D&D 5E Need some help gm'ing

[Reapernazara]

The DM describing the environment is Step 1 of the basic conversation of the game, but bear in mind that the 3-step loop described on page 3 of the Basic Rules is continuous. Thus, you're constantly describing the environment at the start of the loop which begins after you describe the result of the adventurers' actions.

This means you don't need to get everything out up front - you can add as you go, filling in more color or detail as the players do their thing. What's more, rolling out information in stages tends to be better in my experience as it's more easily consumed by the players that way. While it's obviously a comical omission to forget about the people in the fort in the initial description, if you forget something and the players remind you, treat that as an opportunity to start the loop again. "Where's the people?" can easily be answered without missing a beat with "They begin emerging from wooden buildings and tents to see the recent arrivals. They're mostly humans, looking a bit worse for wear. 'What news from Port Nyanzaru?' one of them asks. What do you do?" (I do, however, heartily recommend getting your players into the habit of stating what they want to do rather than ask questions. "Where's the people?" in my view is better as "I look around for any people..." or "Ragnar looks around for any people.")

I recommend keeping your descriptions down to 3 to 5 sentences at a clip. Boxed texts in modules are not very good at being succinct in my opinion and aren't necessarily organized in the best way to share what's important up front. It might be a good exercise for you to reorganize things a bit with notes or re-writes. And remember - a module is a writer communicating his or her vision to you, so it will tend toward being a little overwrought. You don't need that many words to communicate your vision to others around the table (especially when you get into coming up with your own adventures).

Thanks, I'll talk to then about that as well. That's a good idea to roll with the question to help my description, much more flyid.

 

[Reapernazara]

I write a 1-2 page set of notes before each session, starting with a RECAP from last time. Then I have headings like ENCOUNTER, EVENT, BACKGROUND and a couple more that I use to organize the notes, using bold for key info. These notes are then kept in the same document and become something like a log of the game.

As for using good description and remembering key info, describe a scene or interaction like a story before you tell it in game-terms. And yeah, you'll forget details, it just happens. Don't sweat it and don't feel bad if you have to do a bit of retcon'ing of an event to get the situation across from time to time.

I only sweat it because I miss fairly big details sometimes, which are kind of important for their immersion lol. I'm not agonizing over very little thing for sure, my wife and daughter don't care for little details, if a description is long they stop paying attention.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

You're new, so don't worry about it too much. As you gain experience you'll start to find your footing, so to speak, and if you have consistent/permanent players you and your group will develop your own "style".

For example, I give broad brush strokes to most things (ex: "The town is fairly typical, with dirt roads wide enough for two wagons to pass, simple houses and cottages, most with thatched roofs and walls that look to be of standard wattle and daub construction. Their are quite a few more cats than you are normally used to seeing, and virtually no dogs. The townsfolk are sparse, with simple clothes made for toil in the many gardens and fields you see behind just about every abode"). My players will then ask about anything that peaks their interest (ex: "I wave and smile at the folk as we walk down the road"). That's when I go into more detail (ex: "Each that you do barely looks up from whatever task they are performing. A housewife who is sweeping her porch looks up with her eyes only...not moving her head. [Roll an Insight check for me...a 12? Ok]. She seems more concerned with her work than with reciprocating your greeting").

This sort of "give and take" pretty much makes up the majority of play at my table I guess. As I said...experience and time spent with the Players will slowly "gel" your group into what is expected of both you, as DM, and them, as Players.

NOTE: This is important! Whatever you do...be consistent! If you always just say "A typical dungeon door", the second you say "The door is...[insert small paragraph describing the door]", the jig is up! You would have either given away too much info and the players know it...or you confuse them after they spend 10 minutes wondering why this door is different and get annoyed when they waste resources on what turns out to be 'a typical dungeon door' after all. This is one reason why I developed a "macro to more and more micro" description method...and why I leave specific details up to the players to ask for. The only exception is if it is, or would be, blatantly obvious that something is 'unusual' (e.g., "Normal townsfolk, but you see one guy with chrome-like skin chopping wood with his bare hands").

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[redrick]

As others have said, don't sweat it. DM'ing is a constant learning experience. Iserith's recommendation about trying to bite off small chunks of description and then roll out details in conversation with the players is a good one. It's not that you left the people out, you just haven't gotten around to describing them yet, but thanks for asking, let me tell you about them!

