Newbie DM desprately need help

[Grim]

HI! I just started DMing, and i despratly need help!

A group of nine players elected me DM, and the first few sessions will be the critcal ones where I am "tried and found (wanting, good, etc)." If i do poorly, I will probably never DM with that group.

I'm an OK manager, at least I think so, but my real problem is coming up with a cohesive idea for an adventure, and how the party got together, to sort of hook people in. I'm not very good at improvising my mistakes and inconsistancys, so I want to have as few as possible.

Anyway, my basic adventure idea is that a noble summons the party together after much divining to be the heros of the land, or future heros anyway. He sends them on thier first mission, the destruction of a bandit camp.

The bandits are mostly tieflings and goblins. Their leader is an Imp Rogue who pretends to be a vampire to intimidate others. (IE his two polymorphs are a pale human male and a bat). He cultivates the image to keep his band in line. But I dont really know why he bothered to start a bandit group in the first place, or why the tieflings and goblins stick around. Nor do I really know why the lord summoned the party in the first place, except that he wanted heros.

Please, help me make things work!

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Whether you're a newbie DM, or a 20 + year veteran, there is NOTHING wrong with using pre-fabricated adventures. If this is your first try at DM'ing, I would highly recommend picking up a pre-written adventure and running it. If your players would recognize one of the core modules and groan, then there are tons of independent publishers out there with fantastic adventures for either just a couple of bucks, or even free!

This will accomplish a few things... 1. Takes a lot of stress of of you for your first few sessions. The material is there already, so your prep/panic time is greatly reduced. 2. It helps you to see how adventures are laid out from a DM's perspective.

Nine players is a HUGE group for a single DM. First, I'd try to break that down into two separate groups. If that's not plausible, use your management skills and dole out responsibilities!! I am a 20+ year veteran that plays with 20+ year veterans... and we still share responsibilities. Have a log-keeper, a map-drawer, a party treasurer, a rules-lawyer, a combat-tracker... every little thing you can get off of your shoulders lets you focus on keeping the plot moving, and not fussing over notepads and sourcebooks.

It's also a guaranteed way to keep the players involved. If they have a job, it forces their attention to the game, and they'll be more likely to give and demand more input. If you give a less-than-stellar description of an NPC that leaves the group confused... instead of blank stares and disinterest, Bob the Journalkeeper will pipe up and say something like "can you describe him again for us, please?" If you flounder a dungeon layout, Fred the Mapmaker will be crouched over the table with his dry-erase marker saying "like this?" Same with your other "helpers".... they'll be staying focused on their job, so they'll help direct you to say what they need to hear. I can't recommend this technique enough!

That's enough to chew on for now.... stay calm, keep yourself organized... and the easiest way to do that is by offloading as much responsibility as possible!

 

[Rybaer]

If you're starting these characters from scratch (and it sounds like you are), I've got a few suggestions that will probably help get things off the ground and moving more smoothly.

For starters, place the responsibility for group cohesiveness upon the players. Have everyone sit down together and build a team. You might help push them in a direction conducive to your game plans (so they don't build a band of thugs when you want them to be heroic). Just make it clear that they must have a common goal, a thread that ties them and keeps them together. This is far easier for the DM to manage than trying to accomodate a half dozen or more individual PC's...when one wants to become a king, another wants to discover lost magic lore, and another wants to destabilize the local economy.

Second, make sure you keep your plots as simple as possible to begin with. The more complicated or convoluted a plot is, the more difficult it becomes to pull it off believably. Don't worry about it being too simple...the players will undoubtedly give you plenty of opportunity to introduce new complications and twists...and they'll often be more interesting than what you could have come up with ahead of time.

Also, do what you can to add a variety of encounter styles. You want to try to incorporate things that will give each player a chance to show off his character's abilities. That'll help keep everyone happy and make them feel needed and important.


Good luck!

 

[Tonguez]

Nine Players is huge (so divide up the roles as mentioned above)
Also possible look at getting a deputy DM for when the group splits up

- first thing to get the Players to do though is brainstorm together exactly why their characters know each other and are willing to work with each other

ie let the first game session be a meta-group history/culture/dynamics building session

Once you've got this you will know

1. The background of the characters
2. The motivation of the characters as a group
3. Some idea of what the PCs are interested in achieving
4. Some ideas for Plothooks

For your first adventure
Just go for Goblin bandits (and Tiefling goblins*), don't introduce the leader yet and spend the time it takes for the PCs to clear out the goblins to decide what the Imp wants or else change him to something else (like a Vampiric goblin perhaps)

*IIRC Tieflings are part-fiend humanoids - no reason why they can't be half-fiend goblins right?)

