Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6307015" data-attributes="member: 6776279">When in doubt, I always go with 50-50. Everybody understands the coin flip and its regimented impartiality. This is, of course, in situations not relevant to character abilities. If some sort of skill or save would apply best, I use that instead. If a PC needs a miracle to survive, I go with 5%...natural 20. Everyone also understands the beauty of a natural 20 when you really, really need one.I don't bother to hide monster stats from my players. The players always know the math at work. Some might prefer to decode context clues from the DM, but I haven't met any. I'll hide monsters capabilities until they're unleashed, but rarely the raw numbers.Players are responsible for creating characters that have a reason to join and adventure with the group. I don't force players to roleplay if they don't want to. Their PCs are free to have no 'real' motivation for all I care. Even a half-mumbled "My dude just wants to kill stuff and get treasure, I guess." is fine by me. But contrarian motivation I don't allow. A player that wants to create an evil, power-mad megalomaniac necromancer for a group of paladins out to save the world is not going to cut it. Inter-party conflict should be avoided at all costs unless you have a mature group of experienced players willing to delve into such content.DMs should most certainly help players create characters for their games. The DM should be forthcoming about the nature of the world, the campaign and the group. If the player has a concept that doesn't quite fit, the DM should work with the player to determine what about the concept appeals to the player and then work to make it campaign compatible. "Hey, I really have this idea of a Klingon badass!" "Umm...how about a half-orc instead?" "Can I play a Jedi?" "Uhh...maybe there's an ancient order of monks using light swords somewhere in my world..."The best advice I can give DMs and potential DMs that isn't found in most DMGs, is: "Don't take it too seriously." When the players are openly mocking the archvillain you spend two hours lovingly crafting, laugh with them. It happens. It's D&D. When you make a bad call and are later corrected, say "Oopsy" and do what you can to salvage the situation. When the players trounce your epic encounter or, worse, go off in the opposite direction, roll with it. Open your Monster Manual or your campaign file and throw something else at them. There is always another encounter, another combat, another dungeon, another adventure to do it better.I got a lot better at DMing when I started thinking of myself as an MC (Master of Ceremonies). You introduce monsters and NPCs who do their acts, keep things moving along, and make sure everyone is having a good time. I was never worse at DMing then when I thought of myself as an "auteur" with my game being some sort of brilliant artistic masterwork (it wasn't).</blockquote>

Verification