Out of curiosity, what is like the most common mistakes and I know I need to do it myself to get that experience but I am thinking I’m doing those like tavern Check points, where everyone can go in and interact https://1921681254.mx/
Assume that no matter how good your clues are, the Party will always come up with a different answer at best, at worst they will not even notice your clues.
Assume that no matter how good your clues are, the Party will always come up with a different answer at best, at worst they will not even notice your clues.
This is a good one. Always give your players three clues for every one you think they need. And even then, don't punish them for misunderstanding the clues. I always fall back on an old story from my youth:
I was playing in a game with a bunch of my friends, and we'd spent weeks in this dungeon, fighting monsters, tripping traps, generally having a grand old time. We got to the end of the dungeon and beat the boss, and were headed into the treasure room, but my DM had one last puzzle for us. There were three levers and a riddle whose contents I couldn't remember now if you put a gun to my head, but the gist was this: Pull the right lever, treasure room opens. Pull one of the wrong levers, treasure room fills with lava, destroying everything. Pull the other wrong lever, treasure room fills with lava AND opens, destroying the treasure, and us with it. We spent an hour fussing over the riddle, fighting amongst ourselves, and making check after check to give us whatever clues we could, before we pulled the lever and boom! Treasure room opens! We cheer! We get treasure! We eat pizza and go home!
A few years later, the DM and I are getting drinks and reminiscing about our wasted youth, and I mention how cool that dungeon was, and how hard the riddle was. You know what he says? "You know, you guys pulled the wrong lever."
Apparently, we'd misunderstood a portion of the riddle and, try as he might to correct our understanding, we just barreled on ahead like dumbasses and pulled the wrong lever. We should have been utterly obliterated by lava. When I asked him why, then, he didn't kill us as intended, he said, "You all spent an hour figuring out that riddle. If I had killed you after all that, everybody would have been pissed, and the night would have been ruined. It was more fun to just let you guys get the treasure."
Remember that, as DM, you are the god of fun. It's common for new DM's to obsess over rules and planning, which is good. But if you're too dogmatic, you're going to miss opportunities to fudge a roll, change a rule, or abandon a plot hook the players aren't following in favor of something they're more interested in. DnD, like all other TTRPG's, is just a framework for getting together with friends and telling a story. If the framework gets in the way of the story, don't let it. Be flexible. There's nothing wrong with there being no wrong lever.
Ultimately, pretty much every mistake ends up being "running things wrong for your specific group".
I will add a couple of specific bits of advice:
Talk to your players outside of the game. Find out what they think they want. Listen to how they think things are going. If there's a problem within the group, don't try to solve it in-game.
Your players will never pay as much attention to your worldbuilding as you do.
Never use in-game punishments for out-of-game problems. Don't "punish" your players' characters for not taking your world seriously, instead talk to them outside of the game about what kind of game they want to play, what kind of game you want to run, and how it makes you feel when the players disregard the work you put into the game and just kill everything (for example).
Problem player? Talk to them. Overpowered homebrew? Talk to them. Main character syndrome? Talk to them.
Assume that no matter how good your clues are, the Party will always come up with a different answer at best, at worst they will not even notice your clues.
Going a bit further than this but on the same theme: Your players won't remember all the factions, they won't remember all the NPCs, they won't necessarily imagine the politics the way you do, they might not even remember all the plot. We spend hours designing this stuff and then expect players to remember it in minutes. Be kind
Assume that no matter how good your clues are, the Party will always come up with a different answer at best, at worst they will not even notice your clues.
Going a bit further than this but on the same theme: Your players won't remember all the factions, they won't remember all the NPCs, they won't necessarily imagine the politics the way you do, they might not even remember all the plot. We spend hours designing this stuff and then expect players to remember it in minutes. Be kind
Even if you provide supplemental written material summarizing what they learned, they'll still reach conclusions not only unsupported by that stuff, but directly contradicted by it.
Overplanning too much in advance is one of the common mistakes a DM can make. Sicne you never know where your player characters will go next, it's often better to design campaign based on how party progess.
