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First time playing D&D and I'm the DM. Anyone feeling helpful?
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<blockquote data-quote="hastur_nz" data-source="post: 7099006" data-attributes="member: 40592"><p>Sounds like you are as well prepared as you could be; the outline you provided reminds me of the old Conan story I'm currently reading - classic "strong man/men rescue vulnerable female" trope - be prepared for at least one of your players to hit on your female NPC lol.</p><p></p><p>The one piece of advice I can really offer, is be prepared to ad-lib. As noted by others, prepare mostly in terms of locations, set-ups, and NPC's goals, not a huge web of possible plot-directions which could easily be dead on first contact with the players. Be prepared to make stuff up, and pretend you totally expected it. And listen and watch as carefully as you can, to what the players are enjoying, and give them more of that. A great DM is a facilitator who helps the players find fun (usually through overcoming adversity).</p><p></p><p>Lastly, while Matt Mercer and Critical Role are great, don't expect your own group to function like that! Personally I think Matt goes too far sometimes and should help his players do more especially in terms of knowing the rules; also the players are all professional Actors and seriously prone to spending forever obsessing and dramatising everything possible in-character. Groups I now of would be seriously bored of this very quickly, and I tune out pretty quickly as a watcher/listener; as noted, different players like different things for example as I player I'm an Instigator I want to keep things moving and challenges to overcome not spending hours talking every little thing through. While I'm (mostly) a team player, I'll happily kick in the next door just to find a sticky situation we'll need to get ourselves out of...</p><p></p><p>As I say, just try and observe your players, and focus on stuff they are enjoying; be prepared to make stuff up as you go along; and don't sweat the small stuff, no-one will know if you followed your "plot" or not. Here, these guys say it better than I can:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcA-eaaChJc&t=220s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcA-eaaChJc&t=220s</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hastur_nz, post: 7099006, member: 40592"] Sounds like you are as well prepared as you could be; the outline you provided reminds me of the old Conan story I'm currently reading - classic "strong man/men rescue vulnerable female" trope - be prepared for at least one of your players to hit on your female NPC lol. The one piece of advice I can really offer, is be prepared to ad-lib. As noted by others, prepare mostly in terms of locations, set-ups, and NPC's goals, not a huge web of possible plot-directions which could easily be dead on first contact with the players. Be prepared to make stuff up, and pretend you totally expected it. And listen and watch as carefully as you can, to what the players are enjoying, and give them more of that. A great DM is a facilitator who helps the players find fun (usually through overcoming adversity). Lastly, while Matt Mercer and Critical Role are great, don't expect your own group to function like that! Personally I think Matt goes too far sometimes and should help his players do more especially in terms of knowing the rules; also the players are all professional Actors and seriously prone to spending forever obsessing and dramatising everything possible in-character. Groups I now of would be seriously bored of this very quickly, and I tune out pretty quickly as a watcher/listener; as noted, different players like different things for example as I player I'm an Instigator I want to keep things moving and challenges to overcome not spending hours talking every little thing through. While I'm (mostly) a team player, I'll happily kick in the next door just to find a sticky situation we'll need to get ourselves out of... As I say, just try and observe your players, and focus on stuff they are enjoying; be prepared to make stuff up as you go along; and don't sweat the small stuff, no-one will know if you followed your "plot" or not. Here, these guys say it better than I can: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcA-eaaChJc&t=220s[/url] [/QUOTE]
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First time playing D&D and I'm the DM. Anyone feeling helpful?
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