advice on dming [Archive] - Wizards Community

advice on dming [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
dude_man
07-14-04, 09:14 PM I am pretty new at D&D, but since i have started playing i have come to like Forgotten Realms a lot. I want to make a great, active environment for my players to roleplay in, but as i stated before i am relativiely new.

I would apreciate any campaign ideas or pointers that would help me create this environment. I need to create a campaign for starting characters.

Thanks
Crust
07-14-04, 11:25 PM Your best bet is to just get started and discover your style on your own. Once you get started and sit down with your gamers a few times, the campaign will shape itself. Don't let someone else tell you how to game. Learn from your own personal experiences, and you'll have your own campaign.
Valoren
07-15-04, 06:00 AM A few things I found useful:

1. Tips in the DMG. e.g. Just knowing the difference between a site based story and an event based story, helped me create my own stories.

2. Take the construction of a campaign one step at a time. What's the central theme or plot? Are there several central plots? Who is/are the antagonists? Does the campaign revolve around a location? Does it revolve around key events? Is it a series of stories, or one single long story?

3. Consider looking at other people's campaigns or published adventures. Very often the rationale and reasoning is also explained in such campaigns.

It's really hard to nail down how to create a good campaign. Trial and error from personal experience like Crust mentioned is the only true solution. Everything else is a tool or aid for your own final product.

I would advise starting with a location or event, and building a single story of about 3-4 sessions, around it. That story can be the launching pad for your campaign, or it might never have anything to do with your primary storylines and could be just an unrelated primer. It's your world, enjoy the process of filling it in :)
dude_man
07-15-04, 07:50 AM thanks for the advice guys. I will try what was suggested.
Lashan
07-15-04, 07:59 AM One thing that I always recommend, especially for those that are new to FR, is to use a lot of the older material. There are a lot of stuff for free download. Much of this is reference material and doesn't matter which version of DnD you are using. If there is material that needs to be converted, there are always web pages that have either done it for you or forums (like this one) that can help you. I highly recommend this.

There are also older modules and adventures out there, too. I highly recommend using these. Part of this has to do with the storyline of FR. There is a lot of material for FR and it can be intimidating for many players (and DM's). If you start at an early timeline and work through many of the events that take place in FR from previous modules (or home made stuff), then the players learn about the "history" of FR by playing through it. I've found it works out a lot better then just saying....OK...it's 1372 and there is A LOT of stuff going on. It's a way to slowly get your players hooked on the idea that FR is a living world that has things happen around them. I've started my home game at 1340 DR.
dude_man
07-15-04, 01:55 PM Thanks for the great idea Lashan.
brombur
07-15-04, 04:28 PM i agree with all the suggestion that others have given and here are some of my own.

I always start by looking fo an underdeveloped section of the realms. usually there will be a small bit of info in the campaign setting, say a page or two. read that and the info on the surrounding area. once you are aqcuainted with the material start small and develope a starting location for a game, inventing a small town might be your best bet. then come up with a logical reason why the players would have made their way to the location. then add a few plot hooks and let the players go.
the benefit of this is that you dont need to know a ton of stuff to make the area seem correct. this way the players dont ever have reason to question events. if you jump in an truy to run a campaign in say cormyr, waterdeep etc players may already have some ideas about the place from reading and then might question changes you make. i hope that makes sense, i tend to ramble.
finally try noy to overdevelop games. I made that mistake when i started, i did way to much work and found alot of it wasted or i was tempted to force players into my game just because i did so much work. I develop adventure in a rough outline like a play, the acts describe main ideas or event and the scenes are encounters you think up. thus it might be ACT 1: Runaway bride scene 1: the dirty ogre inn, a wedding party with a troublesome guest, act 1 scene 2- screams in the night, an empty bed act 1 scene 3- wedding dress at the rivers edge, etc... this alows you to know what encounters are coming and gives you the freedom to create the paths between the scenes as needed. if you have any questions please reply back and i will try to explain more
J. Grenemyer
07-15-04, 04:50 PM Hello,

I’d like to second Lashan’s point about using older (and free) FR material.

The Volo’s guides in particular are enough to build whole campaigns around.

My own advice would be to start in a place like Cormyr, download the Volo’s Guide to Cormyr and purchase the first couple of Adventure Path adventures (Sunless Citadel and Forge of Furry) by WotC (themselves a group of adventures that take characters from levels 1 to 20).

Feel free to post specific campaign ideas once you get started. I think I can safely speak for most of us here when I say we are all of us always glad to help a fellow FR fan.

