I suck at DMing. Can anyone help?

tdewitt274 said:

While "stealing" ideas from other sources are fine, I don't read, watch TV, or hit the news to a great extent.

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Start.

No, seriously: if you're having problems crafting a good story (or the RPG equivalent), one of the best things to do is to go have a look at how others do the same thing. In particular, you might want to look at how different types of story are told (action vs horror vs romance), or indeed how different people tell the same story (Shakespeare, Dracula, and the Three Musketeers are all good for this, having many different film versions).

A sandbox might suit you best, first of all.

Speaking to how you write an adventure, though, you should study how creative writing is done. Adventure writing is very similar, except you aren't telling a story, you are telling "an adventure". What that means is you need to think of what will be exciting, then let the players take it apart. Think in terms of places, monsters, villains, and most of all, quests. Think of fantasy things that need to be done in the game world by someone brave enough and capable.

tdewitt274 said:

Umbran brings up a good point regarding who makes the story. I somewhat disagree that the DM doesn't create the story. True, the Players create the story, but the story wouldn't exist without the DM. I feel that it's up to the DM to create the backbone and let the players flesh it out. The story wouldn't exist without the DM.

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Yes, but the story doesn't exist without the players, either, so that doesn't really mean much.

Rune said:

I think it might be helpful to tweak your perception just a touch. If you view the DM's role not as providing the core of the story, but as providing the ingredients for the players' to craft the story, you will find that a lot of the burden you have placed on yourself can be shed.

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This is a good way of considering it.

My statement that the GM does not create the story doesn't say that the GM does not do creation. But, "the story" is something that comes out through the player's interaction with the elements the GM has presented. It pays to be prepared for what one thinks are the most likely approaches the players will take to a situation, but that is not the same as creating "the story". An example:

I run a Deadlands campaign. Deadlands is a "Weird West" setting, meaning that it is Wild West, with magic, steampunk mad science, and horror elements. Early on in the campaign, I presented the PCs with a situation of there being a shipment of something (they didn't know what) going to a BBEG by train. Now, in genre, the classic way of dealing with this would be a train robbery. I was intentionally setting things up so that my player could have the experience of committing a train robbery and still feel like heroes, if they so chose. I was all prepared to run a train heist session.

But, the players didn't choose that route at all. The group that had realized that their strengths lay in "Intimidation, sustained violence, and the black arts" decided to defeat the villain by... bureaucracy! They falsified shipping records to make the train car go to a new destination, where they picked it up using forged documents saying it was theirs, not a shot fired (until much later - the BBEG was *not* pleased).

If I had thought of this as me writing a story, I would have written a train heist story. But that's not at all the story that came out of the session, or where the players wanted to go.

One thing I know from being a teacher of both adolescents and adults, is that in order to learn new behaviors, you must practice them.

To improve your DM'ing skills, you might pick three things you want to improve on. Research how to do those specific things better: steal from other people; translate their experiences into your games; read articles on websites; ask specific questions on gaming forums; etc.

Next, translate those "improved" skills into actual, in-game behaviors. Make a note you can easily see with those behaviors when DM'ing. Glance at it often and make an effort to do those behaviors.

When you have practiced the first set of behaviors well enough to do them as second nature, pick two or three more behaviors and work on them.

Example

Three Things to Improve:
1. Plotting
2. Fight Encounters
3. NPC role playing

Researching these things as indicated above produces these results, among others:
1. Plotting: Don't predict what the PC's will do; make flow charts; decide what the bad guys will do if the PC's don't intervene.
2. Fight Encounters. Base the monsters' decisions on their Intelligence scores; create complex, obstacle-laden battle environments; practice describing attacks, wounds, and villain soliloquies.
3. NPC's: Develop a shorthand for describing each NPC; practice various accents (poorly imitate movie stars or people you know); give each NPC some wants, desires and flaws.

Still with me?

Put notes on your DM screen, DM Guide, Monster Manual, or someplace where you will see them often. Now, when something relating to one of these three things comes up in play, glance at your note and demonstrate the "new/improved" behavior. Keep doing this and it will get easier.

But don't try too much at once. Maybe start with one simple behavior to change, like "Make combats more descriptive." Every DM was once brand new and most of us weren't very good to start. If you make a conscious effort to improve, you will.

Good luck!

tdewitt274 said:

I'm not a very creative person when it comes to stories. Being an analyst, I need to know how things work. So, I've spent a lot of time looking into what a Campaign Arc is, a plot device, etc. Unfortunately, I'm not getting it. Hence my plea....

I have the Dungeon Master's Design Kit (TSR 9234), the World Builder's Guidebook (TSR 9532), DMGs from all editions, Dugeon/Dragon magazine (I have the CDROMs, and almost everything after), GameMaster/Core Rulebooks from all walks of game systems (SpyCraft 2.0 does a good job), and many other books. Roughly 25 years of resources.

The problem I have is coming up with the idea itself. Coming up with a plot, if you will. Ultimately, I'd like "one book" that tells me how to create an story. A campaign do I dare? I'm essentially looking for a "Dummies Guide to Adventure Creation." I understand the structures for building a story (although, I'm rusty because I give up after a while). I understand where people get their ideas (TV, movies, books, newspapers, etc). But, I want to understand. I know, it's a big problem to ask for help with.

So, anyone have a good resource? Book? Web? Anything would help!

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OK

First things first, I don't think that D&D does what you want terribly well. The best stories are about the PCs and who they are and their investment in the world, and how they change and grow, and the D&D mechanics are about overcoming obstacles rather than emotional investment, and mechanical growth is linear and change non-existent. Also I think you are trying to design classic D&D Adventure Path adventures which are by definition adventures you could drop almost any acceptable PCs in and they will in theory come out the same way.

So. I'm going to make three suggestions. The first is a book of guidance. Play Unsafe which is basically what we can learn about stories from improv drama. It's going to be a completely different way of looking at things from the one I think you have - but a really useful one.

The second is Fiasco - an RPG made by boiling down the Five Act Structure into a mechanical system and playing from there, You can use it to write a Cohen Brothers movie in the time it takes to watch one - and it really teaches about relationship maps, the five act structure, and tilts. To see how it works watch the Tabletop playthrough - and remember that that's a good playthrough but not an outstanding one.

The third is a new RPG - Apocalypse World. (If you've got a group for it then Monsterhearts can be even better, but I doubt you have the right group). Apocalypse World is the non-D&D parent game of Dungeon World (mentioned by [MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION]), and it flows quite a lot better. It also has two real things that DW (and for that matter D&D) doesn't. First is PC investment in the setting during character creation; D&D (and DW) has you create PCs as near islands; AW character creation and character classes represent your place in the world from the local boss (the Hardholder), the local gang leader (the Chopper) to someone trying to get by (the Operator) or even a lethal drifter (the Gunlugger). Second is the narrative dynamite. PCs don't just get more skilled as they gain experience, they also change even to the point of changing Playbooks/Class. This can be obvious career development (e.g. Chopper->Hardholder as the gang leader takes over), a reversal (e.g. Gunlugger -> Angel (Medic)), or just something that kinda happened in play and looks like a really interesting direction for the character (e.g. Operator -> Hocus as one of the Operator's schemes involves them founding a cult and their cult becomes their defining drive). All those have the makings of great stories - and they are much much better because they emerge organically from who the character is rather than having been chosen in advance, but the rules of Apocalypse World encourage some sort of transformation/growth, and transformation and growth are at the root of most good stories. (Of course you can only change playbooks occasionally, and any playbook can change to any other, so it's always a big decision).

I hope some of that helped and will help.