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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 1096588" data-attributes="member: 158">God, how I wish I'd kept a copy of a web page I'd seen one time: it had 100 tips for being a better DM, and had specific things like "read history texts" "ride on horseback at least once" etc. As well as some more practical advice about actual scenario design, etc.But, since I don't:#1: <a href="http://www.warehouse23.com/item.cgi?SJG3009" target="_blank">Buy this book and read it.</a>#2: designing plots: Draw inspiration from many sources that are available: Historical events, TV shows, movies, and fiction. Come up with the core elements of said inspiration, and flesh them out relative to the world it came from.Examples: Dramatic political assassinations are fun. Read about the drama surrounding the assassinations of The Duke of Guise by Henry III, or the spectacular punishment of Rasputin's assassination. Read the travels of Lewis and Clark to get ideas about what a party would actually go through in a wilderness expedition. So much can be garnered from history and popular entertainment that you can steal for your games.#3:Come up with at least one cool "hook" for each session: A situation, a scene, an event, that will get your players talking about the session, and introduce it in a way that will grab your players attention. An example I once read from another gamer basically said: A fight with a bunch of goblins in a 10' x 10' room is nothing special. But a fight with goblins on a log bridge over a 75 foot drop, in the pouring rain, with lightning lighting the sky, and with support goblins shooting at you from a higher ledge, is a scene your players will remember for a long, long time.#4: Do two things with your monsters.One, play them smartly. Why there aren't more kobolds with deadfall traps, airtight trap doors, and booby traps in their 2' high tunnels is beyond me. Why vampires aren't installing dumpable poison vats in their lairs, and why wizards aren't throwing fireballs on their meleeing iron golems at ground zero is bewildering to me. Your players will at first be taken aback by tactics from monsters if unused to them, but will actually find a greater sense of accomplishment if they come up with tactics to defeat them themselves.Two, change them up. No matter how much you resist metagaming, players will often find it hard not to break out flaming oil on trolls, or mirrors on medusas. However, a troll without regeneration but possessing a gaze attack, or a medusa who doesn't petrify but who DOES possess a sonic voice attack, will throw your players for a loop. You don't have to do it all the time, but it will definitely cause them to skid to a halt the next time they see "just a troll."#5: Use what god -- er, WotC gave you.If you are ever stuck in a bind, recycle an old map from an old D&D product, or a d20 product that you SWORE you'd never use and wasted your money in buying. The minotaur's den from B2 Keep on the Borderlands makes a nice troglodyte warren in a pinch, or the Halls of an evil temple in a Dungeon magazine adventure makes a great Temple of Tyr.For that matter, the freebie maps on WotC's website are a DM's godsend, as are the various random map generators all over the internet.#6:Cater to your players.Does one like strategy? Does one like puzzles? Do two of 'em live for combat, and sleep for everything else? Put a little of each each chance you get in an adventure. You don't have to give a puzzle-lover all puzzles, all the time: Just at least one good one to sink his teeth into will be enough to keep him happy the whole session; he contributed to the game. Likewise, one combat in a session proves those melee--masters that their feat choices were worth it. Cater to the players, in addition to yourself.#7: Cater to yourself as well.I most enjoy a setting that I enjoy running. I'll probably never run a Ravenloft or Planescape Campaign, because I wouldn't enjoy running it. A one- or two-shot is fine, but I'll run a boring Planescape game because I find too much Planescape boring. So be sure that your players have enough options to give them something fun to do, but at the same time, don't feel like you have to sacrifice your whole enjoyment just for them. (It's to me the one cardinal sin new 3E DM's engage in, to feel like they cheat their players if they limit any of the rule options, EVEN in core rules. It ain't so, and most players will understand that.)Hoepfully, some of this is useful. I applaud you on the awesome thread idea, and can't wait to read the other responses.</blockquote>

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