4th edition "Black belt DM's Guide": best of the internet

[SparqMan]

For resources, add in table/play aids, both digital and otherwise?

 

[Infiniti2000]

Yeah and you could just let in any enworlders level 9 or higher too <j>

Better yet, 10,000+ posts.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The only drawback is that it's not available offline, but I don't think it's a big problem.

Any of those people complaining about the new CB certainly won't agree!

Regarding the organization, some of the ideas are okay, but some of the line items really fit more than one area. Take skill challenges, for example. There are three main parts to this and all very different. They are: encounter design, rules changes (e.g. Obsidian), and how to run it. Should "Skill Challenges" appear in multiple places like jimmifett has it? Or, should it be a category unto itself (almost like jimmifett has it)? I'm a fan of listing the topic once, so in general I would go with the longer list of main categories and then, say, under a general guide for encounter design, reference all the relevant additional information that deserved a section on its own.

 

[surfarcher]

Totally. Wait...I'm not even 9th level! Does that mean I couldn't contribute to my own wiki?

Nah, as the organiser/admin guy we'd put up with you and even allow you to refill our beverages for us <j>

Better yet, 10,000+ posts.

Meh, either or

The preliminary lists are looking very good! Plenty there I'd personally be happy to help flesh out.

 

[sangeet]

I already like the Idea ! I am currently expanding my own libary towards this subject. I think it would also be very good to compile a set of narrating techniques.

There are Wiki´s outside which support PDF export, so there could be both sides pleased. There are also book plugins for wiki media which is able to link multiple pages into one large PDF. So i think the best thing would be to continue to discuss the content, and not so much the form.

Probably a rating of the Articels, and commenting i.e. what turned out to be usefull, would be a good idea as well ...

My GMing Advice:

If you try to Improve your "freeform" narrating skills, you could pick up a card game: Once upon a time.
You get there about 100 Cards with places, characters, and items, and a narrating "goal" card, so essentially it´s a creative card game usally plable also with persons who are not so much into the RPG type of games.

The Idea is, that you narrate a story, and record it on your computer, or cellphone or something which has a recording ability. Listen to it after wards, and think about the story you just made up, and which words you have used.

 

[Lalato]

For what it's worth, I'm more a fan of Tags and Keywords than I am of rigid organization. It makes it so you can associate things a bit more freely... and allows you to put things in multiple hierarchies without any added trouble.

But I agree... don't worry so much about the form... try to gather your content and just start posting in a blog. The rest you can figure out after you have enough content.

Good luck!
--sam

 

[Quickleaf]

Thanks for the feedback!

[MENTION=67606]Stumblewyk[/MENTION]
(A) By "balanced encounter" do you mean tips on how to scale encounters for party size/composition?
(B) "Interesting encounters"? What did you have in mind?
(C) Totally agree about advice on avoiding slugfests. I think I can distill a simple formula to cover 9/10 scenarios.

[MENTION=6228]FreeXenon[/MENTION]
"Campaigning" strikes me as being outside the purview of focusing specifically on 4e. That said, I'd be happy to incorporate this sort of advice so long as it specifically pertained to the 4e ruleset. Otherwise this project would be ridiculously overwhelming!
At the same time you make good suggestions about music and other props (how many rpg music threads have you seen on ENWorld in recent months?). I am not quite sure where to draw the line...

I am all for a wiki as well. Perhaps you can find or arrange a wiki with a BLog looking front end?

I'll have to look into that!

Perhaps you can get guest writers to write about certain topics. There are insanely talented DM's here... Shemeska being one of them.

I've been consistently impressed by the caliber of DMs and freelancers who frequent ENWorld. But I don't want to compete with what other folks are doing on their own sites...thus project would be more about synthesizing data, comparing notes, and organizing it for easy access. Obviously I'd be asking permission from anyone whose articles the "wikiblog" would link to.

[MENTION=55006]jimmifett[/MENTION]

I recommend categorizations to aide in organization.

Conditions
* caveats
* notes

Could you explain what you mean by caveats and notes for conditions?

Design Guides
* Encounters (Order 66's rules of encounter deign come to mind)
* Powers
* Races
* Classes
* PPs
* EDs
* Skill Challenges

Yep, planning on including design guides for adventures, encounters, monsters, skill challenges, and traps too. But the player oriented stuff I'd just as soon as leave out for now. Who knows, maybe when this project is really rocking and other folks pitch in, I could tackle homebrew player content. Fit now I want to stay focused in the DM side of the screen.

Meta
* Dealing with problem players
* Dealing with problem DMs
* Helping ppl break out of roleplaying shells
* Battle mat cleaning
* Nifty Props
* Projector basics
* useful software

I would say an emphatic "No" to those first three, and a resounding "yes" to the last four. I really want to stay clear of generic old hat advice. I definitely want this guide to be friendly and useful for new DMs, but my main target are experienced DMs. I want this guide to "talk up" to the intelligence level of gamers, not provide fortune-cookie advice.

Though if you've got some *killer* fortune-cookie advice I would be tempted to include it

 

[Stumblewyk]

(A) By "balanced encounter" do you mean tips on how to scale encounters for party size/composition?
(B) "Interesting encounters"? What did you have in mind?
(C) Totally agree about advice on avoiding slugfests. I think I can distill a simple formula to cover 9/10 scenarios.

Regarding:

A) Certainly party size/composition, but also keeping a good mix of brutes, soldiers, artillery, lurkers, and controllers so that the party isn't killing 5 of the same type of monsters who all happen to have the same or similar roles (unless a given encounter really calls for it). Which leads into...

B) Keeping a good mix of roles in the monsters of the encounter can help make it feel more dynamic, but it can also be engaging for the PCs to incorporate environmental effects, "waves" of monsters, skill challenges that can (or must) be completed to lower the difficulty of the encounter/radically alter the terrain/impinge on the BBEG's (or LBEG, whatever) ability to move around, etc.

 

[Brys]

I would recommend a limited write page where only your vetted DM's can add content. EDIT: This would be the official tip page people are looking for.

I would also recommend an open page where anyone can submit their ideas. If the host site offered a way of voting for posts, maybe you could have every reader vote for good ideas and they'll bubble up until those with Writeable access make them official "good ideas". That way you don't miss out on someone's good idea just because they aren't known for them. Blind squirrels and nuts and all that.

 

[surfarcher]

Normally the "open page" could be the "discuss" area associated with a wiki page... Assuming you use a wiki system that supports this kind of functionality.