So I did end the game after all, but not so much on a nice note. I got this critique from one of my players as a collective of their experience with me DMing first time. Note: I only hosted 10 sessions, and the in-game time that lasted when they started was just 5 days, and I'm still trying to figure combat balancing and doing good narrative work; and these are close friends too I played with
Would be good to have feedback on how this critique is, because this was heavy for me.
"This is going to be on the harsh side, Maven. I apologize in advance, but I'm going to lay all of the cards on the table. Full transparency. And I say all of this because I care so deeply about you, and the effort you've made. I want you to improve, but if we're not brutally honest with you, you can't improve. So please keep this in mind. If I didn't care so much, I wouldn't have put this much effort into all this.
Here we go. Okay, first off, you're already going in the wrong direction with this. You're asking literally everyone else about what's wrong with your game rather than asking the one set of people who care enough about the game to tell you (repeatedly) that it's becoming less enjoyable.
Us, the players of your game.
And the basics of the issues we've had, boiled down, come to a few main points.
1) We feel you're taking too much from Critical Roll as an example for how to play and run your own campaign. We're not professionals, we're not wowed intrinsically by high production values and we don't need all the expensive bells and whistles. It's great if you want to provide those things, but not if your story cohesion suffers. Which brings me to
2) The mechanic's and balance in your game is boring at best and infuriating at worst. Your rulings on game balance seem arbitrary and designed to make everything we do a struggle for survival. We can't relax and have fun if we're busy trying to eke out a meager existence while being thrust into danger every 5 minutes. The environment keeps trying to kill us by being in it, and even clothing designed to be useful in it only works basically only 1 time before it becomes useless. You have an unnatural focus on what time it is, when absolutely nothing has required us to keep track of the time. We've been nearly party wiped 4 times across 6 combat encounters, not counting duels or bonus content. And every time we try to keep going, you throw nerfs at us, especially Blake. Everything is prohibitively expensive, and probably would have stayed that way had I not mentioned anything. The party can't seem to get anything done, which leads me to
3) Your storytelling has no focus, and the heroes have no ability to affect the world around them. The 2 biggest world changing events in the game that the party personally witnessed has amounted to a massive pile of NOTHING. The Velkhana sighting and warning of the impending disaster has lead to... Nothing happening. Arashi's death, the death of the God of this land has lead to... Also nothing happening.
The players have no direction to go on, at the whims of the NPCs who send them to other NPCs who are not connected in any meaningful way. The party does not have any impact on the world, and the results of their efforts are effectively nil. We're no better than the NPCs, cogs in the machine, who serve to be the lens of the players to witness the uncaring world around them doing world things.
Heroes are shaped by the world, but have the unique trait to then shape the world back. Their actions affect change. Our actions have done nothing of the sort. The world continues around us, and our actions do not bring about anything meaningful.
4) This last point is a more personal one, but it does lend some context to this whole scenario. When I crafted your arc in my campaign, I followed your instructions in the story that you told me you wanted to have put into the game, and I agreed. I put everything you asked me to put in into the game. And what did you do? You lost interest in it. You lost interest in the same story you wrote for me to play out. You hyper focused on the WRONG THING, being the word "guild". Instead of listening to anything else, the moment you heard that forbidden word, your entire brain shut off and you wouldn't listen to reason or context, to the point where we had to change your alignment to Chaotic Neutral. You dove so far off the deep end, I couldn't write for you anymore. I was stumped, because every detail I wrote went in one ear and out the other. The rest of the party had to drag you along to get shit done while trying not it to let you murder innocent guild members like Vermilion (but that didn't stop you from wrecking his sword for no reason other than "guild"). That arc was the single most difficult arc I've ever tried to write because the person who I wrote it for didn't seemed invested at all in it. So I started to write for literally anyone else who would pay attention to it! Which is why it fell apart midway through.
What all of this is is a lead up to the unfortunate fact that, you weren't a very good player. So of course you're not doing very well at being a DM. Why you're upsetting people, why we always seem to be at your mercy and instead of being excited to play with you. Because you don't listen to us. You're in your own world, you don't pay attention to what's going on, and you only do things that interest you at that exact moment. Case in point: The Deck of Many Things. You cared more about that deck than the story I was trying to tell ABOUT YOU. You wanted to derail the story so ******* hard you used it every single session. Because you only cared about yourself at that exact moment, no matter what happened to anyone else.
So how are we to expect you'd do anything more when you're in control?"
