inexperienced DM and would like some assistance

[CairoThePhoenix]

Hey everyone I started playing DND a few months ago And I decided I wanted to try my hand at being in the DM chair. So I put together a story and a world and asked some of my good friends To play it and help me but I don't want to Give away any of my story to them. So I suppose to keep this short I'd like to ask for any tips that could help me keep my story moving while making sure that all my players are having fun and have the freedom that they want .
Any help with this would be really appreciated.

Just for added information I'd like to share my world design and just a little bit about my story. So the world is basically designed to be a mix of order and chaos. It consists of a single large continent as well as a couple of smaller islands on the western cost that are mostly uninhabited except by orcs who are extremely aggressive and often raid the coast of the mainland so much of the coast is also mostly uninhabited by humans or anyone for that matter. The inland area of the continent has no real order to it as a whole there are several different government systems running in very close proximity at the same time some of the governments are very well run and very prosperous and stable . while others are weak poor and unstable. The story is about the heroes who unite the continent and build a utopia. Another little tidbit is the relationship between many of the races. There is no trade at all between elves, humans, and dwarves. The races are extremely hostile toward each other and often are at war or in grave danger of going to war. My party is currently on its way to retrieve an amulet from a large group of bandits.

[Emperor Tippy]

Let's see.

1) Start making character sheets and keep doing it when you have free time. Guards, blacksmiths, thief's, bartenders, story tellers, goblin war chiefs, etc. Keep these in a binder and eventually you will be able to populate an entire town (or even entire world theoretically) with fully realized characters. This massively speeds up the game because you don't have to make up these stats on the fly or argue with the players over what they are. In addition, put a source and page number on the sheet next to every single feat, spell, or item along with the pages for the characters main mechanic.

2) Print out a list of names from the internet. Having a few thousand first and last names on hand to name characters makes a world feel much more alive and adds depth.

3) Create back-story and personality snippets. Things like "father was a blacksmith who died in an Orc raid" or "likes cats".

With those three things you can basically create fully realized NPC's as background fodder in seconds.

4) Save all the maps you make for buildings, dungeons, etc. You can re-use them later with minimal or no modification.

5) Always have a generic backup plot on hand. Players will go off and totally ignore the plot for no real reason so have something fairly generic that you can basically just tack names or small details onto to satisfy them. This also helps when the players totally short-circuit your plot for the game session by doing something that you never expected.

[Captainspork]

I think one of the biggest pitfalls for new DMs is finding ways to motivate the party to do what they want. You mentioned your story would involve the unification of the continent into a utopia: why do the pcs want this? What drives these individuals to pursue this more than anyone else? I think these are questions that you need to think about and answer for yourself.

My second suggestion ties into the first: keep your story small at first. "Quests" like retrieving an amulet from some bandits (as you said) are good ways to form bonds between party members in game, and give them a reason to adventure together. Once that is established, you can gradually ramp up your story to the primary plot that you have in mind.

I don't know that this works for everyone, but one thing I try to do is never plan to far ahead. When you plan everything out, you tend to want to stick to your plan. After all, it's your plan. It's awesomeness :smallcool: Unfortunately, it's my experience that when DMs plan too far ahead they tend to railroad pcs into their plans. Which no one enjoys. I don't know if that would work for you, but it seems to work for me and my group (been DMing the same game for the last 4 years or so).

Keep your pcs perspectives in mind and accept the fact that they will try to do things that no sane person would do, and you will be fine. Good luck!

[Lappy9001]

This is the best guide to DMing I've seen. Helped me quite a bit! So You Wanna be a DM? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?76474-So-You-Wanna-Be-A-DM-A-Potentially-Helpful-Guide-(Reposted-and-Updated))

[CairoThePhoenix]

I think one of the biggest pitfalls for new DMs is finding ways to motivate the party to do what they want. You mentioned your story would involve the unification of the continent into a utopia: why do the pcs want this? What drives these individuals to pursue this more than anyone else? I think these are questions that you need to think about and answer for yourself.

My second suggestion ties into the first: keep your story small at first. "Quests" like retrieving an amulet from some bandits (as you said) are good ways to form bonds between party members in game, and give them a reason to adventure together. Once that is established, you can gradually ramp up your story to the primary plot that you have in mind.

I don't know that this works for everyone, but one thing I try to do is never plan to far ahead. When you plan everything out, you tend to want to stick to your plan. After all, it's your plan. It's awesomeness :smallcool: Unfortunately, it's my experience that when DMs plan too far ahead they tend to railroad pcs into their plans. Which no one enjoys. I don't know if that would work for you, but it seems to work for me and my group (been DMing the same game for the last 4 years or so).

