If you should have a player that decides they don't want to venture, but instead explore your world - stay focus on party adventuring as DM, then every 30+ minutes go back to wandering character(s) for a minute, then back to adventuring party, repeat. That solo becomes boring, and they'll want to rejoin the party.
Reason and how to stop it:
Yes, characters will wander a bit, it will happen organically (and have every plausible scenario for this within your story), but if it's an enjoyable, tight story, they will do so within the elements of the story, for the story and not to get away from a boring DM telling a boring story.
Read at least 4 books on story structure and writing for visual media, then after, you'll be compelled to spend 100+ hours developing adventures and you won't be that DM who brings a few scraps of paper with "notes".
The 100+ hours committed to creating an awesome adventure won't protect you from bad players, disruptive players, or wandering players, but it will dramatically - dramatically - minimize the behavior. When player characters are on the edge of their seats, engaged, immersed, curious, frightened, desiring to know, needing to participate - they'll focus on the objectives, they'll see this as your narration - their story.
Thank you, I really like this suggestion. As I've been prepping for the next session I was actually thinking of which scenes I should have prepared and how to modularize them in the event the players begin chasing "squirrels". For example, last session my players had awoken from an unrestful night at the Thundering Lizard and met in the lobby to discuss their plan of action for the day. Well, one of my players informed me he wasn't actually a part of this moment... Instead he was upstairs setting one of the rooms on fire, because he wasn't satisfied with the establishment. (He is playing a tiefling arcane trickster rogue modeled after Loki.) That may of been a bit off topic, but my dilemma with all my players (not just the chaotic ones) is dialoging information to them naturally (through NPCs) that help point them in the right direction. I currently use a lot of third person communication like, "The inn keeper does this..." "This NPC talks to you as if they are annoyed..." etc. with that in mind as well as what you said about story structure, do you have any books you would recommend that also might focus on how to write compelling characters and dialog?
Most welcome.
First, regarding a book for "compelling", no. But here is an example of dialogue I used on my last session: it was something I produced for the game, I use audio once or twice (no more than that) per adventure: Helda Speaks
My recommendation, that will help you see and understand story - I would read "How To Write A Damn Good Novel" - this book will show you what a story is. You'll read and study it over the weekend, else in a few hours - and you will feel like an expert. You won't be, but it will motivate you and you can start bringing structure and order to your story...and to the characters.
I've studied a dozen books on story structure for visual media, written many stories, so it will take time, but right now you need direction...yet, you only need to read a few books like this one for D&D.
But this is your book, "How To Write A Damn Good Novel".
PRO TIP: when you write an adventure, ask yourself just 2 basic questions: What is the problem? What is the resolution? Now start preparing adventure with all the details.
PRO TIP: what makes "compelling"? Minimize the details, focus on story and dialogue - your players have an imagination. Once you have that story down, you can populate it with traps, encounters, specifics, scenery, lore, NPC's, etc. - but it all should be written surrounding this story - the 2 basic questions as mentioned.
PS later you'll discover things about story structure that I created like the Double Hook Theory, the 5% Rules, etc. you'll naturally implement into your stories, which brings even more depth, and makes the story more compelling.
PPS the book I recommend, "How To Write A Damn Good Novel", though it's story structure for novel writting, the first....7 chapters or so directly relate to story structure and writing for visual media, trust.
PRO TIP: when you write an adventure, ask yourself just 2 basic questions: What is the problem? What is the resolution? Now start preparing adventure with all the details.
PRO TIP: what makes "compelling"? Minimize the details, focus on story and dialogue - your players have an imagination. Once you have that story down, you can populate it with traps, encounters, specifics, scenery, lore, NPC's, etc. - but it all should be written surrounding this story - the 2 basic questions as mentioned.
PS later you'll discover things about story structure that I created like the Double Hook Theory, the 5% Rules, etc. you'll naturally implement into your stories, which brings even more depth, and makes the story more compelling.
PPS the book I recommend, "How To Write A Damn Good Novel", though it's story structure for novel writting, the first....7 chapters or so directly relate to story structure and writing for visual media, trust.
I appreciate the tips and I'll definitely pick up that book!
Do you have any tips on how to handle player(s) who want to abuse their spells and skills to solving problems, specifically social encounters?
For example, I have an arcane trickster rogue who likes to use Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation, Intimidation, Deception, and Persuasion to overcome every NPC I put into the scene regardless of their purpose. If it's a shopkeeper this particular player wants to deceive and persuade the shop keep to bend to their will. If the NPC is a town guard this player wants to couple Thaumaturgy and Intimidation to, again, bend that guard to their will.
