So You Wanna Be A DM?: A Potentially Helpful Guide (Reposted and Updated)

[AKA_Bait]

So, rather than skirt the thread necomancy line (the original post of this has fallen to Page 16, mostly as a result of my own neglect), I'm reposting the now complete (other than for suggestions an additions) guide. There are still some very good comments in the discussion on that thread which I didn't want to include in the main body of the essay.

I’ve noticed that a few times a week there are new DMs looking for some good advice on how to start down the road. So, I figured I’d start up this thread where we kindly folks of the OotS boards could pool our collective wisdom for them. Comments and other suggestions strongly encouraged! We all have our little tricks and good advice will be added to the main post.

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Stepping Behind the Screen

Tired of seeing the BBEG escape, dying because of a cruddy die roll or seeing the best laid plans be squashed beneath the iron boot DM fiat? Are you ready to take the reins yourself and dish out a little of your own punishment? Are you aching to sit behind a cardboard screen secretly rolling dice and cackling but aren’t really sure how to go about it? You have come to the right thread. Here we will provide some friendly tips and tricks about getting your game started and then keeping it oiled and running smoothly.

Before anything else, the very first thing any new DM needs to do is accept that they are going to screw up. DMs are human just like everyone else.
You will forget to add that dodge modifier and it will change then entire course of the battle.
You will forget that tiny bit of dialogue the PC’s were going to hear that would lead them where you wanted.
You will have to go look up the grappling rules and still be confused.
You will lose the bloody map someplace and spend 5 minutes searching for it only to discover it has been in your left hand the entire time.
You will screw up in myriad unimaginable (ok, well, probably pretty imaginable) other ways.
You will screw up and really, it’s ok. Say it with me.

I am going to screw up.
I’m probably going to screw up badly.
But it’s ok and I’m not going to worry about it.

Repeat that a few times until it sinks in. Feel better now? Good, on to the details!

Genesis of an Adventuring Party

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So, you have a bunch of players and they all have the coolest concept ever for a character. (Well, except for Ted who wants to be the one winged last survivor of an exploded planet. We’ll talk about him later.) What now?

First, sit everyone down before the first session and have a discussion and cover the following topics, not in any particular order:

Make everyone agree that whatever happens in the game, stays in the game. D&D is supposed to be fun for all involved and in character disputes or problems should never spill out and ruin real friendships. Whatever happens in game both you and the players should be having a good time and not getting angry with eachother. If you think your players can’t handle that, don’t play. There are more important things in life.

Have each player explain their character concept to the rest of the group. Seems like a waste of time but it’s not. First, it helps avoid later player conflict. If one player wants to be a dwarf whose family was slaughtered by drow and attacks them on sight and another wants to play a drow, you are going to have a problem. Having everyone discuss it off the bat lets you and the players come up with a way to work around it before the game gets rolling and there is bloodshed. Also, you would be surprised what sort of interesting shared backstory players will come up with in collaboration if you give them the chance.

Demand regular and updated copies of character sheets. Seem anal? Well it is, but for good reason. If you are going to craft interesting and challenging encounters then you will need to know each characters mechanical strengths and weaknesses. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to tell your players to keep an online ‘master’ copy of their sheet. This way, if their sheet ever gets lost you can just print it out again or if they forget to bring their sheet you can just print them out a new copy on the spot. Personally, I prefer http://pifro.com/pro/ for this but there is no lack of sites that provide a free place to store your sheets online.

Make a party contract. Just a little agreement between characters about basic ways the party is going to split treasure and generally behave. You’d be shocked how many problems this can avoid.

Explain any houserules you plan to employ. If you are banning Divine Metamagic, tell your players before they build a character around it.

Also, talk to each player individually before the first session.

Find out if there are any bits of backstory or other details your players don’t want to share with the rest of the party yet. You need to know about it, even if it’s going to be a surprise for the rest of the group. You don’t want this to happen.

Ask about their preferred playstyle. If you don't already know it, find out what makes them tick as a player. What are the apects of the game they really look forward to? Some players like hack and slash others like heavy RP. Getting a sense of what each player likes will give you a pretty good idea of how to balance adventures such that everyone, including you, has a good time.

