DM Tips

Pretty much this.

No people will say "Man, if I wanted a boss to snap at me and throw a hissy fit because I checked my phone, I'd just stay at work. This is getting kinda lame, I'm out."

Unless by "focused, attentive roleplayers" you mean "autistic, overzealous jerks" and you guys can all be passive-aggressive with eachother over nothing forever but none of you will ever do anything about it. You'll all enjoy several multi-year campaigns but each of you will post here talking about how shit your group is and how "that guy/that dm" the others are, and none of you will ever figure out it's actually the people they play with weekly.

>projecting this hard

I've been gaming for over 15 years, and GMing for over a decade. 95% of my games and players have been great. Only a few autists have ever complained about not being allowed phones, but they got over it.

Cry harder faggot.

...

smd then kys fag

Describe some scenes where the players might find some minor loot if they investigate properly, in addition to scenes where they will get ambushed. Sometimes, if the enemies are especially prepared, don't give the players a chance to avoid it.

That's 100% a feels thing. Some parties will prefer long descriptions of every scene while others only want a brief outline of the important scenes.

I let the players bring their own snacks, but we're pretty lax about trading snacks / sharing.

Sounds like your players have problems with electronic addiction. It would be healthy for you to circumvent phones / tablets entirely, and use the books and paper sheets.

Interesting note - the difference between anime and cartoons is the fact you can't really tell the difference between static and mobile objects.

Award your players for role-playing. If you describe an area and they all meta game and draw weapons for the inevitable ambush then do nothing and eventually have npc's start treating them as crazy, paranoid people. If they fail a save and role play nothing wrong, extra xp.

Eventually they will learn.

>How do you make sure that my game moves at an interesting and reasonable pace, while maintaining a immersive level of detail?
Plan then improvise

>Avoiding this Cartoon effect
There's been a good lot of advice ITT already.
I usually proceed like this. 1. Normal description of the place, keeping it simple and efficient. 2. If one of the players asks for detail fo into more details. 3. If there is an ambush/trap/etc. and the players haven't noticed it or are proceeding carefully make a passive perception check.

Oh forgot to react about.
>snacks
Eat what you want, keep it clean. Minor evolution towards more healthy food or at least handcooked/made stuff recently.
>Digital information.
The character sheet is on paper, you keep your notes on paper. I keep the character sheet after each session (if I DM).
I allow rolling on an app but since I'm not good at calculus I have to look at the number if I want to process it.

I was about to make a thread for this but I wasn't sure how well it'd sit, so I thought I'd ask here instead. How do make it clear something is not a plot hook? I want to have a mass murderer go on a rampage, to show that society is hurting and volatile and because it'd be an interesting encounter, but I can't shake the dread that they'd try to investigate him and his things for leads to some suicidal death cult that doesn't exist.

>How do make it clear something is not a plot hook?
Our DMs usually go with the "you find nothing interesting" semi-meta answer. Of course outside of the things that started his rampage

>Avoiding this Cartoon effect
As other people said, just describe more stuff alongside the main object. Also perception checks, if something is genuinely hard to spot it's all right for PCs not being able to see it
>Balancing details and momentum?
Focus on describing the most important aspects and things as well as on forwarding a general feel of the place/person/whatever. If your players want to know more they will ask.
>Snacks
I have an long standing agreement with my players that I provide the place to play(my house is big and conveniently located, have the least people living in it and unlike my friends I actually like to keep my place clean and tidy) and they provide snacks and drinks. Therefore they bring whatever they want and I don't really care personally. If I have any snacks or drinks in my house I obviously share them as well.
>Digital information
No. The phone stays in pocket, if someone calls or you get an important message you may answer but otherwise no playing with it.

>Some of my players use digital character sheets or spell books or take notes on their cell phones
Paper and pens cost pennies. I refuse to believe you don't have any at your place. And printing few sheets should be dirt cheap as well, even if you don't have any place where you could do that for free.

>Cartoon effect
simply announce when your players enter a dangerous area (dungeon, nasty part of town, area were trolls live) - at which point they better come up witht he idea of searchign everything themselves. when they start searching in safe areas, just tell them to no mind.

>Balancing details and momentum?
read the table. the most important skill (or one of) of a GM is to always look into the faces of his players and read what is going on.