I did some research into this question already, and the best I got was the general ways we naturally respond to "threats" by either fighting, fleeing, or freezing. I don't necessarily want him to stop attempting these actions, because he isn't technically playing his character "wrong" in the setting. However, I want to get more creative in how I respond to this behavior, so that the story moves forward.
Let's first note - these are guidelines, not rules. For example: in my universe of D&D, Detect Magic is NOT a ritual spell - this saves all players from having to hear that one player spam "I Detect Magic," every time I speak, and Eldrich Invocation doesn't exist. Guideline changes like this ARE sincerely appreciated by ALL players at the table and makes the adventure much more challenging.
Thaumaturgy and Prestidigitation is just noise, light, sound, something annoying, odd, else fun to contend with for any NPC - just cause a character raises his voice or alters appearance of their eyes, for example, any NPC higher than level 3 are unlikely going to be phased by it, and not all NPC's are going to even care. For example: Bob, the innkeeper in a large city, might already be used to these tricks by customers coming and going - he is a veteran of this ploy, while Bob in the back woods of a small town, might declare witchcraft and alarm the towns folks of the evil that is inhabiting their tiny community - ringing the town's bell, rallying the townsfolks, "Kill the witches!"
Intimidation, Deception, and Persuasion skills are good when needed to scare, de-escalate, seek favorable conditions, to steal, etc. but you can have it NOT work. You are the Dungeon Master. Sometimes conditions aren't favorable (environmental conditions to accessibility). It's just that simple. Not every instance these skills will work: try to intimidate a guard at the gate or a bouncer at the local watering hole - they're used to people trying to brute their way, and a farrier, blacksmith or bartender - depends - though he or she already has had their share of sh###y customers, from bad attitudes to threats because customer isn't happy with something (billing, quality of work, quality of service, quality of product, etc.), so they too are NOT so easily pushed over by these intimidations, deceptions, persuasions ;)
Note, if you have bad players, consider going to meetup.com - create a group ($35 a month) - or join a group (free). My group is 24 players - I banned 3 of them for being annoying, while the group down the street from me has 3,000+ players (I prefer quality over quantity, and why I left that group with 3,000 players....story for another time). But at least you can pick and choose players you want who will appreciate your time and energy to tell them a story, else at least run them through encounters. Some players are socially inept, else just not a good fit for your style of gaming (worse, a player who just likes to cause trouble for you and other players).
PS yes, get that book - its an easy, yet fascinating read, trust.
Dude, just buy a membership at Dungeonfog. You can create maps on the fly extremely quick and share your screen with the players via Zoom and have their tokens present to move around and use Zoom to draw area effects. Dungeonfog comes with a ton of player made maps or you just create your maps on the fly. I put maps in Dungeonfog and then use fog of war to show where the players are and then skip through the layers on it. I have a few random encounter maps made for wilderness and I have a different map for dungeon. The area effect drawing is the best on Zoom and your players can move the area effects around on the map themselves.
As soon as I read this I got an ad for it, which actually looks better than roll20! Thanks for sharing this with me. Are you some kind of cleric for Savras?
Its not perfect, you'll need Zoom to share the screen, but Zooms annotation feature is really great for spell effects. Have you players draw their auras if they want to show them, I had a paladin and cleric try to have me draw and move all their stuff when they could do it themselves, I finally told them if they want to display them, they draw (they can) and they move and center them where they want them centered. The only thing you have to do is move the tokens for the players, it is what it is. However in the DM view you can see exact feet they move, that is very helpful for movement and spell shot range, no estimations, but exact range. The Beyond 20 app will roll to Discord for you from D&D Beyond.
It doesn't require much to learn, its pretty much all there. That being written, come 2024 its highly likely WotC will be putting out a Talespire clone for VTT built into D&D 5.5E, no clue if they'll use D&D Beyond, I have a feeling they will only include D&D Beyond if WotC buys them out, otherwise it will be their own software.
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Most welcome.
First, regarding a book for "compelling", no. But here is an example of dialogue I used on my last session: it was something I produced for the game, I use audio once or twice (no more than that) per adventure: Helda Speaks
My recommendation, that will help you see and understand story - I would read "How To Write A Damn Good Novel" - this book will show you what a story is. You'll read and study it over the weekend, else in a few hours - and you will feel like an expert. You won't be, but it will motivate you and you can start bringing structure and order to your story...and to the characters.
I've studied a dozen books on story structure for visual media, written many stories, so it will take time, but right now you need direction...yet, you only need to read a few books like this one for D&D.
But this is your book, "How To Write A Damn Good Novel".
