#DMing Advice

[iamthedukeofurl]

I feel like at this point the conversation has pretty thoroughly debunked the idea of the “Matt Mercer Effect”, where new TTRPG players exposed to the hobby through actual play shows like Critical Role end up expecting their random local game to be run with the same degree of focus and production value that they saw online. That said, I think there ARE some bad lessons that somebody whose primary exposure to the Hobby is actual play streaming might learn, mostly for GM’s. 1) A lot of the big Actual Plays I’ve seen tend to feature around six players. Critical role started with seven, and has a base cast of six with fairly regular guests. Six is generally considered to be the MAXIMUM amount of players for a TTRPG for a variety of reasons. It varies depending on group, GM, and system, but D&D at least tends to center on four players. 2) Actual Play shows are entertainment, players and GM are cast members trying to create an entertaining experience for the viewer. In an actual game, The GM’s goal is to entertain the players, not some hypothetical audience. A lot of actual play GM’s spend a lot of time and effort on lavish descriptions and NPCs, which are good things, but remember that the more time the GM spends talking, the less the players get to actually do stuff. If you’re watching an actual play it’s fine, since your experience doesn’t change that much based on who is talking, but for a player at the table, sitting there while the GM reads out six paragraphs of descriptive text or acts out some wacky NPC can get boring. 3) In an actual play, the players are financially incentivized to make the game an experience worth watching, this means they’re motivated to put thought an energy into the game. A local table game isn’t going to necessarily be that way, your players are often looking to relax and have a good time, they’re not necessarily going to write gripping backstories with lots of dramatic reveals, or show up with the energy, or even the theatrical skill, to do the sort of big dramatic roleplay scenes that form the highlights of a lot of actual plays. A GM first exposed to the hobby through actual plays might expect that a decent amount of a normal game is just players RPing with each other, and while that can certainly be the case, it’s not necessarily so. Even if that’s what your players want out of the game, they’re not necessarily going to be very good at it.

#critical role #dimension 20 #TTRPGs #DMing advice

[open-hearth-rpg]

One of the good things about running the community feed is that I get to boost some of my own work.

Age of Ravens: Volume I: Running

I've now released the first two volumes collecting work from AoR from last 14 years. This first one brings together my general and specific advice for GMing and running ttrpgs. This clocks in at 196 pages with 27 pieces.

You can pick this up on itch or DrivethruRPG

So what do we have in this book? The first part "Strange Things Seen Close Up" covers game specifics:

1. Mook Methodologies: how rpgs handle troops, minions, and masses 2. Teamwork Tactics: how rpgs handle help, aid, and support 3. Considering Complexity: thinking about how we judge crunch in play 4. Building and Setting Settlements: How recent games handle community building 5. Running Mysteries: planning and executing mystery scenarios 6. Factions in Action: using factions as a campaign cornerstone 7. Conspiracies: using conspiracies in rpgs 8. Conspiracy Sandbox: building an rpg campaign around open world conspiracies 9. Newb's Guide to Imaginary Wrestling a non-wrestling fan learns stuff to play WWW 10. Suikoden, RPGs, and Imaginative Space: lessons we can take from this jrpg series

Section two is "Pulling Back the Lens"

11. Seven Starter Stories: go-to inciting incidents 12. Running One Shots: tips & tricks for running these at cons or beyond 13. Selling the Setting the challenge of deep rpg setting 14. Hack the Table: the joy of quick hacking games and getting them played 15. Open Table: What the What: challenges & rewards of open table play 16. Gaming the Online Medium: ideas for making use of what playing online can offer 17. Multiversal Campaigns 1: conceiving and planning these campaigns 18. Multiversal Campaigns 2: more lessons 19. The Quickening: best practices for publishers presenting product 20. What I Like in Games: Saying Please: a wishlist of stuff in rpg books 21. Online Con Management: lessons for running large online events

Section three is wide range stuff "The Eye in the Sky"

22. Five Faces of the GM: a quintet of game facilitator roles 23. Pandemic Brain: Breaking the TTRPG Reading Block : how I stopped worrying and learned to grok rpgs again 24. Community Lessons: key lessons learned from running for my online community 25. 23 Lessons from RPGs: what I learned from every rpg I ran in one year online 26. 33 Tips for Running Online: specific advice for running rpgs online 27. How To Run 200+ Sessions With 25+ Systems In One Year: a run-through of my process

If that sounds interesting to you, I hope you'll check it out.

