I'm pretty new to DnD- my friends and I only got started last May. After hopping the DM role around the group for a few months, it settled onto me to be the group DM.
Any tips, tricks, suggestions anyone would like to share?
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(Sedge):
Moved to new DMs Only board
Don't plan too much. Your players will always go their own way and find something interesting/fun they want to pursue that you never intended.
You are allowed to fudge a lot to create a more entertaining campaign and a game that's more fun. If they start defeating your monsters too quickly and they have no chance to pull out a squeaker and not die, stack the HP on the monster (or bring in the monster's brother who was attracted by all the noise).
Keep a list of NPC names available so you don't have to struggle making up the name for this merchant that's not the same as that other merchant.
Make/allow your players to help run the campaign. It's a bit like when you ask your therapist about something and they say "how do you feel about it?" Turn the tables. "Have any of you been in this village? Yes, it looks familiar to you, Vendin, you were here as a cleric-in-training" and let Vendin show them around (take copious notes so you can refer to Vendin's descriptions later).
Don't plan too much!
If you need a break because you're overwhelmed, you're allowed to take one, even if you need to say "I think that's it for tonight." You have a lot of stuff to manage, you get time off.
We don't tend to use dungeon floor plans or figurines or models in our game, but sometimes it's handy to know what the arena looks like when the fighting starts. Even a rough sketch helps (like when the rogue asks if there's someplace he can hide until he can jump out and slaughter things). Keep blank paper handy.
Maps do help. Land maps, I mean, of the land where your campaign takes place. So when it's time to go somewhere, how far away is that? It helps keep everyone in the same relative place. I usually just take a real world place and flip it upside down or something.
Lastly, don't plan too much! I'm serious. Your players will never know that you had no idea that they'd go around the corner and come up against bandits and wyvern, but there they are! OMG!
Make NPCs memorable, not just a quest tracker towards the next objective. Give your players a reason to find out who an NPC is, or why they're in the predicament they are. Also, it never hurts to present conflicting quests from multiple "factions". Give the players something to debate and sort out between themselves concerning who to aid and which direction to travel.
Let’s start with the Golden Rule #1 “A good DM never stops learning”
I think every DM has a bad day. When I first started as a DM I did a lot of experimenting with different styles. Oh my players paid for it at first but it got better, and I didn't have the all mighty internet to turn to for magical advice which progress a little slower to develop.
When things go wrong it is time to sit down and figure out what happen and why it went wrong first. This will help you resolve issues and help plan for the next session. As mentioned, talking with your players is the best way to start. Without solid feedback you’re making assumptions.
These are my basic Tools/Key Tips:
Be Prepared – Have your handouts, Mini Figs, maps and anything you might need at the ready. Players hate it while you look for a key component like a map or have to look up a Monster etc..
Scripts – having basic scripts for NPCs is a must.
Player notes – Detailed notes on your players will help you design encounters that are both fun and challenging. Even though it may look awesome in your head you might forget some simple detail that a player may be able use to mess things up.
Index Cards – have your details on easy organized index cards. These can be used for Encounter triggers, NPC stats and scripts, Important Player Data, and quick reference monster cards.
Encounter Sheets – Have an encounter sheet with columns for Initiative, hit points, AC and whatever else you think you might need. Keeps the game flowing and it is easier to keep track of the encounter.
If you are using purchased adventures read through the entire adventure before playing... maybe do this twice.
If you are creating your our it is extremely important to make great notes and detail everything so you are prepared to answer player questions etc.
Hope this help and good luck. Remember to talk to you players always. Their feedback in vital to your success.
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JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I will be trying my hand behind the screen soon for the 1st time. This advice is fantastic. Thank you!
One thing I have noticed is that if you are too attached to your story and/or characters, the campaign will take a serious nose dive due to the players eventually rebelling from no longer having any agency.
Perhaps I should have added that portion in there. I use the story tree (sandbox) style. I'm never married to a story. As a DM you are there to facilitate the story your players are writing. Sure it was your idea or maybe someones else, but I'm a firm believer it that as the adventure takes place the players will be writing it. I don't like the railroading of players. Let them explore and either become powerful or the next zombie in the next campaign.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
Great forum. I have stepped into my first DM role while ours is out of town. We have had 1 session so far. It went well, but I am always looking for more tips and useful knowledge. Thanks!