Find out where they want to go with the character, RP wise. What are the character's overall goals in life? Do they have a backstory or any background characters they think are important (not everyone will, if they don't, don't press them)? Is there any particular bit of plot regarding the character that they would really like to see happen? This information will help you craft many a plothook.

Find out where they want to go with the character, mechanically.
Are they already thinking about PRC's? If so, find out which ones so that you can work the existence of the fluff aspects into the game world, so you can willfully ignore the fluff aspects or so that you can tweak them as you desire. Feel free to ask if there is some stinky stinky cheese they'd really like to be able to pull of, just make sure that they know that you are just asking about it, not promising to give it to them.

Homework: Preparing for the Game

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Yes, sadly the DMs lot in life involves homework. Although some DMs can fly by the seat of their pants session after session most of us need to prepare. There are a few aspects of the game that if you handle them ahead of time will keep the game moving at a good pace.

Get your junk in order:

Have Papers to Hand. Either bookmark (post-its are good for this), photocopy, or jot notes on whatever NPCs/Monsters you plan to use to slaughter have in combat with the players in the upcoming session and put them someplace you will have ready access to them. Do the same with any annoying or obscure rules you expect to come into play.

Go over the adventure. If you are running a published module, read it over a few times so you know the sequence of events pretty well. If it’s your own creation, try to think about how the players could possibly throw a wrench in the works.

Go over the encounters you expect to have. Just having the stats ready isn't always enough to have a challenging and interesting encounter. Think about how the NPC/Monster would act in combat. Some monsters have a high CR because of particular abilities and if you don't think to use those they will be much easier than they ought to be and consequentally will be a let down for the players.

Find any other stuff you need. If you use dice (I use a diceroller on my computer) then make sure you have all the dice you are going to need ready to hand. If the party has minis they leave in your care, be sure the cat hasn’t stolen them and set aside any other minis (or coins or army men or stuffed animals…) that you plan to have represent NPCs/Monsters.

Pre-rolling: As a DM there are quite a lot of things you will need to roll for that the players either will not see, should not see, or don’t really give a damn about anyway. Roll these ahead of time and keep them at the ready for when you need them. Make sure your players know you do this though, so they don’t think you are just making it up as you go along (even if you are). What these are will vary from group to group but a few common ones are:

Spot and Listen Checks for your Players. Nothing destroys the verisimilitude of a game like a player realizing they just failed a spot check. You have a copy of their character sheet (RIGHT?!) so roll out someplace between 5 and 10 spot and listen checks for each character and use them when appropriate. You don’t need to do this for every spot and listen check your players will be rolling. If they actively ask to make a spot or listen check let them roll it on their own but if that ninja is creeping up behind them, use the one on the list.

Another option instead of prerolling the skill checks that will save you time at the table is the 'take 10' mechanic. If your players are ok with it, you can houserule that they are taking 10 on any check you would be rolling off screen.

Initiative for your Monsters. Rolling for initiative for each of the 15 kobolds will take a little while. That pause hurts dramatic tension. Roll this ahead of time and have it ready for when combat starts. Unless your players really like to use the Intimidate skill whatever it is will not change if you roll it 3 hours before the game or there at the table. I like to use Post-it’s or index cards to keep track of initiative. If you keep a stack with each NPC/Monsters critical stats and initiative rolls you can slide into combat pretty much seamlessly.

Any skill checks you expect NPCs or Monsters to have to make. When the DM rolls a hide check, the players know something is up. Figure how well that darkmantle is hidden ahead of time. Know how big a whopper that bard just told. It saves time and helps keep the players in character.

Damage for any spell or effect that you KNOW is going to happen. If Flagophan the Wizard is going to start off with a fireball no matter what, go ahead and roll the damage now rather than stopping to count out d6s midcombat. Of course, you might want to wait to roll in some cases, just to scare the hell out of your players.

Let the Game Begin!: Tips for Getting the Session Started

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How the beginning of a session goes will frequently set the tone for the entire session, so it’s important to get off on the right footing. Here are a few simple suggestions for things to do right before you really get down to play and right after everyone in your group is ready to go.

