Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[SheerHeartAttack]

I'm gonna be wrapping up the campaign I've been running next week. Since this is my first game, here's what I learned.

-Be sure to set solid limits: I basically gave my players a small fort and I then gave them a bunch of other things over the course of the campaign. To the point I underestimated my players and the shear amount of resources I gave them, so they ended up wiping the floor with most of their fights save for the one against a literal dragon and an evil wizard and even then the fight was over when their ship finished aiming at the dragon and levelling it while it was escaping.

-Homebrewing only takes you so far: I tried to set up a homebrew that matched my world's magic system better than DnD's system, however DnD has magic so deeply integrated into its system that I would have had to ban half the game's base classes to implement my system. So I simply ended up making things that contained spells in them and let the game's classes be.

-You won't use all of your notes and plans: I had the good sense to not railroad my players, but since I was aiming for a monster of the week kind of deal early on, I had an outline of bad guys that would try to attack or invade the fort. However, since the players developed their own plans I simply used those to plan out next week's campaign. So those notes will probably find their way somewhere else.

Overall, if I am to run another Tabletop game, I'll try to go for a smaller scale campaign or one where the PCs aren't tied down to a single place, so they can travel around and if they want to establish something they can do it of their own volition.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

I'm gonna be wrapping up the campaign I've been running next week. Since this is my first game, here's what I learned.

-Be sure to set solid limits: I basically gave my players a small fort and I then gave them a bunch of other things over the course of the campaign. To the point I underestimated my players and the shear amount of resources I gave them, so they ended up wiping the floor with most of their fights save for the one against a literal dragon and an evil wizard and even then the fight was over when their ship finished aiming at the dragon and levelling it while it was escaping.

-Homebrewing only takes you so far: I tried to set up a homebrew that matched my world's magic system better than DnD's system, however DnD has magic so deeply integrated into its system that I would have had to ban half the game's base classes to implement my system. So I simply ended up making things that contained spells in them and let the game's classes be.

-You won't use all of your notes and plans: I had the good sense to not railroad my players, but since I was aiming for a monster of the week kind of deal early on, I had an outline of bad guys that would try to attack or invade the fort. However, since the players developed their own plans I simply used those to plan out next week's campaign. So those notes will probably find their way somewhere else.

Overall, if I am to run another Tabletop game, I'll try to go for a smaller scale campaign or one where the PCs aren't tied down to a single place, so they can travel around and if they want to establish something they can do it of their own volition.

The most important question when you are running a freedom of movement campaign is, when you are wrapping up for the night, asking your group what they are thinking about doing next time. Helps focus where you should put your prep time in. Sometimes it'll be self evident. But many times it has prevented me from being totally bamboozled. It also lets them know they're driving the bus, too.

Also, keep big meta plots vague at first. You'll be shocked to see how you can shoehorn things the party has done into the overarching story, which makes you look like a genius.

 

[Reverend]

I'm gonna be wrapping up the campaign I've been running next week. Since this is my first game, here's what I learned.

-You won't use all of your notes and plans: I had the good sense to not railroad my players, but since I was aiming for a monster of the week kind of deal early on, I had an outline of bad guys that would try to attack or invade the fort. However, since the players developed their own plans I simply used those to plan out next week's campaign. So those notes will probably find their way somewhere else.

Bullet points are key. Small snippets "Party Meets NPC that knows X,Y,Z" and "The Wizard has items for sale less than 5000GP but only 10 things total"

Any heavy handed notes, full paragraphs of shit you read to the players, any long winded monologues PC's just won't give a fuck. The more you, as the Storyteller, craft the story around what they are DOING at that time the more they will be engaged. I tried to script out everything only to find my PC's go off the rails off a mountain with 10 cars packed with TNT and the explosion was me going "WHY DIDNT YOU DO THIS INSTEAD!?!?"

The PC's are creating the story for me in acting it out, I'm only putting the set pieces down and seeing what they do with them that then creates the overarching narrative.

 

[SheerHeartAttack]

Funnily enough the meta plot I developed came from me bullshitting who was bribing some nomads into attacking their base. The party just finished looting his base and I incorporated the bad guy's overlord they badmouthed over mail one time by having him duel the party leader for the badguy's stuff.

