I've recently become increasingly engrossed in the idea of becoming a DM. Since I'm the sort of player that relishes a good story (indeed I was, in my younger years, interested in writing fantastical stories fashioned after LOTR), I feel like the role of the DM would best fit my needs/skills.
Are there are resources, helpful hints, and guides any of you could provide to help me on my way?
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks!
You could start by read everything posted here and in the "What's a DM to Do?" section. Your asking for everything that is known... that would give you a really good start.
If you have any specific Questions, please ask. 
PS: What system/Edition are you playing. It can make a difference in some answers.
I heard that 4.0 is similar to World of Warcraft, but I'm not sure myself.
I would immediately like to know about 3.5 information, but I'm not opposed to learning about 4.0 as well since I don't want to narrow my horizons.
And thanks for the hint, Strand0 ^_^
Both settings by default are very high fantasy. By halfway through the game (level 10/15 3.5/4e) everyone should have magic weapons and maybe a few other magic things, and more importantly most people can fly/teleport and shoot lasers.
I'd recommend 4e if you are trying to teach a totally new group and learn the game. If you have a potential player (your friend) who already knows 3.X, if is probably better to learn that one and use it. 4e tends to be easier to DM, and its systems for DMing work a whole lot better. (3.X challenge ratings hardly work at all, and 4e's encounter xp budget works fairly well).
Advice for actual world building? Heh....
Ask your players what they want to see in a world before you do anything. Don't bother building "Upper Earth" if they want "Ravnica 2".
I tend to start with a Map. A real world one of an island, that I photoshop names and locations out of. Then I flip it around, invert it, ect. Now I redraw country lines based on rivers, mountains and forests. From here you have a mountain country? Awesome, mountain dwarves give em a couple cities. Forest nation? Wood elves.
From there I go with the "How do elves and dwarves interact? Oh they dislike one another, bam, their borders are armed.
Basically the map is the first thing I do, and inspiration goes from there. If you have any questions PM me and I'll be glad to answer. Or post them in your thread and I'll try to stop by again.
Most important rule- HAVE FUN with it. If you don't enjoy it, why will your players?
draw a map but dont afix a scale to it. something simple just so you can say to the pcs for example you travel for for days fro the city of dirkthar (point it out on map) to this unexplored mountain range (point it out on map). this way you have a reference to work with.
next get a plan in your head, not a story, a plan. decide on a badguy and decide on how hey plan to do thier evil doings. figure out the most logical place for it to start and then have the pcs be involved in some heroic way.
now the pcs understand they live in a fantasy world, they understand thier characters, and they understand a goal. thats all you need for a world for the first few sessions.
then over the course of the sessions begin to flesh out your world as you need to to create plot hooks and more gaming oportunities. the pcs defeated the badguy awesome but now a planar alignment opens a rift to the relm of shadow in the middle of a (new and recently created) city. or the pcs failed to defeat the bad guy, uh oh he hides out in a remote island (draw a new place on your map) fortress where he has found a mysterious artifact of power.
the idea is that your pcs never need to know (or rarely care) about the entirety of the awesome world you created and fleshed out, so by doing so you are only serving to limit your story telling possibilities. instead let them disscover it as you create it.as the story develops so will your world.
my favorite thing about this strategy is figuring out ways to tweek magic monsters the pcs think they know about, this serves to keep them on thier toes and remind them not to metagame but to play thier characters. the unicorn seems all good and mysterius untill it violently charges into a players gut. should have asked to make a knowledge nature check to figure out that on your world unicorns are agressive territorial pack animals that have not mystical connection to goodness.
i would also agree and suggest you ask your players what they want. high level low level, baren wateland survival or bubbly fantasy, us vs the world or a common group sucked into a devious plot.
also i hope you try to run D&D 3.5 / pathfinder just because in my opinion its the best.
A bottom-up approach can work two ways - you can start an adventure with very little information on the world, and just ad-lib stuff as you go. If you like, you can encourage players to make up part of the world in their backstories and such, which I've found even the most munchkin-y of players to enjoy. Alternatively, start with a totally random concept or event, preferably one that isn't too broad, and flesh it out. You'll almost certainly find that, as you flesh that one idea out, more spring to mind.
As an example of that last one, say that you've decided that you want golems to be created using fragments of other planes. A completely random and somewhat unimportant fact, right? But then consider: who first discovered golems? Why did they need them? Are they in use today? What happened to their creators? Suddenly, you've got a bunch of new ideas to flesh out.
The other option is top-down world building, which results in a more consistent and professional world, but is frankly a lot harder and generally less fun. Start with a map, an overarching theme, or main plot, and build the individual elements thereof, building downward until you flesh the world out. This does generally mean, however, that you won't reach quite as high a level of detail as in a bottom-up approach.
