As with any art medium you should try and cater it to your audience, so maybe take some time before or after a session to discuss with the party what they thought of the session. Figure out what they enjoyed, what they disliked etc. From this talk you should start to get a feel for what kind of game they are looking for. You then either have to alter the style or type of material you prepare or find a new group that better suits your style. 3) If you give out information and they don't pay attention then you are encouraged to use that against them. Have it come back to haunt them. I do not mean kill the characters although that is one option but make their lives a living hell. As the old saying goes "There are things far worse than death" and in a rpg game this is very true. Have them become slaves, lose all their equipment, have them blamed for a crime or an event they could have prevented etc. Make sure to do it in a way that is clear that the bad stuff is happening -because- they did not pay attention. After the party goes through a couple of crappy situations they will learn to pay attention. 4) Send me a message with more info on this game as I am always interested to be able to put on my "player" hat when normally all I get to wear is my "DM' one.