I have only DMed two campaigns as of yet. Both homebrew as I enjoy coming up with my own stories. I play with group of 5 friends and they all seem to be having a great time with what I do but personally I still feel im lacking in certain departments like describing enviroments, RPing etc.
Any advice you guys could give me on how to improve on being a DM would be greatly appreciated!
With describing environments, the great thing is that you can sort this out in advance. I recommend using more than one sense in your description, and be as specific as possible. Also, take a look at a favorite author's descriptions, and try to describe a different environment following their pattern. Adda few details that a character could interact with. I'm not the best either, but here's a fast go at it.
Market: You pass by stalls with banners in a rainbow of colors, catching wafts of cinnamon and spices and a cacophony of haggling. As you pass by, you see shopkeeper in fine purple robes jump slightly and sweep several items under the table.
Underground river: The murky river descends into a dark cave. You work to keep your balance while stepping on bowling ball sized rocks and nearly tripping over large sticks*. There is a slight rotting stench in the faint mist rising above the water. You see a tuft of white fur caught on the rough stone wall.
*Unbenownst to adventurers, unless they check in the murky water, the rocks and sticks are skeletons waiting to rise up when they get deeper. The white fur belongs to a beast they are tracking, and is a hint to go that way.
Get a selection of images for locations, facial hair, hair styles , weapons, creatures, environments etc and put them in a folder. So these aren’t to show your players but bring on up when you need to describe something.
use these the same way an artist uses reference.
its a lot easier to describe something you can see than imagine in intricate detail.
like off the top of your head spend one minute describing a forest clearing where you party might consider a long rest
When describing environments and such, one thing I always try to do is describe the smells. If the Players can really start to imagine what their PCs are smelling, it really puts them in the scene.
Like, in a swamp, mentioning the dieted smells of decomposition and stagnant water as an example. If you can describe that smell well in a single sentence, the players will feel more like their PCs are in a swamp.
I would also say... don't be too hard on yourself. Descriptive narration takes time and practice. Frankly, I am still terrible at it off-the-cuff. To compensate, I try to write out detailed descriptions ahead of time (I am a writer not an orator, by nature). Then I read them aloud to the players. A crutch, yes, but it's the only way I can do it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Don’t try to describe every detail, just highlight a few things. Enough to set a scene. And make sure to give them all equal interest. If you describe one thing in excruciating detail and gloss over everything else, it’s like a big neon arrow pointing at that one thing. Of course, you can use that, if the one thing is very important, it will draw them to look at it, but it can also be fun to do just to mess with them.
On the RP end, don't knock yourself out trying to learn to do voices or be an improv expert. As long as your players are having fun, you don't even need to speak in the first person! But when you go into a scene, do give a little thought to what the players' counterparts want; how they'd like the conversation to end.
I agree with others, in that scent/smell is a very powerful trigger. The other less-used senses would also help - is the floor soft/squidgy underfoot, does the air have an acrid taste to it.
The best advice I saw for RPing an NPC is to decide several simple things about the NPC: what does the NPC most desire, and what does the NPC most fear. From just those two facts you should be able to adjust the RP based on those two motivations. Not all shopkeepers most desire wealth and most fear going broke - maybe one shopkeeper most desires the return of his long-lost son (in RP this could give a different outcome, based on how the PCs interact).
When describing NPCs, think of one thing that makes that NPC look different from every other person in the world (the PCs will then probably say, "oh yeah, the guy with the mole on his face said..."
Great advice so far guys thanks so much for the help! My players all seem to be enjoying themselves and thankfully are all very understanding as we all started out together so are learning together but iv fallen in love with being a DM and making stories and encounters that they will enjoy so youv given me a lot of brilliant ideas to go forward with.
Eternal gratitude for the willingness to help out a rookie!
Do voices and accents even if you suck at them, ESPECIALLY if you suck at them. I love standing in front of my friends and embarrassing the crap out of myself. If everyone is laughing the whole time it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the game everyone will be having a lot of fun.
As you can see from the suggestions, there is some conflicting advice being given, so just find what works for your group. On that note, talk to your players about what they want out of the game.
Do voices and accents even if you suck at them, ESPECIALLY if you suck at them. I love standing in front of my friends and embarrassing the crap out of myself. If everyone is laughing the whole time it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the game everyone will be having a lot of fun.