> Snacks
it's really not your job to correct the unhealthy ways of your players during gaming. the best you can do is set a positive example (and offer your own shit to them)

> Digital information
i allow them everything but when i feel it gets too much, i tell them to get back to the game. if it would take over, i would not permit it either. however, i would also question myself as a GM and my ability to keep them immersed.

Make it clear that your players can't solve everything that happens because their time is finite, it's not their responsibility to play sherlock holmes, and outright tell them the murders appear at random and haven't left any interesting clues. Anything else will just waste time.

have him be caught/killed by someone else, if they do take interest

>Some of my players use digital character sheets or spell books or take notes on their cell phones
I see nothing wrong with this in and of itself, I use a laptop for spells, character sheet and writing down everything that happens, and a couple others use phone/laptop/tablet for charsheet as well and it's completely fine. But then another player will get up his laptop to browse facebook or the last guy will watch cooking videos and that I agree is fucking obnoxious.

The issue with knowing when things are going to move in old cartoons is that the thing is designed differently than the background, is focused on or is given a different lighting.
That's also exactly the issue in ttrpgs.
You know when a character is important when or when something will act as a plot hook when the DM describes it more than the other things around it. That feels like railroading, but it is also a important feature used to guide the players and give them a hint that they need to do X thing if they want to progress the story you prepared.
Without that, ( if you manage to blend your plot perfectly in the background of the game ) the players will never follow it, they will pass by, ignoring key characters or plot hooks because they simply won't notice then.

Have him be a spree murderer. You can get the characters to encounter the murderer along his spree. They cut him down, city guard searches him and find a suicide note, ala "I did it because [reason]." Also throw in a sarcastic quip from the guards, something like "that's just what we need right now."

>I want to have a mass murderer go on a rampage, to show that society is hurting and volatile and because it'd be an interesting encounter, but I can't shake the dread that they'd try to investigate him and his things for leads to some suicidal death cult that doesn't exist.
What? What are you talking about? What could they find on him that could possibly lead to that conclusion?

>then the columns wake up and these naked stone babes start punching you to death

Yes please these are my fetishes

>If you're trying to have player's explore huge environments and much of them are empty, or travel long distance from points a to b quickly when most of the road is clear, then you can simply skip certain things and summarize them as uneventful and fast forward.
What if I want to show them a strange environment? Like they are pursuing an enemy back to their foreign lands (exotic countries, magical lands, underdark...), is it worth to spend some time "exploring", showing that they are travelling far and making them feel they are out of familiar lands?
In short, how to make a "travelling session" worthwhile?

>What? What are you talking about? What could they find on him that could possibly lead to that conclusion?

Did you read the first part of his post

He's asking for advice on how to include a serial killer in his game without the players going off on a wild goose chase looking for a deeper plot line than "shit's crazy yo"

ITT: Luddite faggots
>not having the PHB pdf open for quick reference, ctrl+f is quicker than flicking through pages
>not having a spell viewer app to quickly compare and choose the best option for the moment, significantly shortening your turns
>not sending and receiving messages from the DM with notes, personal stuff only for you and updates of how your side projects are going
>not sending messages to another player for when you're alone or talking in a language only you two understand
>not showing the latest funny cat video to people on the table during the villain's monologue
shiggy diggy doo

These, except for the last one, are fine as long as everyone agrees to this at the beginning of the session, although I feel that using pens and paper is still a preferable and less immersion breaking alternative. Browsing facebook and funny sites instead of paying attention and participating in the game however is not, and some people will inevitably end up doing it if you just allow them to take out their phones for any reason

Do you skip the "Cartoon effect" by replacing descriptions by pictures?

>luddites
>all your bullshit
Perhaps you could actually keep your face out of your fucking phones for 5 mins you could actually learn the fucking game and not need to ctrl+f every 5 mins, you rules lawyering double nigger
>showing cat videos during gameplay
kys

Nope, but I do like to use pictures for showing scenery, like when they reach a castle or see a city in the distance, or to give them a better view of how's the forest they're treking.
A bit of character art as well, but not much. It's hard to find good stuff.

>What if I want to show them a strange environment?
Then describe all the ways it's unusual. It's fine to take 5-15 minutes to explore the fantastical themes in your fantasy game and let your players interact with weird stuff (whether that's 12 foot tall mushroom forests with glowing lights in the distance that you can never manage to catch up to, or underdark tunnels filled with interesting bioluminescent or hallucinogenic fungal, plantlife and insectlife, or impossibly vast mosscovered ruins built by some ancient civilization of giants), and have periods of low action / high wonder. Not every part of the session has to be high intensity or filled with tension.

