GM Help Thread. Ask your questions and seek answers!

>Is it bad if a second set of heroes pick up where they fell and wrap up everything in an epilogue?
I'm not sure what you're saying there. Like, you wipe out your party, and then say, "Okay guys, Bob Balladin the Paladin and his friends show up, find your bodies, and finish your quest. The Lich King is slain and the world is saved."?

Because that does not sound like a very good idea. The players would probably be double frustrated, first because they had died, and secondly because they will feel like they'd had their balls cut off by some NPCs.

What do you do when PC are not in scene?
For example if you are DMing a scene of only one of the characters or the party splits for a little while, how do you keep the others players engaged, specially since many don't want to hear whats going on to avoid meta gaming? Do you give them something to do or do you just let them play around and get distracted with their phones?

Just do it on a piece of paper, man.

But that won't solve your problem. If you have a troublesome metagamer, you should talk to him and explain that you don't like the way he is playing and that it is frustrating to you and other players. Try to get him to understand that what he is doing is not making things fun and get him to tone it down.

If that doesn't work you may just need to not play with him any more if he's super disruptive. Alternately, you can try to break him out of it by meta-fucking him, but that's usually a bad road to go down. It often causes more trouble than it's worth, and it often won't work, anyway.

What if i just banish the party members to their own individual planes locked away from the world and then separated one by one?

I could have one on one sessions at a later date where they explore their own purgatories and eventually meet up, then breach the barrier back to the real world only to find that the demon king has been unchecked and they have the element of surprise to enter Doom Citadel and take him out once and for all?

This gives me time to consider if i actually want to do this, while letting me stop being so burned out

You want to minimize those situations, and when they come up, you want to go through them as quickly as you can. Keeping the players in a group helps with this, and players are often pretty comfortable with that anyway. It also works to pair players off, arrange the group in such a way that certain PCs are logically always together, like they are brothers or something, or arranging storylines where its two players who get pulled away instead of one.

Another thing you can do one in a while is hand the other players a puzzle or something to occupy them for a few minutes, or even take one player outside for five minutes and tell everyone to take a piss break.

It can also work well to do those scenes between games, in person or over text or whatever, when the other players aren't even aware it's happening, and then the player can just fill them in next game.

Former Forever GM here, finally have an opportunity to be an ordinary player, starting Sunday. My problem is that I've forgotten how to just be a player because I've been a Forever GM for the past decade or so. How the fuck do I do this?

That is better than the NPC party thing, although again, I think the best solution would be to be upfront with your players in real life, tell them you are burned out and want to take a break, and if that means the story never gets finished, there are worse things. Most likely you'll have the energy to come back to it later on.

Stay in character.

Be a team player.

If people are shitty to you or you are not having fun, be polite and just don't come back.

And resist the temptation to tell the GM how to do his job.

Relax, minimized your view to have only your characters perspective of things, focus in teamwork with the other players but don't coach them, your character doesn't have expertise in their areas so he shouldn't be telling them how is the most optimal way to do their jobs.
And have fun, I guess.

Just put food on a plate on the floor near him once a day and make sure you know where he is at all times

Re-skinning monsters can work quick and dirty. The rules of the system usually come with methods on how to homebrew creatures. There might be some free programs that calculate them for you.

Randomize things so he can't rely on his assumptions and whatever he studied beforehand. Use transformations in-game so he can't guess which monsters you prepped by looking at your minis. Explain the setting and that a pseudo-medieval England doesn't have modern science. Or just make monsters look differently than they look in the monster book so he still can't be sure.

Pay attention, write down Who, What, Where, Why, and When so if you don't have one of those then you can't go on adventure. Be proactive instead of those passive navel-gazers.

Thanks for the advice I'll give these a try, he's a great roleplayer it's just he can be a bit of a glory hog.

I don’t know what to GM.
I bought the 5e middle earth books but know next to nothing about the setting (other than what’s in the movies). I got them because I like the idea of a high fantasy but low magic setting.
I kind of just want to run an old school rpg just once but I’m not sure which one to use.
I keep having all of these ideas I’d like to try but end up never following through with them.

Someone did test run a gm question thread but the threads are way too slow for them to last more then a day

How do I invest the players in the story? I do understand that it is just "a game" and everything is just for fun, but most of the talk that comes about is:

>"Do we get any magic weapons?"
>"How much damage do I do?"
>"lol...this is so awkward."
>"I just don't pay attention if its not really relevant."
>"Oh, we're fighting someone now?"