Before The Dice Start Rolling:

Chatter: Sometimes the hardest part of getting a session started is actually getting started. Most people play D&D with their friends and a certain amount of chatter time at the beginning of the session about the latest episode of Heroes, so and so’s new girlfriend/boyfriend or how drunk you were at Ted’s birthday party last Friday is natural and to be expected. It can be hard to know when it’s time to stop just generally hanging out and get down to the rolling of dice and the slaughtering of tasty tasty chunks of xp. Be a little patient and wait for one of those natural pauses in conversation that occur every 22 minutes or so (not a scientific fact but it’s roughly true) and then ask if everyone is ready to start. I generally plan to actually start the session around half an hour after I tell my players that we are going to start. Don’t cut people off or demand that all conversation cease. Not only are you not your players mother (in most cases anyway) but starting off in an imperious and confrontational way will lead to an unpleasant dynamic for the rest of the evening. If conversation doesn’t pause for long enough, politely interrupt and ask if people are ready. Don’t be a jerk about it; these people are your friends and not your subordinates.

Food: Let’s face it; everyone eats when they play D&D. Having a bag of Doritos is almost as important as having dice to many a player and that’s perfectly fine. However, sometimes this gets out of hand and can delay the start of a session significantly. I have seen more than one session delayed hours as people order Pizza or Chinese, wait for it to be delivered, and then eat it before starting. Ask your players either to have their food with them when they arrive or plan for breaks to eat. If you are ordering a Pizza, ask the delivery place to bring it an hour or two into the session so that it will arrive at when you would normally take a little break anyway. That way, you can have your pizza and adventure too.

When the Game Actually Starts:

The Recap/Intro: At the beginning of each session it’s generally a good idea for there to be a quick recap of what happened in the last session or even last few sessions. If it’s the very first session ever, instead of recapping what happened in the last session, give a little of the backstory of how the party formed or if it hasn’t yet, how each of the characters got to the inn or wherever the opening scene takes place. If it’s a later session you can do the recap yourself or if you have an enthusiastic player let them handle it. It’s important to give the players a sense of continuity from the last session, remind them of things they might have forgotten over the week/month between sessions, and for the sneaky DM it provides a way to subtly prod the party in particular directions. If you want the party to go after the Vampire Lord this session rather than the Beholder, mention a few more details about the Vampire Lord in your recap. The players will frequently take the bait, intentionally or unintentionally.

Roll Initiative: I’m not saying start every session with an encounter, although sometimes it is good to do so, but to have the players roll initiative for whenever the first encounter is going to be later in the session and jot it down. If you are using index cards or post-its to keep track of initiative order and you have prerolled your monsters you can even slide the PC’s cards into their proper place in the stack. This may seem a bit unorthodox, but it really does improve the flow of the game as you can now go directly into PC actions the moment combat starts rather than having to pause, roll dice, and set up the order. After the first combat, when people are scribbling down the loot they acquired, have them roll for initiative the next one. Looting the bodies does not have any dramatic tension to break, seeing if the orc that just leapt from the bushes gets to stab you in the face does.

Greasing the Wheels: Keeping Things Moving and Players Happy During a Session.

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Now that the session is actually underway as a DM you have two major responsibilities. The first, is that you are the arbiter of the rules and generally speaking set the pace of the game. Here are few ways to speed things up and a few traps to avoid:

Don’t Argue About the Rules: This is quite possibly the largest mid-game time waster and bad blood generator. Unfortunately, it is also the easiest to succumb to. In a game with as many Core rules and additional source books as D&D it is inevitable that there will be disagreements about one rule or another. Frequently the disagreement will come up when the player wants to take an action, cast a spell, or use an ability and you disagree about what the effect of their action is going to be or, in some cases, if they can take the action at all. Don’t just dismiss your player out of hand but don’t get into a debate about the rules either.

Give your player 30 seconds or so to tell you why you are wrong. If they manage to change your mind in that time, rule their way. If they don’t simply say that you don’t want to get bogged down in a rules debate and that for the remainder of that day’s session the rule will work under your interpretation. There will be ample time between the end of this session and the next session for you, the player, or both to look up the right answer or if it’s particularly tricky, ask someone who you can both agree is an authority on the rules (The Simple Q&A (By RAW) thread on these boards is a good place for that). It is better to work under an incorrect interpretation of a particular rule than get bogged down arguing about it for an entire gaming session and believe me; it is possible to spend an entire session arguing about rules.