PRO TIP: when you write an adventure, ask yourself just 2 basic questions: What is the problem? What is the resolution? Now start preparing adventure with all the details.
PRO TIP: what makes "compelling"? Minimize the details, focus on story and dialogue - your players have an imagination. Once you have that story down, you can populate it with traps, encounters, specifics, scenery, lore, NPC's, etc. - but it all should be written surrounding this story - the 2 basic questions as mentioned.
PS later you'll discover things about story structure that I created like the Double Hook Theory, the 5% Rules, etc. you'll naturally implement into your stories, which brings even more depth, and makes the story more compelling.
PPS the book I recommend, "How To Write A Damn Good Novel", though it's story structure for novel writting, the first....7 chapters or so directly relate to story structure and writing for visual media, trust.
I appreciate the tips and I'll definitely pick up that book!
Do you have any tips on how to handle player(s) who want to abuse their spells and skills to solving problems, specifically social encounters?
For example, I have an arcane trickster rogue who likes to use Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation, Intimidation, Deception, and Persuasion to overcome every NPC I put into the scene regardless of their purpose. If it's a shopkeeper this particular player wants to deceive and persuade the shop keep to bend to their will. If the NPC is a town guard this player wants to couple Thaumaturgy and Intimidation to, again, bend that guard to their will.
I did some research into this question already, and the best I got was the general ways we naturally respond to "threats" by either fighting, fleeing, or freezing. I don't necessarily want him to stop attempting these actions, because he isn't technically playing his character "wrong" in the setting. However, I want to get more creative in how I respond to this behavior, so that the story moves forward.
Welcome.
Let us see how I would handle it.
Let's first note - these are guidelines, not rules. For example: in my universe of D&D, Detect Magic is NOT a ritual spell - this saves all players from having to hear that one player spam "I Detect Magic," every time I speak, and Eldrich Invocation doesn't exist. Guideline changes like this ARE sincerely appreciated by ALL players at the table and makes the adventure much more challenging.
Thaumaturgy and Prestidigitation is just noise, light, sound, something annoying, odd, else fun to contend with for any NPC - just cause a character raises his voice or alters appearance of their eyes, for example, any NPC higher than level 3 are unlikely going to be phased by it, and not all NPC's are going to even care. For example: Bob, the innkeeper in a large city, might already be used to these tricks by customers coming and going - he is a veteran of this ploy, while Bob in the back woods of a small town, might declare witchcraft and alarm the towns folks of the evil that is inhabiting their tiny community - ringing the town's bell, rallying the townsfolks, "Kill the witches!"
Intimidation, Deception, and Persuasion skills are good when needed to scare, de-escalate, seek favorable conditions, to steal, etc. but you can have it NOT work. You are the Dungeon Master. Sometimes conditions aren't favorable (environmental conditions to accessibility). It's just that simple. Not every instance these skills will work: try to intimidate a guard at the gate or a bouncer at the local watering hole - they're used to people trying to brute their way, and a farrier, blacksmith or bartender - depends - though he or she already has had their share of sh###y customers, from bad attitudes to threats because customer isn't happy with something (billing, quality of work, quality of service, quality of product, etc.), so they too are NOT so easily pushed over by these intimidations, deceptions, persuasions ;)
Note, if you have bad players, consider going to meetup.com - create a group ($35 a month) - or join a group (free). My group is 24 players - I banned 3 of them for being annoying, while the group down the street from me has 3,000+ players (I prefer quality over quantity, and why I left that group with 3,000 players....story for another time). But at least you can pick and choose players you want who will appreciate your time and energy to tell them a story, else at least run them through encounters. Some players are socially inept, else just not a good fit for your style of gaming (worse, a player who just likes to cause trouble for you and other players).
PS yes, get that book - its an easy, yet fascinating read, trust.
Its not perfect, you'll need Zoom to share the screen, but Zooms annotation feature is really great for spell effects. Have you players draw their auras if they want to show them, I had a paladin and cleric try to have me draw and move all their stuff when they could do it themselves, I finally told them if they want to display them, they draw (they can) and they move and center them where they want them centered. The only thing you have to do is move the tokens for the players, it is what it is. However in the DM view you can see exact feet they move, that is very helpful for movement and spell shot range, no estimations, but exact range. The Beyond 20 app will roll to Discord for you from D&D Beyond.
It doesn't require much to learn, its pretty much all there. That being written, come 2024 its highly likely WotC will be putting out a Talespire clone for VTT built into D&D 5.5E, no clue if they'll use D&D Beyond, I have a feeling they will only include D&D Beyond if WotC buys them out, otherwise it will be their own software.