All of this is great! I fully support the index cards, they have made my campaign so much easier to run. My players also like it when I have any items they find already written out for them.
I use to make scripts for my NPCs, but now I will focus more on "key points" and the conditions that need to be met for them to get certain information. Another good rule of thumb is to have a handful of NPC names ready to go, you never know who your character's are randomly going to want to talk to.
To add to being prepared, I would also say be flexible. If you find you have planned an entire event to happen, but your PC's are focusing on something else entirely, alter your plans to pay more attention to what they are focusing on. This does not mean you have to give up all your control as the DM. You can just alter your plans so that they tie into whatever your PCs are interested in.
Flexibility flexibility flexibility. That is extremely important and as impossible as it may sound be prepared for the unexpected. If the Goliath fighter wants to throw the Halfling Barbarian, Gnome fighter, and Dwarven Paladin over the wall of a castle your party is besieging while the rest of the party uses a battering ram to break down the door (this is a thing a party did once) let them have at it.
Seeing a lot of be flexible and don't plan too much. XD Good to know I'm not the only one with an unpredictable party. I had a whole adventure planned out as they traveled from the first town to the next, only to bang my head against the table as they spent TWO HOURS robbing the library in the starting town. Now the first question they ask every time they get somewhere new is "where is the library and how are the defenses?" Its a thing now. They also spent half a game talking about how they were going to renovate the castle they raided, and looking around for the library, while still in the middle of raiding it.... I was half tempted to make it self destruct when they killed the owner in retaliation.
Second question: I made an NPC that I originally intended to be a reoccurring character but not a party member. The party then decided to help him with his personal quest and joined him. That I could handle. Most of my players LOVE him (one in particular is half debating proposing marriage), and doesn't want him to go. One party member really hates the guy, deliberately annoys him, and then gets mad when the Vengeance Paladin counters with bodily harm. How the heck do I handle this?
You could always burn the library down. That should get a reaction. Or, like in our games. If a player gets too gungho about searching for something in particular, the DM gives him increasingly useless stuff.
So you could have the library in a castle actually be the world's largest collection of steamy Kobold based fiction.
That said, left field adventures can be fun. One of our best campaigns went from secret cult espionage to 6 months of banana farming from an airship, and accidentally summoning a demon be because "someone" just had to elctrocute a gnomish professor inspecting some ruins.
I think something that always goes understated is to remember that DnD is by far and large a co-operative effort. If there's ever any issues, don't take it out on the players, just calmly talk to them about it. Foster a partnership with them, and remember that as a DM you are not there to win or beat the players, you are there to make sure your players have fun, and to facilitate the world around them.
Most of my players LOVE him (one in particular is half debating proposing marriage), and doesn't want him to go. One party member really hates the guy, deliberately annoys him, and then gets mad when the Vengeance Paladin counters with bodily harm. How the heck do I handle this?
I've never run into this particular problem, but I would try to hand off managing the NPC as a regular C to someone to play. It's hard being the DM and a character in the same campaign. Essentially you have the NPC as the focus of the your players' campaign if they're all helping him with his quest. If they like him, let them play him. They're the players. Relieve yourself of that responsibility, you have enough on your hands already. Let them RP so you can DM. If no one wants to, explain your problem to the players and see how they prefer to handle things. You're all in this together. Maybe they don't consider it a problem at all and that one party member actually enjoys hating your NPC, it's part of the character now.
I try to go easy on the planning, at least as far as specifics. Recently I had three different, relatively detailed paths that my party could have chosen. They picked the one furthest away and still managed to skirt around most of the more interesting things I'd created along their path of travel. In the end we had SIX HOURS of conversation with NPCs and descriptions of the various areas they were traveling through with a complete lack of combat, though that was partly the luck of the dice. It was entertaining enough, but I had to come up with (and take notes on) a lot of on-the-fly stuff. Moral of the story is that no matter how you try to steer your party they will invariably do something different. Just don't be afraid to adapt, throw in an encounter, a puzzle, a story hook if they seem to be talking themselves in circles.
something i would suggest for a new dungeon master is make the first session light and breezy not super combat heavy use the first session to get to know your players and thier play style and use it to influence the later sessions as a way of what best to do later, if that helps at all.
