GM Advice Thread

> implying such a thing as a non-virgin player

So this is more for homebrew advice but...

How do I know when my game is 'done' and 'good'? I prototyped the first system with my players and it went over well, but next time it's my turn to DM I'd like to make sure it's as good as I can make it.

Your job as the DM is not to punish players for making what you feel are poor decisions. Is it stupid to kill important NPCs? Sure. Do you need "teach them a lesson?" Not really.

There's a difference between huge waves of unbeatable guards flooding into the room a minute after the king's nephew dies, and allowing the players to do something clever like mind wipe the witnesses, or plant evidence the killer was someone else. Not saying you did one or the other, just showing the difference between the two.

Your games SHOULD have consequences. What I see DMs do is feel the need to seek retribution and going overboard doing it, effectively railroading everyone into a game over because their PCs "deserve it." The consequence of doing stupid shit like slaughtering an NPC is something like "everyone is now hunting you," not "you die."

How do I encourage my group to play characters and not classes? I try talking to them and giving them opportunities to discuss things amongst themselves and set up things their characters might enjoy doing outside of combat but it just goes silent or I get "I wait"

>implying players arent all virgins

how does one punish players for their deaths aside from making them start out at square one

Make some sessions without any combat. Throw them into a bakery or something to have cake. if they refuse to do anything, refuse to make anything happen. Or perhaps have a cake accident happen. Just keep them out of trouble, really.

Why would you? Isn't the death enough punishment? I don't know, make them not play the session after dying. Or make death final, meaning they'll only start out at square one at the NEXT adventure.

Make them feed the character sheet into the shredder themselves.

it's never done and it's never good, but it was probably publishable and okay about 10 playtests ago

t.100k words typed out over 4 years, 15 revisions and about 30+ playtests

Obligatory joke about player death instead of the death of their player character.
The lack of a PC and the grim reality of action economy usually does the trick unless you handweave death away easily, letting the new PC join quickly. Have them fight a combat or two without the dead PC.

Best place I can think to ask this. I'm doing a very short (1 or 2 sessions) fully custom campaign. In it, there's an NPC bard the party can fight that I'm giving two songs to, the first heals his allies, and the second damages his enemies. Each song will last 8 turns, and if the party survives to hear the end of the song, they'll learn the general location of a small horde of magical items. Thing is, I'm no songwriter. Would anyone be willing to help me improve what I made? The first song is awful but the second is decent enough I guess.

From the lonely village of Yore, beset by a terrible curse,
Came a boy simply named Valor, armed with courage and grit.
His spirit soared high, his enemies died, and his path cut though evil's might.
Over the mountains and into the depths, his task takes him to Abyss.
In the darkness where hatred breeds, solely did he shine bright.
Evil's Avatar standing against him, Valor's blade strikes true.
His nemesis has been laid to rest, his name is known by the gods.
He is determined to never stop, Valor continues his quest.

Restless, bitter, his past struggles are taking their toll.
Untrusting, unhumble, Valor's pride makes him a troll.
Never can he sleep at night, the beasts are creeping again.
Never can he keep a wife, too wounded to not feel pain.
Violent and teetering, his life is tattered and torn,
Sickened by those he once saved, he now feels nothing but scorn.
Out into the wilds he runs, desperate to escape these halls.
Alone and helpless in the Wood of Sharp Teeth, finally did Valor fall.

>Legend of Zelda campaign
>party is a goron, a rito, and a deku scrub
>can't design dungeons for shit
>can't design tools for shit
>can't design quests for shit

I want to make up for my last two trainwreck campaigns so bad, so I'm starting early on the preparation. My only strong point is making and playing NPCs that the party members really like to interact with, though, and I flounder in just about every category. I need help, badly, but the best GM I know is now one of my players so I can't exactly ask to bounce ideas off of him.

My biggest weakness is quests. The campaign starts in a sleepy town (Lon Lon City, though only a city in name) where the fuck-off civil war everywhere hasn't reached yet, and where each of the PCs just arrived. Talon is the jolly/lazy mayor, while his daughter Malon struggles with the paperwork of managing a growing town. Problem is, I can't for the life of me think of plot hooks and reasons for the party to go and explore certain areas nearby without resorting to "THE FAMILY/TOWN/WORLD IS DOOMED IF YOU DON'T," as that's been a big gripe in the playgroup recently. They want down to earth adventures that aren't about saving the world or completing an ancient prophesy.

I can give any information about the town if you need it, but what sort of hooks would require a ragtag group of wanderers that don't even know each other to go out and do something together?

I really never got the point of people wanting to make death more "punishing" in DnD and such. Like the user above said, isn't not playing and twiddling your thumbs until your party member can resurrect you punishment enough, together with the money cost involved in getting you raised? And that's not even considering the systems in which death is permanent and you have to make a whole character from scratch.

I have seen people use to good effects mechanics like Hero Points in Pathfinder, where you gain points to spend on rerolls and such by sticking to a single character, and the points themselves help you to keep that character alive in turn: more of a "Reward doing good" instead of "punish doing badly".

