How to be a Good DM - D&December 

I say that all the time to my players

That's always the best answer

Mr. Super Nintendo Chalmers q ques thats fair. "You can try to fight that dragon...but you may not make it"

"Can I do x?"- I don't know, can you? I'll let you try.

Mr. Super Nintendo Chalmers my DM used this little gem quite often... "Are you sure...?"

I'm pretty sure I've said that DMing without realising, my players wanted to talk to an angry owl bear... it didn't go well, I remember the thing I said to the guy who asked "You want to talk to an Owlbear, you can try..."

so basically, by all means put cutscenes in there, but make sure to be sneaky about it

Good advice

I yell at my party member to not do this. It's against my deity's wishes!

I yell at the owlbear in owlbearese, which I speak fluently, "Have at thee, Bird-Bear"

Just a show of hands who got the "over the top" reference?

*raises hand as you say "Just a show of hands"* *lowers hand as you say "'over the top' reference"*

+zempmasterz lol I got it.

+CreepsMcPasta Or even better have it block the executioner, but when a fight breaks out with the guards about it have a randy guard run up and kill the executionee while they are distracted.

+CreepsMcPasta But the magic guard might notice the spell, causing the executioner to quickly finish the job and now there are guards searching for the person who cast the spell and defied the law (or whatever). Then they might attempt to arrest and execute that person as well.

+CreepsMcPasta I usually find it best to "stat the scene" (have rules ready for important NPCs etc) but not script it, just wing it as you go along. It allows for player shenanigans, and it's easier to plan for "this guy has to be dead by the time the scene's over" than "the guy needs to be executed like this at this point" (have him make a break for it when the executioner freezes, and the guards hunt him down, that sort of thing).

Fors Clavigera So like I was suggesting?

deceptiveauto Pretty much, yeah (only noticed your comment after I'd posted :S )

+ThePariahDark This has served me to no end over the past many years. Just saying "You did not seem to find at trap at this point" has scared the shit out of my players more then once.

+ThePariahDark Oh yes, we fireballed many rooms on pure paranoia. Sometimes the room exploded, usually not.

Guilty as charged. When I know there's no danger around, even if I don't say it, it shows in my mannerism. They can usually tell if its safe to proceed based on all the no verbal stuff going on. I need a better poker face...

There are some players who hear "You don't find..." and resolve to stay put repeating checks until they find something.

Man, I didn't realize it was a youtube comment that gave this philosophy, I really took it to heart and have been using it.

Also, a basic, yet effective, way of giving a proper consequence of a good deed is having the owner of the local shop give a discount on items. It's small, but it can be a nice detail when you save a town with a well-meaning shop owner.

+Nioxi Sterling On the first point. I prefer the calm "just so I got it right, you are going to X?", giving them a chance to rethink the decision and if they say yes then tell them what to roll. If their character should know better than explain why it probably is a bad idea, but still let them to it if they want to. On the second, good idea. Small but excellent, the players will return for that incentive. Thus giving them a sense of a hometown and then you can make them interact more with the same NPCs, perhaps offer them a house in the town. Let the NPCs come up and greet them every time they show up, tell them rumors and news etc. And then it is no longer a single use bare bones town.

angelowl89 The response I provided was more intended for comedy than advice, it's probably better to go with your response than mine.

I will admit that it was pretty funny and very appropriate a lot of the time. :D

+Nioxi Sterling as a DM the only time I say no is when they try to do something that is actually not possible. They want to take a running start and do this amazing jump, and they're in a tiny trolley cart. Which in that case I tell them you can try something else, but you are restricted due to the size of this cart.

There's been a moment or two where I've gone: "That's a dumb" -Looks at character's Int- "You know what, go for it; Try and jump through that pipe (Or whatever)"

"Are you sure?" is the best thing to say when everything is perfectly safe.

unless you're my players then you just say "Yes, I'm sure"

+Andar Broment (Muskie) This would likely fall under the 'don't show the players the dice rolls' category for me. If it's more compelling to the story, they can find a single ruby. The 'rules' are more like guidelines for the DM.

+Andar Broment (Muskie) I love this. It is just perfect.

+DKlarations Ah, but The players had fun and I got to practice whipping up dungeons on the fly! so I'm totally cool about it :)

oh...my....god......that is awesome

Or they could just find (remnants of) a map

Welcome aboard. X3.

me too so hyped

+TheMechanicalReaper I understood a lot of D&D but I never really had a copy of some of the basic rules (small stuff like calculating armor class) So I was overjoyed this Christmas when I got my hands on my starter set, I'm still planning to do my own adventure not a premade one, but this should help to improve it for us

Goddamit! I wanted a D&D starter kit All i got was a PS4 and like 10 games

+TheMechanicalReaper Welcome to the community! Have fun slaying your first goblin or kobold!

