A fairly new GM

[Greatman32]

The purpose of this post is to gain advice from the infinitely more experienced then me DM's that inhabit this forum if you don't wish or have the time to read this entire lengthy post, I would still be great-full for any general or basic advice you would feel to impart to me.


Hello everyone, I am still fairly new at this whole GM thing having only played games with my family. I have recently sucked in a group of five friends to sit down and play a table top rpg with me. They understand the concept of how a table top rpg works and are very excited and interested in the game. I picked for our game a system I am familiar with but from what i understand is fairly obscure to most people, EQRPG which is a variant of the D20 system and supposedly completely 3.0 compatible.
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I have sat down with all my friends and helped them roll characters and make some simple backgrounds. I have contrived it so all the PC's are in a small village, they are also per the backgrounds sort of down on their luck and in need of work. Lucky for them a trade caravan is looking for guards to replace some lost in an attack. The caravan is heading to the town of Freeport which I intend to make the central starting point of this campaign. On the way the Caravan is attacked, this first combat I primarily intend to be a sort of tutorial were I hope to explain how combat works. I will probably not go into all the details but just address things as the combat moves and they become important.

After they defeat the bandits and make it to Freeport they will eventually spend the night somewhere, ill let the players deiced if they want to do anything before calling it an in-game night. In the Morning they will find the city in chaos as martial law has been declared and the gates closed. The reason for this as they will soon find out is a coup of the existing government. From here the PCs at least for a little while are stuck in Freeport. This is were I will probably end the first session, I have prepared a bunch of basic plot hooks in the city that the PCs will find out about and can do, also I have the "Main Story" of sorts which is the current political disaster. In this coup there really isn't a completely clear "Good" or "Bad" guy so as the PCs discover more about the situation I will leave the decision of who they side with, completely up to them.

If I am making any mistakes in my game-plan or leaving out something vital I would love to know, thank you very much for your time.
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[GandalfMithrandir]

Hi Greatman32!

I don't really see anything missing that's too big from your game plan, of course there is the saying "No plan survives contact with the PCs" so everything you have looks good, but if I were you, and I'm not, you're free to make your own decisions, I would create multiple backup plans for if things go differently than you've planned, what if they leave freeport and keep moving before the end of the night, a possible solution is maybe to have the coup occur as the party is leaving, something else to consider is whether or not the PCs will want to take a side at all, if neither side is clearly good or bad, then it can be tough, but if one side is bad, for example if the people that staged the coup killed the previous rulers and hung their bodies from the walls then they would very clearly be bad and the PCs might want to retaliate against them because they're the "bad guys" and the PCs are the "Good Guys" and fight against evil/bad people like those

Anyway that's just what I've gotten from my experience and you are free to pick and choose form that, and I know that there are better GMs out there than me, and what you have so far looks great!

GM

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Sounds good to me.

Seriously. You've clearly thought it out and prepared. A nice simple start, with a reason for the characters to be hanging together. ON the back story: you could skip straight to the caravan, simply saying that they've all come from a depressed rural community and are old friends. It would save time and make sure you get to your cliffhanger without having to rush in other more important areas (like the first combat.)

When the PCs arrive at Freeport you should foreshadow the impending coup. People on the street are nervous, many shops are boarded up. Markets are quiet. Guards (especially gate guards) are suspicious. This will give the players something to be curious about and thus investigate, when you give them their chance to do things before the PCs hit the sack.

Remember that by giving the players a chance to investigate the city's mood you have given them a more or less open licence to run around. Now I don't know your players. But in general you can bank on at least one or two players grabbing this and running. This will take up playing time. Which is fine. In my opinion investigating the setting and meeting NPCs is the meat of the game; the good bits I look forward to as a player. But budget your playing time accordingly. Which is why I suggest dealing with the back story as a quick explanation at the start of the game rather than playing it out.

When it comes to the various hooks you've worked out just keep in mind the the PCs may not go for some of them. Or maybe any of them. Maybe they get their own goals and go off in search of them. (I dunno, maybe they decide they want to join a faction as soldiers with an eye to taking it over in the future.) Let them. Don't hang on too tightly to any of these ideas. Remember that those scenarios you plotted out and NPCs you've statted up can be used at a different time in a different context. You're work won't be wasted.

cheers and good luck with it all.

 

[Greatman32]

You guys are fast

Thanks for the great advice I agree that doing the backgrounds at the table would be a waste of playtime. I might just take your advice and tone down the backgrounds I have a little bit looking back on them they really don't seem so important then I first thought them. Also I will probably go ahead and make one side more evil but make the good side not without its faults leading to the general populace to be a little split on the issue.

ps. man you guys are fast i posted this like what 30 min ago

 

[Hand of Evil]

See my sig... http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-dming-advice-links-fixed-july-20-2008-a.html

 

[DrunkonDuty]

You're welcome, mate. Best of luck and have fun.

Cheers.

Oh and have an XP from me too.

 

[the Jester]

My biggest piece of advice- and it seems like you're on this track already- is to let the pcs guide the action. Don't set out to tell a story, create an environment rich in adventure hooks and let the pcs decide where to go with it. The story is what happens then.

