GM Advice Thread

if he's not engaged, let his char die next combat
bring back the good old "60 enemies at once plus area traps"

...only 60?

what if the PC says he's having fun and paying attention but just sits on facebook the entire time?

That would be the player, not the PC.

He's his own judge of what he considers fun and he apparently thinks it's possible to pay attention to both facebook and the game.

If you disagree, tell him.

he never has any idea what's going on. it's been a problem for a while now, and people have told him many times.

i think i should be asking, how do you kick your friend out of your group while staying friends?

You can make a little sheet that outlines every players useful skills and shit and print it out for each party member then you're not singling him out directly

If he can't handle rejection, there's no way to kick him out of the group without hurting his feelings.

Find out if he can handle rejection.

OP stop being a little bitch. Either straight up tell him to contribute more, kill his character, or get the fuck over it.

>Party is wandering through a town on the edge of civilization, still under construction.
>They decide to break into a warehouse, because lol there's probably loot there
>Surprise! It's full of construction materials because the town is still being built up.
>Table-wide complaining that there's no interesting loot.
I've encountered players who are blind to verisimilitude before, but this is the first time I've run into a whole group who seems to be openly hostile to the concept. Is there anything for it other than to abandon them to find a new lot, or to just run go down and smash games?

...

Give them legendary actions and extra health

That should fuck with them for a while

>You can make a little sheet that outlines every players useful skills and shit and print it out for each party member then you're not singling him out directly
Sort of like a toolbox for the party? Wouldn't that remove player agency though? What if the player doesn't want the party to know his skills, or he's RPing a really skilled character who holds back from using them?

It's been a long time since this tired old meme actually got me
fucking christ

>on facebook

Confiscate all mobile devices. Or have a no devices rule at your table. I do this, my problem player stopped showing up and everything has been better since.

How do you guys handle PCs death outside of combat? Unless it's something like sickness, something that gives them multiple ways of avoiding and surviving it, it feel extreamly cheap for me. At least in combat there's some structure to dying.

guaranteed he wouldn't follow it.

i honestly wonder more and more why he even shows up. I think it's to """hang out"""

>wouldn't follow

It's a rule, he either follows it or walks, stop being a bitch.

How do you run a sci fi game that feels distinctly different from "DnD but in space"?

don't run it with D&D
I mean, if you run a game with D&D, it's gonna feel like D&D
also, maybe making it not class-based would help as well.

Play a different system.

Our party has a recurring NPC (not DMPC) that travels with us. I want the DM to give us all copies of his character sheet so we know what he can do, but the DM is dragging his feet. Am I right in asking for this? It doesn't seem like a big deal since our characters would learn about him anyway through IC conversations we just haven't RPed

You realize the reason he hasn't given it to you is that it probably isn't completely finished/fleshed out, right?

You're not supposed to know what he can do right off the bat, you dink.

I do the same thing. What helps me is following the rules *exactly*. Often I would fudge things here or there, like letting people decide to do certain actions out of order or whiff monster attacks on purpose. But I realized this robs the players of the full experience of the game. I've since greatly curtailed that and it's interesting to see the effects.

>i think i should be asking, how do you kick your friend out of your group while staying friends?
This is an eternal question. tl;dr is it's tough no matter what.

I would go in and say "Hey man, you and I have spoken about you seeming unengaged and spending a lot of time on your phone during the game. I haven't seen that change, and it's honestly a distraction from everyone else's fun. We come together to play this game specifically, and we hang out and do other things at other times. I've decided that it is best if we hang out another time."

It's important for you, the GM, to take responsibility for the decision. The group consulted, but you made the call, and you are the one enforcing it. Then set up another time to hang out! Chips and movie night, or go to an arcade once a month. You're kicking him out of the RPG group, not your friend group

Had a party like this once, ignored every plot hook and didn't seem to understand realism. But we kept playing and they got better. The ones who didn't like it left the group and the rest of us had a really fun campaign.

