[3.5e] DM Questions

[HunterOfJello]

I have two fairly broad questions about DMing 3.5e D&D that could probably apply to most RPGs. I'm DMing a gestalt 3.5e game right now for 2 friends and am trying to improve the way I do things. I've run two campaigns before this one, but this campaign has lasted significantly longer and has been more fun overall.


1. What are some effective ways to run a hack and slash campaign?

I've pretty much determined that the players enjoy hacking and slashing far more than other game elements. Puzzle solving is alright as long as it doesn't last too long and isn't some type of trap that would normally require a scouting rogue to avoid. It is an evil campaign, and the players seem to have a tendency to show respect to evil NPCs and a desire to masacre all good or netural NPCs. (It's amusing to watch sometimes.)

Right now I'm going to try to improve my battle descriptions during fights to spice things up, work on creating more varied settings for encounters to take place in, and try to set up better combinations of enemies for them to fight against. What other elements are important for a fun hack and slash game?

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2. How can I make DMing or playing d&d as a DM more fun for myself?

In the long tradition of DM's since the beginning of time (or 1st edition), I happen to be stuck in the role of the eternal DM. I enjoy DMing the games, but I never get a thrill out of it and I never enjoy it anywhere near as much as the handful of times that I've gotten to participate as a PC.

DMing can often turn into a headache with game issues or become stressful when I'm not as prepared as I wish I was or not able to make up new characters, places, information, or descriptions on the fly.

It's hard to tell if I have problems that are stopping me from enjoying the game, am simply missing out on some key aspects that would make the game more fun for everyone (DM included) or if I'm just not cut out to be a DM.

I put extra time into the last two sessions, but once they came around I didn't enjoy myself at all. Hanging out with friends and providing entertainment can be good, but if things continue to be consistently less enjoyable per session, I'll probably end the campaign.

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TL;DR

1. What are some effective ways to run a hack and slash campaign?
2. How can I make DMing or playing d&d as a DM more fun for myself?

Makes more sense with the explanations, but answers are appreciated either way.

[Hyudra]

Can't comment too much on hack & slash, as I rather like roleplaying. That said, I think a big part of it is that you should strive to keep the battles interesting. Enemies that use tactics, have unexpected abilities/items, interesting battlefields, etc.

Consider a hack and slash campaign that takes the group to Mechanus, where battlefields might include rooms that change configuration, fighting atop sets of gears that rotate (and move the group/enemies in doing so), or fighting while standing astride the parts of a gargantuan mechanical creation that plods down the landscape.

If your players are drawn to hack & slash, it's likely they are very into their characters' growth and development. Don't neglect this. You can feed their egos as people begin to recognize them or share tales of their exploits as the campaign wears on.

As far as enjoyment... well, it sounds like you're getting too bogged down in the nitty gritty. I might suggest a more on-the-fly approach. Instead of building stories and getting derailed, work on building individual encounters, that work independently of one another. So instead of plotting the session with encounters A, B, C and D, you just make up 4 encounters, then use them as the situation requires. Provide enough general conflict in the setting as a whole, and things shouldn't get stagnant or boring.

Speaking for myself, I get the most enjoyment as a DM through the villains. I enjoy setting my players against seemingly unwinnable situations and watching them persevere through their own merit and creativity. For this reason, I usually give special attention to my villains to make them stand out, and make them memorable to my PCs. Each villain gets their moment to shine, which is important (both to how they come across to the PCs and to my own enjoyment), and I usually get a pretty positive response from my groups.

Which leads me to suggest, perhaps you're getting bored because the players are getting interesting characters to play with, and you're playing with boring old rank & file monsters. Mix things up. Make monsters interesting to you, and they'll be interesting to your players. Keep statistics the same, but change the flavor; an ogre can be aesthetically changed to a grotesquely fat biped with a pig's head and shaggy black mane. A squad of goblins could have bird's faces (beady black eyes, beaks) and crimson feathers. Change some skills and feats around, employ some tactics (perhaps your revised ogres are led by a chief with dungeoncrasher levels & has feat/skill tricks to buff his underling's charges, making for brutal heavy hitters. Your goblins might fire arrows from tree branches). It's not so hard to change alignments around. Your beak-faced goblinoids could be chaotic good, for example. The point is, the adventurers don't necessarily know what they're up against, (barring a knowledge check), so the players shouldn't either. If you're anything like me, you'll enjoy watching your players try to figure stuff out and deal with the situation you've set before them. If it's no longer mindless hack & slash, you might find your own interest piqued.

[Salanmander]

I would try varying the amount of information you give the players beforehand. Send them into the depths of an uncharted tomb one time, and give them a map of the high-security compound they need to get a relic from the next. It means sometimes you can have fun describing the wonder of new things, and sometimes you get to see the players figuring out how they want to tackle a situation.

I think you hit on it basically in trying to provide variety. It keeps both you and the players entertained by preventing anything from getting too stale. If you realize that some aspect of the game is always the same, change it up!