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I'm pretty new to DnD- my friends and I only got started last May. After hopping the DM role around the group for a few months, it settled onto me to be the group DM.
Any tips, tricks, suggestions anyone would like to share?
Don't plan too much. Your players will always go their own way and find something interesting/fun they want to pursue that you never intended.
You are allowed to fudge a lot to create a more entertaining campaign and a game that's more fun. If they start defeating your monsters too quickly and they have no chance to pull out a squeaker and not die, stack the HP on the monster (or bring in the monster's brother who was attracted by all the noise).
Keep a list of NPC names available so you don't have to struggle making up the name for this merchant that's not the same as that other merchant.
Make/allow your players to help run the campaign. It's a bit like when you ask your therapist about something and they say "how do you feel about it?" Turn the tables. "Have any of you been in this village? Yes, it looks familiar to you, Vendin, you were here as a cleric-in-training" and let Vendin show them around (take copious notes so you can refer to Vendin's descriptions later).
Don't plan too much!
If you need a break because you're overwhelmed, you're allowed to take one, even if you need to say "I think that's it for tonight." You have a lot of stuff to manage, you get time off.
We don't tend to use dungeon floor plans or figurines or models in our game, but sometimes it's handy to know what the arena looks like when the fighting starts. Even a rough sketch helps (like when the rogue asks if there's someplace he can hide until he can jump out and slaughter things). Keep blank paper handy.
Maps do help. Land maps, I mean, of the land where your campaign takes place. So when it's time to go somewhere, how far away is that? It helps keep everyone in the same relative place. I usually just take a real world place and flip it upside down or something.
Lastly, don't plan too much! I'm serious. Your players will never know that you had no idea that they'd go around the corner and come up against bandits and wyvern, but there they are! OMG!
Make NPCs memorable, not just a quest tracker towards the next objective. Give your players a reason to find out who an NPC is, or why they're in the predicament they are. Also, it never hurts to present conflicting quests from multiple "factions". Give the players something to debate and sort out between themselves concerning who to aid and which direction to travel.
[ Site Rules & Guidelines ] --- [ Homebrew Rules & Guidelines ]
Send me a message with any questions or concerns
Don't be to worried about the rules or the specifics. If you or your players don't think it is fun to use a certain rule, then don't use it!
Hell yeah I am going to Polymorph the boss into a Rabbit. I have always wanted a being a pure evil stuffed into a ball of fluff.
Let’s start with the Golden Rule #1 “A good DM never stops learning”
I think every DM has a bad day. When I first started as a DM I did a lot of experimenting with different styles. Oh my players paid for it at first but it got better, and I didn't have the all mighty internet to turn to for magical advice which progress a little slower to develop.
When things go wrong it is time to sit down and figure out what happen and why it went wrong first. This will help you resolve issues and help plan for the next session. As mentioned, talking with your players is the best way to start. Without solid feedback you’re making assumptions.
These are my basic Tools/Key Tips:
Be Prepared – Have your handouts, Mini Figs, maps and anything you might need at the ready. Players hate it while you look for a key component like a map or have to look up a Monster etc..
Scripts – having basic scripts for NPCs is a must.
Player notes – Detailed notes on your players will help you design encounters that are both fun and challenging. Even though it may look awesome in your head you might forget some simple detail that a player may be able use to mess things up.
Index Cards – have your details on easy organized index cards. These can be used for Encounter triggers, NPC stats and scripts, Important Player Data, and quick reference monster cards.
Encounter Sheets – Have an encounter sheet with columns for Initiative, hit points, AC and whatever else you think you might need. Keeps the game flowing and it is easier to keep track of the encounter.
If you are using purchased adventures read through the entire adventure before playing... maybe do this twice.
If you are creating your our it is extremely important to make great notes and detail everything so you are prepared to answer player questions etc.
Hope this help and good luck. Remember to talk to you players always. Their feedback in vital to your success.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I will be trying my hand behind the screen soon for the 1st time. This advice is fantastic. Thank you!