>Confiscate all mobile devices. Or have a no devices rule at your table.
this is 100% unworkable in a modern group since everything is digital now. Not one of my group owns a physical RPG group or paper character sheets

This sounds like it was prompted by a situation in game. Can you provide details? That might help

He's told me it's complete and just as fleshed out as my own sheet. He says the reason he doesn't give it out is none of us have copies of the other's character sheets, so why should we have a copy of the NPC? We've been traveling with him IC for a year though, I think we should know what he can do.

Print character sheets, DM gets to use his stuff to look up rules. There's no reason for players to have the internet at the table.

>Under what circumstances should a GM call for skill checks from the players?
By and large, whenever the GM feels it is relevant to the situation. That's why they are GM.
That's fairly bitch tier shit, user. It's on the individual player to present their character and their skill set in mutual success.

For a year? it's a DMPC. Kill him in his sleep, rape and eat the body.

Some people care more about the human being playing the game than the rulebook, sorry.

Plays something where encounters are hard. You can't expect DnD 5e to be challenging. It's built to have close to no swing when it comes to difficulty. Either you can fight something evenly or you can't. The only monsters with variable difficulty are incorporeal shitters that can death spiral you.

Alternatively, learn how to disadvantage your players in dramatically appropriate ways. Force them to tire themselves out, to use up resources. Have them fight a bunch of bads back to back. Make them prioritize something other than the fight so the fight is a big obstacle they can't focus on. Make the prospect of fighting risky in the first place, by making the monsters vectors for a bad disease or something like that. Introduce elements that give the monsters advantage, like a group of healers on their side, siege weaponry firing on the field, or magic bullshit. You know, get good.

You need to explain your expectations, themes and campaign tone to them, because what you expect and what they expect are not the same.
It's one of the roots of all gaming problems.

thank you for your reply.

this is going to be rough, but it needs to be done.

I really love this fucker but I wish he had someone read his stuff and record it if he won't do it himself. I only have time for podcasts these days

He might be lying.
Either way, you still don't have a right to character sheets of NPCs as a player, unless you got some shit like leadership going.

>How do you guys handle PCs death outside of combat?
There are many ways to die, not all of them you can "fight".
The nature of the thing, it need not be fair.
Don't use D&D? The game comes with a lot of it's own assumptions, just as SR/WoD/40k does.

You have to make it dramatic, otherwise it's a waste. Same with combat death, really. If someone is death spiraling you should change stuff around to make it dramatic, not have them die while fighting a single enemy. Something as simple as "the monsters smell the blood and rocket away from their previous positions to swarm X" is a lot more tragic and impactful

This.
I keep my laptop around because I prefer my GM notes electronic for ease of use, but the players only need dice, a notepad for recording and a player sheet.
I once had a player who decided to do their taxes during my game. I lost my shit, and I admit that it was a poor showing, but I was incensed beyond reason.

>Some people care more about the human being playing the game than the rulebook, sorry.
In terms of what?

>Some people care more about the human being playing the game than the rulebook, sorry.

Those people are weird.

This.
NPCs belong to the GM, not the player, even if they are in the pc party.
I'm finding myself surprised at this idea that has come up repeatedly that other people have the "right" to see character sheets that are not their own, or to know specific numbers of someone else's character.

Obviously. My problem is not that I only know D&D, it's that I have yet to come across a sci fi game that could not be done as a fantasy game. They seem to boil down to "swing your space ax at the space goblin in space. Roll to pick the space lock. Cast space magic." The Delta Green and Bubblegumshoe games I have played before could never be done as a fantasy adventure, they have a different gamefeel than the standard dungeon crawl.

This doesn't mean anything.

>We've been traveling with him IC for a year though, I think we should know what he can do.
And you haven't figured out what he can do via your character's observations? If he's got abilities that he's made a point of not using for some reason then why would you know anything about those?

GM here, really struggling with something.