I think you've got a good starting game plan from the sounds of it- let us know how it goes.

 

[Whisper72]

The idea sounds fine, but I would scatter multiple hooks / reasons to stay in the city.

Maybe there are also a few NPC caravan guards, and maybe one gets killed during the attack with the bandits. The guard asks te PC's to convey some last message to his wife / child who lives at freeport. Once there, they find that he leaves a destitute family behind. Maybe some of the PC's feel obligated to 'adopt' them, and help them out. This way they also have someone who is a local, who can give info as to gossip, what's there to do etc.

During the travels, the merchant may be muttering to himself. You somehow pick something up about some local thieves' guild or some nasty gang to whom the merchant owes money. Once inside the gates, the caravan is accosted by unsavory types, who remind the merchant 'not to forget his debts'. It is up to the PC's to follow this up or not.

Looting the defeated bandits, you not only find normal treasure (coins, stuff etc.), but also a small diary / couple sheets of paper on what appears to be the leader of the brigands. They may mention a relation with a gang in freeport (maybe even the same that is plaguing the merchant?) and some clues as to the hideout / headquarters of the bandits, or maybe the contact / fence for the bandits. Another clue / hook to follow up.
If you want to tie into the whole coup thing, maybe the diary contains some words on how they have been contacted (together with other gangs) to create a diversion / commotion during a specific day; the day of the coup. There is talk of payments and contacts. This provides a name of an unsavory person on one side of the political divide to follow up on. The practice of using nasty characers may provide some influence on choosing sides, or at least shows that the side who orchestrated the coup are not squeaky clean.

Inside the town, besides noticing the nervousness, maybe there is also talk of repressive measures from the current government, showing they themselves are also not very nice...

In short, liberally sprinkle the field with hooks for the PC's to follow up, and so make sure they have enough reason to stick about and provide ample anvenues for further investigation...

 

[Greatman32]

First Session

Well i just GMed the session and it went pretty well. Here are the characters and the basic backgrounds if your interested.

Natsumi Female Wood elf Ranger. Ran awway from an oppressive noble elven house to explore the world.

Soul Erudite Magician. Is on the run from a evil organization he owes money to.

Colonel Sanders ShadowKnight. Fled from a secret organization of shadowKnights after they killed his sister as a sacrifice. He has now sworn revenge on them.

Karish Iskar shaman. Freed by Soul he was originally a slave as are all of the vanishing iskar race.

The Session started with all the PCs happening to be in a bar in a small town and in need of work. They were offered work as caravan guards which they accepted. As they were traveling they were ambushed by a group of orcs. The leader orc is wearing a feathered hat and silk shirt, he eloquently challenges the PCs to a duel for passage. The ShadowKnight accepts and a rapier vrs broadsword battle begins. The Shadowknight wins and the orcs leave without a fuss.

The party then makes it to freeport were the guards give them a real hassle. As they go through town they notice people are very nervous. When they make it to the inn the caravan leader offer to pay for their first nights lodging which the party accepts. In the middle of the night they see choas as the town is being attacked. The inn keeper tells them it probly is Darkith a popular dark elf leading a coup against the current regime. The party decides its none of their business and goes back to bed.

The next morning there are reports everywhere hailing the new righteous leader of Freeport and his victory over the corrupt council. The party goes to the innkeeper asking if there is any work for a adventuring group. The innkeeper dishes out a few plot hooks, and to my surprise the plot hook I thought was least interesting is what they jumped at. They wanted to go help the city guard exterminate rats in the catacombs.

They then entered the catacombs and so begun our first combat. it was our party of 4 1st level adventures vrs 8 1/3 cr rats. The fight was pretty brutal I don't think anyone ever rolled above a 10 and I was hitting like crazy. Despite their bad luck the rats only do 1d3-2 DMG so they were dispatched eventually. Having received there reward for exterminating the vermin they deiced to investigate another plot hook I gave them.

They head to an inn that has had some strange things happening recently. The innkeeper informs them that yesterday he sent his employee down to the cellar to get some food when he heard brutal screams. When the innkeeper went down to investigate he saw his employee dead. he ran out and informed the guards. but with the recent political problems he is low on the priority list.

The PCs go into the cellar and discover there is a false wall that leads to a crypt were the undead have risen. After dispatching the undead the party claims there rewards and takes a complementary night from the innkeeper and goes to bed.

PS.

Everyone told me they had lost of fun during the session and are looking forward to the next one. I had fun to and didn't run into any problems other then the rat fight taking forever. This was mainly because everyone was learning the rules to combat and I answering questions and looking stuff up as well as runing combat.

Thanks for all your advice it was very helpful.

 

[pemerton]

I agree that doing the backgrounds at the table would be a waste of playtime.

Glad to hear your session went well.

All I wanted to say was - in my experience it never hurts to bring the PC's backgrounds into play. You've got a couple of secret organisations and a noble house there - does the noble house support the coup? Wat are those organisations up to in Freeport - do the sacrificing shadowknights have any link to the undead?

This can help the players get more deeply engaged in the plots and plot-hooks you're throwing at them.