Hi, I'm fairly new to dnd and I don't really dm or play as a character I find myself just writing stories or posting in Story Time. Lately I found that I can't create a good story and it gets kinda boring. Any advice on what I should do?
Edit: This was probably the smartest thing I have ever done
I've always been better at giving advice than following it, but my two cents are:
1) Read as much as possible.
2) Start with a strong antagonist.
The first one is probably obvious. Most "innovation" is just thoughtful recombination. The more you are exposed to, the better you will be at incorporating the elements that make a story jump off the page.
The second one may also be obvious, but can't be understated. A hero without a cause is a nobody. A nuanced villain sets the tone, and gives weight to everything that transpires. (The villain may be an individual, or a more abstract idea, like "Capitalism".)
Beyond that, you should decide what kind of story you want to tell and look into the structure of those kinds of tales. How is the story going to end? What is the climax? What is the twist? How are you going to hook your reader into caring about the narrative? (Everything is subject to change)
Once you have the "shape" of the story, think about the world your characters exist within. Get granular. What makes their world unique? What kind of smells and sounds permeate the world? Capture a single moment in the major settings of your world and try to describe it in as much detail as possible. Our senses, smell in particular, have a very strong link to our memories and imagination. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the right smell may be worth a lifetime.
If you can properly immerse yourself into your world, and have a basic idea of how events are going to unfold, the next steps may come naturally.
Beyond even that, you could research human psychology. Every person tends to fall under a handful of archetypes. While our lives may seem drastically different, we are all driven by the same set of fears and desires. Tapping into something like the fear of the unknown, escape to freedom, desperation to find purpose, or yearning for "special" knowledge/power can help you determine what the "meat" of your story should be. Satisfaction can be teased, embellished, and dramatized in ways to keep the reader wanting more, even if there really isn't any substance to the story itself.
Steal, steal, steal, umm *cough* take inspiration from movies and books and tv shows.
The PCs are attending a function at the castle of an influential noble. During the celebrations, terrorists take over the castle and hold the guests prisoner for political purposes. It turns out the terrorists actually have a different, secret reason for being there.
The PCs are attending a summit at a remote location. Some of the magical creations (awakened sharks, lets say) escape from captivity. At the same time, a botched ritual releases elemental forces (air, shall we say) leading to magical winds and storms containing vicious fish.
The secret police has been infiltrated by shapechangers. They have a plan to take over and control the entire world. At the same, a small group have discovered some world-altering transportation magic. If the shapeshifters get hold of it, their victory is certain. Where can the small group hide their development? At the same time, strange events have taken place, that seem to indicate someone from the future is trying to communicate.
Steal, steal, steal, umm *cough* take inspiration from movies and books and tv shows.
The PCs are attending a function at the castle of an influential noble. During the celebrations, terrorists take over the castle and hold the guests prisoner for political purposes. It turns out the terrorists actually have a different, secret reason for being there.
The PCs are attending a summit at a remote location. Some of the magical creations (awakened sharks, lets say) escape from captivity. At the same time, a botched ritual releases elemental forces (air, shall we say) leading to magical winds and storms containing vicious fish.
The secret police has been infiltrated by shapechangers. They have a plan to take over and control the entire world. At the same, a small group have discovered some world-altering transportation magic. If the shapeshifters get hold of it, their victory is certain. Where can the small group hide their development? At the same time, strange events have taken place, that seem to indicate someone from the future is trying to communicate.
Nice ideas. Those first two were pretty obvious but I'm actually quite stumped by the third one. I'm either overthinking it or it's a fandom I haven't encountered. Care to give us another clue? :P
@OP: I'm a fan of the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). It's not meant as an insult but rather to remember that the more complicated the plot is, the easier it is that it gets bogged down or turns out not so good. That doesn't mean it can't have layers or depth, that's just part of the execution, though. Take "The old man and the sea" for example. At the surface it is just a fishing story but when you leeker deeper it is much, much more. Contrast that with Game of Thrones. The first we season were fairly straight forward but at the end when the creators tried to cram to much of everything into the show it almost literally crashed and burned.
Hints from the acting and writting courses I have taken:
Surprises and unexpected things are the foundation of good writing. Scenes where everything go as predicted are boring. That is why betrayal is so common - what, the hero's best friend is the bad guy??? But that got used so often it became predicatable... It was great the first time, but not the 100th.