The PCs are about to enter this very dangerous dungeon. There are a lot of skill checks, obscure writings, etc spread throughout the dungeon that, if passed, really add to the flavor and also make it a lot easier. The PC party can do some, not all of these checks and languages and traps on their own, but it will be challenging.

My dilemma is that the players met an NPC in town a few sessions ago who, unbeknownst to them, is much better at the skills and languages than any of them are. The NPC cannot fight, but her being in the group while they are in the dungeon would fully open it up AND make it more fun IMO. The PCs like her already but haven't asked her to come with them, nor made the connection between her and the dungeon, so I would have to engineer a reason for her to come. But if I do, will it make the other PCs feel inferior, invalidated, or similar?

The fuck? You can read faster than someone can dictate to you

I think it's because you are attributing specific actions, that are actually fairly universal to a lot of game types, to D&D, rather than themes and presentation.
By your metric, a heist in Shadowrun is similar to D&D. All games are the same if you try to find means to equate them.
>trying to force your OP dmpc waifu into the party
Stop that.

If she'll be making all the skill checks and lore readings, it won't be any fun. Put something in the dungeon they can find so they can do it themselves. NPCs doing work is never ever fun for the players unless it's pointed out as the primary part of a mission.

If you wanted her along, she should have tried to hire the party to escort her and have her do all the stuff in the background, or after the adventurers clear the dungeon out.

No, I do that. Then they nod okay, and get mad when the world doesn't exist solely to interact with them. I know I should have realized that LGS players should not be taken at their word, but still.

>No, I do that. Then they nod okay, and get mad when the world doesn't exist solely to interact with them
Then instruct them to choke on a million dicks.

>What if the player doesn't want the party to know his skills, or he's RPing a really skilled character who holds back from using them?
That's ultra gay

I agree, but isn't that still his choice to make?

I asked this in the 5e and pathfinder generals, hopefully you guys can help me out with this problem.

My friends got me into playing RPGs a few months ago and I’ve been having fun as a player. Our group takes turns running short campaigns and since I have been new to the game they haven’t had me run a game yet since I was still learning the rules. I’ve read the important rule books so I know how to run the game enough to handle most of mechanics we may run into but I’m absolutely shit at coming up with stories and interesting locations.

The thing is I really want to run a game one day but I have no idea how to start making an adventure. At first I was making maps but quickly realized I had no real story to bring the players there or I made too many rooms and don’t have enough material to keep the players interested in exploring and was just making big maps for the sake of size. Aside from saying something like “Oh I’d like my players to fight an Aboleth” or some other monster, or say “I’d like them to explore a haunted house” I usually come up blank to how the players would end up there. I can always think of an enemy they have to face or theme of a campaign I'd like to do but I am having a hell of a time trying to think up the stuff that would be the meat of the campaign to lead up to plots or simply just describing the environment or area without just being bland.

How do you guys go about making a campaign? What are some good ways to create stories or encounters that can keep the players entertained? How do you make exploring a large dungeon or wilderness fun? I feel like such a shit player for not being able to think of anything to start a small campaign with and my lack of imagination is frustrating.

That is that player's choice, and it is his pc, the only actual thing he has control over.
This is going to end in a word dump, so I'm going to ask if you have read any of the DMGs?
4e and 5e have very good DMGs for starting GMs.

Yeah I've read both the DMG and Player's handbook for 5e and for Pathfinder I've read the core rulebook, gamemaster's guide from the starting box and the game mastery book as well. I thought reading these would help me make adventures easier but it seems my imagination needs some fine tuning to start building environments and stories.

What do you guys do when your players fixate on doing something that they literally can't do like tame a creature who's only impulse is to kill.

Tell them OOC that they can't do that if it's impossible to get across IC. There's nothing wrong with some OOC hints.

Alright, here is something most won't admit.
Rip something off. Take some book, movie, tv plot, change it around.
Don't create your own setting, use someone else's.
Do not think you must create everything yourself.
Either allow for a costly way to do it, tell them ooc that it can not be done, period, or allow them to fail big.

