EXTREME. Noob DM tips

[Techmagss]

Well, I'm thinking about DMing for a game, but I simply... well... don't know very much, if any one of you could give me advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Siegel]

Be a fan of the player characters

(play to find out)

[evil-frosty]

Realize that no matter how much you plan the PC's will find something you did not plan for. And they will most likely not follow your plot as you see it but go on completely random tangents.

[Siegel]

Realize that no matter how much you plan the PC's will find something you did not plan for. And they will most likely not follow your plot as you see it but go on completely random tangents.

Also, you don't have to have a pre-planned plot to have an awesome and fullfilling game session. There are a lot of games that show you how.

I would also recomend you to look at different games. especieally from the indie-games/story-games community. There is a lot of stuff to be learned about roleplaying games that you can't learn from DnD / WoD or simmilar games.

For a starter i would point you there:
http://story-games.com/forums/

You should really ask your question there too and see what different awnsers you would get there in comparison to here.

[Slipperychicken]

*Remember that you're in this to have fun. So calm down, loosen up, and have fun.

*The game will start at least an hour after it's supposed to, whether it's due to lateness, or chit-chat, or whatever. This is normal, and happens in practically every session anyone's ever run. Think of the time you'd like the game to start, and schedule it an hour beforehand (Do NOT tell anyone that you know they will show up an hour late. Then they will know your true expectations and show up two hours late instead).

*Give people about a week to make characters, and advise them to have backup characters in case the first one gets killed. They will not be finished before the first session, so expect use about half of the first session in character creation.

*Figure out what you want the game to be (heroic fantasy, gritty realism, murder-hobos, dungeon-crawl, war, political intrigue, drama, romance etc.), ask the players what they want to do, and feel free to bounce ideas off them and mix things up once you have a handle on what you're doing. Try to balance everyone's interests (and don't forget your own!). Things will be easier once everyone knows what "genre" they're playing in.

*Define the group's comfort zone. How much gore or graphic description will your group tolerate? To what extent are they okay with "adult" topics (sex, sexual violence, rape, addiction, etc) coming up in game, or would it make everyone too uncomfortable? Is the group okay with child-slaughter coming up in-game? At what times would the group rather "fade to black", and avoid describing something?

*Make all mechanical choices (variant rules, houserules, restrictions, etc.) with your playstyle in mind. What will this rule encourage? Is that what I want to see?

*Make your policies on PvP interaction very clear, and give players input. Figure out whether you're okay with Player-Characters (PCs) killing each other "for the lulz", or for revenge, or whatever.

*If you're planning on using a creature in a session, look up its stats beforehand, especially it's immunities and special abilities. This will save you many headaches.

*Be consistent with rules. If everyone knows that you're "playing fair" (that is, not fudging die rolls, not changing rules arbitrarily and needlessly), they will trust you to resolve things fairly, giving you more freedom as a DM. You should take lots of time to familiarize yourself with the system before making changes, and avoid mid-session rules changes. Mid session rulings should only be stop-gap measures to keep the game flowing (and should be replaced with the actual rules once you learn them, or a more-refined houserule later).

*If it takes too long (usually a few minutes, unless it's something really important) to look up/argue about a rule, you can make a ruling to keep the game going. Whatever your policy on this is, let your players know in advance ("If it takes more than 5 minutes to parse a rule, I'll make something up so the game can keep going" or "If I don't seem to be following the rules, only bring it up with me after the session").

*If you're playing D&D 3.5, Rogues and Monks look overpowered at first, but they are not. Trust us on this one.

*Yow will hear a lot of people groan about railroading. If done too much, it is bad. However, you generally want to give the story some direction from the beginning of the game, before character creation, if possible ("Your characters will all be invited to X's royal hall to help him retrieve the..."). One thing to get creative juices flowing is to say something like "All of your characters are going to start in [situation]. Come up with reasons for why they're there"

*Use your discretion. If someone has a character concept which is truly disruptive to the game, know that you can veto it, but always talk it through first. What is the player trying to accomplish? Is there any way this character can function in the game?

*Everyone makes mistakes. Admit them and remedy them, as this will build trust with your players. If a player acts on rules-information you later realized was wrong, either a) allow the player to "re-do" his actions in accordance with the actual rule, or b) proceed as though the rule you said was right, and tell the group you will use the actual rule in the future.

