Hey Veeky Forums, whats some advice you wish you had been given before you started DMing?
I'm going to be DMing my first campaign soon. I only ever played 3.5e and we will be using 5e. None of my players have played tabletop rpgs before.
It's going to be like a bunch of virgins at an orgy, a group learning experience. And it may get sticky.
Ok, here's a few
1. What you say, goes. HOWEVER this does not give you carte blanche to be a complete asshole. Be firm and reasonable
2. Learn to say "No." Sometimes one of yer players will come up with some inane plan or scheme- so out there it is unlikely. What you can do is suggest some other way for them to accomplish their goal. But sometimes all you can do is say no. It aint the end of the game just because you had to shoot down somebodies idea.
3. Let the players PLAY. Nobody wants to sit around and watch you jerk off to your own lovingly crafted (or slapped together) worlds and plots. Players will fuck up your plans. Deal with it- improv stuff. If you suck at that- declare a short snack break or something while you figure out what to do now the players buttfucked your plot. (ive had to do it before- excused myself to the restroom to literally pull a dungeon out of my arse.)
4. HAVE FUN. This should be the easy one- but it can take a bit of work, work like knowing what your group wants to do. Combaty types of players seldom enjoy sitting around for hours of intrigue and RP- and vice versa.
Ive tried to allow for player freedom and fuckery by:
>planning a large set of random encounters in different directions from the starting town
>2 different medium sized dungeons to start with (i imagine the first session will be slow so i dont think they need huge missions)
>the world lore is detailed, but most of it is meant to be uncovered by the players as they go; its largely unknown history
>and I'm working on a few NPC sidequest prompts in the town i can freely improvise along
The best thing I ever did was stop planning locations in advance.
I just cook up encounters and locales and then let my players choose whatever direction they want. I drop shit in front of them when it makes sense and mark out a worldmap as I go.
My players think they are in a total sandbox because they steer the cart, but they will always wind up somewhere interesting.
I'd like to take this moment as well to thank Veeky Forums for pulling through for me and giving me advice on a thread I posted yesterday before going to bed.
Advice I wish I'd gotten when I was younger part 1:
- Try to explain the situation by purely describing the environment and how people act. If they roll insight, never outright tel them that you know they are lying or not. Tell them that they have a feeling the character is lying or that they can't read their expression very well depending on their rolls. The players will feel more invested in analysing the situation and feel clever if they figure it out when things may not be exacty as they seem.
- Even the most brutal psychotic villain probably believes he's doing a good thing and thinks of himself as a reasonable sort of person. A villain is very engaging if he attempts to employ the Player Characters or dissuade them at a dinner party from trying to kill him.
- Until the final confrontation you should give your villains a planned escape route or two, but if the players got him, they got him. Secondary villains are appetizers.
- FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONTRESOR NEVER RANDOMLY TELEPORT YOUR PLAYERS. Don't do it. It's the laziest "I dunno, I want you guys to be in another environment disconnected from this one" thing ever. In fact, unless you have extremely good reasons and your players are aware where the dimension door leads them I advise strongly against teleportation at all times.
- Don't be too nitty gritty with supplies. It's extremely difficult to make it interesting and engaging, so you usually shouldn't bother.
- If you want some time killed, ask your players to do a recap of the previous session at the start of the next one. If you need a random name or attribute you can try asking your players for one too, really. Don't be too afraid to allow your players to fill in all the little details of your world.
Part 2:
- Ideally, you ask your players to give a minimum 2 maximum 5 paragraph backstory (if they want to write a novel, they can still do it, but they need to condense it to something you can read in 10 minutes and you are under no obligation to continue reading this novel if it's boring drivel). Then you ask your players to write down a principle their characters stand by ("fuck bitches, get money", is one for instance.) Then also to write down 3 goals (a long-term goal, a short-term one and an inbetweeny one, coincidentally, "fuck bitches, get money" is a good long-term goals)
- Communicate with your players. Resolve your issues with people that rub you the wrong way quickly or get rid of them or your campaign will die. I have had several 3 to 4 session campaogns and they all failed terribly because I hated one of my players but couldn't fucking bring it up, cus I was a pussy ass bitch. I have had several campaigns that lasted for years with some of my best friends.
