PDA

View Full Version : Tips for DM's



ioan
2016-05-13, 05:30 PM
Hey guys, I am new to this D&D, so I picked up the DM guide, players hand book and Monster Manual. I find it absolutely brilliant. Anyone know of any tips that could be handy for a new DM like myself?

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 05:33 PM
Hey guys, I am new to this D&D, so I picked up the DM guide, players hand book and Monster Manual. I find it absolutely brilliant. Anyone know of any tips that could be handy for a new DM like myself?

Don't take advice from WotC unless you have a bucket of salt.

Trial and error.

Rule of Cool

Read Angry DM for some advice

Don't be a jerk

Trial and error.

Know that I and anything you read online here or on other sites that give advice can be wrong for you and your players.

Trial and error.

ioan
2016-05-13, 05:34 PM
Don't take advice from WotC unless you have a bucket of salt.

Trial and error.

Rule of Cool

Read Angry DM for some advice

Don't be a jerk

Trial and error.

Know that I and anything you read online here or on other sites that give advice can be wrong for you and your players.

Trial and error.

Thank you :)

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 05:43 PM
Thank you :)

You're welcome.

Also, when using the rule of cool do apply it not only to rulings but also to how you set up your encounters and stories.

Think of crafting the game more like a videogame and less like a book.

Also, keep things simple at first but try to stay away from the cliche of you have players that already play.

Specter
2016-05-13, 05:49 PM
I'll keep it simple with 3:

1) Worry more about developing your world and the characters in it than railing the players to a specific quest.
2) Use your players' story and backgrounds to create your universe, so they'll be more interested.
3) Take feedback from your players after every session.

BONUS: Never drop rocks from the roof to kill everyone.

MaxWilson
2016-05-13, 05:52 PM
Hey guys, I am new to this D&D, so I picked up the DM guide, players hand book and Monster Manual. I find it absolutely brilliant. Anyone know of any tips that could be handy for a new DM like myself?

Understand that D&D is a game about players making choices and then experiencing the results of those choices. If you make sure your players always have the chance to make choices THAT MATTER, you will have a good game. It could be "do you drink the yellow potion that smells like sunflowers or the red potion that smells like blood?" or it could be "do you talk to the hill giant or try to kill it?" but as long as the players can see a connection between what they decided and what happened, they will have fun.

Therefore, read this blog post: http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-how-illusion-can-rob-your-game-of.html and then look through these lists http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-never-being-able-to-find-table-when.html and pick out some stuff that sounds like fun to you.

Edit: also, R. Shackleford's advice on video game design is well-taken. D&D isn't a game; it's a construction kit for designing and running your own adventures, which are actually games. One thing I learned from videogame design is that vertical navigation is fun, and that giving players tunnels that can go under things and roofs to climb on to go over things is fun. I don't do this much lately but for a while I was building models of buildings out of legos for the players to look at and play around with. Now that I think of it, maybe I should start doing so again.

Here's a worthwhile quote from the above-linked blog post:


The idea is that work is 'wasted', that somehow if you put a lot of detail into areas that the players don't visit you will be having time you've spent preparing wasted.

Being creative does not, in fact, make you less creative. The more you create, the more your output increases! Let's ignore that there's enough free material on the web to stock 1 millarn over 9000 hexes and dungeons with no more effort than hitting print, not to mention random tables, and point out that if you can't get enough detail to give the players freedom because it takes too much effort then you are expanding the wrong kind of effort.

How long is a gaming session? 4-8 hours? I bet most of us are lucky to push 4 hours in a session. How much can be done in that time at the table? What will you need? 1 million areas? 5 areas? It just isn't enough time to go through that many options. Let's assume you don't know where your players will go. How many options do they need? 3? 5? Let's assume 6 (one for each hex face). So what do you need to come up with?

six general encounters for hexes,
a random encounter table, and
a table of random stuff if they reject all six of your hooks.

Can you not create the basics of that (using web resources, pdf's, blogs, geomorphs, random name generators ----, Zak's site alone!) in under an hour? All that work you 'wasted' in your last campaign - well it's a new campaign, can't you find a place to stick it in?

"The idea being, the DM built a forest village down the east road; when the group goes down the west road instead, and visits a new forest village, go ahead and use the (never visited) east village instead. Because no information has been spoiled, the players don't know the difference, and the DM doesn't waste any work. It's compelling if pulled off well, but changes many of my ideas about prepping for the sandbox." -Beedo

What the heck are you doing building a random forest village somewhere!? How is that a useful use of your time? I have 10 pages in my DM folder (Buildings based off city size, NPC name/characteristics, random names) that will allow me to wing any random city for the hour or two of a session I need - fleshing it out can happen once I know they are going to stay there.

