Can't Find Trees- Damn Forest. Secret of Good DM'ing?

[Keeper of Secrets]

My three most important pieces of advice would be:

1) Avoid 'Mary Sue' type NPCs. Ie ones that are much more powerful than the PCs, travel with them and solve the mission for them.

2) Avoid railroading.

3) Treat your players as grown-ups. Be honest about the sort of game you're running, why you make decisions the way you do. Involve them in the decision making process, ask their advice.

This is worth repeating.

 

[Wraith Form]

10) Remember, the players are smarter than you. It's always better to present them with challenges that have multiple solutions than try to predict one specific outcome. Give them situations where they can come up with a solution on their own--it's almost always going to be cooler than what you had in mind. And as an aside to that, don't base your entire campaign on them following any one course of action.

Great advice--but how does a newbie DM create multiple-solution challenges? (Let me guess--practice, trial & error.)

 

[Cbomb]

13) Don't get bogged down by over using miniatures. Miniatures are fine for combat, but don't force the PCs to move their minis over a landscape like a map. D&D is not a wargame, unless you're using the rules from the D&D Miniatures Handbook. And even then, it's a skirmish game. Miniatures should not become a burden or take the place of good roleplaying or having an imagination.

thanks that cleared up some stuff for me! this topic is very helpful for a n00b dm

 

[derelictjay]

Here's one that always annoyed me as a player (and I'll admit doing it as a DM). Just because you think your encounter/adventure/campaign is a cool idea, but one of the players or the group is doing something that goes counter to this philosophy, don't penalize, run with it (as one of my old groups most famous TPKs was when the players did things counter to what the DM wanted). Even in sports, war or life the best made plans rarely see the light of day, so when your PCs do somethink you don't like, go with it, it might actually be fun. Of course you could always railroad, thereby causing animosity in the group (as I have never seen a railroaded campaign a happy campaign).

 

[Janx]

more on the railroading front:

Never PLAN to capture the party
-this almost always ends up as railroading as you make stronger and stronger attempts and dice fudges to make it happen so your plan will work

Never CAPTURE the party if you can avoid it
-Once you've captured the party, they will want to escape. This means you will have to prepare for it. You'll need to know how they are tied up (or not), where are they housed. The feeding schedule. The guard rotation. The rope quality, chain quality, lock quality will all need to be known. Plus, they'll want their gear back. The end result is, only capture the party as a last resort (most likely to save their lives as a DM). And then, if you don't have all of that documented out, pause the game and figure it out.

Never strip-search or violate the PCs after you capture them
-Some DMs and players might not mind it, but with a new group, you can't guarrantee they won't take offense. Some specific examples, female players may be VERY uncomfortable with having such liberties taken with their characters. 1/5 women in the real world are raped, and this is a sensitive subject to them (heck that stat is just the US alone). In addition, this just further weakens and humiliates the characters, giving them no chance of escaping (and thus ending the game). Consider the "capturing" that happens on TV shows like startrek or Stargate. Their guns get taken, they get tied up, and thrown in a cell or marched along to a destination. It's fine to pat them down and take anything obvious. But ultimately, you're foiling the rogue in the game by taking her hidden lockpicks in her hair, and that's just bad DMing.

And yes, I've played in a newbie DM's game where I had warned him to follow rule #1 before he wrote the adventure, and he promptly broke all three. And we had 2/4 players were women. That was the last game under that DM. He had designed his adventure on the premise that we WOULD be captured. This made that whole encounter un-fun (and I managed to be the only one not captured through lots of hard work and running away). He followed up by having his villain be "smart" and completely strip-search all the prisoners (further weakening their position and angering the female players). The result is, everyone pretty much decided that the campaign sucked and that was the last game. Even the DM knew it sucked, but failed to grasp why he had broken any "rules"

Janx

 

[Hjorimir]

1) Remember the game is supposed to be fun for all (including the Dungeon Master). Too often DMs forget to include themselves in the fun factor. Let me tell you something, DMs are far better when they’re having fun along with the players.