Keep your pcs perspectives in mind and accept the fact that they will try to do things that no sane person would do, and you will be fine. Good luck!

Thank you I never really thought of giving them a reason to go for the goal i had in mind for them do you have any ideas how I could do that?

[CairoThePhoenix]

Let's see.

1) Start making character sheets and keep doing it when you have free time. Guards, blacksmiths, thief's, bartenders, story tellers, goblin war chiefs, etc. Keep these in a binder and eventually you will be able to populate an entire town (or even entire world theoretically) with fully realized characters. This massively speeds up the game because you don't have to make up these stats on the fly or argue with the players over what they are. In addition, put a source and page number on the sheet next to every single feat, spell, or item along with the pages for the characters main mechanic.

2) Print out a list of names from the internet. Having a few thousand first and last names on hand to name characters makes a world feel much more alive and adds depth.

3) Create back-story and personality snippets. Things like "father was a blacksmith who died in an Orc raid" or "likes cats".

With those three things you can basically create fully realized NPC's as background fodder in seconds.

4) Save all the maps you make for buildings, dungeons, etc. You can re-use them later with minimal or no modification.

5) Always have a generic backup plot on hand. Players will go off and totally ignore the plot for no real reason so have something fairly generic that you can basically just tack names or small details onto to satisfy them. This also helps when the players totally short-circuit your plot for the game session by doing something that you never expected.

This is all great advice I will definitely be doing all of this thank you very much

[RSSwizard]

Hmm you've made it very hard on yourself by making up a story like this. But ill see what I can do.

One way to get the PCs to do what you want, is to make there be some kind of Bad Guy who is not only in the way of them doing it, but also has his crosshairs set on the PCs. So its going to light a fire under their butt both ways, they have a personal stake in this.

An excellent tool is an entire organization of assassins who are just under contract with the bad guy. That way they don't know nothing about that guy, they're just following orders, but they also make a point of not double crossing anyone (so the PCs wont be able to offer them a counter-deal). By the way Assassins dont necessarily need to have the assassin class. They could be spellcastors or people with various prestiege classes that make them effective for the assassin's lodge in different ways.

And also maybe include some potential solution or safe haven that will also have their sights set on the end goal too - so in order to maintain that safe haven they have to do what is right for the story.

I like to use extraordinarily overpowered NPCs who are pulling their punches and keeping their hand tied behind their back. Especially epic level Liches, since they're far beyond the ability of the PCs to get rid of, and the liches can even let themselves be killed since they will come back to life (since their phylactery is located in some place where the PCs wont be able to lay their hands on it, probably without having to face someone tougher - IE its on the Negative Energy Plane guarded by a whole colony of Shadow Dragons of varying sizes up to Epic itself).

(Just please, if the Lich is going to play that way, dont let him be carrying any expensive magic items for the PCs to pilfer each time they "kill" him. And I would only give them XP for an encounter equal to their own level since they're not actually destroying him permanently)

Another option is "The NAZIs are coming". Some jerk is rallying the forces of chaos to form their own allied Empire and they are preparing to stomp down under hoof everyone in the nations of free people's. Who will all become slaves and fodder for the sacrificial alter, demons will roam the land and the forests will burn and so on.

So if the PCs don't try to turn the tide of what is going on, regardless of whether they are so awesome, regardless of whether they escape they will lose everything they hold dear, as well as not being able to do their EBAY Shopping anymore.

Unless they want to convert over to the side of the bad guys, but bad guys don't just let other bad guys in, since they also like to steal as much as they can from each other.

And remember Bad Guys can crowdfund, high level adventurers might be somewhat rare but Bad Guys can rally them up and throw 50 high level adventuring goons down their throat. Or just a counter-party of them plus a ungodly mean-ass dragon who is pissed off enough that it has to get off its throne of gold coins and handle them itself (CR40+). Except that dragon doesnt look like a dragon when it shows up, at least for the first round, because its polymorphed.

DRAGONS
Dragon monsters use their spellcasting abilities to ward and buff themselves. This is how you play a Dragon monster. It doesn't use its sorcerer spells to cast fireballs. Make Dragons swallow PCs, then it gets to do full damage with its breath weapon on them while they're in its throat.

Dragons can use items, too, so if it couldn't cast the spells it wanted to, it can still use some scrolls or wands or something. Im sure they could put ranks into Use Magic Device to get the job done anyway (don't they usually have an awesome charisma score?).

SUPPLIMENTS
Figure out which books you would like to USE in the game and which ones you DO NOT wish to use. Dont just let your players go to dndtools.eu or look through their collection of pirated .pdf files they've downloaded.

