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That sounds the same. I've been thinking of making scene openings for a while, and letting the scene resolve itself organically. I hadn't considered (until now) doing the same with NPCs. I'm basically making the NPC introduction, and letting his personality/goals come out in play. Now I'm...

I definitely don't have a scene in mind. That way lies madness. I'm thinking: because of the way the PC backstory was built, this was a topic the player wanted to address. So I'm creating the NPC with the idea that he personifies that topic, then I throw him out there. I don't know where it's...

I've come to this realization too. I also only game once a month (stupid adult schedules . . . ) so I have no expectation that the players will remember important points. I just repeat them again, sometimes make connections if I think a PC would have, and lay things out. But that's not my...

Put "Make a Budget" on your to-do list. :D PS

I'm about to make a couple NPCs for my game. In previous times I'd have started with the NPC's description, motivation, and some way to make the NPC memorable at the table. This time I've decided that I really want to have a scene involving an NPC and one of the PCs, motivated by the PC back...

It's basically going to be a bunch more work, tho there are some workarounds already mentioned. So you should accept that and do what the 3.x games do well - wide open character customization, pretty easy house rules, and ridiculous gonzo magic power. Make up some magic items your players...

In my Goblins of Eberron game, we had a near TPK. Rather than add new PCs to the shattered remnants of the group, we restarted, at Paragon tier, back where the campaign began. It was essentially a brand new campaign. So we started with a round of DM questions to get to know the new PCs, and to...

In our last epic level 3e game I had 2 rules: 1) I ran every crazy combo past the DM before I deployed it and 2) we couldn't change "plot direction" except at the end of a session. 1) was because we had a high mage, an epic sorcerer, an epic cleric, an epic bard, and an epic mageblade with an...

To really make that work, the players should understand what's happening. Preferably before it's over. Whatever template you use, you should make the tie to the door strong - maybe even have sundering the door be the best way to defeat her. Use the idea that killing the tree is the quickest...

Is there a "Reject" option? What happens if you Offer, but no one wants to Accept? Or is there some kind of Counteroffer option? What happens if just one of the players is more aggressive, and Accepts scenes no one else wants to play out? I know I've found myself, as a DM, stuck in a scene only...

In which Storminator risks the wrath of the moderators by reigniting a locked thread. Despite the other thread's problems, I didn't feel the conversation was finished. I think JA brought up some good points, which I'd like to discuss in a respectful manner. As we all know, any DMing technique...

All of the players in my game buy at least some of the books. Also, between the 8 of us we have at least 6 subscriptions to DDi (4e game, obviously). As long as that DDi supports 4e we'll be a cash cow for WotC. We don't have a lot of interest in moving on, but we'll keep our DDi as long as...

Yeah, having 7 PCs has probably colored my perceptions of HS rarity. I've been running with 2 defenders and 2 leaders recently. PS

I'm about to start a new branch of my ongoing campaign. It goes back to part of the campaign we more of less abandoned 4 or 5 levels ago, with new PCs. So I'll have a similar session, where we basically ground the new PCs in the setting. I have the following questions/prompts planned...

I base each session on the previous session, and I typically prep 3 scenes. That's usually enough to get me thru a session, and usually any planning past that is wasted. There are exceptions. I did a "raid the rival clan" adventure where I built a dungeon and told the players they were raiding...

Once we had company in from out of town and did some fairy tale based one shots. One based on Little Red Riding Hood started with Grandmother giving us a shopping list. It was supposed to be a little setting color and motivate us to go to town to start the adventure. After we went to the 3rd...

Well, Nemesis Destiny's house rules made my suggestion moot, since surges are much more important in his game, but I get your point. This is one of my favorite threads, because it turns out I've been running my game as PSF. There are a couple things I've grown to hate over the years of RPGing...

And then how do they get the Death Saves back? PS

If you wouldn't mind making a new thread, I'm pretty interested in the details. PS

That's a pretty significant difference! :D Sounds like surges are a little more precious in your game, so losing them is more meaningful. PS