Last weekend, I started a 4E campaign for my son Nolan and his friends. The plan is to take them through the entire Keep on the Shadowfell module, and then probably into Thunderspire Labyrinth, with possible detours into various level-appropriate Delves, or something from Monte Cook's awesome new project, Dungeon-a-Day, if it makes sense to incorporate it into the campaign. All week, I've been posting about the session, and today I thought I'd wrap the whole thing up with some thoughts about what I learned from my first time behind the screen as a Fourth Edition DM.
As you can probably tell from my posts this week, I had a lot of fun running this game for my son and his friends, and I can't wait for our next session, which is when we'll actually begin The Keep on the Shadowfell.
If you've followed along in the comments this week, you know that I made a lot of rookie DM mistakes. Luckily, none of them were the kind that broke the game or ruined anyone's good time, but I sure made them. I knew that would happen, which is why I started us all out in a 3-encounter dungeon delve instead of diving right into the module that will be the starting point for our campaign. All this week, with the benefit of hindsight and without the pressure of players at the table, I've gone over the things I learned, and the mistakes I made during the session.
Today, I wanted to share some of the things that came to mind, as well as some other things from a lifetime of gaming that I hadn't thought about until this week. My hope is that this will be useful for DMs and players alike. I'd love it if you'd add your own comments, if anything related comes to your mind while you read this post.
First of all, in spite of our mistakes, we all had a lot of fun. As far as I'm concerned, the session was a HUGE SUCCESS as a result. The whole point of playing an RPG is to have fun while engaging the imagination, right? Mission accomplished, and not in the fake George Bush way.
Mostly, this session reaffirmed some of the core concepts that all DM guides share, from GURPS to T20 to D&D and beyond. Among them are surprise! Fear! Ruthless Efficie – wait. Sorry. That's wrong. Put down the soft cushions and I'll try again.
Among those concepts are such diverse ideas for DMs as…
Whenever you can, say yes. D&D is essentially a collaborative storytelling effort, and the best way to encourage everyone to contribute to the the effort is to take their input, and say Yes, and… This is something we drill into beginning improv comedy students, for a good reason: nothing derails someone's creativity faster than telling them, directly or indirectly, that their idea is stupid. You take their idea, say "Yes, that is a lovely hat, and it also has something tucked into the hat band!" This keeps the story moving forward and encourages everyone to feel safe taking risks, and just suggesting an idea can feel very risky to more people than you'd think.
Now, I don't mean that you let the players push you around, and you certainly don't let them do things that are dangerous or risky without serious consequences, but you nobody likes being stuck on rails and pushed around in the cart.
Example: At the beginning of our session, one of Nolan's friends wanted to climb a tree and look around. There was no need to do that, but the tree was there and it seemed like something for him to do, so I let him do it. I even had him roll athletics to see how high he could climb, and let him make a perception check when he got up there. He didn't roll very well, but one of the kobold slingers in the tower saw him, and told his allies about the intruders. This leads into…
Everything is important to the PCs. Don't mention it, don't put it on the map, don't even bring it into their minds unless you're ready for them to do something with it. Think about this from their point of view: they're trying to build the world in their heads, and you never know what's going to grab their attention. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's this: they will ignore bookcase you've spent a ton of effort stocking with cleverly-titled tomes of great knowledge and a hidden lever that activates the secret door, so they can focus with laser precision on the box you put in the corner, because you had a cool tile with a box on it or something. Of course, it's not the end of the world when they do that; you can either nudge them toward the bookcase, or simply move the lever next to the box.
This is even more important when you have NPCs. I keep a little folio of NPCs handy, just in case the blacksmith I thought would do nothing more than sell them an axe ends up being someone they decide to visit all the time for some reason or another. SPOILER ALERT: In this campaign, I'm using the missing mentor hook. I built more of a backstory for Douven Staul and his connection to the PCs than the text for Keep on the Shadowfell provides, and I have a feeling they'll want to interact with him if they find and release him. In case they decide to cut his bonds before all the bad guys in that encounter are dispatched, I've stuck a 3rd level NPC warlord into my bag of tricks, so they can enjoy the thrill of fighting by his side, if they want to go that way.
Listen to your players, and they will tell you what they want to do. Even if they don't come out and say it directly, they will reveal a lot to you with their actions, and you can tailor the game a little bit to make them happy.
