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<blockquote data-quote="BiggusGeekus" data-source="post: 1979060" data-attributes="member: 1014">An old martial arts of mine once said &quot;practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect&quot;.&nbsp; In other words, it's pretty stupid to DM for DM'ings sake if you find yourself in a rut that you want to break out of.So here's a quick list of things I could think of to make sure that when you DM (and you should if for no other reason than to playtest) you are challenging not just your players, but yourself:1) Don't be afraid to use Encounter Levels that are &quot;too high&quot; or &quot;too low&quot;.&nbsp; I think this is a big flaw with a lot of old-school DMs.&nbsp; They got used to just adding whatever monster felt right and didn't worry about giving a guage that was &quot;inappropriate&quot;.&nbsp; You can still toss a Troll Barbarian-4 at a first level party.&nbsp; You just have to mark the encounter as EL 9 and give the reader notes on how to avoid or parlay with the beast.&nbsp; Likewise, if you throw a pair of orcs at a ninth level party, you have to expect they'll just pimp-slap them into the afterlife unless you give the DM suggestions on how to run it as a role-play encounter.2) Build encounters that use skill checks.&nbsp; You can have a hidden orc archer guarding the opposite side of a partially colapsed stone bridge to make sure the party uses Spot and Jump.&nbsp; Give the party enough clues to solve a puzzle but give them more if they make a Knowldge check.&nbsp; Put the bad guys up on a small ledge for Climb checks.&nbsp; 3) Avoid encounters where a character essentially has to make one or two d20 rolls to avoid death.&nbsp; That's just anti-climactic.4) Conventions.&nbsp; Conventions are always looking for DMs.&nbsp; You can DM different groups of people and get a better idea what a broad variety of people like.&nbsp; You'll probably also get some kind of discount or freebie.5) Railroading.&nbsp; You can get away with about one railroad (&quot;the party must do so-and-so&quot;) per adventure.&nbsp; Avoid it if possible, of course.Happy gaming!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BiggusGeekus, post: 1979060, member: 1014"] An old martial arts of mine once said "practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect". In other words, it's pretty stupid to DM for DM'ings sake if you find yourself in a rut that you want to break out of. So here's a quick list of things I could think of to make sure that when you DM (and you should if for no other reason than to playtest) you are challenging not just your players, but yourself: 1) Don't be afraid to use Encounter Levels that are "too high" or "too low". I think this is a big flaw with a lot of old-school DMs. They got used to just adding whatever monster felt right and didn't worry about giving a guage that was "inappropriate". You can still toss a Troll Barbarian-4 at a first level party. You just have to mark the encounter as EL 9 and give the reader notes on how to avoid or parlay with the beast. Likewise, if you throw a pair of orcs at a ninth level party, you have to expect they'll just pimp-slap them into the afterlife unless you give the DM suggestions on how to run it as a role-play encounter. 2) Build encounters that use skill checks. You can have a hidden orc archer guarding the opposite side of a partially colapsed stone bridge to make sure the party uses Spot and Jump. Give the party enough clues to solve a puzzle but give them more if they make a Knowldge check. Put the bad guys up on a small ledge for Climb checks. 3) Avoid encounters where a character essentially has to make one or two d20 rolls to avoid death. That's just anti-climactic. 4) Conventions. Conventions are always looking for DMs. You can DM different groups of people and get a better idea what a broad variety of people like. You'll probably also get some kind of discount or freebie. 5) Railroading. You can get away with about one railroad ("the party [i]must[/i] do so-and-so") per adventure. Avoid it if possible, of course. Happy gaming! [/QUOTE]

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