Of course, if you want to make death more punishing because one guy jumps off a cliff every time he gets a negative level and rerolls the same character, that's something no amount of convoluted rules can resolve and you just have to talk to the player.

Wizzrobe cursed somebody in town; they got turned into an animal or they stink super bad or something. Go hunt down the Wizzrobe or find a counter curse.

Random Poe has been haunting the nearby graveyard, perhaps it has unfinished business?

Foolish man in town bought a treasure map from a traveling salesman. He thinks it is a scam, but what if the party follow it?

While partying at the local inn, a hole got cracked in the floor revealing ancient masonry. It's a dungeon underneath the tavern.

>but the best GM I know is now one of my players so I can't exactly ask to bounce ideas off of him.
If he's in any way a decent GM or player, he's mature enough not to metagame. Learn from those who come before. That's why they're there.

>ragtag group of wanderers that don't even know each other
I've found it's often easier to run the first session if everyone agrees beforehand that the PCs already know each other. They might not be the best of friends, but they're at least on a first-name basis.

Noted down! These are exactly the level of urgency I was looking for, incidentally. The "dungeon below the town itself" idea was already noodling around in my head, but I didn't have a good enough idea of how to reveal it.

Oh, he's a cool guy and all, GMed my first and favorite campaign and got me hooked on the hobby itself. Really blows me away. Don't get me wrong: I'm not afraid he's going to metagame, I just really want to surprise him in particular.

Our group usually goes with that option, though they've all weirdly decided to have come from separate parts of the globe before arriving in town this time. There probably won't be a problem with getting them together, though I'm struggling for ideas of why someone would walk into a bar/hotel/whatever and say "I have a problem for you three in particular to solve."

Not that GM, but that sounds like it entirely defeats the purpose of it being a high lethality game if you can just get your guy back with a "slight" change. Undermines the whole significance of death in a highly lethal campaign. Why would I worry if there's a high chance I'll die when there's resurrection crystals at the end? Might as well play with no player death at all if you're going to make it mean nothing when it happens.

Death is punishment. Your character dying and not coming back sucks. Grinding the session to a halt for one person to leave and make a new character sucks.
If a DM wants to "punish" me for death, then I just will make a character who behaves the exact same way named something similar and I will act the same. Because that is a game that needs to be undermined and manipulated for fun. It screams of an uptight GM.

You don't always need to give the quests directly to the PCs. If you just make them aware of the problem and that it requires someone to fix it that's hopefully enough for them to put 2 and 2 together.

Fuck, that's easy.
>Bokoblins have been looting lately, they've even stolen livestock! Can you get it back safely?
>I've heard tell of a treasured figurine of a saint of Hylia that was lost somewhere in the abandoned forests. They say whoever finds it will be blessed.
>Ingo, the gloomy, moody assistant of the mayor sneaks away with robed figures in the night sometimes, according to rumors. He denies and rejects these rumors, but people are growing suspicious. Could you tail him and catch him in the act?
>An old witch of a Deku scrub lives in the swamps past the woods alone, the wooden crone spends her days brewing powerful potions that work on any race in Hyrule. A sick child needs her medicine, but she is wily, clever, and never gives away her powerful concoctions for free. Can you convince the old Deku witch to aid a Hylian child?

Those are some ideas. Think of quests that if they fail, someone is hurt or at least inconvenienced, but the world keeps turning. Or, hint that it's worth a lot of money and they should try to sniff it out.

Fair 'nuff. I wanted to make it a big part of the starting town that it's chock-full of little problems while not being overtly in danger, like having the mayor's daughter Malon drowning in the paperwork of managing a newly-budding town. What sort of problems would a growing town have to overcome that some wanderers could possibly help with?

>Because that is a game that needs to be undermined and manipulated for fun.
Now that's faggotry,

That's really good stuff. Going in the list of notes to prepare maps/tokens for, especially Ingo. Forgot all about him.

land/property disputes, food shortages for a coming winter, scavenger animals harming what precious little livestock they have, poorly equipped/inadequately trained guards, maybe the town is being developed around an income source like a mine but the workforce is being scared away, none of these things individually are going to cause the town to one night be descended on by an army of murdermen or demons but each constitutes a threat to the long term viability of the town.

How fast should PCs level up? I've had problems in the past with things moving too slowly when I run games, but I feel like if I hasten things too much then it feels rushed and like the players didn't earn their achievements. How do you strike a balance between pacing fast enough to keep people engaged in the long term but still spending enough time on the details to make the journey there enjoyable?

Hard question. Every 2-3 sessions?
Depends on how often you guys play and where you want to end up at.

My games do a once-per-session levelup but I don't play D&D...

Every 10-15 sessions, just like I do it and my players love it.

Are the players annoyed by the slow pace of leveling, and do you all feel that they earn a level up? Then just give them another level. Alternatively, raise the amount of coins and value of everything by 50% and see what happens.

Something I plan to do
for my STARSHIP troopers group is that their platoon gets experience as the group does and when it hits certain thresholds, when a new character is brought in, they will be the platoon level instead of level 1. I figure since SST is high lethality by nature, it can work out decently. Especially since I had to hand of DM prevent a party wipe first session. Though it brought some interesting RP so I figure it worked decently.