Nolan wanted his dwarf fighter to mow down lots of bad guys, so I sent lots of minions toward him whenever I could. His friend who played the rogue wanted to do rogue-y things, so I turned a set of closed doors into a set of closed, locked doors. His other friend, who played the wizard, was excited to play, but seemed intimidated by the complexity of the whole thing. I remember feeling that way the first few times I played, and I was certainly anxious to be simultaneously running my first 4E game ever and sitting behind the DM screen for the first time in years, so I could relate. I made a concerted effort to put him at ease, and after we'd been playing for a little while, I could see him settle down and relax. As a bonus, it helped me relax, too.
Reward clever thinking. As a player, I want to feel like I'm a mythical, heroic character who can do things in a fantasy world that I'd never be able to do in the real world. When Nolan's friend wanted to leap around the wyrmling, I could have simply told him that was impossible, but since nothing is impossible in D&D, I just made it very difficult. Had he failed, he was going to find himself dazed and prone at the feet of a very angry creature.
You can also use rewards, like little XP bonuses and NPC reactions, to encourage roleplaying, if that sort of thing is important to you (like it is to me.)
Keep it simple, especially if you're just getting started. I have this idea for an epic campaign, where the forces of Darkness and Evil are gathering to invade the world. Yes, it's as original as the color blue, but it gives me a reason for everything to happen. The events of Keep on the Shadowfell are tied to it, and it's simple enough to modify other modules to reflect this larger story that I have in mind. I love the idea of foreshadowing, and while there's a little bit of that built into Shadowfell and Thunderspire, the farthest I was willing to go with my first session was the suggestion that some of Coppernight's companions were kidnapped. (Irontooth may mean something to some of you, if you catch my drift.) I could have overdone it with harbingers of doom and stuff, but I'm saving that for later in Shadowfell, when the cultists really get going. I'll drop hints if it seems appropriate, but mostly I'm keeping this simple until I have more experience running things.
Know where you're going, but be flexible. By having some idea about where we're all going, but not
overdoing it, I leave myself a lot of room to branch out into delves or
other adventures, like the totally awesome Rescue at Rivenroar from
Dungeon Magazine #156. In fact, depending on how Shadowfell goes, I may
slide the PCs into the Scales of War campaign at some point, because
it's a pretty awesome story.
The more descriptive, the better. But didn't I just say keep it simple? Yes, but these things aren't mutually exclusive. While I can keep the story simple, I can still work hard to make the encounters more than moving figures around and rolling dice. For example, Nolan used a power to rip his maul through a pair of minions who were adjacent to him. He hit them both, but instead of just saying that, I told him, "your maul crashes through its head, streaming blood and gore behind it as the power of your swing carries into the other one. Their bodies fall to the ground with a wet thud."
When the rogue rolled particularly well with a ranged attack, I told him, "your dagger whistles through the air toward your target, and catches it in the throat as it lunges toward you. Its eyes widen and glaze over as it falls down, dead."
I also added smells, sounds, and anything else I could do to make the tower they were in really feel old and decaying. It helps that I've read more fantasy genre fiction than I'd like to admit.
Don't be afraid to improvise. When it looked like the final encounter, which should have delivered the greatest challenge, was going to be a cakewalk, I just looked at some stat blocks and added a few more creatures to the encounter so it would feel more climactic. I knew I had the cleric back in the cell, and if things got really, really bad, he could figure out a way to race in and save the day (as a general rule, though, I don't recommend doing things like this too frequently, or your players will figure it out and act accordingly.)
Preparation is key. I could improvise, stay flexible, and say "yes, and…" because I'd spent a lot of time preparing the session. When you decide to DM a game, you're in for a whole lot of fun, but you're also assuming a tremendous
responsibility. A good DM can overcome a bad system or module, the saying goes, but nothing can overcome a bad DM. The best way to ensure you don't become the dreaded "bad DM" is by taking this responsibility seriously, and investing – that's right, investing – time to prepare your sessions. Read all about your monsters, understand their roles (Brute, Lurker, Controller, etc.) and pay attention to the tactics the module's author tells you to use. In our third encounter, it says that the wyrmling is willing to catch a few kobolds in her breath weapon, if it means getting all the PCs. When she did, the kids were all surprised, and realized that she meant business. Without the tactics that told me to do that, I probably wouldn't have done it.
Get an official DM Screen. I think it's worth getting an official DM Screen, because it's filled with useful charts and tables. I saved a lot of time that I would have spent digging through the DMG and PHB because I had that right in front of me.
