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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6702400" data-attributes="member: 6801286">I  suspect many of us have started somewhere along those lines too. My  first steps in the world of D&D started with playing Hero Quest, and a  sort of simplified home brew version of 2nd edition, which we called  Elemental Quest. We had pointless labyrinths all the time. But as we  matured as players, we started realizing that if you really think about  all these questions, the details really provide so much more role playing  fun.     For example, if your dungeon is some sort of tomb, then there  probably are traps. But what effect would this have on the inhabitants  of the dungeon? Maybe giant centipedes have made this their hunting  ground, and maybe the players encounter one of these monsters lying dead  in one of the traps. This is a great way to build suspense, and perhaps  the centipede stuck in the trap isn't quite dead yet. And how do these  creatures get around, if the place is basically completely sealed? Well  maybe there are cracks in the walls, that are too tight for the players  to crawl through, but provide easy access for the various vermin that  inhabit the dungeon. This is also a great way to build suspense. Once  the players learn how these creatures navigate the dungeon, they'll be  cautious of any large cracks in the wall. This is also a great and  logical way for the DM to set up an ambush. Allowing yourself to ask  critical questions regarding the dungeon can improve the dungeon itself.The DM does not allow improvisation     Players will often stack up on tons of tools and random item  throughout their adventures, but how frustrating is it when you are not  allowed to use them? Occasionally you'll have DM's that do not allow you  to solve encounters in an unorthodox way. For example, a group of  monsters are about to charge into a room, and the players decide to  block the door with random tables and chairs, but everything is nailed  down. Or the player is in a prison cell, and tries to use a small tool  to try and free one of the bricks in the wall, but the wall is  invulnerable to any such attempts. Or the players face a steep wall, and  try to use vines to make an improvised rope, but they are not allowed  to use it. Or maybe there's a fight in a kitchen, and a player decides  to throw a cauldron filled with boiling water onto his enemies. He is  then punished for not simply attacking with his sword.     Don't be that DM. If the players come up with something that sounds  cool, just roll with it. When the players knock over that cauldron of  boiling hot water, have the first line of enemies scream in agony, and  retreat. Maybe the steam blinds them, allowing the rest of the party  some free shots? Don't make the player who improvises feel like he is  holding back the party by not attacking in the conventional way. If the  players are set upon by bandits, and one player tries to strike a  bargain instead of fighting the bandits, consider it as a DM. Maybe with  a good diplomacy or bluff, the player is able to convince the bandit  that attacking him is not in his best interests. If the players try to  smash a door right in the face of a monster, maybe its arms gets caught  in between the door, and he drops his weapon because of it? Make it a  narrative experience, and don't always force the players to just roll  damage, and nothing else. If a player tries to scare a monster by using  the echo of a tunnel to imitate the sound of a howling beast, roll for  bluff or perform, and then roll for the sense motive of the monster, or  for its listen check. Or do a morale check on the monster, and perhaps  it works. Don't make your clever players feel stupid for daring to step  off the beaten path, and for daring to come up with a unique solution to  a problem.On the other hand, there is also another extreme:     Everything the players say is audible to the npc's     It can be quite frustrating when the DM insists that whenever the  players talk about something, it is immediately considered as ingame  banter, even when it clearly isn't. Sometimes the players want to  discuss whether that guard they are talking to can be trusted, without  the guard immediately hearing that apparently they do not trust him. I  think a DM should be fair, and simply ask a player if their character  actually says that. If the DM insists that the players cannot exchange  certain information without their character actually telling each other  in-game, then the DM can aways ask the players to do so through other  means. Such as innuendo, hand signals, or magic.I  agree entirely. This fits seemlessly with one of my earlier points  about the DM being hostile to the players, or the DM not giving all the  necessary information to the players. Like for example not telling the  players that there are countless scorched corpses outside a cave, that  turns out to be the lair of a dragon.     