Jemals school of hard knocks

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Jemal

Flesh - Often the simplest of minds make the most profound statements.

Jemal makes a good point. "From the mouths of babes" is the quote that comes to mind.

[Myth and Legend]

So i take it you added that Drow there because of the TV induced cliche?

[Rathan]

No... he's doing what any good DM would do.... he's feeding off player background and history as well as current events in the game to devise plot.... it's an age old method of creating plot and works rather well actually...

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Rathan

No... he's doing what any good DM would do.... he's feeding off player background and history as well as current events in the game to devise plot.... it's an age old method of creating plot and works rather well actually...

Aye. And interjecting a little drama and confrontation into the game is never a bad thing, even if it seems a little "cliche".

[Myth and Legend]

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I am planing on DMing my own game some day soon, and i'm just asking around. I want to see how other DMs do it - before, i thought we only use our pre-designed NPCs and plan ahead, but this works also i guess.

[Rathan]

sometimes a DM needs to throw something in under the terms I like to call 'from the hip' or spontaneously... it adds a certain aspect to the game to keep it interesting and not seem so cookie-cutter in nature.... it allows a DM to tailor the perfect game for their PC's and has the added bonus to keep things interesting

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Rathan

sometimes a DM needs to throw something in under the terms I like to call 'from the hip' or spontaneously... it adds a certain aspect to the game to keep it interesting and not seem so cookie-cutter in nature.... it allows a DM to tailor the perfect game for their PC's and has the added bonus to keep things interesting

Absolutely. Part of being a good DM is to be able to throw in random interesting things like this. I mean, The School must have what? Thousands of students, teachers and workers there? No DM, no matter how good, can have every possible NPC set up before hand. Sometimes you have to create them on the fly.

[ishalleatyourflesh]

Right... Thousands... a good post secondary school has thousands of students, this is an inter-planer school, with epic characters as random staff, not even techers just staff. do you think a 1st lv commoner could stay here as a janitor? countless material planes send students here, it is a plane to it self, .... Thousands?.... it's like saying there are thousands of people in a country that takes up a continent. a world a... Plane?

[Rhun]

True, but only the best of the best are accepted as students, which would have a limiting effect. As far as total population, I don't know. But staying with the point I was trying to make, it doesn't matter if it is simply dozens...a DM can't create a complex personality, stats and appearance for everyone of them. He has to be able to do that on the fly.

[ishalleatyourflesh]

Originally Posted by Myth and Legend

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I am planing on DMing my own game some day soon, and i'm just asking around. I want to see how other DMs do it - before, i thought we only use our pre-designed NPCs and plan ahead, but this works also i guess.

there are somethings you can't always plan for and there is a case which you can never plan ahead for, no matter what happens you will be unprepaired, and that is if you let pc's in the game, RIGHT jemal?

[Jemal]

Where PC's are concerned, I've found there's generally very little you can accurately plan for. The big stuff, certainly - the main plot, crucial encounters, major NPCs - you need to know beforehand. But if you try creating a lot of the little stuff ahead of time you'll often either be dissapointed that all that work goes to waste when the PC's go a different direction, or you'll have to improvise anyways. So I choose to improvise... a lot.

For example, I probably shouldn't be telling you this but so far only the first post in this thread was planned. I have many characters to use in the school, but havn't decided how to work all of them in. I usually do things like that whenever it seems like 'hey now would be a good time to throw X in there', or 'this scene would be much more interesting if..' . Certain characters are designed to be introduced at certain points, but the majority of them are me making the NPC and then waiting for a time to throw him in.

And with the Drow for example, that was entirely on the fly. I thought to myself "What would happen if a Drow overheard that? Heh, that'd make things.. interesting" so I did it.


The downside to DMing like this is that sometimes it's difficult to make your randomness seem consistant - though with practice, It can be done. I once ran an entire campaign based off only the initial session and a vague idea of the final goal, the rest of the campaign was the PC's and I reacting to each other, with me creating NPC's, encounters, and storyline as needed on the fly. It was a rather fun game.

That's not saying, mind you, that planning isn't useful and often required, b/c it is. A lot of forward planning can do wonders for your campaign provided your PC's don't derail the train... you just need to be able to deal with the inevitability of what to do when they DO derail the train.

[Rathan]

Not to shun anyone.. but if you can't get past the inevitable derail then you have no business being a DM.... it takes different breed of gamer to be a DM... I'm just glad to see a place like EnWorld that has many of them in one please... refreshing actually....

[Andor]

I'm making up a character to post in the rogues gallery (If I don't become a PC you're more than welcome to use him as an NPC. ) but I've hit a snag. My Eberron book is in storage after a flood. Can someone tell me how much a trained deinonychus costs as a mount? Mentioning the cost of tack would be helpful too. Thanks!

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Rathan

Not to shun anyone.. but if you can't get past the inevitable derail then you have no business being a DM.... it takes different breed of gamer to be a DM... I'm just glad to see a place like EnWorld that has many of them in one please... refreshing actually....

Yeah, I don't think a lot of players who have never tried DMing understand just how much time and effort it can take to be a DM. I'm definitely more of an "on the fly" type DM; I try to only outline the basics and such ahead of time.

[Rathan]

I have put a lot of time into the game I am running currently... including hand drawn maps which I scan and place into my game.. I feet it gives my game a bit more of that 'table top' feel... plus... when I am done with my campaign I can actually use the maps and drawings I made for it in my actual table top gaming circle and let them run through my world... I see my PbP game I DM here a test run through it and I'm hoping I can make it work nicely... overall it's gonna take a lot more work the way I am doing it... but it's worth it to me as I want to make my game the I can possibly make it...

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Rathan

I have put a lot of time into the game I am running currently... including hand drawn maps which I scan and place into my game.. I feet it gives my game a bit more of that 'table top' feel... plus... when I am done with my campaign I can actually use the maps and drawings I made for it in my actual table top gaming circle and let them run through my world...

I've seriously considered switching to hand drawn maps in my games, as I can draw them a lot faster than I can make maps in excel/paint/etc. And I've got the ability to scan them easily, so I may really have to try that.

[Rathan]

I have a hard time getting my maps the way *I* want them any other way short of hand drawing them... you're exactly right there though.. I can make a hand drawn map much faster than doing it with a program or some such.... I just recently got my fiancee's printer/copier/fax/scanner printer here set up as she's moving here within the year anyways so it's be a godsend when it has come to my maps for my game.... I love it... I make my maps..... scan them... upload them to photobucket... then post the Image links here... that simple...

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Rathan

I just recently got my fiancee's printer/copier/fax/scanner printer here set up as she's moving here within the year anyways so it's be a godsend when it has come to my maps for my game.... I love it... I make my maps..... scan them... upload them to photobucket... then post the Image links here... that simple...

Sounds sweet. I've got one of those fancy printer/copier/scanner dealies sitting right next to me too. And I've got a lot of resources at work I could us. Seriously, the hand-drawn map thing could save me tons of time. I'm glad you mentioned it.

[Myth and Legend]

I like drawing by hand and can make good maps, but putting together something in Illustrator sounds much easier for me. When i do start my own campaign i will use visual aids for sure

[Rhun]

Originally Posted by Myth and Legend

I like drawing by hand and can make good maps, but putting together something in Illustrator sounds much easier for me. When i do start my own campaign i will use visual aids for sure

Unfortunately, I've just got the basics...Excel, Paint, etc. I did download Autorealm the other day. It looks pretty cool, but there are a lot of things I couldn't figure out how to do right off. So I guess I need to spend some time playing with it.