Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DM-Scott 07-05-07, 07:39 AM	I do not consider myself the authority on DMing, but after reading through what feels like infinite amounts of posts asking questions about what options they should remove from players, asking for advice on how to railroad characters, along with a variety of other posts that just continue to get my goat (so to speak) I feel compelled to address a number of these issues. Your Role as a DM The first thing to know and remember is being a DM means your job is to make sure that your players are having fun. It can be a fun and rewarding experience to be a DM, and you can easily have fun building a variety of NPCs, encounters, challenges, and scenes, as well as oversee plots from episodic adventures to grand and elaborate campaign stories. However DMing requires a level of responsibility and care, and we are going to address various things that DMs often get wrong. DMing Mistakes 1: The game isn't about you. Your have power and authority over what goes on in your game. However, without wisdom power and authority will only be your game's downfall. Abuse your authority, and your game will suffer and you will find your players quickly becoming dis-satisfied with your work as a DM, and can quickly lead to other problems. 2: You are not playing against the players. New or inexperienced DMs will often make this mistake. However, poor DMs will continue to make this mistake even if they've been DMing for a while. An example of this mistake can easily be seen in this video (Crash Guide to DMing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpjSRe-0VPc) :ayyyy!:). Your job is not to kill and totally overwhelm the players. As a DM, that is completely effortless, and is not the mark of a skilled DM. In fact, it's more often than not the mark of a poor one. However, this does not suggest that challenges should not be threatening to characters (more on this later). 3: Do not "railroad" your players. Railroading is a term used to describe denying players things such as free will, or forcing them to always fit perfectly into your plans regardless of anything they do. Other forms of railroading exist - many of which could be qualified by many people as "cheating" (see more below). Some examples of railroading can include - Killing of a PC because your "cunning plot" demands it, or repeatedly forcing the party into situations they no not wish to be in (so you want them to go to X city and they want to go to Y, so in their sleep you have some unknown NPC come and kidnap them and take them to X city, or have a high level NPC place a Gaes spell on them without a dang good reason - other than railroading). 4: Don't cheat. Despite what some people say (many people adhering to near dogmatic ideas that the DM is incapable of "cheating"), DMs are quite capable of cheating. Generally cheating borderlines or is railroading of a sort. Cheating is bad when you are a player, and cheating is probably worse as a DM. Players will respect a good DM who follows the rules and tries to make sure everything works fairly well together. If they know you won't cheat, it's likely that they too will not cheat. It also means they won't feel robbed or victimized if their character bites the dust, because to them it was just how the dice fell. Some DMs "cheat" to make certain encounters harder, and some DMs cheat to protect the players. It is this writer's belief that neither are good ideas. Examples of cheating might include things such as fudging saving throws, attack rolls, checks, and the like. Further Example: During a game involving a young adult red dragon, the party's sorcerer spent round after round trying to "Blind" the dragon casting Blindness/Deafness. After several rounds the dragon failed its saving throw, and fell blind and the party managed to defeat him. One of the party members said that if he was DMing he would have fudged the roll so the dragon wouldn't have been blinded and "taken out so easily". This makes trusting this player behind a DM screen difficult. What he said directly translates to "I would have denied the player his given abilities, and cheated him out of his actions trying to help his party". That is the worst kind of cheating. It is a mixture of weakening a player's character without warning, railroading the players into fighting your way, and just being a jerk. Again, I point you to "Crash Guide to DMing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpjSRe-0VPc)" for an example of this poor practice. 