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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rendarkin" data-source="post: 248514" data-attributes="member: 5817">Just a few DMing tricksHandouts: They've been mentioned several times and I've always found them to be great.  I cannot stress maps enough, however.  If you draw/print out a nice large map with lots of detail and just start putting unlabbeled 'X's in the wood here, some wilderness there, adventurers might just go checking those out just cause they want to know.  Maps are wonderful self-starters and they help the players really feel that the world is "real".Rumors: Rumors are great.  If players overhear stories (that may or may not be true; that you may have extensively written in detail or be pulling out of thin air on the spot), it also engages them and makes the world seem real.  My favorite rumors, though, are rumors (often exaggerated or wrong) of the PLAYER CHARACTER'S exploits.  They LOVE to hear that, and often enjoy either correcting the mistakes or posing as someone totally ignorant who "wants to hear the whole tale".  It's an obscure (and free) form to reward: to be remembered and integrated into the world.Mysteriousness: (old Gygx trick) - roll dice for no reason every now-and-then and look at notes/screen (keeps a sense of suspence).  Also pass out notes every now and then instructing a single charcter to roll 1d20 and right the results down (then ignore the message to build tensions, or it was actually a saving throw/Spot check/etc.)  My favorite: Ask the entire party to "roll 1d20 for no reason.  Thank you".  Sometimes it means nothing, sometimes it was Character Y making a saving throw/skill check.etc.  I like to toss in 1-2 mystery dice rolls per session; not too much to interrupt things, but it breaks up monotony sometimes and makes them think I'm eviller than I really am  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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