Midlife Crisis Help

[Smoke Jaguar]

Maybe more like mid-campaign help.

I am still a new DM and don't have much playing experience. I have four players in the party: two are semi-experienced, one hasn't played beforehand, and the last hasn't played in 20+ years.

We are in the middle of a campaign that I have created. I guess I am worried about things going stale and the pacing possibly starting to go to fast for my liking but I am trying to keep them interested. We mainly do combat and little actual role playing because I don't have much experience with that aspect at all.

I guess my questions are...

How do you keep things from going stale? How do you keep things moving at an appropriate pace?

 

[dragonfriend7738]

What's the concept of the campaign? That overarching story that is driving the adventurers forward is important in keeping the campaign together, provided the group has a decent enough dynamic to continue adventuring together.

 

[Smoke Jaguar]

They all enjoy getting together. We want to get together more but due to schedules it can't happen.

The theme is they need to travel to the 4 corners of the land racing against a wizard's anti-adventure party who foils them and is their rival at every turn. At the four corner's of the earth there are the 4 elemental titan's that the wizard is trying to unlock to overthrow a kingdom that is already in turmoil with a recent death of the king. The Water/Ice and Air titans have been released and captured by the wizard. The Earth and Fire remain. They fell from the sky and landed in water at the end of the last session. The party has been captured by pirates and have to escape or join the crew of the ship in the next session (or whatever they want). I want to try and do a pirate style battle ship v ship and trying to over take a ship. Little do they know that the ship will be an airship. Ultimately, the wizard will capture the remaining two elements and the party will need to find his tower to try and foil his plans. I do give them some freedom on the direction of the story.

While they aren't a veteran D&D group, they do know their fantasy stories well. For fun one night I did a play on Hansel and Gretel, they saw right through it pretty quickly, although everybody thoroughly enjoyed it. We haven't laughed so hard in a longtime. Everybody texted me afterwards saying that it was awesome.

 

[dragonfriend7738]

It sounds to me like you don't have any problem. You've got interesting story, the players love it, and you've got enough hijinks planned to keep everyone engaged in the gameplay. Adding those little side stories (like the Hansel and Gretel thing) keeps some variety in the story.

It seems that you are well able to keep the players engaged in the 'main story line,' so if the game seems to be dropping, go ahead and incorporate a mini sidequest for the players to take a break.

But it'd be a good thing to let them know that the clock is ticking- perhaps let the repercussions of one of the titans being released be seen while they are doing a side quest, and that'll get them thinking about their original quest again.

 

[GMMichael]

Are there certain things that the players are expecting from a session/encounter? Avoid those things.

Try a themed session/adventure: horror, murder mystery, combat-prohibited (political, theater, or diplomatic), etc.

Change the battle type: overly difficult or overly easy opponents.

 

[DMSamuel]

Throw them for a loop. That is, let something happen exactly the way they think it will, and then just at the last second, throw a wrench into it that changes their whole perspective.

This works well when they think they know someone's motives or attitude or history and you let them believe the are right, but then they find out that it isn't what they thought at all. This could cause them to start questioning everything they know - that is a good thing and will keep it fresh.

The next time you do a play on a fantasy story, like you did with the Hansel and Gretel thing, put a twist in the end that makes it different from the 'regular' ending.

And for the record, I agree with the others that you seem to be doing a fine job of keeping them interested. Just teh fact that you are thinking about how to keep them interested is a very good thing and indicates that you are doing well.