just need some advice

[Orion Hamby]

I play 3.5/pathfinder and am new to being the DM and need a little help

[FocusWolf413]

What kind of help do you want?

[Orion Hamby]

Just any tips you might have about anything I'm not so good at the all of it part

[Karl Aegis]

Critical fumbles suck. If you want something bad to happen, send a monster after them. Sunder-monkeys exist if you want your players to invest in adamantium.

If failure doesn't lead to anything interesting, there is no reason to roll for failure. For example, if someone can't climb up to a ledge and the story comes to a complete halt, the game just ends or the cliff disappears. Nothing interesting happens.

Talking to players out of character can solve most problems you could possibly have. Don't do something stupid to the characters if your players are frustrating you.

The 3.5e Player's Handbook has some of the most powerful options available to any character, mostly in Chapter 11: Spells. It also contains some of the worst possible options.

Most races with level adjustment suck.

Levels 1-3 suck.

Multiple enemies with challenge rating lower than the party are better than enemies with a challenge rating equal to the party.

Challenge rating sucks. A huge monstrous scorpion isn't much more dangerous than a small one. If you have ranged attacks and can stay out of its range it dies. It might take more arrows, but it just loses.

[Aegis013]

It's important that everybody has fun. This definitely includes you as a DM. Make sure to have fun. It's really important.

If the game is not fun for anybody involved, try to see if there's a way to reconcile things such that the game is fun for all involved. Try not to do things that are particularly not-fun for players, or that you think would not be fun for players (unless you're explicitly told those things would be fun by the players).

To be clear, this definitely doesn't mean the players necessarily always win. And it doesn't mean that there should be nothing at stake or that challenges shouldn't be tough. After all, experiencing fleeting frustration while overcoming a difficult obstacle can potentially substantially increase fun.

[Orion Hamby]

Thanks that really helps😁

[Kid Jake]

When planning sessions, avoid getting ahead of yourself. Never try to determine what the PCs are going to do next because that way lies madness; instead try to just have an idea of what your NPCs hope to accomplish if they aren't interfered with and then play them like actual people trying to accomplish those goals.

Be prepared to improv. No matter how much foresight you might have there's going to come a point when the PCs do something you have no way of predicting. Roll with it. Most of the best moments in a campaign, for both you and them, will come from these impulsive little side adventures.

Escalate things. Once a session try to advance SOMETHING in a meaningful way. Good; bad, it doesn't really matter, just make sure that the party constantly feels like your plot is going somewhere so that they stay on the edge of their seats.

[Orion Hamby]

That's great advice thank you

[Ephemeral_Being]

Plan ahead. Build several random encounters BEFORE the party gets to them. Design your dungeons before the party enters them. Have contingency plans for your major plot points, and for any characters that die through a fluke. That ALSO applies to pacing. If your campaign is only going to last four months, you REALLY need to plan on that. When you plan to run a campaign with a two year buildup and try to force it into a smaller time interval, bad things happen. As-in, not getting plot resolution. Or fumbling it.

The best part of the game is player agency. That's what sets TTRPGs apart from a video game. Present the party with a problem. This guy is poisoned with something that makes him unconscious, and you need some information in his head. Then, let them come up with a plan to get the information. If they want to track down his source, do it. If they want to cure the poison, they can do that. If they want to hire a wizard to rip it out of his mind, sure. Don't have ONE solution to the problem. Have one problem, and whatever solution they want to try, follow it to the logical conclusion. Let them surprise you. Often, they're going to come up with something way better than you originally imagined. I mean, if the plan is completely stupid and cannot possibly succeed, then follow that to its logical conclusion, too. Let them make bad decisions, and let those decisions have consequences. Try to build a realistic world, and let them act within it.

I recommend using a pre-existing setting. Golarion, or Eberron, or Faerun are all good picks for a first-time campaign. Don't make one up. Use their cosmology and lore as a setup. It'll help your players get invested if they can go read up on Helm, and understand why that guy who's a Knight of Helm acts the way he does. It will also help you. You don't have to create the entire world. You can use what already exists as a framework. Then, build a province or city or whatever you need in one particular region of that world. Tweak it to make it work for the story you're framing. But stay consistent during the entire campaign. You can't change things in the middle. It messes everyone up.

That's the best advice I've got. A lot of it is advice I wish I had been given when I first started. Good luck.

[Orion Hamby]

Thanks I use the faerune setting myself

[Mr. Bitter]

1. Learn to say "Yes, but..." when the player wants to do something. Yes, you can leap the thirty feet onto the back of the dragon, but it's a DC 25 check to make it stick.

2. Failed checks should not mean you just try again. That would be boring. If a rogue fails his lock picking check, it doesn't mean that he can't pick it, rather it means that it takes him so long to pick the lock that a wandering monster shows up.