Characters with backstory take time but are more interesting. The cheapskate merchant is ok, the cheapskate that is taking all the money he earns and supporting an orphanage is more fun.
When a player works at something and achieves it, it means a lot more than simply getting it right away. If they want X, but you do not think they can get it at the first place they look, think about a plan on how they can actually get it.
It’s been said a lot, but the best villains are the heroes of their own story. The bad guy who wants power for its own sake is boring. The bad guy who, if you kind of squint at his plans you can see a strange logic to why he’s doing things is better. The best ones think they are trying to save the world but go too far. Think thanos in the mcu movies. He thought he was helping save everyone from themselves and the problems caused by overpopulation.
For DMing, but even moreso for player characters, one small and counterintuitive tip is: backstory doesn't really matter. What matters at the table is, characterization.
Hot: Jotting notes down that your dwarf gets nervous and stuttery and claustrophobic undreground, but insists everything is fine.
Not: That same dwarf, with pages of backstory written about how it's a result of losing his daughter in a cave in caused by a rival mining clan who think he's dead and stole his claim but now he's struggling to find the strength to overcome the fear and guilt and return and reclaim what is rightfully his
Like, its a fine story, depth is supposed to be good right? But nobody at the table wants to sit around and talk about something set in stone that already happened that isn't something they can interact with now in the present. Write your characters to be about what they do or will do, not what they have done, and especially not what their childhood was like :p
its partly personal opinion. i think backstory is pretty good. i usually have a pretty short one, that can effect my playing, but not a lot. i also agree, that you dont need to spend thirty minutes, explaining your backstory. if only you know, its great, but i think having no backstory is bad. how and why is the character an adventurer, why does the character ave the flaws, bonds, and ideals it does, and if your playing an exotic race like tie fling or yaun ti pure blood, why do you not follow the rest of your kin and do evil stuff, why do you live with normal races, why did you travel from you homeland to the normal land if your a race that normally lives not with everybody else. backstory can answer all those questions, i a paragraph or so, even if you dont explain/tell your backstory to the rest of the party, in can help role playing: say your in a tavern and someone asks you why you go adventuring when you make less money than other jobs, and have a very real chance of dying, or an enemy tries to get you to stop the adventure because its to much pain, well weather you say yes or no might depend a lot about why your adventuring, and how much it costed (not in money, but in time, pain, and giving up other things) to become an adventure.
I personally think most every campaign should start with the phrase “roll for initiative” but that’s an older school of thought. Start with a mystery. You should know something the players don’t know. At least the first part of the campaign is them trying to figure out what that is.
I usually start with a theme or very broad premise I want to explore. Then I draw conflicts from that and kind of use it as a lens through which I view the campaign.
My previous campaign grew out of reading about 4e D&D cosmology and started with the question: "What would happen if the planes of existence began to drift apart?" Out of that sprung a lot of ideas on how the planes might rely on each other's influence, who might want to disrupt those influences, and how the planes might change with those influences weakened or severed entirely.
My current campaign is built around the concept of civilization. I wanted to explore the conflicts of civilization vs. chaos and civilization vs. the wilderness. What aspects of civilization are universally beneficial and which might be seen as destructive? If given a chance to lead the development of a new civilization, what decisions would you make and where would you steer it?
NPCs and individual adventures aren't always based on the main theme, but most relate to it in some way. I feel that it gives a feeling of cohesion to the campaign and also provides a helpful jumping-off point when I'm thinking about content. In a storytelling system with this much freedom, I've found I work a lot better within a given area of focus.
Oh and +1 to plagiarizing everything you can. Movies, TV, books, current events, random questions your 4-year-old kid asks you - it's all fertilizer for your idea garden.
I have to start with a map. Once I have the map, I fill in some major details about the towns, cities, hamlets, villages, ... like who is the mayor and why is (s)he the mayor. Other details like who owns the shop, the blacksmith, the tavern and the stable can come as we go. Usually a story about the mayor will create enough story background to give each place a flavor for the story. I always make sure there is a place for the settlement to get water and food or it doesn't make sense. A mining community, for example, might need regular deliveries of foodstuffs.