I recommend making index cards for each player and group of monsters, and using them to keep track of initiative order. On the PC cards, I wrote the player's name, and the character's class, race and name. It's a little thing, but when you use character names and descriptions instead of a player's name, it makes a difference and keeps the world alive, while encouraging the players to think of their characters as actual people, instead of stats and minis.
Never forget that you're doing this to have fun. 'nuff said, true believers!
Finally: The first couple of times you play, keep notes when you're unsure about things, and spend some time with the DMG and PHB after the session to see if you could have done anything differently. After you've done that, write about it in your blog so other people who are more experienced than you will share their own insights.
I hope you've enjoyed this week of D&D posts; they were a lot of fun to write. Now seems like an appropriate time to sponsor myself, and plug my shirt.woot design, which features polyhedral dice and science.
Whenever you can, say yes.
Better yet, “you want to do that? Ok, ROLL FOR IT!”.
As long as you’re clear about the worst possible consequences of a roll (you could die if it doesn’t work, or whatever) then this is some of the most fun that you can have in a gaming session. Because players will have their characters do some of the most damn fool things, and when they get away with it, it’s a heroic moment.
I had a great game with my (now) brother-in-law many years ago playing Star Wars (original D6 version). He played a Jawa, and cranked up his engineering stats so high that he kept getting past my plot obstacles by taking thing apart and fixing them. Which worked out well, and made for good roleplaying. At the end of the adventure, he made a really stupid decision in the middle of a firefight, and blew the roll, which meant that he got blasted at point-blank range by an anti-vehicular cannon. He ultimately lived, but that thinking outside the box almost got the character killed.
Great days, great days…
@wilw – awesome! It’s always nice to come away from the screen with that flushed “Yes!!!!” feeling that you just did some awesome gaming.
@Craig – “you want to do that? Ok, ROLL FOR IT!”. QFT. That’s exactly what I learned from a DM at a recent ConGame when I too “gained a level in gaming” – Rient’s Rule #1: When in doubt, roll d6. All questions will be answered, all conundrums resolved, all mysteries solved with a “something in 6” chance.
I’ve been DMing for a group of people for a loooong time. We have a pretty difficult time being comfortable in groups outside of our own – so we’ve played almost exclusively together for almost a decade. The thing I got the most benefit out of from both your posts and the PVP/PA/You podcast was listening to how another group does it.
Chris is a remarkable DM. He managed to keep pace, and keep the story moving, all while encouraging creativity and providing suggestions that didn’t seem terribly intrusive or leading. My party routinely ignores tactics, and it often gets them in a lot of trouble. I tend to weaken the encounter so as not to bruise their egos along with their characters – but listening to Chris and this showed me it’s okay to threaten their asses a little bit as long as it’s done with a deft touch and not as “evil shenanigans.”
Thanks for the insights. I hope you’ll keep it up.
I’ve tried to run a few campaigns in my time (though this was Exalted), the one part where I really fail at is preparation. I have an idea in my head of where I want it to go, but I’m not the best at improvisation, so if I haven’t prepared enough, the session lacks.
Maybe I’ll try running a module instead of coming up with my own story and work it out from there.
Thanks for your insights on DM’ing, Wil.
Looking forward to the next session!
Something that could enhance things for the younger players would be to add some tactile options into the game. This can be as simple as making a small card for bits of treasure they find. If you only do it for the important pieces it will break them out from the rusted sword the goblin was using. It will also allow them to pass things inbetween themselves as they are discussing who will be able to use it best.
I have also seen a DM use little piles of plastic bits that looked like piles of coins, a sword, a goblet, etc. to represent treasure. I think they were bits from a toy store or dollar store, but you can also buy bits from Reaper miniatures and the like to paint up and use.
Hey Wil,
I just wanted say thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve really enjoyed reading your insights into DMing.
I’m also slightly saddened, I hadn’t played D&D for years but we’d finally got a group of people together to play again regularly, just as I decide to move half way round the world.
Anyone know a roleplaying group in Manila?
Wil,
Between this blog and the current Acquisitions podcast, I’ve learned a few of the DMing errors I’ve been making, which is great timing.
My current group has been playing in the Delve Night games that the RPGA is sponsoring, but we’ve all started to grow hungry for something more substantial. We’re getting ready to engage the Scales of War path ourselves.