3. Whenever possible, escalate the drama in situations. What would make a situation more tense, more weird, more "metal"? Usually, a clock should be ticking: the floor might be sinking into a pit of magma, the necromancer might be summoning 1d4 new zombies each round, lightning from the storm raging above might strike a random character on the battlefield each round. Take a second and think of things as a movie scene, and then think of how that scene could be made more interesting.

[ZamielVanWeber]

1. Learn to say "Yes, but..." when the player wants to do something. Yes, you can leap the thirty feet onto the back of the dragon, but it's a DC 25 check to make it stick.

Inversely rule of cool is a nice thing to do. My players were facing a very difficult enemy due to party composition and one asked if he could teleport on the back of his flying astral construct to take a swing at the enemy. Having no clue what this would entail at the time I just said "yes." He took his swing and promptly fell off, but people still joke about it to this day.

[Malak'ai]

If you don't want important NPC's to be killed, don't stat them. There is the often said, but (I believe it's still) unwritten rule: If it has stats, it's gunna die.

This doesn't mean the PC's can't hurt or defeat them, just not kill them because they aren't locked into the game machanics. This means that they might have an ability to teleport out of danger, or to read the PC's minds so they know they're about to be attacked so they high tail it out of there or something.

Don't do this to every Average Joe villager, or even ever quest giver, and especially not reoccuring villians, but just the real major NPC's that the players may run into.

[(Un)Inspired]

No kissing on the lips and never fall in love with a "player"

[defiantdan]

Get a good understanding of how spells work and how they can negate a good deal of the traditional medieval fantasy problems. 1-6 generally plays like lord of the rings. anything higher than that is a whole new ball game. Adapt to it and play to it's strengths. This is a high magic system.

The CR system is generally not that good. An allip can take down a tarrasque.

if your pc's are good optimizers don't take the usual stats from the MM. Find out your pc's numbers and match them to meet your criteria. The highest bab in the group should hit "insert monster" 75% of the time on a d20. The highest spell dc should be passable 50% of the time. ect. It let's your PC's get the ultimate powers they wanted without wrecking your game.

Try to find a way to burn 1/4 of your pc's resources per encounter. It get's tougher as levels go up due to how many spell slots a pc gets. If they use the 15 minute work day by hiding in a rope trick. Use scent and trackers. now they at least know the last location for the wizard to blast out a dispel magic.

[Orion Hamby]

This is all great my player's are coming over tonight and I thought I would check before they got here, this is all great advice

[Allianis]

Also, remember that you WILL NOT remember every rule, every time. No one likes sitting around while people argue over some vague mechanic and three people try to look it up in five different books. In these situations, just go with whatever makes sense to you at the time. Remember you are the DM, and it's your job to keep the game moving forward.

When your local rules lawyer starts to argue with you, let him know he can look it up later and you'll make it up to him if it turns out he was right. The key is to keep the game moving without being a tyrant.

[Orion Hamby]

My player's just left a few minutes ago and they had a great time I just played it by ear and did a simple 1st level adventure in the back of my book, thank you all for the advice I am much more confident in my abilities now keep posting as all help is well helpful 🎲

[atemu1234]

No kissing on the lips and never fall in love with a "player"

And haters gonna hate, hate, hate?

[Aegis013]

...players...had a great time...I am much more confident in my abilities now...

That's excellent! Great job!

Some random rules of thumb that I've found (though mostly apply to creating your own adventure):

-Avoid using an excessive number of foes in any given fight; if the players get bored waiting for their turns, that's not very fun.
-Try not to use effects that make the player not get to play for the rest of the encounter or basically make them sit out of the game, that's not very fun either.
-Try to keep a variety of scenes and goals so that players who like different things and characters who are skilled in different areas get roughly equal chances to be the star.
-Don't make enemies such that the players can't tell if their attacks are effective, use visual descriptions to let them know if their attacks are being effective or ineffective.
-If you want your players to solve a puzzle, put enough clues in that they could solve it. Then triple that number of clues. Players are great at missing clues or seeing something that isn't a clue as one. They should be able to construct a giant neon sign spelling out the answer once all the clues are collected.
-If something is important to the story/plot, make sure it's somewhere that's difficult to miss.
-Avoid excessive planning (as others have said, predicting player actions just isn't possible), but if they go somewhere unexpected, don't be afraid to use monsters/adventure hooks/NPCs that you had planned for other areas in the mean time assuming they still make decent sense.

But really, all of these are about making the game fun, for yourself, and for your players, by making the world seem big, active, and believable.

[Orion Hamby]

Thanks PS. can someone tell me how to quote a previous post as I am new here

[Malak'ai]

Click the "Reply with Quote" button at the bottom of the post you want to Quote.