This way you maintain more control over the BS they're going to try to bring in out of the blue. (though as a DM I would also suggest not using the books yourself either, that way they dont cry foul).

Three primary suggestions I have are Book Of Vile Darkness, Book Of Exotic Deeds, and Libris Mortis. Not necessarily that they have cheese in them, but it just raises too many questions, and some of the magic stuff in them lets you do some really convenient things that the players probably shouldn't be able to do so easily (like permanent protection from death on your armor).


(This is like the Laws they pass on Capitol Hill, the lawmakers dont have time to read 2000 pages of laws so they just put their stamp of approval on it. Then look what happens (Patriot Act anyone?). Hitler banned guns for the safety of the people, then put them in cattle cars.)


Id also suggest banning Psionics. Spells and spellcasting classes are good enough, and Psi is only going to complicate the crap out of things.

Its also possible as a DM to bring in custom-tailored versions of Deity/Organization specific Classes. Such as Red Wizards of They or Fists Of Hextor. Its easy enough to wager that the same skills could be offered or figured out by someone else with a similar portfolio of experience. But they should probably maintain their linked-ness to whoever is offering them in your campaign setting.

You can make your own classes too, like a better more improved version of Ninjas that actually do what Ninjas are supposed to do. But be aware the players might cry foul for not being able to select them personally.


ECONOMICS
Come up with lists of items that certain vendors have. DO NOT just let your players grab the book and go shopping like its ebay.

In fact you may want to list specific items that vendors have, keeping in mind what your party likes or needs to use (if the fighter has a bastard sword proficiency, maybe there's 2 bastard swords on the shelf). They may have a collection of mundane items, but the magical ones should be carefully defined.

Think of this like a Computer RPG game where you go into the market to buy items from the vendor, and the vendor has certain ones or only a certain number of them.

This way you have far more control over what your players have.

If they want XYZ magic item then thats what the Craft Magic Item feats are for.

(though I personally don't agree with the build times for magic items OR mundane items in the book. I think they should all be divided by 5 or 10.)

(And I especially suggest that POISON be very quick to make, but also expressly require the raw ingredients - if they want to make purple worm poison, they need to go kill some purple worms - if they want dragon bile poison well they better go find a dragon who's willing to cough it up. The Value of Poison in my opinion is not in the substance itself and its difficulty to synthesize, but the fact it is a black market item people are willing to pay top gold piece for. So as an Item to be Manufactured I think it should be worth 1/100th its value in terms of the time required to make it. But anyone using poison should probably have to MAKE it themselves, using the Craft/Poison skill . . . nobody in that disreputible business is going to sell that kind of stuff)



Also, make any big-honking diamonds (of the 5000+ gp sort) cost twice as much, and be very hard to find. If they want a 25,000 gp diamond for a True Resurrection scroll, make them use a 32,000 gp diamond and buy it for 65,000 gp.

That way they will appreciate having them for the spells that require them, and it will not be like a trip to the mall to just go pick one up when they need it.

In fact any Gems that the PCs want to buy, make them pay 2 times the value for. Same goes for Platinum Pieces if they actually have to go buy them from a moneychanger.

And keep track of how much weight in gold the PCs are carrying. If they're carrying 25,000 gold pieces, thats 20 pounds per 1000 gp (@50gp/lb), so that is 500 pounds of gold.

Kepe the low value random gems (basically Rupees from Zelda) at an even exchange but make it to where they can only get that exchanged for money in specific places, and they cant just exchange the gems for items or services (otherwise it becomes an Appraise check to haggle the value of them and they could lose up to 50% of the value).

This will make the players smarter about their economics.

Or they'll start buying a bunch of Portable Holes, and keep in mind that a Portable Hole can lose its contents since it stores it in a place on the ethereal or astral plane rather than its own extradimensional space (so some critter "out there" could come across a pile of their loot in the portable hole).


ARTIFACTS
If you're going to include the use of Artifacts, as a plot item or whatever, please make up your own and make them at least 2 times as strong as the ones in the book.

The artifacts listed in the book are quite watered down.


MAGICAL PROTECTION
Two awesome spells for protection against teleportation and scrying are Mind Blank (8th) and Halaster's Teleportation Cage (9th). Mind Blank makes you unreachable by scrying. The teleportation cage is permanent and lets you define areas where teleportation wont get into and wont get out of.

Look up Heroes' Feast as well, and Ray Reflection (4th) if you wanna be nasty.

Remember you dont have to be a spellcastor to use these spells. Use Magic Device + Scrolls/Wands/Whatever is one way around it.

Plus anything they only need to use a few times can be a specially crafted wonderous item which is basically as expensive as a potion would be if it was a higher level.