I’ve been DMing for years, but it’s been a while, and it’s great to get back into it. I’m realizing, though, what some of my shortcomings were when I ran games at a younger age. You’ve certainly got some of the most important things pointed out above.
Regarding the DM screen: The new screen is by far the best D&D official screen I’ve ever seen. I like the materials, I like the information layout, and the actual information itself.
I ran a Paranoia game ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game) ) a number of years ago, just to get a feel for the system. As part of the “Visit R&D to Acquire Questionable and Lethal Items” I gave my players actual physical objects that they were supposed to hang on to. One poor player in particular got a sock full of pennies, which I described to him as “A bag of 500 copper discs”. He had no idea what to do with them, and I gave him no guidance, so he hung on to it throughout the entire adventure.
Of course, this being Paranoia, at the end of the adventure, I asked him to account for all 500 copper discs. It was only then that he realized that he had accepted them without counting them, and was therefore (in the Computer’s eyes) responsible for them. Of course, I had no idea how many pennies were in the bag, but I still had him executed for failure to preserve Computer property. Nice thing about having six lives, you can kill PCs off a few times and not feel too bad about it.
I find that being as original as the color blue is great for a campaign. I love introducing classic ploys and twists that you would find in almost any fantasy novel to a setting and find that the players really enjoy them. From the ah-ha moment they get when they have figured out what is going on, to the “I should have seen that coming” moment they get when they don’t catch it till afterwards, it really immerses the players in the world. Not to mention that once you have established that you do this, throwing a curve ball at the players is that much easier and unexpected.
Well, that was a lot of fun, as I said on the last post
I hope this continues in the future! There is something more… organic and approachable to real lie games. More than most authors can capture.
And as a DM, and hardcore roleplaying enthusiast, I really think you did a smashing job. You seemed appologetic to what I assume were comments about when you didn’t “follow the rules”… but thats is BS. In my world, D&D has no rules, just guidlines. and MOST important is the story and danger, not which die is right.
I will even admit to having not kept track of HP for bad guys when the encounter is more about story… or to ensure that the very last hit on the big boss isn’t 2 points of dmg from sand in the eyes.
Last bit of advice, if I may, is that the reason real life matters is because it could end at any moment. and that is the single BEST thing about D&D. you can die, and its OVER. I have seen characters die, and send ripples through the group. Sometimes its not a big deal. But sometimes it stops the session. AND THAT IS OK! Cause being sad, is part of it. “Your characters are so thrown that you stop to regroup… Let’s order some pizza while she makes a new character.” … what I am getting at is… someone has to die, i think, for them to realize it can happen.
we had a wall in my college apartment. It was FULL of character sheets from over the years, we would often stand and reflect and laugh and wonder.
… but I am a DM on the side of the player, one who thinks death HELPS them enjoy it.
ok, stop typing about D&D jeff
Jeff
Well said. I ran Keep for my first time behind the screen in years and I had similar experiences. But after the first few sessions and my constant nagging of the players saying, “Did you have fun? How’d I do? Are you guys bored?” And they kept insisting they were having a great time, I realized that I was actually doing very good and I’m just hyper-worried.
You did comment that you should look up the rules and stuff afterwards. I encourage my players to write down any issues they might have so they can bring those up after the games for our discussion on our forum. The more that you and your players are on the same page about rules, the less you have to worry about said rules.
Can I recommend a book to you? I had nothing to do with writing it, publishing it, or… well… anything at all to do with it. As far as I know, I’m several degrees of separation from anyone that was involved. However, it was recommended to me, and it has proven to be an invaluable asset as a GM, full of little tips and tricks, as well as big hints and how-to’s!
Play Unsafe:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/play-unsafe/1436677
As soon as I read your first point “Whenever you can, say yes” I thought of this book. It’s small and handy, and you’ll read it over an hour or two, but it’s a book I’ve gone back and read time and time again, especially just before I start a new campaign.
And it’s worth reading for players as well. It has lots of general gaming tips that can be useful on both sides of the GM screen.
You, sir, are a genius! I am soooooo stealing this idea next time I run a game of Paranoia. I almost wet myself laughing.
Here’s a big one: Plan the encounter, not how it ends. In other words, set the scene but don’t plan how you see it as ending. Players, regardless of age, will always surprise you. Let them. It often leads in unexpected and awesome directions. It’s a helluva lot more fun for everyone than trying to fit how things occurred with how you wanted or would like them to.