I think this is up to the DM. I, personally, do not try to do accents and I don't use my incompetence at doing accents as a humor device. Additionally, I find this sort of thing doesn't work well for a campaign with a serious tone, which are the only sort I try to DM. I am not good at comedy -- I like a good comedy as much as anyone, but I have no ability to generate comical material myself.
The reason there is some conflicting advice is that we are kind of saying "play to your strengths" and each DM has different strengths.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think this is up to the DM. I, personally, do not try to do accents and I don't use my incompetence at doing accents as a humor device. Additionally, I find this sort of thing doesn't work well for a campaign with a serious tone, which are the only sort I try to DM. I am not good at comedy -- I like a good comedy as much as anyone, but I have no ability to generate comical material myself.
The reason there is some conflicting advice is that we are kind of saying "play to your strengths" and each DM has different strengths.
The voices thing I do my best with, being scottish I tend to just variate between many different Scottish and british accents, with the occasional foreign voice in there I think I can emulate well. As iv said before my players seem to be having a blast with it but just personally I feel my descriptions of areas and general RPing of NPCs need some work. For only having DMed twice im quite happy with a lot of the things I can do but you can always learn more so whether the advice variates between posts or not it is all valued and there is no wrong opinions so I thank you all for your input!
My campaign does have a serious vibe having followed on ten years after my friends previous campaign the plot is essentially that the land is being besieged by a force of orcs, goblins, gnomes etc. We established that no race is necessarily blatantly evil in our world but due to strong racism these races are all seen as lesser to the likes of humans, elves and dwarves and someone seems to have rallied them to fight back, and the party has been tasked to seek out the PCs from the previous campaign and finding out who's causing this. I kind of wanted to go for a whole morally grey thing. Having said that due to us being friends there is ALOT of comedy in the game, due to the antics the party gets up to, for example my Wizard meeting a talking spider named Stephen and convincing him to tag along with him, so he now has a little spider that lives in his robes and rolls initiative in battle during which he almost always spends his turn doing nothing but looking for flies.
I feel you can mix comedy with a serious tone but I also understand the idea of just sticking with one tone for the campaign, I suppose when it comes down to it its all about entertaining your players.
A custom monster is always a great idea and can be a great source of lore for your world. They are also great for newer DMs who are just starting out and they're players truly don't know what to expect.
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Hi guys
I have only DMed two campaigns as of yet. Both homebrew as I enjoy coming up with my own stories. I play with group of 5 friends and they all seem to be having a great time with what I do but personally I still feel im lacking in certain departments like describing enviroments, RPing etc.
Any advice you guys could give me on how to improve on being a DM would be greatly appreciated!
With describing environments, the great thing is that you can sort this out in advance. I recommend using more than one sense in your description, and be as specific as possible. Also, take a look at a favorite author's descriptions, and try to describe a different environment following their pattern. Add a few details that a character could interact with. I'm not the best either, but here's a fast go at it.
Market: You pass by stalls with banners in a rainbow of colors, catching wafts of cinnamon and spices and a cacophony of haggling. As you pass by, you see shopkeeper in fine purple robes jump slightly and sweep several items under the table.
Underground river: The murky river descends into a dark cave. You work to keep your balance while stepping on bowling ball sized rocks and nearly tripping over large sticks*. There is a slight rotting stench in the faint mist rising above the water. You see a tuft of white fur caught on the rough stone wall.
*Unbenownst to adventurers, unless they check in the murky water, the rocks and sticks are skeletons waiting to rise up when they get deeper. The white fur belongs to a beast they are tracking, and is a hint to go that way.
Get a selection of images for locations, facial hair, hair styles , weapons, creatures, environments etc and put them in a folder. So these aren’t to show your players but bring on up when you need to describe something.
use these the same way an artist uses reference.
its a lot easier to describe something you can see than imagine in intricate detail.
like off the top of your head spend one minute describing a forest clearing where you party might consider a long rest
now click this link and do the same looking at it https://www.artstation.com/artwork/forest-clearing
references are for pros
When describing environments and such, one thing I always try to do is describe the smells. If the Players can really start to imagine what their PCs are smelling, it really puts them in the scene.