 

[wighair]

as for your scenario....

the bandit leader is working for a real vampire. one who's promised to embrace him in return for supplying him descretely with victims.

he needs his bandit gang to aid him in this.

the real vampire is no less than king/lord in question. this is why he needs a discrete supply of blood.

the lord summoned the PC because a prophecy fortold his destruction at their hands. he plans to double cross them by setting up their ambush at the hands of the bandits.

of course, this fails. and the bandits are beaten.

the lord sends them out on more and more dangerous quests, hoping they will fail. eventually they find out about him (when tough enough).

Mel.

 

[Pyske]

Interesting that people are trying to change your original idea... I found it very clever. I might even steal it someday.

The goblins are gullible, and the imp is manipulating them. He convinced them that they have begun turning into vampires, but if they drink the "potions" he is providing them, they will stay alive / not turn. Since they think they are part vampire, have them react randomly to anti-vampire agents... some think it should affect them and shy away from silver or garlic, or run from a "turning" cleric. Others will taunt the PCs: "Hah, that doesn't work on me, I have my potions!" The tieflings are the product of the imp's "indulgences" with the tribe, but his demonic taint is not strong enough to produce true half-fiends.

As for the imp's objective, he is trying to protect himself from a less than friendly wizard who he was bound to as a familiar. He fled after betraying the wizard, but the wizard survived, and is hunting for his familiar so that he can break the familiar bond. Of course, he won't be happy with people who slay his familiar before he can break the bond... (seed for the next adventure).

The imp and his goblins will have many traps waiting, and will make good use of terrain and cover. The goblins will not react particularly well to surprises... their tactical savvy mostly comes from instruction by the imp. They do know to target wizards to disrupt spells, and can use grapples or trips against fighters.

As for why they bothered the lord, perhaps the goblins think they need to raid for victims whose blood they drink (thinking that the more "transformed" of them will doe without fresh blood).

With 9 PCs, you need to expect fights to take some time, especially since you need many goblins to stand up to even a 1st level party of 9. Play on their fears, but don't be shy about sharing info like the goblins AC so they can tell you if they hit or not (less attention / computation required from you).

One player should track initiiative, and notify people who goes next. Goblins should be in (say) three initiative batches, instead of individual.

I recommend looking at the sheets and noting what you need to roll to hit each PC (with a goblin). Don't forget that 1st level PCs are a bit fragile, and may need to rest / retreat.

Eh, I could go on all day. Need advice about anything specific?

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Grim]

All of this is great! Thanks for the help!

I will definitly be giving out jobs. Two or 3 of the players have been playing 3E since it came out, so I will probably give them the job of Rules Lawyer, Combat/Rounds/Initiative tracker (I have a whiteboard and postit notes for this purpose), and mapper (we have a sizable battle mat. I will probably pair each up with a newbie to help them out, or if not that at least spacing them around the table as to offer the most assistance.

I like both the possible plot ideas, and I think I will combine them, having the Lord be an Evil Vampire, with the imp serving him, and the imp in turn lying to the goblins and making little tiefling goblins too.

Thanks!

Grim

 

[perivas]

The most important thing for a new DM to figure out is what sort of game do the players want to play. Before developing any plot, you have to get that straight. If the players want to dungeon crawl and you set up murder/mystery type scenarios, it simply won't work. If the players wish for a heroic, high-fantasy campaign and you're brooding on a Gothic campaign filled with grit, that won't work either.

I suggest that you find out what the players want to play first. Don't just listen to them about what they think they want to play either; people sometimes can't communicate how they would really act for a sustained period. Only after figuring that out will you be able to plan an appropriate campaign.

As a corollary to the previous blurp, always keep in mind that the game is intended to be fun for all individuals, including yourself as DM.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

First of all, let the players make the characters in advance. Then you can get a good idea how to work them into the adventure.

Second, once the introductory adventure starts, don't let the PCs meet all at once. Let them arrive at the noble's estate in small groups, one after the other. When they meet the others on the way, they can interact with them and form opionions on the others. This helps with the role-playing. On the other hand, if they first meet all others in the noble's audience chamber, the will just stare at each other.

Perhaps some of the poorer or ourdoorsey characters will have to travel to the estate on foot, and meet each other in a roadside inn in the common room. The wealthier or more fragile characters could travel by coach, and meet each other there. And others may have arrived previously and have some time wandering in the gardens and the rest of the estate where they - you guessed it - can meet some other characters.

Take it slow, and let them interact. The group dynamics will evolve naturally...