Plot and Background for my very first adventure!

[Rel]

New players can desire direction in following a path. It is the DM’s job, in turn, to explain that they have and should exercise choice. This is mainly what separates D&D from a computer game, which in its entirety cannot provide the breadth of options D&D can. If you permit even beginning players to cling to a DM’s narrow, linear and restrictive offering of choices at the beginning of the adventure, you foster a bad habit within the player.

Good grief, man. It's the FIRST adventure he is running for a player playing for the FIRST time. He is permitted to give certain aspects of the game short shrift while he works on basics.

Moreover, there is no good reason in the world why the PC wouldn't want to embark upon this quest. His fellow monks are missing! People who he's spent the past several years in relative solitude with. They are his family! Of course he's going to go looking for them. The GM here has undoubtedly worked with the player on making his character and I'll assume he knows more about what motivates this PC than we do. There is NO NEED for the plot to be more open than this at the moment.

While we're slingin' the platitudes from our high perch atop the Mountain of Wisdom, here's one:

I posit that a GM who lets a newbie player make his character and then says, "What do you want to do?" will, in a large number of cases, reduce the chance that a player will want to play the game again.

Think about it. You've just created your very first character, a Monk. You've spent the hours or days previous to this poring over the PHB. How will you assign your stats, what skills did you buy, what feats did you take, what equipment did you spend your paltry sum of gold on, what is your character's name going to be? Nothing but choices. Now you're finally ready to play for the very first time. You sit down at the table, look at the GM and he says...

"What do you want to do?"

What do I want to do?! I want to play my character! I want to go somewhere and do the stuff he's good at kick some butt and get some treasure to replace the life savings that I just spent on rope and 10' poles! I want to find a dungeon and fight a dragon! Isn't that what this game is supposed to be about?!

I believe that the notion that offering a clear path to a starting player will reduce their fun is complete bunk. Yes the game is more open ended than a computer game and that is a great thing about it. Yes there should be points where there are choices about where the PC can go and what parts of the world he can explore. But that sort of stuff can be worked out later when this guy is not putting together his VERY FIRST ADVENTURE.

When he is good at whipping up good, balanced encounters on the fly then he can run a more open, free form game. Right now he's trying to get the hang of running the game. He's put together a pretty solid series of encounters tied together with a darn good plotline that has potential for expansion. All he needs now is to get the PC to the adventure and let the fun begin. The faster that happens the better as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Joe123]

Good grief, man. It's the FIRST adventure

So what? We could all just say his adventure is entirely perfect – flawless, but that does not really answer his initial question, in which in part, he asked for readers to point out mistakes. He asked for mistakes to be pointed out, so I did.

Moreover, there is no good reason in the world why the PC wouldn't want to embark upon this quest.

That is not the point. The point is that he offers little choice for the player at the beginning of the adventure. Even if the PC wants to embark on the quest, the player is short-changed because he has only one path to pursue at the beginning of the adventure. As the DMG clearly explains, choices are critical to a good game.

I posit that a GM who lets a newbie player make his character and then says, "What do you want to do?" will, in a large number of cases, reduce the chance that a player will want to play the game again.

Multiple choices made available to the player are good. I never said giving the player complete freedom and limitless opportunity to do anything is good.

I believe that the notion that offering a clear path to a starting player will reduce their fun is complete bunk.

It is not just that his starting option is severely limited. In addition, “the PC Monk returns to the Monastery,” (whether the player like that or not); “the Master sends the PC Monk to the Dwarven Ruins”, (again, regardless of whether the player wants to do this). This seems more like the player participating in the DM’s story, rather than creating his own story. Of course, this can reduce the player’s fun. You agree an open-ended game is great; after all you say, “yes the game is more open ended than a computer game and that is a great thing about it.”

 

[Gothmog]

You are correct when you say that the player is a novice to DND. I have played DND for a long time but never as a DM. My friend has never played before and is pretty much a novice. Sorry about the confusion.

In regards to the sleep spell, if the PC and Cleric fails, the Sorcerer will capture them and hold them hostage until the Cleric arrives. Before that occurs, I think I will have the Master of the Monastery or the Head Priest of the Shrine save them.

I didn't realize there was a GM Advice Thread! I hope I haven't been posting in the wrong areas

You've been a great help Rel and everyone else who has posted!

Your first adventure sounds good- well thought out with pretty believable NPC actions and motivations. I don't think you are railroading, especially since this is your first time DMing, and your player's first time playing. Some structure is needed in these cases to keep things from being confusing, so I'd stick with your plan. However, I would warn against having an NPC come and save the PC if he is captured. This takes a lot of fun out of the game, because instead of the PC relying on his wits and luck to escape and foil the baddie, its all in your hands instead. Very little sense of accomplishment. I'd let the PC escape (and since he is a monk, he's as good without a weapon as with), and let him free his cleric buddy before the evil cleric returns. That way they can gank the mage in isolation, then lay an ambush for the Orcus cleric. Believe me, this is outcome would be much more enjoyable than having a deus ex machina occur where the PCs are simply saved.

 

[Buttercup]

New players can desire direction in following a path. It is the DM’s job, in turn, to explain that they have and should exercise choice. This is mainly what separates D&D from a computer game, which in its entirety cannot provide the breadth of options D&D can. If you permit even beginning players to cling to a DM’s narrow, linear and restrictive offering of choices at the beginning of the adventure, you foster a bad habit within the player.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. They way I see it, the DM's job is to make sure the players have fun. That wouldn't include telling them they're not having fun the right way. Bad habit? This is a game, not nail-biting or hair-chewing. There isn't one right way to play D&D. And a game session shouldn't be like a dose of cod liver oil that you are forced to take for your own good.

 

[Derulbaskul]

C'mon, relax... Joe123, let the guy have fun with his first session, OK? The advanced classes can start next....

 

[Stalker0]

Sounds like a great first adventure, plenty of chance for tactics, adventure, and danger.

But remember the golden rule of dming, whatever you expect the players to do they won't

(I use a smiley, but it's so true)

 

[dreaded_beast]

Thanks for all the inputs and insights.

For those of you that missed it, here is what has happened when I ran my adventure:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76980