so i have never DMed before but a couple of my buddies said they would give me a chance if i throw together a DnD game for them to play.
so aside from dont be too much of a donkey's rear end (asshole) and avoid railroading all the time i have no idea what i am doing.
so do you guys have any advice for me?
Other urls found in this thread:
rpg.stackexchange.com
theangrygm.com
pastebin.com
mega.nz
1d4chan.org
1d4chan.org
twitter.com
See that DM screen?
The keyword there is SCREEN. Players don't need to know what you're doing behind it.
A good DM railroads the shit out of his players and lets them think they got there all on their own.
So i can Railroad as long as i am careful not to make it obvious? so what are some tips on doing that?
That's a bad way of putting it, but its right in spirit.
The key is to remember that as the person running is that your players are supposed to enjoy themselves. That means just because the dice seem to enjoy making your players never hit that enemy and have him kill them one by one two fights into a longer quest doesn't mean that it has to end that way.
See pic related.
Aside from that, try to figure out what your buddies like (if not from prior experience playing together then by picking up on it during game and running with it). A party full of fpeople who love rping and a party of people who just want to kill things should have different focuses.
Do prep work. Make some details around the railroad, in case they wander off of it. Sometimes this effort will be wasted. Worry not: if they never end up seeing it, you can REUSE IT LATER!
A good adventure is designed like this.
You have plenty of signposts and reminders of what PCs are supposed to do, and even when they have multiple goals, you try and feed them only one solution at a time.
Dungeons can be designed in this manner, too.
"Do you explore the lower level first, or the upper level?"
Then you block off paths to make the PCs take a deterministic path through the dungeon, or you make a dungeon where no matter the path taken, there is a certain 'flow', by including things like balconies and dumping areas and main thoroughfares.
so essentially start with a straight line and then create a world around it with various paths that all lead to the same place but long enough with enough detail so as to avoid railroading. so the straight line is always there but plan for people to do their own thing... like collect a head count or talk to all the peoples.
on the topic of NPCs what should i do about them? how should i write them?
I think the easiest (but also the hardest) way is to make the players care about what´s supposed to be their goal.
If their goal is to defeat the BBEG before the destroys the world but instead they buy a ship and spend their time exploring islands and looking for treasure, it´s because they´re not interested in your plot, or you´re simply playing the wrong game.
In this case, you could start showing them the effects of the BBEG actions on the islands they visit. Maybe have one of them be a secret base of the bad guys with a laboratory and enslaved natives or some shit. Put something nice, valuable and shiny in that laboratory to make sure they steal it. Something important for the BBEG, who of course sends people in other ships or flying/aquatic creatures to go hunt the players and recover the item.
Have the BBEG steal the thing. Stealing from the party is almost always a surefire way to make them go where you want. Players despise nothing more than an NPC stealing their shit. Even if they stole it from him in the first place.
Or just let them keep it, if they defend it well enough. But keep up the assaults every now and then. The BBEG starts conquering some places. There´s a sweet price for their heads now, which mean they´re attacked more often. The BBEG, intentionally or not, destroys an island they liked. Maybe he turns their favorite island town into a factory, or he razed it because they resisted him. Make the damage somewhat or completely irreparable. Make the characters see that their actions (or lack thereof) have an impact in the world.
Eventually they´ll start caring. And then they´ll go for the BBEG without you having to railroad them into it.
Simply put design the NPCs for what they are going to do.
Give them one or two distinct things. Give them a rough motivation as to why they are interacting with the PCs/ vice versa.
If they are for social interaction, give them the relevant stats/threshelds, but no more. If they are there for combat, you really don't need to know what their cooking or taxonomy stats stats are. Just jot down the pertinent stats (defense, attack rolls, damage, etc) and go.
Generally assume an average baseline stat. You don't need to go into full character creation just to make every NPC.
On a special note: please avoid making NPCs fight to death unless they have a good motivation. If they are ambushing hoping to score loot, they really should be running once things go south. Only NPCs dedicated to the cause will stay and fight. This helps avoid combats being long drawn out affairs and encourage your PCs to be murderhobos.
More generally, don't fixate on things. Fixating on super special NPCs can lead to spotlight stealing. Fixating on plot points excessively leads to railroading. Cut some slack and adjust.
One thing I've learned is have a plan for if your PCs fail. I don't mean as in a wipe, but what if they don't succeed in foiling the BBEG's plot? Let them lick their wounds and suffer the consequences.
Important to note, in case you didn´t notice enough: see how I´m not ripping the players out of the path they chose by sending them a massive sea monster and sinking their ship. They wanna be explorers, they can. I work with it and search for ways to have the plot affect them in increasingly direct and dangerous ways.
I´m not bringing the players to the plot, I´m bringing the plot to the players. Or, rather, I´m bringing the plot to the world in a somewhat realistic manner. The player characters are in the world, so they also get affected by it, just like the NPCs.
If it´s clear the players don´t give a fuck about the BBEG and would rather do anything else, then maybe you´re just trying to force them into a campaign you want to play without noticing that they´re not interested. Communication with your group is key. Ask for feedback from time to time, make sure they´re having fun and ask them what they´re missing and what they´re having too much of.
About NPCs,