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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="PattonDM" data-source="post: 1052390" data-attributes="member: 13236">As a DM, I would rather cut out the accounting aspects of D&D and concentrate more on story and action.  I have played in a couple campaigns where the DM loves going on and on about the types of beer at the tavern.  It takes an hour or two just to make a stupid equipment run at a town.  Don't get bogged down in the little details, as it detracts from the overall adventure---Of course, if your players are into it, go with it.Food and Water: is assumed due to the cleric in the party.  However, to make things more difficult, I raise the level of the create food/water spell in desolate areas like the desert and the underdark.Basically, you have to "pray much harder" for your god to grant you water in a desert.Encumberance:  I check this at the beginning of every adventure and apply penalties, but don't keep track during the adventure.  Gave my PC's a bag of holding early on.PC skills: I roll the important ones such as Spot, Listen, Search, Bluff, Hide, Disable, etc...  Remember that players love to roll dice.  The DM should only roll for them when the result should be a secret.  Stores/Shops: I create 3 types of lists of equipment, small, medium, large town.  I update each list every 3-5 adventures.  I also use the Volo's guides frequently to borrow names and ideas for shops.  The DMG has rules on putting a GP limit on expensive items in smaller towns which should help you out.Environmental Encounters: Along with random encounters, I have a random table of mishaps and obstacles that can occur while travelling.  This allows me to add flavor to wilderness travel without taking much time.  The encounter could be a snare, a chasm the players have to climb, a roll to avoid getting lost, heatstroke, skunk in the bedroll, disease, food spoilage, horse broke its foot and other things that players must deal with immediately and aren't combat oriented.   I do work out overland movement rates ahead of time and will tell the players that from point A---B will be ~20 miles or 7 hours on horseback.  Then I roll random/environmental encounters.  If none come up--they arrive at their destination after a brief description of the landscape.Hope these ideas help</blockquote>

Verification