You'll probably get a feel for when your players have had their fill. It's just one of those things that becomes easier with time and experience and familiarity with your players.

You have to invert Chekov's gun. If there's only one thing described in any detail, all of your players instantly know it's important.

If you describe everything in detail... they have to actually think about it.

>not having the PHB pdf open for quick reference, ctrl+f is quicker than flicking through pages
Try playing an intuitive system for one. Secondly rules shouldn't be rigorously checked mid game. Gm makes a call if you disagree you hash that out later. Stopping the game at any point to look up some fiddly bs breaks the flow. All information relative to your characters should be in front of or inside of you.
>not having a spell viewer app to quickly compare and choose the best option for the moment, significantly shortening your turns
System specific, cards exist, you should also know how your character functions.
>not sending and receiving messages from the DM with notes, personal stuff only for you and updates of how your side projects are going
Note cards, quick chat outside of the room, talking outside of the main game. If
>not sending messages to another player for when you're alone or talking in a language only you two understand
Note cards and or not playing with people who cannot separate in and out of character knowledge like children
>not showing the latest funny cat video to people on the table during the villain's monologue
Yeah fuck the thing we're all here to do.

>What if I want to show them a strange environment?
You know what kills any sense of mystery, mystic, or curiosity? Saying hey look at this thing, it looks like that.

And the alternative is what exactly? Never mentioning the cool stuff?

Having an imagination. If you lack one, none of this stuff is going to be interesting in the first place, so no real loss.

>his game is a museum with signs everywhere saying "Please don't touch the exhibits"

>His game is a literal museum where you look at other people's art in an otherwise empty space.

10/10

I'm sure some people would take such a museum as art in itself.

>he GMs in complete silence, an act of meditation
>never reveals any information
>all his players must imagine the game in complete silence as well
>they all feel oddly relaxed but conclude it was a huge waste of time, but they can never tell him due to their oaths of silence

kek

Interesting that you'd come to such a bizarrely over the top conclusion there. Can you not imagine visuals? You can't seem to try and make a point without them.

Have you considered a less creative hobby like choose your own adventure books?

> He still plays pen & paper RPG rather than soul & mind RPG
It's like you don't even have psychic powers!

>the silent GM actually died midway through the third session, nobody noticed since there was no change in the quality of the game

Oh wait those generally don't have picture. My bad.

By "Having imagination.",he meant "Figure out yourself, idiot.".

Read sci-fi books with good scenario building. They have great examples about how to describe strange lands in a way that the audience can visualize it.

A few of such books that I can think of from the top of my head are Hyperion, Dune and Foundation And Earth.

This is helpful, thanks.

This is bullshit. Especially in the old days. Go watch a Dragon Ball Z episode, you can spot which rock is going to blow up before the energy beam even hits it.

Make it a red herring. Give them the freedom to investigate it, but show that their efforts eventually came to nothing.

Unless something interesting comes out of it, seems like that is likely to just create player frustration at wasting time.

>banning electronic devices
I'm going to take a leaf out of pro-gun argument books here: a tool is merely a tool and shouldn't be held accountable for the fault of the person using it. If there is a problem player who gets easily distracted by their phone clearly they are the problem and should perhaps be kicked from the group. If the group wants to keep that player around because they are a friend or there are few players in the local area, that group should strongly consider how much slack they are willing to give for the sake of keeping that bad player.
Clearly if you have a group putting time and effort into getting together on a schedule to game and they let themselves get distracted so easily they aren't all that invested in the group to begin with.

Not everything in the world is tailor made to be a quest for the PC's to jump on. One "quest" of wasted resources with little to no reward should stop smart players from trying to investigate every bit of gossip they hear about.

> Avoiding this Cartoon effect
I usually don't give ambush points additional description, I just describe the room, it's layout, and what they can see.
Maps are used to give the players a feel for the dimensions of the room.
When there are things like illusory walls, I use cutouts that fit into the map.
The players have to use their own sleuthing abilities to notice odd room shapes.
>>You enter the house, the ceiling is rather high up and you can see support beams, the room itself is filled with what seems to be sealed crates.