[Crossblade]

Know the rules. If you don't know the rules, tell your PCs and hope they can be trusted to tell you the rules.

Expect to be caught off guard. Your PCs will NEVER do what you expect them to do! So be ready to put yourself in the villains position, and think of how you would react if their actions, if you can't think of how to react that's perfect. It means the PCs have the advantage they earned. (personal real life example: I wasn't expecting my PCs to use 100gp of the gunslinger's gun powder as a bomb, so they got to blow a lot of things up)

A lot of players SAY they don't like to be railroaded, but for your first game ASK them to follow the 'tracks' just for you, so it will help you ease into the role of DM... IF you're planning a set adventure. If you're planning to work off their char goals and back-stories, creating an open world game, ignore this point.

After the first game, when the dice are put away and char sheets closed up, asked them what they liked and what you could improve on. Ask them again a few days later... the answers will be different both times.

Don't feel bad changing your story telling style on the fly. Example: first time I started DM'ing, the first NPC to speak was a woman (I'm a dude), it was decided before the end of the first sentence, I shouldn't RP or do voices for NPCs. The other guy that DM's however, can slip between personalities easily, I think it's just our personalities and talking styles.

[Gamer Girl]

Well, I'm thinking about DMing for a D&D game, but I simply... well... don't know very much, if any one of you could give me advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

One of the big things a DM needs to do, is be the Master of Ceremonies. In short, you need to run things. While everyone else is sitting around and goofing off and having fun, you need to stay on track. It's comparable to being the designated driver, parent or a bartender; one who can be part of the fun, but never 100%.

Quite often, while the players will say they ''want to play'', they will often do anything but play the game. As DM you will need to clam everyone down and get them to sit down and play the game.

Once the game gets going, the DM must keep the game going. The DM is the director, driver and leader. Should any player drift away, let alone the whole game the DM must put it back on track.

Random Thoughts:

*You sure want to start the game at least an hour before you really want to. For example if you ''want'' to start the game at 7pm, then you should make it at least 6 or even 5. Human nature says that: at least one person will be at least several minutes late. But if they are ''an hour early'', then even if they are an hour late, they will still be on time. (and yes, don't tell them this).

*Make plans for dinner. Nothing can derail a game more then the massive insane what-to-eat waste of time. This is another place where the DM can step in and take control of the food. To simply have a plan can save tons of time. For example, you could have a Pizza Pan menu and have each person state and pay for an order before the game. My group does the ''each person takes a turn at making a meal.''

*Make plans for a break or two. This will depend on your group, but in general a break every two hours is good.

*Try to keep everything the group might need as close as possible. Don't keep the Mountain Dew out in the barn where each person needs to take five minutes to get a single can. Just put a cooler in the game room.

[mrzomby]

For every Player. have a note card with
HP
AC
differant attack rolls(example, if he uses the bow, it is +x to attack and XDX damage. sword is +y and YdY damage)
will/reflex/fort save
Ammo(maybe)
gold(maybe)


And do the same for npcs you plan on the players fighting. These should be similiar numbers. If players average about +7 to hit with their main attack, have monster ACs be around 19-23 depending on if its a mook or a boss.

[Slipperychicken]

DMing is hard, especially if you prepare a lot of material. It's ultimately rewarding when it pays off, though.

Get player input. How do they feel the session went? What could you have done better? What did you do well? (ask those questions of the players, too) Who did the best roleplaying, and why? There is always room for improvement, especially when you're new.

Get your players to figure out their attack bonuses, AC, Saves, damage dice, and just write them down and refer to them. You will save so much time when everyone knows what to roll and aren't recalculating their attack bonuses every turn round.

Battlemats are awesome for battles. Acquire/craft one if possible. Remember to use non-permanent dry-erase marker. Have usable markers, some spares if possible.

Schrodinger's Campaign: Until the PCs interact with it, you are free to change it however you see fit, provided that it's still consistent with the rest of the setting. NPCs, locations, organizations, are all mutable until encountered. If there is an aspect of a person which no-one has interacted with, this can be changed too.

Don't be afraid to recycle material. It can help to have a few generic statblocks for common NPC types, like random peasants, guardsmen, soldiers. A generic template for some building types, like an ordinary house or prison can help. For inspiration, you can probably google for medieval floorplans, which can make your buildings seem more "real".

