how do you dm? [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

flare X2

2011-04-05, 12:29 PM

Zaranthan

2011-04-05, 12:52 PM

First, you stop kicking that poor apostrophe in the teeth. What did it ever do to you?

1. Generally handing out the loot is the players' problem, not the DM's. You just tell them "there's two longswords, a crossbow, a ring, and rifling through their pockets turns up 36 gold and 22 silver between them." The players worry about who gets the ring and how much gold and whatnot. The only concern you may have here would be making sure everybody's playing fair. If one player gets an expensive magic item, and another gets a cheap scroll, the player who got the scroll should probably get a larger share of the raw money.

2. One of the defining characteristics of any gaming group is how they handle XP and advancement. The common practice is to simply figure out how much XP each PC earned at the end of the session. When they've got enough to gain a level, your group decides if they want to use training rules (where the characters have to spend time practicing and learning their new abilities outside of general adventuring) or if you want to just have their numbers go up the next time they camp for the night (simpler, but some players find it a bit silly to suddenly learn a new spell out in the wilderness).

3. Keeping things moving is one of the primary challenges of DMing. You've got to find that dynamic where you're keeping the players engaged without talking over them. Doing this well comes with experience and experimenting, so just go for it and see how it goes!

Techsmart

2011-04-05, 12:54 PM

Okay I know the title's ther'y broad but I do have some specific questions:

1-How do you destribute/divided loot? (i'm finding this murder, especialy because most of the current loot is via items)
2-How do you distribute xp/make sure poeple lv'l up?
3-How do you keep your sessions fluid?

any general help would also be appreceated, and remmember that i'v only DMed for little under a month and haven't been the player in any games.

1 - I give the party the loot and let them deal it out among each other. Most of the players are smart enough to say "Oh, the fighter could use this," or whatever is appropriate. They also know to give magic things to the wizard to identify before they make a final decision.

2 - I have 2 approaches. The first (also the easier one for both players and dm) is to have a "group XP." This helps everyone keep track of levels and whatnot. At the end of sessions, I just calculate what I would give to one person (standard dmg for combat XP, then I usually add/subtract from it based on roleplay and teamwork). The second method is that I give out XP per dmg for combat at the end of each one, and roleplay at the end. If you weren't in that combat, or not paying attention, too bad.

3 - I try to cut down as many time-consuming tasks as possible.
No laptops, since they are big distractions.
We go in a corner of the student center, nobody comes except the players.
If a rules question comes up, and an answer isn't know off-hand, DM makes the ruling, and we can look it up later to be certain. Rules lawyering requires you to look it up in 30 seconds or less.
This one is a personal choice, and I can understand why many dms don't do it, but I simplify initiatives. The PC team has one initiative, the enemies also have a single initiative. The pros are that it shortens initiatives to rolling 2 die and saying "PCs, your turn." It also encourages the team to plan together, no "not my turn, not paying attention," so you don't have to stuggle getting peoples' attention. The biggest con I see is that if one goes first, all go first, which makes things less realistic in 4-on-4 type matchups. I'm sure there are other cons, but I'm also sure someone will bring them up.

McSmack

2011-04-05, 12:55 PM

You'll find several other threads with advice in them around the boards here, so feel free to look around. There's lots of good advice to be found.

But to answer your questions. Here's how I personally do things.

1. I typically let the party handle that. Loot is usually just setting around for the players to take (either in a chest, in a room, or off a body) so I don't involve myself too much in who takes what. I use the Weath By Level chart (DMG 3.5 pg 135 I believe) and make sure they stay generally close to that. There's also a handy average treasure value by EL (Encounter Level) that really helps when I don't feel like rolling up random treasure. I occasionally throw in handy items that I know one character might need. But for the most part I just give them loot which they sell and then buy what they want.

2. I honestly don't bother with XP, a lot of people don't. I tell everyone to level up once I feel they've moved the plot along significantly (for my games this happens about every 3-4 sessions).