Only the bard and the barbarian really know how to roleplay, the rest are on their phones, homework, cuddling/making out or snapchatting it up. I tried to alleviate it by making the game more combat focused, but I've alienated the bard from being particularly useful/party diplomat.

What page specifically states the difference between ready action and reaction? My players are having a hard time with reading comprehension and I need to explain it to them better I guess. Here's some art for your trouble

How do I develop my vocabulary?
I've read a shitload of books, it doesn't seem to help one bit.
t.ESL

I'm DMing a campaing for a metagamer and the rest of the party. I talked to him about this and we came to a fun compromise: he should metagame as hard as he could while playing a smug mage.
The party loves to hate that tsundere bastard, and more than once they saved his ass by thinking outside of the box like only unexperienced players can.

Go to a website that has a thesaurus with a new word each day.

hes not dangerous hes just awkward you ass. put on a movie for him

Look videos of rhetoric masters in youtube and practice.

youtu.be/HAnw168huqA

Not sure if I should ask here or on Veeky Forums but my DM only uses a 20 sided die (0-9 printed twice) and a d6. He says he can simulate all other dice used with just these two and he never has to reroll. Anyone know how he does it?

Ban phones and PDA. Explain that it's both distracting and disrespectful to the work you put in and the others that are more invested in the game at your table. They can go without making out or texting for a few hours, it won't kill them.
If they complain, say that while they're your friends and you get it, ultimately it's your table and your call, and if they don't like it you would never force them to stay.

It was a hard sell at first, but the game is SO much better than it was before I started gathering everyone's phones (including my own) in a bowl before session and setting it aside.

People are either much more engaged, or they look things up in the rulebook.

9-year-old boys like Pixar's Cars, that's always a good choice.

Remember: if it can't be made into a playable scenario, you are probably wasting your time

Read tougher books. Pause while reading to look up any words you don't know - don't just infer the meaning of words from their context. Jot the new words in a text document or a notebook, and review once or twice until you remember the words. If you have friends who won't think you're pretentious for using big words, say them in conversation.

Not a math person but I'll try.

d4: Roll the 20-sided d10 (consider the 0s on the die to count as 10); if it rolls even, then the "d4" rolled even. Otherwise the d4 rolled odd. You now have the "d4 roll" narrowed to 1 or 3, or 2 or 4. Now roll the d6; if it rolls high, it's the higher number, low and it's the lower.

d6: obvious

d8: Hardest one. A d8 has a 25% chance of being a 7 or an 8. So, roll both die. If the results have matched evenness (even-even or odd-odd), AND the d10 rolled between 1-5, then consider the "d8" to have rolled a 7 or an 8. If the d6 rolled 1-3, it's a 7; if 4-6 it's an 8. If the evenness of both dice doesn't match, or if the d10 rolled 6-10, the normal result of the d6 is the result of the d8. (The process needs to be this convoluted to manufacture the 25% chance of a 7 or 8. You could get a 25% chance easier by demanding an even-even match, and refusing an odd-odd, but then you'd reduce the odds of a 2/4/6 on the d8, since those numbers would get abducted to form 7/8 while 1/3/5 wouldn't).

d10: obvious

d12: Roll the d6. Double the result. Roll the d10. If the d10 rolls 1-5, subtract 1 from the previous result.

d20: Roll the d10. Double the result. Roll the d6. If it rolls 1-3, subtract 1 from the previous result.

How do I drop hints that my players can get it? My latest failure

>Doing a monstrous campaign about how several different traditionally evil monster species discover this natural occurrence of magically charged crystals.
>PCs get in on the action, or trying to at the start; they all "migrated" in from different points and are supposed to meet in the first session.
>One of them put the back up from a guard goon at the entrance by being an insensitive prick, but then suggested that something shiny might pave the way for him to go see his leader and get permission for PC to join the colony.
>Blank stare
>After a minute or so it gets awkward.
>Look, he wants some money, okay? Offer him a bribe or attack him, you screwed up your chance to be diplomatic here.
>OOOOOOH, that's what he meant!?
>Offers a bribe, things go on.

Characters have skills, senses, and knowledge the players do not. If you want something to be inferred, have the player roll for it and tell them outright. They will also feel like the soft skills are more valuable.