I only have real free time when commuting to work, user. I can't read while I drive.

Why the tone, dude? Have a bad day?

Bring her into the dungeon for an actual reason, like maybe she's a historian or archaeologist or whatever. Don't let her solve too many of the puzzles, only the ones that the party can't do.
Have her get occupied with something in the rooms that the party are supposed to solve, like reading some nonsense text on a wall. Only have her active when it's something the party can't possibly complete/solve.

What questions do you guys ask when doing session zero and trying to get everyone on the same page? I really need some examples to get the rules down

Honestly? Yes. Stressed for big exams coming up. I get this. Sorry for the tone.

Different user, but I respect that we can at times be gentlemen.
Be strong user, if you couldn't ace the exam, you wouldn't have gotten as far as you have.

I ask my players if they have any rules that don't make sense to them, and what they want their characters to do so I can make some shit up if I need to.

I usually ask less questions, and more lay out exactly what the deal is.
Example: I'm running a 4e campaign, and told the players it is a Big Damn Hero kinda game, and I expect not good guys, but larger than life deeds. Players who go out and do shit will get rewarded with nice things, and I expect them all to approach the world. The game will be difficult in terms of challenges on purpose, but who dares, wins. I explained the basics of the system and it's expectations for the pcs, gave basic advice for chargen, instructed them to approach me with any questions at all or ideas they had, listed out my houserules.

First off, I try to make sure everyone is okay with and understands the tone of the game we're going for. (Which is usually at least preliminarily arrived at beforehand). I'm not talking systems and crunch, I'm talking whether or not this is the sort of game where the nice guys win and doing the right thing will come around to help you, or if this is a shitstain crapsack world where trying to do the morally right thing will get you into trouble?

Then, once that's done, I go for mechanics and crunch that people might not understand (how much focus this gets depends on how much the game is known to the group at large), and finally, try to help them build characters that will work well together and will mechanically work to at least a reasonable degree.

Ok. That kinda solves the story making problem I have. But what would you suggest I do about creating interesting dungeons or environments?

You see one of the guys in my group made a short two session campaign where we entered a necromancer’s lair to stop him from raising an army. The problem was, the dungeon was very large, 3 levels, and aside from saying the room is adorned with misc. furnishings or we bump into some undead to fight, the lair was pretty empty and it bored the majority of the group. Even the traps were just roll to save.

Another player ended up having us cross through a forest to another town and whenever we’d ask if we see anything of note, he’d just say we’re surrounded by trees until we would eventually get surprise attacked by animals or monsters. So it felt like the players were just waiting for the DM to attack us as we were just traveling.

I’m trying to think of ways not to make a dungeon like that necromancer’s lair or surprise attack forest but I keep coming up blank with anything interesting to add. So I’m worried I’ll end up making something even more uninteresting because I have shitty story making skills and a pretty bland imagination. Like I was thinking of making the players explore a haunted house since Halloween is coming around, but what would they do once they get there? I know there’s going to be ghosts and they’ll have to figure out a way to get rid of them to escape but until they find them, how do I keep them engaged when all I can think of them finding is dusty old furniture in each room until they do?

What are good ways to flesh out your dungeons or wilderness areas?

>What are good ways to flesh out your dungeons or wilderness areas?
For wilderness, decide what is inhabiting the area, and allow it to play naturally. Beasts, humanoids, what kind depending on the environment, and play it off organically.
Dungeons in D&D need not make logical sense as a general (unspoken) rule, so you can do what you want in terms of design.
I'll describe a trap dungeon I made in a minute.

Just get rid of perception as a skill check and tell people what any able-bodied person would sense. Perception checks are a fucking poison and any GM who asks you to roll it to look at random things that are clearly visible is a total retard. I've had one asshole ask me to roll it to read a sign. I didn't realize we were playing nearsighted molerat people.

In my games, perception is a dump skill, and I like it that way.

