s'okay

Playing with the idea of a war waged between the Githyanki and the Githzerai, with some fun interspecies politics occuring within the Githyanki, and the players will have the choice of what they do in this war be it by peace or by blood, and that will then go on to reshape Wildspace. But that's the big picture.

What I'd like to know is how does one could achieve it in relatively low effort. They all look like daunting tasks to me, because you practically have to account for every possible outcomes, which I can only think of very few.

Some advice to new DMs; take some of the failings of the game to heart as lessons. 

Having a paladin become an Oathbreaker might seem fun, but most players don't want it at random. The game is very harsh on OoA Palis, making a whole lot of actions lead to being an Oathbreaker. Do NOT do this. Have whatever powers that be issue warnings to the player if they are in danger of becoming an Oathbreaker, not "Surprise! Oath change!". This allows them to coarse correct, or choose to go down that road.

You don't need to roll for ever innane thing. Put the dice away. Honestly, this game has you rolling like you're in a yhatzee club. Sometimes you can give them the actions. That's right! You can LET them do actions! Without rolling! If it's a basic or easy enough due to story beats, just let them do it.

Games are players vs world, but D&D isn't players vs DMs. You are not the enemy of the players, but you should make even hard-won wins feel fun. Cheer them kicking your creatures butt, encourage their silly plans, but if your game has them go to a certain location, then you get them there. Sudden fey tricks, weird magic mishaps, oh, that town sort of moved from east of the crossroads to the north and now you're here. No one knows but you.

This might be specific to homebrewers, but here's one that can happen to any group; manage moving the group along lest they rp aimlessly for hours. Yes! Your group can rp too much if you let them, so be ready to help move them along to the plot before you lose three hours to waffle. You don't need to cut rp to the bone, but be conscious of time. Make it meaningful. 

And finally; you are not a video game made by a whole team of people over many years. Every DM is a person who is making themselves open to have whatever game they run be absolutely broken by eager players. Every DM is putting themselves out there in a personal, vulnerable way that game devs don't have to, and you can't compare yourself to them in the same way you can't compare yourself to professional content creators like Dimension 20 or Critical Role. BG3 by most accounts is supposed to be a great game (I don't enjoy it), but it's the result of a team of people working longer than most campaigns run. You are one person, so don't try to be a video game. Be the DM you are comfortable with being, and know your limits.

Another piece of advice for dms, that Baldurs gate 3 does alot for its npcs and monsters, is customise customise customise. 

For example, the first set of intellect devourers you fight in the beginning of the game are extremely nerfed compared to the monster manual. They have 25% less hp, and their AC is so low that you are guarantee to hit them because they have the weakened passive. If you feel like you need to nerf monsters, like make a barbed devil a CR1 monster or a lich a CR2 monster because you want to do something cool for new players then just do it without hesitation.  

Quote from RawCauliflower >>

Another piece of advice for dms, that Baldurs gate 3 does alot for its npcs and monsters, is customise customise customise. 

For example, the first set of intellect devourers you fight in the beginning of the game are extremely nerfed compared to the monster manual. They have 25% less hp, and their AC is so low that you are guarantee to hit them because they have the weakened passive. If you feel like you need to nerf monsters, like make a barbed devil a CR1 monster or a lich a CR2 monster because you want to do something cool for new players then just do it without hesitation.  

 THIS! Mod your monsters to allow them to be fought. Make them softies earlier on, but up the stakes in higher levels. We do this in games so often I forget many DMs just take the monsters as is.

On the topic on monsters, don't forget to also look at third party creators for extra flavor. There are entire bestiary books dedicated to types of monsters that flesh out what the original content has. Dozens of skeles, troves of goblins, various fey, books full of spells and magic items to offer. Mix and match them in your games to surprise even seasoned players with something new.

Believe it or not, this is where bullet points and improv come in handy. Write down broad strokes notes that allow for players to do whatever, and be ready to roll with it. You can kind of have broad strokes options (imagine like an if/else code) for parts, but you cannot plan for everything. You never will be able to plan for everything. Sometimes you just have to be ready to whip out a brand new npc or map because somebody touched the butt and now you've gone off script.