When preparing to run published adventures, I find it very helpful to keep a highlighter and highlight details in the adventure as I read it. This helps me find the key details quickly at the table. That being said, I've never run an adventure out of one of the hardbacks before, so if you don't have an easy way to photo-copy or print out the adventure, you might not want to fill your hardback book with scribblings. (On the other hand, you bought the damn thing to run it, so depends on how squeamish you are about writing in books.)

Sometimes I will actually reconstitute the adventure text into my own concise adventure notes, and I will leave the full text of the adventure to the side as reference only if I need it. This is a great way to think about the adventure, but it can be time consuming and it generally only works for me if am prepping an adventure at work. (Better desk and computer setup allows.)

 

[Reapernazara]

As others have said, don't sweat it. DM'ing is a constant learning experience. Iserith's recommendation about trying to bite off small chunks of description and then roll out details in conversation with the players is a good one. It's not that you left the people out, you just haven't gotten around to describing them yet, but thanks for asking, let me tell you about them!

When preparing to run published adventures, I find it very helpful to keep a highlighter and highlight details in the adventure as I read it. This helps me find the key details quickly at the table. That being said, I've never run an adventure out of one of the hardbacks before, so if you don't have an easy way to photo-copy or print out the adventure, you might not want to fill your hardback book with scribblings. (On the other hand, you bought the damn thing to run it, so depends on how squeamish you are about writing in books.)

Sometimes I will actually reconstitute the adventure text into my own concise adventure notes, and I will leave the full text of the adventure to the side as reference only if I need it. This is a great way to think about the adventure, but it can be time consuming and it generally only works for me if am prepping an adventure at work. (Better desk and computer setup allows.)

I can't bring myself to destroy a book like that lol, however I gave copied it. I think I'd do better with some notes rather than highlights anyways, thanks for the suggestion though! One day I may try it.

 

[Reapernazara]

For example, I give broad brush strokes to most things (ex: "The town is fairly typical, with dirt roads wide enough for two wagons to pass, simple houses and cottages, most with thatched roofs and walls that look to be of standard wattle and daub construction. Their are quite a few more cats than you are normally used to seeing, and virtually no dogs. The townsfolk are sparse, with simple clothes made for toil in the many gardens and fields you see behind just about every abode"). My players will then ask about anything that peaks their interest (ex: "I wave and smile at the folk as we walk down the road"). That's when I go into more detail (ex: "Each that you do barely looks up from whatever task they are performing. A housewife who is sweeping her porch looks up with her eyes only...not moving her head. [Roll an Insight check for me...a 12? Ok]. She seems more concerned with her work than with reciprocating your greeting").

This is probably a good idea for me, I can sometimes get stuck on trying to overexplain. Though that might be because my wife and daughter don't quite grasp how open the game, how you can pretty much try anything. Perhaps I should go more minimalist with descriptions, and help them along with suggestions of things they could try. I've been trying not to give them to much info because I don't want to give everything away. But maybe I should err on the other side and just suggest a lot of things they can do. They typically railroad themselves straight into direct combat. So maybe I should suggest something like sneaking up or trying to talk to the "enemy", using terrain etc. I have prompted them, during the starter set campaign, to check surroundings for loot, look around and explore.

 

[Quickleaf]

So I've GM'd a few times, we're all new to it. I think I'm doing ok for a beginner, definitely not spectacular. Anyhow, my wife pointed out last time by asking "where's the people?" They in a fort in tomb of annihilation. I described the buildings, and the surroundings and just completely forgot about describing the people.

What do you guys do to help remember the details? What will help me to remember to make it more immersive, or just plain help it be more immersive? It's easy to forget, when I know the details, that they won't just inherently think there's people there, or some other detail that helps immersion. And I know I'm bad about omitting details like that because I subconsciously assume they'll fill in those details. I think it will help if the world is of my own creation, which I'm working on, but I need more time Gm'ing to get me there. Idk if it will matter but I play with my wife and daughter, so the only urgency there is to help them get into it better, I don't fear being made fun even though it happens lol, and I doubt I'll get kicked out.

Every DM has strengths and weaknesses. One of my friends is far better at remembering the rules, another is better at voices and general hilarity. And it's OK that I try to shore up my weaknesses in those areas, but it's important to recognize your strengths too!

When running settlements, I generally like to have a list of names, a list of occupations, and maybe a few personality traits / distinguishing features on hand to make improvising NPCs easier. If I am well-prepared, I turn those into random tables on a single page which I then insert into my GM screen.