5: Balance issues. As a DM you must take responsibility for certain problems that occur in your games, just as much as you take responsibility for good aspects of your game. More often than not a problem with game balance actually lies with the DM. It would require a larger post to delve deeper into this subject, but we'll touch lightly on it here. Often times you just need to employ better strategies or learn how to address the situation and figure out a way to handle it, with "nerfing" and banning things being final resorts. Long Example: We are going to use the Polymorph spell as an example of a "balance issue" because the polymorph line of spells (alter self, polymorph, and shape-change) are widely considered overly powerful and unbalancing to a game. The following is a true story. In a campaign about a month ago, my players had a party which consisted of an Elven Druid, a Human Fighter, a Human Sorcerer, Orc Fighter, Human Cleric (Unead Specialties), and a Nezumi (Rat-folk from Oriental Adventures) Rogue/Wizard/Cleric. They were around level 8-9th and had access to 4th level spells, including polymorph. The party had encountered a hydra earlier in the game, and the sorcerer loved using polymorph and the share-spells familiar class feature to turn into powerful monsters and crash across the battlefield. The party came up on a small fortress (small camp with a wooden wall and a couple of towers and such) of hobgoblins and a pair of ogres. Now the battle went by quickly, as it wasn't intended to be a boss fight, just an encounter. The sorcerer polymorphed into a 9 headed hydra, and had his familiar do the same. He and his familiar crashed through the wall together, opening the way for the party as the druid dropped flame-strike spells on the hobgoblins, and the human fighter climbed up the sorcerer-hydra to reach the top walkway of the walled fortress. The hydras indeed slaughtered any hobgoblins unfortunate enough to be caught in their paths. However, a pair of simple MM ogres nearly killed the familiar-hydra and scared the sorcerer half to death, while hobgoblins fired arrows at the large hydra, while the fighters and rogues got to them to break them up. The fight was short and the party victorious, but even with the "unbalanced" polymorph spell, the party and the sorcerer were challenged and took some hits, and from creatures of greatly lower CR, simply because the NPCs used strategy and didn't act stupid in their actions. A similar incident occurred when the party's druid at level 12 was romping and stomping around as a very strong Rino, only to nearly be killed because 5 3rd level clerics hit her with "inflict moderate wounds" after a charge / touch attack (a combined damage of 10d8+15 damage). No polymorph or wild-shape errata or house rules were used in the game. Both were just as powerful as presented in the 3.5 PHB. DMing Tips 1: Don't cheat. As stated before in DMing mistakes, cheating is cheating more often than not, and there are a variety of reasons not to do it. Remain honorable and you will earn trust from your players, and earn respect and credit as a good DM. If their PCs die, then this good reputation will also prevent you from catching flak for "unfairly killing" a PC. 2: Offer options / Don't Railroad. Don't take away a player's ability to do something without a very good reason, and you should carefully weigh the issue and see if it will really make your game better. If everyone is having fun, you probably don't need to. Try to avoid railroading, and when designing adventures try to come up with plots that can (at multiple points) be addressed from different angles (such as why the party begins the adventure, direct, diplomatic, and sneaky paths, and different outcomes to situations based on their actions) and not some completely predefined path that cannot be diverted from in the least. 3: Dealing with power. PCs get powerful over a course of a campaign. A well built / optimized character can be particularly strong even early on and often get stronger as the game progresses. This can be intimidating for some DMs who don't know how to deal with PCs with such power. PCs will have many options after about 5th level (sometimes earlier if they are smart), and in combat encounters a party may seem almost unstoppable by anything in their CR range. However, don't fear. Often times you just need to adjust the strategies of your NPCs. Remember anything available to your players is open season for you as well. In fact, you have hundreds more options! Perhaps have your NPCs use reach weapons like Longspears (simple weapon) or Ranseurs (martial weapon), spiked chains (exotic weapon), nets (exotic weapons), skills like tumble. Make use of ranged attacks, flanking, composite strength bows, trips, disarms, readied actions. Use multiple NPCs of lower CR to create effective encounters that can challenge parties of much higher levels. Example: NPC class warriors, experts, and adepts make for excellent CR 1/2 enemies which make good grunts for big bad guys, and dangerous enemies in groups. A group of CR 1/2 warriors using ranseurs and nets and experts using longspears, and all of them wearing studded leather. These are dangerous to handle in groups even at levels 4-7 if played correctly, because their reach weapons give them options, attacks of opportunities, and if your experts have 4 ranks in tumble and skill focus (tumble) can effectively set up