In combats, make terrain, and have the enemies try to use it to their advantage (terrain advantage acts as an important force multiplier, even in D&D. If enemies gain a big enough advantage from terrain, consider bumping up their CR). It lends tactical depth to encounters and makes them memorable.

Make your enemies act like people and not video game AI. People have reasons to live, families to take care of, lovers to see, children to raise. They don't want to throw it all away to get skewered on the PCs swords. If there's just one or two goblins left, who watched the PCs slaughter eight of their coworkers in 12 seconds without taking a scratch, they'll probably want to run (save their lives, and alert their superiors) rather than fight and die. Only the most fanatical, devoted, or mindless creatures will fight to the bitter end against overwhelming odds. Even animals run away when they know they're outmatched. This will add further depth to encounters.

Never give your player characters' wishes.

NEVER use the Deck of Many Things. That artifact eats campaigns (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/6/28/).

If you decide to use random treasure (it's okay, many DMs don't), roll treasure before the encounter, ideally before the session.

Coming up with good names on the spot is very difficult. Seventh Sanctum (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php), and all it's random name generators (especially the "Quick name generator", which gets very generic-sounding names). Bookmark it, live it, love it. For random people who no one cares about, you might find it useful to just have a list of pre-generated names, and just cross them off as you need them (then adding them to your notes if needed).

3.5 Encounter/XP Calculator (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/). Screw doing all that work by hand.

Dice Roller (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20dicebag/#). If you ever forget your dice, or just want to roll secretly or silently.

If you ever decide to use music at the table, here are (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233997) some (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188264) useful (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210048) threads (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251761). Each contain many cool songs, usable for D&D.

Many of the links I've provided are useful DMing tools, I advise you to bookmark some of them.

[EtherianBlade]

Realize that no matter how much you plan the PC's will find something you did not plan for. And they will most likely not follow your plot as you see it but go on completely random tangents.

This.

The best advice I can give is to be adaptive and think on the fly. Have a clear idea in your head what the overall plot is, where your main villains are going and what they are doing, and how the PCs' actions, when they go totally against what you planned, affect the villains' plot.

Overall, what you are doing is writing a story with your players contributing the main characters to that story. The advantage you have is that you know what's going on behind the scenes.

[the Blue Morpho]

*Remember that you're in this to have fun. So calm down, loosen up, and have fun.

*The game will start at least an hour after it's supposed to, whether it's due to lateness, or chit-chat, or whatever. This is normal, and happens in practically every session anyone's ever run. Think of the time you'd like the game to start, and schedule it an hour beforehand (Do NOT tell anyone that you know they will show up an hour late. Then they will know your true expectations and show up two hours late instead).

*Give people about a week to make characters, and advise them to have backup characters in case the first one gets killed. They will not be finished before the first session, so expect use about half of the first session in character creation.

*Figure out what you want the game to be (heroic fantasy, gritty realism, murder-hobos, dungeon-crawl, war, political intrigue, drama, romance etc.), ask the players what they want to do, and feel free to bounce ideas off them and mix things up once you have a handle on what you're doing. Try to balance everyone's interests (and don't forget your own!). Things will be easier once everyone knows what "genre" they're playing in.

*Define the group's comfort zone. How much gore or graphic description will your group tolerate? To what extent are they okay with "adult" topics (sex, sexual violence, rape, addiction, etc) coming up in game, or would it make everyone too uncomfortable? Is the group okay with child-slaughter coming up in-game? At what times would the group rather "fade to black", and avoid describing something?

*Make all mechanical choices (variant rules, houserules, restrictions, etc.) with your playstyle in mind. What will this rule encourage? Is that what I want to see?

*Make your policies on PvP interaction very clear, and give players input. Figure out whether you're okay with Player-Characters (PCs) killing each other "for the lulz", or for revenge, or whatever.

*If you're planning on using a creature in a session, look up its stats beforehand, especially it's immunities and special abilities. This will save you many headaches.

*Be consistent with rules. If everyone knows that you're "playing fair" (that is, not fudging die rolls, not changing rules arbitrarily and needlessly), they will trust you to resolve things fairly, giving you more freedom as a DM. You should take lots of time to familiarize yourself with the system before making changes, and avoid mid-session rules changes. Mid session rulings should only be stop-gap measures to keep the game flowing (and should be replaced with the actual rules once you learn them, or a more-refined houserule later).