Now they got it into their head to attempt to coup their own King at their award ceremony, and I'm genuinely wondering if they're going to survive the attempt, especially since they plan to schmooze some of the country's nobility on their side.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Bullet points are key. Small snippets "Party Meets NPC that knows X,Y,Z" and "The Wizard has items for sale less than 5000GP but only 10 things total"

Any heavy handed notes, full paragraphs of shit you read to the players, any long winded monologues PC's just won't give a fuck. The more you, as the Storyteller, craft the story around what they are DOING at that time the more they will be engaged. I tried to script out everything only to find my PC's go off the rails off a mountain with 10 cars packed with TNT and the explosion was me going "WHY DIDNT YOU DO THIS INSTEAD!?!?"

The PC's are creating the story for me in acting it out, I'm only putting the set pieces down and seeing what they do with them that then creates the overarching narrative.

Man, I wish I had those tips on bulletpoints when I first tried my hand at GMing. I learned it by myself later, of course, but those first couple of attempts were painful. So many paragraphs going unused...

Instead of having the full text of an important conversation written down, I started bulletpointing basically everything the NPC knew, split into things they were and weren't willing to say, and just winged the speech itself. And if the PCs missed on some important piece of information, I could always use the bulletpoint to have a different character (or scroll or carving or any other piece of writing) relay it to them at a later time.

The lesson learned? GMing is a lot like playing Tetris. You never know which piece you'll be able to use next.

 

[Waifuwars]

Man, I wish I had those tips on bulletpoints when I first tried my hand at GMing. I learned it by myself later, of course, but those first couple of attempts were painful. So many paragraphs going unused...

Instead of having the full text of an important conversation written down, I started bulletpointing basically everything the NPC knew, split into things they were and weren't willing to say, and just winged the speech itself. And if the PCs missed on some important piece of information, I could always use the bulletpoint to have a different character (or scroll or carving or any other piece of writing) relay it to them at a later time.

The lesson learned? GMing is a lot like playing Tetris. You never know which piece you'll be able to use next.

Tetris and a good dose of ad-libbing and buying yourself enough time to shift things around to match your player's plans. I think the main issue for newbie GMs is that you come in with a preconceived notion that you "the storyteller", which often results in the lengthy speeches and railroading like you've mentioned. It becomes even worse when you spend a lot of time crafting your own homebrew world and you realize your players don't give a shit about the moon phases, they just want to actually do something. Some people shit on having a session 0, but I think it's important to sit down with your players and facilitate a discussion on what they expect of you and what you expect of them. That way you can avoid the awkward moment when they try to recruit the evil lich you had set up as the big bad.

 

[Reverend]

Tetris and a good dose of ad-libbing and buying yourself enough time to shift things around to match your player's plans. I think the main issue for newbie GMs is that you come in with a preconceived notion that you "the storyteller", which often results in the lengthy speeches and railroading like you've mentioned. It becomes even worse when you spend a lot of time crafting your own homebrew world and you realize your players don't give a shit about the moon phases, they just want to actually do something. Some people shit on having a session 0, but I think it's important to sit down with your players and facilitate a discussion on what they expect of you and what you expect of them. That way you can avoid the awkward moment when they try to recruit the evil lich you had set up as the big bad.

Shit Yes you have a Session 0. Everyone is playing/doing something new, they sure as hell didn't read the rules, probably confusing something somewhere, this is the best time to iron out the kinks, figure out what type playstyle they want to run this round and if the PC they chose is right for them.

There's a reason the "Prologue" exists in stories: setting the right stage for what's to come is just as important as the rest of the tale. If the prologue sucks time to reset before you get too deep into your "Moon Base Pirates from Mars but with Kobolds"

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Bullet points are key. Small snippets "Party Meets NPC that knows X,Y,Z" and "The Wizard has items for sale less than 5000GP but only 10 things total"

Any heavy handed notes, full paragraphs of shit you read to the players, any long winded monologues PC's just won't give a fuck. The more you, as the Storyteller, craft the story around what they are DOING at that time the more they will be engaged. I tried to script out everything only to find my PC's go off the rails off a mountain with 10 cars packed with TNT and the explosion was me going "WHY DIDNT YOU DO THIS INSTEAD!?!?"