I have two major mistakes I see DMs (including myself) making that I think are worth highlighting
Not listening to good ideas from players. For example, sometimes, I'll make a puzzle, but it only works in my head and my players go a totally different direction. If I insisted on them finding the original puzzle answer, it would take forever, but the players come up with an actually really smart answer to the puzzle ("Oh, this needs a special key, let's search for it in that other room, I think I saw something that would work", "This spell could work to activate this mechanism!", etc.). If you shut it down, it encourages players to be less creative, but it can also in the best cases allow you to build out more. A paladin of mine wanted to do a smite on a target that was out of reach, using an attack of opportunity on someone who they would have to dash to get in melee range of- technically, rules as written in 2024 that's a bonus action, but the rule of cool applies. It didn't really hurt the balance- the enemy was running away anyway- but it let a player do something that felt cool to them and probably let them have more fun. Past me might not have done that, because past me was very rules as written, and that can be less fun and to be honest if it doesn't make a difference whatever lets players have more fun is better.
Listening to bad ideas from players. I see this particularly happen when veteran players meet novice DMs and try to bend the rules. If someone says "It would be really cool if I could do this thing that involves a feature I don't have" remember that it's not just about that player's experience. Anyone else in the party with that feature is going to feel like their toes are being stepped on since someone else got it for free, anyone who was considering acquiring that feature (if it comes from a feat or subclass they might choose down the road) will probably skip it, and so on. If someone has a normal way to acquire something, and they want a shortcut, encourage them to get it normally. Don't be afraid, especially when it comes to homebrew, third party content, or mixing 2014 and 2024 content, to say no if it feels like someone is abusing something. This doesn't just mean because something is "good", or is better than someone else, that it should go in the bin. Don't start quashing content just because it feels strong. But if it feels like it's so dramatically strong that you couldn't choose anything else then it may be either being read wrong by a player or actually might just need to get a "No thanks, that sounds too strong."
And, finally, remember that players should be having fun. It's great as a DM to tell a compelling story, and to enjoy your time and combat encounters, but if your players aren't having fun the game isn't worth it. Remember that you should be rooting for your players! They're the protagonists of your story! That doesn't necessarily mean that you should just let players have things go their way all the time- sometimes it's okay to sit down, particularly with players who hate "losing", and have a conversation about difficulty and balance and say that it matters that the story isn't just smooth sailing straight to a happy ending. It's okay to confront them with hardship and adversity but they should be having fun along the way. Listen to what they want, help them build their characters out from their starting points, and equip them to explore the world you're building together. Then, when bad things happen, don't gloat or celebrate, have moments of mourning for the loss of a beloved character. When the party triumphs, celebrate the defeat of the enemy together.
Oh, and have a session zero with clear expectations, but also listening to what players want and are looking forward to in the game. It's an easy fix to a ton of problems.
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Out of curiosity, what is like the most common mistakes and I know I need to do it myself to get that experience but I am thinking I’m doing those like tavern Check points, where everyone can go in and interact https://1921681254.mx/
Assume that no matter how good your clues are, the Party will always come up with a different answer at best, at worst they will not even notice your clues.
This is a good one. Always give your players three clues for every one you think they need. And even then, don't punish them for misunderstanding the clues. I always fall back on an old story from my youth:
I was playing in a game with a bunch of my friends, and we'd spent weeks in this dungeon, fighting monsters, tripping traps, generally having a grand old time. We got to the end of the dungeon and beat the boss, and were headed into the treasure room, but my DM had one last puzzle for us. There were three levers and a riddle whose contents I couldn't remember now if you put a gun to my head, but the gist was this: Pull the right lever, treasure room opens. Pull one of the wrong levers, treasure room fills with lava, destroying everything. Pull the other wrong lever, treasure room fills with lava AND opens, destroying the treasure, and us with it. We spent an hour fussing over the riddle, fighting amongst ourselves, and making check after check to give us whatever clues we could, before we pulled the lever and boom! Treasure room opens! We cheer! We get treasure! We eat pizza and go home!
A few years later, the DM and I are getting drinks and reminiscing about our wasted youth, and I mention how cool that dungeon was, and how hard the riddle was. You know what he says? "You know, you guys pulled the wrong lever."
Apparently, we'd misunderstood a portion of the riddle and, try as he might to correct our understanding, we just barreled on ahead like dumbasses and pulled the wrong lever. We should have been utterly obliterated by lava. When I asked him why, then, he didn't kill us as intended, he said, "You all spent an hour figuring out that riddle. If I had killed you after all that, everybody would have been pissed, and the night would have been ruined. It was more fun to just let you guys get the treasure."
