Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BlueCodeWarrior 01-22-06, 10:06 PM	Hey guys - I'm going to be running my first LG game in a few weeks, "COR5-02 Voice of Reason". My question is this: What can I do to make this the best game of D&D for my players? I haven't DMd in a few months, and have fairly new players, so this is a chance to shape them into good little roleplayers. It's a home game with my friends, so I won't have any suprises. I'd like general advice for LG or advice for this particular module, if possible (I'm not sure if we're allowed to discuss specifics here.)
Mortepierre 01-23-06, 03:52 AM	First thing first, COR5-02 won't be retired before the end of the year, so if you're including any hint of what's in it on this board, please post a SPOILER WARNING in the main title of your thread, and make sure to leave a significant number of empty lines at the beginning of your post. We don't want to spoil anyone's fun, now do we? Second, there are two specific places you can ask for advice. The first is the LG DM's Yahoo's group http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LGDMs/ The second is the Sunndi Yahoo's group http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Sunndi/ The author comes from that region and is a frequent poster on their board. I haven't yet run it so I can't tell you anything specific about the adventure itself. That said, here are a few basic things I recommend to all new LG DM: - know the rules (nothing as annoying as a DM who must stop the game every two minutes to reread how to use the Ride skill or what a Bull Rush is) - know the adventure inside-out (not by heart but enough that you won't have to search through it every two minutes to find the answer to a player's query or the stats for a specific encounter) - have your hand-out ready (in case there are any to give) - practice the voices of your NPC (try to give them a different "feel" - often based on what's written in the adventure - so that the players won't be under the impression they're always talking to the same nameless nobody) - if you're using miniatures, make a preselection of them so that you can quickly put them on the battlemat once an encounter begins. I had a DM once who took 10 minutes to sort through miniatures just to find an orc that would "fit" the description of a NPC And, remember, you're in charge. Whatever they throw at you, smile and make them believe you're in control (hope you've a good Bluff skill :D ) Good luck!
Lomiat 01-23-06, 12:33 PM	Read the module front to back, and study the APL-appropriate stat blocks. When you read the module, try to gain a sense of each NPC and the general flow. Think outside of the box text and prepare yourself in advance to accomodate some of the PCs' attempts to role-play beyond what's been provided, and prepare a way to rope them back in. Have hand-outs ready. Have your NPC stats handy, and mark the appropriate pages in the DMG for quick reference. Please do not become one of the DMs who says: "You can't interrupt me. I'm reading the boxed-text." Try to maintain a level of verisimiltude. The less you say about your DMing, the better it generally is. Eventually, after you DM several adventures for your group, you can start to "warp" the mods a little bit to cater to your players. Not enough to change the general premise, flow, or encounters in an adventure, but perhaps if they play an adventure in their home region, a reputation might precede someone, etc. Have fun.
solbergb 01-23-06, 04:04 PM	One thing that helped for me is to make some cheat-sheets - whatever it takes to run the mod with only brief references to them instead of paging back and forth through the mod. This is especially important for a big, complicated 2 round mod like Voice of Reason. Go to the mod text if your notes aren't clear enough to handle a question or issue that comes up of course. But I discovered in LG that about the worst thing I could do was try to run the mod directly from the mod. This is especially true if the mod has a lot of longwinded boxtext. It's a personal weakness of mine, but reading from a script comes out kind of monotone and boring. I have better luck internalizing the boxtext and just telling the story naturally. Styles differ though. If you have the time, running some mock battles can be helpful, especially if the bad guys have spells/abilities/tactics or terrain that you've never run before. Combat goes a lot faster if the DM instinctively knows what the bad guys can do and how to use their abilities, and there's nothing like actually running some fights with them to really get the feel. This is very time consuming though, so I'd only do that if you enjoy such things. Some DM's seem to be able to read statblocks and visualize what would happen - again I don't happen to be one of those. The most important thing though is you need to keep the game flowing...if the mod has logical weak links you have to be aware of them and find a way to gently direct the party to the next step. If the author left stuff out, you have to fill in the blanks. "The bandits ambush the characters on the road" may be all you have for information. You have to provide terrain, look at the statblocks to see how good the bandits are at hiding and have all that ready before the players sit down at the table and start doing things like having familiars watch from the air (possibly ruining some hiding places), asking about wind direction (scent is more or less effective depending on the wind), having high movement/high stealth scouts ranging off to the sides or ahead, etc. All of that is easy to judge if you have thought about what the bandits were TRYING to achieve. Just don't be a judge that plops down minis on a battlemap, doesn't draw anything and says "the bandits surprise you cause the mod said they did" no matter what abilities the PC's have. Bandits will surprise parties that suck at alertness/scouting skills. They won't surprise parties that are good at such things. This is ok. All the mod says is what the bad guys are trying to do. Their capabilities vs the PC's capabilities determine whether their plans have any basis in reality.