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 05:55 PM
I'll keep it simple with 3:

1) Worry more about developing your world and the characters in it than railing the players to a specific quest.
2) Use your players' story and backgrounds to create your universe, so they'll be more interested.
3) Take feedback from your players after every session.

BONUS: Never drop rocks from the roof to kill everyone.

Also, never make it about DM versus Players.

Never.

MaxWilson
2016-05-13, 06:06 PM
And don't be afraid to steal stuff from other DMs. I steal lots of NPC names from my favorite books-that-players-don't-read (makes it easy to remember the NPC's personality) and I steal encounters from blog posts. For example, I stole a dead frog corpse from this post (http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-missed-treasure.html) and ran it pretty much exactly the same way, and no, my players didn't find the treasure in the frog either.

MrFahrenheit
2016-05-13, 06:22 PM
For combat: terrain. Nearly all of my first campaign back in the 3.5 days may as well have been fought in blank white spaces.

Out of combat: don't neglect quest XP.

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 06:31 PM
Dynamic Encounters

Think videogames and movies :)

Laserlight
2016-05-13, 06:58 PM
A DM's job is to NOT to defeat the characters, but to help create emotions in the players. The classic is of course "oh god oh god we're all going to die" and the sharp transition to "hey, we actually WON"; but there's also worry (set up by a cliffhanger), being creeped out ("the old cannibal says something...in a little girl voice"), and so forth.

Shaofoo
2016-05-13, 07:33 PM
A tip that I would give to you is to admit your mistakes. You will probably screw up somewhere but it is best to be transparent and honest with your players than try to fix it underhandedly. If you were to say give too much magic items and the fights become way too easy as a result it is best to be open and say that you made a mistake in the item distribution and that you want to fix it, even if the players have a problem with it I am sure it is better than trying to somehow a convoluted a plan to remove the magic items by force.

mgshamster
2016-05-13, 08:05 PM
Don't take advice from WotC unless you have a bucket of salt.

Trial and error.

Rule of Cool

Read Angry DM for some advice

Don't be a jerk

Trial and error.

Know that I and anything you read online here or on other sites that give advice can be wrong for you and your players.

Trial and error.


Also, never make it about DM versus Players.

Never.

Best damn advice I've seen in a while.

Laserlight
2016-05-13, 08:09 PM
I'll second the suggestion to read The Angry DM. It'll take some time because Angry doesn't do "terse", but it's time well spent.

If there's something you're not comfortable improvising, do some prep. Make maps of generic Tavern, City Street, Woodland Crossroads, Town Gate. Pick out a dozen male and female names appropriate to the culture. Make a list of personalities you can hang on NPCs (perhaps your Alchemist acts like Dr House, and your wizard like that IT guy who works down the hall from you). A couple of generic encounters.

pwykersotz
2016-05-13, 08:13 PM
Make sure to take feedback from players on what type of game they want to play. Set expectations for the type of game it will be. Tables come in all types, and getting a handle on your players ideas of how/what they want to play is key for running an enjoyable game. For example, my main table likes FAR more railroad style play than a lot of others (they want a big, glowy sign that says "next plot-point here!"), but all traditional advice you hear about railroading is how not to do it. That would make that particular game worse if I took all the advice I found.

Also, make sure you're having fun too. Don't try to force yourself to run a game style you hate, try to find a middle ground if there is a conflict.

RickAllison
2016-05-13, 08:16 PM
Never be afraid to rip off material. If you see a dungeon map you like in a video game, make a grid and run from there. I've ripped multiple maps from the Battlefront series and the entire world of Hollow Bastion when I didn't have time to make custom places, and those dungeons were some of my player's favorites.

pwykersotz
2016-05-13, 08:26 PM
Never be afraid to rip off material. If you see a dungeon map you like in a video game, make a grid and run from there. I've ripped multiple maps from the Battlefront series and the entire world of Hollow Bastion when I didn't have time to make custom places, and those dungeons were some of my player's favorites.

It's almost like the maps were already made by a dedicated team trying to maximize fun!

But I second this, rip stuff off freely.

Tallis
2016-05-13, 08:40 PM
Always be fair.
Don't let the game get bogged down looking for a rule. Make something up if you have to, just let the players know you're doing it so that once you look it up they won't be surprised if you change it.

