Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 brazin_coal Aug 13, 2014 18:43:00	Hello everyone, First off, my gaming group and I just started playing D&D for the first time ever and 5th edition is our first go about.  We are loving it.  Just started Lost Mines of Phandelver and it was great.   I just need a little help with some arguments that have come up in our first game.  They made me DM and they loved the opening we've had but ... five things came up.   First, I'm having troubles finding anything on this, maybe it wont be out until the DM book comes out, but how can someone craft a potion of healing?  They all seem to be desperate to get their hands on them by crafting them.   second... this may seem odd, but i have a player who is RPing a bit of a sociopath and wants to test poisons on his companions.  I don't want to deny him the ability to do this but I also don't want everyone elses characters to just keep dying or they may lose interest.  Thoughts on how to run this?   third, I have a player that wants to duel another player.  Are there rules for this?  should we just go through it as if it were a combat with initiative rolls?   fourth, there seems to be a disagreement on xp being distributed.  Does the group all gain xp for a kill, even if someone wasn't helping but was there?  or do only the players that help kill it get the xp?  and is it split amongst them or do they all get the full amount?   Last thing, they all seem to really have some issues deciding on a quest to pursue.  is there a way to really incentive them to work as a group and follow each other, rather than going their own way and getting killed?  or should i just not offer any incentive and let them get killed?   Thanks everyone.  Hope to keep this group playing for years to come!
#2 iserith Aug 13, 2014 19:14:24	brazin_coal wrote:
#3 philipnicholls Aug 13, 2014 19:23:26	We have a simple rule in our group when a player willingly attacks another players character, the attacking character dies instantly with no possibility of returning, if they ever do it again the player is shown the door and is no longer welcome on our group, we've had this rule for 30 years and have only kicked out one player
#4 Shiroiken Aug 13, 2014 20:35:07	brazin_coal wrote:
#5 bawylie Aug 14, 2014 7:34:57	As you continue playing, you'll come up with conventions called House Rules.    Every group does this. It is part of D&D. When you start, of course you want to do everything because D&D CAN do everything and you have an unlimited special effects budget.    In general, New DMs will try to find "the rule" that covers what the players want to do. You want to get it right. Here's what's right: You Make The Call.    I want to jump over the goblin and stab the bugbear in the eye. You can look over the rules for jumping, or you can ask me to flip a coin. Or ask for a strength check (need to roll some number you determine to succeed). Or you can just say, "That's metal, you do that like a boss!" Or you can say No. The right answer is what you decide.    Heres some of my House Rules.  1.) All dice must roll. On the table. Must actually complete one turnover (no sliding).  2.) All characters must be playable. No mercenaries or badass loners who can't work in a group or require that every other player cough up cash to get him to play the game. You sit down to play, you play. 3.) PVP is over when either participant says it's over.  4.) You're on the special diet, not me. I'm serving x. If you can't eat that, b.y.o. food.  5.) I'm the Dungeon F-ing Master, son. This is a response I sometimes have to give to players who want to challenge a ruling (and have past the point of reasonable discussion and are now dragging my game). I don't need this often.    Anyway, you'll find your own House Rules, you'll steal others. It's all good. Best thing to do: When in doubt, let the dice decide.
#6 Uldred Aug 23, 2014 11:41:24	PvP is something I think you as the DM should decide how to handle.  I ran my first 3.0 campaign while in the army with a group of people that never gamed together before.  One gentleman was an extreme extrovert compared to the rest of my players and he really wanted to be secretly evil.  Without having an open discussion about it I allowed him to be evil and we did the pass notes back and forth thing at the table but mostly we would speak about his intentions outside of the game.   His involvement with the bad guys made the ending of this campaign epic and memorable for all players and myself.  While in an ancient crypt to retrieve an artifact so the bad guys didn't get it, this player turns on the party when the medusa shows up that he has been working for to retrieve the artifact.  No joke, they all died.  The last two standing was a wizard and the evil player.  The evil player felled the wizard and I allowed the wizards' familiar to have one last action.  His familiar was some razor winged falcon from a 3rd party monster book that said on a natural 20 it decapitates its target.  He rolled a 20 lol.  The evil player looked at me in shock but I let it stand and there they were, all dead and the artifact still in the crypt with the only people good and bad that knew about the location were all dead in the location.   If your players realize that its just a game and they are not their characters (a common mistake most new players make) then PvP can be fun.  Auto killing characters and kicking players out of your group seems extreme when really all they're trying to do is have fun just like everyone else.