Tips for a New DM 3.5e

[Rektro]

So I've been DMing for about 6 - 8 weeks now for a group of my friends and I've got a few problems I keep encountering. Many of you may be able to help me as fellow DM's and many of you can help as PC's knowing how you'd like the situation to be approached.

First off, a good chunk of my problems come from the role-playing aspect of the game.

1) The PC's have a hard time getting into character, building on their character development, and becoming their character

2) The PC's are having a hard time opening up in the group, Not due to a lack of trust in the friend circle, but mainly I'm sure a lot of them feel silly.

3) Its hard getting the PCs to bring out their backstory, or better yet, helping them develop their backstories. It sounds like a lot to help them build this during the game, but with work and whatnot theyre too preoccupied to do this on their own time.


Secondly, My DMing, is becoming less of a DM and more of an Instructor, Which is fine by me, however I need some more things to introduce to them, things that can really make a game enticing and make them begging for more.

1) Interesting story ideas, quests, I tend to write my own quests and avoid pre-written ones only because I can lean them more towards certain characters goals to help them develop themselves.

2) Teaching them new things is fun and exciting, but making them use these things on a regular encounter is hard.


Thirdly, Getting them to step outside of their comfort zone a little. I'm more or less looking for ideas to help them step out, use a little accent or something, and really step into their characters.

1) get them to take on their role in the party

2) Get them to become their character. Should I be enforcing this a little harder as a DM? or should I just keep hoping for the best?


Not really sure what else I'd need as a DM. but any little tips or tricks would be very much appreciated, even if its not relative to anything listed above. Thank you.

[ZeroNumerous]

2) The PC's are having a hard time opening up in the group, Not due to a lack of trust in the friend circle, but mainly I'm sure a lot of them feel silly.

I can't help with the others, but I can help with this one.

Break the ice. Yes, they're probably going to feel quite silly getting into character if you're talking in your normal voice, being quite serious, and looking right at them as they speak. So you should always be the first one into character. An easy way to do this is narrating the "last week we did..." in a silly voice, or as a silly character the party knows. Do things to get them relaxed by being silly yourself, and being comfortable with that.

One thing my old DM did that I loved to death was sing. And he did it terribly poorly. The party frequently had a gnome bard(and this probably where my hatred of gnomes came from) that would follow us around and write down the events we did. Every game he started off by singing, extremely poorly, the gist of what happened in the last session. It really helped everyone get into character, and mostly because we laughed at his terrible singing voice.


3) Its hard getting the PCs to bring out their backstory, or better yet, helping them develop their backstories. It sounds like a lot to help them build this during the game, but with work and whatnot theyre too preoccupied to do this on their own time.

The Ten Minute Backstory is very good at solving this problem.

[Rektro]

Break the ice. Yes, they're probably going to feel quite silly getting into character if you're talking in your normal voice, being quite serious, and looking right at them as they speak. So you should always be the first one into character. An easy way to do this is narrating the "last week we did..." in a silly voice, or as a silly character the party knows. Do things to get them relaxed by being silly yourself, and being comfortable with that.


I do not use enough character myself, this is true. I will do all I can to get into character more often for them. My biggest problem however is I usually run out of accents, and everything ends up being Irish or some angry scottish dwarf. Which I'd like to avoid if I can. but singing would be quite helpful if I could whip up that courage to accomplish that. Thank you.

[AlanBruce]

I try to get the players immersed by using simple props. For instance, the party had to be recorded in the city archives for being new in town. As such, they were taken to the Cuthbertine Fortress where a very sour and zealous inquisitor asked for their files. I played him as surly and with a strep throat. Pausing between dialogue and opening flipping the pages of a book (an actual book), in order to get their data right. Then I stood up and walked around the gaming table with an inflated chest and a coat I was wearing at the time, addressing each PC and pointing out what they could do and the dangers their abilities proved to the city.

to the druid

"A witch of the wilds... how convenient your kind can turn into an innocent animal and sneak into the fair homes of the city...only to plunder them!"

to gish

"An arcanist who (flips pages again)... can become invisible and perform burglary. Oh! what is this? A transmutation spell. So should we expect a dragon breathing fire on the good folk anytime soon?"

There was more to that, but all the while I was walking around the table and looking at each player in the eye with the book going through notes.

The players loved it and there was no combat involved, but it gave them a feeling of teamwork against a common foe and the desire to find something crooked about him during their quests in the city.

Hope that helps.

[Andezzar]

1) The PC's have a hard time getting into character, building on their character development, and becoming their characterThis will come in time or it will not. Especially if they are newbies, it may also be that they had this idea of a character and it just did not work out the way they had in mind and cannot relate to him/her as they thought they would. Give the players the opportunity, as long as it is remotely plausible, to change the character or play a new one.

BTW PC is short for Player Character, it sounds as if you are talking about the players.


2) The PC's are having a hard time opening up in the group, Not due to a lack of trust in the friend circle, but mainly I'm sure a lot of them feel silly.Have you talked to your players about their characters? It could just be that they decided to play characters with trust issues. I know this can be a problem, either talk to the players OOC, or create in-game events to build trust between the characters.


3) Its hard getting the PCs to bring out their backstory, or better yet, helping them develop their backstories. It sounds like a lot to help them build this during the game, but with work and whatnot theyre too preoccupied to do this on their own time.I always think that knowing what a character did on his 7th birthday is not essential for good roleplaying if the player knows what makes the character tick. A detailed backstory is nice to have - in the back. So unless you want to focus on the past coming to haunt them, you could make just as interesting stories not closely tied to past events. The occasional plothook though is a big help. As you go along though the PCs will hopefully make connections to various NPCs and those can be used just as well.