[(Un)Inspired]

And haters gonna hate, hate, hate?
Wisdom for the ages

Thanks PS. can someone tell me how to quote a previous post as I am new here

Click on the "reply with quote" button at the bottom of each post. If you want to quote multiple posts click on the quotation mark button on each post you want to quote followed by the reply with quote button on the final post you want to quote.

[johnbragg]

Thanks PS. can someone tell me how to quote a previous post as I am new here

AT the lower right corner of the post is a button that says "reply with quote"

EDIT: Swordsaged!

Let's see, to make this post worthwhile, I need to add something.

Don't fall in love with a big mega-plot for your campaign, because you'll be tempted to railroad the players into following it even if they aren't that interested.

[Orion Hamby]

AT the lower right corner of the post is a button that says "reply with quote"

EDIT: Swordsaged!

Let's see, to make this post worthwhile, I need to add something.

Don't fall in love with a big mega-plot for your campaign, because you'll be tempted to railroad the players into following it even if they aren't that interested.

Thanks for both pieces of advice🎲

[Blackhawk748]

Best piece of advice i've ever gotten: "Dont be afraid to call for a 5 or 10 minute break when the PCs use their standard issue +5 Plotbane Monkeywrench." This will stop people from getting board and make you not feel rushed, also it lets everyone get food, and food is good.

[johnbragg]

Best piece of advice i've ever gotten: "Dont be afraid to call for a 5 or 10 minute break when the PCs use their standard issue +5 Plotbane Monkeywrench." This will stop people from getting board and make you not feel rushed, also it lets everyone get food, and food is good.

Piggybacking--make sure the players know that this is not a penalty, they have not done wrong, you are not sulking because they broke your campaign.

"I didn't expect that. That was awesome, and I need a couple of minutes to adjust the campaign world around it. Well played."

[Orion Hamby]

Piggybacking--make sure the players know that this is not a penalty, they have not done wrong, you are not sulking because they broke your campaign.

"I didn't expect that. That was awesome, and I need a couple of minutes to adjust the campaign world around it. Well played."

This...is really good advice in my first session (a couple of hours ago) my fighter managed to kill the bar owner that was supposed to give them their first quest so instead they found his journal and got the quest there🎲 I have another forum about undead ideas I'd like you to see as well🎲

[Mr. Bitter]

4. Don't worry so much about whether the rules allow a person or creature to have a particular stat. What you think a successful inquisitor should have as a bonus to sense motive checks is far more important (and easier to access on the fly). I wish someone had told me this, sooner.

[Brendanicus]

Keep a list of NPC's or cool monsters/enemy NPC's on hand. Refer to it for random encounters and the like.

[Orion Hamby]

4. Don't worry so much about whether the rules allow a person or creature to have a particular stat. What you think a successful inquisitor should have as a bonus to sense motive checks is far more important (and easier to access on the fly). I wish someone had told me this, sooner.

That's good advice I wanted an ooze infested skeleton fighter for later but no INT made this tricky but I can always ignore RAW I guess

[nyjastul69]

I've always found it easier to increase the difficulty of an encounter on the fly, rather than decrease it on the fly.

The single most important thing is fun.

The second most important thing is that players will never do what you think they will do.

[Orion Hamby]

I've always found it easier to increase the difficulty of an encounter on the fly, rather than decrease it on the fly.

The single most important thing is fun.

The second most important thing is that players will never do what you think they will do.

So true my player's KILLED the the barkeep that's SUPPOSED to be a quest giver...good thing gnomes can write

[Tvtyrant]

Players are always more interested ina world where theu have some buy in. Children, titles, inns, airships, something they can call their own and lets them care. No matter what your awesome storyline calls for, don't murder or destroy these things. If someone sends killers after the Druid's grandkids he or she will be just as mad at the bad guy if they live as if they die, and less mad at you.

[Orion Hamby]

Players are always more interested ina world where theu have some buy in. Children, titles, inns, airships, something they can call their own and lets them care. No matter what your awesome storyline calls for, don't murder or destroy these things. If someone sends killers after the Druid's grandkids he or she will be just as mad at the bad guy if they live as if they die, and less mad at you.

Helpful thanks🎲

[Mr. Bitter]

I've always found it easier to increase the difficulty of an encounter on the fly, rather than decrease it on the fly.

Yes. Players will sense that you are going easy on them and think it is super lame. But they do not feel similarly when the villain unveils their secret weapon (that you just invented right then).

[Orion Hamby]

Yes. Players will sense that you are going easy on them and think it is super lame. But they do not feel similarly when the villain unveils their secret weapon (that you just invented right then).

True PS. nice signature seizure inducing but nice

[LoyalPaladin]

Best advice I ever got was to randomly roll a couple d4's. It intimidates the players into paying attention. Haha.

[daremetoidareyo]

If you are just starting out, there are trends that all RPG folks have noticed.