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 08:48 PM
Always be fair.
Don't let the game get bogged down looking for a rule. Make something up if you have to, just let the players know you're doing it so that once you look it up they won't be surprised if you change it.

Addendum.

Always be fair in the way you rule things but you don't have to be fair about how you create monsters or how their abilities work.

***
If you want a monster to be changed and do something they can't normally do? Do it.

If enemies can jump through a ring of fire without an athletics check then the players shouldn't need one either.

Do note that you can be wrong and that's ok. If you make a ruling that goes against the party and you later find out it was another way... Ok, say "my bad" give some gp/xp/snacks for the party and move on. Don't let a player take over the game by always quoting rules, just tell people you will wing it and then learn from it (say ruling about falling damage). If it is directly related to a PC and you think they are doing it wrong, wait till after the session or during a break and confirm the rules about it.

Oh! OP! Make sure you know what characters your players have before you even start the game. Know generally what they can and can't do and put notes on an index card.

Also, however you do initiative (i prefer static) have people write down their AC, initiative, and proficient saves in an index card so you can keep track of initiative order.

Gastronomie
2016-05-13, 08:57 PM
Make surprises - some in-combat, others out-of-combat. For the former, stuff such as "some of the monsters were hiding, and suddenly jump into the middle of combat", "the goblin boss suddenly unleashes his true powers as a werewolf", stuff like that - and for the latter, say, "the village the characters strolled into turns out to be an illusion created by magic, and it was in fact an undead town infested by ghosts and zombies", "the NPC the characters were trusting turns out to be a Doppelganger (from what point was he a Doppelganger? Or was it from the start?)", and "the long-lost big bro of a player character turns out to be one of the major bosses in the EVIL!! organization". The list goes on.

Also, don't make single-boss encounters unless you have a lot of stuff to back up the boss, because due to action economy issues, 4 v.s. 1 is going to end in the boss dying a very miserable death (either that, or he inflicts too much damage and kills everybody).

However, if crafted right, single-boss encounters can be fun. So just giving you an example of what you can do, due to this being table-talk and not a strictly ruled video game (one way is AngryDM's idea of pretending two monsters are one, but my approach is a different one):

So, I recently DM'ed a low-level session featuring a Black Dragon Wyrmling as its single-boss monster (and it turned out everyone really loved the boss encounter). I supposed I should make the boss a dragon since the game is called Dungeons and Dragons anyways, and to introduce these new people to the game, I felt it was better if they could enjoy an epic fight. So, beforehand, I made several tweaks such as (1) lowering its AC, since it's very hard to hit and can get frustrating for a lot of people, (2) increasing its HP by a ton, to make it tougher, (3) lowering its breath weapon's damage, to keep it from killing the wizard in one shot, and (4) giving it a lot of unique fighting techniques.

First off, the dragon is perched on top of the entrance of its hoard room, clinging to the wall like a spider abovehead, so with a good Stealth roll it can ambush the players. Even after that, it shows a variety of unique moves that make the combat more compelling, such as:
1. Having limited "Nimble Escape": If it hasn't attacked yet this turn, it can move without risk of opprotunity attacks. This allows it to fight with not only the frontline fighter, but instead everyone in the party - making everyone feel risk of defeat.
2. Making it take "cool-looking" actions. For instance, it grabs a frontline fighter and tosses it into the air, and proceeds to shoot its breath weapon directly into him bulls-eye. Its effect is actually the same as the normal (more like, debuffed as aforementioned) breath weapon, but it looks better.
3. Making it take "cool-looking" actions Part 2. After it bites onto a character (grappling him), it sways its head and flings him away and into the backrow wizard (DEX save failed), making the two tumbling away into a hoard of treasure - which crumbles and falls on top of them. It takes a turn for the two to wriggle out, and when it does, the dragon is waiting in front of them with its mouth ready...
4. Making it beat its wings whenever it flies up. With failing a low DC, any character in front of the dragon is pushed away or is knocked off his feet.
5. We were using battle grids. Whenever the Acid Breath is used, the area becomes slippery, difficult terrain, and at a low DC it may cause the character crossing it to slip and fall prone.
6. When in danger, the dragon casts "Darkness" as a reaction, against an attacking player (he shoots darkness from his mouth like an octopus's black ink). The darkness engulfs the character, and meanwhile the dragon darts away and up.