- Make sure the kind of campaign you want is the same kind your players want. I've run high lethality grimdark shit against players with players that wanted something light-hearted and I still feel bad about not picking up on that or verifying with people if they'd be okay with that.
- Have an idea for the general arc of the campaign, but cater a lot of the specifics to the players and how they choose to develop their characters. The campaign starts when all of them are on the silk road seeking gainful employment and may end in the chamber of the Demon King, but that story can never go exactly the same way if iterated with different characters.
- Don't be afraid to balance encounters and draw inspiration from modules. Sadly enough, a lot of them also are shit...
Focus on what's important, chop out what's not.
It'll take some time to realise what, for you and your group is important, and that's okay.
Define the world to your players before anything else, and be clear about what is allowed and what is not.
During character creation, make the players describe why they are adventuring together and what their motives are. Saves so much awkward bumbling and contriving a reason for them to be together.
First up, don't leave people sitting immobile for too long. One of my first sessions had my most dynamic and fun gunfights ever but it wasn't fun at all for the player whose character was unconscious and chained to the toilet. I shoulda let them wake up and help out. Players with nothing to do are bored players.
Second of all, use a carrot not a stick if you want the characters to do something. For example, if you want the players to follow a trail through the woods, don't send a bunch of high CR enemies (Dire Wolves, party was level 1) to chase them to where you want to go, otherwise they will try to fight them and probably wipe. Better to give them something for going where you want, ie you are attacked by low-level enemies and the leader flees in a certain direction, there's a rumor of a magical item being found somewhere, etc.
Advice part 2A: CHECK THE CR BEFORE YOU SEND OUT ENEMIES. TPKs are fun for no-one.
Finally, let your players do things. It's more than just saying "don't railroad them". Players need to feel their actions made a difference. If they're trying something creative or unexpected, say yes and encourage it. Don't needlessly put obstacles in their way if they've found a creative solution to a problem you intended to be much more difficult. Sometimes players will roll over tough fights with ease, sometimes they will be stumped by simple things. It happens.
(Oh and PS: Plan the whole adventure before you start, including how you want it to end and what all the major NPCs goals are. I keep making this mistake where I start the campaign before its finished. Still fun, but usually only lasts a few sessions)
Keep pencil and paper or some other way to take notes handy.
Write EVERYTHING down.
Expect the unexpected, also expect the expected.
Keep your pimp hand strong, but also remember to respect your players as your friends and peers.
Don't be married to your plot, be ready to jump in bed with a new twist whenever you find one sexy enough.
Everyone telling you to plan an adventure is a shitter. It's a trick, a trap. Listen I'm gonna explain something and it works like a miracle mate:
There are 3 tiers of DM planning: hard planning, soft planning, and improv.
Hard planning you want to keep to a minimum, and is basically front loaded. Develop a villain or two, their end goal, and their next immediate move. Develop a "zone." Like start small, a village or small town with a few notable locations nearby. Map out a dungeon or two. This is all you should do for "hard planning."
Soft planning is stuff you don't necessarily even keep on paper. It's the idle thoughts you think of like "oh maybe I should do X some time" or "wouldn't it be cool if" type thoughts that you keep in mind but don't hard plan. The whole "you might not know the middle but you know the end" stuff the posters above mentioned, but for potential events at any point in the campaign. Don't shoehorn them in but it's always nice to have some cool free floating encounters or set pieces in the back of your mind.
Improv is everything else.
Each session, hard or soft plan the opening scene. Beyond that it's out of your hands. Develop a sub setting enough that you know it like the back of your hand, and can improv off it. If a character gets introduced, wing it and be characterful. Get a feel for if the players like him or not. If they do, soft or hard plan an arc for the guy or something. Plot hooks can be hard or soft planned as well. The big thing is to be on the same page as the players about expectations, and knowing your setting.
