Post/Author/DateTime	Post
wonderboy06 01-24-05, 09:17 PM	Ok our group is normaly DMed by one guy. But everyonce and awhile he gets tried of it and because I'm the only other person who knows how to do it (and I'm the only one who has read the DM's Guide, Monster Manule, and all the other core rule books) I get forced into doing it. But I dont think I'm very good at it. It's really hard to be descriptive and do all the technical stuff at the same time. Also I tend to be Monty Hall, I give to much loot to the PC's. I was just wondering if someone could help me out with this.
aaron3579 01-24-05, 09:29 PM	Being a good DM involves a willingness to make a complete fool of yourself. Seriously, leave your modesty at home. The hardest thing to do as a DM, and consequently, the one thing that can help more than anything else, is being a pseudo-thespian: not being able to quote any rule, not knowing the MM by heart, but being in possession of a truly creative personality, and willing to go that extra mile to make your players believe that when they are speaking to a 400 pound bar-wench, they are truly in danger of being swallowed whole. ;)
satyrgrrrrl 01-24-05, 09:39 PM	The best aid in becoming a better GM, I've found, is modules. They do most of the planning for you, all you have to do is execute, which is where most GM's end up with problems. There are lots of free adventures on this site. If you have a little extra cash, the are some in Dungeon magazine, and other published adventures usually sold in the RPG section. I'd stay away from most non-WotC stuff, though, as I've seen very bad adventures from 3rd-party sources. This is just the thing that most GM's need to get their footing in description, timing, CR, and just running a game. I am proud to say that my first D&D game was the Ashardalon modules for 3.0, and I had a blast... and learned a lot! Hope it helps! :angel:
pyroduck444 01-24-05, 09:42 PM	I believe that you should not be forced to DM. It should be your choice. It should be fun for you and everyone else. If you are not having fun I very much doubt that everyone else is. I think you should let one of the other players in your group read the DMG so they can DM. I hope this helped. pduck
EGD Eric 01-24-05, 09:55 PM	hmm... maybe you should try an adventure module. There are plenty of free ones right here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b&page=1 Another thing: Don't be afraid to steal ideas, especially those from a game/move/book no one else has seen or played. Keep it simple. Maybe for the first session, you could just throw a bunch of rumours at them, stuff that's happening in your campaign world, they might choose to go follow rumour A or B or C. Whichever one they go to, they probably won't get to it during the session. On their way there, you could hit them with random encounters (or not random ones). To gage their strength, you could make the first few easy ones. The random encounters use up most of the sessions time, and since you're new, they'll understand if the battles go a bit slowly at first. If they ever do somehow reach their destination with time left over in the session, you could stall some more, or just tell them: "hey, let's stop now, because I've got nothing prepared, but I will before next game". Then, you prepare that adventure they were going on. Ok, about the Monty Haul thing, here's one idea I have: I've never actually used this before, but there's ways of getting rid of items you regret giving away last session. Here are some methods: Items aren't always what they seem. The amazing weapon you gave him could be a cursed and/or intelligent evil one. He's been using it for a while, unknowing that its intelligent, and working its way into his mind. Once he realises that the weapon is pushing him around, making him do stuff he doesn't want to do, he'll do something about it. He could be forced to get rid of it if its enough of a pain. This is, in itself, a mini-adventure. Heck, the item doesn't need to be intelligent. The item could be just plain cursed. The thing about cursed items is that they often fool the user into thinking that its beneficial. Just when he least expects it, his sword warps around and hits him. He'll get rid of that weapon quickly enough. Item degradation: Why were those items stashed away in a chest anyway? Maybe because they degrade in sunlight. They could be from the underdark. (Alot of the stuff from the Underdark (a good example would be Drow stuff) is really awesome but degrades over time in sunlight. Heck, the whole: "Why were the items stashed away instead of used?" explanation works for all items. If they were being used, you could use the excuse: "Yeah, but the guy using them was a different alignment than you..." (You may not even have to explain it though). Too much gold last session? They come back finding out that the big bag of gold was affected by the fool's gold spell, and they're actually copper pieces. This isn't foolproof, doesn't cover every situation, and players will get erked if you do this too much, so of course the best remedy is to be carefull about giving away too much. Quote by Aaron: Being a good DM involves a willingness to make a complete fool of yourself. Seriously, leave your modesty at home. The hardest thing to do as a DM, and consequently, the one thing that can help more than anything else, is being a pseudo-thespian: not being able to quote any rule, not knowing the MM by heart, but being in possession of a truly creative personality, and willing to go that extra mile to make your players believe that when they are speaking to a 400 pound bar-wench, they are truly in danger of being swallowed whole. That is SO true! I remember playing D&D with my cousin a long time ago. He sucked with rules, he often got them mixed up, but he was great just because he was willing to make a fool of himself. I just can't pull off what he did, even though I'm "better" with rules. Granted, we were younger at the time (he was about: 14-15 and me: 11), so that might have made it easier. SatyrGrrl: What do you mean by timing?
VirgilCaine 01-24-05, 10:12 PM	Ok our group is normaly DMed by one guy. But everyonce and awhile he gets tried of it and because I'm the only other person who knows how to do it (and I'm the only one who has read the DM's Guide, Monster Manule, and all the other core rule books) I get forced into doing it. But I dont think I'm very good at it. It's really hard to be descriptive and do all the technical stuff at the same time. Also I tend to be Monty Hall, I give to much loot to the PC's. I was just wondering if someone could help me out with this. What technical stuff do you need to do?
