What do you find hardest when running RPGs?

[JediSoth]

My two biggest stumbling blocks are running complex high-level monsters with a gajillion abilities effectively (I'm getting better at it; 5E is easier in that regard than 3.X/Pathfinder was) and improvising when things go pear shaped. I suck at improvising. I'm at my most uncomfortable when PCs start interrogating throwaway NPCs who I never intended to survive a fight and/or don't really know anything about the metaplot to begin with (usually because my players assume the NPCs are lying and just. Won't. Let. It. Go.).

 

[Grogg of the North]

High level play is always a bit of a headache. I don't know how many times after a session I've looked at my notes and realized the monster had this Super Cool Awesome Ability that I completely forgot about and never used. Spellcasters with a lot of buffs are even worse.

You'd probably hate me as a player. I have this weird habit of trying to make friends with random NPCs. "Why hello Ms. Random Ranger We Were Supposed To Never See Again, do you need any help in the forest today?" Several role play sessions and emails later my PC and the Ranger are now BFFs, have started a business together and are trying to set the party's fighter up with a dryad.

 

[JediSoth]

High level play is always a bit of a headache. I don't know how many times after a session I've looked at my notes and realized the monster had this Super Cool Awesome Ability that I completely forgot about and never used. Spellcasters with a lot of buffs are even worse.

You'd probably hate me as a player. I have this weird habit of trying to make friends with random NPCs. "Why hello Ms. Random Ranger We Were Supposed To Never See Again, do you need any help in the forest today?" Several role play sessions and emails later my PC and the Ranger are now BFFs, have started a business together and are trying to set the party's fighter up with a dryad.

Random friendly conversations are fine. I can always ramble like Abe Simpson: "Did I ever tell you about the time I had to lead my donkey to Waterdeep? I didn't leave at dawn, because I overslept. One of the barn cats kept me up, then I had to find an onion to tie to my belt. It was the style at the time, plus if you carry an onion with you, you'll have something to snack on. Anyway, like I was saying, it was the style at the time and a fine style it was, better than when we had to wear stinging nettles in our hair. That was so itchy. Pliny the Younger had a thing for wearing stinging nettles and when he couldn't stand the itching anymore, he'd make tea out of them. Strange fellow... we call him Pliny the Itchy now. Hey, did you see they've developed a new technique for long-term crop irrigation? ..."

I probably should just start doing that during waste-of-time interrogations. Eventually, they'll catch on that it's a sign the NPC doesn't know anything or is completely insane (or perhaps their mind exists in a different reality).

 

[ChaosGenerators]

High level play is always a bit of a headache. I don't know how many times after a session I've looked at my notes and realized the monster had this Super Cool Awesome Ability that I completely forgot about and never used. Spellcasters with a lot of buffs are even worse.

Has anyone seen articles or advice about running high-level D&D and Pathfinder games?

 

[Grogg of the North]

I haven't found any articles on high level play. Though there are countless blogs and forum posts on the topic. I recall the 3.5 DMG gave a brief, a few paragraphs at most, on the difference between low and high level play. It suggested that at high level you shouldn't be afraid to throw weird challenges and obstacles at the party since, even if they didn't have the means immediately at their disposal, they could find some way to get around the challenge.

 

[Imaculata]

I suck at improvising. I'm at my most uncomfortable when PCs start interrogating throwaway NPCs who I never intended to survive a fight and/or don't really know anything about the metaplot to begin with

I usually have some generic stats for an npc ready, that I can use for NPC's that weren't meant to be involved in a fight.

(usually because my players assume the NPCs are lying and just. Won't. Let. It. Go.).

Interrogations are never a problem for me in this way, because I always tell my players straight up that an npc seems to be telling the truth. They may always attempt a sense motive check (I guess in 5e this would be an insight check or something), but I always tell my players that this is not a lie detector. If it seems unlikely that a particular npc knows anything about the plot, I will simply tell the players so.

Only if the npc is acting shifty, will they notice anything with a check. But some npc's are just great liars.

 

[Kobold Boots]

1. High level games require more thought prep. Maybe not for the one off encounter but certainly for anything that is central to the game you're running. (e.g. Boss Fights)

and as sort of a 1a to this statement, with more that can potentially go wrong with the campaign once you hit high level, the motivations and under story of whatever is going on really need to be well thought out if you want the end result at a high level to be satisfying. There's nothing worse than an epic level game that doesn't feel epic and if you've not built up enough investment in your world, character relationships and potential outcomes, then you're better off playing levels 1-9 like 90 percent of the gaming population.

