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

[Lanefan]

What benefit did you see of doing this in play rather than backstory?

What is this "backstory" you speak of? Nope, this was roll 'em up and drop the puck. We'll worry about backstory if and when any of 'em survive (and most did not; the first death came in session 1 and it was all downhill from there).

Did any players sit out for a significant amount of time waiting to be recruited?

Not long, and nobody cared anyway as they were too busy laughing at the antics of these bozo recruiters.

Did any PCs turn down the pitch? If so what happened then?

None of them turned it down. Given the tone at the time, I'd have been truly surprised if any had done so.

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you like to play in person, but don't like the expense and time of physical terrain, wan't something nicer looking than wet erase on a chessex map, and want to have hundreds to thousands of maps available instantly, plus have a way to manage fog of war easily for an in person game, and still want to use minis, it is great. It was the best quality-of-life improvement I ever made for running in-person games.

It is cost effective compared to buying physical terrain and instead of buying or subscribing to a VTT, you can get table tools for free.

I do have to note I was able to do this with nothing but my laptop, a big screen TV that could be projected to (which a rather lot of them do now) and a free piece of software. It wasn't down in front of people, but I found it a lot easier than messing with physical maps by the time I did it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Have you ever been lost in a hotel, hospital or office building because all the hallways and rooms look the same? Now imagine it is dark and full of monsters.

Though I should note with modern buildings one of the things that contributes to that is they're often deliberately built to look similar, at least before furnishing. That's actually more precision than at least a lot of fantasy areas should be built to.

 

[Lanefan]

I do have to note I was able to do this with nothing but my laptop, a big screen TV that could be projected to (which a rather lot of them do now) and a free piece of software. It wasn't down in front of people, but I found it a lot easier than messing with physical maps by the time I did it.

The bolded would represent up-front expenses for me, ignoring the fact that there's nowhere to put a big-screen TV in here.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The bolded would represent up-front expenses for me, ignoring the fact that there's nowhere to put a big-screen TV in here.

I'm not saying everyone has those; I'm just saying they don't represent a dedicated resource for the purpose, since a lot of people have them for other reasons. There are absolutely people who have neither, but on the other hand, households with a laptop and a big screen TV aren't difficult to fine, either.

 

[Umbran]

The second seems to require more of a Session 0 that is either coming together and playing that through or metagaming the group's relationship almost as part of character creation.

Well, it is cribbed from Spirit of the Century's character creation system, which calls for basically a Session Zero with collaborative character creation. It is a Fate game, and along with those sentences describing what happens, the player gives Aspects their character displayed in their part of the story.

You can totally follow it with an in media res first session as well. That'd be fine.

 

[Reynard]

Well, it is cribbed from Spirit of the Century's character creation system, which calls for basically a Session Zero with collaborative character creation. It is a Fate game, and along with those sentences describing what happens, the player gives Aspects their character displayed in their part of the story.

You can totally follow it with an in media res first session as well. That'd be fine.

I think there is a lot of value in character creation during play. It doesn't work great for games like D&D but for Fate or Savage Worlds where character elements are discrete, you can have a player "spend" their chargen resources as they play.

"I want to leap across the chasm."
"Okay, that's a Prowess roll. Before you roll decide how many ability points you put into it."

Like that, but, you know, cooler.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think there is a lot of value in character creation during play. It doesn't work great for games like D&D but for Fate or Savage Worlds where character elements are discrete, you can have a player "spend" their chargen resources as they play.

"I want to leap across the chasm."
"Okay, that's a Prowess roll. Before you roll decide how many ability points you put into it."

Like that, but, you know, cooler.

I did something like that years ago in a Fuzion-based Metamorphesis Alpha game; the PCs were cryo-stored individuals who did not know who they were or how they got there. All I directed them was to remember that at one time they had some professional skills relevant to the ship, and they added points as they judged as they got to things.

 

[Reynard]

I did something like that years ago in a Fuzion-based

BOO

Metamorphesis Alpha game;

YAY

the PCs were cryo-stored individuals who did not know who they were or how they got there. All I directed them was to remember that at one time they had some professional skills relevant to the ship, and they added points as they judged as they got to things.

I did something similar with a terrestrial scenario where cryo preserved folks woke up during the Apocalypse, except I said "You were rich enough to get frozen hoping to wake up even richer based on investments. What were your now useless skills."

 

[Umbran]

Look at what behaviour you incentivize by your actions and rulings as a DM, and don’t be surprised when the players when the players act in line with the expectations you set.

So, I am currently watching a game (not one I run or play in - I'm a third party who hears about it), and we can add to this:

Make sure you pay attention to what you are actually doing.

The game is falling apart, and the GM had mentioned "I've been waiting for you guys to try creative things, and push the edges of your abilities..."

For several weeks before, the players: "Every time I try to get creative, he says, "No.""