The Dungeon Masters' Foundation Mk.II

[Evilhalfling]

Okay CE - to start you posted a buch on your homebrew a while back is it ready to go?
If not can you design a single city there and play low level characters? - post a link to it ( I cant find it) and maybe it will spark some ideas, either from you or us.

or the best rule of DMing (which I have trouble following) communicate with the players, ask what level they want to play, and what style suits them. I have a gaming poll I intend to hand out at our next session, which I modified from polls posted here. If somebody wants it I could repost it. I am taking over my group in two weeks, and I already have a world and a plot, so I am looking for player feedback on style issues. And we still havent setteled on what level to play. I normally start them at 3rd, our last came started at 11th. The new one can begin easily at 2nd-3rd or 6th-7th

Other than that I believe you have mentioned that your players like combat heavy games and you are comfortable in FR. Play to your strenghts

 

[Mordmorgan the Mad]

Re DM's Block:

I've found 2 ways to overcome this dreaded affliction!

1st way that works for me:
Think of what kind of game you want to run, be it horror, fast action, high magic, or whatever. Then run to your local video store (or in my case, my massive DvD collection), and pick up a couple of movies that fit your theme. Watch them and jot down parts you might want to use in a game, or just ideas you have while watching.

2nd way that works for me:
This may not work for everyone, but I use it often. Getting "back to basics" can often help unblock DMs. By "back to basics", I mean how the game feels when you first start playing it. Everything feels new and exciting. If you can, do things that you did when you first started playing.

Personal Example:
I started playing in the spring of 1993 just outside the Hague, Holland. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to fly to the Netherlands everytime I get the block, but sitting outside in the beautiful spring weather helps me remember England. About 3 years later, when we lived in England, my brother bought that Alanis Morisette CD (and played it constantly, I might add) during another one of my many DM Blocks, so listening to that sometimes helps. Really, anything that reminds me of that time usually gets me unblocked in a day or so.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mordmorgan the Mad]

I found this font sitting on my computer the other day and thought it'd be fantastic for creating prop parchments and old documents. Any other good fonts out there?

EDIT: Best part is, the word "Ravenloft" looks fantastic in it

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I found this font sitting on my computer the other day and thought it'd be fantastic for creating prop parchments and old documents. Any other good fonts out there?

EDIT: Best part is, the word "Ravenloft" looks fantastic in it

I LOVE it! Unfortunately, the last time I handed my players props in a cool font, they handed them back and said, "We're not reading this $#!^ unless you print it out in Times New Roman."

I really need some new players...

DM

 

[Y.O.Morales]

@ ChaosEvoker
The alignment measure is useless as we'll be playing without alignment rules. But otherwise, I'll judge based on their characters if no other option is available.

@ Mordmorgan the Mad
You know what works for super-nice parchments?
1. Go to a local gift shop, secondhand shop, or whatever place you can find a scratchbook (those with thick brown pages). The older it is, the better. Then use it as printer paper when creating the parchments. They look as real ones.

2. Another tip that I did and worked for my old players, but may not work for everyone: I inked some hidden letters in a parchment with milk, then let it dry. I didn't know what drove the player's curiosity, but he examined the parchment very close, again and again, and found that there were some faint letters. As a bonus, I told them that applying heat will reveal the letters. He did so with a lighter and ta daa'. The secret revealed.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Okay, I know there was a poll on this recently, but I am wondering how everybody else here deals with mistakes they make as GM. Examples, on occasion, I have moved a group of creatures up to melee, but neglected to take attacks on the party, which of course resulted in an easier fight for the PC's. Also, a few sessions ago, I grossly miscalculated the cost of a large quantity or arrows. The latter mistake I can justify by making the wood suitable for arrow making scarce due to monstrous spiders having invaded the woods where they are cut (thanks ToEE CRPG), which also gives the party a side quest, unless they want to control the local arrow supply (since they found a large cache recently).

Since the arrow mistake, the players have been rough on me and the game has suffered. I know I screwed up, but am having trouble allowing the game to recover. Now, I just feel like a horrible DM, even though I made the mistakes after a long day at work (in both cases). Has anyone made similar mistakes? (How) Did the game recover? Are my players being unreasonable? Am I?

DM

 

[Evilhalfling]

O
Has anyone made similar mistakes? (How) Did the game recover? Are my players being unreasonable? Am I?
DM

We all screw up no worries. I had problems with a rules lawyer player, and problems were common. eventually he suggested a rule he had found somewhere - you have 1 round to fix mistakes made during the last round. After that it is final. This has solved any number of problems, and cut down on argueing considerably.

 

[ChaosEvoker]

Yeha I've made a mistake that my players won't let go where I killed off their characters by accident. They still harrass me about it though, so I could use this advise as well

 

[Dyne]

Yo, just popping in to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking. I haven't posted as much since the conversion. Still don't much like the forum skin. That, and I'm rather busy. However, I'll still be active in the campaign.

 

[Mordmorgan the Mad]

Mistakes, hrm? Can't say that I've actually made many blunders, but you shouldn't let even large mistakes make you feel like a bad DM. Learn from the mistake and move on. The PCs should cut you some slack, and if they don't, well, that's a different topic.