3. Keeping the sessions moving is something that comes with experience. Each group has their own pace, some like things slow and some prefer non-stop excitment and battle. I find that asking your players for feedback really helps to judge what they're looking for out of the game. Other than that there are some very simple but profound things that will help you run a smooth game.
- Know the rules. Nothing kills a session like having to stop to look up how to do something. For some reason this is usually a turn undead check. This applies not only to basic rules but to your monsters abilities and the PC's abilities.
- Write stuff down. jot down notes during the session to remind you later about what happened. Having this knowledge on hand will help you keep your players immersed because you aren't fumbling around trying to remember the name of the town blacksmith or whatnot.
- Don't be afraid to say "no". But make sure you have a reason for saying it, and not just doing it to make your job easier. Basically don't be heavy handed with the DM fiat.

I could come up with more but I've got to drop the kids off at the pool.

Tyndmyr

2011-04-05, 12:57 PM

Okay I know the title's ther'y broad but I do have some specific questions:

1-How do you destribute/divided loot? (i'm finding this murder, especialy because most of the current loot is via items)

I leave the loot lying about. Typically randomly determined in advance. When, as usual, the players find it, they determine how it gets distributed. Different groups have used different methods.

2-How do you distribute xp/make sure poeple lv'l up?

Individually, as per RAW. I do use the adjustments that result in more xp for lower leveled people, as you should. Helps people keep up.

3-How do you keep your sessions fluid?

Copious amounts of Mt. Dew.

Dr.Epic

2011-04-05, 12:57 PM

I make Adventure Time's plot look like Lord of the Rings.

BRC

2011-04-05, 01:00 PM

Gamer Girl

2011-04-05, 01:01 PM

1.Loot-In general, you just say what is there and let the players decided how to distribute it among themselves.

2.Experience-Towards the end of the game, say the last half hour, stop and award XP and let the players level up. You can also do this at the start of a game, before the game starts.

3.Fluid-This can be hard. And it does depend on what you want.

Some general tricks:

*Greed.Give the players something to strive for in the game. Money, items, or whatever. Temporary magic works great, even better if it's powerful, like a elixir of strength +10.

*Keep the game focused on the characters. Avoid plots that deal too much with the world. Keep the characters as the stars.

*Throw in spice as needed. If the players slow down or get side tracked, then just change things. Should they take a wrong turn then just have them find a gate back to the path. If they look bored, go for a random monster attack.

*Don't be a slave to the storyline. If the story has the life gem in the red cave, and the characters spend six hours in the blue 'decoy' cave....and would find it has no treasure, then just switch caves.

Tyndmyr

2011-04-05, 01:10 PM

Oh, I award all xp at the end of the session. I have it all calced out on a per-encounter basis, but giving all the xp at once avoids mid-session leveling, which is a huge distraction.

I allow nearly everything in the books in most games, so leveling between game is not a problem, and people need not bother me to ask permission for every little thing.

TOZ

2011-04-05, 01:11 PM

1. I'll mention immediately useful items when they find them, but coins and other monetary rewards get counted after the session is over. This keeps the game from getting bogged down with needless accounting.

2. I don't use XP. Since I'm running Paizo adventure paths, I have the characters level up at predetermined points in the module.

3. I keep it fluid by letting the players lead the session, but nudge things away from snarls that will stop the flow. Usually when someone asks me if a rule works a certain way or if someone should/should not be able to do something by RAW, if it can't be resolved in a minute, I tell them we'll go with it and look it up after the game.

GeekGirl

2011-04-05, 01:17 PM

1. Like everyone else seems to do, I generally just give a list of the loot, and let them divide it up. Unless some specifies looking a corpse I'll give them that separate.

2. I just keep notes of what they do during the night, whether thats monsters killed or good role play, and calculate everything during the week. We meet on Sundays, I can usually finish XP by Tuesday or Wednesday and let everyone know were they stand. Which leads me to the next question

3. I found as long as I keep them moving with the story, the night moves smoothly. Most distraction occur when i lost my place in my notes and need to look something up, whether that be rules or story.
I also like to cut down on distractions. My laptop is the only one on the table and only because i keep my story notes, copies of character sheets, and encounter sheets there for quicker reference. Everyone else can have a laptop just not up, and only to be used for checking rules (which they are all really good with). I think i have it easy with this too, we only have 4.5-5 hours once a week, and everyone wants to get as far as they can in the story per night. They do a lot of the work of staying on task by themselves.

big teej

2011-04-05, 06:14 PM

Pigkappa

2011-04-05, 06:23 PM

Okay I know the title's ther'y broad but I do have some specific questions:

1-How do you destribute/divided loot? (i'm finding this murder, especialy because most of the current loot is via items)
2-How do you distribute xp/make sure poeple lv'l up?
3-How do you keep your sessions fluid?

any general help would also be appreceated, and remmember that i'v only DMed for little under a month and haven't been the player in any games.

