Post/Author/DateTime	Post
razilen 04-03-08, 04:39 AM	im just going to put all the problems in dot points! [LIST] A he keeps on saying that he sucks being DM B he is so nervous about dming he says his main problem with his campagins is himself C he makes railroading so badly that you laugh D he makes monster like deamons CR6 when your level 10s E he gives out WAY to much xp and coins [isnt too bad but we swap dming and when i'm DM i have to cope with a bunch of magic items iv never herd of F he is a player rule lawyer G he has egmitted his main fun as DM is watching his suicidely weak monsters dye H he ahas swan 2 times never to make another camagin..... [/LIST any help???????????????????????????????????? ?????????? [eg or railroding: DM:you come up to some serious blood stains on a road in a dwarven town the dwarves are laughing and snickering about it it leads into a hovel] player1: um.. what?? player 2: a small house think of hobbits player 1: ohhh.. DM as you serch around the blood stains you find a note player2: we serch the blood stains??? Player1: what dose the note say.....sigh here comes the rail ro- DM: it says [something along the line as a elf thought a purple worm was bad but it turned out to cleanse the religious of the town] the rest is to smudged to read DM: so you follow the blood stains into a house where there are 4 dwarfs standing around a elf body coverd wit blood and holding axes Player 1:wait... when did we get here Player 3: we just did player 1 ok... player 2 i draw my sword and attack...[dice roll] crit crit confirmed! HA FULL DAMAGE!!!!! DM: the dwarf blocks your pathetic attack all players::confused: the dm then tells us that the elf called a dwarf cleric evil after it was killed by the giant worm Player 2 [elf]I ATTACK AGAIN!!! players 1 and 3....:nonono: player2 dose 28 beat his ac? dm.... no.... dm you fail the dwarf then tells you where to find a dwarf ranger to lead us to the purple worm players wait what? player 3 hey i gto the track feat i can find it for us! player 2 yea i got a spell to show me which way it is well go there and you can track it! player 1 lets go now! DM: NO YOU NEED THE TRACKER ITS PLOT REALTED!!! dm : sorry for yelling... its just is..... players:ok..... [yea thats the short version it actully took around 3 hours to do that.....
TootieFruity 04-03-08, 12:16 PM	Well, he just doesn't seem comfortable with the role of being the DM. There isn't any real way to make him better if he himself is resistant to the role. What drove me to be a DM (GM or ST or whatever you wish to call it) is I finally felt I needed to have my say in how things went on in a game. It sounds like in your group the thing is to pass the DM Mantle back and forth. This is great for groups that are made up of people who enjoy DMing, but for those that aren't, the role of the DM is usually more stressful than what they want to get into. You can probably chalk most of this up to inexperience. He needs to figure out a way to challenge and inspire the characters to become involved in the adventure that he has laid out. He might do better with 1 shot adventures where the group finds themselves in a prison cell and has to fight to get themselves out. This would negate any need to have the party jump through certain hoops (as in your example, searching the bodies, reading the note, following the blood, etc.). Granted, this type of thing might not be what the players want to participate in but sometimes you have to try something new before you get a decent feel for what you like. To continue this thought, I'd recommend you find/search for other players or DMs to try out. DMing is not an art that can be passed on from one person to another. Everybody runs their games slightly different. I tried several times to emulate one of my DM's techniques and found it frustrating and uncomfortable, but when I played in another persons game, I found that their style was not only different, but more akin to how I structured things. Anyway, just some thoughts. Good luck with it.
Mereille 04-03-08, 12:47 PM	It doesn't sound like shyness is the real problem. From your description, this is a person who isn't really sure *how* to GM. He might have some nice ideas, but he doesn't know how to organize them into an adventure. He isn't sure how to challenge the party. And most of all, he is trying really hard to do a good job, and is nervous because he doesn't want to ruin it for everyone else. It sounds like, for him, GMing is a very high stress thing, with little fun. First... Does he really want to GM? Really? You say he admits that he isn't very good. Is he willing to try to learn the GM skills he needs? GMing can be hard. I remember my first attempts were..um..shall we say less than stellar? I asked someone who I respected to help me improve. We spent a few weekends sitting around, and taking one of my adventure ideas, and turning it into an actual adventure. Then he helped me with how to handle common situations that come up. I am not an excellent GM now by any means, but thanks to him, I have the confidence to run a game. I think that make a world of difference.
Zherog 04-03-08, 12:50 PM	A quick code lesson... [LIST] A he keeps on saying that he sucks being DM B he is so nervous about dming he says his main problem with his campagins is himself C he makes railroading so badly that you laugh D he makes monster like deamons CR6 when your level 10s E he gives out WAY to much xp and coins [isnt too bad but we swap dming and when i'm DM i have to cope with a bunch of magic items iv never herd of F he is a player rule lawyer G he has egmitted his main fun as DM is watching his suicidely weak monsters dye H he ahas swan 2 times never to make another camagin..... [/LIST First, you didn't close your list tag properly. But that's probably just a typo. Second, you can make the list code do the A, B, C, etc for you. Instead of using the tag like you have it here, do LIST=A. That way, instead of dots you'll get capital letters. You can also use numbers (LIST=1), lowercase letters (LIST=a), uppercase Roman numerals (LIST=I), and lowercase Roman numerals (LIST=i).
Zherog 04-03-08, 12:59 PM	Now on to your problems... Let me ask a question. Does he want to DM? Or does he do it because he thinks everybody else expects him to? If he doesn't want to do it, then he shouldn't. Simple as that. However, if he does want to be DM, then it's a matter of everybody working together. Here's some specific things you can do to help. Two things you mention (railroading and too much treasure) are actually very common "problems" from first-time DMs. He's likely to outgrow those, to be honest. Offer Praise Don't be ridiculous about it. But when he does something well, make sure to let him know. It could be as simple as a fun NPC to interact with or as complex as a plot you never saw coming. Be Patient Being a DM isn't easy; being a good DM is even harder. Give him time to grow and learn. Be Flexible In the short term, you might have to live with a little bit of railroading. Basically, you might need to be willing to have some short term "pain" in order to gain long term "excitement." Communicate Here's the key to it all. Talk to him. A lot. If his plot railroads your character, go with it - but afterwards talk about how he maybe could've done one or two things different. If he gives too much treasure out, talk to him about how the system assumes only a certain amount of wealth and point him (kindly) to the section in the DMG. And so on. Tell him what you like; tell him (again, kindly) what you didn't like. Work with him and help him to grow as a DM. Finally, I think it could be beneficial if you were to point him to the forums - particularly the "What's a DM to Do?" forum. The folks over there, I'm certain, would love to help a new guy get going.
razilen 04-03-08, 08:48 PM	he wants to dm he keeps making his own campaigns without even telling us:) and thanks for you advice the first 3 time i dm ed they all started in a acvern all involved a forrest and all involved druids..... they got prettty sick of it after a while talked to me and gave me some hints on being a better dm
1red13 04-03-08, 09:57 PM	If the person is insistant on dming. Try and convince him to rotate dming duties so that you play one campaign then the other dms campaign the next time. Some encouragement when things go well along with some gentle critisizme to iron out the more glaring problems. I'm guessing that the group and in particular the dm are younger as what you describe isn't entirely uncommon in younger gamers. Other than that there isn't too much to be done other than be patient.