I believe that's an Uncharted reference? I think in the second Uncharted game there was a melee animation where the main character tosses his gun to an enemy and punches him. Not sure if the family jewels were involved, but there ya go.

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Robert Baratheon gold pot what?

i was making a joke because the last thing i was able to read was "guess what we found". but now in the notification window i can see the whole comment, so there is no joke to make....

It cut off, please continue

Robert Baratheon Instead of making short statements made as questions, please form more coherent questions, and I will respond with answers in kind. Thank you. :)

+Cyber Dynasty Then you're really satisfied when you have their head fly off.

+Jonathan Herzog metal slimes are annoying because of their ability to do so

+Jonathan Herzog I'm a really average DM and i've never think about this before but it's makes so much sens. I'll start doing that.

+Jonathan Herzog I have a friend who frequently DMs and he NEVER makes anyone retreat ever. we once set up a wall of spinning blades, killed all his allies, had backup on our side, had an ice spell on the ground that caused people to take freezing damage when they entered the space. and this was in a campaign with 6 players, so this 1 guy, 1 GUY ran into the blender and immediately got annihilated even though there was an easy exit to get backup if he just turned around.

+Jonathan Herzog In our last session, one our players utterly destroyed one of the enemies, who was a mage. Then our lizardfolk player took advantage of that and intimidate checked the remaining 3 mages into not fighting anymore. DM went along with it and ended the battle. It was really cool.

I've lost count of the number of times I've shot/blown up/ stabbed/ colapsed a building onto a monolouging villain.

I'm sure the DMs LOVE you.

You can hit THE VILLAIN to interrupt the monologue :)

"I didn't know you changed your name to X. Shut up."

+unnamedenemy9 My regular GM tends to write that down in his laptop for that reason. It can be fun to roll some not actual rolls and then continuing on describing a perfectly normal situation.

+unnamedenemy9 I want my screen name to be "UncooperativeOwlbear". As opposed to a tame or well-trained owlbear.

Give me a fort save, a will save, anddd an attack roll at -10

+aristokraticassassin Worst form of a GMPC ever, I usually avoid them like the plague, but I did have my current group ask a npc to join their guild and travel with them, they are amazing at the fighter role, but are 100% shit at everything else. The party has thus far had great fun at the npcs expense and making fun of her when she can't do some simple things like start a fire by herself. She also runs away from anything that would be too "icky", like a caterpillar creature I made for them to fight.

Sounds like a blast

Cortarian Yeah. I definitely don't mind DMs having their npc's join the party, especially if the players are ok with it, but a good dm know's to use them as more of a support character and not transform the character into the star of the show.

This happens a lot with noob DMs

I had this happen. the npc was more powerful than us and none of us could fight him. it definitely felt like he was a god or something.

+GradualGhost Well, it depends if the mood you want to set is a serious one or a more light hearted one, where a certain amount of humor is present. I remember DM-ing an adventure, where one of the player characters was a tiny dwarf (only a few inches high) and the other players just threw him into battle, like a living hand granade. ^^

+GradualGhost You can keep a bunch of name generators in a webbrowser for those events. Try finding those with serious names. Just remember to write the name down as well. "Arther, innkeeper, gnome male, purple hair". Your list of NPCs can grow as you go along as long as you improvise and write things down. Writing stuff down is highly underrated amongst both players and DMs.

angelowl89 Oh I know, I'm just lazy.

That works too. XD

All of my shopkeeper are called Joe. Especially the women. After awhile, it became a joke. Another NPC had a name that changed everytime the met her. Charol, Carol, Sarah, Charlene, etc. Uncreative names can always be good.

+IcyHaze02 There is a trick from Star Wars Saga: droids. An astromech droid can help navigate and pilot ships for example. If the party is missing something like a guide or want som extra muscle. Let them go hire someone. That way they can work around weakness in the party when relevant.

I always forget about hirelings. But yeah, that is also an option. That way, it helps circumnavigate character weaknesses.

Me too, waaay too often. Somehow it is easier to remember in star wars saga than in other games.

I had a party of fairly powerful characters that had this problem (no rogue), they solved by having the fighter hurl dead goblins ahead of them to set off traps;)

its time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!!!

I body slam the dragon.

Daniel Syck Music starts out of nowhere, the ground opens and a ring starts coming out of it, the gnoll hits you with a chair and helps the dragon give you a double elbow drop! :P

+Left4Coragem I try to stand up (roll 1).

I run for the ring. If need be, I jump toward it. I have a curse that makes rings litterally irresistable to me. I'm a well-known criminal who steals and hordes rings.

+DreamcastGuy can i join that session?