#ttrpg #rpg #gming advice #dming advice #age of ravens

[sarahscritfail]

the best piece of dming advice I ever got, which is not mentioned almost at all in most advice videos. this one piece of advise has made me leave tables because dm’s didn’t do this. It is to ALWAYS be your players #1 fan. this doesn’t mean that you make their lives easier, because normally our favorite characters / hero’s go through hell, but it centers your relationship to your players/their characters in a very healthy way that keeps moral and storytelling up at the table. celebrate their successes , revel in those nat 20’s even though it took you three hours to plan for this boss fight and it’s done in 20 minutes, find them and the stories they come with interesting. the most overwhelming part of dming is thinking that you’re the one telling the story, and this takes a lot of the pressure off of you and can also make the story you’re telling 10x better.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd5e #TTRPG #dungeon master #game master #dming advice #dnd advice #running games #dungeon master advice

[shadowkat678]

So a player floated the idea of running a DMing workshop for both new DMs and game masters looking for areas to improve. What would you guys suggest thinking about for it?

I run games as my full time job, and one of my players and I were talking this week about how many people are coming into the hobby and not knowing how to start with DMing or really pick out their style and the type of games they would thrive on running. This is something that I'm thinking about running for either free or cheap, to be clear, because I think it'd be fun and I really like helping out other people in the ttrpg space.

The idea was floated and encouraged that it might be cool to do a sort of DMing workshop idea. There's a lot of videos, books, and other resources about getting started, but with how many people post their questions here on Reddit or elsewhere it feels like maybe a lot of people are looking for a way to get more interactive and personalized advice, which is fair.

A couple of my players across a few games expressed interest when I shared this in our server and I'm thinking about having a demo test run. I already had more of a free formed beta version with one player.

I'm thinking mostly I'd want it driven by the needs of whoever would show up, but I'm making notes and outlines for certain topics that could be referenced back to, and am thinking about additional ways to work in some other forms of interactivity like maybe a short improv practice. I know the on the spot decision making tends to be something a lot of newer game masters find more daunting.

But I also thought it would be fun to bring it up in a few ttrpg communities I'm in. I'm thinking about mostly making this system agnostic and focusing on underlying skills that could help in any system.

Examples like the important points of description setting, how to handle conflict at the table, how to find a style that fits the DMs strengths, ways to structure a campaign, more efficient prep for what the dm is aiming to do, and places to look for game resources as ones I know will likely be big.

#dungeons and dragons #ttrpgs #dming advice

[cyanomys]

Hey TTRPG nerds

Anybody got recommendations for indie ttrpg youtubers? I'm looking for content that is broadly not D&D-specific, and not actual plays. So, video essays/reviews of games, how-to-plays, GMing/playing advice, game design, etc.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #youtubers #tabletop games #tabletop #video essays #how to play #game master #dungeon master #DMing #GMing #gaming advice #indie youtube #help me find

[whereserpentswalk]

Hey, I need a ptba (or ptba like) system to run for like two to six weeks between the end of one long campaign and the start of another. Please reblog with your favorite ptba game.

