EN World DM Clinic!

[kengar]

Excellent advice Olgar.

Here are a few tidbits I've found helpful:

Have a list of NPC names (male & female, various races). Also, have a list of physical features and personality/mannerisms. When the party meets someone -especially when you've been forced to "wing it"- take the next appropriate name on the list, pick one or two features and mannerisms and use that to "insta-build" the NPC. Take notes so you remember that the storekeep in that town is "Luther, the fat man who stutters." It really makes the setting come alive (and also limits metagaming) when it's not just the "important" NPCs who have descriptions and names.

For hooks, ask your players when they make their characters to include backgrounds. Even a paragraph or two is a big help. Give a few XP for a nice background write-up; especially if it includes any potential "hooks" like potential enemies, etc. Make notes of these hooks and try to work them (eventually) into your campaign.

To steal a page from Robin Laws' book on GM-ing; different players have different ideas of what's fun. Some like in-depth roleplaying, some just want to hack stuff, etc. Try to determine what kind of players make up your group and include a little something for everyone (i.e. A juicy combat for the butt-kicker, some interesting NPCs to talk to for the RP-ers, etc.).

Pacing. Pacing is key. Try to "read the room" and keep things moving. If folks are getting bogged down in rules debates or side-chatter, it's time to pick up the pace in the adventure. Make up a few "drop in" encounters (NPCs, monsters, etc.) that you can toss at the characters as needed. Nothing that would totally de-rail the adventure, but just get everyone focussed back on the game. Bandits on the road, a rich noble running into the run claiming to have been robbed, etc.

Also, if the party gets too bogged down in debate about how to proceed, or if they are way off-track and aren't taking "in game" hints; don't be afraid to "take the DM hat" off and let them know they are wasting time. You don't want to do this TOO much or give any big secrets away, but once in a while it may be the best way to get things moving again.

After the session, ask for player feedback. What did they like? What didn't they like? Obviously, if they didn't like the fact they rolled a "1" on their Save and their +2 Longsword got melted down as a result, that's not a reflection of your DM-ing skills! Your players are the best judges of how you're doing. Most of them recognize how hard it is to be the DM and will cut you a goodly bit of slack. Again, take notes of what they tell you and make the best use of it.

That's my ramble, hope it helps.

 

[Angelsboi]

Well its like this ...

Jarreth was int he city when a plague was hitting (one of the PCs fathers was affected by it). It turned out to be caused by a Slithereen (Creature Collection) druid, BUT, there was a note on him. Jarreth was in the city looking for the Black Mages (Wizards) who had invaded his tribe and stole a Xaos stone.

Ariea (PC) felt bad for Jarreth and knew that if soemthing evil had a stone, it could be disasterous.

Jarreth was supposed to be in the city and then leave. She asked him for help with finding the plague, along with the other NPC.

The 2 PCs and NPC went hunting int he sewers for the plague and found it and found a letter to the diseased druid from someone mentioning it was great what he did for a distraction towards the tribe.

Time passes ...

The group gets word from a local church about a tribe of Callers (what Jarreth is) being dessimated by a virus. Jarreth breaks down (He was actually supposed to have gone back and died. But since he was asked to help - ).

Jarreth tried killing himself and Ariea found out and saved him. She has vowed not to let him out of her sight as they have become close friends.

So it all ties together. And after Sound Mind, they are going to run into another villiage descimated by the virus and find clues. But who or what is causing this and why did her father leave Southern Cross?

Is this what you were talking about Glenn?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yes, I think tying it together is good.

IMO, the plot's still a little too focuesd on the NPC. Follow the father plot for a while.

Perhaps, instead of finding the father, though, they find another hint to the powers behind the plague (the diseased druid?). Maybe that's the reason the father disappeared .. he's on the trail of the powers behind the plague ... but the evidence doesn't point to that, excatly. He's following someone who wronged him (that evenutallt, will turn out to be related to the plague).