+Raezeman me too!!!

i would totaly want that to me my first d&d session,,,,(i have no friends)

ok i may im actualy on the new projared D&D google comunity thing (fan made i think)

+Bas Bruines try Roll20.net! it's really great for playing D&D (or any RPG) with anyone online.

Sheesh, he was officially "That Guy". If he couldn't lighten up and have fun, then that's his fault.

Why was he there?

+Zeithri Or, more likely- "Hold Person. NOW, AS I WAS SAYING BEFORE THAT LUMMOX TRIED TO INTERRUPT ME...."

***** Reminds me of that fan-made D&D video with the guy who kept killing the guy trying to monologue x3

+Zeithri Sorry about your first RPG experience like that. Some Dungeon Masters wanna do little else but tell a story with no real concern about player fun, which, yeah, they ARE telling a story, but it should be everyone at the table BUILDING the story.

+Zeithri The guy sounds like a rotten DM, and any player or DM worth their salt would sympathize with your situation. I really hope you do end up playing with a decent crowd someday - heck, just tell 'em you had a bad first experience and they'll probably be extra sure to make you feel welcome.

TheGamerDarius Yeah, wasn't the only field me and my ex didn't clash ( _obviously :P_ ) but it was one of the biggest disagreements. I think said ex's reasoning was that, players making their own characters is an issue while I argued against with " _Well what's the bloody point then?_ " I do want to try again and I have always had an interest in setting up my own stories, even started writing a few of them. My main points of interest being Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 pretty much, but also Starship Troopers, Street Fighter ( _and modify it as well_ ) and Bubblegum Crisis 2033 to mention a few. So I do have an interest still, just that that first experience when I finally got around to test it.. Yeaah.

Issun McGoodmage it could be d&j (dungeons and dragons with jared

A list of detailed things I've found that enhance my games quite a bit: -Use notecards to give players hidden information without having to take them away from the table. Do this for both good and bad things, too, so that players don't auto-cringe or get excited every time you do it. This is also a good way to be able to juggle one or two sub-plots concurrent with the main story without slowing much down or revealing too much -Are your players starting to predict when ambush combat encounters are coming up because you pulled the battle mat out, to your annoyance? Consider having "false battles" - roll out the mat, draw the area out (assuming you didn't beforehand) and get miniatures, etc. Then have them move through it...and then once they reach the end, roll up the mat and say "good job". Combining this with the above, you can also make "fake notecards", where you just write "this is a fake - destroy this card and don't tell anyone", to keep people on their toes. -On the above note: the one thing I would recommend you practice is how to make descent battle maps *quickly*. You will inevitably come across a combat encounter you didn't plan for, and the thing that *always* takes the most time is drawing maps out. The faster you are at it *while also making sure everything is relatively clear*, the better the game will flow and the more fun everyone will have. -Do you have a large group that you game with (7+ people) and find GMing for too many overwhelming? Consider making one of them Assistant GM. Lots of great points to this: you still control the overall story direction and majority of NPCs, but give them other interesting things to do - have them control some of the monsters, be in charge of battle strategy, let them roleplay one of the major villains for you, etc. You can also use them outside of game as a sounding board and idea generator to make your game even more glorious then it would be with just you (two heads are better then one, etc). And it's great for people who haven't GM'd properly before since it gives them exposure to the fun stuff without the usual pressure that the full role has. -Similar to the above: did a player die or otherwise become unplayable? While they wait for their character to come back (or write up another one in between games), have them play as a powerful monster or roleplay as an NPC for the game's remainder. It gets them back in the action quickly so they can keep having fun, and provides the other players with unexpected twists if they're used to your fighting styles and tactics. -Video game music exists for a reason: it's great for helping to set the tone. Likewise, if you have some background music from games or movies playing while you game (20+ minute ambient stuff without lyrics works best, I find), it can help set and keep people in the proper mood. It's especially good for new groups who've only played videogames but not D&D - they're used to music helping inform their moods in games, so this will help ease them into the pen and paper nature of things. -Who says TPK has to be the end of the adventure? This is the beauty of D&D vs videogames - there is no Game Over screen unless *you* say it is. So why not just continue on from there? Have the Big Bad conquer the world, but have a resistance movement spring up. Or if he destroyed the world, have the gods pull adventurers from another dimension be pulled in to help clean up the mess and try and restore it (big aspect of story telling: there's no such thing as "permanent" out there). Sure it'll require work and player cooperation, and it'll likely be a lot tougher and more bleak then before, but it's a great way to keep the story going and keep from having to throw your world away completely. It may even allow the eventual recovery of the original story plan if you're creative enough about it (maybe the ancient prophecies were deciphered wrong, perhaps?). -Want to include an actual puzzle in the game but don't want to frustrate your players (too) badly? First, make sure it's not time-critical (at least, at first) so they have time to study the problem properly, and ensure that *all* of the pieces needed to solve it are in the room the puzzle's in, or at least near impossible to miss on the way there. Also, make sure it's not overly complex: this is D&D, not Myst, so you don't want players to have to struggle too hard with it. Logic puzzles (Hanoi Tower, Number Sequences, etc) tend to work best here since they're the most straight-foward to understand and solve while still being challenging enough to be satisfying when solved and are generic enough that they can be adapted to most settings, from locks on a Dwarven vault to trap mechanisms in an ancient temple to encrypted writings in a Wizard's grimoire. -When using traps, place them in places that make sense. Traps usually go in areas that people are not likely to use often, if ever, and are also used as substitutes for guards since you usually can't watch all entryways all the time. Also, unless it's a place the trap's creator *never* intended to return to, try and figure out how the creator could bypass said traps, even if it's "he's a wizard, so he'd just teleport straight to the top of the tower". This will give a greater sense of realism to your world when you have a ready explanation for players if/when they ask about it instead of going "I dunno, just thought it would be an interesting challenge and the Rogue looked bored." -Technology is your friend for more then just finding groups, too. If one or more of your players can't make it to the home due to some life event (travel for work, etc), ask if they can video-conference in. Have them send you a copy of their character sheet and set up a web cam to point at the table/battle mat area. Then just have them roll on camera for you. One of my friends got so sick he went to the hospital for a while, but he didn't miss a single game because of this method while he was out. -If possible, figure out food and drink plans for everyone *before* people arrive at the place you're going to play at. At best, this will prevent the inevitable delay from people getting hungry mid-game and ordering food, traveling to get it, eating it, etc; at worst, you can anticipate and incorporate the delay as a mid-game intermission so people can refresh and prepare for the rest of the game. -Don't be afraid of giving characters "Star Treatment" if they saved a town - they *saved the town and everyone in it*, right; why wouldn't the town want to aid their heroes? And it doesn't even have to break the game, either. Sure, giving them unlimited access to the magic items in the local shop for free is a bit much (the town may have need of those in future of the heroes leave, after all), but why not free room and board at the local inn? Why not permanent discounts at local shops for mundane stuff like clothes, adventuring gear or other (cheap) goods? VIP access to places they had to sneak into before, like the local keep or mayor's manor? Showing proper appreciation for saving their lives goes a long way to ingratiate a party toward townspeople who called on them for help,