Without knowing the situation, it sounds like this person had a lot of built up frustration. I also play and DM with my close friends, and even though I love them dearly sometimes I also have issues with the game so I can sympathize with the writer of this critique and you. While it does sound blunt, I would separate your personal feelings and see this as this person genuinely trying to improve the quality of play for everyone. It can be very upsetting to pour yourself into something just for others to not appreciate it the same way. And while this person does seem a little harsh, I think it it's because without the harsh tone you might not understand their point.
I once had to kick my sister out of my DND group for being just a terrible player. Not cooperating, fighting my friends, being just mean, etc. I had to write a similar letter to her and it TERRIFIED me. And it was a sour note for a while between us. But after she had time to think, she understood my point and was ultimately thankful.
Once again, I don't know the whole situation and your side of the story. I would suggest sitting down with them, not trying to debate their grievances, but ask for how they would like you to move forward and improve.
(1) It sounds like you have some good friends in your life. Those who are willing to tolerate your failings and give you hard constructive criticism are the ones you want to be most appreciative of.
(2) DMing is hard work and being good at it requires being open to criticism like this. You're past the painful part, and now you can work on making incremental changes. Keep it up, it's worth it for your own sake, if no one else's!
(3) The critique itself is thoughtful and well written. I'll try to rephrase the meat of it for easier processing:
1. Start with the basics.
If you can't tell a good story without a bunch of accessories, you can't tell a good story. The decorations become crutches that distract you, rather than help you. Run a few sessions as theater of the mind with a dry erase map. Maybe even just a white board. Once that is going smoothly, add something small. See how it resonates with the group. If everyone likes it, keep it. If no one seems to care, drop it and try something new. Let your game be built around your group, rather that attempting to achieve some arbitrary "ideal" from square one.
2. D&D is about fantasy fulfilment.
Most people, and especially new players, want to feel like heroes, not actually experience the struggle of a hero. Give them the benefit of the doubt, assume that the character has more foresight than the players, and look for opportunities to let them succeed.
In improv, and you'll hear it occasionally on Critical Role, is the concept of "Yes, and..." and "No, but...", which essentially means that regardless of whether the player is trying to do something that is allowable in your world, you are providing them with an opportunity to move forward in accordance with what they want to achieve.
"Can I order a glass of wine?" "No, but you recognize this tavern as being famous for it's regional beers that range from fruity to floral." "Ok, great. I'll order a floral beer and chat with the tavernkeeper about their favorite breweries."
In combat, the same principle is in play. A player may attempt to do something such as flanking to get advantage, which might not be possible for the given scenario. In response, you could tell them that while there isn't enough room to flank, they see a potential hiding place that could give them the benefit of Unseen Attacker. etc...
"Hardcore" gameplay has its place, but it needs to be a group decision, and should follow successfully DMing a more traditional style, so that you can develop better intuitions for reading and guiding the table.
3. Players need to see the impact they are having in the world.
In the beginning, players will tell you what they care about on their character sheet and backstory. If a player chooses a non-standard race, then it should draw attention. Children might either be afraid or curious about a Tiefling's horns, while the mysterious rogue who broods in the corner will draw strange looks. Read their sheet and build opportunities to highlight their unique traits.
At low levels, the party's notoriety will begin to spread. When they complete "quests", townsfolk will start spreading rumors. The party might walk into a totally new town and have a stranger approach them with some "not quite accurate" account of their past exploits and ask them for help. Or, perhaps, they'll get blamed for something they had no part in and need to convince the townsfolk that they are an honorable group.
At higher levels, the party essentially becomes celebrities. Let them gain supporters and followers, etc..
Most importantly, your job is to provide the players with opportunities and then build upon the opportunities that they care about.
4. D&D requires active interaction.
When someone engages with you, it's important to first demonstrate understanding, then show appreciation, and finally reciprocate.
In every day life, this can be seen in the case of a parent or spouse cooking dinner. The child or spouse demonstrates understanding by going to the dinning table when called, shows appreciation by thanking them for the meal and, hopefully, provides specific compliments, such as "The spaghetti sauce is really good today!". And, after the meal, someone should reciprocate by clearing the table and helping wash the dishes.
In the case of D&D, this can be shown via the character building their backstory around the DMs campaign (understanding), then engaging enthusiastically when the story highlights the player (appreciation), and finally, intentionally contributing to the narrative to give the DM a sense of direction for subsequent campaigns (reciprocation).
