Hey Veeky Forums, beginner in need of advice here.
I was talking with my friend the other day over something I thought could be interesting. The subject of our conversation was ttrpgs and how it seems like something we ought to try during Saturday nights to freshen things up a bit. The major problem is I have no prior experience, nor do the rest, on the topic. I did some surface level research and chosen two games to start with, those being D&D and V:tM. For starters, I plan to start with official shorter stories that last for 4-8 hours max and I need beginner's advice for a couple things: >How to be a good G/DM >What do I need to know before playing (rules, creature guides etc.) >How to write and make your own stories interesting >How to spark their interest for it >Which version of D&D is a good starting point
This covers the basics, at least I think, and I can branch out from here out on my own, but every helpful, constructive advice is appreciated. If this thread is against the rules, I'll move to /adv/ and may the janitor delete it.
TL;DR: >beginner in need of advice and how to be a good D/GM who'll spark interest and make sessions fun for the group.
D&D 5e is by far the easiest to get into, 3.5 is alright(i personally like it) not very well balanced as you might have heard. As for V:tM, the systems are pretty clunky for combat, so if you want to do something mire action oriented using VtM lore with VtR rules would be best( Getting your hands on a conversion guide PDF shouldn't be hard), also i recommend not allowing many bloodlines(Never let someone play a true brujah btw) and making it Anarch or Camarilla game Always have a list of names should the players ask the name of a random faceless NPC and have a session 0 with the players
Benjamin Gomez
Get DnD 5e and start that. Its a well balanced system that has all you need for DnD and is easy to learn. If you want to start adding stuff on top of it once you're used to it look to the unearthed arcanas or the new book Xanathar's something or other.
Watch the youtube videos by Matthew Colville. They're great lessons on how to be a DM.
If you want to spark interest or watch how some other people play get your friends to watch Critical Role or Harmon quest.
Good luck dude
Luis Young
Also, all the DnD books are available online in PDF form to read. I'd heavily recommend actually getting the books once you start playing, but that'll make things easier at the start.
Connor Moore
>I did some surface level research and chosen two games to start with, those being D&D and V:tM That are two very different games: what does the group want? Do you want dark, gritty games with horror and doom themes? Or do you want High Fantasy superhero shenanigans? My advice is to avoid playing D&D by the way.
>How to be a good G/DM I would advise you to use GM as a term. Dungeon Master implies you're playing D&D and it's a game that focuses on a bunch of murderhobos wading through a dungeon filled with monster and shit just to get loot. Also, see pic related. >How to spark their interest for it Ask yourself: what do your friends do for fun? Do they play videogames? Do they read books? Do the play sports? And try and encompass these elements into your game. Unless it's sports: I have no idea how to do that. >Which version of D&D is a good starting point of D&D, it's 5th edition.
Dylan Stewart
Bump so the thread doesnt die while i write more
Levi Foster
Dnd. Start with 5e but your are going to want to learn pathfinder if you and the players get into the game.
Look up matthew colville on youtube. He should start you off right.
Colton Hall
>what does the group want? The group I plan to play with are avid fans of various RPGs, including shit like B;G 1 and 2 and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, so I chose those two, because they seemed like something they'd enjoy a lot.
>avoid D&D Do you have something better to recommend, instead?
I'll look into it, thanks guys. Much appreciated!
John Gray
>avoid DnD Not that guy, but this is the best advice you're gonna get. Under no circumstances should you induct new players to the hobby with DnD, it will ruin them as players. Run it if you must, but only after they've cut their teeth on a real RPG. VtM is a fine intro, in that regard.
Colton Gray
Do you have something better to recommend for beginners with the same setting?
Liam Robinson
>Which version of D&D is a good starting point For the classic D&D experience, I strongly prefer retroclones. BFRPG, Castles & Crusades, and Swords & Wizardry are probably the most intuitive.
>How to be a good G/DM Courtney Campbell's Hackslashmaster Blog has really good DM advice, a good chunk of which is system neutral
>How to write and make your own stories interesting There are a bajillion articles about this. However, you should always be thinking "How enjoyable is this to play?"
Ayden Howard
I'll check the blog you mentioned plus some other ones I'll find googling, I also assume visiting threads on Veeky Forums might not be a bad thing to do.
Dylan Miller
>How to be a good G/DM Engage the players, find out what they like, and give them that. Realize that the vast majority of groups will want to be given a plot thread (or several plot threads) to follow. Very few groups will be able to find their own fun in an open-world, and if your group is like that, then congratulations, you will always have a fun time playing with them. Start small, planning a full "campaign" to complete in a few sessions. It'll be hard to estimate what your players will be able to get through at first, but as you get experience with both how your group plays and how the system works, you'll get better at it.
Economize what you plan. You don't need to create a massive detailed world before you start your campaign, because your players will probably never see it until months from now, if at all. Don't plan for what's on the other continent unless you expect your players to go there. If your players come to an unmarked fork in the road, it's perfectly acceptable to have both choices lead to the same destination and the same encounter: this is part of the craft of the game master and an acceptable use of smoke and mirrors. However, what is unacceptable is if the other road has nothing interesting in there should the players go back there.
