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Oh, Man, Do I Need Some DM Tips. . .
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<blockquote data-quote="WarpedAcorn" data-source="post: 7038990" data-attributes="member: 6819400"><p>Is that how you felt or did they give that rating? You might be judging yourself too harshly. Also, we all have off-days and sometimes those days are when you're running the game. Personally we had one day when the game was awful and no one was feeling it, not even the DM. It was this weird session, but sometimes it happens.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Players are different. At my table I have some people REALLY into the RP and some that just want to roll dice. I feel I have found a good middle ground for the group, but I also realized my current campaign was not designed with my group in mind...so I've had to make some course corrections to keep everyone [hopefully] having a good time. </p><p></p><p>One suggestion I might offer to get your players involved is to ask THEM to describe how they kill a monster or what their Crit looked like. For instance, last game we were fighting a Dragon and its rider. We had pretty much won the fight, the rider was down and the dragon was injured. It was going to scoop up the rider and fly away to safety, but I was next to it so I got an Opportunity Attack. As luck would have it, I rolled a 20 and did enough damage to finish the Dragon off. The DM had me describe the scene and as a player I like things like that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ha! We've all been there...and will be there again. Sometimes we have this cool encounter planned and afterwards forget about all those cool things we were going to do. Some of this is familiarity and some is figuring out better/smarter ways to track monster abilities...another is to combo more simple monsters with fewer complex monsters so you only have to *think* about a handful.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This will happen, its inevitable. But as long as it didn't go on for more than a round or two, no worries. Also, do feel like your monsters can't try and run away. If you see the PC's are going to win anyways, there's no reason not to have the monster try and flee and turn it into a chase or let them range attack it down as it runs away like a coward. Just doing that has changed the dynamic of the scene.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It might be anticlimactic to you, but that *might* be something the players remember for awhile. Keep an ear open and see if they mention it again or if the Paladin boasts about it to another character. If so, then it was a solid encounter. Sometimes PC's will outsmart you and win a challenging fight with ease...and if you let them know that was a super hard fight and you had all this stuff planned, then they will get the sense that they "won" and that will probably create a stronger memory than just a tough encounter. The best moments in D&D are never planned anyways. None of my fondest memories come from scripted events, they come from when we did something that "broke" the game.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Hey, does everyone want to play again? Unless you're hearing excuses then no worries. Also, if the session ended with the Paladin getting a mega-crit then I would say the session ended with a Smitey-Bang! =)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Ultimately, I think the biggest help for you is to take a step back and look at the session from a different perspective. You're probably beating yourself up too much, and probably over the wrong things. =)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="WarpedAcorn, post: 7038990, member: 6819400"] Is that how you felt or did they give that rating? You might be judging yourself too harshly. Also, we all have off-days and sometimes those days are when you're running the game. Personally we had one day when the game was awful and no one was feeling it, not even the DM. It was this weird session, but sometimes it happens. Players are different. At my table I have some people REALLY into the RP and some that just want to roll dice. I feel I have found a good middle ground for the group, but I also realized my current campaign was not designed with my group in mind...so I've had to make some course corrections to keep everyone [hopefully] having a good time. One suggestion I might offer to get your players involved is to ask THEM to describe how they kill a monster or what their Crit looked like. For instance, last game we were fighting a Dragon and its rider. We had pretty much won the fight, the rider was down and the dragon was injured. It was going to scoop up the rider and fly away to safety, but I was next to it so I got an Opportunity Attack. As luck would have it, I rolled a 20 and did enough damage to finish the Dragon off. The DM had me describe the scene and as a player I like things like that. Ha! We've all been there...and will be there again. Sometimes we have this cool encounter planned and afterwards forget about all those cool things we were going to do. Some of this is familiarity and some is figuring out better/smarter ways to track monster abilities...another is to combo more simple monsters with fewer complex monsters so you only have to *think* about a handful. This will happen, its inevitable. But as long as it didn't go on for more than a round or two, no worries. Also, do feel like your monsters can't try and run away. If you see the PC's are going to win anyways, there's no reason not to have the monster try and flee and turn it into a chase or let them range attack it down as it runs away like a coward. Just doing that has changed the dynamic of the scene. It might be anticlimactic to you, but that *might* be something the players remember for awhile. Keep an ear open and see if they mention it again or if the Paladin boasts about it to another character. If so, then it was a solid encounter. Sometimes PC's will outsmart you and win a challenging fight with ease...and if you let them know that was a super hard fight and you had all this stuff planned, then they will get the sense that they "won" and that will probably create a stronger memory than just a tough encounter. The best moments in D&D are never planned anyways. None of my fondest memories come from scripted events, they come from when we did something that "broke" the game. Hey, does everyone want to play again? Unless you're hearing excuses then no worries. Also, if the session ended with the Paladin getting a mega-crit then I would say the session ended with a Smitey-Bang! =) Ultimately, I think the biggest help for you is to take a step back and look at the session from a different perspective. You're probably beating yourself up too much, and probably over the wrong things. =) [/QUOTE]
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