Found some notes.
An example of it was a room was large acid pit, over it was suspended a rope ladder.
At the other door some 50' away were 3 prone kobolds with crossbows, and each had 2 bolts that had a push effect on hit. The party had to close the gap while under fire, with 2 of the 5 pcs taking a dive.
Another was a long tunnel full of holes, and the kobolds used long spears from the holes to menace the party from relative safety.
I fluffed the dungeon as the personal hold of a dwarven colonizing group long since dead, and the kobold raiders set up shop and fortified it.
5 of the 6 pcs that went in to the place did not come out.

That doesn't really solve any of the problems I am having. The problem is I can't think of shit to describe to them aside from mundane or bland answers.

Meanwhile, I really love this fucker's ideas, but I wish he had somebody to edit what he writes. He needs to be more concise because as it is he's constantly spreading out useful information over a stupid amount of text justifying it and reinforcing his stupid fucking gimmick of being so epically f***ing angry all the time ecksdee.

Just describe three things. Rule of threes. Try to mix and match senses: Sight, hearing, touch. Maybe smell. They go down the hallway of the haunted manor? There's old cobwebs spiraling down from the ceiling and sticking to everything, bizarre paintings of animals eating living mice, and the carpet is squishy with what seems to be moisture.

Making your way through the trees, there's roots sticking out of the ground, making it so negotiating the way forward takes a lot of focus. If it's cold, their breath is white mist, but they can also see similar mist in the distance. They hear scurrying in the underbrush, or see predatory eyes staring at them out of the corner of their eyes before they seemingly judge them too costly prey and retreat into the darkness. The scent of pine needles stings their nose, too thick in the air.

This little pdf is my best friend, even though I barely look at it these days. Having it open keeps the anxiety at bay.

you seem to be doing perfectly fine wasting your time here though

He isn't posting during his game, user.
I think.

I have the same question as you.
My GM makes us roll under unpredicted events. For example if a new creature joins the battle he would make the one closer to it roll a perception check. If he succeeds he will detect the creature before it makes a surprise attack on us.

Other times he makes us roll perception check is when we accidentally activate a trap or we are activating one, if we succeed we can dodge the trap on time before it hits us, or one of us.

Is the GM right in asking us for rolls in such situations?

>having mobile devices on the table
You dun goofed

Well, that's pretty shitty.

Yes, by and large, the GM has the right to call for checks when they feel it is warranted.
That doesn't mean they should call for checks for bullshit reasons, but the ones you posted are valid calls.

It is better than having stationary devices though.

Perception check when they've already sprung a trap seems weird. I'd probably have them roll some sort of dex save to see if they quickly manage to avoid/deflect the trap.

A kindness from the GM, I wouldn't look that horse in the mouth, it only benefits the players on the whole.

Thanks that's actually pretty solid advice. Keeping in mind what they see, hear, touch and smell will give me some guidelines to describe rooms and areas better. That makes thinking around this stuff a lot easier. It's so simple I feel retarded for not thinking about doing that before. Oh well noob mistakes happen.

Thanks a lot.

Not him but frankly man I'd just run a few premade adventures first to get a feel for how the professionals do it. That's how I started out, then branched into modifying premades, and now years later I do full campaigns of original material

Unless he doesn't give them a saving throw at all, in which case all he's doing is contributing grossly to the power of the Perception skill by DMing in a very nonstandard way.

The professionals are not good at writing what you should say, though. I can't recommend doing this.

You don't want blocks of text, you want 3 things and 3 details about them. Don't read out of a book to them, read your audience and give them an appropriate improvisation. If you know one of your players is scared of spiders, and you want to go for unsettling, add cobwebs to the goblin cave. Premade material won't be able to match that.

Learning to improvise is a better priority to have because you can improvise on top of modules. Learning to copy modules is just going to make the modules worse.

>Learning to improvise is a better priority
This.
You either improvise, or plan obsessively for what you can't really predict.

don't know how to read this PDF

What is it saying?