Remember that, as DM, you are the god of fun. It's common for new DM's to obsess over rules and planning, which is good. But if you're too dogmatic, you're going to miss opportunities to fudge a roll, change a rule, or abandon a plot hook the players aren't following in favor of something they're more interested in. DnD, like all other TTRPG's, is just a framework for getting together with friends and telling a story. If the framework gets in the way of the story, don't let it. Be flexible. There's nothing wrong with there being no wrong lever.
Ultimately, pretty much every mistake ends up being "running things wrong for your specific group".
I will add a couple of specific bits of advice:
Talk to your players outside of the game. Find out what they think they want. Listen to how they think things are going. If there's a problem within the group, don't try to solve it in-game.
Your players will never pay as much attention to your worldbuilding as you do.
Never use in-game punishments for out-of-game problems. Don't "punish" your players' characters for not taking your world seriously, instead talk to them outside of the game about what kind of game they want to play, what kind of game you want to run, and how it makes you feel when the players disregard the work you put into the game and just kill everything (for example).
Problem player? Talk to them. Overpowered homebrew? Talk to them. Main character syndrome? Talk to them.
Going a bit further than this but on the same theme: Your players won't remember all the factions, they won't remember all the NPCs, they won't necessarily imagine the politics the way you do, they might not even remember all the plot. We spend hours designing this stuff and then expect players to remember it in minutes. Be kind
Even if you provide supplemental written material summarizing what they learned, they'll still reach conclusions not only unsupported by that stuff, but directly contradicted by it.
Overplanning too much in advance is one of the common mistakes a DM can make. Sicne you never know where your player characters will go next, it's often better to design campaign based on how party progess.
I have two major mistakes I see DMs (including myself) making that I think are worth highlighting
Not listening to good ideas from players. For example, sometimes, I'll make a puzzle, but it only works in my head and my players go a totally different direction. If I insisted on them finding the original puzzle answer, it would take forever, but the players come up with an actually really smart answer to the puzzle ("Oh, this needs a special key, let's search for it in that other room, I think I saw something that would work", "This spell could work to activate this mechanism!", etc.). If you shut it down, it encourages players to be less creative, but it can also in the best cases allow you to build out more. A paladin of mine wanted to do a smite on a target that was out of reach, using an attack of opportunity on someone who they would have to dash to get in melee range of- technically, rules as written in 2024 that's a bonus action, but the rule of cool applies. It didn't really hurt the balance- the enemy was running away anyway- but it let a player do something that felt cool to them and probably let them have more fun. Past me might not have done that, because past me was very rules as written, and that can be less fun and to be honest if it doesn't make a difference whatever lets players have more fun is better.
Listening to bad ideas from players. I see this particularly happen when veteran players meet novice DMs and try to bend the rules. If someone says "It would be really cool if I could do this thing that involves a feature I don't have" remember that it's not just about that player's experience. Anyone else in the party with that feature is going to feel like their toes are being stepped on since someone else got it for free, anyone who was considering acquiring that feature (if it comes from a feat or subclass they might choose down the road) will probably skip it, and so on. If someone has a normal way to acquire something, and they want a shortcut, encourage them to get it normally. Don't be afraid, especially when it comes to homebrew, third party content, or mixing 2014 and 2024 content, to say no if it feels like someone is abusing something. This doesn't just mean because something is "good", or is better than someone else, that it should go in the bin. Don't start quashing content just because it feels strong. But if it feels like it's so dramatically strong that you couldn't choose anything else then it may be either being read wrong by a player or actually might just need to get a "No thanks, that sounds too strong."
And, finally, remember that players should be having fun. It's great as a DM to tell a compelling story, and to enjoy your time and combat encounters, but if your players aren't having fun the game isn't worth it. Remember that you should be rooting for your players! They're the protagonists of your story! That doesn't necessarily mean that you should just let players have things go their way all the time- sometimes it's okay to sit down, particularly with players who hate "losing", and have a conversation about difficulty and balance and say that it matters that the story isn't just smooth sailing straight to a happy ending. It's okay to confront them with hardship and adversity but they should be having fun along the way. Listen to what they want, help them build their characters out from their starting points, and equip them to explore the world you're building together. Then, when bad things happen, don't gloat or celebrate, have moments of mourning for the loss of a beloved character. When the party triumphs, celebrate the defeat of the enemy together.
Oh, and have a session zero with clear expectations, but also listening to what players want and are looking forward to in the game. It's an easy fix to a ton of problems.