Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ezell Pike 06-15-05, 02:01 PM	I've been DMing for a number of years and I'm always trying to improve my ability so I pose this question to other DM's. When staring a new campaingn what are some methods that can help make sure players are on the same page as me and each other? What I mean by this is: How can my idea for a campaign and my players goals for their characters move foreward? Often when I'm a player (and this may be the fault of my DM) the direction of my character is lost to a far reaching plotline in the ongoing campaign. For instance if I were to build a ranger with the favored enemy gnolls and the main plot is all about thwarting some undead army I might as well have picked a fighter. Or two players one wants to be a preist of Kelemvor and the other wants to be a Pale Master.
prettyripples 06-15-05, 02:08 PM	Unless we're reaching the climax to a story, I try not to have two quests in a row on the main plot. So after doing something nice and heroic, I'll disrupt things with a messenger from home, a stop-off at the monastery, a non-combat mission... whatever. That usually plays off the characters a bit.
Board_Rider 06-15-05, 02:21 PM	Really there is nothing that a DM can do when Players create their characters. It is up to the players to create what they wish and try to coexist. Typically, I have found, DMs curtail this by using houserules or playing a core-only game with no (or limited) PrCs. What you can do is simply ask the players to create characters that would realistically want to adventure together before beginning a campaign. That works for my group. We all figure who is going to play what and move on from there. As far as DMs and plothooks, well, thems the breaks. I mean, sure, the DM should try to put each PC in the spotlight but sometimes it just isn't feasible.
snowlynx 06-15-05, 02:33 PM	When staring a new campaingn what are some methods that can help make sure players are on the same page as me and each other? Start a new campaign with some guidelines about character creation. I allow non-core books, weird races, and variants on classes, but I still ask the players for something in their character that is relevant to my plot hook. Once, this meant each character was cursed; in my current game, I simply asked that each character has reasons to adventure and have pulled off something heroic enough to win them a litle fame and good reputation. Other frequent 'we will all be working together' ideas might be: all be from town X, all be race X, come from same school...etc. Let the players know about your world. Players make much better characters when they know for what setting they are using! Well, not neccesarily better, but it gives them guidelines to work from, and ties them into the world so they care about what's going on. Character creation is a group effort. When people create characters for my game, we all sit down together and talk about our ideas. This gives me (as a DM) a chance to figure out what the players are thinkin, and gives the players a chance to coordinate and ask questions of the DM. Players and DM offer suggestions for the character (one of my players wanted to be a bounty hunter, and I found her the Urban Ranger subclass, which she much preferred over stright ranger.)