Poll of the Day > Going to be DMing my first DnD game this Sunday.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I sure hope it goes well. It's taking a lot of prep to set the initial thing up.
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Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.
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Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

It entirely depends on the group.

shadowsword87 posted...

Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

It entirely depends on the group.

Sure, but better to be prepared for it. It happens.
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Mead posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

It entirely depends on the group.

Sure, but better to be prepared for it. It happens.

Yeah, I've always been a fan of the small sandbox style, so I can't really help with that.
By that I mean I have a small writeup of the area, major NPCs, and what the PCs need to do, and just let them play how they want to.

Sliding in her dms huh

Good luck
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Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

Yeah, I've decided to just start them inside the first dungeon to make it a little easier on myself. I don't exactly want to go "The bartender tells you of a dungeon to the north." only to hear "Let's go to the city." when the dungeon was all I had prepared.

That said, there are some NPCs they can talk to inside the dungeon, but none of them are necessary to talk to or follow.

shadowsword87 posted...

Yeah, I've always been a fan of the small sandbox style, so I can't really help with that.
By that I mean I have a small writeup of the area, major NPCs, and what the PCs need to do, and just let them play how they want to.

Yeah, this game is going to be pretty sandboxy. I hope my improv is good enough.
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It goes down in the DM
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shadowsword87 posted...

Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

It entirely depends on the group.

This is true however it's still a good idea to have a few back up plans just in case. Remember sometimes players do things unintentionally that can mess a story up without actually trying too.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Mead posted...

Be prepared for them to try and fuck up everything you have planned. Have a contingency ready.

Yeah, I've decided to just start them inside the first dungeon to make it a little easier on myself. I don't exactly want to go "The bartender tells you of a dungeon to the north." only to hear "Let's go to the city." when the dungeon was all I had prepared.

That said, there are some NPCs they can talk to inside the dungeon, but none of them are necessary to talk to or follow.

shadowsword87 posted...

Yeah, I've always been a fan of the small sandbox style, so I can't really help with that.
By that I mean I have a small writeup of the area, major NPCs, and what the PCs need to do, and just let them play how they want to.

Yeah, this game is going to be pretty sandboxy. I hope my improv is good enough.

Be prepared for the players wanting to go back to town for additional supplies and/or information.

"Maybe we should just kill this npc since he has the thing we need? Then we don't even have to do the quest" -that one player
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Sensual_T_Rex posted...

This is true however it's still a good idea to have a few back up plans just in case. Remember sometimes players do things unintentionally that can mess a story up without actually trying too.

The story is so vague, I don't think it's possible for them to mess it up. I'm aiming to make it about the players' stories rather than about my story.

AverageBoss posted...

Be prepared for the players wanting to go back to town for additional supplies and/or information.

I'll try.

Mead posted...

"Maybe we should just kill this npc since he has the thing we need? Then we don't even have to do the quest" -that one player

Shouldn't be a problem for me.
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Ahhhhhh. Someone already can't make the first session. This is a bad omen.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Ahhhhhh. Someone already can't make the first session. This is a bad omen.

Flaky players is a surprisingly common problem. Really fucking frustrating since as DM you do 95% of the work, and then someone doesn't even bother to show up. Too often, they won't even have the decency to give you notice that they can't make it, at least this guy did.
It's much worse online than actual face to face. My campaign I had three people I knew previously who were solid and there every week, but the 4th and/or 5th player (party size varied) was a constant problem for a whole damn year. Went through so many inconsistent/unreliable people before I finally found another good player.

SmokeMassTree posted...

Sliding in her dms huh

I came in to make this joke
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streamofthesky posted...

Flaky players is a surprisingly common problem. Really f***ing frustrating since as DM you do 95% of the work, and then someone doesn't even bother to show up. Too often, they won't even have the decency to give you notice that they can't make it, at least this guy did.
It's much worse online than actual face to face. My campaign I had three people I knew previously who were solid and there every week, but the 4th and/or 5th player (party size varied) was a constant problem for a whole damn year. Went through so many inconsistent/unreliable people before I finally found another good player.

Yeah, getting everyone to show up and lining up everyone's schedules so that they can show up certainly seems like the hardest part of DMing from all the games I've been in.

I don't really mind that he did say he can't make it since he did give advance notice, so much as it's the first session, so I'd really like everyone to be there for introductions and everything else.

I'm trying to see if I can find a time that everyone can make it, at least just for this week because of that. But I'm having difficulties, because at least for now, I have to speak through a proxy as I don't know how to contact the guy.
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Woohoo. My improv wasn't awful in parts that I didn't write out ahead of time. Apart from me desperately trying to figure out what was in a chest as they opened it that I forgot to fill with loot I'd say it went pretty well.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Woohoo. My improv wasn't awful in parts that I didn't write out ahead of time. Apart from me desperately trying to figure out what was in a chest as they opened it that I forgot to fill with loot I'd say it went pretty well.

Snap reflex is a goblin skull bomb should be in the chest!
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Woohoo. My improv wasn't awful in parts that I didn't write out ahead of time. Apart from me desperately trying to figure out what was in a chest as they opened it that I forgot to fill with loot I'd say it went pretty well.

I just use the DM's guide for random treasure when I'm too lazy to figure it out ahead of time. It's a good time waster to allow for people to refill drinks while I "figure out what the treasure is".
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

It's taking a lot of prep to set the initial thing up.

Here's a few super tips I've learned in my years of DMing.

Give the illusion of choice in your game if your players want challenge your plots and maps.
You can still use your encounters you have planned if your party decides they want to build a submarine and go completely out of your expectations just do a quick re flavoring and move the encounter to where they are.