some vicious flanking and AoO situations quickly. Combined with nets (ranged touch, -4 penalty without proficiency, entangles targets) which are well used on spellcasters and heavily armored individuals, these simple thugs can be a force to be reckoned with. Adepts can be dangerous at low levels too. They can heal, and cast Sleep (this spell can utterly crush a 1st-5th level party quickly), and have simple weapon proficiency and their spells are divine (yay, longspears and studded leather armor for all)! Even after they have exhausted their good spells, they can join as support melee characters. A group of warriors equipped with longsbows, studded leather, and geared up with a few dozen arrows, combined with precise shot (1st level human warriors can do this) are dangerous because they can ready actions to hit spell casters from a distance to interrupt their spells, as well as fire into melee to support other NPCs. Your options expand and get better as the party gains levels and you can offer increasingly difficult encounters which involve more NPCs, and bring terrain into encounters for fun thrills. 4: Be creative. From social situations to full out combat, various situations can add a great edge to your campaign, as well as make players mix up their actions from time to time. Perhaps the party encounters a combat on a bridge or on a cliff-side. Bull rushing becomes a great strategy. Employing encounters with various obstacles and cover around a battle field can lead to clever uses of jump, tumble, hide, and other skills. Maybe the nobleman who hired the PCs to find his would-be assassin in the woods is in fact paranoid and delusional and sends them on a wild goose chase. Have NPCs do things like slash ropes to drop chandeliers from the ceiling, or to force portcullis shut. Take advantage of uneven terrain, swinging ropes, have your NPCs make climb or use rope checks to hang from ropes with their feet while firing down on the party from above and treat them as laying prone (only vertically), but they can still use bows. Wild encounters like these will be memorable, and will drive your player's wild. :D 5: Be helpful. If your players have an idea for a character concept, instead of telling them it won't work or suggesting another character, first try to see if you can work out problems with the character concept. Be helpful, and be honest. If a player has a concept that just will not work in your campaign, be honest and tell them directly. Try to help them figure out how to do something similar that will work, or find something else they can enjoy. Example: A player of mine recently made a shadow caster for our current campaign. His shadow caster invested ranks in a variety of knowledge skills because he wanted his character to be sage-like. However, it was later pointed out that the class lacks the skills as a class feature. Instead of telling him to reselect his skills, I pointed him to the Educated feat from the Eberron Campaign Setting which would allow all of them as class skills, and even tack a nice +1 bonus on two of his favorites. He was 3rd level at the time, and I offered to let him replace one his feats he had already selected so that he could remedy his mistake. Another player wanted to play a gestalt character in a party that was not gestalt, and in a campaign that was not intended to be gestalt. In addition, this gestalt character was also going to be a drow with a major red dragon bloodline. Yikes... Unfortunately for this character I had to snuff this one. I explained that if he wanted to play a drow character with a red dragon bloodline, I would write up a HD progression to negate the level adjustment so he could play from 1st level, and perhaps work something into the story about being a descendant of a red dragon, perhaps with a bloodline or special feats or a HD progression, and discussed effective multi-classing with the player. I nixed the original character aspect, and offered alternatives if he had his heart set on the character being just this odd. However, he then chose to play a halfling rogue, so I didn't even have to do a lot of extra work. :D 6: Be firm and stable. If something will not be tolerated at your gaming table, be firm about it. I have a few house rules I stick by. Things such as "No throwing dice", "no Player versus Player", and some in-game rules (holes in the rules, filled with love) such as allowing reflex saves to avoid falling objects. Your judgments shouldn't constantly be questioned. However, if you do rule something as a DM, make sure to get each of your players' opinions about it. Furthermore discuss any change with your group before implementing it permanently. If something is repeatedly disrupting the game, such as players constantly acting up or doing disruptive things that bothers the rest of the group (for example, repeatedly "poking" a captured prisoner and asking for descriptions of his reactions while the rest of the party is trying to speak to an NPC about something more important, or actually making an attack roll against a party member because they said something dumb as perceived by a player such as "are bears always so fuzzy?") then address it. Tell everyone what will and will not be tolerated, and type it up on a sheet of paper so that you have your "table rules" handy. Things like insisting the players "take turns" outside of combat, such as asking each of the party members what their character is doing at a given time (starting from your left and rotating clockwise) can really help to prevent characters from being disruptive and butting in and stealing another player's spotlight. 