What your favorite method of getting a party together and having reason to stick together?
The people I play with want verisimilitude, so they won't just meta "we're together because otherwise we can't play the game". They'll make new characters just to make it work.

I've considered the "There's a thing out to kill you all, stick together to survive," but that just leads to either the threat being underestimated and then death, constant fear to inaction, or frustration that they can't do anything about it.

How do i get my players to actually take the 5 minutes to fill in a email for next session's date?
When i talk to anybody from the group individually they are all excited for next session, can't wait etc.
Then i email the group a list of possible dates and . . . nothing. I keep reminding them or get "will fill it in tomorrow" (and then not do that).
So planning takes way to long and also reduces my enthusiasm to prepare.

I like making backstory relationships, every two pcs have to be related somehow, be it ex-battle buddies or lovers or brothers or whatever.

And then they get mixed up via weak relationship such as being called to the same job or they've met the other PC pair in a tavern and partied all night.

I've also messed around with a "the party stands atop a killed giant. It was a hard fight, and you've all been working together to take him down. What does your character currently feel and what quirky oneliner does he say?"

Night before gameday, call everyone via phone or skype and see if they're coming.
Gameday, call everyone that said yes the night before. Players are usually shitheads and can't be bothered much.

About preparing, take shortcuts like mad. Copy statblocks in total, reskin wereboars as holy knights, take pre-made monsters, maps and dungeons. Just steal the hell up, you shouldn't write much of your own content even if it seems fun.

Talking via voice is the way to go. Text and email is too easy to tab away and forget or otherwise ignore for later. A personal chat, even if on the phone, will get an answer out of them.
Even though, yeah, it's kind of a pain.

Problem isn't people not showing up tho, it's that people take weeks to fill in a little list of possible dates.
Will try to ask them more directly on the phone. But i can also understand it's pretty hard to instantly commit to a date 4+weeks away.

I think it's okay to write your own content, just so long as you've come to terms with the fact you might not ever use it.

>From the lonely village of Yore, beset by a terrible curse,
>Came a boy simply named Valor, with destiny's due course.
>His spirit soared high, his enemies died, and his path cut though evil's might.
>Over the mountains and into the depths, his task itself's the night.
>In the darkness where hatred breeds, solely did he shine bright.
>Those who do no good break way, but Valor's blade does strike true.
>His nemesis has been laid to rest, his name is me and you.
>Stand on, Valor, to foreign shore! We know the story true.

not much better

What are your opinions on Matt Mercer's GM tips on Critical Role?

Is there some transcribed or abridged version for quick and easy reading?
I don't think he'd say anything that's bad advice.

so Ive got this idea a crazy idea

A world much like our midevil times, with tribes and kingdoms, The players would play as nobles, / leaders, / generals from each of these kingdoms,

> basicly I give them a list of all the nations that i have written lore for, let them create a character for the nation they chose, Each nation will give them small avantages or weaknesses

> Your a general in a large nation that pretty much is the bully of the campaign and a huge human rights violator. but your personal forces are quite small and you dont have the support of any of the other councilmen. But you do have accses to the best weapon and equipment

> Your the leader of a small tribe of elite warriors who are not afraid of death and acutally revale in it , Every casualty is felt and felt hard but each of your men and women are worth 20 of another nations. Rule your lands with fear tatics and the exaggerated legands of how vicious your people are in combat

With this set up each player would be is seperat locations and i might would set up one on one sessions to start out. Word of each other nations movements based on the players would spread and the players would start interacting with each other based on their needs.

> petitioning others for help
> opening trade agreements and bartering
> etc ,

Then would start to introduce major threats that could sweep the lands and see which players start to team up to deal with these, and see what fueds and alliances form from this.

How difficult would a game like this be,
And what kinda of system should it run where I can have access to lots of kinds of Troop leading people organzing skillz and abilities.

Im thinking almost stripped clean and modified dark hearsy might work well, Could create more skills on the fly for people to buy,

of course there is Dnd I could modify that slightly but the skillz that i want to see dont seem to be there

Those two systems are really the only two im familiar with.

How do I challenge (or affirm) a player character's beliefs, as is recommended by the Mastercraft Campaign Method, when the pc's belief is that large government inevitably leads to oppression, especially in a setting where the downfall of said large governments have thrown the world back to the bronze age and the fantastical creatures that they held back roam the world to pillage at will?

Ask them why they wanted to do it in the first place. This will reveal if you're boring your players, or if they're just shitlords.

This. Add intrigue or shit that requires teamwork. Add a rule that they can only talk out of character to the GM.

In general it sounds like you've got shit players.

Bump I want to Bump, and see if anyone is interested in this game idea.

I would also think that over the internet means of playing this game would be the best, since it would benifit highly from multiple one on one sessions.

Getting some of his house hold staff to turn on him, duh. If the guy will kill his own children chances are good that he is rather mean to the other people close to him. If not the staff then his couriers, wife, or legal heir. If non of those will turn on him due to fear or loyalty then proving his crimes to a wide agreeably level is highly unlikely.

Earl?