DM tips - what makes a good DM?

[Myth and Legend]

Thank you everyone, especially the people who took the time to write those huge posts. I have learned a lot from you guys, i almost feel confident to start the game. One other thing, what would you think about taking a co-DM along, to help with rules and character reviews? Or will that break the game discipline?

 

[aboyd]

I think a co-DM is fine, if you're friends with that person or have worked out a nice arrangement where that DM will defer to you.

In other words, that DM needs to agree that while he/she might give you advice or look up rules for you while you play, he or she must not argue with you or otherwise undermine you during your own game. If you make a decision about the rules that the other DM dislikes, that DM must agree to basically shut up about it and support you.

I'm not suggesting that if you do something bone-headed, the other DM should say, "Yay, great idea!" He or she might say, "Um, have you read page 146? It talks about that. I could find the paragraph in question, if you like." But if you want to just move on, or if you read the paragraph and decide to ignore it, well, the other DM needs to support that.

If the other DM cannot support your decisions, then the other DM is acting as a toxic force against you. So yes, have a co-DM, but make it clear that you are the final decision maker. State beforehand that it is possible for you to decide something that the other DM won't agree with. That way the DM isn't going into it thinking, "We'll agree about everything, this will be easy." He or she should visualize you disagreeing, and should visualize backing down. If that person is OK with that, it would be a valuable thing to try.

 

[Rechan]

I find the co-DM gets bored really easily.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The great thread HERE: DM ADVICE

 

[Sundaram]

The great thread HERE: DM ADVICE

Must have been reading my mind!

Thanks so much for the link/list. I'm going to try DMing for the first time after being a player for over 15+ years and am looking for all the advice I can scoop up.

Dig!

 

[haakon1]

5) Make the world react. The PCs should have a real, tangible effect on the world around them. Have them overhear NPCs discussing things the PCs have done in neighboring towns. If they failed to pick up on a quest hook let them find out what happened because they didn't take action. If they saved a village let them hear events that have gone on in that village after it was saved. Adding little details to make the PCs know they had some effect on the world around them adds greatly to the immersion and make the players feel like what they did really mattered.

This last one is a very good idea.

 

[haakon1]

No, I'm not missing the point. I understand that there are other solutions. However, my post was made to point out that one of your "other ways" was actually "the same exact way."

To recap, your alternative to having an uberpowerful quest giver was to have uberpowerful bounty hunters.

That's still just bullying the players into compliance via uberpowerful NPCs. As such, it's not an alternative at all.

To recap: The OP wanted to have an NPC give the PC's quests, without the PC's killing the quest giver. To solve that, she was using an uberpowerful NPC as the quest giver.

I suggested using the campaign world, rather than the quest giver NPC's power level, as the control factor to prevent the PC's from killing the quest giver for no real reason. For example, law enforcement or friends of the NPC quest giver, whether that's a peasant or a bureaucrat or merchant or whoever, might not like the PC's acting as murderers and might come after them.

You interpret that as meaning I would send uberpowerful NPC's to kill the PC's, and therefore that I still use uberpowerful NPC's as my control factor.

Which is where you misunderstood.
(a) The deterrent is the concept of a reactive game world, not a particular NPC or group of NPC's. Not the details of what might happen to the PC's, but the concept that something might or probably will happen. Something campaign driven . . . like the people who are selling the items on consignment at the magic shop being pissed off if the PC's kill the owner (low level) and loot the stuff. I don't have or need the details on who all those people are, it's just a logical concept that's a deterrent.

(b) There's no need for a bounty hunter to be uberpowerful anyhow. Slipping poison in somebody's beer or blocking the exit to an inn room and starting a fire doesn't require a high level NPC. The last time an NPC sent killers after PC's IMC, they were neither more powerful nor more numerous, just clever -- attacking when the PC's were split into three groups (one group having chased after a red herring the NPC's set up) and some of them were drunk. The fight turned out to be a draw, with the killers escaping and no PC's slain. And of course there are other deterrents besides trying to kill the PC's, such as merchants refusing to deal with you, demons trying to recruit you, etc.