In the end, it sound like you're stuck in a very common rut. Focus more on the people than the game, and place an emphasis on sharing the spotlight, while trusting that the rest of the table will do the same for you.
I would take onboard any and all feedback you have been given but try not to get to downheartened by it. I think it is worth remembering that people (in life as well as DMing/playing RPG's) are not usually great at something the first few times they do it. We improve by trial, error and repetition. It might be worth asking the group if they would be willing to have another crack at it but rather than go for an all out campaign see if they would be up for a series of one shots to act as a palate cleanser. This can give you a little more experience running different aspects of the game.
So putting this together with some of your other posts I can see that you cared a lot about the campaign and have been disappointed. Getting feedback is good I do think this person could of dialled it down a bit. Especially the last point about you as a player. I think they could if been a little more tactful and less personal.
Roll with it and pick yourself up - play more until you have a story you want to tell.
Ok it is hard to take feedback without taking it personally but this feels like it is a frustrated player trying to tell you what they as players want. I am going to try and give you some advice here please take it on board but ultimately make your own decisions.
He makes a very valid point about critical roll, I love critical roll, in many ways I love Matt Mercer as a DM, but, I am not Matt Mercer and my players are not voice actors. I don’t just mean we can’t do voices, but my and many many other players don’t roleplay that way. I have run campaigns full of silliness and complete random silliness, I have run campaigns for groups who only care about killing the monster in front of them, groups that play entirely in the 3rd person. There is no right way to DM and I can guarantee Matt Mercer has not DMd that style for all his players over the years. maybe you are the next Matt Mercer, but, before critical roll Matt had over 20 years experience in DMing.
This leads to my next point, your previous post you stated several times the issue was your players, I am a great believer that every disagreement has 3 sides, each individuals and the truth, somewhere in the middle. From reading this it seems that the issue was a combination of house rules created by you, to try and solve issues the players where having, and that then led to more house rules without you actually getting to the heart of the matter and why your players where unhappy, you where potentially trying to solve the wrong problem, Pacing, story telling and making the players feel involved. At level 1-6 players will never be more then observers to big life changing events so be very careful putting them In adventures should be low level, stopping bandits, killing goblins, dealing with owl bear infestations. This may feel small and insignificant to your grand plan for a story but it is the characters learning their place in the world,.
Taking critical roll the attack of the chroma conclave the players where at level 14-15 I think.
This leads into my next point, the hardest lesson as a DM, and one I have learnt across 20 years running many different systems is, your amazing adventure that you think makes an amazing story may not actually survive session 1, and that’s a great thing. I have had untold story ideas in my head that seem amazing but simply don’t grab my players, and, in hindsight where really not that good. In fact the campaign that evolved from the party doing their own thing became far more compelling that means that now days I generally sketch out nothing more then a few bullet points and then let my campaign actually take some fire and decide where it should go from there.
The way I have explained it to people is that for every game of thrones, or lord of the rings or wheel of time book there are untold stories by those authors that never made it past the first draft, roleplaying is a collaborative effort, you are telling a story together and not dictating a story to your players and if your story doesn’t grab them then you have to learn as a dm to rip it up and rework it rather then try forcing it down your players throats.
My advice to you, repeated from your other post, shelve your campaign, shelve your house rules and homebrew ideas. Sit down with your players, that message to you makes me feel that they want to play, they want you to be good, but, you also need to sit down and talk through the style of game with them and listen. My gut feeling is that if you just put it down to the players you will find yourself in this issue time and time again trying to find the “perfect party”.
Buy a module, like I suggested one of the starter sets, run a campaign that has been written for you and let’s you learn the rules, the mechanics, the pacing and your own style of storytelling, not Matt mercers. Then once you have played though that adventure, making tweaks to the story or adding to it as you go, or even halfway through just steaming off into another idea. Then think about where the story can go, think about building slowly. Again Matt Mercer sowed the seeds of the chroma conclave at lower levels, but did not make it a key story point, Vecna was mentioned but didn’t appear until level 18, in fact the players didn’t deal with world shattering moments until level 15+. Start small and pace your game.
Feedback is always a gift and constructive feedback is the best gift, anyone can tell you what your doing well but that never helps us improve. We can only help you so much because we are not in the room. Sit down with your party, hold your hands up, listen to their constructive feedback, buy a module and hold a session 0, discuss character choices, insist on PHB only, start from scratch and talk to your players. At the end of every session the last thing I always ask is, how was that, any feedback.
