rgoodbb
Adventurer
DM’d my first ever game last night. (Why oh why did I worry all these years?)
I have played on and off for 30 years but never had the confidence to DM a game. My maths is poor as are my organisational skills. However I finally plucked up the courage and I persuaded my partner and her friend to play, and so these two ladies in their mid-50’s sat beaming across the table at me with their female Half-Orc Rogue and their male Dragonborn Paladin ready to go. I was quite anxious myself as I really wanted them to enjoy the game like I do, and didn’t know how any of it was going to go down.
I have to admit at this point that I am a huge Critical Role fan and decided to use their playlist (especially both elms tunes) of background music to help immerse and also hide my nervous voice.
The two adventurers met at a junction in the road. Their destination was the small frontier hamlet of Fallowcrest. But first they had to make camp and spend the night in the sheltered ruins of the old watchtower and with each other’s company.
To my joy and amazement, they broke out into role-playing their characters almost instantly without me having to do any encouragement at all. It was in depth stuff as well, they really thought about what their characters would say or do and then acted that out beautifully. There was suspicion in their voices, prejudiced terminology between the two monstrous races, necessity to eventually accept and accommodate each other and responsibility for collecting firewood and who should take first watch.
By the time they reached Fallowcrest the next day, it was as if they had been adventuring for some time together. The hamlet itself was the next phase that worried me. They had shown that they could role-play wonderfully. Now it was my turn. I had set a limit of interesting places for them to visit. Tavern, Blacksmiths, Farm-Market stall, Provisions store and a Multi-faith centre. The rest of the buildings were people’s small homes. I had an idea in my head of what I thought they would do, and of course, they mixed the order around completely.
I was kind of hoping that they would visit the store first as I had practised that particular NPC’s voice. Percival’s Prodigious Provisions (Critical Role anyone) but nope, they ignored my desperate nudge that way and drove straight for the tavern. Initially I had named the tavern but had been mulling over whether to involve the players in helping to create some aspects of the world around them. They loved the idea. The Red Dragon Inn swiftly turned into the Barlock Arms. (Barlock being a road we all used to live on). Then one of them stated that Barlock sounded like Warlock and so I quickly announced that the picture on the tavern signpost was a purple set of arcane runes. Before I knew it, this tavern had more life/flavour/history about it than I could have imagined, and the players were intrigued.
I soon found that all my non-prepared NPC voices were turning out to be of a Cornish accent for some reason (Mr Frodo Sir) and that the great lengthy speeches that I had prepared for each of them went completely out the window because they didn’t seem right. Spontaneity spewed out of me a lot easier and didn’t feel false when using the NPC’s.
Arial, a girl with a lame arm that I had initially prepared to run up and talk the female Character as a way to start them role-playing, was still there, but that role for her was now unnecessary. I had her greet them anyway stating that her daddy said that there were adventurers around! A little later in the tavern The PC’s met Arial’s mother and asked about the child and her father, for some reason, and I don’t have a clue why, I stated, through the voice of the mother, that the father had died not a year back of some disease. It got an instant interest from the PC’s about who then was talking to Arial and made for a definite future hook.
I had a little trepidation that the main hook for this first story would not be taken up by the PC’s. Wow was I wrong. They almost bit my hand off for it. After they knew they had to travel somewhere, they realised that they did not know the area. Hah! Enter Percival’s Prodigious Provisions and a map that I had spent hours making. He was a joy to role-play and the ladies loved him. (Cheers Ma..Gilmore).
Another area that I was not sure about at all was combat. They had never played before, there were 2 PC’s not the usual 3-5 so CR’s were unknown for me a little, and as stated before, my maths is pretty poor. The main benefit was that I have been a player for a long time and was easily guiding them through the combat stage which they picked up very quickly. Maths didn’t actually prove to be any issue at all and everyone seemed to be having fun. They did their thing and returned to the hamlet as heroes. Suspicion of these two monster adventurers was replaced by thanks and lots of requests for aid: Please heal my sick baby, exorcise my home etc. Hooks for the future.
The session ended there after 5 hours that had completely flown by, and my partner’s friend queried with a big grin “When are we playing again?” That was the point where I knew I had crossed a line. I had become a DM.
Now I have taken that first step, I do wonder why it took me so long and why I thought I couldn’t do it. It wasn't difficult and I had great fun improvising and changing things mid-session.
I have posted a few times on this forum with certain questions and also ideas that I thought might be risky but wanted your balanced thoughts and answers. Your knowledge and your willingness to answer and support as a community has been fantastic and has spurred me on to give the DM thing a go. I’m very happy I did and so are two lovely ladies that I am very fond of and who now for the first time, profess to be......Nerds.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks.
