I'm back in the saddle again....

[Melkor]

I just finished DMing the first D&D game my group has played in a year. If you have followed any of my recent posts, you know that It was a last ditch effort to get my gaming group back together, and that I've been planning for the session for about a month.

I was originally set on using 3.0 with a few elements from 3.5 thrown in, but after reading the issue of Dragon (the one that included the DM's Screen), I decided to go ahead and throw caution to the wind. I went with the idea of using 3.5 and converting all of my 3.0 material on the fly. I figured I should at least try out the new edition before throwing it to the curb.

So the game started, and the player's seemed to be into it. They spent quite a bit of time just roleplaying their initial meeting. After that, they moved on and had two minor combat encounters.....The thing is, things got a little loose a little too fast...

I fealt as if I was 'winging it' a bit too much. I was fudging a roll here and there (behind the DM screen), to keep the character's alive and keep the action from bogging down. When I couldn't remember a rule, I was making a quick decision and moving on.

The players didn't even get through 10% of what I had planned for the evening, but they all enjoyed it, and said they would love to play again. I take that as a good sign, and came away with a few interesting items:

1) I didn't get a good feel for 3.5 because I didn't get down to the nitty gritty of most of the rules. I let things slide, and I played without being the anal rules lawyer I used to be. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, my players had fun. On the other hand, I don't like running such a 'loose' game.

2) What I did learn of 3.5 seemed better than I thought it would be. It feels like it's a little easier to play than 3.0.

3) I don't remember all of the D&D rules as well as I did a couple of years ago (even though I read the 3.5 PHB as soon as it came out). Need to polish up.

4) The Darkness spell is a pain in my a@@. One of the character's cast darkness on a rock, and through it in the path of a fully armored dwarf moving through difficult terrain. I ruled that the character had to make a balance check to keep his footing.....That was all well and good, but then it became a confused melee with several fighters engaging in the area of the Darkness, and it just got to be a bit difficult to keep track of.

5) I'm glad to be playing again. Even if I am the DM.

Cheers.

 

[Amrynn Moonshadow]

putting 2 and 2 together . . . are you vin diesel?

 

[Carnifex]

I was about to mention something about how people in the Vin Diesel thread reckon you might be him

Anyway, onto the actual thread topic, I have yet to run 3.5 myself. My online pbp game I run is sticking to 3.0 for the foreseeable future, but I hope to get into a 3.5 game sometime this year at my university.

As for loose gaming, these days a lot of my gaming sessions are based, at best, on a few notes on a piece of paper - sometimes less, I have done entire gaming sessions on the fly. I find this really helps for rp-heavy games because without too solid and restricting a direction, you can adapt to player decisions very easily.

 

[Aaron L]

Melkor is the fallen Vala from Tolkein, who became known as Morgoth, and was the master of Sauron.

 

[Magic Slim]

Melkor is the fallen Vala from Tolkein, who became known as Morgoth, and was the master of Sauron.

Nice try, Mr. Diesel.

Slim

 

[Aaron L]

You caught me! I run interference for him.

 

[WizarDru]

I fealt as if I was 'winging it' a bit too much. I was fudging a roll here and there (behind the DM screen), to keep the character's alive and keep the action from bogging down. When I couldn't remember a rule, I was making a quick decision and moving on.

Your players had fun, which was your intended goal.

This is Good. (tm).

Now, if you're worried about winging it too much, then I'd concentrate on studying the rules a little more. But ultimately, I wouldn't worry about it too much. A free-wheeling game is a lot of fun, as long as everyone enjoys themselves. The rules serve the game, not the other way around, IMHO.

I would also caution about setting some sort of adventure progress quota, so to speak. If your group is having fun exploring a cavern, don't get uptight that they didn't get to the trapped chest, or didn't discover the evil plot, yet.

Relax and enjoy the pat on the back you deserve. Enthusiastic players who want to return to play again is the highest achievement a DM can ask for, IMHO. Enjoy, says I.

 

[blackshirt5]

You caught me! I run interference for him.

The things you do for your country.

 

[Magic Slim]

Sorry for disrupting this thread, "Melkor". Here are my remarks / comments regarding your original message:

1) When I decided to "loosen up", as a DM, i realized that I enjoyed the game more, and that the players did also. It's hard to let go, especially is you're used to trying to control every aspect of the game, but having a flexible adventure path will lead to very interesting things. It gives the players a chance to try their own things. The players even give you the ideas for their future adventures. Knowing the rules still is a very important part of DM'ing, but if your players didn't notice that you made some decisions on the fly, that's great.

2) Can't comment. Don't use it.

3) Yes you do.

4) Hehe it'll happen (confusing situations I mean). Everyone is blind, basically. What I find surprising, is WHY fighters jumped into the darkness area when they'd have a chance to hit their ally?

5) Hear hear!


Slim

 

[der_kluge]

I fealt as if I was 'winging it' a bit too much. I was fudging a roll here and there (behind the DM screen), to keep the character's alive and keep the action from bogging down. When I couldn't remember a rule, I was making a quick decision and moving on.

/

That's really the best way to do it. Well, aside from actually knowing the rule. There is a thread in rules, about "bashing heads together". There isn't a rule for this, but it just goes to show that situations will arise where there aren't rules for the situation. If you have players that are well versed in the rules, that helps, because they might be aware of a rule where you are not. Aside from knowing the rule, knowing the *intentions* of the rules is key. Or, at least knowing which rules exist and which don't. If you *know* that there isn't a rule for something, obviously you can feel better about making something up. But, if you think there is something close (most agreed in that thread that grappling was appropriate), then you can go with that rule and modify. I'm usually not so totalitarian that I'm going to force my decisions on things, so if the players disagree, you can work out a suitable ruling on the situation. In the end, the idea is to have fun, and keep the pace moving. You don't want to bog down to look up a rule after every single action.

The players didn't even get through 10% of what I had planned for the evening, but they all enjoyed it, and said they would love to play again. I take that as a good sign, and came away with a few interesting items:

I would count that as a success, mainly because you still have 90% of game to run for the next time, and you don't have to prepare as much!

1) I didn't get a good feel for 3.5 because I didn't get down to the nitty gritty of most of the rules. I let things slide, and I played without being the anal rules lawyer I used to be. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, my players had fun. On the other hand, I don't like running such a 'loose' game.

The feel of the game should be the same, really. Your characters are still heroes, battling the forces of evil, killing things, and looting their bodies. The rest is role-playing, which obviously doesn't require any rolls.

2) What I did learn of 3.5 seemed better than I thought it would be. It feels like it's a little easier to play than 3.0.

The beauty of 3.5 (and 3.0) is the amount of control that it places into the hands of GMs, because GMs can rule how difficult tasks are, versus just make an "int check" or whatever. That's a big improvement over previous editions. Also, most of the balance issues have been resolved, and the game is just a lot more solid all the way around, IMHO.

4) The Darkness spell is a pain in my a@@. One of the character's cast darkness on a rock, and through it in the path of a fully armored dwarf moving through difficult terrain. I ruled that the character had to make a balance check to keep his footing.....That was all well and good, but then it became a confused melee with several fighters engaging in the area of the Darkness, and it just got to be a bit difficult to keep track of.

Effects like this can be quite complex. Sounds like this is still a relatively low level game (3rd, at least, I suppose). Wait until the high levels, when you get multiple spell effects all going at once, and you have to keep track of every plus and minus that effects everyone. Again, this is where players can come in really handy, because they can keep track of a lot of that for you. Otherwise, keep a sheet of paper handy.

5) I'm glad to be playing again. Even if I am the DM.

To paraphrase Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the DM!"