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Malexia
2015-04-14, 01:36 PM
I've been enjoying reading through the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition books, and I plan on playing some games with other people, but what I really want to do is try my hand at running a campaign, or series of campaigns, in my custom setting, Maros. I was wondering if there was any advice people could give for DMing play-by-post games, or games in general?

Gavran
2015-04-14, 02:41 PM
I'm sure I've seen at least one good thread on running PbP... might've been for 4E specifically, but definitely had some broadly applicable stuff either way, I'll go dig it up an edit it in.
edit: here it is (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192975-DMing-4e-PbP-Games-A-Guide), though there are some sections that don't apply to non 4E games and some that won't apply to theatre of the mind 5E, I'd say it's still worth looking at

In the meantime, you may want to consider trying either/both of: running a module for your first time as DM, running a real life game for your first time as a DM. Homebrew settings/adventures and PbPs I think are both agreed to be harder to run.

Now, more specifically:

For online DMing you need to pick a medium. This can range from strictly forum posts PbP to Roll20's interactive maps, dice rollers, chat and (optional) voice or video. There are of course benefits and disadvantages to either extreme.

For general DMing, there's tons of pretty great advice out there on various blogs and stuff. I've heard (don't have it myself) that the 5E DMG actually is unusually good on the advice side as well. I imagine other posters will come along and give you a nice short list of key "Good DM ideas", but if not there's certainly been threads of that nature on the board before you could search up.

Keltest
2015-04-14, 02:46 PM
Well, the first and most critical piece of advice I can offer is to know your players. Figure out what it is they want to do. My players for example mostly want to hit things, but they enjoy the story and roleplay aspect in moderation, so I give them a fair number of encounters for them to approach cratively, and give them opportunities to roleplay (or not) as they feel up to it.

The Grue
2015-04-14, 07:05 PM
...In the meantime, you may want to consider trying either/both of: running a module for your first time as DM, running a real life game for your first time as a DM. Homebrew settings/adventures and PbPs I think are both agreed to be harder to run.

Cannot stress this enough. Learning how to DM by running a full Play By Post campaign in a homebrew setting is akin to learning how to swim and skydive by jumping from an airplane into the Pacific.

The GitP archives are littered with the corpses of game threads run by overly ambitious first-time GMs. Baby steps.

Malexia
2015-04-14, 07:10 PM
Regrettably, I have not the wealth to purchase a module, at least not for a time. I have tried DMing in real life once, but the players were... not superb. I'll consider it though, it's sound advice.

And thank you, those who have replied so far, for all the advice. I particularly liked the thread about 4e, there's some things there that are useful.

Gavran
2015-04-14, 09:24 PM
Regrettably, I have not the wealth to purchase a module, at least not for a time.

Fortunately, this hobby is not a poorly supported one! ;)

Here (http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?categoryid=38) are 8 free modules, entries in a contest that I believe was officially sanctioned by WotC - all I know about them is that Mind Blast! won the contest, but you could surely peruse them and see if anything sounds fun to run. Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?399634-Army-of-the-Damned-a-free-adventure-module-set-in-the-world-of-Innistrad) is a 5E adventure (may not be 100% complete but I believe it's complete enough to play a good few sessions) written by one of our own board members, it's set in the plane of Innistrad based on the Magic the Gathering set so perhaps a bit niche but free and cool nonetheless. And finally, the Starter Set comes with The Lost Mines of Phandelver which is designed as a "first time playing 5E module", for whatever that's worth. It is quite cheap for a D&D product, at a mere 11.99 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Starter-Set-Fundamentals/dp/0786965592/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=slyflourish-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=GCSMYQB22BV5VWEK&creativeASIN=0786965592).

goto124
2015-04-14, 10:29 PM
Where can I get Sunless Citadel for free? I heard it's great for newbies. Also, why is it great for newbies?

The Grue
2015-04-14, 11:51 PM
Where can I get Sunless Citadel for free?

May I politely suggest you re-read the forum rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1), specifically the one about posting copyrighted content or providing links to said content. ;)

goto124
2015-04-15, 12:19 AM
I don't know anything about Sunless Citadel, apart from 'it's a great campaign for newbies'. Also looking for reasons it's good for newcomers.

Malexia
2015-04-15, 12:35 AM
Fortunately, this hobby is not a poorly supported one! ;)

Here (http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?categoryid=38) are 8 free modules, entries in a contest that I believe was officially sanctioned by WotC - all I know about them is that Mind Blast! won the contest, but you could surely peruse them and see if anything sounds fun to run. Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?399634-Army-of-the-Damned-a-free-adventure-module-set-in-the-world-of-Innistrad) is a 5E adventure (may not be 100% complete but I believe it's complete enough to play a good few sessions) written by one of our own board members, it's set in the plane of Innistrad based on the Magic the Gathering set so perhaps a bit niche but free and cool nonetheless. And finally, the Starter Set comes with The Lost Mines of Phandelver which is designed as a "first time playing 5E module", for whatever that's worth. It is quite cheap for a D&D product, at a mere 11.99 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Starter-Set-Fundamentals/dp/0786965592/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=slyflourish-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=GCSMYQB22BV5VWEK&creativeASIN=0786965592).

Thanks for the links! Turns out Amazon also has a cheaper version of Princes of the Apocalypse, so I while I'm definitely getting the starter set, I might try and get that too.

shadow_archmagi
2015-04-15, 08:36 AM
I've been enjoying reading through the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition books, and I plan on playing some games with other people, but what I really want to do is try my hand at running a campaign, or series of campaigns, in my custom setting, Maros. I was wondering if there was any advice people could give for DMing play-by-post games, or games in general?