*If it takes too long (usually a few minutes, unless it's something really important) to look up/argue about a rule, you can make a ruling to keep the game going. Whatever your policy on this is, let your players know in advance ("If it takes more than 5 minutes to parse a rule, I'll make something up so the game can keep going" or "If I don't seem to be following the rules, only bring it up with me after the session").

*If you're playing D&D 3.5, Rogues and Monks look overpowered at first, but they are not. Trust us on this one.

*Yow will hear a lot of people groan about railroading. If done too much, it is bad. However, you generally want to give the story some direction from the beginning of the game, before character creation, if possible ("Your characters will all be invited to X's royal hall to help him retrieve the..."). One thing to get creative juices flowing is to say something like "All of your characters are going to start in [situation]. Come up with reasons for why they're there"

*Use your discretion. If someone has a character concept which is truly disruptive to the game, know that you can veto it, but always talk it through first. What is the player trying to accomplish? Is there any way this character can function in the game?

*Everyone makes mistakes. Admit them and remedy them, as this will build trust with your players. If a player acts on rules-information you later realized was wrong, either a) allow the player to "re-do" his actions in accordance with the actual rule, or b) proceed as though the rule you said was right, and tell the group you will use the actual rule in the future.
THIS. Can you be my DM, Slipperychicken?

[Delwugor]

Understand that you will make mistakes, even experienced GM do. When they happen be honest with your players and admit it then attempt to correct it. At the least your players will understand that despite faults you are doing the best you can and with experience you will become a good GM.

Delwugor's First Rule of GMing:
Give 75% of your attention to the players (and their characters).
20% of your attention to the adventure.
5% of your attention to the rules and books.

Gaming is not about what was written but about what the group does at the table.

[scurv]

In short if you are new, Keep it moving and fudge it if needed.

[Alejandro]

Never write an adventure or worse, campaign that has an important function that depends on one of the PCs. That player will promptly stop showing up/turn into an imbecilic jerk/kill their PC.

[Amidus Drexel]

I find that I spend most of my time deciding on what my NPCs are doing, and developing their plans. My players don't really follow any sort of storyline (except when we have an apocalypse scenario, but that's a little railroady), so it's easier to just know how the important NPCs would react to the things players do (such as robbing a bank; that was pretty funny, actually) and go from there.

In addition to planning a little extra time at the beginning of sessions for everyone to show up, you should pad the end of your sessions with a little extra time (about half and hour), so you don't get caught in the middle of combat or an important social interaction.

[Slipperychicken]

Never write an adventure or worse, campaign that has an important function that depends on one of the PCs. That player will promptly stop showing up/turn into an imbecilic jerk/kill their PC.

In general, be prepared for PCs dying. It happens. Sometimes someone rolls too low, or you roll too high, or someone jumps out of 40 story building without a Feather Fall... When it does happen, see what caused it, learn from it. A few deaths in a campaign is nothing to be ashamed of, and keeps a healthy sense of danger. If it happens a lot (like every session or two), you probably want further investigation, unless everyone enjoys the high-lethality. A lot of deaths might result in your players caring less about their characters' fates, again, this is a style choice.


If PCs die fairly (you used an appropriate challenge, and either bad luck or player-stupidity killed someone), that indicates to your players there is a very real possibility of defeat, which makes victory all the sweeter.

Try to give antagonists bigger objectives, which don't always need the PCs dead. Things like kidnapping important NPCs, completing rituals, NPC assassinations, terrorist attacks, stealing a McGuffin... all allow the PCs to fail without dying. And sometimes, failure can be even worse than death, and can help establish the antagonists as worthy opponents. It can also be more fun, if players RP their characters' reaction to failure ("I wasn't fast enough, I failed. I need to be faster, stronger", "I wasn't prepared for this..." "We'll get them next time!", etc.) It also raises the stakes for the next missions, everyone knows they can fail, and there might even be personal vendetta involved.

A TPK can easily set up a new campaign in the same world. Maybe a new team of heroes rises to the challenge, seeing the old party's corpses in a pile to warn them of danger. Maybe the new party is born, 10 years later; the BBEG had his way with the world, and new heroes fight to take it back as part of an insurgency movement (they could even run into old NPCs, see how their lives changed, how much is still the same). Or you could take a page from Mass Effect -Someone realized the PCs were the only ones who could take down the BBEG, and they wake up resurrected a few years later (obviously this is a one-time thing, you have to let them die eventually).