Next I create two tiers of bad guys. There is a moderate persistent threat of bandits, Goblinoids, Giants, Orcs, undead or something that creates reasons for the PCs to start adventuring. But there is a major archvillain that is seeking to establish an evil nation or something in the area. While the party is contending with threat number 1, they learn more and more about threat number 2. At some point the story shifts to the party dealing with threat number 2 and threat number 1 becomes background noise.
With the two threats in mind, I construct their organizations with a hierarchy, logistics and communications manner. I superimpose this on the map and then decide where the party will begin on the map.
The last thing is to try to make the encounters make sense. If your party is navigating a dangerous mountain pass they shouldn't be accosted by swamp monsters nor should they meet a halfling farmer that wants to sell the party a bushel of turnips.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
This is all good, but is there a good way to start a story?
Don't be afraid to start in a tavern. It may be a cliché, but it's a cliché for a reason-- it presents characters a good environment to explore each other and the world around them in the microcosm of the world at large that is The Tavern.
If you're a new DM, relying on convenient short-hand such as Starting in a Tavern to set up your game and maybe work towards more complex ideas as you grow confident DMing is invaluable.
And if nobody's pointed you towards Matt Coville's Running the Game series, allow me to be the first. A lot of really good advice especially for new DM's:
Steal, steal, steal, umm *cough* take inspiration from movies and books and tv shows.
...
The secret police has been infiltrated by shapechangers. They have a plan to take over and control the entire world. At the same, a small group have discovered some world-altering transportation magic. If the shapeshifters get hold of it, their victory is certain. Where can the small group hide their development? At the same time, strange events have taken place, that seem to indicate someone from the future is trying to communicate.
Nice ideas. Those first two were pretty obvious but I'm actually quite stumped by the third one. I'm either overthinking it or it's a fandom I haven't encountered. Care to give us another clue? :P
The main character was put in jail for mutiny at the start of the campaign.
Are you trying to write a short story/novel or a D&D campaign plot? They are quite different things, as you have full control of the former and not very much control of the latter - damned players and their ideas!
If you are just trying to write a story, the best way to start is simply to start, and avoid the temptation to edit until you have reached what feels like a satisfying conclusion. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: the reason you do a second draft is to make it look like you knew what you were doing all along.
If you are writing a story for a D&D campaign, the above advice all holds true, particularly around an interesting antagonist, but you have to be extra flexible. Write a strong beginning, a framework for the middle, and then just a few ideas for the ending, it's very likely to change. Sly Flourish advice to "build worlds, not plots" is applicable: the players will write the story, you're setting the scene and giving them the encouragement to do so.
I'm kinda New to DMing in general and I find that the hardest thing for me is writing things down so it makes sense. I don't know how to type it down where i know it's something i tell the players and something i keep hidden. I find myself lost in the small details of where and how to keep the information that i end up forgetting the things i never got to write down.
So what does your side of the screen look like DM's?????????????
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Hi, I'm fairly new to dnd and I don't really dm or play as a character I find myself just writing stories or posting in Story Time. Lately I found that I can't create a good story and it gets kinda boring. Any advice on what I should do?
Edit: This was probably the smartest thing I have ever done
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
(\_/)
( u u)
o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?
I've always been better at giving advice than following it, but my two cents are:
1) Read as much as possible.
2) Start with a strong antagonist.
The first one is probably obvious. Most "innovation" is just thoughtful recombination. The more you are exposed to, the better you will be at incorporating the elements that make a story jump off the page.
The second one may also be obvious, but can't be understated. A hero without a cause is a nobody. A nuanced villain sets the tone, and gives weight to everything that transpires. (The villain may be an individual, or a more abstract idea, like "Capitalism".)
Beyond that, you should decide what kind of story you want to tell and look into the structure of those kinds of tales. How is the story going to end? What is the climax? What is the twist? How are you going to hook your reader into caring about the narrative? (Everything is subject to change)
Once you have the "shape" of the story, think about the world your characters exist within. Get granular. What makes their world unique? What kind of smells and sounds permeate the world? Capture a single moment in the major settings of your world and try to describe it in as much detail as possible. Our senses, smell in particular, have a very strong link to our memories and imagination. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the right smell may be worth a lifetime.
If you can properly immerse yourself into your world, and have a basic idea of how events are going to unfold, the next steps may come naturally.