As someone else said, to quote Burning Wheel RPG rules, “say ‘yes’ or roll the dice.” If it’s fun for the players and/or moves the story forward but isn’t a contested issue or a hand-out for the players, just say “Yes.” Otherwise, roll the dice in normal checks. For instance, in your climbing the tree to look around example, had there been no kobolds in view who could have seen the player, the best thing would have been to just say “Yes, you climb the tree and have a better view of your surroundings. You get a +1 to your Perception check.” Rolling is irrelevant because it’s something fun the player wants to do and has no real mechanical consequences. (Again, this would have applied had there not been kobolds there to see. I think what you did (the Athletics roll) was important because there were kobolds who might see him and the roll mattered.)
I said it before but I’ll say it again: Let the players describe their successes. You describe their failures and the successes of your critters. First, it’s less work for you and, second (and most important), it engages the players and encourages creativity and roleplaying. Share the narrative.
Keep having fun, Wil! If you and the players are having fun and keep having “AHH! Cool!!” moments, nothing else really matters.
All of this stuff is precisely why my friends and I played RPGs back in the day and why I don’t play the MMORPGs today (WoW, Evercrack, City of Heroes, etc). Hmm…maybe I should get back into RPGs.
The thing that I always kept in mind echoes what Jeff said, only more bluntly: If the rules start to get in the way of a good session, screw ’em. Playing 4e and someone wants a class that WoTC hasn’t gotten around to bringing forward? Use the old version with some tweaks. There’s no point in having someone play a class they don’t want to be because there’s no “official” support.
That’s the best part about PnP…the ability to change the rules when players get into a good groove. It creates moments that last for years, like dropping a wall of Iron on a beholder, and watching the DM almost cry at the monkey wrench you just threw into his plans, but he goes along with it, because dude, it was so cool.
quick aside: I’m also terribly grateful to you Wil for that link to all the classic modules. I deal, all too often, with people for whom RPGs are WoW/DDO and nothing but. I find a quick run through S1, Tomb of Horrors, quickly disabuses them of the notion that PnP is just a slower version of an MMORPG.
There is nothing better than watching a party of DPS-obsessed players see their uber-tanks decimated before they’re 5 rooms into the dungeon. That dawning look of “Oh no, we have to actually PLAY our characters, not just mow stuff down” followed, a few hours later by “This kicks the heck out of computers…so THIS is why you prefer PnP” is always enjoyable.
amen to that, andy
When i played WoW, i went right for an RPPVP server, for the most realism and robust RPing… what a eff-ing joke! The best RPing experience i ever had with a video game (and I LOVE video games) was when WoW crashed for a couple days and someone started a RPing thread in their forum, we just typed in and chracter developed for a couple days… it was awesome.
WoW sucks… and I am not flamming it. What a waste of potential.
Awesome post, Wil. Your story about the rogue searching for traps reminded me of the game with my son (recounted on p. 28 of the DMG!) where he wanted to search for a trap and decided there should be one.
@Rafe: Yes, definitely encourage the players to take part in the narration of their actions. The best way to do that is by setting a good example. I ran a game for my son’s 12th birthday party, and watched his friends slowly get drawn in to taking responsibility for their own narration, following my lead. Plus, there’s a sidebar in the front of PH2 encouraging players to do the same… 🙂
Thanks for a week of great reads, Wil!
James Wyatt
Great advice for newbie DMs, people just transitioning over to 4E, and experience DMs, ’cause we can never hear some of these things enough.
I’ve often thought taking some acting/improv classes might improve my DMing.
I look forward to reading more blog posts about this campaign. It sounds like an awful lot of fun, and a great experience to have as a family with friends.
Wil,
Thank you SO much for this post. I’m running an OWoD Changeling game, and this will help me a LOT. I’ve got quite the group of characters, and I am going to print this out and keep it near my sourcebooks. (I hope you don’t mind!) It’s actually fairly inspirational, thank you!
Rafe,
For instance, in your climbing the tree to look around example, had there been no kobolds in view who could have seen the player, the best thing would have been to just say “Yes, you climb the tree and have a better view of your surroundings. You get a +1 to your Perception check.” Rolling is irrelevant because it’s something fun the player wants to do and has no real mechanical consequences.