+darkmage07070777 I like that rule. One of the best campaigns I have been part of was a derailed one. A character was getting married and told his best friends (the party) that they could stay at his castle while he was away on his wedding. Offended they got drunk, hired some mercenaries and burned down the barony. Then with the loot they hired even more mercs and managed to conquer half the country, as well as the northern regions of the neighbouring country. They even got an alliance with said neighbour after the king of said country officially gave up those regions in exchange for a military alliance against a crusade. Then we were busy organizing the bureaucrazy, the army, claiming the rest of the country and proclaiming the restoration of a long dead kingdom. It was awesome.

+angelowl89 Heh. We just recently left off one of my games with my Paladin trying to kill her Barbarian lover (rolling to hit and for damage and all) after he wished for her unborn baby to be "safe from all harm" (got teleported from her womb to a pocket dimension somewhere in the multiverse) so she could fight without being concerned (without her permission, natch), resulting in the entire city watch of about 200+ guards being called down in medieval riot mode during one of their major holy days and a complete departure from what was originally planned for the game. One player was quoted as saying "I don't know how you're going to get out of this one". Two days later, I had a plan for rolling with it and getting everything back on track. Rule 0, man. Never doubt its power for awesome games.

Then the PCs are legendary in that area. If you ever play a new campaign in the same setting refer to those events. Thus giving a sense of time progression. :P

+angelowl89 Good one! You could even have some of the new players be the descendants of the previous characters, following in their progenitors' footsteps as would-be-heroes!

+knate44 This, ingame solutions are always superior to real life solutions.

I did a TPK, but the next party slowly started uncovering a mystery 300 years layer, and led them to find that their whole party was covered up, and that the bad guy had taken over as a political mastermind, turning adventures into monsters by having them raid refugee camps, claiming bandits, having them defile holy graves, claiming necromancy. and eventually, the party got caught up in his own web. in the end, they fought the resurrected corpses of the last party, as well as the city of innocents. they had to get through the last dungeon without killing civillians, because that would prove, they were bad guys, and they'd be wanted across the nation. it was the most badass way to force the players to not fight, and to let cutscenes play out

knate44 I actually had this happen to me while DMing last night where my ranger shot at a boss mid monologue and I just had the boss catch the arrow mid flight and watched my players gasp in horror. (They eventually killed the boss though no worries❤️)

+PaladinGear15 That seems like a ridiculous reason to kick someone out of a group. Surely you had commented on some of the previous stuff too, so that the DM was tired of hearing about it? Not saying he's in the right for doing it, just that something with a bit more buildup seems necessary. 'Cause if not... just dang.

