New DM - mixing RP and Encounters

[Arros Winhadren]

Wall of text version
I DMed for the first time on Saturday and followed it up today. The game was pretty simple - I set the players (six of them, worshipers of Hextor) in a town, gave them an infinite number of "ugly, magical slave collars" and told them to raze the town to the ground. Enlsaving NPCs would get them bonus experience. Of course this quickly became a game of enslaving all of the NPCs, all dreams of pillaging and looting forgotten. Not that this is a bad thing, because it stretched out a game that shouldn't have taken too long into about 6 hours.

Here's where I messed up (well, where I messed up the most) - one player is both the thinker and the doer in our group, and so he commanded the party into action. Sadly, the only people he needed to do this was himself, the rogue and a fighter. Our other party members (druid, sorceror and monk) didn't have much of a role to play, and they didn't bother razing the town to the ground because he told them not too. So in a situation where just about any RP scenario is going to revolve around this guy, other people are going to find they don't have much to do. Now I talked to him about this, and he agreed to ease up, but he's still the goto guy when you need a plan. Our second session went better, but still seemed a little boring for some of the players (we had maybe two encounters in this session, but 25 guards, a cleric, 10 goblins, 4 adventurers, 3 adepts and about 640 commoners were enslaved through good Bluff checks and some metalworking). Now I know that my players like RPing, but the problem is that giving them too large of a piece of roleplaying pie leaves them uncertain how to go about eating it. Therefore, I'm planning for my next session to have a lot of combat, but I'd still like to get some RPing in there for that perfect balance. Any good tips for a newbie DM?

tl;dr version
What tips do you have for a newbie DM in terms of mixing Roleplaying and Combat in an average session?

And finally, what houserules do you, as a DM, refuse to play without?

[Egiam]

For houserules, well:
average hp/lvl
average starting money
25 point buy abilities
(I know that they are not really houserules, but they work)

Have the P.C.s find a prisoner of their enemies. Interesting RP'ing ensues if the prisoner has info on the enemies doings.

[Rinzy]

Hi there.

I’m currently 6 months in to DMing my first game, and at the start I had a little trouble getting RP and combat balanced out myself. My group has two people who are happy to role play all day long and two who are pretty much there to roll dice, so balance was really important to keep this group happy. It took a couple sessions, but with a little tweaking I got it going smoothly

I would suggest using the backstories and personality traits of the players who you are concerned about getting left out and try to come up with some plot hooks for sidequests and whatnot based on them.

As for balancing role play and combat, I’d say prepare a lot of encounters for various potential directions that the session’s plot could take. My players are unpredictable as all get out, so I never know quite what to expect! Roll up the planned, plot essential encounters and come up with a few ‘what ifs’ and some generic but logical baddies (goodies?) to toss in to the mix if you feel like you need a break from role play and need some action. For example, in my urban campaign I keep sheets for various types of city guards and whatnot on hand just in case :smallamused: That way your players can role play to their hearts’ content, but if things start to feel stale you have a lot of options, and hopefully those options will seem relevant to the plot rather than just ‘Random bugbears jumps out at you. What do you do?” over and over. Random encounters are okay sometimes, but they get old fast.

It also helps if you make every combat encounter slightly different, even the ones that aren't a huge deal to the plot. It makes each encounter a little bit more exciting ^^

I usually run a 3-4 hour session and plan for an encounter every hour or so to keep my players happy, but that’s just me. Your group may be very different, once you notice any patterns and get a feel for their tastes, that should help as well.


I hope this helped :smallsmile:

(I love the description of the first session, by the way. It sounds hilarious)

[valadil]

Give your players personalized plots for their characters. This does require a background for each character, but it's worth it. Players who like RPing will jump at the chance to play their section of the story, rather than letting the goto guy take over.

[Bosh]

They should be as integrated as possible.

The players should role play during combat (set up things in such a way as to make that happen as much as possible) and the combat should take place because of the way that the players role played.

[AslanCross]

I find that it's very difficult to control what your players do (and I don't recommend it), especially if not all of them are experienced enough to really get into their character. One of the PCs in my current campaign is a 20-CHA paladin who freezes up whenever he has to say something impromptu. :P

I think that roleplaying shouldn't be separate from combat---while they're fighting, they're still playing their characters, anyway. Have the opponents talk to them, taunt them, beg for mercy, etc. That way the players will be forced to talk even while they're fighting.

[Alaxi]

All of these posts are great advice, but as you use character develpoment and alternating plots, remember not to "powerplay" too much, or your players will get jaded hard and fast. I made that mistake once, and have regretted it ever since. I am currently working on a campaign in which I am going to run all my previous players individually. Will they cross over? Maybe. Depends on what they do. I use a new philosophy to DM'ing now. Don't tell then what to do, tell them what happens to them after they do something. Be a DM of consequence. Have a central plot idea, yes...but if they decide to roll a different direction, let them roll. If it happens that a very pivotal plot point coincides with a "sidequest", all the more fun. :-)


As for house rules...It doesn't matter what they are as long as the group is cool with them but...FOR THE LOVE OF JESUS-BUDDAH-ALLAH-GOD-SHIVA-(insert random deific figure here) be consistent! Don't change the rules just to suit you. I did that also. Bad juju for players. They might not play with you anymore.

Remember DM's. You are God. If something happens that the players want a "ruling" on, have them make a listen check. "Flaming Cows from Space" are very loud and hit like a truck. (And don't purposely try to kill characters, but I wholly endorse an idiot dying in game. *evil grin*)

Remember players, you are NOT God. Argue too much with the DM and fun will get killed faster than an elf in the lair of a hungry green dragon. If you want to understand a ruling, the Rules Compendium is great, but also.....there is the wonderful "Rule 0"...The DM is always right. When you are the DM, you have the power!

[bosssmiley]

tl;dr version
What tips do you have for a newbie DM in terms of mixing Roleplaying and Combat in an average session?

Have interesting opponents and personal nemeses. The sort of opposition that the players want to get one over on verbally even as they're schooling him physically. Errol Flynn/Tyrone Powers movies are good source here.

Another trick is to throw multiple situations at the players at once. The byplay at the table as they scream at each other for help, healing, reinforcements and the like is comedy gold for a DM. :smallbiggrin:


And finally, what houserules do you, as a DM, refuse to play without?

Point-buy stat generation
Re-roll 1s for hp
No CG Drow rangers allowed
Modified skill system
No divine metamagic cheese
Tome series or ToB combatant classes
Action Points
Declare actions quickly or lose them
If you roll the die off the table it counts as a 1

[Rinzy]

"Flaming Cows from Space"

Those were good times, Alaxi. Good times.



And I wholeheartedly agree with rerolling 1s for HP and declare your action quickly. I used to have trouble with the two casters in my group digging through three books and taking forever to declare their action, so I quickly started reminding them early or skipping them outright if the former didn't work. Nowadays Im using a dry erase board with the initiative order written on it so they *know* that their turn is coming, they'd better get ready.

When I have multiple monsters/enemies, I tend to roll their actions in advance and write them down when I can, to avoid doing that myself.