I disagree with you on this point. The players very quickly figure out that when the DM is paying attention to their nodes and rolling dice a lot, that they’re on the right track, but if not, then they’re going in the wrong direction. I find this to be another form of railroading the players. I think it’s healthy to throw in rolls, both on the table and behind the screen, that don’t mean anything. It could be a perception roll from an unseen enemy. Or a reaction roll by an unseen NPC. Or nothing. If you always roll in certain situations, then I think it helps keep the world alive because there are things in the world that don’t have anything to do with the PCs (yet).
I’ve gotten used to rolling behind the screen for everything, all the time, no matter what. If the DM doesn’t do that, it’s a huge tell, like someone who only plays with their chips when they have a hand they like. Good players pick up on that sort of thing.
Thanks Wil. A good friend and I are getting our kids into D&D now. He’s running the campaign and I’m doing my best to lead the party and help him out at the same time. We’ve both made all of the rookie mistakes as well. We’ve both played PnP RPG’s for a while but have been out of it for over 10 years. 4E was a good way (and excuse) to start playing again and pass on our love of the game to our kids. We’re both being pestered when we go for more than a week between sessions. 🙂
I’ve also noticed that our game is considerably different w/ 8-10 year olds than it is with adults. He’s been doing a fantastic job tailoring the content for the kids and making it fun for them. We’re almost done w/ Shadowfell, and a few items stuck out for me.
1. We lost our NPC Dragonborn Paladin. My 8-year old son’s character (a Dragonborn fighter) vowed to carry him out of the Keep so that he could be lain to rest properly. I know that this was more a reflection on him versus his character, and it made me shed a tear.
2. Our party managed to capture Balgron w/out much of a fight. All of the kids were devastated when said NPC paladin killed him after we had him bound and defenseless. The DM realized that he didn’t make him sinister enough, but we managed to talk about how some situations require the eradication of evil and try to pass along some parental wisdom at the same time.
Our DM is a fairly regular reader of your blog, but I’m going to point him at this particular post. There are some very valuable nuggets in here that we’ll both use when running our campaign.
Jeff
Wil-
It’s absolutely your fault that I woke up this morning and had a backstory in mind for my Level 1 Human Paladin, who I played exactly once for the podcast. I even gave her a legitimate reason for all her infamous diplomacy rolls.
Maybe if you didn’t make it sound like so much fun, I wouldn’t be pestering my cohost to DM me again. Which he doesn’t really have time to do and now I just really really really want to play. 🙁
YOUR FAULT. STOP MAKING THINGS AWESOME.
Actually “good” players will intentionally ignore that sort of thing. As they realize that the DM sometimes wants to show, and sometimes doesn’t. Metagaming is pretty frowned upon in our game.
Woohoo, I created an account here so now I post as “Eric” rather than some long stream of gobbledygook. Anyway, one thing I would add to the great information you’ve already posted Wil, is this. There is a great combat initiative pad I bought a while back (http://www.openmindgames.com/omg_products.htm) that is incredibly useful. I personally have somebody else keep track of initiative sometimes, which allows me to pay more attention to the action itself. But this is an indispensible tool for any DM in my opinion. You might want to check it out Wil. Its magnetic and you can use wet erase markers, so no wasting note cards. Everything else you have said though is really good information. When I’m DM’ing, I run a very loosely organized campaign. So far nobody has objected, but I agree totally with you in that players should be able to do pretty much whatever they want, as long as they understand the penalties or dangers in certain actions. And as a DM, you should be mostly prepared for whatever.
The players very quickly figure out that when the DM is paying attention to their nodes and rolling dice a lot, that they’re on the right track, but if not, then they’re going in the wrong direction.
I think you have completely misunderstood me, Craig. Please read my comment again. Regardless, you’re saying that rolling dice keeps them on track but not rolling and simply describing doesn’t? This is fundamentally untrue. I’m talking generally about description over rolling, not the idea of making up rolls to cover for inconsequential ideas (such as making the player think there’s a real consequence to how well the player rolls to climb the tree).
If you ask for a roll for everything they do, descriptions will falter and people will simply say “I roll X” for everything. You won’t have a roleplaying game — you’ll have a rollplaying game. In my opinion, roleplaying > rollplaying.
