D&D 5E Let's Have A Thread of Veteran GM Advice

[Wolfpack48]

This is such a good point. I am running a game every two weeks and it's been going on for almost a year. There's no way the group would remember stuff from back at the start. You communicate and solve problems. The thing to remember is that the characters are actually living in the environment of the game, so when they forget something that happened a couple of in-game days ago but was a month ago in real time? You remind them! When they're going to do something stupid because they don't get the right information from your description? You clarify it.

I know there are tons of stories where DMs laughed about things like characters stepping in a pit because they didn't specify they were looking at the floor. I always think "yeah, glad I'm decades beyond that..."

Yeah, please don't be a "gotcha" referee.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So one of the questions I always like to ask of vets is what things you do to make the initial meeting of the party feel smooth and natural? Everyone knows "you all meet in the inn" but I'm always looking for a good kick off for the party that automatically gets all the players to gel and feel like they know each other or drives them together in a way that will form long-lasting bonds?

I prefer the "in media res" opening for this. The party is already together on a wagon, in the woods hiking, part of the militia... and the action set piece happens that they were brought together for prior to the game starting. So if they were hired as guards (for example) to protect a wagon shipping stuff to a town, they are already on the road and the attack happens that they were specifically hired to be defense for. This forces everyone at the table to immediately jump into action and we all see how these PCs (and their players) react... and everyone makes character choices as part of dealing with the situation that the other players learn about.

Then once the initial combat ends... I might at that point do the "flashback" to them at the tavern/job board or wherever it was that brought these PCs together in the first place and we can do a bit of RP that start having them make connections and start to come together. And now that they've had at least one fight under their belts to help define who they are, the players have an easier time of playing their PCs in the downtime and establish the relationships a little more. After which we then jump back to the present and pick up after the fight.

Now yes, some people might complain that I am "railroading" them into what their initial job was / why they came together as a party and then "railroaded" them into an initial fight... but I don't give a rat's ass about that. This is one of those times when I think "railroading" is a perfectly reasonable way to play and why I roll my eyes whenever someone says "Railroading is always bad". Nope. Sometimes a moment of railroading is perfectly fine... and using it to get the team together so the game can start is one of those times in my opinion.

 

[Reynard]

So one of the questions I always like to ask of vets is what things you do to make the initial meeting of the party feel smooth and natural? Everyone knows "you all meet in the inn" but I'm always looking for a good kick off for the party that automatically gets all the players to gel and feel like they know each other or drives them together in a way that will form long-lasting bonds?

I eventually learned just to tell them.what their connection is. You all work for the same patron, or you met on the way to the Dungeon Filled Frontier and decided to team up, or you all have the same weird mystic tattoo. I am too old and tired to sit through 3 sessions of PCs avoiding joining up.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I prefer the "in media res" opening for this. The party is already together on a wagon, in the woods hiking, part of the militia... and the action set piece happens that they were brought together for prior to the game starting. So if they were hired as guards (for example) to protect a wagon shipping stuff to a town, they are already on the road and the attack happens that they were specifically hired to be defense for. This forces everyone at the table to immediately jump into action and we all see how these PCs (and their players) react... and everyone makes character choices as part of dealing with the situation that the other players learn about.

Then once the initial combat ends... I might at that point do the "flashback" to them at the tavern/job board or wherever it was that brought these PCs together in the first place and we can do a bit of RP that start having them make connections and start to come together. And now that they've had at least one fight under their belts to help define who they are, the players have an easier time of playing their PCs in the downtime and establish the relationships a little more. After which we then jump back to the present and pick up after the fight.

Now yes, some people might complain that I am "railroading" them into what their initial job was / why they came together as a party and then "railroaded" them into an initial fight... but I don't give a rat's ass about that. This is one of those times when I think "railroading" is a perfectly reasonable way to play and why I roll my eyes whenever someone says "Railroading is always bad". Nope. Sometimes a moment of railroading is perfectly fine... and using it to get the team together so the game can start is one of those times in my opinion.

Yeah, I am all for having a little backstory as part of the first adventure and railroading the party together, I'm just looking for ways to improve the stickyness of their attachment (apart from all playing at the same table). This isn't all on the referee either, I typically ask players to look for ways they can better bond too.

A few things I have seen:

• The party is all responding to the same ad for help, and they are all hired to accomplish the task at hand
• The party all knows each other previously and are acquaintances, and the adventure is such that they might seek each other out for help (Call of Cthulhu is a good one for this).
• Guards for a caravan or simply traveling with the caravan when it is attacked.
• NPC stumbles into the inn and falls dead with 3 poisoned arrows in their back.
• Party is all at the market when an event of some sort breaks out.
• The party are all family/clan members who need to band together to deal with a common trouble.
• The party is all on a rowboat or island having survived a shipwreck.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Yep, I just give them a reason to be working together prior to character creation.

In my current campaign they were all drafted into service to the tyrannical God-King. They were sent on a few missions in his service, and then during the third or fourth session the God-King was taken off the board, giving them free reign to do as they pleased. By that point they had worked together and formed bonds so, unsurprisingly, they chose to continue working together.

 

[Reynard]

• NPC stumbles into the inn and falls dead with 3 poisoned arrows in their back.
• Party is all at the market when an event of some sort breaks out.

I don't feel like these really solves the problem.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One I've used: The party are all prisoners being transported to prison aboard a ship (flying, since it was Eberron).

 

[Wolfpack48]

I don't feel like these really solves the problem.

Yep, those both sorta require the players to step up and do more legwork to "bond."

 

[Reynard]

Yep, those both sorta require the players to step up and do more legwork to "bond."

Wasn't the question jow to avoid that problem?

 

[Wolfpack48]

Wasn't the question jow to avoid that problem?

Yes, and I said this before the list:

A few things I have seen:

It wasn't a judgment on whether those were good or bad approaches, just what I have experienced, which is why I asked the question in the first place. It'd be nice if we didn't get overly pedantic in this thread for a change.