Guy Humual 01-24-05, 11:04 PM	Here's something I posted a couple of years ago on another gaming site. It was a different system so I had to a little rewording. The ideas still apply though: I've been playing RPGs for around 14 years (god that makes me sound old) and in that time I've found myself DMing most of the time. So being as general as possible here are some tips that I've found makes for good campaigns or adventures: 1)Don't give all the answers. You might think that this is your job as DM but it's not, you need to give the critical stuff (the room you enter seems to be filled with barrels with danger written on them . . . you think you can smell sulfur . . . your torch flickers brightly) but you should avoid giving exact or definite answers when ever possible. Why? Because there are few certainties in real life and keeping these certainties out of the game adds to the tension, and it forces the PC to take action. In my example you'll note that I used the word "seems" is used, is the room really filled with barrels of black powder? Is the torch going to set them off? Maybe the barrels are filled with poison . . . maybe that smell of sulfur is only a recently summoned devil . . . 2)Whenever possible let the PCs make the adventure. I'm pretty lucky in the fact that I have a lot of experienced gamers. They are always planing and looking for stuff for their characters to do. Encourage this. As a DM keeping your PCs happy will save you a lot of stress, and the best way to keep them happy is to let them do stuff that interests them. This is not to say be a push over, it's always your game, don't let them do anything that seems unreasonable (like swim a ragging river in full plate mail to chase the BBEG who’s taunting them from a river boat) but let them try, when they finally fail that last Swim check and they drown, they'll probably come to the idea all by themselves that it wasn't such a good idea. Having said all that, you as DM will have a lot of work to do in keeping people happy, and sometimes the players won't want to do anything (or won't know enough about the game to explore on their own) so you'll have to place encounters and adventures right into their laps. It's funny how many monsters a PC runs into, whereas the average NPC might never see one his hole life. :) 3)Be fair when using NPCs. If every bar tender they meet is a polymorphed Dragon just itchn' for a fight, or if every major villain they come across is a push over, your players are going to get discouraged. The players should be allowed to feel a cut above the average Joe and yet still feel wonderment and fear at the sight of a dragon. That might be a little tough to handle at first, but as you get more experienced as a DM and your players get less "knowing" about the world they live in it will become easer. 4)Learn to tell a good story. (This should have been higher on the list but as you'll see with my last point: "Plan ahead" even old timers like can make mistakes). What I have always found exciting about RP is the story . . . being given the chance to save the world, meeting and having Tea with Odin, and getting to ride a "real live" unicorn, these acts are the stuff of legends and being a good DM is all about making these things real and special to the players. Becoming a good DM has a lot to do with being able to tell a good story. Work on you vocabulary. Read lots of books. RP is all about imagination. Understand what it is that excites you about Fantasy or Science fiction and give it to the players. Or having failed that Give'em lots of combat. Lots and Lots of combat :D 5)Plan ahead. I cannot stress this enough! If you know that everybody's coming over to your house at 6 for some all night RPGing and you have nothing planed then that's your own darn fault! In this day in age, even with DM's block, there’s no good reason not to have something planed! There are tons of great fan pages out there with lots of adventure ideas. Heck, even this site has lots of pre-made adventures, if your DM has used them already, change them slightly, add new monsters, change the plot, add something new to the map. If you have a pre-made adventure - READ IT!! Know what's going to happen before the players do (and keep ‘em guessing).
Maniacal_Cackle 01-24-05, 11:38 PM	I guess there are two main reasons for my increasing success as a DM. 1. Practice. Nobody starts out an expert. Practice, practice, practice if you want to become good, you will probably feel like you stink for a while, and maybe you will, but if the PC's aren't quitting, you're probably not doing too poorly. 2. Motivation. Ask yourself if you really want to DM. If you are doing it just because others tell you to do it, you will not enjoy it. And why play a game that you will not enjoy? Better not to play at all, IMO. 3 (apparently ideas continue to flow). Identify what takes out the fun of the game for you and what your weaknesses are. My weakness is preparing, and I don't enjoy it very much. So I generally play most of my sessions by ear, with a vague idea of what is going to happen, and this is my best campaign yet (for both me and my PC's, I think.)
FenixNightShade 01-25-05, 12:08 AM	Once you know your players pretty well, you can tailor the sessions more to fit them and their tastes... got a bunch of trigger-happy violence lovin' hooligans? Toss them into a deserted castle, only to have the goblin/orc/etc army that was out pillaging return home to find it under new management. One of my most succesful sessions (and feel free to steal, none of this is copyrighted ;) ) had to do with all the combat friendly PCs (i.e. fighters, barbarians, monks, rangers) getting kidnapped by some slave traders and sold to a society that love gladitorial combat... leaving the weaker PCs to figure out where the others where (by use of a piece of torn cloth and an old tailor who had visited that part of the world) and then do a little detective work (seeing the other PCs battle in the arena) and work up a way to get them out... I also helped them by letting 1 Hat of Disguise fall into their hands, They followed a guard home, hit him, took on his identity, pulled a Star Wars (the roughest looking player gets "captured" and their bringing him into the holding area) taking out a few guards, the druid sent an animal messenger (a rat) to let the other PCs know we were bustin them out, and then we broke open the cells and some heads, grabbed a camel or 2 (they were taken to an Arabic type location) and headed home... Descriptions aren't always the key, but do try and think of what PCs might try and do, once I had an orc guard drop a bag of gems after dying and the rogue grabbed it, later they came to a door with 2 statues on either side, with gems for eyes, and 1 eye missing, my rogue (an awesome player) decided he didn't have enough gems, so wanted to pry them free... of course this was in an ancient ruin with a sealed demon, I was sure, as a DM, that they wouldn't come loose, so he lost the hooked part of his gnome hook hammer. :devil: All in all, just play more, they will become accustomed to your style, you'll find out what they prefer (or at least ask them what they'd like more of) and hopefully everything will work out...