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DM tips - what makes a good DM?
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<blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 4804800" data-attributes="member: 44797"><p>OK. The powerful NPC bumps into the players in town. He says, "Heh heh, this isn't really a coincidence. I've been trying to find you. I know you're hardy adventurers, and you may be willing to handle something that I do not have the time to do myself. Here is an explanation of the problem."</p><p></p><p>Then the players are given the explanation of the problem.</p><p></p><p>That's one way I might inject the NPC into the storyline. Now your other question is essentially, "What do I do with their response?" So let's look at it.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If they actually attack the NPC, have the NPC actually defend himself. He might just teleport away and eventually guards run the players out of town. Or he might concentrate his attack on one player, killing that player very quickly as a "message" or hint to the other players. If they get the message, then you're off & running with a Raise Dead quest -- maybe the NPC offers to Raise Dead, but only if they now agree to do this thing for him. Or maybe the NPC says, "OK, now there is one fewer of you. I still want you to do this quest. Good luck finding someone to replace the dead character." And then the player rolls up a new character and the game keeps going. Of course, it's possible for a TPK. Personally, if players in my campaign attacked a powerful quest-giver and <em>kept</em> attacking after seeing a PC die, I'd invoke Darwin and just allow the TPK. At that point, they could all roll up new characters, or maybe if there is a cleric in the party, he/she has a meeting with his/her god, and that god offers to send them back for Some Important Reason. That is actually quite good for the storyline, because now you've injected some Ultimate Goal into the timeline.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If they refuse the job, shrug and let them. If they haven't heard the details of the job, then simply drop it in whenever they <em>do</em> start talking to a NPC. Or if they have heard the details of the job and still reject it, try one of two things. First, you could let them. They've made choices, the town has a finite number of quests/events, and they've exhausted their options. At this point, they might need to leave town and find some other place to do stuff. The campaign will become a series of random encounters for a short while as they make their way elsewhere, giving you time to plot out the next town. The second option would be to see if they are gunning to try the quest from another angle. By that I mean, if they didn't like your main quest-giver, are they feeling itchy to find the opposing NPC and side with him? Are they interested in <em>undermining</em> the original NPC? If so, you still get to use your materials, but now you'll have players <em>helping</em> the dungeon inhabitants or whatever.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lastly, don't forget the rule of multiple hints. It's actually not called the rule of multiple hints. It's from an article that talks about how DMs should build in multiple people/items that can lead players to a quest or to the resolution of a quest. It's redundancy to help stabilize the storyline. Did the players kill an important NPC? No problem, that NPCs wife has all the info the players need, and if she won't talk, maybe there is a diary with key info. Do this stuff so that the players can overcome "missing it" once or twice.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aboyd, post: 4804800, member: 44797"] OK. The powerful NPC bumps into the players in town. He says, "Heh heh, this isn't really a coincidence. I've been trying to find you. I know you're hardy adventurers, and you may be willing to handle something that I do not have the time to do myself. Here is an explanation of the problem." Then the players are given the explanation of the problem. That's one way I might inject the NPC into the storyline. Now your other question is essentially, "What do I do with their response?" So let's look at it. [list] [*]If they actually attack the NPC, have the NPC actually defend himself. He might just teleport away and eventually guards run the players out of town. Or he might concentrate his attack on one player, killing that player very quickly as a "message" or hint to the other players. If they get the message, then you're off & running with a Raise Dead quest -- maybe the NPC offers to Raise Dead, but only if they now agree to do this thing for him. Or maybe the NPC says, "OK, now there is one fewer of you. I still want you to do this quest. Good luck finding someone to replace the dead character." And then the player rolls up a new character and the game keeps going. Of course, it's possible for a TPK. Personally, if players in my campaign attacked a powerful quest-giver and [i]kept[/i] attacking after seeing a PC die, I'd invoke Darwin and just allow the TPK. At that point, they could all roll up new characters, or maybe if there is a cleric in the party, he/she has a meeting with his/her god, and that god offers to send them back for Some Important Reason. That is actually quite good for the storyline, because now you've injected some Ultimate Goal into the timeline. [*]If they refuse the job, shrug and let them. If they haven't heard the details of the job, then simply drop it in whenever they [i]do[/i] start talking to a NPC. Or if they have heard the details of the job and still reject it, try one of two things. First, you could let them. They've made choices, the town has a finite number of quests/events, and they've exhausted their options. At this point, they might need to leave town and find some other place to do stuff. The campaign will become a series of random encounters for a short while as they make their way elsewhere, giving you time to plot out the next town. The second option would be to see if they are gunning to try the quest from another angle. By that I mean, if they didn't like your main quest-giver, are they feeling itchy to find the opposing NPC and side with him? Are they interested in [i]undermining[/i] the original NPC? If so, you still get to use your materials, but now you'll have players [i]helping[/i] the dungeon inhabitants or whatever. [*]Lastly, don't forget the rule of multiple hints. It's actually not called the rule of multiple hints. It's from an article that talks about how DMs should build in multiple people/items that can lead players to a quest or to the resolution of a quest. It's redundancy to help stabilize the storyline. Did the players kill an important NPC? No problem, that NPCs wife has all the info the players need, and if she won't talk, maybe there is a diary with key info. Do this stuff so that the players can overcome "missing it" once or twice. [/list] [/QUOTE]
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