Aohaku I get what you mean, but let me put it into perspective; 1st level we encountered demons and got chased out of the cave, 2nd level we encountered a beholder and a level 30 wizard who happened to own the Inn we were staying at saved us (we waited about 6 turns for the battle to end. we gained no experience for our petty efforts) 3rd level, we encountered 18 ArchLiches and their leader who was apparently a student next to my level 3 sorcerer who happened to practice necromancy. (all of these encounters involved a fight by the way, DM refused to allow stealth, bluff, or anything like that, and if you rolled a nat20, someone instantly noticed you anyway, immediately, every time.)

Dang! Sounds like a serious case of killer DM. Considering skill checks aren't affected by critical success or failure by book rules (though a common house rule is to allow them to anyway). I can't imagine the campaign went on for much longer after you were banished anyway. That kind of pure BS can only go on so long.

Aohaku too bad I never really made friends with the guys in that campaign, I know two other guys left before I got kicked, but they got replaced immediately. it woulda been nice to know how that ended.

+PaladinGear15 Yeah... That is just silly. Silly and dumb. It is kind of the point of RPGs to feel empowered and be able to do things, which can't happen if you are constantly on the run. Compare that stuff to the latest pathfinder campaign I played, sure we were desperately on the run from the powers that be after breaking out of a prison. But we still broke out of that prison of our own power (at level 1), killed a score of guards and kidnapped the captain. Then we managed to kill a higher leveled paladin in plate armour by ganging up on him , burning down a fort while the guards slept, wiping out an entire village with a summoned devil etc. All through some planning and clever use of skills and class features. Seriously, if the players are not having fun then you are doing things wrong. Even in horror campaigns you can be thrilled that your character survives impossible odds through their own strength.

Cheonging101 Rule no. 2 to being a good DM: Apologize to the rules and give it 20 dollars.

Rule no. 3 to being a good DM: a year later sue the rules claiming that the 20 dollars was a loan, and that you had a verbal agreement that you would get 30 back.

"Tomorrow on Judge Judy"

Rule 4: lose the case.

Rule 5: Sue the rules for emotional damage.

+Hiro Gaitou this is amazing

+Hiro Gaitou This is glorious.

he ran to his...? what exactly? i have a story muself as well, i was starting a new adventure on dnd with mu friends and some visits, and for fun i placed 18 on charisma ( we tole the dice for the stats and then place them where we want ) and became a girl so o can charm the enemy or other males( including teammates ) and then the visiter desided to fuck me and i became pregnant... so yea that is mu story :)

+Eugenio Sada (KingMcDonalds) myself* sorry about spelling

FISTMEDADDI

I would argue it's coming up with bs for why your players have to do something XD

SuicideSam basically improv in a nutshell. Shit happens, the players do shit, shit changes.

theyellowgreninja W but what if someone tries to replace someone's arm with their dick

"You can try, but it is *highly* likely that this person will die. do you still want to continue?"

*Grabs saw* "So, that would be medice or a craft check?"

+necogreendragon Yep. It is fine to get visibly frustrated and tell them that they were not expected to do that, but also state that it was pretty darn clever and that you should have been prepared. That makes them feel proud rather than hurt.

necogreendragon I've had players try to seduce the boss of the current adventure and I let them (she was a succubus so it kinda worked out). It was funny because they went from creeps on the other side of a hole in the wall to a loving boyfriend and thought nothing was suspicious.

@@Duchess_Van_Hoof yeah

RpgDestiny So, how'd the game go?

We wish to know how it went. Do you still play.

What would you use the tissues for in the DnD situation?( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

+Sassy Nick For the snacks :) greasy fingers and character sheets/books doesn't go well together.

+BobvanKay This man knows how it works.

+BobvanKay So true! In fact, in our grup until your sheet doesn't get stained with water is not truly earned xD we baptise them in a way

+BobvanKay I had a friend who always got his sheets covered in cheeto dust until they became an illegible mishmash of eraser stains and orange smears. Incidentally, he also had to bring his own controllers over when we played video games.

+Che Pirozak-Lillick I have not laughed so much at the suffering of innocents like this sense what... last Tuesday? Or was that Monday?Either way I laughed then AND now.

+Cortarian I have hellacious stories for days about that campaign if anyone is interested...

+Che Pirozak-Lillick I am interested! MORE STORIES NOW!