One thing I have noticed is that if you are too attached to your story and/or characters, the campaign will take a serious nose dive due to the players eventually rebelling from no longer having any agency.
(Figured I should add something constructive)
Perhaps I should have added that portion in there. I use the story tree (sandbox) style. I'm never married to a story. As a DM you are there to facilitate the story your players are writing. Sure it was your idea or maybe someones else, but I'm a firm believer it that as the adventure takes place the players will be writing it. I don't like the railroading of players. Let them explore and either become powerful or the next zombie in the next campaign.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
Great forum. I have stepped into my first DM role while ours is out of town. We have had 1 session so far. It went well, but I am always looking for more tips and useful knowledge. Thanks!
All of this is great! I fully support the index cards, they have made my campaign so much easier to run. My players also like it when I have any items they find already written out for them.
I use to make scripts for my NPCs, but now I will focus more on "key points" and the conditions that need to be met for them to get certain information. Another good rule of thumb is to have a handful of NPC names ready to go, you never know who your character's are randomly going to want to talk to.
To add to being prepared, I would also say be flexible. If you find you have planned an entire event to happen, but your PC's are focusing on something else entirely, alter your plans to pay more attention to what they are focusing on. This does not mean you have to give up all your control as the DM. You can just alter your plans so that they tie into whatever your PCs are interested in.
Flexibility flexibility flexibility. That is extremely important and as impossible as it may sound be prepared for the unexpected. If the Goliath fighter wants to throw the Halfling Barbarian, Gnome fighter, and Dwarven Paladin over the wall of a castle your party is besieging while the rest of the party uses a battering ram to break down the door (this is a thing a party did once) let them have at it.
Its all about having fun!
Seeing a lot of be flexible and don't plan too much. XD Good to know I'm not the only one with an unpredictable party. I had a whole adventure planned out as they traveled from the first town to the next, only to bang my head against the table as they spent TWO HOURS robbing the library in the starting town. Now the first question they ask every time they get somewhere new is "where is the library and how are the defenses?" Its a thing now. They also spent half a game talking about how they were going to renovate the castle they raided, and looking around for the library, while still in the middle of raiding it.... I was half tempted to make it self destruct when they killed the owner in retaliation.
Second question: I made an NPC that I originally intended to be a reoccurring character but not a party member. The party then decided to help him with his personal quest and joined him. That I could handle. Most of my players LOVE him (one in particular is half debating proposing marriage), and doesn't want him to go. One party member really hates the guy, deliberately annoys him, and then gets mad when the Vengeance Paladin counters with bodily harm. How the heck do I handle this?
You could always burn the library down. That should get a reaction. Or, like in our games. If a player gets too gungho about searching for something in particular, the DM gives him increasingly useless stuff.
So you could have the library in a castle actually be the world's largest collection of steamy Kobold based fiction.
That said, left field adventures can be fun. One of our best campaigns went from secret cult espionage to 6 months of banana farming from an airship, and accidentally summoning a demon be because "someone" just had to elctrocute a gnomish professor inspecting some ruins.
We eventually got back on track though.
I think something that always goes understated is to remember that DnD is by far and large a co-operative effort. If there's ever any issues, don't take it out on the players, just calmly talk to them about it. Foster a partnership with them, and remember that as a DM you are not there to win or beat the players, you are there to make sure your players have fun, and to facilitate the world around them.
I try to go easy on the planning, at least as far as specifics. Recently I had three different, relatively detailed paths that my party could have chosen. They picked the one furthest away and still managed to skirt around most of the more interesting things I'd created along their path of travel. In the end we had SIX HOURS of conversation with NPCs and descriptions of the various areas they were traveling through with a complete lack of combat, though that was partly the luck of the dice. It was entertaining enough, but I had to come up with (and take notes on) a lot of on-the-fly stuff. Moral of the story is that no matter how you try to steer your party they will invariably do something different. Just don't be afraid to adapt, throw in an encounter, a puzzle, a story hook if they seem to be talking themselves in circles.
something i would suggest for a new dungeon master is make the first session light and breezy not super combat heavy use the first session to get to know your players and thier play style and use it to influence the later sessions as a way of what best to do later, if that helps at all.