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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xarlen" data-source="post: 246809" data-attributes="member: 1060">Okay, I'm going to go on personal experience. Warning: DM for only a year. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Just for reference, my group started at 5th level.First: Know your players, and also, know their characters. Ask the player about their character's motivations, what he's like, so on. If he's the sage-type, then gold isn't going to be as great an incentive as an ancient book, or information about so so. A coward may not be attracted to simple heroics. The way I handled this is, I cooked up a pretty normal first adventure for my party: They went and captured a creature for a wizard, because he's a breeder of the strange and profitable. Doing this, allowed me to learn the PCs personalities, and gauge how they act. Prepare, as Trevalon said. Think about how something happens. If your PCs are dealing with disapperances, and it's caused by a ghost assassin, first understand where the ghost came from, and how it's finding it's victims. Ask yourself How and Why about the plot, and have backup answers, because the PCs will find out, and Will ask, and you don't need to give 'because' or 'it's magic'. But, you *are* the DM, and thus, breaking rules for background is Okay.However, only prepare So Far, or go in a lot of angles. Your PCs may not go the direction you wanted, so in case that happens, do the following: 1) Prepare for other avenues they take, and how to get them back on track, and 2) If they do something totally unexpected, go with it, and simply try to weave it into what you've got. If the Hermit at the edge of town is supposed to tell the PCs there are lizardfolk in the nearby swamp, and they don't pick up on the clues to go the hermit's shack, have them come across some kids playing who will gladly share they saw monsters or dragonpeople or funnymen in the swamp.Never have an 'only x will happen if PCs do y'. This is Okay in the sense of puzzles, immunities, going somewhere, but you can't do this too often, or your PCs will feel pigeon-holed. Try and occasionally drop hints and hooks for the next adventure into the one that's currently happening. For example: My group was traveling into the arctic, to fetch those winterwolves. While camping, two of them went hunting, and found a cave. Inside as a collapsed tunnel, with a stick raising out of it. They pulled the stick out, and moved the rocks. There was a dwarven skeleton there, and a broken axe across the room. What had happened was, they had unstaked a vampire, and stole his axe haft and blade. They didn't even Realize what they had done, until they were on their way back, stopped to look in the cave, and discovered the corpse was missing. Now they had a vampire stalking them.Give the impression the world is alive around them. If they don't have any interest in a guy passing out maps on the street, have them hear a week later that some group got rich after buying one of those maps. For those times when you want suspense, end on a cliffhanger.Try and develope NPCs. Maybe that farmer that they're talking to has a habit of trailing off into tangents, or finds a way to talk about wheat in every conversation. Maybe the Innkeeper and his wife get into a shouting match while the PCs are talking to them. How about those Orcs having a tribal ritual, with firedancing, or tests of strenght, while the PCs watch before attacking them by surprise. That evil wizard has a soft side for the misfortunate, or is actually very, chipper and charismatic instead of lording his power. Maybe he's insane. 'I'm just trying to give these skeletons a second chance at life!'</blockquote>

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