1) Interesting story ideas, quests, I tend to write my own quests and avoid pre-written ones only because I can lean them more towards certain characters goals to help them develop themselves.The easiest way would probably be to ask the players what their characters' goals are.

For general ideas, read, watch movies and let yourself be inspired, steal if you have to but don't make it obvious what's stolen.


2) Teaching them new things is fun and exciting, but making them use these things on a regular encounter is hard.Not sure what you are asking here. Are you talking about game mechanics/tactics or "acting"? If it is the former use some of them as long as they are not totally overpowering the characters, if it is the latter my comments to the other questions should give a clear indication what I think.


Thirdly, Getting them to step outside of their comfort zone a little. I'm more or less looking for ideas to help them step out, use a little accent or something, and really step into their characters.Don't force anything, especially if it concerns how their character "is supposed" to be played. Accents and speech patterns are great but just lead by example, don't start telling them "what would be better".


1) get them to take on their role in the partyAre you talking about tactics or about social interaction?


2) Get them to become their character. Should I be enforcing this a little harder as a DM? or should I just keep hoping for the best?You should hope for and encourage any attempt that has been made, but you should not enforce anything. All of you are there to have fun after all.

[Malak'ai]

I found having players give their characters a simple personality quirk, something easy to rp and that doesn't distract from anything, can help with getting into character.
Personally, I've had a Bard that stuttered when he spoke normally but sung loud and clear, a Ranger who was raised around an military company who's speech was littered with curse words which became more common when she got angry or frustraited and finally a Rogue who was scared of butterflies. They all turned out to be damn fun to play, and it gave the other players something to tease them about (in a friendly manner that is).

[killem2]

Well, unless you have an issue with it, focus more on the combat/miniatures/grid aspect, sure it'll start feeling more like a board game, but if it lets them get into it more that may lead to them opening up more.

[almightycoma]

Well, unless you have an issue with it, focus more on the combat/miniatures/grid aspect, sure it'll start feeling more like a board game, but if it lets them get into it more that may lead to them opening up more. I agree there is nothing inherently wrong with being a murder hobo and after a couple of sessions it should handle

1) get them to take on their role in the party

[Toy Killer]

Well, as a species, we're all socially 'aware' of each others habits. Role-playing is no exception, and if they don't have a solid basis to imprint off of, they aren't likely to participate.

You don't even have to go all out on every NPC, my standard is name = A personality. So, when the players go to town to sell their fine antiques and trade goods (Not all treasure is gold, after all), let them communicate to the vendor. In turn, this means give the vendor a persona they can recognize. The DM's guide has a full section on filling out personalities and a cheat sheet for some basic traits.

If you try to Role-Play with a specific player first, they will be apprehensive about it at first; it's natural, they don't want to be judged on their roleplaying abilities (particularly true for teens, lesser so for preteens and most young adults.), and you'll likely see a bunch of head ducking, lap gazing, chortling and apprehensive looks to other players.

This is a trait called 'Collaborative Gauging', They're 'fishing' for someone to speak up on their behalf to stop the awkward situation in front of them. If you look at how fraternities, military institution boot camps and (heh, probably don't want to talk about this in regards to D&D) cult initiations, they have your answer to help alleviate the problem, probably the whole reason the game is so infrequently played one on one; Have the Group Role-play together.

Circling back around, we established people are socially aware of one another; now use the fact they will feel safe in a group if the group is in the same boat as them. Ease them into the secession, get them into the game play itself, Orc cavern, traps, sorcerry, the whole nine. Then behind a barrel, a little girl walks out and starts crying.

Congrats! You've just subconsciously told the players a story is going on behind what they thought was a standard dungeon crawl! And they are inclined to participate, because they want to know why she is here. And the only way to get them to find out...?

You got it, Role-playing.

[Alefiend]

Are you sure your players want the immersive, deep-backstory game you claim to be trying to run? That doesn't fly with all groups, or all the time. You might be trying to force them into pathos and angst when they really just want to play Brave Sir Robin and Blasty McBlasterson the Blastomancer.

Did your players know one another before/outside of the game? This will have an effect on how they approach roleplaying, and how they want to interact in general.

Lead by example. These seem to be new players, so the elements you want in the game won't be there until you put them there. Your NPCs should behave like you want the PCs to behave; this will encourage acting. If you want backgrounds to come to the front, have an NPC ask—in character, during an appropriate lull in the action—why a particular character is an adventurer, or what they did before picking up the sword. If you want the players to take particular party roles that are suited to their characters, put them in a situation where there are sensible in-game consequences for not fulfilling those roles—if the controller wizard goes blast-happy or relies on a sling/crossbow, party members or useful NPCs die horribly.

[Andezzar]

Are you sure your players want the immersive, deep-backstory game you claim to be trying to run? That doesn't fly with all groups, or all the time. You might be trying to force them into pathos and angst when they really just want to play Brave Sir Robin and Blasty McBlasterson the Blastomancer.Brave Sir Robin and Blasty McBlasterson the Blastomancer can also exist in a very immersive game. Not everyone has to be the angst ridden brooding emo. You can play layered and interesting murder hobos as well as dull tragic antiheroes.


Did your players know one another before/outside of the game? This will have an effect on how they approach roleplaying, and how they want to interact in general.

Lead by example. These seem to be new players, so the elements you want in the game won't be there until you put them there. Your NPCs should behave like you want the PCs to behave; this will encourage acting. If you want backgrounds to come to the front, have an NPC ask—in character, during an appropriate lull in the action—why a particular character is an adventurer, or what they did before picking up the sword. If you want the players to take particular party roles that are suited to their characters, put them in a situation where there sensible in-game consequences for not fulfilling those roles—if the controller wizard goes blast-happy or relies on a sling/crossbow, party members or useful NPCs die horribly.Good advice.