I feel like that's not an actual thing a DM does, but one of those obscure puzzles math nerds like to throw at each other.

Maybe it's because I'm exhausted, but the wording of your post seems to be a mess. That said, you can't fix dense. If players aren't able to pick up subtle hints then you have to be less subtle. In the situation described change "something shiny" to gold, or equivalent currency, in the same sentence. If they still aren't getting it then you'll have to essentially spell it out for them.

If it's just one player struggling with this then you may want to make efforts to avoid them being the party spokesperson to reduce how often they actually need to use deductive reasoning. If it's the whole table then chances are you're the one making things unnecessarily complicated.

>just looking out the window repeating "me can show you a whole new world"
>hes not dangerous hes just awkward you ass. put on a movie for him
>9-year-old boys like Pixar's Cars, that's always a good choice.

...really?
Nobody thought to pull out the Aladdin dvd?

Do you lads write a small description for when your NPCs enter a new area? How far should I take this when DMing?

I do read tougher books, though I'll admit lately I've been kinda stuck in a 40+ books series that's rather on the simpler side of things. I never have a problem understanding words and I barely ever learn any new word at all, it's just that all those I know and understand never come up when I want to say or write something. I don't have this problem in my language and I feel comfortable enough with English that I feel like I shouldn't have this problem, it's weird.

Focus on the players that are roleplaying. Let them have fun, tailor the campaign to their actions and reactions, even if it eschews combat sometimes. The other players will eventually notice that there's two players in the spotlight, and at that point they'll either complain and quit, catch on to the idea that being active can be fun, or just let it happen and return to their phones. In any case, the people who are interested in playing will get to play, and everyone who isn't can enjoy their phones until combat rolls around.

Unless they're paying you to GM, you don't have an obligation to please an entire group of people for four to eight hours a week. If they want to play earnestly, let them. If they don't want to play, don't push them to. Cater to players who are making the game fun and easy for you, and ignore the ones who would rather be doing something else. Everyone who enjoys or at least tolerates that sort of behavior will flock to you. The ones that don't can find a GM that shares their preference.

You're also not a teacher in a classroom; if they want to play on their phones, there's not much you can do about that. Setting up rules for how the game will be played is fine and dandy, but banning phones or laptops at your table makes you seem stingy and like you have a god complex. One of the most important rules of GMing is establishing trust between yourself and your players, and making enemies early on is just going to sour the game for everyone. I would say "if it really bothers you, talk to them" but you'll notice that none of this list's solutions involve talking to the players directly, only changing your GMing strategy, because if everyone sat down and talked with their players about all of their campaign problems there would be no reason to have threads like these in the first place. If someone's on their phone/laptop/girlfriend, just assume their character is doing some equivalent idle action and move on. It's easier for everyone.

If your players being too focused on combat to appreciate the roleplaying side of the campaign is turning into a problem, throwing more combat into the mix is only going to worsen the problem itself. You've effectively incentivised playing on smartphones or computers during your campaign: now it's a fun way to pass the time between combat encounters, instead of a momentary distraction like it usually is. This behavior of glazing over anything not related to a die roll is only reinforced by giving them more die rolls; it's like how the skinner box rat pressing a button to stimulate its brain into releasing dopamine will continue to do so until it dies, ignoring food, sleep, or sex.

If it really is a problem in your eyes, you need to ween them off of combat, even if they say they don't want it. They might complain, they might even quit, but the road you're currently heading down is not going to fix the problem.

GMing for the first time ever this coming week. I also haven't really played tabletop games much, period. It's a simple CofD mortals game, not DnD or anything like I that. I'm pretty solid on the rules (I think) and the players are all more experienced than me and are willing to be patient and give me a hand.

But what I really want to know is are there any especially bad moves I should seriously avoid that are typical of beginners? Like in general?

He clearly wants to watch Aladdin, just put it on for him dude.

Uh... Edition/system?

Easiest way to put it is a readied action is a simple If>Then statement.

"I ready my bow, an arrow nocked and prepared to fly at the first enemy to move towards X"

Whereas a reaction is something that is typically reactionary (such as throwing up a shield spell while being attacked) or, in the case of 5e d&d, opportunity attacks.

The main thing to remember is that a readied action takes up their action from the current turn. If the condition they preset doesn't occur then they wasted that action, either way they still get their reaction for that turn.