[supermonkeyjoe]

Make full use of the DM screen, it can help you keep the game on track and appear to be a lot more prepared than you are.

* The players don't need to know that the thugs they unexpectedly picked a fight with are the same as the orcs they attacked earlier, but do 1d4+2 damage punches instead of 2d4+4 damage falchion attacks

* You rolled the dice vs the charm spell, but the players don't need to know it was irrelevant because the enemy is immune to mind affecting spells

* The PCs don't need to know that the insane alchemist that turned into a monster uses the stats for a Troll.

*That warehouse encounter the PCs randomly blundered into? the players don't need to know that it's the same as the tavern encounter that they completely bypassed due to some clever thinking and lucky rolls.

Be adaptable, don't be afraid to re-use some material, shuffle around your plans, and give things a completely different description to suit the story, so long as it's logically consistent then use the rules to support the story, don't have the story be a slave to the rules.

[awa]

have something planed adventure wise even if its just a dungeon crawl not all players are proactive nothing is more boring then having your pc bumble around town for 4 hours waiting for the plot to drop in their lap.

find out what your pcs feel about the dm using diffrent mechanics then the players. what i mean is in my game i often use simplified mechanics for npcs.
for example npc barbarians just fight till -10 get +2 damge and -2 defense it allows you to run a lot more monsters of diffrent types with out having to spend nearly as much time creating them or as much effort running them. but some pepole cant stand this they hate the idea that the orc barbarians rage is not identical to the players rage.

I second the sugestion to reuse stats i have a giant list of generic stats that i just add special abbilities to, to make the various monsters in my game

[Gavinfoxx]

Which edition of D&D are you playing?

3.5e?
Pathfinder?
4e?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I feel like "railroading" is an easy trap to fall into; that is, the players are following a trail that you set out for them to follow, and any attempts to diverge from the story you want to tell will end up with you forcing them back onto the trail.

I far prefer to set up a situation for the players to get involved in, and then advance plot elements of that situation. Now, it can be very hard to prep for this, so I suggest cribbing off of the idea of "fronts" from a game called Apocalypse World (and its little cousin Dungeon World).

What is a Front?
A front is a collection of characters and (sometimes) locations that is combined into a theme/faction/abstract force/all of the above in the story. "Front" is a catch-all term for a bunch of different things. A peasant insurrection is a front, as is the local Church of Pelor or an evil vampire. It generally works best if each Front presents a threat to the world or the PCs.

Each Front has a few different parts...

Impending Doom: what happens if the Front succeeds at its agenda/plan. Something such as "the royal family is haplessly slaughtered".

Grim Portents: a track, effectively a Countdown Clock, with various events that happen while the Front progresses towards its agenda. Things like "local law enforcement begins to be stretched thin by criminal activity" or "riots break out spontaneously in the streets". Kick up the pace of Grim Portents as a Front advances towards the Impending Doom successfully; if it instead is impeded, slow down the pace that Grim Portents start happening. When you reach the final step in the track, the Impending Doom happens, because the faction has managed to achieve it (the clock has finished the final countdown).

Threats: these are individual NPCs/nasty threats. If you write up a dungeon as a Front, for instance, these can be traps. The biggest thing here: in D&D, you have to prep monsters ahead of time. If you write up a Front, use Threats to provide quickly-statted monsters that you can adjust on the fly.

Anyhow, that's a very basic outline; if it went any more specific, its applicability to D&D would be very limited. Throw multiple Fronts into a situation, and now you suddenly have a complex scenario that evolves as the players bash stuff in. (Also, notecards and paper. Lots of that.)

[Vitruviansquid]

I don't think I've seen the most important tip of all here.

Find players who are either enthusiastic or open-minded about the game. Nothing will kill the fun of the game faster than players who don't really want to be there, and yes, the guy who's just there to hang out with the rest of the group and isn't willing to give the game a shot is going to be as harmful to your table as the guy who's actively griefing the other players.

[Tantaburs]

Start small.

I Dm'ed my first campaign about 5 months ago and had a grand plan that would scale through multiple levels. Then as I read throught the various monster books I saw monsters i liked and added more onto my plan.

my group knows that i can optimize a character so i told them to build whatever they wanted but the encounters would match there power level.