Smilinggm 01-23-06, 04:21 PM	Preperation, Preperation, Preperation. Preperation is the key. Here is how I prep for a Module Download it Read it from top to bottom before I print it. Make notes Print the mod Place the mod in a 3 ring binder with page protectors Read the mod again. Make a cheat sheet for each encounter at each apl. This gives you a complete understanding of each NPC and encounter. Read the mod again. Pre Draw maps whenever possible. Select appropriate minis for each encounter and orginize them for easy access. Read the module again. Review the location and setting to make sure I have an understanding on how the mod fits in location it takes place in. I prepair Initiative Cards (http://www.thegamemechanics.com/freebies/TGM_Initiative_Cards_Fantasy.zip) for the NPC's and to hand out to the players In my gaming bag/kit I have the appropriate books for the mod. I have a my dice. I have my mini's and tokens My battle maps (predrawn and blank) w/pens for the maps A rag and a spray bottle for cleaning the map. Halls and Chloraseptic (never know when these will come in handy) Bottled watter I have a DM's Binder with quick reference charts (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LaRWQpSNVD8hYBPeRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDM TE2c2gwaTZ1BGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDNARzZ WMDc3IEdnRpZANGNjgwXzg1/SIG=1441k8o1c/EXP=1138137513/**http%3a//members.cox.net/tomchristy2/Rplaying/Downloads/QuickReference.pdf%23search='3.5%2520ref erence%2520sheets') and tables and DM's Screen. Iam lothe to open a Book for reference unless I absolulty have too esp during tournamant play. So the DM's quick binder is a must for me. But they are there if I need them. Whenever Possible I move to a quiet location to run the game away from other groups and tables. If possible I have pre-selected background music to have playing during the mod to set the mood. However this is not always possible esp at big cons. BUT end the end If you have a good grasp of the rules and Prepair you should have a great game. Just remember to have fun doing all of this and when running the game.
BlueCodeWarrior 01-24-06, 01:13 PM	Thanks for the great ideas, guys. I'm getting quite excited about playing again, it's been too long.
Lomiat 01-24-06, 01:35 PM	Oh... Not that I'd necessarily recommend this, but it's an option. After I've run weekly sessions for about 3 months, some of my players started to get rather cynical about LG's episodic and formulaic adventures. Some of that problem was, of course, a result of metagaming instead of gaming, some of it was due to my incomplete preparation for a couple of sessions (getting tired, and running the adventure without enough preparation to let the story blossom), some of it was due to starting late (8PM) and trying to finish 2-round mods in a hurry (before 1AM), and some of it was just my players "mathing" the adventure ("Go ahead and do X because there's only one encounter after this one..." "Oh look, the DM's drawing a map. I roll initiative."). So in the last session we played, after I finally had time to prep it properly, I had the PCs put themselves in marching orders and position themselves in rooms at deceptive times earlier in the adventure, just to disrupt their cynical expectations. At one point, before the PCs had gotten into a combat yet, I noticed a couple of them were getting sleepy while they were searching an area near a river. So I threw in a crocodile. It absolutely did not exist in the mod. It very nearly killed the fighter, and I had to have it spit him out in order to flee the hail of arrows from our archer. But it was liberating for me, as the DM, to realize I could alter the mod to make it more interesting (they had plenty of time to travel/rest/heal afterward) and to mess with the players' minds. Most importantly, though, the players all woke up and stopped mathing the module and started joking around and looking for ways to interact; it was a much-needed shot in the arm, and it led to a gaming session filled with laughter and the things you look for when you get 6 friends to sit at your table and pretend they have weapons and magical abilities.