2) Cheaply won victories do nothing for the game. I’m not talking about killing your local band of orcs. But (as it is in real life), most players don’t know what they want. They may think they want a vorpal sword and that is what will make the game fun. But if you just hand that over it will not be appreciated and ultimately cause dissatisfaction. The same can be said about all aspects of the game. It is the toughest victories that will stay with the characters and, more importantly, the players.

3) Less is more. If every encounter is tooth and nail down to the wire, they will become boring and lose their significance. The same can be said of the scariest of opponents. If the player characters face at least one dragon each and every session, dragons will be nothing more than boring encounters. That is a crime. Such a creature (and there are others) should remain more of a terrifying enigma until the time is right. Just like a good book or movie, a skilled DM will slowly build the plot and tension until the right moment. Then it is time to strike with such power that you rattle the campaign. While your players may develop post dramatic stress disorder (read: shell shock), they will be “wowed.” Being wowed keeps them coming back for more.

 

[Raven Crowking]

10) Remember, the players are smarter than you. It's always better to present them with challenges that have multiple solutions than try to predict one specific outcome. Give them situations where they can come up with a solution on their own--it's almost always going to be cooler than what you had in mind. And as an aside to that, don't base your entire campaign on them following any one course of action.

Great advice--but how does a newbie DM create multiple-solution challenges? (Let me guess--practice, trial & error.)

A newbie DM creates multiple-solution challenges the same way that any DM does: by setting up a challenge, and then allowing the players to solve it without saying "No" simply because the players came up with a solution the DM didn't foresee.

It isn't necessary for the DM to come up with the multiple solutions. The DM merely has to set up a situation that doesn't include the line "X can only be solved with Y." The players will happily do the rest.


RC
__________________

 

[Raven Crowking]

Never CAPTURE the party if you can avoid it
-Once you've captured the party, they will want to escape. This means you will have to prepare for it. You'll need to know how they are tied up (or not), where are they housed. The feeding schedule. The guard rotation. The rope quality, chain quality, lock quality will all need to be known. Plus, they'll want their gear back. The end result is, only capture the party as a last resort (most likely to save their lives as a DM). And then, if you don't have all of that documented out, pause the game and figure it out.

Unless, of course, the PCs are foolish enough to rob the till at the inn in broad daylight in front of a contingent of the town's watch. In which case, the rule should be:

Let the party clearly know the consequences of violating the law in a given area, then administer those consequences without guilt or remorse.


RC

 

[Terwox]

11) Forget every plot you've seen on Star Trek or played in Final Fantasy. All too often new DM's try to pull a plot device from pop culture, forgetting that pop culture is incomprehensibly stupid.

14) There's an according rule to this that hasn't been mentioned -- if there's a book you've read, a plot device you really liked, and you want to use it in your game, use it!! Especially if the players won't recognize it, and will think it's interesting. Having necromancy use a series of named bells was a huge ripoff in a short game I ran, but it certainly made things a lot more interesting.
In short: Steal inspiration liberally! There's nothing wrong with it. Just don't try to sell it. And I wouldn't claim credit for stolen inspiration... but nobody's going to tell on you if you do, unless they recognize it.
(And honestly, I'd use Final Fantasy plots if you really liked them too... but, eh, I've had a DM people called a "Final Fantasy DM" -- some players really liked that, I didn't, so, YMMV.)

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Always plan extra encounters or otherwise make sure you're not out of foes

Players will skip encounters. This is common at low levels (they're scared) or at high levels (magic). Using these extra encounters at low levels is a judgement call.

Have answers ready for "clever" player schemes. This comes with experience at DMing. Sometimes schemes are clever. Sometimes they're something silly like "I'll keep watch, so they can't sneak up on us."

Oversee character creation. It helps if the players aren't all strangers, too.