The Toughest Part of Dungeon Mastering........well to me at least.

[Michael Silverbane]

Third, if you are going to supply the motive to the story, rather than run a sandbox, start with a bang. If the players aren't already all on the same page, something so big and important needs to happen that responding to it becomes every PC's #1 priority regardless of their motive. And I do mean a big bang. Even if you plan to slow down in chapter 2 or 3 and start building back up with slow rising action, chapter 1 should be huge shattering event of historical importance. Disaster should happen right in front of their eyes. Kings should die, cities should fall, volcanoes should explode, meteors should fall out of the sky and blast half the landscape out of existence, old gods should rise, or whatever. Whatever should happen should be so big and so important that everyone's motive should be survival and dealing with this thing. After that, you can start introducing your plot threads in that context of 'the big thing'.

This is good stuff, right here.

I recall one campaign that I was a player in, started off with riots in the streets and a massive fire ala the Great Fire of London or the Great Chicago Fire. Good times.

 

[GMMichael]

What exasperates me is the amount of trouble that I have getting the players to give me even basic details about their character in time for me to plan anything that may unite them.

That's a pretty easy fix. Reserve the right to fill in whatever blanks the player leaves. Make sure you announce this with a wicked grin on your face.

Creating the beginning of the story is not the hard part for me. The hard part is getting players to accept that they're not each William Wallace, and somehow inextricably bound to elemental freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6zGEBhJMHA

 

[Eltab]

"Why are you adventuring together?" is a question the DM can outsource to the players.

If the players aren't committed to adventuring together, the campaign is going to fade out anyways.

 

[Shasarak]

The Toughest part of Dungeon Mastering to me is coming up with good names.

 

[Davelozzi]

The Toughest part of Dungeon Mastering to me is coming up with good names.

I feel ya. Try to snag one of these if you can find it…

 

[Davelozzi]

Note that Gary's name in the title is his seal of approval, but he's NOT actually the author, so you can rest assured it's chock full of legit options, not just rearranged variations of "Gary", "Ernest", etc..

 

[Morrus]

The Toughest Part of Dungeon Mastering is getting the initial adventure up and going IE how do we all go about having the Players come together? Do we go the lazy way by just having everybody know each other and kick off the adventure at your local inn? Or being a good DM, do you try and add depth to you initial game by coming up with various reasons for your players being where they are at and than go even further to initiate a pre adventure to get them together?

I certainly disagree with the premise that one method is lazy, and the other is being a good DM.

 

[Caliban]

The Toughest Part of Dungeon Mastering is getting the initial adventure up and going IE how do we all go about having the Players come together? Do we go the lazy way by just having everybody know each other and kick off the adventure at your local inn? Or being a good DM, do you try and add depth to you initial game by coming up with various reasons for your players being where they are at and than go even further to initiate a pre adventure to get them together?

Do you guys agree that this is the toughest part of being a DM? What ideas do you people have in regards to getting the initial adventure up off the ground?

Scott

Nope. I come up with the basic premise or theme for the campaign, then tell the players to make characters that are on board with it. They decide if they know each other or not, but it's their job to decide why they became adventurer's, not mine.

 

[Uller]

I tend to go with the way LMoP starts. The party is together and already agreed to an initial hook and something exciting happens to kick things off...Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a good example. Where did Short Round come from? Who cares? Figure that out later. Right now Dr. Jones needs a get away driver!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using EN World mobile app

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=22387]Scott_Holst[/MENTION] You know, it would be fun to subvert the cliche "starting in a tavern" trope and drop the PCs into the tavern en media res...

The Dwarven Cleric is locked in an arm-wrestling contest with Gulthor the Crusher, as the crowd cheers around them, the table littered with coins and other items being wagered.

The Fighter knows Gulthor's weakness, trying to find a way to covertly convey that to the Dwarf without arousing the anger of Gulthor's onlooking mercenaries.

The Wizard, concerned that the inebriated Dwarf is in over his head, is looking for an opportunity to cast a subtle spell to tip the odds in the Dwarf's favor. That little side wager the Wizard made might complicate matters, however.

The Rogue is using the distraction to pickpocket a key to the dungeons from one of Gulthor's mercenaries...but soon discovers that Gulthor's mercenaries have poisoned the Dwarf's new tankard!

So rather than the usual "what's my motivation? / meet-and-greet / mysterious patron in the tavern", really frame the heck out of the scene.