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
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Oh, Man, Do I Need Some DM Tips. . .
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="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7036939" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>1) Really hard to provide advice on this point without knowing your group...but you might want to have a <strong>Session Zero</strong> (a planning session where everyone talks about expectations and desires for the game). Some players are more of the "fun with tactics and maths" type. Some are more of the "beer and pretzels casual" type. There's no right way. But it's not an uncommon complaint by DMs who are more into the story side of things that their players don't enjoy that part of the game as much. Sometimes the players not being into that side of things is on them, and they may or may not be able to "improve" (i.e. be trained in the direction you want). Other times the players are responding to something the DM is doing subconsciously (often railroading). </p><p></p><p>2) Sounds like your forte is not the rules. That's fine. Why not recruit a more rules-oriented player to help you as a sort of light version of a <strong>co-DM </strong>responsible for handling the rules side of things, especially during combat?</p><p></p><p>3) In the future when you design combats, have one of your design principles be <strong>"You've Got to Move It, Move It."</strong> Generally speaking, you can do this with a carrot method, a stick method, and/or creating circuitous pathways. It's a pretty big topic.</p><p></p><p>4) This is going to happen, especially when cutting your teeth on 5th edition. The best thing you can do is learn from that experience, and apply your wisdom to designing their next combat encounter. It sounds like your party is quite good at "stun-locking" villains? So you might need to design for that...hard to say more without knowing specifics.</p><p></p><p>5) Sounds like your players may have experienced this as a bit of a "milk run"? If so, a milk run is a great opportunity to introduce a <strong>plot twist</strong>. For example, that last quest was easy...almost too easy...could it have been set up that way intentionally? An elaborate scheme by the <em>real</em> villain so they'd take out his rival? Or so they'd carry a cursed item back into town?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7036939, member: 20323"] 1) Really hard to provide advice on this point without knowing your group...but you might want to have a [B]Session Zero[/B] (a planning session where everyone talks about expectations and desires for the game). Some players are more of the "fun with tactics and maths" type. Some are more of the "beer and pretzels casual" type. There's no right way. But it's not an uncommon complaint by DMs who are more into the story side of things that their players don't enjoy that part of the game as much. Sometimes the players not being into that side of things is on them, and they may or may not be able to "improve" (i.e. be trained in the direction you want). Other times the players are responding to something the DM is doing subconsciously (often railroading). 2) Sounds like your forte is not the rules. That's fine. Why not recruit a more rules-oriented player to help you as a sort of light version of a [B]co-DM [/B]responsible for handling the rules side of things, especially during combat? 3) In the future when you design combats, have one of your design principles be [B]"You've Got to Move It, Move It."[/B] Generally speaking, you can do this with a carrot method, a stick method, and/or creating circuitous pathways. It's a pretty big topic. 4) This is going to happen, especially when cutting your teeth on 5th edition. The best thing you can do is learn from that experience, and apply your wisdom to designing their next combat encounter. It sounds like your party is quite good at "stun-locking" villains? So you might need to design for that...hard to say more without knowing specifics. 5) Sounds like your players may have experienced this as a bit of a "milk run"? If so, a milk run is a great opportunity to introduce a [B]plot twist[/B]. For example, that last quest was easy...almost too easy...could it have been set up that way intentionally? An elaborate scheme by the [I]real[/I] villain so they'd take out his rival? Or so they'd carry a cursed item back into town? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Oh, Man, Do I Need Some DM Tips. . .
Top