The result was a disconnected mess that never really went anywhere until i had to stop DMing due to time constraints.

What I should have done was have them build characters from a small list of books and written a boos about 2-3 levels above them with liuetenants 1-2 levels above them and enough fodder for 3-4 sessions then expand slowly out from that arc.


Also always have plan 2-3 ways to deal with you encounters
Diplomacy route: The PCs come to an agreement with the enemy
Death Route: The PCs kill everything without though because they are murder hobos
Stealth route: The PCs sneak past whatever the problem is

then expect Mushroom Route: The PCs do something random as all hell that you would never expect

PC always take Mushroom route ALWAYS

[neonchameleon]

There is one big rule I'm going to give that doesn't appear to be covered above.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

If the PCs want to try to do something let them. It's their game as much as yours. And always, always remember that an adequate call now is worth far more than the right call that takes five minutes to make. (In fact that's a good rule for evaluating PC plans as well - give them time pressure).

[AKA_Bait]

There is a link to an old (3.5 ed.) sticky guide in my signature which some have found helpful.

[SowZ]

Rather than know a whole lot about one particular part of the game, (a single dungeon, town, castle, encounter, etc.) that I have planned out beforehand, I know a whole lot about the game world in general. What this means is I don't spend a lot of prep time working on a specific plot line the PCs may or may not follow. Instead, I make sure I know the minutia and maps and culture and politics of the setting.

Understanding the setting in great detail makes it far easier to come up with stuff on the fly and allow the world to not only be deeper, but more exploration friendly. Of course, if this isn't a campaign where roaming about is a goal this is maybe not necessary advice. Still good advice, though, I think.

[zanetheinsane]

Chris Perkins writes the Dungeon Master Experience (http://wizards.com/DnD/Archive.aspx?category=all&subcategory=dmexperience) on WotC's website. I highly suggest reading through some articles.

They are all edition and system independent for the most part, with the occasional mention of a certain mechanic or numbers system that can easily be interpreted for whatever system you are using.

[mishka_shaw]

-Never over-complicate the game with needless mechanics. [My special weather dial and time-based encounter system was scrapped within 5 minutes as it was just clutter]

-Try to avoid writing scripts unless it is a really essential plot point. Instead just write bullet points on what to say and improvise the discussion based upon these points.

-Write down the stats of some various monsters and print them up, than just flick to one and lie about what it looks like should you need stats for something quick [Players decide to attack your merchant? flick to the Orc stat sheet and use that for him]

-For the love of god control fires. The amount of times the players try to "burn the f***er down" is endless, remember that a pint of lamp oil only ignites a 5ft square and fire isn't exactly a fast spreader without an ass load of tinder.

-Last but not least....Allow them to swap feats, skills, items and even classes for the first 1-3 levels if they are new to d&d.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Depending on how nice your players are to you, prepare EVERY plot important NPC with either combat skills or have them ready actions every turn to take a tumble action backwards on the condition of when one of the PCs attacks him. Anklets of Translocation also help if the NPC gets to act before the players butcher him. Anklet of Translocation 10ft backwards or to the side then use a scroll of Dimension Door/Teleport to escape. As bad as this sounds there are so many stories of DMs having their players realize that an NPC is important and going out of their way to kill them.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Depending on how nice your players are to you, prepare EVERY plot important NPC with either combat skills or have them ready actions every turn to take a tumble action backwards on the condition of when one of the PCs attacks him. Anklets of Translocation also help if the NPC gets to act before the players butcher him. Anklet of Translocation 10ft backwards or to the side then use a scroll of Dimension Door/Teleport to escape. As bad as this sounds there are so many stories of DMs having their players realize that an NPC is important and going out of their way to kill them.
Or don't have NPCs which the plot absolutely needs to have. I mean, really, this sort of stuff is no better than handwaving "you can't kill the NPC".

By all means, you can have important NPCs, but let them die and then let the plot adjust accordingly.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Or don't have NPCs which the plot absolutely needs to have. I mean, really, this sort of stuff is no better than handwaving "you can't kill the NPC".

By all means, you can have important NPCs, but let them die and then let the plot adjust accordingly.