If players are in an inn and wondering what folks are talking about, it’s much better to have a player say “I lean back in my chair and listen casually to nearby conversations to find out what sorts of things the people here are interested about.” than it is to have that player say “I roll Perception to find out what quest we can do next.” Why roll? Let’s say there’s a hook to be found. They fail the roll. Okay, guess that’s over with (unless you fudge it and give it to them anyway, which still leads to…). What was the purpose of not saying “Yes” instead of rolling dice? Even if there’s no hook, enlighten the player(s) with short descriptions of people lamenting the weather, the lack of trade traffic from Anwood, the reasons for the fletcher spending the evening in the stocks, etc.
I’ve never played D&D, but between your posts and the podcast games I would really like to start. Sounds like a lot of fun.
I do something that’s kind of a meld of role- and roll- playing in these circumstances: I have my players tell me what they want to do, describe their actions as evocatively as they want, and then I make the checks behind the screen to see how well they succeed.
There’s been a great series in the last few issues of Dungeon about roleplaying skill challenges that I bet you’d enjoy, Rafe.
James!
I hope you’ll get to read this comment: thank you so much for everything you’ve brought to D&D. I have gotten more joy from your work than I could possibly put into a single comment here.
I hope we get to play together some day.
Wil
Wil; I read your list, thinking about the various ways each of these rules could be applicable to parenting. And stepped from there to management 🙂 ( I’m not a manager but I could see someone using them as tools to train a manager ). But as parenting tips, they’re right up there with “don’t shake the baby, but shaking up the teenager is ok.” 🙂
when you use character names and descriptions instead of a player’s name, it makes a difference
That’s a really good one. As a player, I always refer to my character in the third person, so I can say stuff like, “I think this guy has got to be a vampire or something, but Tim is a hard-nosed reporter who doesn’t believe in the supernatural, so sure, he’ll accept that party invitation … ”
It’s not as cheap as the index cards, but you can get a little metal backed whiteboard to use for initiative. You can use small magnets with the PCs names and Monster 1 through N written on them and move them around really quickly, as well as keeping a scratch pad note of things on the whiteboard.
Wil, It’s great to see some thoughts on 4E. I have had some concerns about some of the changes in the new edition and DMing is always a challenge. It’s wonderful to hear about a father\son campaign, it gives me hope for the future of D&D.
I’ve started yesterday as a first time DM ever. (Well, “Referee”, as we’re playing Traveller).
It has some quirky rules about initiative (There are several ways of changing initiative during a round. Gah.)
Edit: I think I’m going to make cards for all parties in a fight and just put them in front of me. I’m going to need a screen of some sort…
I only have 3 players in my party (4 next week) so I’ve made 4 signs with 1-4 on it, to keep track of their initiative, at least.
As for “When you use character names and descriptions instead of a player’s name, it makes a difference”, I really noticed yesterday that my players were lightly shocked to find out that a NPC knew so much about them, referring to their names and all. Heh heh heh.
I love reading these tips and descriptions.
Wil, this has been some of the most fun reading on your blog for me. The images of a good DM and the players surrounding him have me remembering the fun I had years back with the “Good DMs” and the experiences from them. Good luck with the campaign and I can’t wait to hear more about their adventures!
We do something similar in my neck of the woods, with a large whiteboard. We draw the grid on the whiteboard, use colored markers or dice for players and creatures, and have a running list of initiative on the side. A bonus of this is you can write next to the initiative list status conditions characters/monsters have. So for example, “Monster X (13) Marked by Player Y / Quarry of Player Z / Bloodied” would be a monster with initiative 13 who is marked, quarried, and bloodied (Ouch!) Since status conditions can get pretty extensive, this makes keeping track a whole lot easier. Also, this means you can use as many or as few miniatures and map tiles as you own (lay tiles among the grid for difficult terrain or other notable things; use miniatures for players but not monsters; etc.)
Always allow your PCs to do stupid things too. As an example, we were playing a Star Trek campaign at one point. In this campaign, they had just gotten into a firefight, incinerated the resultant bodies and then were looking to frame a 3rd party (yeah I know, it was a dark Star Trek world). As such, one of the of the PCs commed the ship’s science department and said (and this is a quote) “Beam over 800 pounds of Betazoid DNA”.
Now, what they MEANT to say was “Beam over enough DNA that makes it look like there were previously 800 pounds of Betazoids in the room”.
So after a brief, “Um, are you sure, sir?” from the science officer on duty, which was confirmed…gallons upon gallons of a DNA liquid were beamed over into the room. To this day, this is remembered as one of the funniest moments of our RP together (go ahead, imagine it in your head, you’ll see why).