(I like using a "Seal Of Healing" which would work like a Potion Of Cure Wounds but use the Heal spell, they just crack the seal and it Heals them for 150 points. Might as well be a potion of a 6th level spell.)

You can use this to make other items like those too, like Beads Of Blasting which store some high level spell in them.

You can even be a mean DM and say that like a Necklace of Fireballs if the item is destroyed it releases all of its charges at once. So you can put like 5 damaging spells on it and make them all go off when the bead (or arrow or whatever) breaks. No need to Twinspell or Empower them.

A DM I played with also had some bad bad ninjas who were using Shurikens with Poison and an Antimagic field on them. So when it hit you, all of your magical protections (ie, against poison) went down. And it also cancelled out any barriers that might be up against it too. It was real nasty. Since the critters had a really high Stealth roll they could do this without invisibility, so they didnt care that they were in antimagic.

[RSSwizard]

A few other suggestions I have as a DM...

* Might want to use the Pathfinder Skills and Feat progression systems, if you're playing 3.5 edition. This was one of the good things that PF did to improve on 3.5.

* If someone wants to make custom magic items, make them go to an in-game wizard's library, and make them pay gold pieces to get in every day, and make them take a lifetime membership for a hefty amount of cash (like 5000 or 10000) to be able to read in the restricted section.

* Use Illusions ALOT and use high level castors to make them, who have it as dedicated for their class, so the save DC will be really high. Major Image and similar spells should be spammed (and the % chance to be real should only apply when the save is made).

* Dont let people get a Talisman Of Undying Fortitude or 3rd Eye Clarity. They are on the list of essential magic items on this forum. However someone with a craft feat who knows the spells used should be able to make them (see above for making a custom item).

* Stat Damage (eg lose 1d6+1 Strength) is far more effective of a hit on the party than damage is. And it is one of the main ways that you're supposed to kill a dragon by the way. Bestow Curse and Bestow Greater Curse are excellent in this regard, but they only impose a penalty on stats, not stat damage (but still, lowering someone's stat they rely on by 6, or down to 1, will probably remove them from the fray for a long time).

* Return the Haste spell back to its original usage, to where it gives everyone an extra Partial Action per round rather than just an extra attack. Then the players will be happy they can do alot more stuff, and you can make your bad guys spam a boatload more stuff and move much faster.

* Teleportation takes 1d4+1 full rounds from start to finish, both teleporting away, and teleporting in (and its a visible occurrence on both ends). That way its still useful . . . but its not even remotely useful for dropping in on someone or evacuating. Also since the spell is cast already, if it is interrupted, they can lose the spell and you can prevent guys from leaving (works both ways though). It keeps Teleport from becoming a tactical tool.

* Dimension Door creates a Portal to the destination that remains for 1 round, which actually looks like a doorway. That way anyone looking at the guy who's using it can see through it and knows where it goes, and can even run through it too. If someone sticks something through it to keep it open, it just stays with them when the door closes, or if they let go of it, it gets teleported through the door.
(a better way to get away, by using Teleport at the new location, but they can still get through).

* If someone takes the prestiege class Abjurant Champion they treat all Mage Armor spells as if they were Abjurations like they originally were (some dummy changed it after 3.0 for no good reason, because if they were gonna change that they should have changed the Shield spell too. Abjurant Champion is built around this combo). Otherwise dont give it any thought.

* If someone wants to play an Incantatrix, who is also likely a sorcerer, remember that the rules were updated to nerf it.

Also suggest the feat Arcane Thesis. But instead of letting it get all broken and stuff . . . designate that unless a Metamagic Feat has a positive spell slot adjustment associated with it (ie, +1 level), it does not contribute to the spell slots used. That way this Feat/Class remain fun and useful without being broken (ie, you cant use one with "is cast at the same level" to get a -1 Spell Slot on the stack).

A DM I played with let me do this and i was able to put two -1 Spell Slot adjustments on spells and was casting 36d6 (total) Scorching Rays as a 4th or 5th level spell (I cant remember). I was nice though and didnt count Eschew Materials as a MM feat to get an extra -1 Slot.
(total list of MM on that were Empowered, Twinspell, Cold Substitution, Lord Of Uttercold. Each of the first two were reduced by one (+1 and+3 respectively) and the latter two contributed -1 each. I was also going to put Piercing Cold on it to make it abundantly clear that it was broken but I didn't have the feat yet by the time the game was over. Next in line was Energy Admixture, which would have been a total of 60d6 damage from 6 rays which was both 1/2 cold and 1/2 negative energy, and the cold damage could not be resisted. For added VELVEETA I would have also used a Rod Of Quicken to get 2 of them off per round).