If it turns out you were right, don’t rub it in. In fact, other than to explain to your player why you were correct, don’t mention it at all. Probably everyone else in your gaming group will have forgotten about the dispute anyway. In fact, the player with whom you had the dispute may even have forgotten about it since you didn’t get into an argument over it and just moved on.
If you were wrong, fess up. Tell your group that you misinterpreted that particular rule and from now on it will work the other way. It’s just one of those cases where you screwed up, like that time you forgot that the elf automatically gets a search check for secret doors. No big deal.

It Just Works: Technically speaking, there are tons of skill checks you should be calling for all the time but more often than not the result is a foregone conclusion or the need to make the check itself borders on absurd.

A listen check for people talking directly in front if you is a DC 0, but you have to beat the DC by 10 to understand what they are saying. This means that a character without any ranks in listen is going to be unable to hear the rest of the party having a discussion half the time if they actually roll. Rolling for this, or even contemplating the check, is both silly and a waste of time. Skip it and just tell people they hear the conversation.

Conversely, there will be relatively high checks but that involve skills the PC has a high enough modifier in that it is either impossible, or nearly impossible, for them to fail. To use listen again, hearing a stalking cat is DC 19. If your character has a 19 modifier, don’t bother rolling the check. This has the added bonus of making your player feel awesome. They are just too good to even need to bother with a check.

However, don’t do this in reverse and don’t do it with saving throws. With skill checks, the players should always feel like they have the potential to overcome any particular obstacle, even if the DC is so high that it is mathematically impossible for them to succeed. With saving throws, rolling a 1 is an automatic failure and a 20 is an automatic success, so no matter what the DC the PC will still pass or fail it 5% of the time.

The 'take 10' and 'take 20' mechanics are particularly helpful for speeding through some of this stuff if your players want a rules justification. With the Listen check examples above, if each character had taken 10 (and didn't have wisdom penalty) then their checks would have succeeded automatically anyway. Depending upon the demeanor of your group you may want to stress this tactics importance to the players, leave it be, or just handwave the results.

Another thing way to help move things along can be circumstance modifiers. The standard DCs for tasks assume a certian set of normal conditions. For some checks, there are explicitally identified instances when the DC is supposed to be adjusted up or down. A listen check has its DC increased by 5 if the PC is distracted for example. However, frequently it is up to the DM to determine if the task was made easier or harder and by how much. Adjusting the DC of a task down to suit the circumstances is a good way to save time and have a check just succeed. We will talk more about adjusting the DC up in the later sections.

Cut to the Chase: Some skills or abilities can bog down the game because they both seem important to character survival and only effect a small area of the map. Search, for example, technically only searches a 5ft. by 5ft. square. Unless you are running Tomb of Horrors there really is no reason to go through the rigmarole of having the party rogue roll 20 search checks just to move down a 10 ft. by 50ft. hallway. Have the player roll once (or use your pre-rolled number) and say it applies to the whole hallway.

Allow the Use of Averages: Some mathematically inclined players will not want to bother rolling out how many hit points they get back for a potion Cure Moderate Wounds but just split the difference and take the average number as if they had rolled. Let them. If your players are cool with it, you might even want to institute a house rule that all such items always give the average. Over the life of the campaign it will work out the same. That’s why it’s the average.

Try to Speed Decisions: Some players have a tendency to take a long time making decisions in combat. Others will get bogged down debating with the other party members. This can eat up a lot of table time and steal the scary from combat. Soggy combat is not exciting combat. Try to speed things along with some gentle prodding if you notice a tendency for this. Rolling a D20 in plain sight and looking as if you are consulting your notes will typically get the players attention focused back on the decision at hand. Also, after a little deliberation, you may simply want to ask your player point-blank 'So, what are you doing?'

Try to keep a lid on in character discussions during combat in a similar way. Yes, talking is a free action, but remember that each round is only six seconds long. A quick back and forth bettween players or to an NPC is fine, but a 15 minute discussion isn't.

