What's it like to DM?

[Regal Worm of Slopp]

yo....i know this is kind of off topic...but does anyone know if the new psionics book (advanced psionics handbook) and the stuff in it is balanced? im still kinda new, but im gettin into it and i wanted to get the book cause i wanted to know as much as i could about everything. so now i have this book, and my DM is a bit worried it is unbalanced. i was just wondering if any of you have tried out psionics, or have any experiences that you would like to share on them.

 

[Henry]

yo....i know this is kind of off topic...but does anyone know if the new psionics book (advanced psionics handbook) and the stuff in it is balanced?

Here are a few threads that may be helpful:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=86506&highlight=Expanded+Psionics
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83334&highlight=Expanded+Psionics
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83520&highlight=Expanded+Psionics
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=85434&highlight=Expanded+Psionics


Also, The WotC Forums are another good source of information on this topic.

 

[Piratecat]

Regal worm of Slopp (great name, by the way!), the trick is never to worry if the PCs don't do what you intend. You think about the consequences and adjust on the fly. That's one of the things that makes it so much fun; it's like an improvisational jazz riff.

Here's a great example from last night's game. The group is on the outer planes, and they run up against a champion of chaos who is trying to get the villages in a halfling community to attack one another. If they do, the whole area will turn chaotic and get pushed into Limbo.

I'm readying for a cool fight: slaad antipaladin mounted on a froghemoth, psionic cohort, all kinds of bad guy fun in a big battle. And what do the PCs do? They refuse to fight. They figure that any fight will add to chaos, so instead the organize the halflings into an ultra-lawful defensive militia and arrange things so that each village can't be turned against the others.

I sat there for a few minutes and just blinked. No chaos meant the bad guy was going to fail no matter what he did. By exploiting the outer planes' capacity for "belief equals reality" the group won anyways. They foiled the bad guy's plans, and no one lifted a sword. I was totally caught off guard. It was wonderful; I live for moments like that, when my group outsmarts me.

So now I'm deciding what the bad guy will do instead. Will he seek vengeance, or go elsewhere? What will happen to the PCs' fame for doing this, and what sort of attention will it attract? Any action that they do has consequences... this just has some that I hadn't already thought of.

And that's one of the things I love about DMing. If you know your world, you don't have to make your group "do" anything, because they'll follow the paths that seem to be the most fun and I'll get to change the world as a result of their actions.

 

[erian_7]

yo....i know this is kind of off topic...but does anyone know if the new psionics book (advanced psionics handbook) and the stuff in it is balanced? im still kinda new, but im gettin into it and i wanted to get the book cause i wanted to know as much as i could about everything. so now i have this book, and my DM is a bit worried it is unbalanced. i was just wondering if any of you have tried out psionics, or have any experiences that you would like to share on them.

Thus far I like what I've seen. I've used psionics since the Dark Sun setting came out, and the system has never really seemed to "work" as well as the rest of D&D. The new book goes a long way (at least for me) in fixing that. I see it as fairly balanced, as long as the DM and players work together for balance (the same holds true with usage of Prestige Classes, feats, spells, etc.). You can tell your DM that at least one "old gamin' geezer" thinks its the best D&D psionics system to date...

Now, on that note it can be a bit much to be new to D&D, trying to learn all the Core rules, then throw psionics on top of that. It can get awfully confusing if you've got a session going with clerics, wizards, and psions all running around with different spells/powers. It can be a lot for the DM to keep track of. In this case, playing a Wilder or Soulknife might work out, as the former only gets a few powers (so less for the DM to learn) and the latter uses psionics solely for combat purposes.

I'd say enjoy, but go slow.

 

[kamosa]

DMing is like the radio active cross between a orchestra conductor, fantasy author and game show host.

At some level you are telling your story. Exploring ideas, plots, moral quandries and interactions thru the eyes of others. At another level, your helping others tell their stories. Helping with the backgrounds, challenges and victories of a set of heroes.

I get a lot of joy out of running the game. I get to help my friends have fun and facilitate a group activity. At the same time I take a lot of personal pride out of running a game that people want to keep coming back to again and again. Some of the players in my game have been with me for over 15 years now. Hey, its an ego boost to have them keep coming back and asking for me to GM them again.