Don't be afraid to halt the game to prepare or to have "cutscenes" if you need to set up a scene. Players may try to challenge you on this (don't say no, just let them roll and pretend like they are affecting the scene somehow, sometimes in ways nobody ever expected). Maybe your plot involves the princess being murdered by an assassin sent by a foreign govt but the party wants to fight the assassin or somehow would prevent your story from taking off.

Something like
"Before you stands a massive tower, the tower where the princess is being held captive you assume, and atop it are two shadows. One is that of the princess, but the other you do not know. Roll Perception (or do it yourself in secret). You DO notice however that the shadow is fast approaching the princess and unsheathes a vibrant blade that lights up the dark sky. The princess seems to be unaware and the figure stabs her in the back.-"

"Wait, I have a free round of attack in every situation and can't be surprised. I fire an arrow at the assassin."

"He's pretty far away but go ahead and roll"

"I rolled a 10"

"Your shot remarkably makes it to the tower despite the high winds and the assassin sheaths his blade vanishes."

Then once they get to the top of the tower have them find an arrow in the princess's neck.
Also a chamber maid saw the whole thing and your archer is now accused of murdering the princess.

This is why I can't play this game. Because I can't help but not take these things seriously and will thus try to fuck up everything.
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Lightning Bolt posted...

Snap reflex is a goblin skull bomb should be in the chest!

That could have been fun. They were bashing open all the locked chests.

Dynalo posted...

I just use the DM's guide for random treasure when I'm too lazy to figure it out ahead of time. It's a good time waster to allow for people to refill drinks while I "figure out what the treasure is".

We were playing Pathfinder and I'm not sure there there's anything like that for it.

knivesX2004 posted...

-snip-

As a player, I'm not really a fan of cutscenes or taking away player agency, so I'm going to mostly avoid doing that.

Certainly can (and was planning to if need be) change and reflavor encounters as it took me forever to build the first dungeon. Shouldn't be too difficult to nudge them in the direction where I have things though as I told them one of their character's goals beforehand and had them create a backstory around that.

Smarkil posted...

This is why I can't play this game. Because I can't help but not take these things seriously and will thus try to fuck up everything.

Meh. It can normally work out in the end.
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Maybe make the party all bards, all just trying to make their way their concert.. but on the way they solve a crime in a spooky mansion in a small village they stopped in.. Basically, the plot of a gory, Scooby-doo episode lol; sans the hijinks... xD
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

That could have been fun. They were bashing open all the locked chests.

In my campaigns, it's typically a good rule of thumb that any chest that is locked is also trapped. (I usually don't bother putting traps on chests unless I feel it's exceedingly obvious - eg. in an otherwise empty room you see a lone chest on an altar, illuminated by a single beam of light)

Or I let them smash it open and then tell them that they broke the various potions that were in them, and the liquids are beginning to combine and are starting to give off noxious fumes.
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We just played our first game last night (with a new DM) lol.

I almost messed everything up by trying to investigate the quest given and her husband when I got to town (It was a trap), then I figured out there was a secret passage in the basement (way before he wanted me to). Meanwhile the DM's wife is our cleric and the first boss/bad guy we encountered took her out in 1 turn (luckily he just had her be unconcious and not dead so we brought her back with goodberries).

Meanwhile my Babarian halfling only has a 9 int, so I've been trying to bite my tounge and not make smart suggestions (like...lets get out of here, we are obviously being framed!!).

Anyway we played for like 5-6 hours last night, was quite fun. Good luck with DMing, our new DM did quite a good job over all (even if my investigation initially should have turned up that the NPC that contacted us couldn't read or write lol....turned out she had already been dead a week anyway (But nobody knew that yet), but they would have known she couldn't have written all of us herself.
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Melon_Master posted...

Maybe make the party all bards, all just trying to make their way their concert.. but on the way they solve a crime in a spooky mansion in a small village they stopped in.. Basically, the plot of a gory, Scooby-doo episode lol; sans the hijinks... xD

Characters and setting are already decided, so maybe next time.

Dynalo posted...

In my campaigns, it's typically a good rule of thumb that any chest that is locked is also trapped. (I usually don't bother putting traps on chests unless I feel it's exceedingly obvious - eg. in an otherwise empty room you see a lone chest on an altar, illuminated by a single beam of light)

Or I let them smash it open and then tell them that they broke the various potions that were in them, and the liquids are beginning to combine and are starting to give off noxious fumes.

I'll keep that in mind and have it break the potions in the future and other fragile objects inside next time.

wolfy42 posted...

We just played our first game last night (with a new DM) lol.

I almost messed everything up by trying to investigate the quest given and her husband when I got to town (It was a trap), then I figured out there was a secret passage in the basement (way before he wanted me to). Meanwhile the DM's wife is our cleric and the first boss/bad guy we encountered took her out in 1 turn (luckily he just had her be unconcious and not dead so we brought her back with goodberries).

Meanwhile my Babarian halfling only has a 9 int, so I've been trying to bite my tounge and not make smart suggestions (like...lets get out of here, we are obviously being framed!!).

Anyway we played for like 5-6 hours last night, was quite fun. Good luck with DMing, our new DM did quite a good job over all (even if my investigation initially should have turned up that the NPC that contacted us couldn't read or write lol....turned out she had already been dead a week anyway (But nobody knew that yet), but they would have known she couldn't have written all of us herself.

That's pretty awesome. It sounds like a pretty fun game.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Characters and setting are already decided, so maybe next time.

If you do, let me know how it goes! :D
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