here is my tip :
Don't play DnD.
i have any number of problems with DnD. most of them are in comparison to my system of choice, WW's D10 system (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Exalted and Changling plus other oddball games floating around).
The most obvious reason can be seen by looking at the respective character sheets. D20 as 2 pages of combat statistics. D10 has about 1/5th of a page, depending on how you define combat stats (most disciplines, magic spheres and gifts are noncombative).
I'll bet your all thinking im a agnsty little goth git. 'fraid not. in my (limited) experience, most players, LARP or otherwise, are not goths. they are normal people, who like playing in a darker version of this world, where all the nasty monsters we created to fill the nights actually exist. admittedly vampire LARPers go for some wierd s*** costumes, but hey! its LARP - half the fun is pratting around as far as i can tell.
of course, there is some morons who play vampire to have a diet of agnst and gooby powergaming madness, but most people are attracted to its gritty realism (at least in the setting), and its emphasis on role playing, not roll playing.
One major advantage of D10 is that if you want to go for a campaign mentioned above - players control - then its far easier - just set the game in your home town, and youve got all the setting info inside your own head (as well as your players), and you can pull in real world figures and events to tie it in with the campaign. EG, say a murder gets big coverage, for its lack of a discernable motive, bring it into teh campaign as supernatural forces fighting shadow wars. ghoulish i know, but there you go. major protagonists can even have promenent figures as their servants, leading to players finding out that the public servant they /really/ hate is actually a vampires lackey. cue extreme violence.
and, uh, this seems to have strayed into a defense of D10 for some reason, but there you go.