Becoming a dungeon master
Hey guys,
I've been playing PnP D&D 3.5 since october with some mates at uni and my dungeon master seems to be getting burnt out creatively. He's asked if someone else would be willing to run sessions and I've volunteered. The only trouble is I don't really know where to begin, I have a physical copy of the players handbook and pdfs of the DMG and monster manual (and several other books). I'm fairly certain i'll be running a forgotten realms game as it's what I know most and we've been using it for our current campaign (so my fellow beginners have some experience with it too). Does anyone have any advice? (no matter how simple or complicated I'm open to anything). Should I find premade modules or try and make my own adventure from scratch?
I've been playing PnP D&D 3.5 since october with some mates at uni and my dungeon master seems to be getting burnt out creatively. He's asked if someone else would be willing to run sessions and I've volunteered. The only trouble is I don't really know where to begin, I have a physical copy of the players handbook and pdfs of the DMG and monster manual (and several other books). I'm fairly certain i'll be running a forgotten realms game as it's what I know most and we've been using it for our current campaign (so my fellow beginners have some experience with it too). Does anyone have any advice? (no matter how simple or complicated I'm open to anything). Should I find premade modules or try and make my own adventure from scratch?
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Have a strong beginning, multiple paths to completion, and a strong finish to tell the epic tale.
Do not write anything in stone. The characters decide where to go and what to do, however, nudging is good behaviour.
Buy graph paper and map out any non wilderness area first. Have two maps, a blank one you can share with the players (drawing it as they venture forth) and a master one that outlines all encounters traps and doors. Have city maps and what they can purchase here and for how much already laid out in the margins.
Know your players' characters. What are there goals and ambitions. Use that to allow your players to slowly grow their characters.
Dont be afraid of using cliches. They add familiarity to a spoken adventure.
You can try something like this:
It is a stormy night. Heavy rain pounds the ground outside and light is only visible when lightning streaks across the sky. You all have taken refuge in a three story inn. Strangers to each other, you all sit at different tables ordering drinks and food (ask the players what their characters would have ate/drank) listening to a bard perform (if a player is a bard, let them be the performer) for the light crowd.
Two gnomish servers go table to table, delivering food and clearing empty dishes while a human bartender stands behind a large oak bar dispensing drinks.
(Roll spot checks, if successful) As you listen to the bard perform, your eyes wander over to the large bay windows and the storm raging outside. As lightning lights up the night sky, you see figures slowly moving through the streets, towards the inn. You think nothing of it until another flash reveals the figures at the window pounding on it woh open fists.
(If failed) you are entranced by either your cups or the bard's performance that the storm outside is a distance memory. The wind is fiercely pounding on the window behind you though.
Then there is a loud smash! The window breaks and the rain and cold wind pour into the inn. You turn to face the commotion and see beings in different states of decay clamouring through the window. Roll for initiative.
~
With that, tone and the sense of adventure are set. The players goals are
1. To survive and escape the inn
2. To find the cause or clues to the cause
3. Stop the undead
4. Confront the cause of the dead rising and defeat it at the same time giving the players something else to do.
Running weekly sessions can be quite demanding, especially if you are trying to work/study as well!
We used to mix it up by playing a variety of RPGs with different settings: Traveller, Star Trek, Call of Cuthulu, Star Wars, Golden Heroes etc. Of course that was many years ago and many of those systems are extinct now. I believe Fantasy Flight are doing a Star Wars RPG though.