1 - As for the first answer by Zaranthan. I usually don't choose the treasure considering the classes and wealth level of the characters.

2 - I calculate the XP between sessions. The XP is divided in 3 parts: roleplaying + encounters + story.
Roleplaying: 150 by default, 0 if someone played really bad (e.g. we once lost a sessions because two players wanted to change their characters and instead of just telling me, their characters spent the whole session acting as idiots until they got killed; those characters got no roleplaying XP), 300 if someone did something interesting (happened just once up to now).
Encounters: usually half the XP in the DMG table.
Story: depending on what they have done and discovered. If they know there's something going on inside a lighthouse and they just go there and kill everything, they'll get less Story XP than if they had also discovered what was going on exactly. There's no real algorithm for this.
Leveling (levelling?) up is in their interest, and they usually do as soon as I let them (no leveling up if you are in a dungeon or in extreme hurry).

3 - I'm extra focused and the current players are decently focused too, so that's not a real problem. When there were players who brought their laptops, or boyfriend/girlfriend players, that was annoying.

Shpadoinkle

2011-04-05, 08:29 PM

1: Um... the players decide who gets what, not the DM. Non-issue. However, if there's a noticeable gap in the party due to who has what stuff, I'll try to throw in a couple items that would be useful for the guy lagging behind the others.

2: I do it by the book. I find there are minimal, if any, problems when you do it this way. If somebody pulls out an exceptional moment of roleplaying, I'll give them bonus XP, but due to the way the XP system works the result doesn't last indefinitely.

3: I don't know anybody who's successfully accomplished this reliably and consistently. People get distracted by all kinds of stuff, sometimes you have to bean them with your dice to get them to pay attention.

Togo

2011-04-06, 03:52 AM

1) I let the players divide the loot. However, I keep track of what magic items each characer has, and try and make sure the loot includes something that would be logical for them to have.

2) I calculate xp between sessions and send via email. Saves valuable play time.

3) Don't be afraid to rush the players if they're taking too long over a decision that you know won't matter.

Also, keep a violent ambush combat encounter ready, and just drop it in when things start to flag. For example, in the quest to destroy the evil wizard Urtzy, I know that Urtzy has a hit squad hunting for the PCs. They find them at just the point where people are starting to get bored or frustrated, and are carrying whatever clues I think necessary to keep the PCs on track. You can stat up the hit squad in advance, and if you don't use it immediately, you'll end up using it eventually.

flare X2

2011-04-06, 10:22 AM

nedz

2011-04-06, 04:46 PM

I'll cover the first two for reference anyway.

1. Is the players business, not yours. Its a classic DM mistake to do this otherwise.

2. I hand out xp at moments of reflection, often after several encounters. When the story hits a natural conclusion.

3. Pacing is one of the higher arts of story telling. Study some good movie directors or novellists: choose ones whose styles you like, and think you can emulate. Mastering this art takes aptitude and practice; expect that it will take you some years to master, and that you will always have something new to learn.
You should analyse how other DMs, with whom you play, do this; both the ones who do it well, and the ones who do it badly.

big teej

2011-04-06, 06:33 PM

Wow. alot more people have anserd than I expected. Thanks. I've crossed out qustion 1 and 2 because I seem to be getting alot of simmular ansers(proving its effectivenes). My party have a tendesy of going of topic and i'm not sure if that's because i'm either not engaging enough or thats just how they are. Oh and also i'm sorta rushing them so I can get them to these pre made modules, thus giving me some more space. there currently lv 2 and soon lv 3 butmy modual requires lv 5 so should I lv them up two or three instead?
(sorry for the length)

yea, the playground is pretty good about fast and helpful responses.

going off topic is part of what a dnd group does, I've only ever seen it not happen in play by posts, as long as it's not excessive* don't worry about it.

are you fast-tracking the level progression ONLY to get to the modules? as long as the players understand how to play, why not just actually fast track them and pop em up to level 5?

if, on the other hand, you're fast tracking to get to the module BUT you're all still learning, I would have to recommend 'stop fast tracking'.... my group just hit level 4 and I'm still meeting with some of my players one on one to discuss what changes from level to level.
why?
because hitting level 2 is not the same as creating at level 1
hitting level 3 is different than level 2
hitting level 4 is different than both 3 AND 2
and that's without even factoring in class!

mr. fighter over there only has to worry about the whole 'creation' vs 'extra feat' vs 'stat bump'
but what about the ranger over there?
or the paladin?

the capabilites of their classes substantially change over the course of those first 4-6 levels or so.