Now, of course, none of these are given as the Black Dragon Wyrmling's abilities in the original Monster Manual. In the case of 2, it's actually "against the rules" since the Wyrmling can attack only once per turn, and it's taking two actions here. The same with 6 - while it's stated that a "young or older dragon can cast spells with a spell level no less than 1/3 of the dragon's CR", it's also implied that even as innate spellcasters, a Wyrmling can't cast spells.

BUT WHO CARES IT LOOKS COOL. These are also all stuff you can't see in a video game like Pokemon - stuff that can be done because this is table-talk. Wonderful! And more importantly (actually, this is the only thing that matters, but anyways), the players enjoyed it. They had no idea what was coming next, they said, and they loved how it was possible for them to think outside the box.

But really, you need this much tweaking to make a single-boss encounter be interesting and balanced. It was very fun for me to create this encounter, but doing this for every boss fight will eventually make you run out of ideas. I advice you simply create boss encounters in which the boss has a lot of henchmen to act as meat shields.

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 09:04 PM
Snip

Rule of Cool :smallcool:

RickAllison
2016-05-13, 09:06 PM
Separate the party, but don't split them. To separate is to divide their forces in encounters, but to split means to have to DM two separate lines.

As an example, I recently (for a one-shot) had a segment where the fighter was locked into a 1v1 fight against a Death Knight while the rest of the party was fighting other mobs and trying to break him out of there. Even though the party had their forces separated (by a barrier that did not permit magic, etc.), they were still considered together for mechanical purposes.

I've DMed for split parties (heck my second session ever featured the party deciding to split three different ways!). It can be done and done well, but it is not for the faint of heart. Balancing both sections so everyone stays interested is hard.

Malifice
2016-05-13, 09:42 PM
Hey guys, I am new to this D&D, so I picked up the DM guide, players hand book and Monster Manual. I find it absolutely brilliant. Anyone know of any tips that could be handy for a new DM like myself?

5E's class and encounter balance is softcoded around an 'adventuring day' [the time between long rests] featuring around 6-8 medium-hard encounters, with those encounters broken up by around 2 short rests.

I say softcoded, because you'll want some adventuring days longer, and some shorter (or they'll naturally occur this way)i.e. featuring more or less encounters, or more or less short rests.

If you have less than around 6 encounters per adventuring day certain classes (full casters, paladins, barbarians) will outperform short rest classes (fighter, monk, warlock); if you are more lenient with short rests the opposite will occur. The rogue is fairly long/ short rest neutral.

When designing adventures for your party, consider this softcoding - try and include time limits or other natural rest limiters into your adventure design. On the flip side, dont forget to stop to consider including a few points in your adventures where short rests are possible (after every 2 or 3 encounters).

This isnt saying you have to include the above in every adventure you design; its just something to be aware of. Policing the adventuring day (as a DM) is a vital part of ensuring balance (and encounter difficulty). Otherwise your long rest classes (wizards etc) will start to really dominate the game past, and the encounter building guidelines will be thrown out of whack.

If you struggle with creating adventures along this guideline, or want to take a less pre-active role in guiding rests, or even the style of your campaign wont support such action filled adventuring days as a norm, then you should strongly consider the 'longer rest' variant from the DMG. This variant supports games where the party generally get 0-3 encounters per adventuring day, and reasonably frequenlty spend considerable downtime doing not much (and long resting).

Toadkiller
2016-05-13, 11:35 PM
There is a lot here, and it's good stuff. I will add:

Double down on role playing. Do your best to breath some life into your NPCs and the players will (usually) repay you with more flair for their characters. It's more fun for everyone.

When in doubt, let the players wacky plan work. Or at least work for awhile. It's fine for it to, Firefly style, come crashing down into a dramatic mess for a bit. But if they try to hire away the bad dude's goon let it work once in a while. (This is a subset of rule of cool of course).

R.Shackleford
2016-05-13, 11:39 PM
Double down on role playing. Do your best to breath some life into your NPCs and the players will (usually) repay you with more flair for their characters. It's more fun for everyone.


No.

It is only "more fun" of that is the sort of group the DM has.

I know plenty of groups that prefer dungeon crawls with very little role play.

My Advice: Don't force your group to be anything they aren't. Play to their strengths but do push a little where they are uncomfortable just to show them a different way of playing. If they don't want to have heavy roleplay then that is perfectly fine.

Toadkiller
2016-05-13, 11:44 PM
Well, there is that. Point taken

Gastronomie
2016-05-13, 11:46 PM
Yes, it's a good idea to first ask your players what amount of role-playing and what amount of dungeon crawl they want.