First thing as a DM is learn the rules. Sure there are tons of little rules but learning the basics will help make your game run smoother. I found that regularly brushing up on the rules makes things run smoother (I'm a relatively new DM).
As for world building I went crazy and started drawing maps, designing nations, writing histories, etc.
It's fun but the players may never get to experience all of that information unless they play multiple campaigns in your homebrew world. If you really want to make your own world come up with a style you want to focus the world around. Is it heavily war-based? Sea-faring and piracy? Political intrigue? Standard high-fantasy? Once you pick that create the general story arc for your campaign and just enough details in the world to get started.
One thing I decided to do was let my characters create or name a few things when coming up with their characters. I tasked my party with finding an herb for a dwarven brewer and told them to give me a name for it. I now have a plant in my campaign setting named Merethea as named by the genasi swordmage. When they get a bit of of say in my world, and can influence what they also get to play with in game, it makes them want to play more.
Other than that I'd say steal heavily from games, movies, and books. I'm using stuff inspired from Lord of the Rings, Zelda, Cthulhu mythos, and Warhammer in my world at the moment. Just remember to take a deep breath when things seems to get crazy. It will all work out in the end.
I'd recommend taking some time and just read through the 4th Ed DMG. It has a lot of advice on running a game.
If you are not looking for THAT grand of a scale, then instead, draw some blobs on a piece of paper and call it a map. Then, drop a coin on the map and choose that as your starting point. Fill in a little of the surrounding area, a few towns, some adventure sites, and a few landscape features. That's all you need to get started. If you have the end goal of your game already in mind, put that on the map somewhere too, so you have an idea of where you want to go, and what's in between.
After that, your greatest asset in creating this world will be your players. After giving them a little something to get started, if they are proactive roleplayers, watch them, and they will give hints as to what they want to do. Maybe they like getting treasure instead of helping the damsel in distress, give them options to go treasure hunting as well as on rescue missions for rich princesses. Either way, if the players get to do what they think is fun, it will really drive the game along on its own. This will give you new places to add in an ever-widening circle from the starting point on your map, and before you know it, the whole area will be filled (but there is always room for new place, perhaps a cave-in opens up a new tunnel to the underdark, or a worldfall lands right in the heart of a thriving metropolis).
Of course, there is the third option where you have a specific story you want to tell in a specific area. Nothing wrong with that, as long as the players still feel like what they do matters. You can have a set path without steamrolling them on it. One thing I would never recommend doing, don't have an over-arching timeline. You can have a timeline for a small portion of an adventure or campaign (it definitely adds tension) but don't start the countdown to the apocalypse until they are well aware of the impending apocalypse and how much time they have to avert it.
I hope this will help, and remember, just because you make something up on the spot doesn't mean your players know it. If you have a good idea in the middle of a game, use it, and if (when) your party does something unexpected, try to pretend like you planned for it, and they'll be impressed.
Another suggestion to get your players invested in the world.
When laying out cities, go ahead and ask your players to place a couple. Have them be a part of their characters backstory, maybe their home city, tower where they trained, ect. Then have the PCs integrate that into the world.
As others mentioned, I tend to start big and go in. This means that I won't have an overarching plot until session 3 or so. Session 1 is usually party formation, get acquainted with the starting city. Session 2, I will throw in a minor plot. (Here is a big hint about players.) The minor plot is usually something minor, rat stomping, goblin slaying, ect. The players will always assume this ties into some grand plot about world domination. Run with it. If what they say sounds neat, try to work it in. Those rats were totally down there because the tavern owner "dug too deep" putting in his basement, and uncovered a tunnel to Morgoth. The PCs had better battle their way down, fight a couple Balrogs (sorry balors), and then stop the ___army from coming up this tunnel. That was totally what you had planned. They sure are good guessers. Session 3 will start into that whole thing.
Basically throw some vague evil, some veiled threats and maybe a couple of ambiguous shadowy dudes out there and the PCs will invent a plot for you. This has a few benefits.
- You don't have to do the work of making a plot
- The PCs are guaranteed to be interested. (why would they imagine you planned a stupid plot for them?) This is based off the "What do you think your Christmas present is, is a super awkward question" principal. You don't want to guess what you wanted because you make them feel bad if it isn't it. You are asking them this question before going out to buy anything.
- The plot is exciting and enjoyable for you. Instead of knowing every twist and turn, you are still surprised by stuff.
- No temptation to railroad. You don't know where the plot goes, so why would you railroad them anywhere?