Beyond even that, you could research human psychology. Every person tends to fall under a handful of archetypes. While our lives may seem drastically different, we are all driven by the same set of fears and desires. Tapping into something like the fear of the unknown, escape to freedom, desperation to find purpose, or yearning for "special" knowledge/power can help you determine what the "meat" of your story should be. Satisfaction can be teased, embellished, and dramatized in ways to keep the reader wanting more, even if there really isn't any substance to the story itself.
Steal, steal, steal, umm *cough* take inspiration from movies and books and tv shows.
The PCs are attending a function at the castle of an influential noble. During the celebrations, terrorists take over the castle and hold the guests prisoner for political purposes. It turns out the terrorists actually have a different, secret reason for being there.
The PCs are attending a summit at a remote location. Some of the magical creations (awakened sharks, lets say) escape from captivity. At the same time, a botched ritual releases elemental forces (air, shall we say) leading to magical winds and storms containing vicious fish.
The secret police has been infiltrated by shapechangers. They have a plan to take over and control the entire world. At the same, a small group have discovered some world-altering transportation magic. If the shapeshifters get hold of it, their victory is certain. Where can the small group hide their development? At the same time, strange events have taken place, that seem to indicate someone from the future is trying to communicate.
Nice ideas. Those first two were pretty obvious but I'm actually quite stumped by the third one. I'm either overthinking it or it's a fandom I haven't encountered. Care to give us another clue? :P
@OP: I'm a fan of the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). It's not meant as an insult but rather to remember that the more complicated the plot is, the easier it is that it gets bogged down or turns out not so good. That doesn't mean it can't have layers or depth, that's just part of the execution, though. Take "The old man and the sea" for example. At the surface it is just a fishing story but when you leeker deeper it is much, much more. Contrast that with Game of Thrones. The first we season were fairly straight forward but at the end when the creators tried to cram to much of everything into the show it almost literally crashed and burned.
Hints from the acting and writting courses I have taken:
So it's better to start with an antagonist with a secret good aligned agenda? Well these were all great tips, thanks for the help.
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
(\_/)
( u u)
o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?
It’s been said a lot, but the best villains are the heroes of their own story. The bad guy who wants power for its own sake is boring. The bad guy who, if you kind of squint at his plans you can see a strange logic to why he’s doing things is better. The best ones think they are trying to save the world but go too far. Think thanos in the mcu movies. He thought he was helping save everyone from themselves and the problems caused by overpopulation.
This is all good, but is there a good way to start a story?
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
(\_/)
( u u)
o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?
To start a story, set the tone.
If the world is going to start falling apart, start with a scene showing how much there is to lose, and foreshadow the impending destruction.
If there is a redemption arc, highlight vices and the character dealing with the consequences of their behavior.
Make the reader _feel_ something, so that they care about the protagonist's problems and ultimate success or failure.
step one: read all the book
step 2: wrtie probobly terrbible books
step 3: read all the DDB articles on DMing
sttep 4: watch worl building vids
step 5: read all the books again
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
For DMing, but even moreso for player characters, one small and counterintuitive tip is: backstory doesn't really matter. What matters at the table is, characterization.
Like, its a fine story, depth is supposed to be good right? But nobody at the table wants to sit around and talk about something set in stone that already happened that isn't something they can interact with now in the present. Write your characters to be about what they do or will do, not what they have done, and especially not what their childhood was like :p
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
So basically be flexible
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
(\_/)
( u u)
o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?
its partly personal opinion. i think backstory is pretty good. i usually have a pretty short one, that can effect my playing, but not a lot. i also agree, that you dont need to spend thirty minutes, explaining your backstory. if only you know, its great, but i think having no backstory is bad. how and why is the character an adventurer, why does the character ave the flaws, bonds, and ideals it does, and if your playing an exotic race like tie fling or yaun ti pure blood, why do you not follow the rest of your kin and do evil stuff, why do you live with normal races, why did you travel from you homeland to the normal land if your a race that normally lives not with everybody else. backstory can answer all those questions, i a paragraph or so, even if you dont explain/tell your backstory to the rest of the party, in can help role playing: say your in a tavern and someone asks you why you go adventuring when you make less money than other jobs, and have a very real chance of dying, or an enemy tries to get you to stop the adventure because its to much pain, well weather you say yes or no might depend a lot about why your adventuring, and how much it costed (not in money, but in time, pain, and giving up other things) to become an adventure.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
I personally think most every campaign should start with the phrase “roll for initiative” but that’s an older school of thought.