For my part I enjoy creating situations that vex the players and make them think creatively. Nothing tickles me more than designing up a total bastard situation and having the players solve it through good group tactics, good roleplaying and a little creative thought.

I enjoy the combat, the social interactions and the plot weaving that a GM must master to be a good GM. I enjoy the humor of introducing a good comic relief character into the game. I enjoy the recounting of the game later on when the players tell their favorite moments in the game and some of my stories make the list.

I also enjoy the down time between games. It makes the morning comute less harsh that I can think about next weeks game during the drive. I enjoy reading a new book and deciding what I will use from it, or having it spark a clever idea for a challenge. I even enjoy reading a module and deciding that it is total garbage that I would never let in my game.

We don't have real story tellers in modern society. GMing allows me to be the bard, the story teller and the chief. What's not to like about that?

 

[Wombat]

The amazing thing about being a GM is learning to think on your feet.

I've been GMing since 1975/6 (gets a wee bit murky there). I have had adventures that I carefully planned, but due to player obsession, had to throw out the window as they got caught up, quite literally, in one sentence of a three page outline.

But those were players I had been with for several years, so it was fun

Remember: the GM sets the tone, and even sets the adventures, but in many ways the PCs set the agenda, especially as the campaign develops. It is the cooperative nature of gaming that I enjoy above all else.

Relax, have fun, remember it's just a game, and then squeeze every bit of pith you can out of your story

 

[Regal Worm of Slopp]

ok...i have read through the book, and im sure i "get" the psionics better than the regular rules....scary huh?My DM's main problem was with not knowing the limitations, like not being able to spend more pp on a power than your manifester lvl and such lke that...he only browsed through it....i will talk with him later, but its always nice to have one "old gamin' geezer" for psionics.

 

[Piratecat]

A few other answers.

> how do you make it feel real (the world)?

Describe how things smell, and how they sound. Have things change even when the group isn't around. NPCs might marry or die, and things will be different when the PCs next comes to town. This creates a feeling that the world is alive. You also need to have the PCs' actions change the world. If they're 17th lvl and well-known heroes, they aren't going to get bossed around by a gate guard who knows who they are.

> how do you make sure that the players do the right thing to start an adventure?

I usually have two or three hooks into an adventure. I'll present them all, and go with whichever one the group responds to. It doesn't always work, though. Henry referred to my "modron adventure" upthread. Six years ago I tried to get my group to go on an adventure called "The Great Modron March." They started, decided that other heroes could deal with it, and headed home instead. So much for THAT adventure.

I just let them move on and created something else for them to do. They still hear about the marching modrons regularly.

> how does anything ever work out when the players dont truly (though they may have an idea) know what the adventure requires them to do? i know that this uncertanty is the essence of the game, but how do you, as the DM, make sure it all works out???

Players are usually smart. You present the problem, make sure that you have self-consistency,, and if they can't figure it out you consider slipping them a hint. If they get it wrong and fail, then that's a learning experience -- although I usually try to give them a heroic way to fix the problems that they've accidentally caused.

I hope that's some help. If other people haven't mentioned it, welcome to the boards.

 

[Crothian]

> how does anything ever work out when the players dont truly (though they may have an idea) know what the adventure requires them to do? i know that this uncertanty is the essence of the game, but how do you, as the DM, make sure it all works out???

Players are usually smart. You present the problem, make sure that you have self-consistency,, and if they can't figure it out you consider slipping them a hint. If they get it wrong and fail, then that's a learning experience -- although I usually try to give them a heroic way to fix the problems that they've accidentally caused.

To follow up: Sometimes you can force the round peg into the square hole. Violence may not be the best answer to all problems, but it does work. Of course one has to know their DM and his style, as this works better with some DMs then others. So, sometimes the Players might not know the answer, but they come up with a solution that somehow works.

 

[Piratecat]

Violence may not be the best answer to all problems, but it does work.

A famous detective writer - Dashiel Hammet? - once said something to the effect of "Whenever I'm writing a story and I don't know what happens next, I have armed thugs kick open a door. It gets the action moving every time." That's true in D&D, too!