#196 #rpg #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #gming #dming #rpg party #game master #pbta #powered by the apocalypse #rpg advice #rpg community #ttrpg community

[harrytheehottie]

he was actually very crazy in 2019 like INSANE

#what do you mean he was commenting on fans ig pages and dming people therapy advice 😭😭😭😭 HUH

[kordbot]

the one thing that no one told me about college is that there are people who like you

#showed up for dnd earlier today and had a couple people from my friend group be like ''kordian is here!! :D'' #like there are people who just genuinely like my company. and are excited to see me. im literally a part of a group rn #im so not used to that this is awesome did you guys hear about this #we had 2 dnd groups in our room today and we were just making our chars and bc this is my first time I was just kinda-- #--going around asking my friends who played before for advice bc my friend whos dming was busy #and i got some help from the other dm bc his group was mostly done and afterwards he told our dm that he has really cool players #so like. i got a good grade in player today sunglasses emoji #also we went to get food afterwards and when we were leaving another one of my friends said im looking very handsome today U_U #i dont think anyones called me handsome before. woah. did you guys hear about having friends this shit is awesome

[theminecraftbee]

hey, just a heads up, got a dm from someone called chichipooh who was trying to invite me to join what seems to be an app called “mascot” as a verified writer. i don’t know why they would ask me - mascot appears to be a roleplay platform and i pretty definitively Don’t RP these days - but given that it was an app and i’m unwilling to download things from the app store based on the word of random tumblr dms i couldn’t check more information about it than what was on the app store. they did seem to have done enough research to at least know i did writing about minecraft, and to come in starting by complimenting my characterization and asking if they could ask me a question about it, reads more like a real person targeting people than a bot targeting people, but still clearly targeted. blog when i then went to check was empty except for like, four likes of random anime art. soon as they lead into the pitch for joining some app i turned them down and blocked them, obviously, but this reads like... if not targeted phishing (which app SEEMS to be real so maybe not phishing), targeted some kind of marketing, so like... be on the lookout for that i guess??? i don’t trust this kind of thing.

and if you’re someone who for some reason thinks its a good idea to pitch me something in dms: don’t?????

#idk what to tag this just want to put this in the world so if you get a similar dm you know that's a marketing pitch #and not like. someone genuinely dming you to ask about writing #i was all ready to be like 'yeah let me give solicited writing advice' then it was a pitch for an app i had never head of #it doesn't SEEM to be a bot it SEEMS to be a real person but that doesn't mean it's GOOD #and even if they're a real person they aren't a real user if that makes sense #not when they follow like ten blogs and have like two posts on their blog #anyway cybersecurity person in me says 'lol yeah not downloading that app' #and the review saying something about the accounts requiring a phone number (?????) didn't help

[shallow-wordsalad]

indulge in clichés. it's ok to use clichés and tropes fill gaps in character dialogue, story beats, or scenes. familiarity breeds attachment, and it makes focus on the highlight scenes that much more powerful. and it saves you mental energy to develop the more unique parts, rather than having to reinvent the wheel to get characters moving.

#creative writing #dming #i just dmed a short one-off #where i played to dekairobo and sentai tropes #it let the player highlight their own character by developing them against the backdrop of common archetypes #went super well #i barely had to make any notes for the arc #mutants and masterminds #dm advice #writing advice

[craigofinspiration]

Which comes first?

The story or the characters?

slyflourish.com

pointsofinspiration.com

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #dungeon master #dm tips #dnd5e #dm advice #pathfinder #fantasy #dungeon master tips #sly flourish #lazy dm #dnd character #d&d #d&d homebrew #game master #dming

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

serious d&d DM question, how do I tell a player that they are acting more like a co-DM/DM than a player and its not working for the campaign. (Explanation under cut) Any advice would be appreciated.

-

So I am currently running a dnd campaign and one player refuses to share their character backstory with me or anything else that they want to incorporate into the story, which prevents me from adding it to the story like they want. So when it comes up in a session they interrupt me to take the story-telling reins for themself, effectively stopping me and the other players from continuing with establishing plot together. And its annoying me (And other players) a lot because I know nothing of their plans and in the past when I've told them that certain things couldn't work because of plot I've already established, they have gotten angry at me.

Most recently they have been setting up something (A trap or monster? I'm honestly not quite sure) within a house they are staying at in game (They have told me nothing of this prior and interrupted me during game to explain what would happen) and they expect me to go along with it when I have expressed that when they interrupt me and try and bring the players on their own side plot is not a cooperative playing style. This player has also attempted to leave the party several times already which everyone has expressed displeasure over.