Wow

*Me:* "The baron is offering you a great monetary reward, a whole village and it's lands to rule over in his name, a mansion in said village to act as your home base and a free license to excavate/explore any ruins in the barony without punishment for the crime of "looting the baron's property". The bandit king, on the other hand, is the only person that has the information you need and has good connections with any local underground societies, cults and operations. Helping him would likely grant you a sort of "underground" diplomatic immunity against those assassins that are still after you. Then there's... *The players:* "Yeah we're just gonna ignore them both and delve into the city's sewers to look for a way out of the city so that we can go hunting for deer in the woods." *Me:* "... Uh... Okaaaay then. You're not listed as wanted criminals in the barony so you could just walk out the city gates and..." *The Players:* "Naw man. Through the sewers we go. Hey, maybe we should make a hidden base in the sewers while we're down here!" *Me:* "... Why do I even bother making anything but sewers?" *"Sewers=FUN!"* to my players.

@@RuSosan If its a medieval style city you could always just say there are not connected city sewers.

@@ageco.6896 If only. I designed and thus also described the town as an advanced one with freshly fixed sewers running under it when they entered soooo... Yeah. No way out of that one.

@@RuSosan Oh well, at least you know now

@@RuSosan Year late, but say that the majority of the sewer system is undergoing maintenance, and is inaccessible.

+Classy Reviews Don't worry your beautiful to me :) (I love making this joke)

deceptiveauto D'aw, I'm blushing xD

Billy rolls to super sayan. Billy rolls 100 His enemy Jeff rolls to super sayan. Rolls a 1. Dies.

+GameNub Quin I remember my friend was dming once and had this one guy give a huge speech, me being my neutral evil rouge I kept telling him to shut up and just pay me for saving his life already.

+GameNub Quin The Gamers. 15 seconds, then arrow to the throat.

Totally agree! I made the mistake of not having something written actually written down and forgot what it exactly said... And I never pre plan speeches because so damn much can change in just ten minutes of game time before said speech should take place. Like my players will say something to piss the npc off or whatever, and now I have to cut the speech short to start a battle lol

mageofmoltor amen

DM: make a perception check PC: ah shit it's a 3 DM: ok....... So you make your way down the hallway and you come to a great room etc etc. PC: ;~;

***** the dm still needs to have the basics if it effects the game, a god for paladins and clerics does impact the game largely since those gods dictate actions taken by the players and allows them to cast magic. if dms want to make side quests out of gods they personally need to do more research to make the quest so it doesn't meta game or spoil the quest for players.

+Blackestfang A good DM will also consider bumping up the significance of any gods/saints etc that the PCs are involved with - that stuff's a goldmine for plot hooks.

+Manek Iridius I'd respectfully disagree with your second point - unless you're playing a setting with a structured series of events like Lord of the Rings, bringing things the players are invested in into the foreground at the expense of other things can help reward their interest and make them feel involved. Some settings like Golarion and Forgotten Realms are made to be tinkered with and customised within reason.

Fors Clavigera he did manage to do this once though. In anther side thing he made a mystical mansion and when we went to check it out there was a ghost there named after the god and the place was a holy place for that god. This was a fun little place, the two who worshiped the god stayed in the house and helped with a farm that was near by while the others peeked around to figure out what the place was. but then he did the very bad side quest that was by the god's direct actions instead of the spirit of what the god is.

players should research their gods as well. I accidentally summoned Anubis and got the party started on the main quest accidentally.

+Zachary Amaranth You are the storyteller and controls the world, the players are the main characters. There is nothing wrong with them being proactive, having motivations and actually making their own plans. Your job is to make the world react, create the enemies, the allies, those stuck in the middle, the enviroment etc. In other words, your players kind of play an Bethesda RPG and those are popular for a reason. Even old Baldur's Gate 1+2 had lots of branching paths and different quests depending on your choices. The best campaign me and my buddies ever played was a total derail where the characters got drunk, hired some mercenaries, burned down the barony. And wound up conquering a whole bloody country. We came to the aid of a neighouring country during a hostile crusade in exchange for the border regions, we created a new military structure, an entire industry, solved the starvation problem in the country etc. We resurrected a dead kingdom somwhat by accident and damn it was awesome.

I assume they were pumped to make some new characters and try again?

***** Yes. They all learned a valuable lesson that day: just because a monster is almost dead doesn't mean that it can't still kill you.

+Sam Geuvenen that's actually a plot point in The Princess Bride.

***** Uhhh, when did that happen again? Was it the giant rat?

+Sam Geuvenen when Westly was "mostly dead". "There's a difference between 'mostly dead' and 'all dead'." In this case, the heroes are the "monster", though.

+Leo Stephan I dunno, alignments is what people do wrong 99.99% of the time no matter their experience with things. And EVERY player, DM and passer-by have their own idea of what the alignments are and how they should be enforced.