If they're in Fort Beluarian, the boxed text really doesn't do much beyond describe the barest of setting details - a wooden stockade on a hillock. And that clashes somewhat with the sentence below that: "immense wealth passes through Fort Beluarian - enough to make the nobles and merchants of Baldur's Gate jealous." I'd probably read the area description more closely, read online about the Flaming Fist (who control it), and come up with my own description emphasizing the dozen merchants in the bazaar bedecked with golden jewelry, the guards in finest Flaming Fist regalia sweating in their chainmail, roguish pirate-types bearing chests (bound for Liara Portyr's coffers) or getting drunk and tempting the hunting dinosaurs, a visiting merchant prince from Port Nyanzaru or even a noble of Baldur's Gate.

 

[ccs]

I'm curious, what was your answer to the question of where all the people were?
Did you freeze up?
Did you then backtrack & add detail?
Did you roll with it & come up with something explaining their absence?

In my own ToA game the party wandered about lost on the edges of an undead infested area for 7 days. In all that time not 1 random encounter was rolled. (we check several times per day) Nor were they anywhere near any specific encounter area. Eventually one of the players commented on the lack. Wich got the other players suspicious.
Wich in turn gave me an idea.
So I whenever their wanderings took them to the 2nd hex into the areas borders I began describing it as a bit more bleak. Less jungle sounds, etc. Now & then if they were in a border hex I'd describe jungle animals/birds fleeing towards them. They were sure somethings wrong in the area.
Eventually an encounter was rolled! Skeletons! so I described a large group (25+ strong) of spear wielding skeletons all shambling through the undergrowth heading NW.
Rather than attack, the players decided to trail the hoard.
This has led them to the Ubotus(sp?) Heart encounter (I've altered what they'll find within creature wise. ), wich in turn will get them back on some track.
Problem: The Heart is hovering nearly 200 ft in the air
Problem: There's a lot of undead - including several zombie dinosaurs - milling about beneath it....
The point of this? Don't be afraid to simply make up details as needed. Not even if they completely contradict something on ythe next page.

 

[Reapernazara]

I'm curious, what was your answer to the question of where all the people were?
Did you freeze up?
Did you then backtrack & add detail?
Did you roll with it & come up with something explaining their absence?

In my own ToA game the party wandered about lost on the edges of an undead infested area for 7 days. In all that time not 1 random encounter was rolled. (we check several times per day) Nor were they anywhere near any specific encounter area. Eventually one of the players commented on the lack. Wich got the other players suspicious.
Wich in turn gave me an idea.
So I whenever their wanderings took them to the 2nd hex into the areas borders I began describing it as a bit more bleak. Less jungle sounds, etc. Now & then if they were in a border hex I'd describe jungle animals/birds fleeing towards them. They were sure somethings wrong in the area.
Eventually an encounter was rolled! Skeletons! so I described a large group (25+ strong) of spear wielding skeletons all shambling through the undergrowth heading NW.
Rather than attack, the players decided to trail the hoard.
This has led them to the Ubotus(sp?) Heart encounter (I've altered what they'll find within creature wise. ), wich in turn will get them back on some track.
Problem: The Heart is hovering nearly 200 ft in the air
Problem: There's a lot of undead - including several zombie dinosaurs - milling about beneath it....
The point of this? Don't be afraid to simply make up details as needed. Not even if they completely contradict something on ythe next page.

Kind of a freeze up, and then I said oh there's soldiers going about their duties and the merchants in the bazaar. Something along those lines anyways. I KNEW there was people there I just forgot to say it.

 

[Imaculata]

I maintain a binder with details about all the places and people in my campaign. I try to give every npc a name that is easy to remember (both for me and my players). I also give every place some details that makes it special, and make it stand out from every other location in my campaign.

So when I describe the port city of Vertesaux to my players, I already know what it looks like, what it smells like, and what it sounds like. I don't have to read any notes to remember this location. In my head I can picture myself standing on the dock, looking towards the city, and seeing all the white buildings with orange rooftops... just as the players are when they arrive there. The smell of salt and fish is in the air, fishermen and merchant vessels are unloading their goods... Cheap and ugly prostitutes throw themselves at sailors who have been at sea for a long time and aren't that picky, while the poor try to sell their rotten old apples. And the harbor master is probably there as well.

...ehrm... what was his name again...? Well, I guess that's why I have my notes. I write down the name of every npc in every location, with a brief description, so his appearance and demeanor don't change every session.