7: Be Neutral. The most important thing about being a DM is you must be the most neutral force in your game. You must act as an omnipresent force in your world, perhaps like the laws of physics, or a deity continually testing your players with the intent that they become stronger in the long run. While you neither are out to kill the party, you are not out to hand them everything either. Do not cheat for the party, do not cheat for your NPCs. This promotes fairness and prevents other problems and issues that may arise. Never show favoritism to anyone or anything. That badguy you had suddenly get flesh-to-stoned? The party decide to leave the party NPC in the last town? So what? More NPCs can be made, and if the PCs don't want a character in their party or traveling with them then don't force it on them. Especially don't show favoritism to players. One of the worst things you can do. It discredits your DM skills, as well as promotes confrontation and in-party envy and bitterness between the actual players. Never do this. Another important aspect of DM neutrality is moral objectivity. You and a player may end up having different views of morality, good, evil, law, chaos, and similar concepts. Do not try to force you views on a player or their characters. Remember how the world views their actions, and not yourself. If a player wants to play a paladin or similar character, discuss your views, and then try to be lenient towards the concept the player wants. Never drop an alignment change or character falling on a player by surprise. A paladin's player should know good and well ahead of time if his actions are going to lead to his falling from grace, for example. Finally, be happy for your players when they succeed. Congratulate them on a job well done. Tell them what they did that impressed you during your session. Chat with 'em about some of the encounters with various NPCs in your game, and see what they thought of the game. In the end, you'll find it all comes together. :cloud9:
Dan Hemmens 07-05-07, 10:16 AM	The posts that get me are the ones that wind up being "help me punish my players for their choices of character." People keep coming along and saying things like "help, nobody in my group wants to play a rogue!" and getting responses like "well put them in a dungeon with lots of traps and locked doors in it". Or else somebody will say "help, all my players created rogues" and everybody will say "well put them up against undead and constructs." Or somebody will say "one of my players took a low Charisma score" and everybody will say "you *must* make him roll Charisma at *least* once a session and even if he rolls a *twenty* everybody will think he *sucks*" I'd go even further than you, actually, and say that as a GM you shouldn't be neutral, you should be actively on the side of the players. You should want them to succeed just as much as they do.
DM-Scott 07-05-07, 11:51 AM	:clap: By george I think Dan Hemmens has it! :D
i_am_some_guy 07-05-07, 12:42 PM	Boy... almost as if i on queue to make the OPs point comes this thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=879925). I always view my time as GM as writing. I create the setting, the story arcs, and the main NPCs, but I have no control over the players at all. It's my job to adjust the world to what they do. I ran one game where players ended up taking "time off" in game. One of the players learned how much he could make book binding and the party settled down to bind books, farm and fish. They literally did this for ours. Every day I'd have them make daily rolls for their skills to see how successful they were. It turned into role-playing as the "book binder" started meeting the dealers of books and artifacts. It shot my "planned" adventure to hell (a fairly common occurrence) and forced me to ad-lib. Some of my best games has been reacting/responding to what the players have done instead of “following my plan”. This has given me a certain way of building a campaign. I start off with key NPCs, a calendar and plans. Each major NPC has a goal. This goal could be to get richer, to gain political power, to find some lost magical artifact, etc. They have plans and actions they follow that mesh with the calendar. Certain things happen on certain days. The players may or may not affect them; they may or may not “see” them.