I wan't to run a CoC oneshot tomorrow thats basicly the movie "late phases".( Werwolves in a Retirment Community)

But how do i best represent the 29 Days. I don't want to skip to the plotpoints, but playing 29 Days in short form will probably get pretty repetetiv.
(Sorry for the bad english)

Hm, a request for opinion. Fading Suns system.
Planning for a sideplot, while players are recovering after last big fight and death of friendly npc. Not a single one of them is combat oriented.

>low tech planet
>big city
>looking festive and all
>apparently some noble related holiday
>npcs mostly cheerful and friendly
>simple activities for every player
>spot checks every now and then
>non-colourfuly dressed individual shows up
>>pcs either follow or not
>its already too late
>itsabomb.gif
>market rekt
>players rekt a bit
>npcs pulling out survivors
>local imperial ops questions non-native pcs
>>pcs either play along or chose to be left out of it
>turns out the ops had intel of shit going down
>nobles didn't listen to increase guard
>ops get in charge and lock city down
>bomber is said to be a self-buffing psyker psycho
>was trying to kidnap a noblewoman using "distraction"
>will hunt down witnesess if only for sport
>also said to have some type of farseeing
>>cooperating pcs will get observation and a bodyguard
>>non-cooping pcs will get only observation
>bodyguard is a cyborg (bitches be v.rare and overall forbidden)
>chosen for the job to take on psycho 1v1
>few days go by and shit seems to calm down
>city still on lockdown
>>if players got a bodyguard, they get some background hints on dislike of imperial ops
>>if one of players moves, they get nicked
>>if they hole up in their room, fucking building will be set on fire and then someone gets nicked
>one or all of them can get nicked
>small chance to fight off psycho, will only delay him
>armour through roof, so they would need energy weapons which they don't have
>nicked ones will wake up in some basement
>aside of their broken egos there will be a 30-something skeleton looking woman
>chick be wearing little more than metal blindfold
>cont.

>>if try to talk, will have no response
>>if players act, trying to break free, woman will narrate results of their actions
>farseeing psyker woman will tell of bad / good outcomes
>they will get shot at escaping
>or they can try to fight psycho again, with poor results
>>if they escape and contact guards, building will be nuked
>>if they escape with woman openly, ops will nick her and nuke building
>>if they escape with woman covertly, ops will nuke building and they will get a shot at having a powerful ally
>regardless, psycho will follow
>best shot is cyborg so they need to lure psycho to him
>Mission Objective - Survive.mp4
>chase and mayhem through the city
>eventually psycho ded
>nobles decide to reward them somehow, favours or money
>in meantime ops, being a cunt, finds some dirt on pcs in database
>ops decides to detain them, when out of sight for nobles
>ops offers to fly them in a ship to next big city, in direction they are heading
>meantime cyborg passes letter to pc tekkie with a warning
>also with a question of cybernetics
>>pcs can try to leave on their own, with success depending on method
>>pcs can request nobles to help with transport, with guaranteed success
>>pcs, with godly rolls, can try to disconnect cyborg from ops network and have him escape as well (resulting in furious ops)

So, depending on how it goes, they may end up with two powerful allies and favours from local nobility.

Sounds good enough, anons?

Inb4 "too powerful npcs"
>psyker woman's perception was suppresed for favour of abilities, taken outside of locked, silent spaces she will have much less power
>cyborg is on safety restart loop, his memories will get erased in yearly cycle (one that is nearing), w/o proper supervision he will be left like a baby
>>tekkie can disable that later on, but it will require godly cybernetic and tech skills, she is nowhere near that level yet

any tips suggestions for running a one shot game for a single player? fairly new to tabletop and hoping to get a friend into it figue I would try to run a game so they can learn hands on as well as help me get into the groove of DMing.
>pic is the system we'd be using if that helps any

I'm going to be GM'ing (Been a player lots of times) for the first time soon with some friends. I am pretty bad at voices and clear pronounciation (autism), do you have any advice for making characters more distinct form one another?

Me and my friend are interested in Veeky Forums but neither of us was ever in a game as a player or as a DM. Some user once recommended Ryutama and it seemed greet for beginner like me, since a lot of it seemed logical and easy, but as I continued reading i realized that there are actually a shitton of rules and that I won't be able to remember them all (245 pages).
So could somebody recommend me some other game that has easier rules and/or add me on discord YoyBoy#5823 to tell me basics of DM-ing and what is really important.