If you want to keep the pressure up on the plague plot line, by all means take out another village, but if your players aren't going for that yet, have the group do something more subtle -- assassinate someone important, kidnap a relative, bribe a politician. If it is too obvious, the entire countryside should be up in arms to stop it -- and where would the PCs be? If they are still low level, have them deal with the minions. Maybe the plague is just a distraction for something more sinister ...

 

[Rel]

This is a great thread for anybody who GM's, not just novices. I've been GMing off and on for over 20 years and I still find myself making some stupid mistakes.

Let me mention one important thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far. This isn't necessarily one of those minor tweaks you make to send your campaign from "good" to "Fabulous" (nods to Angelsboi), but more of a fundamental building block of the campaign without which things could very easily fall apart completely: Explain clearly your idea of the tenor and focus of the campaign before the players even make characters.

The single biggest cause I've seen for "Campaign Failure" is a discrepancy between GM and Player expectaions of what the campaign is going to be about. If the game is supposed to be a lighthearted dungeon romp that is pretty hack and slash but the players all want to have lots of deep roleplaying, the game will likely fail. If the GM wants the game to be an epic journey to save the world but the Players want a gritty, character-focused storyline where they struggle just to make it in the world, the game will likely fail.

If these expecation do not match, it is not necessarily the GM's job to alter the campaign to suit the players precisely or the players job to play into the exact mold that the GM would like. It IS necessary that everybody compromise and to be up front about whether they can give the campaign concept an honest try. Nobody should agree to a light-hearted hack and slash type game if they are goint to take every opportunity to bend the game back to a deep-roleplaying theme.

 

[diaglo]

One of my players, who is a capable DM himself, recently asked me for my advice on DMing.

it wasn't me.

I'm quite flattered by his request (Thanks AB!) but I figured there's a lot of good advice out there; two head are better than one, right? Besides, I could always use some good suggestions myself.

rule 0: know thy players, not just their characters


most people playing this game are in it for the fun. but each person's idea of what is fun can be different.

knowing the players in this campaign i can say they are very different on their idea of fun.

if in the beginning we had gone after Dungeon 87 adventure by Skip Williams or the Sunless Citadel we might have had a much shorter campaign.

sticking with a classic like B2 makes it all worthwhile.

rule 1: variety. keep things varied or the players will fall into a rut.

rule 2: communication. both in and out of game. talk with your players. Olgar does this on a website for the group.

rule 3: let the players decide their own fate. no Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Numion]

My piece of advice:

If in doubt wether a player should gain advantage from one of his abilities (feat, spell, whatever), let him use it. The players have bought them for their character, and it's no fun being denied their use.

The original post was very good! Not much to add...

Woohoo! Post no. 1000!

Woohoo! Post no. 1004!

 

[Mark]

Woohoo! Post no. 1000!

1001...



Last edited by Mark on 02-06-2003 at 03:42 PM

1002..



Last edited by Mark on 02-06-2003 at 03:43PM

1003..



Last edited by Mark on 02-06-2003 at 03:44PM

Hey... Wait a minute...

 

[mythago]

I highly recommend Robin Laws's book, Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. Yes, I was also very skeptical that I could learn anything new from a book on GMing, but it's wonderful--and it puts down in organized fashion a lot of the things that experienced GMs intuitively know, but may not know they know, if that makes sense.

One good bit of GM advice is from Raymond Chandler, who was talking about fiction writing: whenever things get slow, have two guys with guns walk in. Not literally, of course, but--especially for those of us whose groups have a 10:1 ration of planning to action--sometimes you just need to dump a crisis on the PCs, kick everything into real-time panic mode, and get the ol' adrenalin flowing.

 

[Angelsboi]

well glenn, what do you propose i do? The PCs like Jarreth. And i am focusing on Ariea's fathers disappearance. They will come across a town descimated by a plague. Need to make a new creature. A plague zombie.