+dr4coknight Honestly: I really dislike the alignment system. The rules are... vague at best and it limits character development. "Oh you can't kill that person. You're a paladin, you are lawful good." If Alignments are in some way important (grace of a god or something like that) the GM can manage that just fine.

I think alignments in regards to players are stupid. Everyone I've played with is an alignment hipster, "I'm chaotic good so that means I can help the townspeople while stealing all of their stuff and it makes sense within my character." It excuses lack of player choice as character building.

+Leo Stephan I think that's a good idea, because these videos from ProJared is mainly for newbees. My own personal thought is that I like D&D because of the alignment-system. There's lots of other RPG:s out there and what makes D&D special is the alignment-system. And there's hundreds of arguments you can make about it but it all basically comes down to how hard you should follow alignments without it getting contradictory. Because for every argument there's a counterargument. Maybe the most important thing is that everyone in the group have roughly the same view about alignments. I have also come to the conclusion that the best view about alignments to not make it conflict with itself but at the same time matter is to see it as a one tool that say something about your character, not everything about your character. For example, your alignment doesn't describe if your characters have any flaws, goals or hobbies. I also find it better to see it as how your character "wants to be" and not as how your character "actually are". D&D 5 is actually good about this because the background-system give you more to go about than just the alignment.

+Sami Uusitalo I totally agree with this. Now, excluding classes that require alignment (cleric, paladin etc..), alignment seems to hold players back rather than enhance their play. People get confused by Lawful and Chaotic. People think Lawful Good means being nice to everyone and Chaotic means "lulz I'm so random!" It seems to be more constructive if you let players be who they are then at a higher level (maybe level 5 or something) give them an idea of what they are

He's fantastic

+GameNub Quin I would strongly suggest to not have the group stop and look stuff up. It really gets in the way of the flow of the game and story. Instead I'd recommend to write what situations and rules yourself and the group doesn't entirely understand and come back to them at the end of the session while going with what sounds the most reasonable for the time being. Unless everyone is just total beginners and you're not sure AC works or some shit like that. It makes sense to prioritize learning the game, just not to prioritize looking up the official way that wrestling works in the middle of a tense scene.

For your first few sessions of a brand new game, most players can accept stopping and learning. What I wouldn't recommend doing is stopping and looking a rule up for people brand new to the hobby, because they will think that it is part of the game rather than players getting acclimated to new systems. Unless like you said, it is something very important that nobody knows in which case look it up regardless of the group.

Also when you're new to a system, or even not, mark page numbers of important stuff like combat rules and where equipment is statted in the book.

+yellowtheyellow 1 in 25 people can both initiate and maintain a grapple correctly, can you? XD

+GameNub Quin To avoid getting stuck on details we have a houserule: when in doubt the DM makes a judgement call regarding it and tell us how to do it. Then we check up on the actual rule during lunch or other breaks.

+Yous0147 That just sounds like a bad DM, making the world interesting and lively is their job. You can have plenty of fun just haggling prices with some NPC.

angelowl89 Yeah, that's exactly what I felt as well, especially when reading about other people's adventures. I get uber excited and just feel like "Yes! This I'd love to be a part of". I feel like my DM at the time was a power gamer through and through, and as such didn't have much interest in the actual roleplay aspect of the game. Maybe why our encounters were solid despite the lack of roleplay.

Old school DnD, the dungeon master designs a dungeon to kill the PCs and the players crawl through it and try to beat it. The game was never intended to be played like that. :/

Lol, like hero quest? (a board game pretty much only about traversing a dungeon and fighting) I know what you mean, there is much more to DnD than just fight, level up, become stronger. I don't find that aspect appealing by itself, especially given that I find DnD's classic fighting mechanics to be cumbersome without roleplaying. I feel it was designed as a setup as simple as possible to simulate believable behaviours, i.e. a system to regulate our imagination so that things don't become too ridiculous..If it was only about power-gaming, I'd honestly be more interested in playing a video game than polaying a PnP game.

+Colin Parlett If you are the DM, you can make all the characters.

+Colin Parlett The way that I look at this is as follows: Police can't use a taser unless they've been tased before and know how much it hurts. If you don't play at least one game under the bootheel of a DM, you can't really know what's fun and what's annoying. Like as a DM, you might think it's fun to send wave after wave of combat at your players, not letting them rest and refusing to let up, but as a player that can be really stressful and annoying and make for a really shitty session. There are other, less obvious examples, but my point is that it's difficult to get a grasp of how people under your control feel if you've never been in their shoes.

If you are a storyteller, be a DM. If you are a storyteller and an aspiring voice actor, be an excellent DM

+Colin Parlett my suggestion, play a few games (with multiple DMs if possible) to get an initial feel for the game before trying to be DM.