Good gaming!

:D
Autosponge
07-15-04, 04:53 PM When you're new, best thing to start with is adventure in a can. Grab a module that you can adapt to FR and start with that. It can be 1e or 2e, store-bought or free. As long as it has decent guidelines for running the adventure, you should be ok. One of my favorites, if you can find a copy, is Night in Eliador; a free adventure published by Black Magic Games (on the internet). It's a good starter, and free, but his site has been down for a while but you may find it floating around on someone else's site.
Lashan
07-15-04, 08:04 PM Actually, I recommend the first FR module: Ruins of Adventure. It can be purchased for $5 for download. It is an adventure that can take you from levels 1 to 8. It is early in FR plot history. It's got a great story. The only thing that I see is a lot more detailed work for the DM. There are a ton of little NPCs to develop and a lot of other plot points you can work in on your own. That's a great module with a lot of stuff going on. The Council can have offers and rewards for stuff and the PCs can choose which ones they want to do. Add in some other NPC adventuring companies for competition, and you got a great adventure!
dragonheart
07-16-04, 06:57 PM like Lashan and the others I would suggest starting off with a module. THat way you can concentrate on running things not creating things. Keep in mind that as a DM your responsible foreveryoneelse having fun (& you having fun too) I have found that to do that it has to be challenging wihtout being deadly. that seems to equate to about a 25% chance ( igher when they play stupid) of someone in the party losing their life each evening - if they play smart no one dies, if dumb I've seen whole parties die (hey we're first level lets take on that dragon in the mountains). remember to assign experience for good role playing or the game will rapidly deteriorate into hack and slash and min-max power gaming. make use of the PC personalities as you adjust the module. - I once had a PC survive a poisoning attempt because he was such a drunkard that he had too much to drink at the meal he was poisoned at and when he vomited because of the alcohol he also got rid of most of the poison and survived.
dude_man
07-22-04, 01:12 PM Once again thanks for all of the great advice. I think that I will start with a module to get my campaign going. If i come up with any campaign ideas I will let you all know, and you guys can tell me what you think.
Heron_Marked_Blade
07-22-04, 04:48 PM A couple of very useful links for a new DM (particularly the last one):

The (New) DM Advice Thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139013)