I tend to canabalise pre-made modules (especially free ones) to tell a story that more suits myself and the group. Another trick is to steel plots from old TV shows that you are certain your players haven't seen. 1960s Doctor Who is a good one.
when making your campaign, start it off relatively small, according to 3rd edition it should take around 13.33 encounters for your players to grow a level
now in my opinion that is pretty small I like to aim for around 20 encounters ( and maybe about 5 hoc encounters, ex: the players find and enormous chasm that is 10 miles long, 20 feet wide, and 300 feet deep with jagged rocks at the bottom, what do they do to get across? if they succeed in getting across I give them a small XP bonus)
also, when I do XP I do it based on the fighter table from 2nd edition, ( and the recommended tables from the DM's guide I just toss to the crows, but that is easier to do when you are a more experienced DM) and then when it comes to things costing XP, I just multiple it the cost by 10, its not perfect, but it works in my adventures
now the reason why im saying this is because I started working on an adventure last year that was going to have 4 major continents and one huge city in the middle, but the problem was, it was a huge under taking
I started work on the first continent ( which was made for levels 1-5ish) and it had "37 major areas" in it, and I only finished about maybe 20 of them ( which was about 60+ pages of adventure) and I never touched it since
it was going to be epic in every way, but it was such a huge daunting task, that I stopped working on it, although maybe some time this summer I might continue some work on it
so here are some pointers I would give on a smaller adventure:
as @deltago said, know what type of characters your players are going to make, and know what skills there are going to have ( jump/climb/swim/diplomacy/knowledge blah/ect) and have it so in your adventure those skills are useful to have, for example: if one of your players has the "use rope skill" ( don't remember if that is still in 3.5) have a couple encounters where that skill would be useful ( like a riggety old rope bridge for example that they need to cross the gorge and if they use their use rope skill they could fix the rope bridge up and cross)
next, class abilities, make sure the class abilities your players have are useful, but at the same time you don't need to smother them with their abilities, for ex: if one of your players is a ranger and he chooses vermin for example, you don't need to make every baddie a vermin, but maybe make 20% of the encounters have vermin in them, and if you are going to have "last boss battle" you could have your last boss baddie with 2 vermin side kicks sorta deal
and also on that note, again say if a player is using a ranger and he has track with racial enemy vermin, maybe make one of your quests have it so a type of vermin stole the mayor's prized necklace somehow ( or something of that caliber, and do your best to make it believable, maybe it could even be an enchanted vermin with "human like intelligence" that needs that necklace for some sort of spell - but initially the players wouldn't find that out until later sorta thing-) and now you have to go track it down and find it
-next you need your setting, I would suggest keeping things relatively simple, because this is the part where things become daunting,
-the area they start in should be a relatively small town but big enough so the players can get all the useful things they need ( perhaps a town the size of beregost for example)
-make it so the town has anything the players can buy up to around 500 GP in value ( so they cant buy magical gear right off the bat, but they can buy other useful things like wagons and horses and ladders and tools and masterwork gear and the such)
-I would suggest making the Inn the most popular building in the town where rumor has it that if adventurers want to make their living in the world that is the place to go to find work and the such ( you could also make it as well that if you want players to find "special quests" per se, they need to drink at the bar for an hour or so, and then patrons and the barkeep will start spreading rumors around, and perhaps if someone has the gather information skill they can use that to help find quests and the such)
and again as @deltago said, what are the goals and ambitions of your players? what type of characters are they making? what type of adventure do they want to play? do they want to play the typical hack and slash, kill cool baddies, get sweet loot and save the day adventure? or do they want to play espionage type adventures where stealth is required to steal the crowned jewels for a guild they wish to join? or do they want to play the sort of adventure where there is more conversing than killing sorta thing? so before you even start making your adventure you should see what play style your players want, so then you can properly gauge on how to even construct it
i'll let you guys know how it goes, at the moment it's easter holidays so i'm using the time to prepare my stuff before we play when back at uni.
cant wait to hear how it goes
Here's the first video in the series - http://geekandsundry.com/game-master-tips-with-matt-mercer-encounter-building/
You can also look through their entire collection of post broadcasts (http://geekandsundry.com/shows/critical-role/) and watch the ones that simply indicate they're about DMing. Although, if you ever find the time I highly recommend watching the campaign to be honest. All the players are voice actors who have done everything from big AAA title games to anime. It's also a chance to watch a really good DM in action.