A group of friends and I are interested in getting a game going. I have been dubbed the default DM since I have some experience, however it is from a long time ago (20+ years). AD&D was the last system I DM'd with, and I know so much has changed since then. Although my first game was close to 30 years ago, I have not been super active. My lack of activity means I don't have other DMs to pull methods from during my time as a player.
The second issue I have not had the chance to participate in an online game, therefore I am also trying to learn my way around the various platforms available out there.
Any advice, tips, tricks, suggestions, and any other useful info will be greatly appreciated.
The rules changed. DM methods didn't. The mechanics of the game are still there, but some little nuances are different. IMO, getting hung up on the ruleset will leave you right there, hung up on the ruleset. None of you are familiar with the current rules of the game, effectively it's just like the first time you played or DM'd AD&D with your friends.
For DM tips and tricks, well there are thousands of websites and blogs out there that offer that, including this one. A couple of things that I still go back to for inspiration or reassurance:
Let choices matter - if PC X wants to kill NPC 2 in the middle of a city with the guard watching and hundreds of witnesses, ok but there might be a reaction...
Verisimilitude and simulation are not synonyms. The world that you are playing in has dragons and make-believe elves. It needs to make sense in that world, not replicate physics.
Rulings not rules. The DM runs the game by making rulings on how stuff works or if it succeeds. The rules only provide the DM a framework and a guide. The DM can ignore them completely if they wish.
Create challenges and obstacles not solutions. Your players job is to come up with a solution to the problem.
Run a fun game. Golden rule. If the players (you're a player too, don't forget that part) have fun and enjoy the game. You've succeeded.
I'll stop preaching now and wish you a good day and have fun!
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
When it comes to maps for digital tabletop platforms; liberal use of image search and blatant asset theft are your friends; assuming you aren't somehow monetizing your games (streaming etc.), and you're just DM-ing for your group; chances are nobody will care that much if your maps don't match one another nicely or weren't made especially for them.
One I always point to as well: be entirely prepared for your carefully laid plans to be so much ash in the hands of your players the moment they make contact with them. They'll almost certainly think of something you didn't; and rolling with it has often yielded some of my most fun moments as a DM.
The most important tip I could give a new DM: Cheat. That is, after all, the primary purpose of the DM screen--your players cannot see what you roll on the dice.
What do I mean by that? As DM, it is your job to both facilitate the game and make sure the players are having fun. Let's use a combat encounter as an example. No one likes a combat encounter where the bad guy rolls really well and slaughters the party; no one likes a combat encounter where the bad guy rolls poorly and the party makes a fool of the baddie. Sometimes it helps to fudge your rolls so the fight feels relatively fair--sometimes you need to make a miss a hit or vice versa. Or perhaps one of your party members is overpowered, so they disproportionately get most of the kills--just decide that, if that party member drops a monster to 0 for the millionth time in a session, you'll let the monster live until some other player "kills" the monster. Or just start adding mechanics or heals to a boss if the party is overpowering it.
The same can be done outside of combat, with NPCs succeeding/failing checks that help the narrative or difficulty ratings on various traps, objects, and checks being changed as needed.
Some other quick tips, in no particular order:
- Make sure your players know they can approach you with problems and try to adjust to fix those problems within the narrative, so your fixes feel seamless. You can always make up an external threat to bring a bickering party back together, or introduce an NPC to give a problematic player motivation to help with the rest of the party's quest, etc.
- Do not be so stuck to your campaign ideas that you cannot abandon them if they are not working out or the party does not seem interested in them.
- Sometimes you could spend twenty hours making a big, complex dungeon, but the most entertaining part of the session to your players is something like the silly bartender character you improvised. Remember the little things that your players loved and maybe reference them or bring them back a dozen sessions later, just to see (or hear if only over voice coms) the joy as a much loved character makes his or her return.
- Have fun with it! If you are not having fun, you can bet your players are not having fun.
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Hi there,
A group of friends and I are interested in getting a game going. I have been dubbed the default DM since I have some experience, however it is from a long time ago (20+ years). AD&D was the last system I DM'd with, and I know so much has changed since then. Although my first game was close to 30 years ago, I have not been super active. My lack of activity means I don't have other DMs to pull methods from during my time as a player.
The second issue I have not had the chance to participate in an online game, therefore I am also trying to learn my way around the various platforms available out there.
Any advice, tips, tricks, suggestions, and any other useful info will be greatly appreciated.
Twitch - contragoddess -- Steam - contragoddess -- Twitter - @contragoddess
"No power in the verse can stop me" - River Tam
The rules changed. DM methods didn't. The mechanics of the game are still there, but some little nuances are different. IMO, getting hung up on the ruleset will leave you right there, hung up on the ruleset. None of you are familiar with the current rules of the game, effectively it's just like the first time you played or DM'd AD&D with your friends.
For DM tips and tricks, well there are thousands of websites and blogs out there that offer that, including this one. A couple of things that I still go back to for inspiration or reassurance:
From my own toolbox:
I'll stop preaching now and wish you a good day and have fun!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Thank you very much.
Twitch - contragoddess -- Steam - contragoddess -- Twitter - @contragoddess
"No power in the verse can stop me" - River Tam
When it comes to maps for digital tabletop platforms; liberal use of image search and blatant asset theft are your friends; assuming you aren't somehow monetizing your games (streaming etc.), and you're just DM-ing for your group; chances are nobody will care that much if your maps don't match one another nicely or weren't made especially for them.
One I always point to as well: be entirely prepared for your carefully laid plans to be so much ash in the hands of your players the moment they make contact with them. They'll almost certainly think of something you didn't; and rolling with it has often yielded some of my most fun moments as a DM.
The most important tip I could give a new DM: Cheat. That is, after all, the primary purpose of the DM screen--your players cannot see what you roll on the dice.
What do I mean by that? As DM, it is your job to both facilitate the game and make sure the players are having fun. Let's use a combat encounter as an example. No one likes a combat encounter where the bad guy rolls really well and slaughters the party; no one likes a combat encounter where the bad guy rolls poorly and the party makes a fool of the baddie. Sometimes it helps to fudge your rolls so the fight feels relatively fair--sometimes you need to make a miss a hit or vice versa. Or perhaps one of your party members is overpowered, so they disproportionately get most of the kills--just decide that, if that party member drops a monster to 0 for the millionth time in a session, you'll let the monster live until some other player "kills" the monster. Or just start adding mechanics or heals to a boss if the party is overpowering it.
The same can be done outside of combat, with NPCs succeeding/failing checks that help the narrative or difficulty ratings on various traps, objects, and checks being changed as needed.
Some other quick tips, in no particular order:
- Make sure your players know they can approach you with problems and try to adjust to fix those problems within the narrative, so your fixes feel seamless. You can always make up an external threat to bring a bickering party back together, or introduce an NPC to give a problematic player motivation to help with the rest of the party's quest, etc.
- Do not be so stuck to your campaign ideas that you cannot abandon them if they are not working out or the party does not seem interested in them.
- Sometimes you could spend twenty hours making a big, complex dungeon, but the most entertaining part of the session to your players is something like the silly bartender character you improvised. Remember the little things that your players loved and maybe reference them or bring them back a dozen sessions later, just to see (or hear if only over voice coms) the joy as a much loved character makes his or her return.
- Have fun with it! If you are not having fun, you can bet your players are not having fun.