You CAN railroad them where all points lead to the next hard section, but it feels railroady quite often and can be very hard to do well. My advice is plan just enough that it's cohesive, but still flexible enough for your party to go wild and break things.

Nice article, good advice, but I find it comical that they’re using Baldur’s Gate to explain it. This is stuff DMs have been doing since before computers existed. If anything, these are lessons BG3 learned from D&D, not the other way around

Quote from Cousin_Of_Xanathar >>

Nice article, good advice, but I find it comical that they’re using Baldur’s Gate to explain it. This is stuff DMs have been doing since before computers existed. If anything, these are lessons BG3 learned from D&D, not the other way around

 They gotta keep the franchise making money somehow. So, why not make it seem like BG3 (which to be fair is enjoyed by many even if I'm lukewarm to it) is doing some groundbreaking stuff? The DMG is really... not great, so it's a popular piece of relevent media with the brand attached they can point at over and over again.

Where's "actually follow the rules and balance encounters properly"? 😝

I love Baldur's Gate 3, I really do, but it's really hard to play as someone who plays 5e regularly as they've implemented nearly everything just wrong enough that it makes the game way harder than it may be for newer players unfamiliar with D&D. Also the game is absolutely full of massive encounters where the action economy is enormously stacked against the players, i.e- 8+ enemies each with multiple attacks and usually able to buff each other, or incapacitate player characters, slap sanctuary on themselves (which in BG3 means you can't target them at all, not that you have to roll a saving throw first) etc.

It means that to play BG3 you have to take full advantage of the piles and piles of magic items and scrolls you'll find everywhere, along with things like explosive barrels and fireworks because otherwise fights are incredibly difficult.

It made me nostalgic for level 1-3 encounters of actual goblins or kobolds, not the multi-attacking, bomb and magic wielding "goblins" of BG3.

That gripe aside though this is a pretty good list of things to keep in mind for any DM.

Here come the clowns! *doot-dee-dee-dee-doo-doo-doot*

IMO, while these won't work for *every permutation of humanity*, there are some good tips being explained in a way more recent players can possibly relate to, albeit awkwardly framed in a very "edited by someone over the writer" way.

Just it doesn't reflect you, doesn't mean you need to react like this is an OGL-level crisis & assume malice.

Ad lib. A great way to adlib is to take time rp'ing as a player since you can't plan what the dm throws at you. When you think you're ready, jump back in the dm seat and plan 1 or 2 outcomes but be prepared to adlib the crazy stuff

I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 when this article came out XD

The biggest thing I took from the game was the use of elevation and obstacles in terrain. Simply having a set of archers up on a few rocks can make a battle much more interesting, and a few narrow passages or corridors can shape the flow of battle, especially once control spells like Spike Growth or Hunger of Hadar are used. D&D obviously had this element already but Baldur’s Gate uses it to a much more extreme degree than any game I’ve seen or played in.

Quote from MercenaryGod >>

The biggest thing I took from the game was the use of elevation and obstacles in terrain. Simply having a set of archers up on a few rocks can make a battle much more interesting, and a few narrow passages or corridors can shape the flow of battle, especially once control spells like Spike Growth or Hunger of Hadar are used. D&D obviously had this element already but Baldur’s Gate uses it to a much more extreme degree than any game I’ve seen or played in.

That's actually a really good one to integrate more; the 5e rules basically say "the DM can grant advantage or disadvantage whenever and for whatever reason" and that's that, there's never any real guidance on when's a good time to do that. But a character having an advantageous or disadvantageous physical position in a combat is a perfectly good reason to do this, and so are things like flanking or back-stabbing which are little optional rules that are hidden away.