+Kenyon Erickson Or if you have friends who never played it either, try to figure things out together by playing a premade adventure or two. Possibly swap around who is DMing. Feel free to add random small things for spicing things up. Like a barfight, an odd merchant selling snakeoil, some travelling knight or such.

+Ben Freeman We basically devoute an entire session to discussing what the campaign is about and designing characters together. Then if we have time left we try them out. We also have a rule, you can change most stuff before the second session if something feels off.

+WoWEvenusWoW I second this. I can give you one advice though, remember to tell the players that they are practically alpha or beta testing a game. It is not finished but stuff that show up in the campaign can be made permanent, the setting can grow everytime you test it out.

And I just really wanna talk to bleeeh, the shopkeeper

+LennyPerson I never thought of that, could be fun.

angelowl89 IKR?

The issue with that is making sure it's only 'themed' around stuff, not based on it entirely; if the scenario is too heavily based in references, your players will know exactly what to do all the time.

It is fun to take a setting, but you still have to design the adventure. I have been thinking about playing in Middle-Earth, would be cool.

Timothy Keith my first time we all died and our dm was like... okey you all get revived by the deity and some of you are reformed to the new deity now. (we all were new) and thus my chaotic neutral became lawfull neutral. and was pretty pissed about it xD (and now probably ded bc she was revived and there are these guys who go after death cheaters?)

A DM did this to a player in a public game once. Not exactly a self-aware person built an even less self-aware character that was basically an idiot. With great amount of warning the character decided to grab a growing ball of death - surprise, surprise it's a sphere of annihilation. Most of us at the table let out a sigh of relief that we wouldn't have to be dealing with that character again.

Our DM let's us know a bit of metagame knowledge, but only in terms of maps. The only character who gets metagame knowledge besides that is our Charismatic leader, Regor, and he literally only knows that he isn't real and that it's all a game. So his character just kinda has stopped caring about anything but getting money and it works surprisingly well for the party because his character comes up with elaborate plans to get in and out of places without a trace (though our pyromaniac/bomb obsessed character usually ruins the plans). Overall, giving players some meta knowledge can actually make the game more fun in a way xD

+HeeminGamin If the critical roll is made behind the screen, you can always fudge it - but always in favor of the group. If the player does something obviously reckless - like wanting to catch a ballista bolt - all bets are off. Let the dice roll as they may. You can also migitate death in combat by spreading the damage out, especially with mindless beasts and automatons. They won't - and shouldn't - target down your glass cannon wizard, instead going for the most obvious and/or nearest target: the frontline Fighter/Barbarian. If bad comes to worse and it'd be appropriate for the enemy to do so, go for capture over kill. Bandits may want to sell them as slaves, cultists might need live sacrifice and other evil beings might just want to taunt them one last time. Whatever the cause, they get another attempt. Also remember that in D&D, death is not necessarily the end. As long as your party lives, the fallen members can be raised. At a high enough level, they might even create their own failsafes. Just, as a DM, don't let death either get too punishing (taking most of their cash AND a level of experience) or too casual (cue "revolving door afterlife"). As for treasure, there are guidelines for what a group should earn on a specific level, in terms of money and loot. As a rule of thumb, give every character one magical item per level, and enough money so they can keep up with expenses (inns, potions, plot tokens, spell components, ammo, etc.) and then some to spend on various trinkets. Some stuff, like weapons and armor, will be replaced every few levels, but some items like Bags of Holding will stay with them for a long time.

+Smilley MLK I personally take a more heavy handed approach with death but otherwise I fully agree.

+HeeminGamin Yes, until you reach high level and the game goes overpowered. But if the players have made unique characters they want to play and feel invested in then death will become a serious matter and they will try to stay alive at all costs as a rule, which makes sense. One of the worse parts of DnD is how little death in combat matters, death by age is a lot more threatening interestingly enough. Regarding treasure it is important to remember that if your players kill a character then they can loot anything that character was carrying. It is easy to give them to powerful stuff by accident if they kill someone they were not supposed to. Otherwise, I can easily see a mastersmith or alchemist selling magical stuff, or a wizard's bookstore. Not too expensive stuff but some. And I totally can see adventurer's shops buying and selling all sorts of stuff people bring in, letting them buy something rare or odd stuff if they can afford it.

Yes to everything. But people who die can make a new character or be ressurected if it is possible. But the chance of losing the character is what makes the game fun.

Check out a session that he uploaded onto his gameplay channel ProJared Plays, he only has one session, but if you want a bit more, recently he streamed an online session on his twitch channel. He might do more

+Mr. Saturn Oh nice. I apologize I didn't even look.

You are welcome

+Troy Tyranitar Seriously, he could probably do only this and still have lots of active subscribers.