D&D 5E Let's Have A Thread of Veteran GM Advice

[Reynard]

One of the things that frustrates me a little with the current state of the D&D fanosphere is that it caters almost exclusively to the new DM. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good thing that new DM's have such a massive support structure and so many examples to learn from and different perspectives to parse. i wish I had all that when I was a 10 year old and the only diversity of thought i got were arguments in the Dragon magazine Forum.

Anyway, what I would like to do is create a thread intended for veteran DMs to ask questions and get answers from other veteran DMs. Just because we have been doing this for 40-ish years (or more, or less) doesn't mean we never hit bumps in the road. We don't need answers to questions like "what is roleplaying" or "how do i make a dungeon" or any of that. But there are things that still vex us.

I will start:

One thing I still struggle with after all of these years is finding a concise but effective way to note the PC abilities. I believe that in an ongoing campaign, the DM should at least no and sometimes even cater to the mechanics of the PCs -- because those mechanics, the things the players chose, tells you as DM a lot about what they are looking for in play. I am fine with the broad strokes and character motivations and personalities. Where I have trouble is thinking about specific abilities or classes of abilities that individual characters have. I want that information at hand when prepping or running so i can use it as a tool, but I don't know how to organize it and I am just not going to review character sheets all the time (especially with complex versions of the game like PF2 or 5E; Shadowdark is easier).

So there we are. Help me out, and then ask a question of your own.

 

[Quickleaf]

Good question, and I love your thread topic.

Part of the challenge with tracking PC abilities is that I get quickly overwhelmed. I’ve instead learned to be selective in what I track - not just generally but specifically what I track differently between Session X and Session Y. My thinking/notes might be “This session for the rogue it’s all about Thieves Cant, while for the battle master fighter I want to lean into their Know Thy Enemy 7th feature as we haven’t used that hardly at all and it goes along with this session’s theme of unearthing NPC secrets.” The basic principle is the same as painting with a reduced palette vs baroque art, or North American herbalism (few herbs w/ many uses) vs European herbalism (many herbs each with a specific use). Hope that helps?

A question I’ve been mulling… When you’ve got a lot of house rules (like me), what have you found is the best way to disseminate that info to your players? This is assuming players are bought in / that conversation has been held. Do you let it be a slow build of knowledge, pointing out house rules as they come up? Do you assemble a document and if so, do you go over it together at beginning or do you expect players to read it on their own? Do you find a wiki is effective or players don’t even check? Do you redo char sheets with house rules embedded? What works for you insofar as communicating lots of house rules with your players?

 

[Reynard]

Good question, and I love your thread topic.

Part of the challenge with tracking PC abilities is that I get quickly overwhelmed. I’ve instead learned to be selective in what I track - not just generally but specifically what I track differently between Session X and Session Y. My thinking/notes might be “This session for the rogue it’s all about Thieves Cant, while for the battle master fighter I want to lean into their Know Thy Enemy 7th feature as we haven’t used that hardly at all and it goes along with this session’s theme of unearthing NPC secrets.” The basic principle is the same as painting with a reduced palette vs baroque art, or North American herbalism (few herbs w/ many uses) vs European herbalism (many herbs each with a specific use). Hope that helps?

That is a good idea. Thanks.

A question I’ve been mulling… When you’ve got a lot of house rules (like me), what have you found is the best way to disseminate that info to your players? This is assuming players are bought in / that conversation has been held. Do you let it be a slow build of knowledge, pointing out house rules as they come up? Do you assemble a document and if so, do you go over it together at beginning or do you expect players to read it on their own? Do you find a wiki is effective or players don’t even check? Do you redo char sheets with house rules embedded? What works for you insofar as communicating lots of house rules with your players?

I am not a huge "house rules" person. I might have 1 or 2 for any given game. I am more likely to just pick a game that does the rules pretty much how I want, than overly house rule. In fact, with D&D, while I am likely to create content or let the players create content (feats, spells, classes, etc) I almost never house rule stuff. Huh. Weird.

 

[Xenolith234]

When your creativity is falling short, how do you create the bones of an interesting session when prepping?

 

[Reynard]

When your creativity is falling short, how do you create the bones of an interesting session when prepping?

Assuming that the session you are trying to prep is not flowing naturally from the previous one, I for one am a huge fan of relying on random tables. Roll some stuff up! Invariable (for me at least) the stuff that results is enough to at least plant a seed from which a more extensive plan can grow.

Alternatively, reflect on what has gone on before in the campaign. Is there someone the PCs have crossed that might want pay back about now? Did they leave someone in the lurch who wants to settle up? Is there something in someone's back story write up that can inform an adventure? Stuff like that.

 

[el-remmen]

A question I’ve been mulling… When you’ve got a lot of house rules (like me), what have you found is the best way to disseminate that info to your players? This is assuming players are bought in / that conversation has been held. Do you let it be a slow build of knowledge, pointing out house rules as they come up? Do you assemble a document and if so, do you go over it together at beginning or do you expect players to read it on their own? Do you find a wiki is effective or players don’t even check? Do you redo char sheets with house rules embedded? What works for you insofar as communicating lots of house rules with your players?

I use a wiki for this but you are right that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them read the rules. But I still find it useful as a place to point players when they have a question about house rules and a quick way to look them up during sessions and make sure they are consistent.

Any house rules that affect character abilities directly (for example, my group eschews inspiration for “hero points”) have a place in the custom character sheets I made and offer them (to use or model their own sheet on).

 

[el-remmen]

When your creativity is falling short, how do you create the bones of an interesting session when prepping?

I don’t know if this will be helpful for your style of play, but for me session prep is about specifying the portion of a larger situation/conflict/region I prepped in general when I was feeling creative.

I know common wisdom (to paraphrase @SlyFlourish) is to only worry about the session in front of you, but that doesn’t work for me. I prep areas and conflicts and let the player actions decide how long that will take (usually several sessions) and then I just create stat blocks or specific scenes I think are likely to come up based on what I already prepped and where we left off before each session.

It also helps to have a source of material to cannibalize. I have a large collection of Dungeon mags I use to mix and match adventures from.

 

[bloodtide]

What works for you insofar as communicating lots of house rules with your players?

I do the big dump. I have it all online in a couple places and ways for players to read. I have shorter paper handouts, plus cheat sheets.

When your creativity is falling short, how do you create the bones of an interesting session when prepping?

Random Tables work great. Another good trick is just 'reimage' another story. But don't pick something like "Star Wars'....pick something more obscure. TV shows work great.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I may have even asked this here on ENW before - how do you onboard a new rules set into your brain so that the experience for the players is pretty ok?
(not perfect, but pretty ok)

 

[overgeeked]

To the thread topic. The referee is not telling the players a story. That’s not your job. The “story” of the game is emergent from your prep, the players’ choices, and the dice.

Do not fudge die rolls. Do not fudge monster stats.

Do not railroad your players. Follow them through whatever random crap they do. If the players are not active participants with full agency, you’re doing something wrong as the referee.

A question I’ve been mulling… When you’ve got a lot of house rules (like me), what have you found is the best way to disseminate that info to your players?

If it’s people you know, get their emails and send them a PDF. Most word processing programs can export to PDF. If it’s new people, send them a link to a Google doc PDF.