I don't know how to approach the topic with them gently (I'm not very good with tone) and am not sure how they would react if I told them flat out. I feel a little out of options, advice is welcome.

#camera dms #camera talks #i really love dming and i think this group is super great but this is really dragging down my mood while doing it #maybe im in the wrong since i'm a newer DM but im not sure #dm help #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dm advice #dm tips #tw vent #sorta feels like a vent sorry #please message me privately to respond to this if you don't feel like rbing or replying btw

[dearsheroozle]

can you share a little bit about how you started playing dnd? i really want to find people to start playing a campaign with but i’m not sure where to begin.

so what happened was a friend asked me if i would want to watch some critical role with her because campaign 2 had just started, and i knew how much she loved it so i agreed. i really enjoyed it, and had a pretty good time, and not too long after that my other friend asked me if i wanted to join her dnd game that she was running. and i agreed because i thought it might be fun to try because critical role made it look pretty fun. and i wanted to roll dice.

it's been about 6 years since i officially joined that campaign. and we're still going! just played a session yesterday.

the way i joined dnd was really just sheer happenstance, because i had friends who wanted to play and i love being convinced to do things with people that don't involve me leaving my house.

i think roll20 had a thing where DMs would go searching for people to join their campaigns? not entirely sure how that works but i think you can try it out with a free account iirc. i think also adventuring leagues in game stores welcome new players too.

it's probably tough, i'm not gna lie. i got really lucky that i found a group who was willing to stick it out for this long. scheduling can definitely be tough sometimes (holidays are a nightmare. sometimes we go so long without playing!), and it definitely got harder the busier (older) we all got. but we've somehow made it work with 3 different time zones in 3 different countries.

i have also played in a couple other groups, though life has been getting in the way of them, so i really only have one dnd 5e campaign right now. here's hoping the other ones can return soon.

i think if you're not sure where to begin, maybe start by asking some friends who you think might be interested if they would want to play with you? this does mean you might have to DM. that's really what tends to happen. otherwise, maybe trying out some online games and meeting new people could work too! that's worked for some friends of mine. there are def a lot of videos i've watched that talk about this if you're curious too. like how to get started, and where to start, etc.

good luck!

#anonymous #dnd #i kept this tied to 5e bc that's what i assumed you were asking about #i am also playing pathfinder 2e currently #tho it's far crunchier and i am still tryna get my bearings most of the time lmaoooo #idk if any of my friends here who see this have any other advice #or any of my followers really anyone is allowed to respond here #but hey Megan thank you for getting me into CR and Jem thank you for inviting me to play and then DMing for me love you both lmao #also sorry it took me an entire day to respond to this i was in pathfinder session when this came in sdglskl #we were heisting!!!

[thunderandsage]

a bit of advice when running combat:

Let’s say enemy’s AC is 17 and a player rolls 12 to hit

DO NOT say “that misses. moving on to the next player—”

DO say “you slash your sword across the beast’s flank, but its hide is too tough for your mortal blade”

OR “you fire the spell, but the bandit dodges gracefully out of its path”

former assumes high AC bc of natural armor, latter bc of high dexterity—whatever makes sense and whatever makes the game more interesting

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #adventures in dming #dm advice #combat

[whereserpentswalk]

The problem with how people run dnd and pathfinder isn't a problem of people running a combat game as a story game, it's the problem of people running game systems that make the core assumptions of Conan as if they made the core assumptions of Lord of the Rings.

#196 #my thougts #rpg #ttrpg #rpg design #gming #dming #5e #dnd #d&d #pathfinder #fantasy #conan #lord of the rings #dms #rpg advice

[educationaldm]

As someone who started DMing when I was 10, it's sometimes difficult to give advice on how to get started. Pointing to others' advice/ tips can be helpful.

#DMing #Dungeon Master #Games Master #Advice #Tips #Starting #DnD #D&D #Dungeons and Dragons #TTRPG #Tabletop #RPG #Roleplaying Game