The PC's are creating the story for me in acting it out, I'm only putting the set pieces down and seeing what they do with them that then creates the overarching narrative.

Exactly. Whenever I hear a DM say" I have a great idea/plan for a campaign!" I just smile and nod, knowing that it will most likely flame out.

People think that speaking, planning and improvising are the main attributes for being a DM. Those are important for sure, but not the most important.

Listening is the best skill for being a good DM.

Listen to what they say. REACT. See if what they are planning is BETTER THAN WHAT YOU WERE THINKING they would or should do. Fit what they are doing seemlessly into the world. Make what they do have consequences. Try to say yes whenever possible. You don't guarantee them success in a task, but they should be allowed to try it their way.

 

[Reverend]

Listen to what you they say. REACT. See if what they are planning is BETTER THAN WHAT YOU WERE THINKING they would or should do. Fit what they are doing seemlessly into the world. Make what they do have consequences. Try to say yes whenever possible. You don't guarantee them success in a task, but they should be allowed to try it their way.

I can't recall where I learned this but when the PC's do something you say "Yes you can do this, and then..." with the "and then" is explaining what insane thing they want to pull off. That lil stop there where you can see them thinking "This maybe isn't such a good idea" or "Wait I can do more than this!" is what can turn the day or cause an even bigger disaster. Either way it's making the PC's part of the story instead of saying "No, you don't do that, it's dumb" and shutting them down which then isolates the player. The more involved your players are the more they will want to play again and that's less headache than trying to find new people to play with.

 

[BlazikenLover]

I09 article on the new sourcebook and the future of character creation in D&D . Hint: if you think things like "racial ability modifiers" will survive the current environment you are gravely mistaken.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/with-d-ds-next-rulebook-character-creation-will-never-1844807934/amp

Anybody who has been a tourist in Rome or Athens can tell you this "stereotype" is well earned.
#GoddamnGriftersAndThieves

I was excited at the possibility of a 5.5e or similar when they talked about the future of the game last year, now I dread it.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Shit Yes you have a Session 0. Everyone is playing/doing something new, they sure as hell didn't read the rules, probably confusing something somewhere, this is the best time to iron out the kinks, figure out what type playstyle they want to run this round and if the PC they chose is right for them.

There's a reason the "Prologue" exists in stories: setting the right stage for what's to come is just as important as the rest of the tale. If the prologue sucks time to reset before you get too deep into your "Moon Base Pirates from Mars but with Kobolds"

Session Zero helps.

The other thing that REALLY helps is: Design the PC's first. Let your players go through the creation process, let them give feedback, give them feedback. Use background generators if you need to.

We got the idea for it being an evil campaign from the alignment checks in Ultimate Campaign background generation to alignment. Everyone was born lower class, all of them had living parents and siblings, and they all had The War as the defining thing in their life.

Next thing I knew, we were doing an urban campaign of a city that was hammered in the war and slightly recovered but then the war ended and the refugees poured in. The Legion came back and the nobles know the King is very far away. The city is a port city built on top of the ruins of seven other cities, with multiple slum areas, a canal district, dock wards, and noble quarters.

The player input really helped.

 

[Adamska]

I've almost never had a full on session zero in my groups. What usually happens instead is the GM at the time will describe a setting or idea they have, and then usually what happens is the characters are very quickly and spontaneously built based on ideas that the players had in reserve. Very much a spontaneous kind of set up.

In other news, here's more Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress for the autopsy, a book modern Wizards probably would ban due to the author being such a stereotype:

The "woman brain too soft for math" happens pretty regularly. That and random dated references and stores.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't know if it's on topic, but a lot of times I hear people talking about Critical Role ruining Tabletop games. While I get the gist that the show attracted normies into the hobby and proliferated the "LOL QUIRKY" character types, is there anything else it ruined?

 

[Corn Flakes]

I don't know if it's on topic, but a lot of times I hear people talking about Critical Role ruining Tabletop games. While I get the gist that the show attracted normies into the hobby and proliferated the "LOL QUIRKY" character types, is there anything else it ruined?