Useful DM Links (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=181536)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dude_man 07-14-04, 09:14 PM	I am pretty new at D&D, but since i have started playing i have come to like Forgotten Realms a lot. I want to make a great, active environment for my players to roleplay in, but as i stated before i am relativiely new. I would apreciate any campaign ideas or pointers that would help me create this environment. I need to create a campaign for starting characters. Thanks
Crust 07-14-04, 11:25 PM	Your best bet is to just get started and discover your style on your own. Once you get started and sit down with your gamers a few times, the campaign will shape itself. Don't let someone else tell you how to game. Learn from your own personal experiences, and you'll have your own campaign.
Valoren 07-15-04, 06:00 AM	A few things I found useful: 1. Tips in the DMG. e.g. Just knowing the difference between a site based story and an event based story, helped me create my own stories. 2. Take the construction of a campaign one step at a time. What's the central theme or plot? Are there several central plots? Who is/are the antagonists? Does the campaign revolve around a location? Does it revolve around key events? Is it a series of stories, or one single long story? 3. Consider looking at other people's campaigns or published adventures. Very often the rationale and reasoning is also explained in such campaigns. It's really hard to nail down how to create a good campaign. Trial and error from personal experience like Crust mentioned is the only true solution. Everything else is a tool or aid for your own final product. I would advise starting with a location or event, and building a single story of about 3-4 sessions, around it. That story can be the launching pad for your campaign, or it might never have anything to do with your primary storylines and could be just an unrelated primer. It's your world, enjoy the process of filling it in :)
dude_man 07-15-04, 07:50 AM	thanks for the advice guys. I will try what was suggested.
Lashan 07-15-04, 07:59 AM	One thing that I always recommend, especially for those that are new to FR, is to use a lot of the older material. There are a lot of stuff for free download. Much of this is reference material and doesn't matter which version of DnD you are using. If there is material that needs to be converted, there are always web pages that have either done it for you or forums (like this one) that can help you. I highly recommend this. There are also older modules and adventures out there, too. I highly recommend using these. Part of this has to do with the storyline of FR. There is a lot of material for FR and it can be intimidating for many players (and DM's). If you start at an early timeline and work through many of the events that take place in FR from previous modules (or home made stuff), then the players learn about the "history" of FR by playing through it. I've found it works out a lot better then just saying....OK...it's 1372 and there is A LOT of stuff going on. It's a way to slowly get your players hooked on the idea that FR is a living world that has things happen around them. I've started my home game at 1340 DR.
dude_man 07-15-04, 01:55 PM	Thanks for the great idea Lashan.
brombur 07-15-04, 04:28 PM	i agree with all the suggestion that others have given and here are some of my own. I always start by looking fo an underdeveloped section of the realms. usually there will be a small bit of info in the campaign setting, say a page or two. read that and the info on the surrounding area. once you are aqcuainted with the material start small and develope a starting location for a game, inventing a small town might be your best bet. then come up with a logical reason why the players would have made their way to the location. then add a few plot hooks and let the players go. the benefit of this is that you dont need to know a ton of stuff to make the area seem correct. this way the players dont ever have reason to question events. if you jump in an truy to run a campaign in say cormyr, waterdeep etc players may already have some ideas about the place from reading and then might question changes you make. i hope that makes sense, i tend to ramble. finally try noy to overdevelop games. I made that mistake when i started, i did way to much work and found alot of it wasted or i was tempted to force players into my game just because i did so much work. I develop adventure in a rough outline like a play, the acts describe main ideas or event and the scenes are encounters you think up. thus it might be ACT 1: Runaway bride scene 1: the dirty ogre inn, a wedding party with a troublesome guest, act 1 scene 2- screams in the night, an empty bed act 1 scene 3- wedding dress at the rivers edge, etc... this alows you to know what encounters are coming and gives you the freedom to create the paths between the scenes as needed. if you have any questions please reply back and i will try to explain more
J. Grenemyer 07-15-04, 04:50 PM	Hello, I’d like to second Lashan’s point about using older (and free) FR material. The Volo’s guides in particular are enough to build whole campaigns around. My own advice would be to start in a place like Cormyr, download the Volo’s Guide to Cormyr and purchase the first couple of Adventure Path adventures (Sunless Citadel and Forge of Furry) by WotC (themselves a group of adventures that take characters from levels 1 to 20). Feel free to post specific campaign ideas once you get started. I think I can safely speak for most of us here when I say we are all of us always glad to help a fellow FR fan. Good gaming! :D
Autosponge 07-15-04, 04:53 PM	When you're new, best thing to start with is adventure in a can. Grab a module that you can adapt to FR and start with that. It can be 1e or 2e, store-bought or free. As long as it has decent guidelines for running the adventure, you should be ok. One of my favorites, if you can find a copy, is Night in Eliador; a free adventure published by Black Magic Games (on the internet). It's a good starter, and free, but his site has been down for a while but you may find it floating around on someone else's site.
Lashan 07-15-04, 08:04 PM	Actually, I recommend the first FR module: Ruins of Adventure. It can be purchased for $5 for download. It is an adventure that can take you from levels 1 to 8. It is early in FR plot history. It's got a great story. The only thing that I see is a lot more detailed work for the DM. There are a ton of little NPCs to develop and a lot of other plot points you can work in on your own. That's a great module with a lot of stuff going on. The Council can have offers and rewards for stuff and the PCs can choose which ones they want to do. Add in some other NPC adventuring companies for competition, and you got a great adventure!
dragonheart 07-16-04, 06:57 PM	like Lashan and the others I would suggest starting off with a module. THat way you can concentrate on running things not creating things. Keep in mind that as a DM your responsible foreveryoneelse having fun (& you having fun too) I have found that to do that it has to be challenging wihtout being deadly. that seems to equate to about a 25% chance ( igher when they play stupid) of someone in the party losing their life each evening - if they play smart no one dies, if dumb I've seen whole parties die (hey we're first level lets take on that dragon in the mountains). remember to assign experience for good role playing or the game will rapidly deteriorate into hack and slash and min-max power gaming. make use of the PC personalities as you adjust the module. - I once had a PC survive a poisoning attempt because he was such a drunkard that he had too much to drink at the meal he was poisoned at and when he vomited because of the alcohol he also got rid of most of the poison and survived.
dude_man 07-22-04, 01:12 PM	Once again thanks for all of the great advice. I think that I will start with a module to get my campaign going. If i come up with any campaign ideas I will let you all know, and you guys can tell me what you think.
Heron_Marked_Blade 07-22-04, 04:48 PM	A couple of very useful links for a new DM (particularly the last one): The (New) DM Advice Thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139013) Useful DM Links (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=181536)