If you want lots of encounters, consider implimenting the Epic Heroism rule which makes a short rest 5 minutes and a long rest 1 hour (level 6 and higher spells do not recharge unless you take the normal 8-hour-rest). It becomes easier to build difficult encounters.

Toadkiller
2016-05-14, 12:29 AM
Pondering the different opinions and experiences here I think the best advice was that of "trial and error". Try any of the above that strikes your fancy. See how it goes and either do more of that or try something else.

The ask for feedback advice is especially good too, though it can be intimidating to do.

By the way, this thread might belong in the "notable threads" sticky.

huttj509
2016-05-14, 03:42 AM
Remember to have fun.

I've been in groups that have gotten so tied up in doing things a precise way, none of us are having much fun. Meanwhile, if you're all having fun, I don't care if you're using D12s instead of D20s.

Of course the hard part is recognizing when people aren't having fun, and trying to figure out why. I know AngryDM has a few posts on types of fun and engagement, applied to tabletop RPGs.

Angry DM and The Alexandrian are 2 sites that, while I definitely don't always agree with the articles, I feel the better for having read them, because they're generally presented in such a way that even if I don't agree with it, I've then thought about *why* I don't agree with it, and what parts do and don't fit with my group and game.

MaxWilson
2016-05-14, 08:47 AM
Always be fair.
Don't let the game get bogged down looking for a rule. Make something up if you have to, just let the players know you're doing it so that once you look it up they won't be surprised if you change it.

Oh yes, this is good.

At my table my players know about the Rule of Yes, which is that the first time someone tries something crazy, it's guaranteed to work the way they were envisioning it. E.g.

1.) Can I try to grapple the evil wizard with my Athletics so that he can't cast any spells? Yes.
2.) If I stun the monster, can I stick its claw into my Bag of Devouring so it gets devoured? Yes.
3.) Can I Shadow Jump above the dragon's head and then Wildshape into an Earth Elemental to pile drive it into the ground? Yes. Make an attack roll.

The answer is always Yes. The second time someone at the table tries that same crazy thing, it's obviously becoming an actual thing at this table so the DM will create an actual rule for it. But the first time, the answer is just Yes.

That empowers player creativity.


Oh! OP! Make sure you know what characters your players have before you even start the game. Know generally what they can and can't do and put notes on an index card.

This is a matter of taste. I go the opposite way and try to AVOID knowing too much about the PCs so that I'm not tempted even subconsciously to customize challenges to them in advance (Schrodinger's game: whatever the party rogue's stealth, monsters will have Perception high enough to detect him; I hate that kind of stuff). The way I see it, PCs are intelligent tool-users. It's up to them to customize themselves and their tactics based on what is in the game world; the game world will customize itself to them only as the result of interaction (e.g. making enemies who then research your capabilities, if they survive your first encounter with them) and not simply as a result of the PC's existence.

I think this is a matter of how the DM sees his role. If you see your role as a challenge-generator, referee, and rules-simulator you will have a different approach here than if you think you're a story-generator who is responsible for the players having a good experience. You will also have a very different reaction to player deaths and TPKs.

MrStabby
2016-05-14, 09:32 AM
So not a hard and fast rule, but I believe that it is a good rule that every encounter has a purpose and a reason why it should be remembered.

There are tactical reasons - about the mechanics of how the game is played:
1) Designed to be noteworthy as an epic encounter - nearly killing the party
2) Designed to deplete resources/balance a future encounter
3) Designed to allow a particular player to shine or to allow an underused ability to come to the fore
4) Designed to showcase the parties power - to let them demonstrate how badass they are
5) Maybe some unusual terrain making the fight very different - rooftop, knee deep swamp, volcano, fog etc.
6) Designed to be a vehicle to deliver a reward to the party - wielding a cool magic sword or whatever.

Then some more campaign level functions:
1) Develop or introduce a faction in your world (focus on showcasing their abilities, illustrate their tactical doctrine etc.)
2) Showcase the area in which they are in and re-enforce a theme - archetypal desert/swamp encounters for example to build a sense of location
3) Introduce an NPC - much like the faction but more specific; set it up to showcase their abilities
4) Develop a plot point - show who is fighting whom, show who lives and dies, who has what incriminating letter on them etc..

My rough rule of thumb is to try and combine at least something from each list - the encounter should be fun and memorable and be a vehicle for developing the campaign.