I have played on and off for 30 years but never had the confidence to DM a game. My maths is poor as are my organisational skills. However I finally plucked up the courage and I persuaded my partner and her friend to play, and so these two ladies in their mid-50’s sat beaming across the table at me with their female Half-Orc Rogue and their male Dragonborn Paladin ready to go. I was quite anxious myself as I really wanted them to enjoy the game like I do, and didn’t know how any of it was going to go down.
I have to admit at this point that I am a huge Critical Role fan and decided to use their playlist (especially both elms tunes) of background music to help immerse and also hide my nervous voice.
The two adventurers met at a junction in the road. Their destination was the small frontier hamlet of Fallowcrest. But first they had to make camp and spend the night in the sheltered ruins of the old watchtower and with each other’s company.
To my joy and amazement, they broke out into role-playing their characters almost instantly without me having to do any encouragement at all. It was in depth stuff as well, they really thought about what their characters would say or do and then acted that out beautifully. There was suspicion in their voices, prejudiced terminology between the two monstrous races, necessity to eventually accept and accommodate each other and responsibility for collecting firewood and who should take first watch.
By the time they reached Fallowcrest the next day, it was as if they had been adventuring for some time together. The hamlet itself was the next phase that worried me. They had shown that they could role-play wonderfully. Now it was my turn. I had set a limit of interesting places for them to visit. Tavern, Blacksmiths, Farm-Market stall, Provisions store and a Multi-faith centre. The rest of the buildings were people’s small homes. I had an idea in my head of what I thought they would do, and of course, they mixed the order around completely.
I was kind of hoping that they would visit the store first as I had practised that particular NPC’s voice. Percival’s Prodigious Provisions (Critical Role anyone) but nope, they ignored my desperate nudge that way and drove straight for the tavern. Initially I had named the tavern but had been mulling over whether to involve the players in helping to create some aspects of the world around them. They loved the idea. The Red Dragon Inn swiftly turned into the Barlock Arms. (Barlock being a road we all used to live on). Then one of them stated that Barlock sounded like Warlock and so I quickly announced that the picture on the tavern signpost was a purple set of arcane runes. Before I knew it, this tavern had more life/flavour/history about it than I could have imagined, and the players were intrigued.
I soon found that all my non-prepared NPC voices were turning out to be of a Cornish accent for some reason (Mr Frodo Sir) and that the great lengthy speeches that I had prepared for each of them went completely out the window because they didn’t seem right. Spontaneity spewed out of me a lot easier and didn’t feel false when using the NPC’s.
Arial, a girl with a lame arm that I had initially prepared to run up and talk the female Character as a way to start them role-playing, was still there, but that role for her was now unnecessary. I had her greet them anyway stating that her daddy said that there were adventurers around! A little later in the tavern The PC’s met Arial’s mother and asked about the child and her father, for some reason, and I don’t have a clue why, I stated, through the voice of the mother, that the father had died not a year back of some disease. It got an instant interest from the PC’s about who then was talking to Arial and made for a definite future hook.
I had a little trepidation that the main hook for this first story would not be taken up by the PC’s. Wow was I wrong. They almost bit my hand off for it. After they knew they had to travel somewhere, they realised that they did not know the area. Hah! Enter Percival’s Prodigious Provisions and a map that I had spent hours making. He was a joy to role-play and the ladies loved him. (Cheers Ma..Gilmore).
Another area that I was not sure about at all was combat. They had never played before, there were 2 PC’s not the usual 3-5 so CR’s were unknown for me a little, and as stated before, my maths is pretty poor. The main benefit was that I have been a player for a long time and was easily guiding them through the combat stage which they picked up very quickly. Maths didn’t actually prove to be any issue at all and everyone seemed to be having fun. They did their thing and returned to the hamlet as heroes. Suspicion of these two monster adventurers was replaced by thanks and lots of requests for aid: Please heal my sick baby, exorcise my home etc. Hooks for the future.
The session ended there after 5 hours that had completely flown by, and my partner’s friend queried with a big grin “When are we playing again?” That was the point where I knew I had crossed a line. I had become a DM.
Now I have taken that first step, I do wonder why it took me so long and why I thought I couldn’t do it. It wasn't difficult and I had great fun improvising and changing things mid-session.
I have posted a few times on this forum with certain questions and also ideas that I thought might be risky but wanted your balanced thoughts and answers. Your knowledge and your willingness to answer and support as a community has been fantastic and has spurred me on to give the DM thing a go. I’m very happy I did and so are two lovely ladies that I am very fond of and who now for the first time, profess to be......Nerds.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks.