Hard plan the stuff that totally breaks down in game if you don't hard plan it: dungeon maps, long term NPC and villain arcs, and regional maps. But never stop updating these things. If you think of a cool idea that doesn't contradict established facts, go for it, such as changing the villains motives, or even determining them! Don't think you need to lay everything out at the start.
New question: NPC deaths by other NPC's. I think most of us agree, it feels like shit if you just hard script this shit. It's a cheap way to up the ante. You could have certain NPC's participate in combat, but if they're actually really weak it's not that different from scripting them to die.
How do you put in occasional NPC death or betrayal by NPC's without it being cheap? How do you create "counterplay" without being particularly heavy-handed about it?
Rather than have Baron Stabs-You-In-The-Dick twirl his mustache and openly executing other people that work for him, I would like to imply he may no longer have the best interests of King Super Nice Guy at heart.
Question, what's the consensus on dealing with a party who charge headfirst into an intentionally deadly situation? For example, they're told an ancient lich lives in an abandoned crypt or something for them to negotiate a deal with but they instead go guns blazing and just fight him at level 4. They don't get upset at dying but it's a hassle to keep rotating around characters and I don't want them to be in a dangerless world.
Have them be resurrected with curses and deformities, curse of strahd style. Failure is not an option, it only leads to more pain... Or something. I'd recommend you change your campaign to fit that theme more.
>Have them be resurrected with curses and deformities
That idea is absolutely glorious. I will use this in my next campaign.
>Hard plan the stuff that totally breaks down in game if you don't hard plan it
>But never stop updating these things
This.
I plan each session to the end, but focusing on the beginning, and vaguely figure how it fits into the overall campaign.
Halfway through the session, most of my plan is undone, but supports the path the PC have chosen.
Then I replan the next session.
It's like plotting a destination and making course corrections, with the understanding that a big enough PC storm may change the destination altogether.
>How do you put in occasional NPC death or betrayal by NPC's without it being cheap?
By giving the PCs every reasonable opportunity to thwart it.
The most I'll do is give the killer initiative.
The PCs can take healing actions or whatever is supported by the rules.
Give the villain advantage or opportunity, but not free reign to auto-win.
Also, if they kill when the PCs aren't there, or to justify the advantage, tie the villains actions to player choice if you can.
If the players planned poorly or chose selfishly, they might feel guilt.
If the players planned well, then make their actions negatively affect the villain's actions.
Perhaps a well laid trap kills a minion and only wounds the villain, allowing them to kill the npc, but facilitating the PCs revenge.
>party who charge headfirst into an intentionally deadly situation?
If they charge in after you have made it ABUNDANTLY OBVIOUS that it is suicidal, then the only real option is to:
1. Change the dangers to numerous medium dangers, like swarms of powerful trolls instead of one, obscenely powerful enemy.
Multiple enemies mean the party can fight and win while still being taken down to low health, but there's just more enemies to fight.
You can break it up without giving them rest.
Unlike one big battle.
2. Get used to cranking through simple premade characters.
have a servant or something found dead outside of combat. Have an investigation section (NOT combat, NPC on NPC betrayal in combat doesn't have impact) and have all the clues point to Baron Dickass.
Have a session 0 and get everyone to have some links between player characters so they can function at least sort of like a party and don't screw each other over.
Don't let someone walk all over you even if he's your friend or even if you're his only friend. Kick them if you have to in order to have fun. It might make the friendship be damaged but that is MUCH better than having a toxic influence in your game make you start hating your friend because of it.
Don't bother making your own solutions to puzzle bosses and don't worry too much about the CR. If your players are inventive they will break down any obstacle with more brainpower to throw at the problem, so let them think of a cool solution and instead use your planning time to think of more awesome enemies they can topple.
And most importantly
>KEEP YOUR PLAYERS MOVING SO THEY DON'T GET BORED
is all very good advice too.
Even better when there's a clue, but some simple deductive reasoning shows that's it been planted to frame someone.
>Don't bother making your own solutions to puzzle bosses
Have to disagree slightly.
If the players get stumped, you need some sort of bone to throw them.
But yeah, there should never be a set solution.