Ideally you will get to the end of the campaign and your players will remember every single encounter. Whilst it might not happen I think it is a good aim.

ioan
2016-05-14, 05:36 PM
Thank you for the tips guys :) as for the rules of sticking to dice or not. I'll go down the middle, for example, if a dc is too easy then don't roll a d20, if it is difficult to do. Then roll.
And for story telling and dungeon crawling. I'll ask the players what they want. And go from there.
However thank you for the tips guys. They are very helpful. Especially the tip on makING the boss fight more interesting if a DM wants. And say yes.
I've gone for the rule of a crit roll will not need an attack roll. It just hits max twice with +bonuses. I think that will make crit rolls more fun.
Awesome. ..... keep DM'ing guys.

RyumaruMG
2016-05-14, 06:23 PM
My advice (that won't be repeats of what's in here already) is to pillage inspiration from everything. That Final Fantasy boss you love fighting? Man, wouldn't it be awesome if your players got to fight that, too? Or how about zombie pirates attacking their ship (hello, Pirates of the Caribbean)? Why not give them a quest to fight a charismatic but cruel dictator who thinks he's saving the realm from banditry with an ancient relic (Handsome Jack using the Vault in Borderlands 2)?

Point is, if it's awesome in one thing, chances are it'll be awesome in another. Now, my players aren't huge fans of me ripping encounters whole-cloth from other things, but I usually find that I can tweak things juuuuust enough to make it interesting.

I've actually gotten quite a few ideas for dungeons out of the various dungeon runs and raids in Final Fantasy XIV. I'd recommend looking into the Lost City of Amdapor, the Sunken Temple of Qarn (either Normal or Hard), Pharos Sirius, and Wanderer's Palace (both Normal and Hard) for specific ones that could make for great one-shots.


Oh, also, music. Music! Having a little extra atmosphere goes a long way in a game.

RickAllison
2016-05-14, 07:04 PM
My advice (that won't be repeats of what's in here already) is to pillage inspiration from everything. That Final Fantasy boss you love fighting? Man, wouldn't it be awesome if your players got to fight that, too? Or how about zombie pirates attacking their ship (hello, Pirates of the Caribbean)? Why not give them a quest to fight a charismatic but cruel dictator who thinks he's saving the realm from banditry with an ancient relic (Handsome Jack using the Vault in Borderlands 2)?

Point is, if it's awesome in one thing, chances are it'll be awesome in another. Now, my players aren't huge fans of me ripping encounters whole-cloth from other things, but I usually find that I can tweak things juuuuust enough to make it interesting.

I've actually gotten quite a few ideas for dungeons out of the various dungeon runs and raids in Final Fantasy XIV. I'd recommend looking into the Lost City of Amdapor, the Sunken Temple of Qarn (either Normal or Hard), Pharos Sirius, and Wanderer's Palace (both Normal and Hard) for specific ones that could make for great one-shots.


Oh, also, music. Music! Having a little extra atmosphere goes a long way in a game.

Beat you to it :P But my examples were Battlefront and Kingdom Hearts. Extremely effective technique.

Celcey
2016-05-14, 07:20 PM
The first and most important piece of advice I could possibly give you is that no plan EVER survives first contact with the PCs. They will surprise you with things you didn't think of. Always.

Don't bother trying to plan for every possible thing the could do, because you can't. It's much better to have a framework. For example, it's generally better to have a few solid NPCs on standby to use when you need them than a whole complex plan that the players will blow apart in the first five minutes of play.

People have mentioned the Angry DM a bit, so here's a quote from a 2-part article on the different aspects that make the game fun (parentheses mine):


* Sensation: The fun of having your senses stimulated. (Like having cool dice, physical copies of the books, minis, maps, and battle maps.)
* Fantasy: The fun of losing yourself in an imaginary world and being something you’re not. (Heavy role-playing)
* Narrative: The fun of experiencing a well-told story. (Having a good DM.)
* Challenge: The fun of overcoming obstacles. (Having real and intense battles and problem solving.)
* Fellowship: The fun of interacting with others and working together. (Being part of the team OOC.)
* Discovery: The fun of exploring and uncovering things. (Exploring the world, learning lore, finding hidden civilizations, etc.)
* Expression: The fun of leaving your personal mark on the world. (Letting the player tell parts of their story, having their character's actions mak ba difference in the world.)
* Submission: The fun of of turning your brain off and doing effortless things. (The classic hack and slash dungeon crawl.)


I hope some of this stuff helps!

