Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Let's Have A Thread of Veteran GM Advice
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 9286812" data-attributes="member: 9053"><p>If I can give another piece of advice from experience, it's to know pacing. This doesn't have the same sense of urgency for all campaigns, but if your game is filled with people who have busy lives, you want to make sure that something interesting happens in each session, and that the session ends appropriately with interest for the next one.</p><p></p><p>I say "maybe this isn't important for everyone," because in my days in school when I didn't have anything competing for my attention, playing all day and not doing that much wasn't a big deal. Now that I work and have a family, wasting my time means I won't have time for your game.</p><p></p><p>So pacing is structuring the game so something interesting and exciting happens at a decent clip. You have to know your players so you know how much roleplaying, discussing things, planning things out they can take before they want to do something interesting. This is particularly easy if you're running a pre-written adventure where you have a very good sense of what's coming next. You can pace out when important encounters happen, and you can plan to make sure the game reaches some sort of conclusion. Or you can leave it on a cliffhanger for next time.</p><p></p><p>If you're playing a more sandbox or procedurally generated game, this can be harder. What you need to do is remember that your hex crawl needs to come up with something interesting at regular intervals to keep the game engaged. I've played hex crawls where we dealt with travel and camp logistics for the entire session, and the dice didn't generate something fun to do, nor did the GM have something planned for us to run into ... and that was not good. I have a remarkably patient group, and their attention span for something interesting is about 20 minutes.</p><p></p><p>And as I'm writing this, I know this advice isn't for everyone. There are some DMs that are going to run several uneventful days dealing with watches, foraging for food, and catching glimpses of foes ... and that's their style. If that is your style, let people know about it upfront. I know for someone like me, that's a game I am not willing to negotiate time with my wife to play, but some of my younger, single friends might be all-in for it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SteveC, post: 9286812, member: 9053"] If I can give another piece of advice from experience, it's to know pacing. This doesn't have the same sense of urgency for all campaigns, but if your game is filled with people who have busy lives, you want to make sure that something interesting happens in each session, and that the session ends appropriately with interest for the next one. I say "maybe this isn't important for everyone," because in my days in school when I didn't have anything competing for my attention, playing all day and not doing that much wasn't a big deal. Now that I work and have a family, wasting my time means I won't have time for your game. So pacing is structuring the game so something interesting and exciting happens at a decent clip. You have to know your players so you know how much roleplaying, discussing things, planning things out they can take before they want to do something interesting. This is particularly easy if you're running a pre-written adventure where you have a very good sense of what's coming next. You can pace out when important encounters happen, and you can plan to make sure the game reaches some sort of conclusion. Or you can leave it on a cliffhanger for next time. If you're playing a more sandbox or procedurally generated game, this can be harder. What you need to do is remember that your hex crawl needs to come up with something interesting at regular intervals to keep the game engaged. I've played hex crawls where we dealt with travel and camp logistics for the entire session, and the dice didn't generate something fun to do, nor did the GM have something planned for us to run into ... and that was not good. I have a remarkably patient group, and their attention span for something interesting is about 20 minutes. And as I'm writing this, I know this advice isn't for everyone. There are some DMs that are going to run several uneventful days dealing with watches, foraging for food, and catching glimpses of foes ... and that's their style. If that is your style, let people know about it upfront. I know for someone like me, that's a game I am not willing to negotiate time with my wife to play, but some of my younger, single friends might be all-in for it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Let's Have A Thread of Veteran GM Advice
Top