What 3.5 has taught me about DMing

[jester47]

3.5 is great in my opinion. However, the fact that anything not in the core rulebooks has to be sort of converted has taught me a valuable trait for DMing: Preparation. I am the kind of DM that runs off the seat of my pants when it comes to plot what is going on. I slate some monsters and NPCs for the PCs to interact with, places for them to go, situations for them to get involved with, and ussually 3 good active hooks. From there on, its all thier own actions. No matter what they do, they will encounter the band of kobolds that I selected. And with that, all roads will lead to the places I have prepared. I put monsters (like orcs from a local tribe) in a binder and reuse them. I don't know what is going to happen, I just know who, and where and what the situations are with those whos and wheres. But now, if I am feeling really spontaneous, I can only whip open the MM, CC, or Monsters of Tellene to whip up on them. Monsters from ToH, MoN, MM2 and FF, I need to have prepared ahead of time.

What traits have you gained from compensating with the fact that very little of the d20 world is 3.5 compatible?

Aaron.

 

[GnomeWorks]

The trait that allows me to ignore the existence of 3.5?

 

[MerricB]

What traits have you gained from compensating with the fact that very little of the d20 world is 3.5 compatible?

The trait of converting quickly on-the-fly and realising that 3E and 3.5E are extremely compatible if you're not fussy about exact numbers.

Cheers!