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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4290070" data-attributes="member: 4937">The most common mistakes are also the worst ones.  Since I'm not good at brevity, you are getting a list:1) Not learning the rules:  This is the worst mistake and also the most common.  I don't know how many times I've set down at someone's table and suffered through a session where we crammed 10 minutes of fun into 4 hours because the stupid referee hadn't bothered to learn the rules of the game he was running.  2) Thinking you can wing it:  There are a few highly experienced DMs out there that can draw on thier past play experience, literary knowledge, imagination, and ideas that they've played with but never fleshed out to wing sessions, but YOU AREN'T ONE OF THEM*.  Wing it only when you have to, not by design.  The more work you've done, and the longer the campaign has been going, the easier it is to rely on the natural flow of the campaign to create story, but you always should have something worked out in advance to fall back on.  All the best ref's I've played under did a heck of alot of work preparing for thier games.  If you can get by with just one hour or preparation for each hour of play, you are doing good - and probably relying heavily on published modules.   BTW, published modules need lots of preparation time to.  If you don't want to put in the time, you probably aren't cut out for the job.*(The more impressed by himself and the more a DM brags about his ability to wing it, the less impressed by them I've been in actual play.)3) Not listening to your players:  It might primarily be your game, but it isn't just your game.  You might have this great idea for a combat light game of court intrigue, mystery, low magic and high simulation.  If your players are all beer and pretzels gamers who just want to take things and kill there stuff, everyone is going to be much happier if you switch campaign styles midstream and give the players the game they want to play.  That doesn't mean that you can't put your own stylistic spin on the campaign (you probably should), and it doesn't mean you can't write the adventures such that it challenges them to elevate thier play somewhat (you probably should) but it does mean that you probably shouldn't get in a battle of wills, or berate your players for not playing the game you want to play.  Listen to the players, and in particular watch thier body language.  If you've got consistant bored and distracted body language, you need to figure out what gets your players interested and give it to them.4) Making things too big: The first impulse of any new DM is to create enormous mega-dungeons, massive cities, and globe trotting super adventures to save the world.  What you end up creating is a combination of pointless repetition in a low detail non-engaging environment, incomplete maps you never really finish, and lots of random encounters.  The eighth pointless fight against ghouls, or the tenth fight against darkmantles is not going to be nearly so fun as the first.  The twelth identical 20'x30' room containing 3d6 orc gaurds is going to create something of a player revolt in anyone over the age of 11.  Start small.  Poor some creativity into smaller environments.  Detail some NPCs.  Come up with some plots with twists.  Let the huge dungeons and massive cities grow organically as your campaign continues.  You'll have plenty of time to add another layer to the onion and detail the real ultimate BBEG when your players have leveled up a few times.5) Waiting to hash out any potential problems during play rather than dealing with them during character creation:  This is a whole subcategory of problems that derail campaigns early.  Everyone wants to get play started.  You should want to get play started.  But take some time to talk with the players (privately if need be) about thier characters, and what they think character is going to be like in play.  Check off all the following points:a) Is the character going to be a viable build, capable of contributing in the adventures you have in mind and which won't be outshone by the other players?b) Does the character have a good hook which will consistantly get them involved in adventures?  'I'm a stay-at-home cowardly xenophobic loner' is probably not a viable character concept.c) Is the character socially functional and capable of interacting with other PC's and NPC's with only managable friction?  Is the player good enough of a roleplayer to entertain himself and others in the role?d) Is the player committed to playing the character in an anti-social manner?  'My character concept is an assassin that secretly plans to kill all the other characters' is not a viable character concept.e) If the character is some sort of idealist (Paladin being the most common, but lots of things apply), do you and the player have a common agreement and understanding about what code or standard of behavior this implies?f) Is it possible for the individual characters to be a cohesive party?  You may want to get players to work out ahead of time how they are going to handle intraparty conflict, especially if there are clashing character concepts.  The question of 'Why should this group stay together' is extremely important.  Don't leave it to chance.Don't blame the player(s) for your failure to foresee obvious problems in intraparty dynamics.   It's alot easier to work this out ahead of time than wait and hope for an argeement to be arrived at during play.</blockquote>

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