MaxWilson
2016-05-14, 11:00 PM
My advice (that won't be repeats of what's in here already) is to pillage inspiration from everything. That Final Fantasy boss you love fighting? Man, wouldn't it be awesome if your players got to fight that, too? Or how about zombie pirates attacking their ship (hello, Pirates of the Caribbean)? Why not give them a quest to fight a charismatic but cruel dictator who thinks he's saving the realm from banditry with an ancient relic (Handsome Jack using the Vault in Borderlands 2)?

Steal monsters too. I just today read a kid's book by Rick Riordan with a monster immortal crocodile in it who bleeds sand instead of blood when cut. Totally stealing that part, though not the immortality bit.

pwykersotz
2016-05-14, 11:08 PM
Steal monsters too. I just today read a kid's book by Rick Riordan with a monster immortal crocodile in it who bleeds sand instead of blood when cut. Totally stealing that part, though not the immortality bit.

Huh...I wonder if One Piece ripped that off.

Rysto
2016-05-14, 11:20 PM
Huh...I wonder if One Piece ripped that off.

Rick Riordan's books are retellings of old mythology. If One Piece had something similar it was probably inspired by the same source.

MaxWilson
2016-05-15, 12:22 AM
Rick Riordan's books are retellings of old mythology. If One Piece had something similar it was probably inspired by the same source.

See, stealing ideas is good! :)

JackPhoenix
2016-05-15, 09:22 AM
"Stealing from one source is plagiarism. Stealing from many is research." -quote totally not stolen from the Internet

ioan
2016-05-15, 12:55 PM
Thank you for the tips guys, really appreciate it :) Reading the Hack & Slash blog now, very interesting to read. Freedom being the key point. And this quote from that blog inspired me even more ...... "It's when through luck, chance, or skill, something amazing and heroic happens; Removing you from the real world and giving a rare glimpse with a few close friends into a realm where something truly unique and heroic has happened that the rest of the world will never see".

PoeticDwarf
2016-05-16, 11:06 AM
Don't overplan. Make some encounters, but don't think this way: They go that way, beat that encounter, then they go that way, don't solve the puzzle etc.
Players will always surprise you

Innocent_bystan
2016-05-16, 02:08 PM
Don't overplan. Make some encounters, but don't think this way: They go that way, beat that encounter, then they go that way, don't solve the puzzle etc.
Players will always surprise you
I'd even go as far as : Don't think of possible solutions to the challenges you set. That's the player's job. Provide scenery and if they come up with a reasonable idea that sounds cool, run with it.
If their idea is unreasonable, run with it anyway but raise the DCs. After all, you can't really compare real world situations to heroic fantasy with magic situations.
And if they fail, hilarity ensues.

BiPolar
2016-05-16, 02:28 PM
I'd even go as far as : Don't think of possible solutions to the challenges you set. That's the player's job. Provide scenery and if they come up with a reasonable idea that sounds cool, run with it.
If their idea is unreasonable, run with it anyway but raise the DCs. After all, you can't really compare real world situations to heroic fantasy with magic situations.
And if they fail, hilarity ensues.

This definitely falls back in the rule of cool. You may have something you really want to set up, but if your players come up with an amazing way around it, don't force it. You can create what seems like a very on rails story, but if your players have come up with something incredibly neat that bypasses, don't shut it down just because you can't think fast enough to negate it. Roll with it!

Demonslayer666
2016-05-16, 02:55 PM
Be prepared.
Be flexible. Be prepared to wing it. Railroading players can result in dodged plot hooks and wasted preparation.
Try not to say no, determine a difficulty. (some like high fantasy, while I prefer more realism)
Set up some ground rules before you start playing. List any variant rules, and changed rules.
Keep the game flowing. Steer OOC conversations back to the game. Keep tangents short. Make snap judgments and look up the rules later (don't spend lots of time looking up rules).
Challenge the party. If the party loses, it doesn't have to result in death. Feel free to fudge rolls if the party is having a terrible string of bad luck.

TuesdayTastic
2016-05-16, 02:56 PM
A happy DM is a good DM. Always remember that. Also don't overprep, check my flair to see why.

ChelseaNH
2016-05-16, 03:26 PM
Looking at the session level rather than the campaign level:

Decide what information you want to track, and how to track it, for both PCs and NPCs. Some DMs trust their players to keep track of spells and HP and other resources; other DMs want to double-check. I tend to throw things into a spreadsheet, but I've also seen index cards work well. It's a good idea to have set up basic info for monsters you know you're throw at the party.

