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<blockquote data-quote="Buttercup" data-source="post: 576100" data-attributes="member: 990">Sadly my friend, this comes with having two X chromasomes and living in this time &amp; place.&nbsp; I feel your pain, trust me.But to give you some specific advice that has worked for me, set some small goals for yourself.&nbsp; For example, this week, go and download Jamis Buck's NPC generator if you haven't already, churn out about 100 NPCs of various classes and levels (including hordes of commoners &amp; experts) and think up one tidbit of information about each one.&nbsp; Lucia the barmaid's boyfriend is cheating on her.&nbsp; Stanwick the blacksmith's brother disappeared last year.&nbsp; Grogdag the half-orc bricklayer loves poetry.&nbsp; And so forth.&nbsp; Then take all these NPCs and organize them in a notebook by class and level.&nbsp; Now you have a stockpile of NPCs that you can use when your players want to talk to someone they meet in the street, tavern or shop.Other small goals might be:1. Really learn about all of the spells that your PCs usually have memorized.&nbsp; Got a wizard who is fond of Magic Missile and Cat's Grace?&nbsp; Make sure you know those inside and out, so you never have to refer to the book to see exactly what they do.&nbsp; Don't worry about learning all of the spells in the PHB right now.&nbsp; Just learn the ones you need to work with.2. Pick a few monsters that you usually use, and really learn about them.&nbsp; This might mean that for the next adventure you only use orcs.&nbsp; That's ok.&nbsp; Then learn everything there is to know about orcs.&nbsp; After that, move on to bugbears, or ghouls, or whatever.&nbsp; 3. Read the Black Pages, which you can get to from the news page of this site.&nbsp; Eric Noah wrote them back when 3E first came out, to help people understand attacks of opportunity, 3E combat, and several other basic concepts.&nbsp; Read them over and over until you really understand.If you look at all the things you don't know all in a big lump, you just get overwhelmed.&nbsp; But if you break what you don't know down into small parts, you can easily tackle them one or two at a time.&nbsp; This way you also have a sense of accomplishment to motivate you to continue.Good luck, Randomling.&nbsp; You can do this!<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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Buttercup, post: 576100, member: 990"] Sadly my friend, this comes with having two X chromasomes and living in this time & place. I feel your pain, trust me. But to give you some specific advice that has worked for me, set some small goals for yourself. For example, this week, go and download Jamis Buck's NPC generator if you haven't already, churn out about 100 NPCs of various classes and levels (including hordes of commoners & experts) and think up one tidbit of information about each one. Lucia the barmaid's boyfriend is cheating on her. Stanwick the blacksmith's brother disappeared last year. Grogdag the half-orc bricklayer loves poetry. And so forth. Then take all these NPCs and organize them in a notebook by class and level. Now you have a stockpile of NPCs that you can use when your players want to talk to someone they meet in the street, tavern or shop. Other small goals might be: 1. Really learn about all of the spells that your PCs usually have memorized. Got a wizard who is fond of Magic Missile and Cat's Grace? Make sure you know those inside and out, so you never have to refer to the book to see exactly what they do. Don't worry about learning all of the spells in the PHB right now. Just learn the ones you need to work with. 2. Pick a few monsters that you usually use, and really learn about them. This might mean that for the next adventure you only use orcs. That's ok. Then learn everything there is to know about orcs. After that, move on to bugbears, or ghouls, or whatever. 3. Read the Black Pages, which you can get to from the news page of this site. Eric Noah wrote them back when 3E first came out, to help people understand attacks of opportunity, 3E combat, and several other basic concepts. Read them over and over until you really understand. If you look at all the things you don't know all in a big lump, you just get overwhelmed. But if you break what you don't know down into small parts, you can easily tackle them one or two at a time. This way you also have a sense of accomplishment to motivate you to continue. Good luck, Randomling. You can do this!:) [/QUOTE]

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