*you and your group will have to define 'excessive' for yourselves

faceroll

2011-04-06, 07:15 PM

I let the party handle loot, but here's the fairest way to do it:
Find the total resale value of the treasure (so magic items are half their listed price, as is any equipment, armor, etc). Divide treasure value by number of people with shares in the loot. Each person can claim that much in gems, weapons, magic items, whatever, from the loot. If they claim over that, they lose out on future loot hauls. Make sense?

aboyd

2011-04-07, 01:24 AM

This will be long, but hopefully awesome.

You've received many replies about the theory of DMing. I'm going to come at this from a different angle. I'm going to write about game mechanisms you can use to push for certain resolutions to your questions.

How do you destribute/divided loot?
As others said, the DM doesn't have to worry about this. Having said that, as the game referee, you may provide the players with some systems to use. I've experienced three systems. I'll describe them. But first, I'd just note that if you're using D&D 3.5 edition, the DMG on page 51 is where you will find a list of how much treasure should be parceled out per battle. That list assumes typical battles (not hard, not easy). Something harder should obviously (usually) come with more loot than what is suggested. You'll also find a "Wealth by Level" guide on page 135.

I had a group of players that were all playing evil characters. Nobody trusted anyone. And one of the players was a heavy min/maxer & rules lawyer. He wanted everything to be regulated. Since the PCs were all wary of each other as it was, they implemented the following system to ensure fairness. At the end of an adventure (typically when they got back to town or had a break where they could safely identify & appraise items), they would split the loot into two units -- first, the actual money (gold, silver, gems), and second, the gear. They would find out how much the gear was worth in total, then divide that amount by the number of PCs, to get an average value per player. Then, everyone would pick loot. Anyone who ended up with items that were worth more than the average would get commensurately less of the gold. And vice versa.
I played in a group that all trusted each other, and we were great at teamwork. For this group, the question was constantly, "Who can use this best?" It led to heavy financial imbalance. As the sole spellcaster (cleric), I ended up with an inordinate number of magical items. Many, many things were only usable by my PC. As a fluke, I also got the best weapon, which really should have gone to the fighter, but he didn't want it (it was a spear, and he wanted to stick with huge swords). Even though it was imbalanced, everyone was happy. We were committed to teamwork. If someone ran out of cash, other party members would pay up. PCs constantly loaned or gifted items to each other, as needed. It was great, and easy, and friendly.
The most fun (and most challenging) of all was a campaign that I ran that involved players with lists of loot they wanted. This was not handled at a meta level (such as the players giving me lists and saying, "put this in the game for me"). That would have been lame, in my opinion. Instead, the players would use Gather Information to try to get leads on where such items might be in my game world. They traveled from town to town, gathering rumors, and questing after items as they came across good leads. Each party member had quests to pursue to find their desired items. This was very hard for the following reasons. First, the players did not just pick items out of the DMG. They played it like real characters would -- no magic shop or menu of magic to select, so they just dreamed things up. One spellcaster wanted to wield a powerful, dangerous sword. He had no proficiency with swords, so part of the magic was that it had to make him competent with it. So it started with a continual use effect of the spell Master's Touch (granting proficiency with the weapon itself), and then I tried to find suitable matches for the other effects he wanted. Second reason it was hard: the players wanted wildly unsuitable loot. They wanted the moon & stars for free. I had to find ways to give them something they wanted while reducing effects to sane levels. If they said, "I want a mace that will Sunburst any undead," I would have figure out if, at their level, I could give them a constant Sunburst effect, or if it could only be once per day, etc. Third reason it was hard: these weapons had to remain useful for a few levels. They quested round-robin style, so any individual PC might expect to spend a lot of time supporting the other PCs in their quests. At the time, I wasn't aware of the concept of weapons that grow with the characters, so I put a lot of work into effects that were useful but not overpowered for many levels. That took a lot of thought, but it was fun.