Like, in a swamp, mentioning the dieted smells of decomposition and stagnant water as an example. If you can describe that smell well in a single sentence, the players will feel more like their PCs are in a swamp.
I hope that helps.
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I would also say... don't be too hard on yourself. Descriptive narration takes time and practice. Frankly, I am still terrible at it off-the-cuff. To compensate, I try to write out detailed descriptions ahead of time (I am a writer not an orator, by nature). Then I read them aloud to the players. A crutch, yes, but it's the only way I can do it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Don’t try to describe every detail, just highlight a few things. Enough to set a scene.
And make sure to give them all equal interest. If you describe one thing in excruciating detail and gloss over everything else, it’s like a big neon arrow pointing at that one thing. Of course, you can use that, if the one thing is very important, it will draw them to look at it, but it can also be fun to do just to mess with them.
On the RP end, don't knock yourself out trying to learn to do voices or be an improv expert. As long as your players are having fun, you don't even need to speak in the first person! But when you go into a scene, do give a little thought to what the players' counterparts want; how they'd like the conversation to end.
I agree with others, in that scent/smell is a very powerful trigger. The other less-used senses would also help - is the floor soft/squidgy underfoot, does the air have an acrid taste to it.
The best advice I saw for RPing an NPC is to decide several simple things about the NPC: what does the NPC most desire, and what does the NPC most fear. From just those two facts you should be able to adjust the RP based on those two motivations. Not all shopkeepers most desire wealth and most fear going broke - maybe one shopkeeper most desires the return of his long-lost son (in RP this could give a different outcome, based on how the PCs interact).
When describing NPCs, think of one thing that makes that NPC look different from every other person in the world (the PCs will then probably say, "oh yeah, the guy with the mole on his face said..."
Great advice so far guys thanks so much for the help! My players all seem to be enjoying themselves and thankfully are all very understanding as we all started out together so are learning together but iv fallen in love with being a DM and making stories and encounters that they will enjoy so youv given me a lot of brilliant ideas to go forward with.
Eternal gratitude for the willingness to help out a rookie!
Do voices and accents even if you suck at them, ESPECIALLY if you suck at them. I love standing in front of my friends and embarrassing the crap out of myself. If everyone is laughing the whole time it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the game everyone will be having a lot of fun.
As you can see from the suggestions, there is some conflicting advice being given, so just find what works for your group. On that note, talk to your players about what they want out of the game.
I think this is up to the DM. I, personally, do not try to do accents and I don't use my incompetence at doing accents as a humor device. Additionally, I find this sort of thing doesn't work well for a campaign with a serious tone, which are the only sort I try to DM. I am not good at comedy -- I like a good comedy as much as anyone, but I have no ability to generate comical material myself.
The reason there is some conflicting advice is that we are kind of saying "play to your strengths" and each DM has different strengths.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
.......?
Just have fun, do whatever you want.
The voices thing I do my best with, being scottish I tend to just variate between many different Scottish and british accents, with the occasional foreign voice in there I think I can emulate well. As iv said before my players seem to be having a blast with it but just personally I feel my descriptions of areas and general RPing of NPCs need some work. For only having DMed twice im quite happy with a lot of the things I can do but you can always learn more so whether the advice variates between posts or not it is all valued and there is no wrong opinions so I thank you all for your input!
My campaign does have a serious vibe having followed on ten years after my friends previous campaign the plot is essentially that the land is being besieged by a force of orcs, goblins, gnomes etc. We established that no race is necessarily blatantly evil in our world but due to strong racism these races are all seen as lesser to the likes of humans, elves and dwarves and someone seems to have rallied them to fight back, and the party has been tasked to seek out the PCs from the previous campaign and finding out who's causing this. I kind of wanted to go for a whole morally grey thing. Having said that due to us being friends there is ALOT of comedy in the game, due to the antics the party gets up to, for example my Wizard meeting a talking spider named Stephen and convincing him to tag along with him, so he now has a little spider that lives in his robes and rolls initiative in battle during which he almost always spends his turn doing nothing but looking for flies.
I feel you can mix comedy with a serious tone but I also understand the idea of just sticking with one tone for the campaign, I suppose when it comes down to it its all about entertaining your players.
A custom monster is always a great idea and can be a great source of lore for your world. They are also great for newer DMs who are just starting out and they're players truly don't know what to expect.