So I did end the game after all, but not so much on a nice note.
I got this critique from one of my players as a collective of their experience with me DMing first time. Note: I only hosted 10 sessions, and the in-game time that lasted when they started was just 5 days, and I'm still trying to figure combat balancing and doing good narrative work; and these are close friends too I played with
Would be good to have feedback on how this critique is, because this was heavy for me.
"This is going to be on the harsh side, Maven. I apologize in advance, but I'm going to lay all of the cards on the table. Full transparency. And I say all of this because I care so deeply about you, and the effort you've made. I want you to improve, but if we're not brutally honest with you, you can't improve. So please keep this in mind. If I didn't care so much, I wouldn't have put this much effort into all this.
Here we go.
Okay, first off, you're already going in the wrong direction with this. You're asking literally everyone else about what's wrong with your game rather than asking the one set of people who care enough about the game to tell you (repeatedly) that it's becoming less enjoyable.
Us, the players of your game.
And the basics of the issues we've had, boiled down, come to a few main points.
1) We feel you're taking too much from Critical Roll as an example for how to play and run your own campaign. We're not professionals, we're not wowed intrinsically by high production values and we don't need all the expensive bells and whistles. It's great if you want to provide those things, but not if your story cohesion suffers. Which brings me to
2) The mechanic's and balance in your game is boring at best and infuriating at worst. Your rulings on game balance seem arbitrary and designed to make everything we do a struggle for survival. We can't relax and have fun if we're busy trying to eke out a meager existence while being thrust into danger every 5 minutes. The environment keeps trying to kill us by being in it, and even clothing designed to be useful in it only works basically only 1 time before it becomes useless. You have an unnatural focus on what time it is, when absolutely nothing has required us to keep track of the time. We've been nearly party wiped 4 times across 6 combat encounters, not counting duels or bonus content. And every time we try to keep going, you throw nerfs at us, especially Blake. Everything is prohibitively expensive, and probably would have stayed that way had I not mentioned anything. The party can't seem to get anything done, which leads me to
3) Your storytelling has no focus, and the heroes have no ability to affect the world around them. The 2 biggest world changing events in the game that the party personally witnessed has amounted to a massive pile of NOTHING. The Velkhana sighting and warning of the impending disaster has lead to... Nothing happening. Arashi's death, the death of the God of this land has lead to... Also nothing happening.
The players have no direction to go on, at the whims of the NPCs who send them to other NPCs who are not connected in any meaningful way. The party does not have any impact on the world, and the results of their efforts are effectively nil. We're no better than the NPCs, cogs in the machine, who serve to be the lens of the players to witness the uncaring world around them doing world things.
Heroes are shaped by the world, but have the unique trait to then shape the world back. Their actions affect change. Our actions have done nothing of the sort. The world continues around us, and our actions do not bring about anything meaningful.
4) This last point is a more personal one, but it does lend some context to this whole scenario. When I crafted your arc in my campaign, I followed your instructions in the story that you told me you wanted to have put into the game, and I agreed. I put everything you asked me to put in into the game. And what did you do? You lost interest in it. You lost interest in the same story you wrote for me to play out. You hyper focused on the WRONG THING, being the word "guild". Instead of listening to anything else, the moment you heard that forbidden word, your entire brain shut off and you wouldn't listen to reason or context, to the point where we had to change your alignment to Chaotic Neutral. You dove so far off the deep end, I couldn't write for you anymore. I was stumped, because every detail I wrote went in one ear and out the other. The rest of the party had to drag you along to get shit done while trying not it to let you murder innocent guild members like Vermilion (but that didn't stop you from wrecking his sword for no reason other than "guild"). That arc was the single most difficult arc I've ever tried to write because the person who I wrote it for didn't seemed invested at all in it. So I started to write for literally anyone else who would pay attention to it! Which is why it fell apart midway through.
What all of this is is a lead up to the unfortunate fact that, you weren't a very good player. So of course you're not doing very well at being a DM. Why you're upsetting people, why we always seem to be at your mercy and instead of being excited to play with you. Because you don't listen to us. You're in your own world, you don't pay attention to what's going on, and you only do things that interest you at that exact moment. Case in point: The Deck of Many Things. You cared more about that deck than the story I was trying to tell ABOUT YOU. You wanted to derail the story so ******* hard you used it every single session. Because you only cared about yourself at that exact moment, no matter what happened to anyone else.
So how are we to expect you'd do anything more when you're in control?"