Start with a mystery. You should know something the players don’t know. At least the first part of the campaign is them trying to figure out what that is.
I usually start with a theme or very broad premise I want to explore. Then I draw conflicts from that and kind of use it as a lens through which I view the campaign.
My previous campaign grew out of reading about 4e D&D cosmology and started with the question: "What would happen if the planes of existence began to drift apart?" Out of that sprung a lot of ideas on how the planes might rely on each other's influence, who might want to disrupt those influences, and how the planes might change with those influences weakened or severed entirely.
My current campaign is built around the concept of civilization. I wanted to explore the conflicts of civilization vs. chaos and civilization vs. the wilderness. What aspects of civilization are universally beneficial and which might be seen as destructive? If given a chance to lead the development of a new civilization, what decisions would you make and where would you steer it?
NPCs and individual adventures aren't always based on the main theme, but most relate to it in some way. I feel that it gives a feeling of cohesion to the campaign and also provides a helpful jumping-off point when I'm thinking about content. In a storytelling system with this much freedom, I've found I work a lot better within a given area of focus.
Oh and +1 to plagiarizing everything you can. Movies, TV, books, current events, random questions your 4-year-old kid asks you - it's all fertilizer for your idea garden.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I have to start with a map. Once I have the map, I fill in some major details about the towns, cities, hamlets, villages, ... like who is the mayor and why is (s)he the mayor. Other details like who owns the shop, the blacksmith, the tavern and the stable can come as we go. Usually a story about the mayor will create enough story background to give each place a flavor for the story. I always make sure there is a place for the settlement to get water and food or it doesn't make sense. A mining community, for example, might need regular deliveries of foodstuffs.
Next I create two tiers of bad guys. There is a moderate persistent threat of bandits, Goblinoids, Giants, Orcs, undead or something that creates reasons for the PCs to start adventuring. But there is a major archvillain that is seeking to establish an evil nation or something in the area. While the party is contending with threat number 1, they learn more and more about threat number 2. At some point the story shifts to the party dealing with threat number 2 and threat number 1 becomes background noise.
With the two threats in mind, I construct their organizations with a hierarchy, logistics and communications manner. I superimpose this on the map and then decide where the party will begin on the map.
The last thing is to try to make the encounters make sense. If your party is navigating a dangerous mountain pass they shouldn't be accosted by swamp monsters nor should they meet a halfling farmer that wants to sell the party a bushel of turnips.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Don't be afraid to start in a tavern. It may be a cliché, but it's a cliché for a reason-- it presents characters a good environment to explore each other and the world around them in the microcosm of the world at large that is The Tavern.
If you're a new DM, relying on convenient short-hand such as Starting in a Tavern to set up your game and maybe work towards more complex ideas as you grow confident DMing is invaluable.
And if nobody's pointed you towards Matt Coville's Running the Game series, allow me to be the first. A lot of really good advice especially for new DM's:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_
The main character was put in jail for mutiny at the start of the campaign.
Are you trying to write a short story/novel or a D&D campaign plot? They are quite different things, as you have full control of the former and not very much control of the latter - damned players and their ideas!
If you are just trying to write a story, the best way to start is simply to start, and avoid the temptation to edit until you have reached what feels like a satisfying conclusion. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: the reason you do a second draft is to make it look like you knew what you were doing all along.
If you are writing a story for a D&D campaign, the above advice all holds true, particularly around an interesting antagonist, but you have to be extra flexible. Write a strong beginning, a framework for the middle, and then just a few ideas for the ending, it's very likely to change. Sly Flourish advice to "build worlds, not plots" is applicable: the players will write the story, you're setting the scene and giving them the encouragement to do so.
Hello all,
I'm kinda New to DMing in general and I find that the hardest thing for me is writing things down so it makes sense. I don't know how to type it down where i know it's something i tell the players and something i keep hidden. I find myself lost in the small details of where and how to keep the information that i end up forgetting the things i never got to write down.
So what does your side of the screen look like DM's?????????????