Things you might want to track include: HP, spell slots, class resources like ki points or rages, equipment/magic items, charges for magic items, special attacks, clues dropped, important NPCs.

RickAllison
2016-05-16, 03:31 PM
I'd even go as far as : Don't think of possible solutions to the challenges you set. That's the player's job. Provide scenery and if they come up with a reasonable idea that sounds cool, run with it.
If their idea is unreasonable, run with it anyway but raise the DCs. After all, you can't really compare real world situations to heroic fantasy with magic situations.
And if they fail, hilarity ensues.

I disagree that you shouldn't come up with any solution. I always try and have some "canon" solution to a puzzle but it only rarely is necessary.

For example, we had a one-shot where the party had to get by a door that wouldn't open "until the dead spoke the name of the demon". The intended solution was to use the scaffolding and a block-and-tackle set to puppeteer this fiend's skull. Instead, the party cast Speak With Dead. They found a very bombastic and proud creature, who became paralyzed with fear and ran away screaming when the party tried to goad him into saying the demon's name (Behemoth). Solved the puzzle and it made for a far better conclusion and a possible future NPC!

Burley
2016-05-16, 03:37 PM
Here's some things that I've learned in my years of touching dice with my hands:

Basic Improv Rules should apply.
- "Yes, and..." - As a DM, I find that the players end up doing a lot of my work for me if I just say "Yes." If they ask for a blacksmith and I say "No," they're going to try harder to find one, or look for a black market, or try to create one and then complain about the rules of it for twenty minutes. If I say, "Yes," we can to a bit of RP and move on.

- "Communal Storytelling" - Players get bored when they feel like they have no agency in the plot. I sometimes randomly point to a player and make them name or even RP some random NPC. Usually, I only do it when they're ordering drinks at the bar and keep asking me for the "house specials," but sometimes the players can create new plot points for your to work with later.

- "What's it look like?" - You shouldn't be the only person describing what things look like. A DM ends up describing ever monster, villain, king and hot elf chick in... detail. Players may give about four sentences of description at the top of the first session. Forget that noise, dude. "What's it look like when you kill that enemy?" "What's your new +1 sword that you bought look like?" "What does your spell look like? And, if you read a description from that book, you're gonna catch cheeze-poof in your eye."

- "Go Easy on Yourself, New Guy." - Nobody is awesome at anything when they start. If you've never even played the game before, don't expect to come in knowing everything. Get a pre-made module (I think the DMG may have one in the back? I don't remember). Creating everything from scratch is exhausting, and trying to make it live is even more exhausting. Just read the adventure a few times, practice the voices and important lines of main characters and give the players pre-made characters. It seems lazy, but it's not. Every modern game has a tutorial. Accept it.


I hope that helps. Good luck, playa.

ioan
2016-05-16, 03:49 PM
Thank you again for the tips guys :)

ioan
2016-05-16, 03:51 PM
Here's some things that I've learned in my years of touching dice with my hands:

Basic Improv Rules should apply.
- "Yes, and..." - As a DM, I find that the players end up doing a lot of my work for me if I just say "Yes." If they ask for a blacksmith and I say "No," they're going to try harder to find one, or look for a black market, or try to create one and then complain about the rules of it for twenty minutes. If I say, "Yes," we can to a bit of RP and move on.

- "Communal Storytelling" - Players get bored when they feel like they have no agency in the plot. I sometimes randomly point to a player and make them name or even RP some random NPC. Usually, I only do it when they're ordering drinks at the bar and keep asking me for the "house specials," but sometimes the players can create new plot points for your to work with later.

- "What's it look like?" - You shouldn't be the only person describing what things look like. A DM ends up describing ever monster, villain, king and hot elf chick in... detail. Players may give about four sentences of description at the top of the first session. Forget that noise, dude. "What's it look like when you kill that enemy?" "What's your new +1 sword that you bought look like?" "What does your spell look like? And, if you read a description from that book, you're gonna catch cheeze-poof in your eye."

- "Go Easy on Yourself, New Guy." - Nobody is awesome at anything when they start. If you've never even played the game before, don't expect to come in knowing everything. Get a pre-made module (I think the DMG may have one in the back? I don't remember). Creating everything from scratch is exhausting, and trying to make it live is even more exhausting. Just read the adventure a few times, practice the voices and important lines of main characters and give the players pre-made characters. It seems lazy, but it's not. Every modern game has a tutorial. Accept it.


I hope that helps. Good luck, playa.

Very helpful thank you.