Without knowing the situation, it sounds like this person had a lot of built up frustration. I also play and DM with my close friends, and even though I love them dearly sometimes I also have issues with the game so I can sympathize with the writer of this critique and you. While it does sound blunt, I would separate your personal feelings and see this as this person genuinely trying to improve the quality of play for everyone. It can be very upsetting to pour yourself into something just for others to not appreciate it the same way. And while this person does seem a little harsh, I think it it's because without the harsh tone you might not understand their point.
I once had to kick my sister out of my DND group for being just a terrible player. Not cooperating, fighting my friends, being just mean, etc. I had to write a similar letter to her and it TERRIFIED me. And it was a sour note for a while between us. But after she had time to think, she understood my point and was ultimately thankful.
Once again, I don't know the whole situation and your side of the story. I would suggest sitting down with them, not trying to debate their grievances, but ask for how they would like you to move forward and improve.
(1) It sounds like you have some good friends in your life. Those who are willing to tolerate your failings and give you hard constructive criticism are the ones you want to be most appreciative of.
(2) DMing is hard work and being good at it requires being open to criticism like this. You're past the painful part, and now you can work on making incremental changes. Keep it up, it's worth it for your own sake, if no one else's!
(3) The critique itself is thoughtful and well written. I'll try to rephrase the meat of it for easier processing:
1. Start with the basics.
If you can't tell a good story without a bunch of accessories, you can't tell a good story. The decorations become crutches that distract you, rather than help you. Run a few sessions as theater of the mind with a dry erase map. Maybe even just a white board. Once that is going smoothly, add something small. See how it resonates with the group. If everyone likes it, keep it. If no one seems to care, drop it and try something new. Let your game be built around your group, rather that attempting to achieve some arbitrary "ideal" from square one.
2. D&D is about fantasy fulfilment.
Most people, and especially new players, want to feel like heroes, not actually experience the struggle of a hero. Give them the benefit of the doubt, assume that the character has more foresight than the players, and look for opportunities to let them succeed.
In improv, and you'll hear it occasionally on Critical Role, is the concept of "Yes, and..." and "No, but...", which essentially means that regardless of whether the player is trying to do something that is allowable in your world, you are providing them with an opportunity to move forward in accordance with what they want to achieve.
"Can I order a glass of wine?"
"No, but you recognize this tavern as being famous for it's regional beers that range from fruity to floral."
"Ok, great. I'll order a floral beer and chat with the tavernkeeper about their favorite breweries."
In combat, the same principle is in play. A player may attempt to do something such as flanking to get advantage, which might not be possible for the given scenario. In response, you could tell them that while there isn't enough room to flank, they see a potential hiding place that could give them the benefit of Unseen Attacker. etc...
"Hardcore" gameplay has its place, but it needs to be a group decision, and should follow successfully DMing a more traditional style, so that you can develop better intuitions for reading and guiding the table.
3. Players need to see the impact they are having in the world.
In the beginning, players will tell you what they care about on their character sheet and backstory. If a player chooses a non-standard race, then it should draw attention. Children might either be afraid or curious about a Tiefling's horns, while the mysterious rogue who broods in the corner will draw strange looks. Read their sheet and build opportunities to highlight their unique traits.
At low levels, the party's notoriety will begin to spread. When they complete "quests", townsfolk will start spreading rumors. The party might walk into a totally new town and have a stranger approach them with some "not quite accurate" account of their past exploits and ask them for help. Or, perhaps, they'll get blamed for something they had no part in and need to convince the townsfolk that they are an honorable group.
At higher levels, the party essentially becomes celebrities. Let them gain supporters and followers, etc..
Most importantly, your job is to provide the players with opportunities and then build upon the opportunities that they care about.
4. D&D requires active interaction.
When someone engages with you, it's important to first demonstrate understanding, then show appreciation, and finally reciprocate.
In every day life, this can be seen in the case of a parent or spouse cooking dinner. The child or spouse demonstrates understanding by going to the dinning table when called, shows appreciation by thanking them for the meal and, hopefully, provides specific compliments, such as "The spaghetti sauce is really good today!". And, after the meal, someone should reciprocate by clearing the table and helping wash the dishes.
In the case of D&D, this can be shown via the character building their backstory around the DMs campaign (understanding), then engaging enthusiastically when the story highlights the player (appreciation), and finally, intentionally contributing to the narrative to give the DM a sense of direction for subsequent campaigns (reciprocation).