I personally would never talk to a murder hobo without doing what I described, but I've just been jaded by my players, they try that crap all the time.
Also when you are running a written module and the players decide to kill one of the quest givers, it kind of destroys everything you had planned. I mean sure you could then wing it and have the town guard chase after them, and have them become criminals, but that would require some time on your part to get everything straight and that can detract from the gaming session, if not end it for the night right there.

[SowZ]

I personally would never talk to a murder hobo without doing what I described, but I've just been jaded by my players, they try that crap all the time.
Also when you are running a written module and the players decide to kill one of the quest givers, it kind of destroys everything you had planned. I mean sure you could then wing it and have the town guard chase after them, and have them become criminals, but that would require some time on your part to get everything straight and that can detract from the gaming session, if not end it for the night right there.

I don't know, I like having my storytelling challenged and I like the organic nature of plots where anyone can die. I can't tell you how many times the PCs made an enemy, (or a dead person,) among someone who could have been a powerful ally and completely changed the direction of the whole plot.

The PCs decide to assassinate the prince instead of helping him repel the dark army? Okay, hmmm. The PCs decide to fight the BBEG but instead of destroying his ability to cast uber McGuffin spell that summons and controls the over demon they decide to learn the ritual first to beat the army? Sure, whoa. Surprise me.

[Slipperychicken]

I don't know, I like having my storytelling challenged and I like the organic nature of plots where anyone can die. I can't tell you how many times the PCs made an enemy, (or a dead person,) among someone who could have been a powerful ally and completely changed the direction of the whole plot.


You seem to be imagining the PCs offing an NPC for some thought-out, adequate in-character reason which holds up to scrutiny. Ryu seems to mean PCs killing the NPC for OOC lulz, malice, or boredom, without much thought to the plot. The two make very different narratives.

[SowZ]

You seem to be imagining the PCs offing an NPC for some thought-out, adequate in-character reason which holds up to scrutiny. Ryu seems to mean PCs killing the NPC for OOC lulz, malice, or boredom, without much thought to the plot. The two make very different narratives.

Yeah, I suppose. I am used to unpredictable, PvPing PCs because they are all schemers.

[Nabirius]

Not sure if this has been said yet, but it should be.
1) Be honest and upfront about how powerful you want players to be, and more importantly self-aware. It can be hard to DM for both very high and very low levels of power. I had 1 DM tell us that he wanted us to be powerful, when he really didn't and really couldn't handle it. He had an encounter with orc fighters and a Half-Dragon barbarian toward the end that was supposed to be tough, and it was the encounter where he introduced our 'new bad-ass allies'. Needless to say it was an utter stomp-fest when the Sorcerer, Druid, Cleric party showed up, and we utterly overshadowed the allies that were supposed to be introduced as the big-guys in town.
2) Bend rules, keep it mostly skewed towards the players when you do so. It happens, a situation comes up, you don't know how to deal with it, and a player disagrees with the what you think the rules are. Most important thing: keep going: say "We'll do it this way for now, but I'll check on that after the session". Otherwise it devolves into a rules debate and the session is ruined. But remember, try not to skew the rules in your own favor unless its absolutely necessary, it can be really frustrating for the players.
3) Problem players: There will generally be one player who gives you grief, maybe they are a rules-lawyer, maybe they are the power-gamer, maybe they play chaotic evil and continually causes strife in lieu of advancing the plot. Try to deal with them, and come to Giantitp to get advice. (Full disclosure, I'm the rules lawyer of my group)
4) Accept that clashes are inevitable. Eventually in some way, your DMing style will clash with the players in some if you are lucky its just annoying, if you aren't it can be disastrous. Try to reconcile clashes fairly, but know that they aren't always you fault.
5)Lastly Every DM has bad habits. I would haphazardly introduce characters, and sometimes got carried away with enemy design (then apply nerfs mid-session). My first DM was a fan of rails. The current DM dislikes rules, and often wants to win. EVERY DM has at least one, learn what yours is and learn how to cope with it, and mostly just be aware of it.
6) Lastly different people at the table are there for different reasons, one person is there for the roleplaying and being a new character. One person likely just wants to kill things. One person is here for a story, etc. None of these people are 'wrong' there is nothing bad about one person being there for the game, and another being there for the character. Everyone has something they find fun, find out what they are and try to but in things that will make them all have a good time.
Also Decide before you begin whether you round up or down.