Howdy (Waves)
As a previous new GM running very experienced player, I had the 'pleasure' of having to take a firmer tone then I would have liked to, but I had to tell them that the shenanigans I've seen them do in previous games won't fly in mine. It sounds like your running with a pretty fresh group, but if you want to have control of the adventure I recommend taking a firm grip on things from the start. I always give my players a heads up whenever we start a campaign with new character. To that end, I let them know:
If I make a decision about something should work a particular way, it will work that way all the time. I provide the gist of the adventure theme and an overall story feel. (Example: There will be a lot of travelling by boat with scrupulous folk, sea monsters and plenty of politics.) This should help them in figuring out what they want to play. And most of all, I tell them the games are based on actions and consequences, I’ll take things easy on them to start and never kill a character off unless it’s absolutely unavoidable in the first two levels, but after that the gloves come off and NPC’s that want them dead, will try to kill them.
Let them know it’s your world, but it’s their adventure. Encourage them to figure out why they're working together or who’s in charge, it will save you time and will get them more invested in their characters than if you do it for them. I suggest strongly that you start off by talking to your players about what they want to play before you let them make characters because if you have to veto someone’s concept, it goes a lot smoother before they do their sheet up than after, and yes, don’t be afraid to Veto something you don’t think will work in your campaign. I’m currently running a party with 3 evil characters out of 7, because of the aforementioned I wouldn’t let someone play a Paladin. If you need someone to play a role that’s missing from your group such as healer and no one steps forward, don’t be above bribery ;) Find a useful item or Free Feat someone who helps out in that aspect. ;)
Make sure you have a spell list from each caster and track Spell use / Ammunition / Wand Charges, it's not that hard if you put these things into Excel first. If your more about the story then the rules, tracking Encumbrance becomes an optional thing, it can slow down an adventure to have them stop to unload things all the time. The only real fix is to not tack it or have a way for them to have Bags of Holding / Handy Haversack’s / mounts / minions … which is why some GM’s opt out.
If you suspect cheating, take charge and insist on watching all rolls and visible dice. Things to watch out for Rolling on surfaces away from the table where players are constantly rolling 15+, players with "bad eyesight" and invisible dice picking up the die that's purposefully hard to read and watch him ever so gently twist it and point it to someone else, and ask innocently "That's a 20 isn't it?" We have one player that has to roll with bright yellow dice with black numbers for that reason. Also watch out for the person that rolls ahead of time "testing dice" and just leaves it on the best roll and says, "this is what I rolled, look it's still there!"
For your own Dice Rolling, this is the CBT site ;) Megamek is a great program to roll multiple dice at the same time and with any number. Also, if you want to do real dice, creating a
Dice Box is very useful. I’ve seem B-Tech GM’s make them for SRM / LB solvo’s and they’re really easy to make. Fill one row with D20’s and the following roll with row of damage dice, and repeat for each two rows you have. If players accuse you of cheating, then you have a whole different issue and need to talk to your group before you go any further. If your group doesn't trust you, you can't run an effective game.
As a first time GM, I recommend you start at low levels so that there’s less for you to need to know to start off. Stay away from the super-duper extra affects crit charts and work on learning the basics. You will always relish the days when there are less spells for you to need to know if you start low and save links to sites that you can search quickly. Limiting books that you are playing from will also make your first experience easier to manage. Also, try to find a Forum to bounce questions off of. I like
Giant in the Playground.My favorite way to create an adventure is to start with an end goal based on my players and find or make a unique item with an elaborate background. Doing so will give you a history that your players can track and you can create a reverse outline on how the players can get this information and develop side plots from there filling out fluff as you go. Don’t be afraid to deviate, telling players “No, you can’t” is a morale killer. Let them take their side arcs, and have messages reach them about things that are happening on your main plot. That’s just my usual thing, also I don’t make the first starting point of their adventure too close to their starting city that way they can travel and you can test out your random encounter tables and see how they work together.