How do you distribute xp/make sure poeple lv'l up?
Again, here are a few mechanical systems.

The 3.5 edition DMG suggests you award XP by CR. There is a table on page 38 that shows how much to award for traps & monsters. So if you pitted the group against 4 worgs, you would look up the CR for a worg, find the match on table 2-6 on page 38, and then award that XP four times because they defeated four of them. Note that the amount of XP listed is how much the group gets, not each individual PC. So you have to divide it up amongst the players. Page 40 talks about how to award story-based XP, as well as XP for non-combat encounters, goal-based missions, and roleplaying.
I used to use the system I just mentioned with one tweak. I would find the EL (Encounter Level, listed on page 49) for the entire fight and award based upon that. For example, the four worgs. They have a CR of 2 each. According to page 49, 4 of them is an EL of 5 or 6 (wiggle room, so I pick 5 if the fight was easy, 6 if the fight was hard). So then I'd pretend that an EL of 6 was also a CR of 6, look that up on page 38, and award them XP as if they had just defeated a CR 6 enemy (which they kinda had). This sometimes gives a little bit more XP.
While using the system I just mentioned, I was tracking the XP per character. I did this because of poor attendance by players. So if someone didn't show up, no XP. Players had to participate in the fight/trap/roleplay to get the XP for it and advance. Someone who showed up infrequently would end up a level (or two!) behind everyone else after a while. I enjoyed tracking this and posting each individual's XP onto our private forum after every game. We kept a running tally, and anyone could go back through the posts to see every encounter and how it added up. The variance between levels was large -- at its worst, we had one PC at 2nd level while everyone else was 5th & 6th. However, that PC had also died a couple of times, and lost a level each time he was raised.
Nowadays, I typically do as others here have mentioned -- I level up everyone, when I feel it's right to level up. The rules suggest that about 13 or 14 "level appropriate" encounters should happen before characters level up. So I do it sorta at that pace, but I no longer micromanage the XP. We generally get through 4 encounters a session, so after 3 sessions -- if there have also been roleplaying awards to pad it a little bit -- we are leveling up. But I'm not religious about it. If I want them to finish a module before leveling up and it'll take 5 sessions instead of 3, then so be it.
You can also just use online XP calculators (http://www.outshine.com/xp_calc/), which not only give you various ways to allot XP, but also show you challenge levels, so you don't TPK the party.

How do you keep your sessions fluid?
Especially with large groups (say, 6+), you'll need to be very diligent about whipping through each player's turn quickly. If you don't, too much time will pass between each person's turn, and they'll grow bored. Here are some strategies I've used to keep things moving.

