Glade Riven
Adventurer
Is it bad that most of my mental responses to threads are along the lines of "but that's not a problem when I DM?" Perhaps I don't quite get it...after all, I was inducted into (pencil and paper) roleplaying with 3.5. My experiance with 2e was reading a few Dragonlance or Icewind Dale novels back in the 90s.
I've played 3e, D20 modern, weird D20 hybrids, 4e, SW: Saga. I've also played a lot of videogames...jRPGs, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, and others. When I started DMing, I looked at multiple resources, learned by my own failures, read several DMGs on the subject (& XDM).
Here's what I've learned about DMing:
1. The DM is always right, even when he is wrong
2. The DM is always right, especially when he is wrong.
3. Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.
4. Use rule 0 through 3 to make sure people are having a good time.
5. If the rule book gets in the way of fun, ditch the rules
6. Know your audiance (players)
7. Use #6 to keep them involved - little things, like giving the only girl in the group a vorpal bunny because she's a Monty Python fan and likes small furry things. Sure, most of the time it does 1 dmg, but every once in a while it'll take a head off - and those times are precious.
8. Give them what they want, but don't give it to them in the way they expect.
9. Give them what they want, but make them earn it.
10. Let them do what they want, but make sure there are consiquinces for doing what they want - sometimes, very, very bad consiquinces
11. Trying to kill PC only seems to make it easier for them to survive
12. Trying not to kill PCs usually leads to death
13. Make 'em sweat. If their characters feel like they are surviving by the skin of their teeth and barely made it, you're doing your job.
14. Make sure that your players know it's okay to run away.
15. Zombies are your freinds.
16. Overplanning usually leads to running off the rails on this crazy train.
17. You can't plan for every contengency, so don't try. Players are clever little monkeys and they are trying to thwart you.
17. Underplanning can lead to disappointment for everyone, unless you're really good at bullshyste
18. Get really good at bullshyste. You're going to need it.
19. Find ways to dump off extra work on the players - stuff like "what their hometown was like" or "what is the nation where you are from" like. Make them control a squad or take control of some NPCs when their own characters are having downtime.
20. Mine their backstory for additional hooks and plot points.
21. Roll as much dice as you can at once to speed things up.
22. Encourage your players to try something crazy. It works more often than you think it would and leads to some epic moments in conflicts that would otherwise be mundane.
And there's probably more, but that's a start and my brain is tired. Oh, and all this stuff? Systemless. Like your Mom.
Okay, I don't even know what that last sentence means...
I've played 3e, D20 modern, weird D20 hybrids, 4e, SW: Saga. I've also played a lot of videogames...jRPGs, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, and others. When I started DMing, I looked at multiple resources, learned by my own failures, read several DMGs on the subject (& XDM).
Here's what I've learned about DMing:
1. The DM is always right, even when he is wrong
2. The DM is always right, especially when he is wrong.
3. Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.
4. Use rule 0 through 3 to make sure people are having a good time.
5. If the rule book gets in the way of fun, ditch the rules
6. Know your audiance (players)
7. Use #6 to keep them involved - little things, like giving the only girl in the group a vorpal bunny because she's a Monty Python fan and likes small furry things. Sure, most of the time it does 1 dmg, but every once in a while it'll take a head off - and those times are precious.
8. Give them what they want, but don't give it to them in the way they expect.
9. Give them what they want, but make them earn it.
10. Let them do what they want, but make sure there are consiquinces for doing what they want - sometimes, very, very bad consiquinces
11. Trying to kill PC only seems to make it easier for them to survive
12. Trying not to kill PCs usually leads to death
13. Make 'em sweat. If their characters feel like they are surviving by the skin of their teeth and barely made it, you're doing your job.
14. Make sure that your players know it's okay to run away.
15. Zombies are your freinds.
16. Overplanning usually leads to running off the rails on this crazy train.
17. You can't plan for every contengency, so don't try. Players are clever little monkeys and they are trying to thwart you.
17. Underplanning can lead to disappointment for everyone, unless you're really good at bullshyste
18. Get really good at bullshyste. You're going to need it.
19. Find ways to dump off extra work on the players - stuff like "what their hometown was like" or "what is the nation where you are from" like. Make them control a squad or take control of some NPCs when their own characters are having downtime.
20. Mine their backstory for additional hooks and plot points.
21. Roll as much dice as you can at once to speed things up.
22. Encourage your players to try something crazy. It works more often than you think it would and leads to some epic moments in conflicts that would otherwise be mundane.
And there's probably more, but that's a start and my brain is tired. Oh, and all this stuff? Systemless. Like your Mom.
Okay, I don't even know what that last sentence means...
