Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sewercake 02-11-07, 06:53 PM	HI I have been wanting to play DnD for countless years now, but something was always stopping me (mostly group members). Finally i found a group of 4 people that are willing to play! I'm overjoyed at this, but of course I am the DM, and it seems so daunting. I was thinking of buying a campaign setting, but i decided against it for various reasons, in the end i decided to make my own. It's a LOT of work. How do you guys do it, I mean there is so much to cover while making one. Have any tips for a complete beginnner of DMing? Also whats, in your opinion the best way to organize all your thoughts and such? all help appreciated -sewercake
Cryforge 02-11-07, 07:26 PM	Cryforge's Guide to Making a World in 10 Easy Steps 1. Put together a reference for yourself and your players about each race. This details what races the players can play, in what way those races act and interact in your setting, and any new races that you have for the setting. 2. Do the above, but with base classes. 3. Come up with the main nation or area that your campaign will be taking place in. Draw a large map of this region as well as some of the outlying regions. 4. Don't draw a map of them, but have a general idea of all the places beyond what you mapped above. 5. Make notes for yourself on the region that you've mapped. Write little blurbs for each city that describe why it is different from the other cities on the map. Do the same for any geographical location that is special in any way. Make quick notes on the political structure. You need to know if you're running in a democracy, monarchy, dictatorship etc. Also make sure that you know what deities are worshipped in common civilization in your region. 6. Decide which cities etc. would be good places to set adventures in and around. 7. Write an adventure for whatever level the characters are starting at and begin your campaign. 8. If the campaign continues on long enough that it leaves the region that you have set it in at the beginning, add more to the outside of the map, or draw new maps to expand out as your PCs get farther and farther away. 9. As you get into higher levels, where planes play larger and larger roles, be sure to have your world's cosmology planned out. You don't need extreme details, just enough that you can say where outsiders come from and where the PCs can go if they break out of the Material Plane. 10. Make sure to have named your world. Need a catchy name to make the players want to play on it. ;)
sewercake 02-11-07, 07:31 PM	Thanks for your help, Theres just so many things to do, I have my world planned out and everything, its the matter of all the creatures, folklore etc. by the way, could anyone point me to a set of rules for flying ships? it would be very useful. -sewercake
trapspringer 02-11-07, 07:35 PM	Starting out? Ok, here's what you should do. *Run some dungeon crawls for your buddies. Keep the action really epic, Think about the fight scenes in the Matrix or Pirates of the Carribean. *Feel free to request certain character types for party makeup (stuff like "I'd appreciate it if everyone kept towards pirate-y characters" or "I'd like it if everyone would try to have a character that can cast spells for just this game") This will help them get a feel for different classes while you take the oppourtunity to play around with the different kinds of things players with different abilities will do. *Go with it. This is your chance to be a little whacky before the serious amture gamer in you takes over. Have fun with it. It doesn't all have to make sense, just try to be consistent. *Read the rules. That's really important. Read the PHB cover to cover (skipping the spell section), the DMG cover to cover (skimming tables) and the parts of the MM that go over what different abilites mean. It would be a good idea to put some labeled bookmarks near important stuff and things you expect you'll be using in your next game. So, making a newbie adventure 101: step one Ok, make four seperate encounters. It might help to get you started by creating four setting first. Something like, but not, this. 1-A rope bridge leads across a chasm (east to west) to a set of double-doors built into the side of a cliff face. 2-A 25' by 25' room with a mirrored floor and cieling featuring a stoney looking stalagmite in the center. and two doors on the opposite wall. 3-A shallow creek cutting across a 25' by 40' room featuring a ceiling enchanted to look like the night sky and walls covered in vines. 4-A 40' by 40' room with glowing stone platforms of various elevations revolving around a central stone well above the floor. Step Two Tie them together and sketch it down on graph paper. Make notes about description. Set off anything you think you want to read to the players by boxin' it in so you don't forget about it or accidentally read something else to the players (it happens). Continuing with the above example, let's say the players cross the rope bridge, go into the mirror room, then proceed through one of the doors. The right door leads to room number four while the left door leads to room number three. Step Three Add some danger and some reward. You need bad guys or traps or puzzles in all of these places. Mix it up. Puzzles can be a lot of fun, and traps make the rogue feel different from the fighter. A good trap can be outsmarted, not just outrolled. Try to make the trap or encounter something that fits or synergizes with the environment. The opening fight scene of PotC was cool becuse of all the jumping around in the smithy shop, not because Dep can act like a pirate. Working with the above example, I would make the rope bridge rickety and dangerous. Maybe the players have to make a reflex save or fall down, followed by a DC 10 climb check not to fall. The real encounter for this area would be the doors at the cliff face, which might be locked and rigged with the level two spell [i]flame burst[/] so that anyone who is within range (including the bridge) gets a big blast of fire when someone tries to open the doors. The glass room would be fairly ordinary except I would replace the stalagmite with a Roper (a monster from the MM that can look exactly like a stalagmite). The doors would be unlocked. And so on. Last Step Give the palyers a reason to be there. Maybe when they were in town they were hired to clear out the dungeon by some wealthy real-estate manager. Maybe there is something hidden in the dungeon they were hired to or were morally obligate to retrieve. It is during this step you should put some l33t loot in the dungeon. I would suggest you use the tables in the DMG to generate the treasure. Just roll on the table appropriate to the CR of each encounter and put the treasure somewhere near that encounter. ...and your done Just run the dungeon for your party. Take note of what worked and what didn't. Give them a chance to go back to town and rest up and spend their money, then have them go somewhere else and do something different. Remember that every adventure doesn't have to be in a dungeon, and a dungeon doesn't have to be a cave. Good luck.
trapspringer 02-11-07, 07:36 PM	Flying ships are best left ouside the rules. If you want to have an aerial battle focus on boarding action and the players. The actual rules for such a battle remove the players in most respects and depend heavily upon who has the better boat. But I do think it's a great idea. I have had great success with flying ships in my campaigns. Just don't give the PCs too much leverage with 'em or travel will become a non-issue.