1: Cooperative fantasy opens up the inner psychopath a littlebit. Your friends have a lot of stuff going on in their lives, and now you have a game where your decisions, ANY of your decisions, can be as wild, evil, or macho as can be imagined. What a rush of power! The PCs are prone to doing some things that are just plain unreasonable (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354869645611136748/). Your first 2-5 campaigns are likely to be like that.


2. Most beginning groups have to deal with a little too much "can I kill it?" You need to foster an environment where rewarding xp for roleplaying (excellent acting, behaviors) ways to overcome obstacles is just as readily accepted as swinging a sword. Rogues have social skill points for a reason.

3. Your PCs will always miss a vital clue and may need to organically find another. (your journal is a great on the fly decision). A big essay about three clue rule: (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule) for any plot event you want your PCs to take part in, you need to plant 3 separate paths to get them there.

4. Your PCs will focus on some stupid detail that you threw in for flavor and try to make money off of it. Saying "yes, but..." is really difficult when the PCs are trying to pry the magic walkway lights off the trees in the friendly pixie village, cuz you know, they're like hotel towels, someone's gotta steal em. Sometimes this can be awesome: warning, you may lose a few hours reading this (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Tale_of_an_Industrious_Rogue,_Part_I)

5. Some players love paladins and righteous men fighting for what is right. Some players like the evilest most effed up villain you can imagine. Those two types of players will be your friends and they will want to play in the same party (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18903459&postcount=1).

6. Some player is going to want to roll dice for imaginary sex acts.greentext story: (warning: commenters there are using adult words) (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12423626/) So many people desire this that there is a book of erotic fantasy splatbook.

Have fun. These are just things that are to be expected on the first forays into Dnd.

[Orion Hamby]

If you are just starting out, there are trends that all RPG folks have noticed.

1: Cooperative fantasy opens up the inner psychopath a littlebit. Your friends have a lot of stuff going on in their lives, and now you have a game where your decisions, ANY of your decisions, can be as wild, evil, or macho as can be imagined. What a rush of power! The PCs are prone to doing some things that are just plain unreasonable (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354869645611136748/). Your first 2-5 campaigns are likely to be like that.


2. Most beginning groups have to deal with a little too much "can I kill it?" You need to foster an environment where rewarding xp for roleplaying (excellent acting, behaviors) ways to overcome obstacles is just as readily accepted as swinging a sword. Rogues have social skill points for a reason.

3. Your PCs will always miss a vital clue and may need to organically find another. (your journal is a great on the fly decision). A big essay about three clue rule: (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule) for any plot event you want your PCs to take part in, you need to plant 3 separate paths to get them there.

4. Your PCs will focus on some stupid detail that you threw in for flavor and try to make money off of it. Saying "yes, but..." is really difficult when the PCs are trying to pry the magic walkway lights off the trees in the friendly pixie village, cuz you know, they're like hotel towels, someone's gotta steal em. Sometimes this can be awesome: warning, you may lose a few hours reading this (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Tale_of_an_Industrious_Rogue,_Part_I)

5. Some players love paladins and righteous men fighting for what is right. Some players like the evilest most effed up villain you can imagine. Those two types of players will be your friends and they will want to play in the same party (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18903459&postcount=1).

6. Some player is going to want to roll dice for imaginary sex acts.greentext story: (warning: commenters there are using adult words) (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12423626/) So many people desire this that there is a book of erotic fantasy splatbook.

Have fun. These are just things that are to be expected on the first forays into Dnd.

All great thanks🎲

[Nibbens]

Be prepared to improv. No matter how much foresight you might have there's going to come a point when the PCs do something you have no way of predicting. Roll with it. Most of the best moments in a campaign, for both you and them, will come from these impulsive little side adventures.

This is truth! One thing I often do is plan my environment without any concept of what the characters may or may not do. However, I know it fully. So when the PCs do something off the wall, I know exactly the way the environment reacts regardless of what they did. So, I guess I plan without planning... however that works. lol.

Also, Never ever ever ever create a solution for a problem that your players should figure out. The solution you think of will never be the one the PCs think of and any planning based off that will be wasted effort.

Also, in conjunction with the above - create problems that are impossible. The PCs will nevertheless figure out a way to deal with the issue at hand. During gameplay - allow the one that fits the tone of your game to work.

[Orion Hamby]

this is truth! One thing i often do is plan my environment without any concept of what the characters may or may not do. However, i know it fully. So when the pcs do something off the wall, i know exactly the way the environment reacts regardless of what they did. So, i guess i plan without planning... However that works. Lol.

Also, never ever ever ever create a solution for a problem that your players should figure out. The solution you think of will never be the one the pcs think of and any planning based off that will be wasted effort.

Also, in conjunction with the above - create problems that are impossible. The pcs will nevertheless figure out a way to deal with the issue at hand. During gameplay - allow the one that fits the tone of your game to work.

super helpful🎲