It also generated incredibly unrealistic expectations for roleplay and production quality. Someone who starts out watching Critical Role and then moves on to a "normie" GM who can't do 27 different voices and doesn't have the time (or assistants) to do as much prep as Mercer can get pretty disappointed with the game.

 

[LTO Data Cartridge]

I don't know if it's on topic, but a lot of times I hear people talking about Critical Role ruining Tabletop games. While I get the gist that the show attracted normies into the hobby and proliferated the "LOL QUIRKY" character types, is there anything else it ruined?

It fucks with the expectations of new players because they think that a) the game is exactly like the show even though there are infinite ways to play, and b) that their dm will be on the level of an actual professional. That's on top of the le quirkiness. I personally haven't experienced this because I only play with my real life friends and we don't even play D&D, but that's what people say about it.

 

[Spergetti]

I don't know if it's on topic, but a lot of times I hear people talking about Critical Role ruining Tabletop games. While I get the gist that the show attracted normies into the hobby and proliferated the "LOL QUIRKY" character types, is there anything else it ruined?

I play with a few different groups, all of which have Critical Role normies in them. If you have a balanced group where some people help to balance their expectations, then you probably won't have issues from them. However, as some of the previous responses noted, they tend to create problems when their insanely high expectations are left unchecked so I guess I got lucky. Another aspect of the problem is that Critical Role is bending over backwards to cater to a progressive audience, and this has generated a lot of interest for D&D among shitlibs. Most of the issues I have encountered in my games in recent years has been due to one or more normies in the group trying to push their politics into the game in shitty, hamfisted ways that extend beyond the nonsense they write on their character sheet.

 

[SheerHeartAttack]

Jeez how do players manage to do that? Do they kill all the NPC guards for killing an Orc or something like that?

 

[Spergetti]

Jeez how do players manage to do that? Do they kill all the NPC guards for killing an Orc or something like that?

I mean, you're not far off. The most recent example was one of the players (playing a female orc) tried flirting with a random female human villager, got frustrated with the DM for not having the villager woman go along with it, and then got even more upset when the DM attempted to explain that romances between orcs and humans is really taboo in human cultures in this setting. This cunt got mad enough that I thought they were going to quit the game (probably not the worst outcome), but they eventually calmed down. As an act of reconciliation, the DM threw her character a human waifu NPC who doesn't serve any purpose other than to be an outlet for this player to have some play pretend sexual experimentation in front of the rest of us.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Another aspect of the problem is that Critical Role is bending over backwards to cater to a progressive audience, and this has generated a lot of interest for D&D among shitlibs. Most of the issues I have encountered in my games in recent years has been due to one or more normies in the group trying to push their politics into the game in shitty, hamfisted ways that extend beyond the nonsense they write on their character sheet.

My GM is having to grapple with that shit. I'm gonna risk powerleveling a bit here but I don't think he reads the farms.

He's got this dark fantasy setting he's been working on for like ten years. Think Ravenloft mixed with Sanctuary (from the Diablo series). One of those settings that work under the principle of "light shines brighter in the deepest darkness", with the heroes actively making the world around them a better place with their efforts. And he told me he's having a lot of trouble trying to write that world in a way that won't result in the woke mob dropping on his head like a ton of bricks. Why? Because it's a low-fantasy setting with different races of humans instead of fantasy races (including stat bonuses), the morals are realistically "backwards" (good luck being openly LGBT), slavery (both debt and hereditary) is accepted as a thing in certain areas of the world, all-male/all-female organizations (both heroic and villainous) are a thing, and xenophobia and racism are big sources of conflict.

For example, one of the kingdoms in the setting rose in place of an empire that tried to conquer the world using an army of demons in centuries past, and the people from that kingdom are actively discriminated against around most of the world. And even within that culture, there are well-defined gender roles (although women aren't forbidden from fighting). According to him, he tried presenting a draft of the world to a couple D&D communities and while the reaction was mostly positive there were enough rabid accusations of -isms and -phobias to spook him.

 

[SheerHeartAttack]

Well finished the campaign. We finished with a character death, one of the characters becoming nobility and the rest gearing to kick the killer's ass. Though, I wrapped up the campaign early because half of the players have become increasingly unavailable and the main story had been wrapped up at this point. Now I'm brainstorming the next campaign.