Don't rely in players to do a very specific thing in order to advance the adventure. If the players NEED to find a note that's hidden on a bandit they just killed, and nobody searches the bodies, draw attention to the note as having fallen out of their pocket. You can try to avoid having these kinds of "need to find X in order to advance" checkpoints, but sometimes it's fun to throw it in to make it appear to the players that they did something right. You know that that was no way they were leaving the dungeon without finding the rusty key, but the player who rolled highest on their search roll at some point is the one who found it, say.
cont.
Jose Butler
>What do I need to know before playing (rules, creature guides etc.) Depends on the system. Some systems are better than others in terms of giving you help in what creatures are acceptable to fight at a given party power level. D&D 3.5 is kind of the poster child of making it very difficult for a new GM to understand how difficult combat is. If you're in a situation where combat is too easy or too hard, feel free to cheat, either in favor of the monsters, or in favor of the players. You are the law, and the dice are merely suggestions. Sometimes it's fun just to rely on the dice, but sometimes it doesn't work out very well. Know the rules of the game you're playing, but if a rules question comes up and nobody knows the answer, for God's sake, just make a temporary ruling and move on, and make a note to look up the rules later. Nothing sucks more than having to sit for fifteen minutes while people look through rulebooks. You've all gotten together to have fun, not to be autistic about rules. (If you got together to be autistic about rules, feel free to disregard this advice.)
>How to write and make your own stories interesting This is just standard storytelling. There's some kind of conflict, some stuff happens, there's a few twists here and there, and then the conflict is resolved. I personally find it helpful to plan out a campaign in broad strokes before we begin. If I'm running a "medium" game that's going to last about half a year, I've got about 25 sessions to work with if we meet weekly. That means I'm going to need to need to get about five sessions of introduction, twenty of "middle" where most of the action happens, and five of end where everything comes together and the players resolve the conflict however they want. Then I get to planning interesting things the players could be doing, but this is mostly decided by what characters there are, and who wants to do what.
cont.
Ryan Williams
You don't have to take this kind of top-down approach, but I find that it worked well for me and the people I play with.
>How to spark their interest for it I mentioned it briefly, but the best way to get players interested is to find out what they like, and then get them involved in driving the story forward. Talk to your players outside of the game about what they want to do. Does someone want to uncover a lost civilization? Shit, there's at least four sessions right there. Does someone have a character that they want to die heroically at the end? Build it up, make the rest of the party care. Does a player have a character with backstory elements that you can use? Use them! The obvious one here is a characters' family members, but asking your players to think about friends and enemies from their characters' childhood is a good way to bring those characters up later. I had a game where the primary antagonist was a character that a player created. Sure, I fleshed the antagonist up way more, but all of that built on what the player said.
When you start, most players won't know what they want even if you ask them, so you're going to need to guess. If you're playing with people you know, you should be able to make a few good guesses. Don't commit at this point, though, and plan something that's going to last a only few sessions. Ask your players what they liked and what they didn't. People play tabletop games differently. Some people want to just kill things, some want to explore, others want to press the big red button that says "do not press," and some people just like sitting around in a social setting and observing what people do. There's no hard rules here, it's all about being able to read a situation. As long as you give something to everyone to keep them all entertained, you're doing fine. Only thing to be careful of is players who may want to dominate the game by interrupting others and wanting to do everything.
cont.
Oliver Gonzalez
These players may not be realizing they are doing it, and they may not be doing so maliciously. They might just be really engaged in the game! Take them aside after a session and talk to them if it becomes a problem, or try to find things for these players to do that keeps them engaged but not disruptive. Again, no hard rules here, but usually just talking to someone could be all you need to do.
>Which version of D&D is a good starting point I personally would not recommend D&D at all because it teaches players bad habits. Not every game has so many mountains of rules, not every game has hit point, not every game has the "X per Y" magic system, not every game is so focused around combat, not every game has classes, and not every game has levels. D&D is so prevalent with these ideas and it requires a lot of reading in order to understand all the rules, that at a certain point players will simply refuse to learn other systems because they've had such a bad taste in their mouths from reading five D&D rulebooks. Worse still, D&D is so influential on popular culture and in particular video games, that players will try to play D&D like they are playing video games because they recognize the terms: class, level, and HP. It's so gamy and to me this is like the thing that tabletop games do the worst.
That said, as long as you don't do something like 3.5 or pathfinder, you should be fine. Go ahead and play 5e, but recognize that there are many other systems that might be more interesting for you and your players.
Once you have more questions, feel free to come back and ask them.
Tyler Parker
Play Vampire, not DnD. Trust me.
Aaron White
>If you're in a situation where combat is too easy or too hard, feel free to cheat, either in favor of the monsters, or in favor of the players. You are the law, and the dice are merely suggestions.
I strongly disagree with that. Let the dice fall as they are. It is in combat scenarios that the DM should be most detached from the goings on, which is where the dice should rule.
I think illusionism is a bad habit for a new GM to get into.
Gavin Nguyen
I agree. Let the world and events simulate themselves by the dice roll and rules, anything else robs the player of the experience.