My friend Adam found a class in a sourcebook whose concept he found very interesting, and he is currently building a campaign based around the flavor information for that class. I am looking forward to that campaign. His last one started with him reading into cancer mages, which created a villain for him, and a truly vile one at that. So you can always try just building a particular character, then saying "okay, this person will be an important NPC somehow, how can I make that work?"
Or you can pick a type of setting or theme and go from there. I am currently working on a rogue campaign, based on the whole "grand heist" theme like you would see in Oceans 11. Another friend of mine is building a pirate campaign. 3.5 has a lot of setting books (i.e. Stormwrack, Cityscape, Frostburn, etc.) which can give you not only ideas for a campaign, but help you run a it and fill it with themed encounters, monsters and characters. In this case, you know the setting, and probably a few character and/or encounter ideas, so it's just finding a plot that strings it all together that proves challenging at that point.
Hi,
I've recently become increasingly engrossed in the idea of becoming a DM. Since I'm the sort of player that relishes a good story (indeed I was, in my younger years, interested in writing fantastical stories fashioned after LOTR), I feel like the role of the DM would best fit my needs/skills.
Are there are resources, helpful hints, and guides any of you could provide to help me on my way?
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks!
Start with the story you want to tell. Create the world that makes sense for that story.
I heard that 4.0 is similar to World of Warcraft, but I'm not sure myself.
*twitch twitch*
That said, do you have a group already? One possibility would be to try collective world-building. Take turns describing areas, elements of the areas, people, culture, terrain, economics, and what not.
Do you have a story in mind? Develop out of that.
Hi,
I've recently become increasingly engrossed in the idea of becoming a DM. Since I'm the sort of player that relishes a good story (indeed I was, in my younger years, interested in writing fantastical stories fashioned after LOTR), I feel like the role of the DM would best fit my needs/skills.
Are there are resources, helpful hints, and guides any of you could provide to help me on my way?
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks!
Being a DM is one of the funnest, and most annoying thing you'll ever do. I would suggest figuring out the world first, then don't plan too much.
One of the most dangerous (and unfun) things that can happen is if you and the player's get into the mentality that it's the players vs. the DM. This happens alot and it creates a situation where the DM tries the screw over the players and the players try to do likewise.
The easiest way to avoid this is to be fair to everyone, to allow rule bending where it can be justified, allow players to do things they want (as long as it isn't blatantly absurd), and most importantly, don't plan too far ahead.
If you have an idea of how things should happen, then when a player messed it up (as they always do), you'll feel resentment. Have a broad idea of things, but be able to improvise.
Finally, don't rely on "Unkillable" people to rule over the PC's, instead create story reasons for why the PC's should care about people and not just cut thier throats and leave them in a ditch.*
* We tend to play evil campaigns as they are %256 funner to play and DM.
When you say you feel like it would be the best role for you to take - I assume you mean socially in during the play of the game. To a certain extent you are a world builder or you arn't. You can be an excellent dungeon master with a magnificent ability to manipulate your players attention, describe setting, and be generally entertaining ~ boom ~ good dungeon master. If you have a "world" in mind then what you want to do is create it as you see it. Techniques and methods of doing so are there to guide the translation of the world image onto a record that can then be conveyed (more specifically posted or handed) to the players of the game.
Most well developed worlds like Krynn and Ferun are the collaborations of many people. Writer, artists, and dungeon masters alike. There is tons of good advice on this forum as to how to craft your unique setting, examples of such, and tons more advice on how to make a specific scene or scenario. I concure with the advice that you should just digest several threads here (the bigger the better) and you will glean allot of good things, but my number one piece of advice is to have a good solid image in your mind of what is going on in the situation. There is nothing that has helped me more.
My number crunching is less than the best, but having a solid concept of the characters and scene has always enabled me to run game with minimal paperwork. They say that the +/- 2 is the DM's best friend, but my faithful companion (when playtesting, world developing, and generally not being prepared) has been "CR based Rolls" or what have you. Basically the CR of the party is the generic DC for them to accomplish anything (hit anything, save stuff) then tossing +/- 10~20s depending on if the challenge is "supposed to be hard" vs "supposed to be easy" ... I have been told that I am unprepared, I have been told that I cheat, but no one has ever said that I can't keep the game running at pace.
For all intents and purpose I can (and have) run game with a dozen different base systems, and sometimes without any rules at all! Being a good Dungeon Master is about keeping the game going. Visualize the scenario as vividly as you can and then practice general forensics and description. The better and more consistent you are with the rules the better. It makes people happy when they understand how things work, and that is one reason to run games in already substantiated settings like star wars and tolkien. People know how those settings work.
