I have been asked to take over as a DM for a group of friends. We barely started on campaign. Like had one session of the main campaign play and did a few small campaigns. The group is split between 2 groups over multiple states so we play mostly virtual. Sometimes players around the area will get together in person. What I'm just hoping is come good tips on hosting virtial game. I have a short campaign in mind to start of on called the Wild Sheep Chase. We are using discord for the video chat and D&D Beyond for the Character Sheets and general rules etc. I'm just wondering as people suggestions for other free tools I should use to enhance the game play. I think I want to get through a few short campaigns like only take a few sessions to complete and then work into a larger campaign. We are all pretty new to the game so we are all learning together. I know all the base mechanics and I love putting together a good and descriptive stories so I like the idea of being a DM I just need to know the best free tools to use in order to enhance our game play.
Are you planning on using a Virtual TableTop (VTT) to share maps and show player positions? The big difference for me playing online versus in person was that theatre of the mind became harder online, I couldn't act things out as well and the players had more trouble focusing without something to look at. Two options you could consider on a budget and if you're already using D&D Beyond are D&D Beyond Maps and AboveVTT. The first is DDB's own VTT and is available to anyone with a Master Tier account, it's pretty basic but also has a low bar to entry for trying to learn it. AboveVTT is what my group uses, a free Chrome extension that allows you to pull maps and character sheets from DDB as well as having hundreds of other maps to choose from. Both let you import your own maps so no problem if you're running homebrew
Welcome the the DM chair, it can be intimidating, but very rewarding :)
Our current campaign group is also split up between three states and we all play virtually via Discord. Although our pool of players in total spans 5 states.
As a DM, if you are planning to use any soundscapes in your games, I'd look into KenkuFM. I use it when I run sessions and it is great for adding sound to your games as it is a Plugin for Discord and works seamlessly. It is a 'Pay what you want' service, and although I believe you can get it for free, I threw $15 at them as it works really well.
There are a TON of free tools out there for DMs, and if you don't already have one you plan to use, here is a great Initiative Tracker from DM Tools.
I have even seen digital DM Screens that you can display on your monitor so you have commonly referenced rules right at your fingertips (or you can use a DM Screen near your monitors).
Cheers!
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Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty. Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers; Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas. Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Yeah I am currently looking at Virtual table tops. Our group was using Roll20 previously so I have been playing around with it the First campaign I'm doing is call the The Wild Sheep Chase. Thought it would be a fun first little Ice breaker. I found that on https://www.dmsguild.com/ which I see is either quite a bit of free content or pay what you can. For now we are trying to keep it to free content. So any free to use site suggestions would be great.
Yeah not sure about using sounds, music or that just yet. Honestly the last time our previous DM tried it ended up being a bit of a hassle. Whatever they used the music was too loud for players and whatever they used didn't make it easy to turn the volume down. We ended up turning it off because there was almost no point in having it because even when the volume was low it honestly didn't add much and it was too low anyways to really make any impact. It might be something I will look into later but with the shorter campaigns I'm starting with I feel like I will skip music or sound effects for now. We are all super new to this anyways that all that would be more distraction than not at this point.
I've run Wild Sheep Chase myself, it's a fun little adventure so I hope you all enjoy it. If you look at post 143 here there's a list of free adventures and suggestions that should keep you occupied for a while or can just give you ideas to create your own
Thanks I'll take a look. I read the PDF on the Wild Sheep chase last night. It sounds like a lot of fun and prefect for my group but I will check out your list. I think it would be good for me to start on the shorter campaigns and it honestly works into the overall story I'm building. We will be looking to share DM responsibilities so my character that I created will join later so built up a story around her being the mentor of the group and she gets pulled away on a very personal mission. So easy to tie her back in later when someone else in the group wants to try DM'ing
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Hello All,
I have been asked to take over as a DM for a group of friends. We barely started on campaign. Like had one session of the main campaign play and did a few small campaigns. The group is split between 2 groups over multiple states so we play mostly virtual. Sometimes players around the area will get together in person. What I'm just hoping is come good tips on hosting virtial game. I have a short campaign in mind to start of on called the Wild Sheep Chase. We are using discord for the video chat and D&D Beyond for the Character Sheets and general rules etc. I'm just wondering as people suggestions for other free tools I should use to enhance the game play. I think I want to get through a few short campaigns like only take a few sessions to complete and then work into a larger campaign. We are all pretty new to the game so we are all learning together. I know all the base mechanics and I love putting together a good and descriptive stories so I like the idea of being a DM I just need to know the best free tools to use in order to enhance our game play.
Are you planning on using a Virtual TableTop (VTT) to share maps and show player positions? The big difference for me playing online versus in person was that theatre of the mind became harder online, I couldn't act things out as well and the players had more trouble focusing without something to look at. Two options you could consider on a budget and if you're already using D&D Beyond are D&D Beyond Maps and AboveVTT. The first is DDB's own VTT and is available to anyone with a Master Tier account, it's pretty basic but also has a low bar to entry for trying to learn it. AboveVTT is what my group uses, a free Chrome extension that allows you to pull maps and character sheets from DDB as well as having hundreds of other maps to choose from. Both let you import your own maps so no problem if you're running homebrew
Greetings Arya_Stormborn,
Welcome the the DM chair, it can be intimidating, but very rewarding :)
Our current campaign group is also split up between three states and we all play virtually via Discord.
Although our pool of players in total spans 5 states.
As a DM, if you are planning to use any soundscapes in your games, I'd look into KenkuFM.
I use it when I run sessions and it is great for adding sound to your games as it is a Plugin for Discord and works seamlessly.
It is a 'Pay what you want' service, and although I believe you can get it for free, I threw $15 at them as it works really well.
There are a TON of free tools out there for DMs, and if you don't already have one you plan to use, here is a great Initiative Tracker from DM Tools.
I have even seen digital DM Screens that you can display on your monitor so you have commonly referenced rules right at your fingertips (or you can use a DM Screen near your monitors).
Cheers!
Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty.
Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers;
Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas.
Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Yeah I am currently looking at Virtual table tops. Our group was using Roll20 previously so I have been playing around with it the First campaign I'm doing is call the The Wild Sheep Chase. Thought it would be a fun first little Ice breaker. I found that on https://www.dmsguild.com/ which I see is either quite a bit of free content or pay what you can. For now we are trying to keep it to free content. So any free to use site suggestions would be great.
Yeah not sure about using sounds, music or that just yet. Honestly the last time our previous DM tried it ended up being a bit of a hassle. Whatever they used the music was too loud for players and whatever they used didn't make it easy to turn the volume down. We ended up turning it off because there was almost no point in having it because even when the volume was low it honestly didn't add much and it was too low anyways to really make any impact. It might be something I will look into later but with the shorter campaigns I'm starting with I feel like I will skip music or sound effects for now. We are all super new to this anyways that all that would be more distraction than not at this point.
I've run Wild Sheep Chase myself, it's a fun little adventure so I hope you all enjoy it. If you look at post 143 here there's a list of free adventures and suggestions that should keep you occupied for a while or can just give you ideas to create your own
Thanks I'll take a look. I read the PDF on the Wild Sheep chase last night. It sounds like a lot of fun and prefect for my group but I will check out your list. I think it would be good for me to start on the shorter campaigns and it honestly works into the overall story I'm building. We will be looking to share DM responsibilities so my character that I created will join later so built up a story around her being the mentor of the group and she gets pulled away on a very personal mission. So easy to tie her back in later when someone else in the group wants to try DM'ing