Don't be draconian about this and don't be a jerk. If you know your players like to have a little table talk during combat, expect it and don't shut them down unless it starts getting out of hand. Be diplomatic and reasonable. Don't punish a player for wanting to make a good decision.

Your second job, as the DM, is to be the spotlight of the game. No, you are not in the spotlight. You are the spotlight. Everything the PC’s see, hear, touch, smell or interact with in a given gaming session is what you decide to highlight and this includes themselves. The world is exists only by your descriptions and the PC’s by your attention given.

The best way to go about spreading attention and description throughout is going vary from group to group. There is no one right way. Some groups prefer the DM to provide them with a complete story, lots of detail, and essentially function as actors in the DM’s play. Others prefer the DM just provide the rough sketch of a world for their characters run around in. Many like something in between. Finding you and your group’s style of play is really only discovered by playing. After the first few sessions, talk to your players about what they thought and listen if they have suggestions or complaints. However, regardless of your eventual style of play there are a few general rules for making a memorable world and keeping players happy.

Distinctive Marks: For NPCs or locations you want your players to remember give them some distinguishing mark or attribute that the will stand out in the players' minds.

For NPCs, styles of clothing, speech patterns and accents, scars and deformities, or even hair color can serve this purpose. I have an NPC aristocrat in my game that talks like a stoned surfer dude and although the players can hardly ever remember his real name ‘Lord Smokes-a-lot” is firmly fixed in their minds as a major NPC in the world.

This is especially true of any reoccurring villain the PCs are going to have to defeat. For villians though you have the additional option of some signature act, like always casting darkness before they strike or sticking the severed heads of their victims on pikes, which makes them unique.

For places, distinguishing pieces of architecture, unusual decorations, or even a particularly apt description of the mood of the location will mark the place as important to the players. The Parthenon has its columns; The British Houses of Parliament have Big Ben; Baradur has its floaty eye, and even Bag End has its little round green door. It doesn’t have to be grandiose, something as simple as having a dart board in the back of the inn can serve to set it apart as a memorable location.

Let The Players Do The Work: No matter what style of play your group turns out to like, the one constant is that the PCs should always be in the center of the spotlight. Whatever obstacles or problems that the PCs encounter, they should be the ones eventually doing the bulk of the work to solve it. A common trap that many DMs fall into is to create a really awesome NPC and then let them solve all the problems the party faces for them. Don’t do it. If some NPC can save the world all by themselves then why would the PCs bother to be there at all? Your players want to be heroes, not sidekicks. This is not to say that you can’t have NPCs that are really cool, integral to the story, or more powerful than the PCs but just that the players should always feel like they are important and critical to the success of the endeavor. What their role is can vary from casting the earth shattering evocation themselves to keeping the seemingly endless the horde of demons from reaching the NPC who has to cast it, but whatever it is, they need to have played a major role.

This also applies to when the PCs make decisions that would affect the progress of the plot (if there is a plot). Players need to feel like their decisions are important and that they have decisions to make. Even if you secretly know everything that is going to happen from the very first scene of the campaign to the final blow that will strike down the Evil Overlord (which is only one among many styles of play) the players should still see the movement of the plot as consequences of their deliberate choices. If a player wants to do something unexpected that could mess up your plot don’t drop the iron fist of DM and tell them that they just can’t or create ad-hoc punishments for their doing so. If you do, they will feel like they aren’t really a participant in the game and you will kill their fun. Besides, you have other and better options for handling it. We will talk about those options more in the "You Did What?: Recovering from Unexpected Player Actions" section.

Time to Shine: Just as important as making sure that your NPCs don’t make the players feel useless is making sure that none of the players make the other players feel useless. Make sure that you give each PC a chance to do whatever thing it is that they do best. If you have a party with a silver-tongued rogue and a big bruiser of a fighter give them an encounter they have to talk their way past and another one where they have to throw down and kick some butt. This can be tricky sometimes but it’s worth the effort to make sure that everyone at the table has a good time.

Occasionally, you will have a player who by dint of a better build, more problem solving skill, or just a mechanical imbalance in the game itself *cough*druids*cough* that will actually be better at whatever thing another PC does best and steal their that PCs spotlight time. The best way to solve this will vary and we will discuss it in more detail in the "Trouble with Ted: Dealing with a Problem Player" section below.