Point of this post is that I agree with Wil, always say “Yes” to your PCs.
We’re still playing 3.5, but we also use the position of the magnet to indicate things.
Pushed over one notch = readied action.
Pushed over two notches = holding action.
You could probably do something similar. Move a notch for bloodied. Turn it upside down for delayed a round (stunned/dazed etc). You could probably even attach little magnets with status conditions if you wanted.
Yeah, one thing I do is to make sure I write the PC names rather than the player names on the initiative chart. Helps me stay in the habit of using those rather than the player names 😀
Very true. Task (the roll) and intent (what you’re trying to accomplish, aka description of what you want done) are quite important. That said, simply allowing something to happen without a roll is also important in that players don’t always feel they have to compete against something every time they want to engage with the world. It’s a delicate balance for sure. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be as much fun. 🙂
I’ve read up on those skill challenge articles. The skill challenge system is a great one. It’s also a perfect example of what you’re talking about; namely, the combination of rolling and describing. Good (and valid) description of how you’ll use a skill in the challenge? Use it!
Oh yeah, also, try to limit super-technology where you can.
Again in the Star Trek world, transporters are a huge problem. There’s a reason GURPS rates them many TL higher than things like phasers and shields. Pretty much any problem can at some level be solved by a transporter. It can beam people into/out of any jam and can be used as a pretty ridiculously powerful weapon if you have a bunch of evil PC/NPCs.
In any event, in one game, we did the whole random “body swap” transporter thing. And, though I can’t remember how it happened now, they were in some way interacting with Q. A different PC than above asked Q to fix the body swap thing. Q agreed if they’d agree to “never use the transporter again”. Because people generally like to dick around with omnipotent beings for whatever reason, they agreed, knowing full well they were lying.
So, Q fixed the problem and in the process also removed all transporters from all Federation facilities in the galaxy. The PCs were pissed, and of course the NPCs eventually reinstalled transporters, but it was a good break from a super technology that can ruin any game.
Sounds like the kind of game I’d really enjoy – and having been D&Ding since the mid 70’s, that saying something ;>. My kid is working on her first campaign – can’t wait to play in her world :>.
Spacedog: check the military base nearest you – best chance of finding someone with a western sense of gaming (which D&D really is) – then get some locals you meet involved and spread the love ;>.
Great tips! I had to chuckle at “everything is important to the PCs”. I ran a campaign once in which the PCs were being spied upon by an NPC who was meant to add to the story, but be killed off rather quickly. Instead, the PCs decided to knock out the NPC, tie her up, and take her to an abandoned watchtower outside of town to interrogate her. It ended up being really interesting, but I had to do a lot of thinking on my feet to flesh out how the NPC would react and how to make it rewarding for the PCs without giving away too much of the story to come. Luckily for me, the PCs failed a few bluff/intimidate checks which gave me some breathing room.
Excellent post about the campaign & excellent advice.I hope you keep posting about this ongoing campaign.
Quick question – did your games with Mr. Perkins & the PA guys help in your DMing? I presently run 2 lunchtime games & play in one & I’ve found that being in front of the screen really help with my time behind it. And I can blow off some steam as a player for a change. 🙂
-jefferson
Hey Will I’m loving this series of posts. I’ve never participated in a tabletop game let alone DMed one but after looking into 4th Edition and listening to the D&D Penny Arcade sessions I find myself in the bizarre situation of being the only person in a group of friends who actually wants to DM. So I’m desperately reading everything I can get my hands on that will give me an idea of how to not screw it up. It’s exciting and bloody terrifying at the same time.
>_>
<_< Psst. What if someone had 6"x4" index cards for all the monsters and their stats, ready to be printed up? What if they had spaces to fill out Initiative, HP, and Conditions? What if someone made these available to fellow DM's and legitimate owners of published material at no cost on a kind of of internet journal of some sort? Just sayin' . . .
Slightly OT, I actually found some good parenting advice in the thoughts you shared here, esp. “Whenever you can, say yes.” Thanks Wil, happy gaming. :’]
The transporter created SO MANY problems for me with my Trek mangas, cursed it many times.
You’re totally right: it can easily become the hand of god, and take all the tension out of a scene – or even an entire episode.
Oh yes. Playing with Chris and the guys in Seattle made all the difference in the world.
In fact, I don’t think I would have had the courage to take on the DM role for my son and his friends if I hadn’t played in the Penny Arcade game.