Post/Author/DateTime	Post
LGMoses 02-06-07, 07:06 PM	Just thought that if players and Judges wanted to share tips or advice they could do it here. If players have anything they'd like to see judges do they can ask here. Any helpful advice for judging games and how to keep players interested and happy shared will be an improvement to the community at large. My contribution: keeping track of time is of extreme importance. Keep a watch and if players go over advise them of the situation so you all can continue. If someone has to leave the game early to catch a ride home or something then that can leave the table short for the mods Big Boss Fight. This can result in character death. always remind players that overcap gold can be used to go towards raising the dead and paying for restorations and such. Overcap gold needs to be used. If nothing else, the paladin/cleric can donate it to his church.
Lomiat 02-06-07, 07:40 PM	I like when the judges refrain from introducing metagame knowledge into a session. (Example: "You need to make a Knowledge (random) check DC 25 to get the next tidbit. Is anyone assisting you?" Or "At the next APL, they get Improved Sucking Your Face Off for 2d100 plus 93 points of acid damage.") It's hard enough for the players to stay in-character. If the DM breaks character too often, the whole session devolves into moving minis around a map and rolling dice.
_metz_ 02-06-07, 10:19 PM	Play NPCS and mosters at thier correct Int level. I once had a player complain that the Int 14 babaus were being too crafty, but pretty sure they know what they are doing, Remember an Int 14 creature can if it was a wizard, cast up to 4th level spells. Play it deviously like a PC would. On the other hand, don't have the low int trolls be prepared for the neat trick the fighter in the adventurers party perfomred on another creature in the mod. They are trolls, they are dumb, and just cos you the DM have seen it before doesn't mean they have. I have a bit of an issue here atm with certain players cos when they confront intellignet NPCs they are stunned and spend 4 rounds working out what to do, this almost caused a TPK. If you play monsters as thier int suggest you better take into account their CR, a succubus with Suggestion will fly above and suggest the fighters take off their armour, or run off to find help, rather than flying down and trying to claw the fighter. As a DM its more fun imo if the players can react to new situations based on what the monsters are not jsut waht thier abilities are. Fighting a demon is as hard as fighitn a zombie with a zillion hitpoints of the same CR because it knows what it is doing. TO better be able to do this, make sure you read up on the abilities and tactics of the creatures in your mods, if you miss somehting you can make it a walkover, or if you play the dumb creatures too smartly, it could increase thier CR and make it much harder than it should be. :)
solbergb 02-07-07, 01:58 AM	Refuse to run modules "cold". Insist on enough time to prep at whatever level give you your "A" game as a judge. This means sometimes encouraging convention organizers to give out draft or playtest copies of new modules and getting early copies of stuff that's been out for a while (perhaps by running a homegame that is sort of a slotzero too). This is the single piece of advice that I think would do the most to reduce bad convention tables. I've got lots of other advice too, but a lot is "what works well for me" which may not translate into the style of another judge. But about 95% of all disappointing tables were run by "cold" judges, some of them who normally are pretty good (although I might not ever know, if I'm traveling and this is my one chance to meet them). On a related note - don't run a module you don't like. Your hostility to the module will translate in everyone expecting to have a bad time. Even a really bad module can be salvaged by a good Judge but a judge who hates the module can always and usually will always ensure his players end up hating it too.
Lupo 02-07-07, 03:30 AM	Just thought that if players and Judges wanted to share tips or advice they could do it here. If players have anything they'd like to see judges do they can ask here. Any helpful advice for judging games and how to keep players interested and happy shared will be an improvement to the community at large. My contribution: keeping track of time is of extreme importance. Keep a watch and if players go over advise them of the situation so you all can continue. If someone has to leave the game early to catch a ride home or something then that can leave the table short for the mods Big Boss Fight. This can result in character death. always remind players that overcap gold can be used to go towards raising the dead and paying for restorations and such. Overcap gold needs to be used. If nothing else, the paladin/cleric can donate it to his church. i try to get PRINTED versions of the maps in an encounter. for some combats, battle maps and a rough sketch is just fine, but sometimes more filigrane things are needed on the map :). i really dislike authors who "just skip the map part" as they think their description is clear - most time it isn't :( ciao martin m.