GMing help

[Aaziroth]

I don't know if I'm just losing my touch or what, but wanted to see if any of you guys (and gals) can help me with my problem...

I have spent hours upon hours writing up campaigns for my players, but they always seem to come out of left field cloaked in invisibility and ruin all my hard work... just when I thought I planned on everything that they could or would do, they do something completely unexpected, and I'm sitting there picking my jaw off the floor and ripping my hair out, as from what they did I have no means of fixing things w/o the dreaded railroading... and even than at times they go head long into a situation a developed for them to run from, and beat it... (lvl 3 vs 5-6 things 4+ lvls higher than them...)

Any advice?

 

[Hussar]

Ok, few things first:

1. What system are you talking about. That would be helpful for more specific advice.

2. Are you using the system as written or do you have (significant) house rules?

That being said, if you're spending hours and hours writing up scenarios (I'm presuming you mean adventures and not complete campaigns) that's probably your first problem right there. Step back and look at what you want the scenario to accomplish. What are the goals of this scenario, both in game and out of game. How do you want this scenario to tie into the larger campaign (if at all).

Now, having those answers in hand, ask yourself; Does it matter if they cakewalk this particular scenario? How did they do it? What, specifically, allowed them to turn what should have been a challenging encounter into a speedbump.

IME, just throwing bigger monsters at the party never works because it doesn't address the underlying issues.

 

[Kzach]

Any advice?

If running a game completely on the fly is out of the question then I recommend simply preparing only a skeleton of potential adventure and fleshing it out as you play.

For example, use one of the naming engines on the net to spit out fifty random names. Keep it on hand whenever you need an NPC name. Are the PC's in a dungeon? Keep a list of roughly the right monsters on hand and scrap together an encounter from that list whenever it feels like you need one. The same with traps and hazards.

In other words, don't over-prepare and just take what you need to run the session. Never plan for the PC's actions, because players will ALWAYS surprise you.

 

[Pentius]

Well, the first rule of DMing: The players will always do what you don't expect.

But yeah, we need more specifics to start helping. But, once provided, we'd be glad to.

 

[Mark CMG]

Any advice?

There might be some additional help found here -


http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-dming-advice-links-fixed-july-20-2008-a.html

 

[Spinachcat]

Although being a DM has aspects of being a novelist, the DM must divorce himself from control of the characters. Instead, focus your control on the world and the NPCs. The best DMs are those who don't react to the players, but have the world react to the actions of the characters.

Let's say the PCs use Intimidate on a noble in town to get their way. Were there any witnesses to the event? Who saw the noble get humbled? What will the humiliated noble do in the future? Will he sent some hitmen to settle the score? Will he spread lies to other nobles about the PCs? The players may have forgotten completely about the noble they squashed on their way to their 23rd adventure, but surely that noble won't forget it.

As for PCs blowing through encounters, that's cool. In 4e, you can easily dial up or dial down encounters. I like paper tigers myself. I chop HP in half but add 1W to all damage for my monsters and often add a couple more monsters to the fight. Battles go fast, but very bloody.

 

[Piratecat]

I have spent hours upon hours writing up campaigns for my players, but they always seem to come out of left field cloaked in invisibility and ruin all my hard work... just when I thought I planned on everything that they could or would do, they do something completely unexpected, and I'm sitting there picking my jaw off the floor and ripping my hair out, as from what they did I have no means of fixing things w/o the dreaded railroading...

This, in my opinion, is the best possible situation to be in.

Seriously. I live for these minutes. My group loves making me make "that face," where I realize that their cleverness has thwarted my bad guy's plans and i now have to improvise on the fly. I love it too, because it makes me think quickly to keep the game fun. So try this: instead of having a bunch of stuff prepped that will just get negated, think about what you monsters or bad guys might do in response to the clever players. Don't be afraid to give the PCs major advantages if they earned them. That's tremendously fun and satisfying for them.

The trick is to get used to saying "Yes, but..." That's the key. "Yes, but..." Allow clever plans, and then twist it to make it interesting.

Can you give us an example of one case you found frustrating, what the players did, and what you did?

 

[Ahnehnois]

...just when I thought I planned on everything that they could or would do, they do something completely unexpected...

I'm with PC on this one. Frankly, if you can plan for all possible outcomes, playing the game is pretty boring. I think the issue here is that the implicit goal (a controlled scenario that the players simply play out without meaningfully altering) is unrealistic.

If they're destroying the game by manipulating the rules to do unreasonable things, put a stop to it. If not, loosen up, roll with the punches, catch whatever they throw you.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

There are mor than a few areas that I could improve my own DMing skills, but by far the biggest is to do a much better job of incorporating the "yes, but..." response. I can empathize with where the OP is coming from, but would suggest they focus their time and energy on improving the ability to allow the PCs to take the action they wish, but tailoring the response to fit, at least somewhat, the DM's original intention. Some may even acuse this response of railroading, but I think if done properly and tactfully, it can be a useful bridge between what the DM planned and what the players want. As such, the OP as a DM will be spending more effort (and yes, time) performing in game planning and less out of game.

 

[Rechan]

What you might also do is simply shift from looking at it like planning out the method that players will do something, and instead focus on what it is they need to accomplish in the first place.

For instance, "Your mission, should you accept it, is to acquire the secret plans from the villain's library."

They could kick in the door swords drawn. They could sneak inside. They could pretend to be servants. They could bribe a servant. They could hire a high level thief. They could set fire to the opposite side of the house and, in the confusion, rush the library. They could...

The point is, you focus on designing the defenses around the library, the guard rotations, etc. Know the building. Then, unless the PCs just pay off someone else to do it, then you're set for several possible avenues. You also prep what happens to the information once the PCs get it to who it belongs to - will they be betrayed? Was there a spell on the villain's safe that made them easy to track down once they got away?

Another way to shift your thinking is to put the ball in the player's court. You ask them "So, what do your characters WANT? Well, if you want it, then go get it. I won't hand you the adventure, you go make it." Then you just have the world react to what they do. You may toss in a plot or two of your own, but the goal here is to make them do some of the sweating, deciding what to do and where to go, and you simply have the location ready and the consequences ready.

Less 'alter the way you think about GMing' would be to have some prepared scenarios to stall. The "You come across something weird on the road". A single encounter or side trek that you can drop in several locations. This is so you can either buy time to think of how to deal with their latest scheme, or to fill up the session if they went too fast through your prepped adventure and there's still an hour of game left.

Finally, there's no shame in admitting to your players, "Dang guys, I didn't prep for that. Could you give me five minutes to think?"