> Balancing details and momentum?
Usually, I take a look at the mood of the room, if the players feel particularly inquisitive, more detail is divulged.
If the players and their characters are not really interested in the place, I just do a simple description and move on.
The two rules above are ignored if detail is absolutely necessary.
For instance, if combat is about to begin, I'll describe points that have strategic value, like pillars for cover etc.
If the players surprise me with unexpected combat and I haven't described the room in detail, I'll do it as the fight progresses.
I usually describe the most eye catching details on NPCs, such as visible scars, tattoos, or piercings that the PCs can see.
Less noticeable details need an investigation check.
>>DC >DC 13>DC 15>DC 18 Snacks
Dinner is ordered before the game. Soft drinks and chips are usually drank while the game is played, usually finished within 20 minutes.

> Digital information
My group uses a buddy system, if someone is distracted by their phone and it's unimportant, the player next to them will give them a nudge and ask them to get their head in the game.
If the player absolutely insists on not participating in the game, their turns are skipped in and out of combat.

Or, if a person gets distracted by his electronic device just ask them not to use it? You have to consider how addicted some people are to phones nowadays, I've played with some people who were great roleplayers and loved playing, but just couldn't resist playing with their phones during the games until I just strictly prohibited that. We all agree that the quality of games increased for everyone

Electronics are convenient, but are also distractions if you let it be one. I use a cheap spare tablet with nothing but D&D related apps in it. The wifi is disconnected and no other electronics are allowed. Makes things much simpler.

>digital information
Never. I either give them, or they get themselves, a small notepad to keep their personal game notes in.
I use it as an almost roleplay aspect too. If they're writing, they're writing in game too. Wanna try and write game notes during a battle? You're gonna get murdered. Want to write a note while talking to the king? He's gonna take that as an insult and refuse to speak to you further. Actions have consequences.

That's pretty terrible, user.

>Avoiding this Cartoon effect
Two tips:
1. Don't make plot overly dependent on a certain specific. If members of a cult recognize each other by wearing dragon-shaped pins in their collars, players will catch on immediately if you describe them and will never if you don't.
2. Don't literally describe, give an encompassing description. If you're going to have an assassin jump up from behind a barrel, don't say "there's a barrel in the far left corner", say "the room is a near-empty storeroom, with various containers spread around randomly". When the assassin then jumps up, people won't complain about an ass-pull, but it won't have been telegraphed from miles away.

>Balancing details and momentum
No idea, my style of GMing is EXTREMELY high-paced, and I usually substitute details for more tempo. I can only recommend to try and find a pace you're comfortable with, then elaborate when asked.

>Snacks
Don't try to have a constant supply of snacks. Have a dedicated eating moment (or two for long sessions, or none for post-dinner sessions). During this eating moment serve a proper meal. Try to avoid having snacks around outside this moment. If you must, consider something like sausages, cheeses, nuts, fruits, vegetables, or small toasts. Even then, it's better to supply a lot in a single serving than to keep a constant trickle of snacks going.

Cut him some slack, he's like 60 years old.

Phones can be as addictive as crack.

...

That's pretty lame. Actions taken out of character shouldn't have implications in character

>I usually don't give ambush points additional description, I just describe the room, it's layout, and what they can see.
'
This just jogged my noggin a bit. How would you handle such during a long travel. Travels in general really. So much of their duration is skipped its hard not to make the bits you focus on immediately snap as the important "something bout to happen" bits.

Well, if I felt like it was necessary or unique, the scenery would be described during travel.
I try to use a more point of view style of narration, describing what the things that would catch the eye first like a red sky, or overhanging stalactites with glowing points illuminating the entire cavern like bright stars.
If something was insignificant enough that a person would miss it normally, I leave it out until the players get a chance to interact with it.
I usually use a few lines of descriptive narration that describes the situation in a general manner, if the players seem to want to hear more, then I go into more detail.
For example, if the players were to enter an underdark city where the drow are maintaining a facade of perfection, I would not describe the cleaners in the background but the people walking the streets as an average person would not notice the cleaners in the first place.
Only when they start walking through the streets they get the description,
>"You notice shabbily dressed human and drow men every few blocks, clearing the streets of garbage while the rest of the city's citizens walk past them busy with their own affairs."
And if the players choose to further inspect the men, they will get,
>"As you approach the men, they seem to shy away from you, seemingly in fear. There is a glittering line between their necks and a loop in the wall, it fades one moment, and reappears in another."
If they investigate further,
>DC 10< :"It would seem like the line grows taut as the men move around, almost like a leash or a chain."

