what do you ask before a new campaign?

[big teej]

just what it says on the tin.


I know many DMs send out lil questionaires before a campaign trying to get a vibe from the party on what they want out of the game.

so my question is simple

what do you ask?

[Nohwl]

what's the ban list, what are the house rules, how do you want me to get stats, what is everyone else playing (or probably playing), how much do i need to optimize, and what is the setting like?

[big teej]

what's the ban list, what are the house rules, how do you want me to get stats, what is everyone else playing (or probably playing), how much do i need to optimize, and what is the setting like?

that sounds more like what a Player asks the DM....

I want what the DM asks the players....

[Ekul]

that sounds more like what a Player asks the DM....

I want what the DM asks the players....

Setting is important. Ask them: Do you want to try Seafaring? Or maybe mountainous, or perhaps something of a woodsy flavor.

Whether or not they want high roleplay, high combat, high puzzle based?

If you have no compunctions on what the players choose, do they have compunctions with what their party members choose?

High level, low level?

Unique items or DMG/MiC items?

Do they want to be challenged or do they want to feel powerful?

[Tvtyrant]

What genre do you want to play in, what difficulty of play, how experienced are you, whose going to bring the snacks, do the players have any preferred books. The biggest one is talking to them about how they want to play the game; some people insist on playing DMM Persist Clerics when the rest of the party is Monks and some people want to play monks when everyone else is Clerics and Aberration/cold wildshape druids.

[Vangor]

What do you plan to make?

I try to assure my players are either catered to when possible depending on play style and assure the mechanics of the character are not simply negated by encounter choices. For instance, have a beguiler, and have had to make modifications to the enemy choice. Generally, I prefer undead and constructs, and this campaign included an unseen presence which would assume the strongest humanoid in the groups they were fighting, rendering more than enough enemies invulnerable to the beguiler. Converted the undead and made the presence more obvious.

[Rogue Shadows]

"Please, for once, could you guys run a party that's something other than a band of wandering thugs?"

[DarkestKnight]

"could you please not kill the rest of the party for once?"

[Rogue Shadows]

"could you please not kill the rest of the party for once?"

Fortunately that guy is usually at college these days.