DM-Scott 07-05-07, 10:45 PM	That sounds like a cool way to handle stuff. If you could write up a guide with suggestions and tips for how to handle stuff like that, it could be a pretty cool resource for people on the boards. :lightbulb
Tarpan_God 07-06-07, 12:19 AM	Hehe, nice Dexter's Lab clip. :)
Mock26 07-06-07, 05:05 AM	For me, as a DM it is a battle between me and the players. Or, more accurately, it is a battle between me as the monsters againts the players as their characters. I believe in running realistic adventures and campaigns and that means playing the monsters to the utmost of their intelligence and capabilities. This means playing the monsters with the intent to kill the characters. After all, isn't that how the monsters would think? They would do their best to kill some nasty, thieving adventurers who have invaded their home. If a group of orcs were lounging in their room playing kuncklebones and they heard their fellow orcs fighting for their lives in the next room, not only would they rush to their aid (and not sit on their duffs waiting for the adventurers to come slaughter them) but they would also send someone for help. This means that sometimes the characters are going to get overwhelmed. The key is to play the monsters as monsters, not play them as the tools of the DM, and this means not metagaming and exploiting character weaknesses that the monsters wouldn't know about. Additionally, if the group didn't have a rogue and they pestered me to go into some ancient tomb, I wouldn't go through and remove all the traps from the tomb because my players are smart enough to notice the lack of traps and it would spoil the mood for them and ruin the game. While it is nice to come up with a list of tips for a DM, generally speaking they are completely and totally useless if you don't know your players. Some people here would not only disapprove of my style of DMing but have actually come right out and accused me of being a bad DM. But, those people are idiots because they have never played in my group, they don't know me nor my players, and they don't know that my players love and expect this style of gaming from me. They thrive on trying to "out-game" me as I stive to "out-game" them. To presume to tell someone he is bad at something when you have never participated in that activity with that person is just pure arrogance. It is also rude, condescending, and shows a complete and total lack of maturity. Now, I am not accusing anyone here, especially the original poster, of such an attitude. I am merely pointing out that any set of tips and hints in regards to being a good DM, no matter how good (and there are a LOT of good tips in the original post) are not worth two dented copper pieces if the DM doesn't know his players well. (Yes there are exceptions such as DMing at a convention or a tournament, but there are exceptions to everything except death, and even in D&D there is an exception to that!)
Dan Hemmens 07-06-07, 05:56 AM	The key is to play the monsters as monsters, not play them as the tools of the DM, and this means not metagaming and exploiting character weaknesses that the monsters wouldn't know about. The monsters *are* tools of the DM. They only exist because you chose to put them there. If you want to make your monsters "realistic", have them avoid attacking the PCs. Neither desperate brigands nor ravenous beasts willingly attack heavily armed groups of people unless they are in possession of an *overwhelming* advantage.
Dunsel 07-06-07, 05:22 PM	There are as many different types of campaigns as there are DMs. While I agree with the concepts posted by the OP, every DM has his own style and level of competence. My DMing has evolved since I started in summer of 1981 at 18 years old. I started playing in the winter of 1982. My starting age affected the maturity of my game. I can't even imagine how I would have DMed if I started at 14. I would hope I am a better DM now than I was back then. New DMs are going to take their lumps. Some people are not meant to DM. It is pretty much that simple. My first Dm was a jerk and a fool. I stayed with my first DM b/c I didn't know better. The OP's post does have some helpful hints but, IMO if a DM is a bad DM, he probably doesn't even know it and he will ignore the post. You can't tell a DM how to DM. If he is lazy, mean, stupid, morally bankrupt, petty, unfair, cruel, wimpy, weird, shallow, or frenetic his personality will be reflected in his game.
Mock26 07-08-07, 02:25 PM	The monsters *are* tools of the DM. They only exist because you chose to put them there. If you want to make your monsters "realistic", have them avoid attacking the PCs. Neither desperate brigands nor ravenous beasts willingly attack heavily armed groups of people unless they are in possession of an *overwhelming* advantage. Which is why I almost never use bandits or brigands in my game. There is a big difference between armed, intelligent beings going out to waylay travellers and adventurers invading their homes. As for ravenous beasts, most beasts are not intelligent and wouldn't know the difference between a platemail wearing fighter and an unarmed maiden. As for "overwhelming" advantage, I don't believe that. 8 orcs, if they were to look upon 5 adventurers, would, in my world and in my opinion, more than likely think that they are of sufficient numbers to take them and would attack them.