But in the end it falls to the players, if they don't look like they wan't to have a description of the city, they will not notice any of this, canonically choosing instead to keep to themselves in the cart as the headed in a beeline towards their next objective.
I hope that answered your question.

>Unless by "focused, attentive roleplayers" you mean "autistic, overzealous jerks
you mean the kind of people that play fucking pen and paper RPGs?

Pay attention to the game, user. You don't need to check your phone every 5 minutes. The world is not burning down yet.

>Players in middle of quest/mission/whatever
>Decide they'd rather do something else
>"What else is there for us to do, GM?"

How do I prepare for/react to this?

List all the things they could reasonably be otherwise doing. Generally, you should have more than one thing tugging at their attention at any one time anyway.

Also, when they abandon whatever mission they were on, have the consequences in the form of the ire of whomever gave them the mission show up later.

That's all well and good. But I was speaking more of several weeks of overland travels. Right now I attempt to obfuscate such things by making "random" encounter tables that focus heavily on just being encounters.

Another group of travelers pitch tent half a mile away shortly before nightfall.
Passing under a tree sundered in twain and left hanging over the beaten trail.
Wolves howling in the distance on a moonlit night.

Stuff like that.

"You tell me."

>trying to make the snacks lower calories and less fat
>bowl of almonds
Dude...

As a DM, there's little reason to not use digital tools on top of printouts for things to go smoothly (hell, even Mercer juggles his phone with everything else). However, as a player digital tools are fucking useless to you. For the information a player needs acces to, the old fashioned way is by far the most reliable and easiest regardless of system.

Taking notes is the only justification, but I would rather record the audio and let someone listen back if they are that detailed in their notes - it's what I do as DM anyways.

>Taking notes is the only justification
It isn't though. Its been pretty well established that traditional note taking utilizes more of the brain and promotes summarizing in one's own words which drastically improves memory.

Why did you bent the player's sword? I mean it was hugely retarded to throw it but did it have to fall right on the tip? How did you come to that conclusion?

Because a thin piece of metal hit a solid rock with force? If anything that's a much easier repair than a side impacting and getting chipped to hell, or god forbid you knock the quillons loose.

>"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you"

If you've not presented an interesting world that's your fault.
If they aren't interested enough to think of something themselves that's their fault. Especially since they are abandoning their current heading with 0 alternative plans.

Hell even regardless of setting it takes a creatively bankrupt player to not be able to come up with a course of action which could lead to hooks. Either by pre-loading them into backstories, or something as simple as traveling to the nearest settlement to gossip with the locals.

Not that guy, but most quality swords have quite a bit of springiness in the blade, because a brittle blade will break. Depending on how it's bent, it can be bent more or less permanently until you actually straighten it out using decent tools.

You're not wrong, but I want to point out that the springiness is what makes steel swords brittle in comparison to iron, which will flex but not retain its original shape. Iron won't snap. It will be useless long before that stressing point mind you, but it won't snap. Steel snaps. Takes a lot, but it certainly can happen.

>Why did you bent the player's sword?
Sword wasn't magical, player rolled a 1 and it hit a golem that can only be hurt by magical weapons

>phones stay off unless you're an EMT or your wife's nine months pregnant.
I'm willing to let players have their phones turned on. But if they take it out of their pocket, they are to step out of the room until they have dealt with whatever was important enough to interrupt the game. The only exception is if they answer their phone, tell the caller that they are busy, then hang up and put the phone back in their pocket.

I'll let the players decide what's more important than the game. I just won't let them pretend that they can focus on their phone and the game at the same time.

>If you've not presented an interesting world that's your fault.
There we go, that's it

I have a lot of things going in my game--worldwide conflicts, conspiracies, civil wars, political games, mass murders, social revolutions, organized crimes, one-man armies, "other" adventuring parites, etc.

The choice is to make them all coherently tied to the same whole, to make the 'background' secondary to the core impetus of the party, or to exhaustively prepare for every contingent. The latter is an ideal, but not an expectation.

Autism: the post.

>suggesting having a conversation with someone is autism now
I expect nothing less from "giving up" the post.

Throwing swords is so retarded that in my games it always has consequences like that just to discourage players from doing it.
Where the fuck do people get the idea of throwing swords? Was it something in some movie that I missed?

It's a cool move if you roll a natural 20.

The first time I played Dark Sun we started in a gladiator pit and I one-shotted a big monster by throwing my sword at its open mouth and rolled a 20.