AntiDjinn 02-11-07, 08:17 PM	Just because you have decided not to use a published setting does not mean you can't lift elements from Toril, Eberron, Narnia, Glorantha, and others, for use in your setting. Maps, in particular, are time-consuming, so feel free to use maps you find and simply re-work them to suit your adventure. And an inverted photocopy of a map becomes a new map. Pre-generated NPCs and NPC groups and organizations are also good to collect where you can (the web is a good source) and keep against future need. Sometimes an NPC who was supposed to be a cypher with whom the PCs would barely interact suddenly needs a name, next thing you know it turns into an encounter and now you need stats for this person who was supposed to just be a faceless messenger. Having stacks of instant NPCs or just lists of names is good for this. And though the title sounds insulting, the book Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies was written to help new players and DMs who are trying to self-teach the game.
kelvinaw273 02-11-07, 08:31 PM	HI I have been wanting to play DnD for countless years now, but something was always stopping me (mostly group members). Finally i found a group of 4 people that are willing to play! I'm overjoyed at this, but of course I am the DM, and it seems so daunting. I was thinking of buying a campaign setting, but i decided against it for various reasons, in the end i decided to make my own. It's a LOT of work. How do you guys do it, I mean there is so much to cover while making one. Have any tips for a complete beginnner of DMing? Also whats, in your opinion the best way to organize all your thoughts and such? all help appreciated -sewercake Don't - really! For a first campaign, don't even try. You are effectively working blind, and you need to develope your DMing skills before you do this. Seriously, take my advice and: (1) Run some stand-alone adventures first, and make clear these are 'test' adventures to your players. (2) Once you have done a 'shakedown' change characters if you want and choose a campaign setting. Then run a campaign in that. If you go to all the trouble of building a campaign world, you may be very disappointed when either (a) your players don't like it or (b) it does not work. However, if you are detirmined, bring your players on board - get them to decide where their characters come from, and let them have a regional feat from that area that they devise themselves. This cuts down on the emount of work you have to do, and they get mnore of what they want.
xandros2000 02-11-07, 08:49 PM	You can start small too. You dont need to create the whole world or all the concepts (all the deities etc.) all at once. You can start off with just a small town or city and a single dungeon/adventure planned. Then just build the rest later, as the players finish that adventure or if it leads them to the next one, just expand it out from that small area. Many campaign worlds were born from a single adventure module. Good Luck!
sewercake 02-11-07, 09:17 PM	Wow, thank you guys sooooo much! You guys are the by far the most helpful people i have ever come across in ANY forums! Thank you for all the ideas, it just made it a lot less daunting for me, and I know where to start off. You have no idea how much this helped -sewercake
Sadrx 02-11-07, 09:35 PM	My quick tip: The players will do more playing than you'll do mastering, but you'll get to play some too. That is to say that you're not trying to beat the players -- you're trying to play right along with them most of the time. They'll go directions you never planned, kill people you liked, and disregard the authority you wanted to uphold in the town. Don't try and defeat them for it; give them realilistic consequences for their actions and then a chance to pull it off, and you'll all have a blast. As an example, if your players try to steal from the mayor's house while he's hiring them, resist the temptation to make the mayor's bodyguard a level 20 warblade. Instead, roll the mayor's and guard's Spot checks vs. their Sleight of Hand check, and if they're noticed, tell them the guard begins to head towards them and they'll need to roll initiative. They might escape and botch that adventure hook, but if it's the only adventure you've got prepared, slip them another hook -- perhaps a less-lawful rival of the mayor will hire them to undertake the same quest for just that reason. Edit: And as an extra tip, you might have quite the opposite problem -- a group of characters that rarely do anything of their own accord (see my signautre). If that's the case, always be ready with an encounter or NPC who will approach them so you can keep the game going if it begins to stall. In addition, players will take hints from things you specifically point out. If you specifically detail a nervous looking begger eyeing the nobles, your players will pay attention to him. If you let it slip that a second-story window is open after dark, your greedy rogue might take advantage. Give your players details their characters would be interested in, and they'll always have something to do layed out before them.
heardfamily 02-11-07, 09:51 PM	Congratulations on stepping into the most challenging (and in my opinion, most rewarding) role in the game, DMing! My one piece of advice though, don't get too caught up in the rules. The basics are a must, but don't try to learn the entire Player's Handbook and DMG off-by-heart before your first game. Just relax and go with it. If the player's characters try to swing on a thin rope in full armour for example, don't fret about exactly how much it can carry or how much damage the rules say it can take before breaking, just decide on the spot if it snaps or not. You can then look up the official rules after the game. This way, you're always learning without stopping the game every 3 minutes to check the rules. Have fun and good luck, let us know how it goes!