In the end, it sound like you're stuck in a very common rut. Focus more on the people than the game, and place an emphasis on sharing the spotlight, while trusting that the rest of the table will do the same for you.
I would take onboard any and all feedback you have been given but try not to get to downheartened by it. I think it is worth remembering that people (in life as well as DMing/playing RPG's) are not usually great at something the first few times they do it. We improve by trial, error and repetition. It might be worth asking the group if they would be willing to have another crack at it but rather than go for an all out campaign see if they would be up for a series of one shots to act as a palate cleanser. This can give you a little more experience running different aspects of the game.
So putting this together with some of your other posts I can see that you cared a lot about the campaign and have been disappointed. Getting feedback is good I do think this person could of dialled it down a bit. Especially the last point about you as a player. I think they could if been a little more tactful and less personal.
Roll with it and pick yourself up - play more until you have a story you want to tell.
Ok it is hard to take feedback without taking it personally but this feels like it is a frustrated player trying to tell you what they as players want. I am going to try and give you some advice here please take it on board but ultimately make your own decisions.
He makes a very valid point about critical roll, I love critical roll, in many ways I love Matt Mercer as a DM, but, I am not Matt Mercer and my players are not voice actors. I don’t just mean we can’t do voices, but my and many many other players don’t roleplay that way. I have run campaigns full of silliness and complete random silliness, I have run campaigns for groups who only care about killing the monster in front of them, groups that play entirely in the 3rd person. There is no right way to DM and I can guarantee Matt Mercer has not DMd that style for all his players over the years. maybe you are the next Matt Mercer, but, before critical roll Matt had over 20 years experience in DMing.
This leads to my next point, your previous post you stated several times the issue was your players, I am a great believer that every disagreement has 3 sides, each individuals and the truth, somewhere in the middle. From reading this it seems that the issue was a combination of house rules created by you, to try and solve issues the players where having, and that then led to more house rules without you actually getting to the heart of the matter and why your players where unhappy, you where potentially trying to solve the wrong problem, Pacing, story telling and making the players feel involved. At level 1-6 players will never be more then observers to big life changing events so be very careful putting them In adventures should be low level, stopping bandits, killing goblins, dealing with owl bear infestations. This may feel small and insignificant to your grand plan for a story but it is the characters learning their place in the world,.
Taking critical roll the attack of the chroma conclave the players where at level 14-15 I think.
This leads into my next point, the hardest lesson as a DM, and one I have learnt across 20 years running many different systems is, your amazing adventure that you think makes an amazing story may not actually survive session 1, and that’s a great thing. I have had untold story ideas in my head that seem amazing but simply don’t grab my players, and, in hindsight where really not that good. In fact the campaign that evolved from the party doing their own thing became far more compelling that means that now days I generally sketch out nothing more then a few bullet points and then let my campaign actually take some fire and decide where it should go from there.
The way I have explained it to people is that for every game of thrones, or lord of the rings or wheel of time book there are untold stories by those authors that never made it past the first draft, roleplaying is a collaborative effort, you are telling a story together and not dictating a story to your players and if your story doesn’t grab them then you have to learn as a dm to rip it up and rework it rather then try forcing it down your players throats.
My advice to you, repeated from your other post, shelve your campaign, shelve your house rules and homebrew ideas. Sit down with your players, that message to you makes me feel that they want to play, they want you to be good, but, you also need to sit down and talk through the style of game with them and listen. My gut feeling is that if you just put it down to the players you will find yourself in this issue time and time again trying to find the “perfect party”.
Buy a module, like I suggested one of the starter sets, run a campaign that has been written for you and let’s you learn the rules, the mechanics, the pacing and your own style of storytelling, not Matt mercers. Then once you have played though that adventure, making tweaks to the story or adding to it as you go, or even halfway through just steaming off into another idea. Then think about where the story can go, think about building slowly. Again Matt Mercer sowed the seeds of the chroma conclave at lower levels, but did not make it a key story point, Vecna was mentioned but didn’t appear until level 18, in fact the players didn’t deal with world shattering moments until level 15+. Start small and pace your game.
Feedback is always a gift and constructive feedback is the best gift, anyone can tell you what your doing well but that never helps us improve. We can only help you so much because we are not in the room. Sit down with your party, hold your hands up, listen to their constructive feedback, buy a module and hold a session 0, discuss character choices, insist on PHB only, start from scratch and talk to your players. At the end of every session the last thing I always ask is, how was that, any feedback.