2. Remembering that you don't need to go to the ends of the planes or earth to scale for epic level. All that's really needed is some forethought about how your little 1st level town is going to scale to that level by the time the players get their characters to that point. It's not to say you don't travel occasionally, but there's a reason why adventurers sprung up where they are, there's a reason why evil keeps aggressing in the place where the heroes are, and there's plenty of capital coming into the area where the heroes are.

By the time a group is 15th level the little trading town can be growing to become a Waterdeep. I find most of the reasons why any high level game I run succeeds or fails is primarily about whether or not I stopped to think about what I was trying to do before I did it and whether or not I overreached on plot when I didn't have to. Do I create a new area of the world whole cloth to go to 15th level and above (zone thinking) or do I invest in character interactions and development such that when they get there it's ready to go, (depth thinking)? Generally zone thinking fails because it forgets everything you did prior and you extend past your comfort zone or supply line.

KB

 

[pming]

Hiya!

As a DM, it's remembering all of the options my monsters/evil NPCs have. I can't recall the number of times I've forgotten this guy had SR all this time or this one's immune to electricity or whatever. I do up a cheat sheet of monster stats for each adventure with all of those details written out, but sometimes things get lost in the mix - especially in the heat of battle when I'm running various enemies all at once.

Johnathan

You know the saying..."A picture is worth a thousand words"? Use that. If a monster has SR, adopt a personal "symbol" you can use to remind your brain of it; say, a star with a pentagram in it. If an NPC has special range attack, use an arrow. If an area has some kind of fire hazard/trap, draw a little flame. Put these icons right next to the encounter number/name or in the 'margin' of your notes right next to it. Somewhere that isn't actually part of the description or stat block. Somewhere that your eye will be drawn to. If you can correlate the icon in your notes, and draw the same thing on the 'map' (if it's an encounter, for example), it helps you keep tabs on where certain NPC's/traps/etc are in the same way. You will see the PC's are in "room 14", and just down the hall is "room 15", and next to the "15" is a fire symbol...it will help you remember "Oh, right, this is where the fire elemental is guarding the Foozle of Might".

For added bonus...use colour too! Different coloured symbols can indicate certain things (red for "fire/heat/anger" or something that makes sense to you). You can have the same symbol mean slightly different things...so a red 'pentagram' symbol could mean "SR vs fire/heat", while a green one might indicate "Resistance to poison/disease".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Reynard]

Hiya!



You know the saying..."A picture is worth a thousand words"? Use that. If a monster has SR, adopt a personal "symbol" you can use to remind your brain of it; say, a star with a pentagram in it. If an NPC has special range attack, use an arrow. If an area has some kind of fire hazard/trap, draw a little flame. Put these icons right next to the encounter number/name or in the 'margin' of your notes right next to it. Somewhere that isn't actually part of the description or stat block. Somewhere that your eye will be drawn to. If you can correlate the icon in your notes, and draw the same thing on the 'map' (if it's an encounter, for example), it helps you keep tabs on where certain NPC's/traps/etc are in the same way. You will see the PC's are in "room 14", and just down the hall is "room 15", and next to the "15" is a fire symbol...it will help you remember "Oh, right, this is where the fire elemental is guarding the Foozle of Might".

For added bonus...use colour too! Different coloured symbols can indicate certain things (red for "fire/heat/anger" or something that makes sense to you). You can have the same symbol mean slightly different things...so a red 'pentagram' symbol could mean "SR vs fire/heat", while a green one might indicate "Resistance to poison/disease".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

All ^^^ this advice here? Follow it. Using little visual cues you designed yourself will completely change you game. I use folded over index cards that hang on the GM screen for initiative order. On the side facing the players it just has the name. On the side facing me it has the name and symbols and shorthand for important stuff to remember.

 

[Imaculata]

I've noticed that finding fitting pictures for various npc's and bosses also helps me with the improvisation, although it can be very time consuming. But as long as I have a clear picture in my mind of an npc, it is easier for me to narrate anything related to that character. Pictures help me do that.