Use a timer. Get a 2 minute timer or a 3 minute timer. Any player that cannot immediately start taking action on his/her turn, gets the timer turned on.
Use a timer as mentioned, but then also force anyone who cannot finish on time to be in a delay action. For instance, anyone who starts the turn by asking, "Okay, what's happening?" should immediately be put on a delayed action. They should pay attention, and if not, they can catch up while others are going. No need to hold up the whole group. This of course means you'll need to learn about the differences between a delay & a ready (ready = standard on a trigger, delay = full but no trigger necessary), and you'll need to know how to do it (ready = insert into initiative before, delay = after). But don't be a jerk about this. Be friendly. Say, "Oops, you're not going to finish your turn quickly, so I'm putting you into a delay. Keep working on what you want to do, and jump in when you've got it figured out." Only do this when you must. If you are doing it a lot and trying to rush everyone, they'll get exhausted and shut down. This is a system only for those who really dilly-dally.
Use an initiative tracker. I bought this combat pad (http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/o/openMindGames/v5748btpy8bkr) to track it, but you don't need to spend money if you wish to avoid it. Here's a video which shows how to track initiative using folded pieces of paper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ewNiITJVk), among other good ideas (basically, fold cards so they stand up on the table, with the players' names on 'em, and then assemble the cards in order, so everyone can see who's going and who's on deck).
If you get the combat pad that I got, assign it to a player who is most bored or most capable. This will cause the player to have to not only know what he's doing, but keep up on everyone else and keep 'em moving. Because of this, you really do not want to assign it to the guy who is muddling along. He/she won't be able to juggle it. Give it to the guy who seems to have spare time. This not only keeps that player on track and keeps the other players hopping, but it frees you up to concentrate on running other parts of the game.
If there is a question about the rules, give the player 2 minutes to find the rule. If he or she cannot find it, make a temporary house rule and move on. You must get them to agree to this ahead of time. If you do not, they will whine about the house rule, and when they learn of the "real" rule, they will insist that you re-run the encounter or revisit it somehow. Don't do that, it will constantly usurp the flow of the game. Put it on the players to look up rules, so that if the rule cannot be found quickly, they won't blame you. And go with whatever they find in time, and be willing to review it after the game. In other words, if you make a temporary house rule ("falling damage is bludgeoning, I'm sure of it, so if you have damage resistance from bludgeoning, it will lessen the damage"), be willing to revise the rule once you find out the truth ("turns out falling damage is not typed, and thus DR doesn't help"). Never let the players lock you into lengthly rule hunts, and never let them lock you into an imbalanced house rule.
Players will get stuck. There will be lengthy discussions. This often happens when you are good at putting them into moral quandaries, and if so, good for you. Give them time to sort it out. But sometimes, players will get locked into lengthy debate because they have a lack of information, and feel uncomfortable moving forward. They will try to find the "right" path even though they cannot be sure of the outcome. This can be a drag, and in such cases, it's often the DM's fault. The solution (in both cases, actually, if you wish), is to jump in with advisory information that doesn't look like a handout. Players do NOT want to be told "solve it THIS WAY." But hints they'll take. Example: my friends were stuck at a plot point in the module, Into the Wilds. There are 3 areas to explore in that module, and each area has a key. However, the players had utterly ignored two of the areas, and having cleared the first, they were dumbfounded as to why they only had one key. The game came to a stop as people around the table reviewed everything. They talked about every item they had picked up, they revisited every single room and re-searched every single square on the map. At no point did they find the other keys (obviously), and yet no player had said, "Maybe we should look at the other two dungeons to explore?" I could see it was going to be hours before they decided upon something, so at a lull I offered: "Anyone who can make or beat a DC 15 intelligence check, we can see if your character remembers anything useful." The players didn't feel like I was just plopping the answer in their laps, so they all eagerly rolled. One player made it. I quickly scribbled, "Review the world map" on a card and passed it to him. He put the map in front of everyone and then someone said, "Hey! What about the other locations?" *sigh of relief*
Also as part of the previous point, don't forget the three clue rule (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/three-clue-rule.html). Players will get stuck and hung up if there is only one way to solve a problem. They won't guess the one thing that you think is obvious, and gameplay will halt. So be sure that you provide multiple sources of information, and even some redundancy. This will help to keep multiple paths of action in front of the players, which keeps them pushing forward.
Get familiar with your NPCs. Often, beginner DMs try to script out every detail -- what the NPCs will say, what a building looks like, every event in the town, etc. Try to avoid that, because you'll end up with a huge number of situations and events you have to juggle in your head. You'll end up taking long pauses in the game to review stuff. Much better is to simply learn the NPCs. What makes them tick, why are they interesting? If you know this, it becomes sooooo much easier to ad-lib. Lots of people think they cannot ad-lib because they assume that those who can just pull ideas out of the air. Turns out, those who are good at this usually have some background they're pulling from. So know what makes the NPC awesome, and then you'll be much better at "winging it" when the players take things off the rails. This will keep things hopping.
The last piece of advice is something I only learned recently, and I'm a little surprised by it. That is, often good DMs have had a rehearsal before running the game. This is partly why so many old modules are still being run -- a DM ran it once back during the basic/AD&D years, and now the DM knows that module, so he updates it to 2nd edition, then 3rd edition, and so on. So if the guy is running Keep on the Borderlands as a 4th edition module, because he ran it 5 years ago and 15 years ago, he can just get things humming along. Even though I've been DMing for 20 years, I only realized this in February, when I attended my first RPG convention, and learned from other DMs that they have a handful of modules they run and re-run, so they can whip out any of them at a moment's notice and be good at it. For me, how I've first started to implement this is to run bits & pieces of the module with my kids before I run it "for real" with my friends. My kids love getting to play a little bit (only the fun high-energy combats, usually), and my friends find that I'm a little better rehearsed when we play.

Whew! Good luck! Have fun!