Some people believe that creating your own world is a basic function of being a dungeon master, but I think there are allot more excellent DMs out there than there are world builders. Building a town or valley detail is one thing, but its hardly Wonderful World (R)
You should be able to take the sociology of real life and the ramifications of the fantasy and combine them into a believable location. Developing the ability to clearly visualize and represent at least a novel combat field is I think a basic requirement of a DM.in example
The party stands outside of a village gate. The air is still and cautious. The town is small, and lays a short ways off the road on an open grass rise. The forest you left has become simply a ribbon of green on the horizon behind, and the mountains to which you travel are still but pokeing pikes far ahead. You saw signs of heavy cart traffic on the road as you traveled, and for several acres surrounding the village there are signs of encampment that have been recently abandoned. Carts with cargo, and the kind of travel tents that the woodsmen and trappers of the forest make.
You call out to the unseen gate guardians and you hear no reply. (listen) You can hear the sounds of life in the village (sense motive) but they seem subdued or perhaps frightened. (spot) You note the levers and pivot points that control the gate from the outside (device) and know that it has mot likely been barricaded from the other side with a locking bar and maybe even a bracing spell. (epic/special/more) There are four guards at the gate and there are some eleven thousand people in the city. The walls are necromantically enhanced, and the city has vivomantic defenses. The party is believed to be a projected illusion of the Orc. (bluff) The guards will let the party in if they are willing to wait for a champion of the city to come and check them out with detect magic and read thoughts they will be allowed in. (intimidation) The guards are a weak challenge for the party, but there will be three waves of them that will appear to defend against the party. The third wave of city guards will be accompanied by a city champion of equivalent challenge as a party member. After the third wave an entire wave of city champions (pc equivalent) will appear to attempt to defend the city. Defeating the wave of city champions will lead to facing a final battle at maximum challenge vs the magical defenses of the city as controlled by the high priestess of the town. These powers being undead treants, shadows, spectors, and lantern archons. The high priestess will have an additional defense of city champions that remain to defend her as the rest of the church and villagers escape (diplomacy) The village does not like the land your party came from, and has no interest in aiding your goals. They are willing to barter through the wall for some goods, and they will allow the party to camp within the light of the city walls. (knowledge) The village was formed around a shrine. The church is in a holy war with the Orc and uses necromantic powers to create undead treants out of their wall while being attacked by the Orc hordes. The village is less than cordial with the Imperial Census, but yet flies the flag of the Empire.
What is going on here is that I thought of a scenario and then asked myself a series of questions in the fashion of imagining skill checks regarding the image I could see in my mind. This is how knowing the rules helps. You know what can be statistically drug out of you by your players.
The party stands outside of a village gate. The air is still and cautious. The town is small, and lays a short ways off the road on an open grass rise. The forest you left has become simply a ribbon of green on the horizon behind, and the mountains to which you travel are still but pokeing pikes far ahead. You saw signs of heavy cart traffic on the road as you traveled, and for several acres surrounding the village there are signs of encampment that have been recently abandoned. Carts with cargo, and the kind of travel tents that the woodsmen and trappers of the forest make.
You call out to the unseen gate guardians and you hear no reply. (listen) You can hear the sounds of life in the village (sense motive) but they seem subdued or perhaps frightened. (spot) You note the levers and pivot points that control the gate from the outside (device) and know that it has mot likely been barricaded from the other side with a locking bar and maybe even a bracing spell. (epic/special/more) There are four guards at the gate and there are some eleven thousand people in the city. The walls are necromantically enhanced, and the city has vivomantic defenses. The party is believed to be a projected illusion of the Orc. (bluff) The guards will let the party in if they are willing to wait for a champion of the city to come and check them out with detect magic and read thoughts they will be allowed in. (intimidation) The guards are a weak challenge for the party, but there will be three waves of them that will appear to defend against the party. The third wave of city guards will be accompanied by a city champion of equivalent challenge as a party member. After the third wave an entire wave of city champions (pc equivalent) will appear to attempt to defend the city. Defeating the wave of city champions will lead to facing a final battle at maximum challenge vs the magical defenses of the city as controlled by the high priestess of the town. These powers being undead treants, shadows, spectors, and lantern archons. The high priestess will have an additional defense of city champions that remain to defend her as the rest of the church and villagers escape (diplomacy) The village does not like the land your party came from, and has no interest in aiding your goals. They are willing to barter through the wall for some goods, and they will allow the party to camp within the light of the city walls. (knowledge) The village was formed around a shrine. The church is in a holy war with the Orc and uses necromantic powers to create undead treants out of their wall while being attacked by the Orc hordes. The village is less than cordial with the Imperial Census, but yet flies the flag of the Empire.
What is going on here is that I thought of a scenario and then asked myself a series of questions in the fashion of imagining skill checks regarding the image I could see in my mind. This is how knowing the rules helps. You know what can be statistically drug out of you by your players.