I'll give an example of a much better way to handle this as a DM. The  party was exploring an ancient underground city, but a heavy stone door  was blocking their way. Fortunately there was a small hole in the door,  allowing a small animal to pass through. So the druid of the party  transformed into a little animal, and scouted ahead. In the room beyond  the door he noticed a giant centipede waiting on the ceiling. I told him  that his druid would logically know much about these animals, and I  then proceeded to tell him all he needed to know to make a well reasoned  decission. For example, I told him that the creature could be calmed  with a succesful Animal Empathy check, and would remain so as long as  there weren't any loud noises or vibrations. It was then all up to the  player to decide how much of this information he was going to share with  the rest of the party.I've  certainly been in a few campaigns where the DM would set up villains  that would always magically get away. And its especially painful when  the players suspect that he really should be out of HP by now. And even  though they may chase after him, he'd some how disappear through some  secret door that the players are unable to find, as if it instantly  magically disappears into the wall after the villain has passed through  it. Or the villain would some how be moving faster than the players, and  be invulnerable to any movement impairing actions from the players. The  following is a good rule for DM's everywhere: "If you introduce a villain, be prepared to have him/her die that very same session."  In fact, I use the same for my friendly npc's. All of them should be  able to die, without the plot coming to a screeching halt. I'm reminded  of the game Skyrim, in which all the critical npc's are all invincible,  but you wouldn't know who is a crucial npc and who isn't, until you  started fighting them. That should never happen in a game, and certainly  not in one as dynamic and interactive as DnD. Even if you are playing  through a prewritten campaign, make sure you are flexible, and can  continue the story if one of the main characters dies unexpectedly.Thats  exactly how I run my campaign. If the party wants to go somewhere, it  usually takes them a while, and they encounter many things along the  way. I prepare according to where they are going. And I have plenty of  random tables to keep them busy, where ever they go. They are not  restricted in any way, even if I'm not prepared. If needs be, I'll  improvize. I have a general idea what every place is like. So if they  decide to head into Shantytown, and I don't have a map yet of the place,  then I'll make it up. Or they may suddenly go to an unexplored island,  which is even better. I have random tables for what can happen at sea,  what the weather will be like, what they can encounter by the coast, and  what they can encounter on the island itself.I see what you mean. This can really undermine the severity of a  situation in any campaign. If a village is undersiege, then logically  all npc's in that village should be in danger. It's perhaps even worse  if the innkeeper is in the middle of a big battle, yet enemies simply  ignore him. Vulnerable npc's are an excellent opportunity for drama and  suspense. Players will feel the need to protect him, if they like the  npc, and they feel sad if they fail to keep him alive.     But I have been in my share of campaigns where the enemies seemed to  have a magical gift to instantly tell who is a player character, and who  is an npc.           Enemies are exempt from obstacles and traps     This happens a lot in campaigns, You have a situation where the  players must roll balance or jumps checks, but none of the enemies have  to do the same. If there is a condition that affects everyone, then the  enemies should not be exempt from that. If the ship suddenly tilts,  everyone on that ship (including enemies) must roll for balance, and not  just the players. The DM should never favor the enemies in a way that  hurts believability.     Enemy respawns     This is a minor point, but try and be fair regarding your encounter  sizes. If you notice that the players are easily taking out your group  of enemies (perhaps because you misjudged the difficulty), don't have  reinforcements just pop up out of nowhere for no apparent reason. DM's  often make errors regarding the difficulty of an encounter, it happens.  But when you literally have new enemies spawn out of nowhere, then it  becomes blatantly obvious to your players that you are just drawing out  the fight.Totally agree. A good example might be a dungeon of mine inside an  old cliffside city, which  I introduced early on in my current pirate  campaign. The first hall the players entered had a door to the left and to the right, and a flooded corridor straight ahead.  Both doors were heavy stone doors, that would either require a lot of  strength to lift, or heavy explosives, or magic to open them. But the  door to the right was different, because it had a hole in it, small enough for a small animal to fit through.  So the players had an actual choice here:     1. Swim through a flooded corridor and hold their breath, not knowing where it leads.  2. Send the druid through the door to the right, because he can shape  shift into something smaller, and scout ahead. Maybe there's a switch  on the other side?  3. Open the door to the left with force, which could be dangerous in  an old ruined city, and would alert any hostile creatures of their  presence.  4. Climb along the outside of the cliff, and enter adjacent rooms  through the windows. This is an option the players didn't even consider.     All three corridors would eventually lead down to a lower floor, so  they would reach their goal either way, but they would encounter other  things along the way. This is what an actual choice looks like.</blockquote>

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