Adam Jackson
Here's the simple version. You want players to think that their decisions matter. You also don't want them to think you are out to get their character in particular.
Unless you are a really good liar, players are going to figure out that you are fudging and accordingly, what they do doesn't matter. It also makes character death personal: because you've fudged to keep them alive, it is reasonable to think that you have fudged or used DM fiat to kill them. Memes aside, when it makes sense to roll dice, I think it is better for the sake of your relationship with your players to not fudge.
And if you have a problem with the players figuring out something or having really hot dice that makes an encounter you anticipated to be prolonged, dramatic, and dangerous be resolved quickly and easily, you should not be GMing
Brody Anderson
>V:tM Use the new version rules with the old setting if you really want that. VtM mechanics are awful.
Caleb Watson
I had this situation a year ago. Essentially I built a little map leading to a mini dungeon and some boss fights with minions around the area. They began at a cliche tavern lol.
I told them this run wasn't serious but to feel out the mechanics and flow. They were a little more advanced than level 0. I threw a tactical challenge with dire wolves in tall grass at them. Then they found the lair, a secret entrance to bypass a cyclops boss they ended up fighting because they decided to just sack the place.
They kept trying to detect magic, traps, evil for everything. I told them I needed more like what they were looking at. Make sure they read the books and shit or else you'll have complaints when they didn't know that wasn't allowed and you're a bully.
The pdf versions work but as a DM/GM, the monster manual is useful to just have physically. Same for the player handbook. I took copies and made cheat sheets for each character. Like what spells they knew, DC, modifiers, etc.
It's like improv so saying no usually kills some fun but that depends on the group.
The user with the HarmonQuest suggestion is right. It's a nice example and they animate the campaign after recording.
I believe they use PF not D&D I'm partial to GURPS and tweaking the rules. Ask your group how serious they want the tone and setting. Realism vs super action movie cartoon? Make your characters together and ask for expectations and wants
Sometimes you can give players leniency on rules to keep the story floating.
Andrew Perez
Oh, and the first time we played it was D&D 3.5e with sprinkles of 5e because a party memeber needed to be a Teifling Warlock and another an angel type.
But how likely is that to happen? Does the party need consistency?
Ethan Barnes
>use narrative dice user! Into the garbage
Ryan Jones
OP, listen to me. These shitheads have no idea what a good RPG is. You want to play a good RPG that allows you to kick butt while staying simple and encouraging actual roleplaying ? Three words : Barbarians of Lemuria. Heavily Conan-inspired sword and sorcery setting, super simple rules and engaging universe. Do it you fag, you know you like jumping around in a leather bikini while throughly oiled.
Isaac Murphy
>How to write and make your own stories interesting
I suggest creative writing classes and drawing classes. I would start with a local map and brainstorm potential problems. Maybe >this land is rich in agriculture but has had unusual flooding and monsters. >The town needs a party to investigate
Bandits hiding out Retrieve missions Escort missions Magic item local myth
Eventually, you'll have enough of a world that there can be inter-city politics. Lord of this area has a brother who's lord of another land but is jealous and wants to subvert the other.
Brandon Price
Start with a game which is not dnd or pathfinder. I like ORE games for their elegant core mechanic (wild talents, reign, monsters and other childish things), I like OSR games for their design philosophy. I hear good things about runequest 6e/Mythras. The important thing is to steer clear of dnd and pathfinder.
If you decide to use dnd anyway, play 5e; it's a fine game with a lot of players. Play entirely without alignments. Ask your players to disregard that section of the game manual, to not assign an alignment to any of their characters, and to cross out the alignment field in their character sheets. Alignments are poison to roleplaying and will ruin your players ideas about roleplaying for years to come.
Start off with a "session zero", try to communicate with your players about what you all want the game to be about. Since you're likely to be unsure, think about things you'd like to try. Bear in mind that all of you are new, be willing to make adjustments as you start to understand what you like.
Learn everything you can about general principles of roleplaying etiquette; the do's and don'ts of tabletop roleplaying. When I was raising my current group from newbies into a calm fun-having group of close friends, I found the most constructive approach to etiquette violations was to treat it like game rules; you are not punishing or scolding people, or putting them in their place; you are simply showing them how to play a game and how to help the whole table have fun. When players started being shitty to each other in game, I'd say something like "It's generally considered poor form to steal other players' equipment or treasure. It can cause bad blood at the table, so I don't recommend it." Granted, I had some authority because I was more experienced, the GM had my back, and I knew what I was talking about. In your case, I say keep an open mind because you're just as new as they are.
Chase Murphy
Played different systems, introduce them to dnd and they love it
Cooper Roberts
Or Og for lulz
Jason Lee
I'll post another pdf with a kingdom generator. Just use as a resource not to be followed vehemently
Aaron Rogers
What is this nega-Veeky Forums shit? Why would you encourage someone to go from best edition to weeaboo snowflake edition? Why would you shill for someone who gives bad advice like letting spells randomly do different things for no reason other than because players beg?
This is literally the worst advice OP, do not listen to this man.