Androlphas 07-08-07, 04:33 PM	I'm afraid I cannot agree with the "no DM cheating" tip. While, it can be overused (or misused), the occasional DM "cheat" is just another tool for running an enjoyable game for all involved. In many ways, I believe the role of DM can be like a stage magician. I certainly do not condone "railroading", but sometimes maintaining a fun simulation of heroic fantasy stories requires a little bit of work "behind the screen" that the players should never be aware of, because it would ultimately ruin things, just like if the audience of a magic show knew how the "trick" was done. Other than that, I think they're all good tips :)
Pegasos989 07-08-07, 04:49 PM	I used to be against DM cheating completely. This is because DM should be able to design encounters that are good and fun without giving anyone advantage or secretly denying their abilities by rolling in hidden and claiming that the thing succeeded in their saving throw. If he is unable to do that, he should ban the problematic spells. If he is unable to take anything (crits, save or suck spells, etc.) into account, he should stop being a dm or get a co-dm to help designing the combat encounters. However, I have changed my view slightly, fom "DM should never cheat" to "DM should never cheat by removing player abilities." What this means? I still think it is bad to say that monster succeeded in saving throw where it didn't and continue encounter completely negating player's abilities. However, when the fighter crits the monster that should have been harder, I occasionally assume it had more HP than marked on the paper. Thus, it is harder and worth more exp. So party did get benefit from the player's good luck and abilities, it is simply in another form to add enjoyment to everyone's game. So that is kinda the grey territory to me. EDIT: Oh, and I no longer use stats always. Currently running a campaign with vampires, that do not use the vampire stats from the MM. They have ghouls that don't use the standard stats for ghouls either. There are a lot of more non-human opponents and actually, most don't have set stats. Taken last fight... They saw a ghoul and were able to sneak up on him (I had not expected they would try that). The rogue landed two good sneak attacks (it is not immune in my game, not quite undead) and I thought "this is one of the three fights of the session. Can't go down this easily yet." so I assumed that instead of 10 hp, it has 20 hp and I rised it's exp award in my mind from 150 to 300. Well, then the hexblade came and crit it with a falchion and I decided "Still, easy but they had good rolls and good tactic so it should be easy. It goes down.". And I think that very short fight was enjoyable to both players. Had it had only the 10, hexblade would have done nothing. Now, he got to roll a few good rolls and got some more exp for that. IMHO, everyone had more fun than if I had just decided it's exact hp beforehand and sticked with that.
danielinthewolvesden 07-08-07, 07:48 PM	Good list, but too long. I would add: Do NOT allow Disruptive PC's. The "Unspoken Rule" is that the Players allow pretty much any new player into their game that the DM has accepted, and thus PC's do not vet or check up on new PC's. If you allow a spotlite hog, a thief, a bully, a soloist, or a PKer into the group; then as far as the players are concerned- YOU approved that choice. Thus anything he does is your fault. Thus, either do not allow disruptive PC's OR inform the players that it is OK to not allow a new PC to join, you are giving them free choice.
Volafor 07-08-07, 09:18 PM	First, I agree that the OP, while condescending, does offer some salient points. A brand new DM who read this through and took note of the general feel of it would find him/herself well advised for those uncertain early campaigns. I believe that a new DM should at all times be an honest DM, at least until they get the hang of things, and begin to develop their own style; it's better in the long run, even if that DM later chooses not to adhere to strict honesty. Second, I acknowledge the general frustration with the DM foibles which lie at the root of this post. It's true that there are a lot of DMs who do ask about how to railroad, or what to ban. It's also true that a DM who railroads, shows favoritism, or tries to TPK on a regular basis will find him/herself DMing to a group of irritated, vindictive players--or no players at all. I've seen flawed DMs in action, and have almost certainly been one at least a few times, so I dare to fancy that I understand this. However, I'm compelled to call out the following arrogance and rebut it: 1: The game isn't about you. If the game is about the players, then it is also about the DM, because both have functions to perform. Am I, the DM, to believe that, despite the work I put into it, the game is not about me at all, even in part? I spend hours every week preparing for my weekly campaign--building or altering upcoming plot details to suit the flow of the game, checking my sources, making sure rules that need referencing are bookmarked, jotting stat notations for monsters or NPCs, working on hooks for the players. Don't get me wrong: I love this work, and I'm not complaining about having to do it. Being a DM is a tremendous pain in the butt, but it's also great fun, and if I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't agree to keep DMing games. But I, the DM, do put in the lion's share of the work. If maintaining a creative, entertaining, flexible plot--all the while simultaneously keeping the players balanced against the enemies and one another--does not make the game about me as much as the players, then I suppose my entire perception of the game is flawed.
