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<blockquote data-quote="Brotton Goodfellow" data-source="post: 6819983" data-attributes="member: 6812740"><p>1. Being too nice: It's all about balance my friend and there aren't any hard and fast rules. If a player rolls a 1, and it's their third 1 in a row, maybe throw them a bone and let them re-roll. And Hussar is right. Do it too much and the players will rely on you to hold their hands through the adventure, which takes the risk out of adventuring, which in turn takes a lot of the fun out of adventuring. And eventually you're going to have to ask yourself if you will or will not be a DM who "fudges" their rolls. I fudge. I fudge all the time. Sometimes in favour of the players, sometimes in favour of the monsters. It's never random or arbitrary, and I feel it can sometimes shake things up a little. </p><p></p><p>2. Shortcuts: Shortcuts are great if you want to keep the pace of the adventure moving along. But using them too much will suck a little of the challenge out of the game for your players (Just like being too nice). Something to consider as well is the type of adventure you are running. Is it a slow-paced murder mystery or a high-octane action adventure? If it's the murder mystery, you're going to want to use DC's and skill/ability checks more often to allow the players to uncover clues and find evidence. If all your players care about is slaying and melting faces off, you can probably get away with them not rolling for a locked door (they'll probably just smash the damn thing in) as much. In fact, why bother with the locked door if it will slow things down? A rule of thumb I also use, is if the players can spend more than ten minutes doing an action (lockpicking, searching for something, etc), without being bothered by monsters, they automatically succeed. This saves you from having to watch your players constantly roll the same skill check until they beat the DC. On the flip side, I'll let my players take as long as they need to succeed at something (usually 10X1D12 minutes), but if they're standing in the middle of a monster infested dungeon doing the task, I'll roll to see if they have a random encounter. And the longer something takes the greater the chances of them running into a monster. The exception to all of this is if the DC is so high that it is simply out of the characters ability to succeed. </p><p></p><p>Houserules: There's nothing wrong with adding or deleting things from the game to make it fit in with your vision of the world you've created. I'm wary of changing base character stats and abilities, because it might be discouraging to some players. For example, lets say I have a super-cool idea for a half-elf character and the ability bonuses are going to help me achieve the vision I have for that character, but then you go and change it. Now I'm stuck trying to find a new way to make the character or ditching it and having to go with another idea that isn't what I wanted to play in the first place. Other than that, change and modify to fit your needs and the preferences of the players.</p><p></p><p>Favouritism: Let the players play what they want, but be clear about things like player vs. player fighting, and that randomly killing things might not jive with the rest of the players and their characters. Having said that, I generally won't let players make chaotic evil characters because things tend to derail quickly. Ask yourself what can the people at your table tolerate? Maybe everyone is cool with the idea that they can stab one another in the back at anytime. Maybe (and most likely) they are not. That's something you're going to have to decide as a group before playing. </p><p></p><p>It'll take a while before you find your stride as a DM, but it's worth going through the growing pains. There's lots of good DM's with weekly blogs that I've found really handy (particularly the angry GM). </p><p></p><p>Good luck!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Brotton Goodfellow, post: 6819983, member: 6812740"] 1. Being too nice: It's all about balance my friend and there aren't any hard and fast rules. If a player rolls a 1, and it's their third 1 in a row, maybe throw them a bone and let them re-roll. And Hussar is right. Do it too much and the players will rely on you to hold their hands through the adventure, which takes the risk out of adventuring, which in turn takes a lot of the fun out of adventuring. And eventually you're going to have to ask yourself if you will or will not be a DM who "fudges" their rolls. I fudge. I fudge all the time. Sometimes in favour of the players, sometimes in favour of the monsters. It's never random or arbitrary, and I feel it can sometimes shake things up a little. 2. Shortcuts: Shortcuts are great if you want to keep the pace of the adventure moving along. But using them too much will suck a little of the challenge out of the game for your players (Just like being too nice). Something to consider as well is the type of adventure you are running. Is it a slow-paced murder mystery or a high-octane action adventure? If it's the murder mystery, you're going to want to use DC's and skill/ability checks more often to allow the players to uncover clues and find evidence. If all your players care about is slaying and melting faces off, you can probably get away with them not rolling for a locked door (they'll probably just smash the damn thing in) as much. In fact, why bother with the locked door if it will slow things down? A rule of thumb I also use, is if the players can spend more than ten minutes doing an action (lockpicking, searching for something, etc), without being bothered by monsters, they automatically succeed. This saves you from having to watch your players constantly roll the same skill check until they beat the DC. On the flip side, I'll let my players take as long as they need to succeed at something (usually 10X1D12 minutes), but if they're standing in the middle of a monster infested dungeon doing the task, I'll roll to see if they have a random encounter. And the longer something takes the greater the chances of them running into a monster. The exception to all of this is if the DC is so high that it is simply out of the characters ability to succeed. Houserules: There's nothing wrong with adding or deleting things from the game to make it fit in with your vision of the world you've created. I'm wary of changing base character stats and abilities, because it might be discouraging to some players. For example, lets say I have a super-cool idea for a half-elf character and the ability bonuses are going to help me achieve the vision I have for that character, but then you go and change it. Now I'm stuck trying to find a new way to make the character or ditching it and having to go with another idea that isn't what I wanted to play in the first place. Other than that, change and modify to fit your needs and the preferences of the players. Favouritism: Let the players play what they want, but be clear about things like player vs. player fighting, and that randomly killing things might not jive with the rest of the players and their characters. Having said that, I generally won't let players make chaotic evil characters because things tend to derail quickly. Ask yourself what can the people at your table tolerate? Maybe everyone is cool with the idea that they can stab one another in the back at anytime. Maybe (and most likely) they are not. That's something you're going to have to decide as a group before playing. It'll take a while before you find your stride as a DM, but it's worth going through the growing pains. There's lots of good DM's with weekly blogs that I've found really handy (particularly the angry GM). Good luck! [/QUOTE]
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