While I have gripes with how badly BG3 sometimes stacks the action-economy against you (seriously, I get a maximum of four characters and you won't let me control 99% of your suicidal NPC allies), the fact that high/low-ground has a real impact makes a major difference to how you treat a combat area, and it has an interesting knock-on effect for characters with high mobility like Monks and melee Rogues, because they can close with far away/high up targets and attack without penalty, whereas ranged characters on the ground are at a literal disadvantage, it also helps to emphasise the benefit of magic missile over spells that can do a lot more damage, because doing more damage doesn't count for much if you can't hit etc.

So really pushing vertically was a smart move.

Quote from MSLabo102 >>

What I'd like to know is how does one could achieve it in relatively low effort. They all look like daunting tasks to me, because you practically have to account for every possible outcomes, which I can only think of very few.

 The best way to is to NOT account for every possible outcome. Because you can't. What a DM can do is build an overall picture of the world the players are running in, generate a calendar of general events that take place in that world regardless of what players are doing, and when situations come up that may affect those events ask yourself "what would the NPCs affected reasonably do, given their general personalities?". Think of a DM as the rules referee and the world designer then think of the players as the real story tellers of that world.

Being old school, I've always had brief writeups describing the personalities and 2-3 goals of the major NPCs the players can/will interact with but not much more detail. I have general details of 5-6 settlements the players could reach but I'd generate more only if the players actually move toward them. I have general descriptions of nearby geographic locations but don't care that much about specific details. However, I've also spent time learning the general aspects of different kinds of forests, deserts, plains, grasslands, etc. so that I have a general idea as to how to describe them to players.

It's more important for a DM to have a wide base of general environmental knowledge to draw upon than a ton of detail that players may never get exposed to. Build a mind that flows from concept to concept like water while never getting stuck to any one specific detail. If a detail is immediately useful to the players, use it. If not, toss it if can it be easily generated on the fly or quickly jot it down if you think it may be of use in the near future. Having a DM journal to write in during a run is critical to this. An alternative is to use a voice recorder or cell phone with that capability to record what players do and say during a run then review and document important events after the run is over. As long as your players know ahead of time you're recording the run to help you out and don't mind you doing so, do it. Otherwise, go with the DM journal and jot down notes.

I think the 2 biggest things to take away are same lessons that I got from play Baldurs Gate 1/2:

1. Learning lore and information about monsters/encounter. You learn a monsters general habitat(s), what other monsters might work with them to up the challenge for some parties (instead of just throwing more of the same monster at them), and how monsters/creatures work together. Mind Flayers and Gith generally hate each other and would be tough to fight separately. However, a party thrown into a battle between raiding parties of each race would be an interesting encounter and could be a fair fight by allying with one.

2. Building on lore, you can create encounters with goals in mind to challenge certain players. A big bad melee monster with a ton of Hitpoints that can soak up damage and deal high damage can challenge the party in different ways than a Wizard controlling the battle field. That big bad Barbarian that always performs well in an encounter may struggle against a Wizard that is disabling the Barbarians abilities, and a big bad melee monster in the face of a squishy Sorcerer would challenge them. When you know how some monsters may work together, you can sometimes build cool encounters where you have an interesting combination of high Hitpoints monsters combined with a spellcaster controlling the battlefield to make really fun encounters instead of the "finding the right Challenge Rating monster(s) to throw at party" method.

This shall help me on further quests

Quote from Cousin_Of_Xanathar >>

Nice article, good advice, but I find it comical that they’re using Baldur’s Gate to explain it. This is stuff DMs have been doing since before computers existed. If anything, these are lessons BG3 learned from D&D, not the other way around

I don't think that's how they were communicating it. They didn't present anything as new or groundbreaking, just as lessons you could learn from BD3.

In fact, if you read the article you might have noticed this,

...so much of what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so good is the work that Swen Wincke and the team at Larian Studios did to build on the same types of choices great tabletop Dungeon Masters make for their games.

Whether you’re a novice DM or one with years under your belt, there are a lot of lessons and reminders for things you can and should do in your D&D games. Fire up your mind tadpoles because here are some DMing lessons you can learn from Baldur's Gate 3.

Probably pays to read more and not be instantly hostile to a premise.

Biggest lesson...no Micro transactions. But is anybody listening?