Loftower 07-08-07, 10:20 PM	I may be putting words in someone’s mouth, but for all that Volafor said, the game still isn’t _about_ you. It is at least as much _for your entertainment_ as it is for any of the players, but that doesn’t make it about you. At my table at least, it’s about the story. My last five-year campaign just ended ignominiously (we didn’t play out the all-but-inevitable TPK). The players did not want me to cheat to get them out of it (I offered). I was as upset about it as anyone. The next session afterwards was take up telling the stories and answering questions from the players on “what if…” and “what was the background for…” It’s the story.
Thanuir 07-09-07, 07:20 AM	I totally agree with the OP. Especially wrt cheating and railroading. Cheating means you screwed up; admit it or deal with it. Players rarely despise honesty. Or change the rules to make cheating unnecessary. Railroading is just plain bad GMing. There is no excuse for it, it doesn't produce good stories with significantly higher rate than nonrailroaded games, etc.
DM-Scott 08-07-07, 01:40 AM	Wow. It's been a while since I posted this way back, and I popped in through my signature to see if anyone ever replied. I'm surprised it's gotten this much attention. I just want to thank everyone for the feedback, most of all those who gave positive feedback. The OP wasn't intended to be the final word for anything, but a resource to DMs and players alike. For those of you who liked this, I'm glad you enjoyed it. For those of you who didn't like this, thank you for adding your own experiences, advice, and opinions, as it just makes this small guide more comprehensive and adds more information people may find useful and that's what it's all about anyway. I would like to say that the original post was not intended to be condescending, nor was it intended to be a set of DMing Laws. It was intended to be exactly what the thread's title said - Advice for DMs. A list of stuff I've picked up DMing for years, and stuff that seems to cause the least amount of problems. Example: Yeah, you may have an issue with a PC. If you just kill the PC or do something dirty and underhanded, it's not usually going to fix the problem, and more often than not it will make tensions worse. Advice is not a law - it is advice. You can take it or you can leave it. Some advice is bad advice and some advice is good advice. This post was an honest example of stuff I've found seems to work well over the years. If someone reads over it and thinks about the issues presented in the advice this the original post was a success - because they will have a chance to think about it. And for the record - As a DM and as a player, I, nor anyone else that I know and have played with, enjoy railroading, removal or ignoring abilities without reason, showing favoritism, or cheating. My players have a sense of urgency because they truly know that if a enemy rolls a critical it's going to fly, in the same way that if they roll a critical that it is going to fly, or that I won't fudge a saving throw because "this battle shouldn't go so smoothly". Perhaps all of the above works for some, but I never met anyone who feels the same way IRL, or anywhere like OpenRPG, nor would I want to play in a game I know a DM is going to twist and tweak to his or her whims just because it isn't going exactly like they wanted it to. While I don't mind one or two issues presented in the OP (I just played in a game with a newbie DM who did a good job, but had a habit of railroading and trying to sidestep everything the party was capable of doing - and I had a good time, and didn't stress over it), I believe most will agree that the original issues really do make crappy DMs if you find them going against much of the advice - simply because they will instigate distrust and hard feelings in the group. Peace out, Game on.
DMDrugar 08-07-07, 08:07 AM	I was on my very first D&D game as DM, first cave, first kobolds, the paladin's up front, walks into a trap (because hey, kobolds) for 4 damage and a minute later gets 2 consecutive critical hits from short swords, both at max damage for a good 20 damage in 10 seconds, which'd cause certain death on the poor level 1 PC in his first combat, while the player spent an evening writing a bio, background, family, etc. I figured I'd make it two normal hits and just get him to negative hitpoints. Personally, I don't mind this kind of cheating. Doing it every time, of course, that's no good. But considering the circumstance and the waste of trouble it'd be for the player to see his awesome character murdered by the first monsters he actually runs into, it seems an act of mercy. Plus, the message of humility (two small kobolds are still a threat) came across since he did hit the ground. The players insist on having their HP topped off at all times since then :P Anyway, I thought I'd use this as an example when, I believe, cheating isn't a bad thing. Everything in moderation though. PS: Nice post Scott.