Suggested Alternatives To Your Course of Action:

1: Start by playing with friends. That way the game will be fun even if you're a terrible DM, which you probably will be, because it's your first time.

2. Consider not playing D&D specifically. D&D is a fairly complex, unwieldy RPG, even in its cool slim 5th edition package. It might even be worthwhile to completely abandon rules for your first time, and just ask players what they want to do and tell them the results.


---

That said, you're probably still going to do the thing. Tips for DMing:

Tips for Running A Game:
1. Post constantly on the forums about anything that seems intuitive or broken. Frequently, you'll run into situations where rules only make sense in the context of each other, so if you're not familiar with one, the other seems just weird.

2. Try not to worry about making the rules reflect any particular reality. If the Rogue can jump higher than the Wizard can fly, don't automatically feel compelled to houserule because jumping super high is "unrealistic." Instead, try worrying about things like whether the wizard feels overshadowed, whether the Rogue's superjumps are trivializing challenges, and generally whether this is actually a problem versus just being weird.

3. Don't institute fumble rules unless you specifically want to cast the party as drunken misfits.

Tips for Telling A Story:

1. Communicate with your players about what kind of game they're interested in playing, what kind of game you're interested in running, and what kind of games you feel comfortable running. I, for one, love the idea of running a game of political intrigue, and my players would love it, but I just really struggle with them.

2. At all times, maintain the impression that you've done everything ahead of time. Players don't like feeling like the adventure is being written around them.

3. Feel free to sneakily Canonize your player's ideas. Example: A player says "Wait, what if these swords are enchanted so they're easy to find? Like a tracking beacon?" Go ahead, write in an ambush where the villain explains why they were so easy to find.

4. Railroading is easy and fun, but you have to lie about it. If a player says "I want to go to the Fire Temple" and you say "The Priestess suggested starting with the Water Temple. And, uh, there's a rockslide on the only road." because you've only designed the one dungeon, that's going to make the player feel like they don't have choices. On the other hand, if you just relabel everything and then say "Of course! The Fire Temple has firefalls streaming down the side. Fire elementals play in the fire that sprays from fountains. Behind it is a lake... fire. Fire lake." then they'll feel happy even though you obviously just did a Find and Replace.

5. Spin More Plates: I like to constantly introduce new story ideas, and then maintain whichever ones players seem interested in. If they forget about something, it probably wasn't fun enough to be worth remembering.

Malexia
2015-04-15, 05:05 PM
Suggested Alternatives To Your Course of Action:

1: Start by playing with friends. That way the game will be fun even if you're a terrible DM, which you probably will be, because it's your first time.

Unfortunately, that requires having more than two friends, and having those friends willing to play a tabletop rpg.


2. Consider not playing D&D specifically. D&D is a fairly complex, unwieldy RPG, even in its cool slim 5th edition package. It might even be worthwhile to completely abandon rules for your first time, and just ask players what they want to do and tell them the results.

I have done that actually, once. For a couple of weeks I ran a game through roll20 where the players went through a forest filled with corrupted nature spirits, two tribes of goblins that had once been peaceful but now were at war, and a variety of other mysteries. It was in a freeform style.


Tips for Running A Game:
1. Post constantly on the forums about anything that seems intuitive or broken. Frequently, you'll run into situations where rules only make sense in the context of each other, so if you're not familiar with one, the other seems just weird.

2. Try not to worry about making the rules reflect any particular reality. If the Rogue can jump higher than the Wizard can fly, don't automatically feel compelled to houserule because jumping super high is "unrealistic." Instead, try worrying about things like whether the wizard feels overshadowed, whether the Rogue's superjumps are trivializing challenges, and generally whether this is actually a problem versus just being weird.

3. Don't institute fumble rules unless you specifically want to cast the party as drunken misfits.

Advice appreciated, will make a note of it.


1. Communicate with your players about what kind of game they're interested in playing, what kind of game you're interested in running, and what kind of games you feel comfortable running. I, for one, love the idea of running a game of political intrigue, and my players would love it, but I just really struggle with them.

I'd already intended to this, I was thinking that whenever I made a campaign I would list the 'focus' of the campaign, be it exploration, combat, intrigue, etcetera, to make sure players knew what they were getting into.


2. At all times, maintain the impression that you've done everything ahead of time. Players don't like feeling like the adventure is being written around them.

I tend to obsessively plan ahead, so this will happen automatically. A more likely problem is that I won't know what to do if they deviate from my plans, but I'm trying to get better at that, and a pbp gives me more time to think about how to edit things.


3. Feel free to sneakily Canonize your player's ideas. Example: A player says "Wait, what if these swords are enchanted so they're easy to find? Like a tracking beacon?" Go ahead, write in an ambush where the villain explains why they were so easy to find.

4. Railroading is easy and fun, but you have to lie about it. If a player says "I want to go to the Fire Temple" and you say "The Priestess suggested starting with the Water Temple. And, uh, there's a rockslide on the only road." because you've only designed the one dungeon, that's going to make the player feel like they don't have choices. On the other hand, if you just relabel everything and then say "Of course! The Fire Temple has firefalls streaming down the side. Fire elementals play in the fire that sprays from fountains. Behind it is a lake... fire. Fire lake." then they'll feel happy even though you obviously just did a Find and Replace.

5. Spin More Plates: I like to constantly introduce new story ideas, and then maintain whichever ones players seem interested in. If they forget about something, it probably wasn't fun enough to be worth remembering.

Advice also appreciated.

Malexia
2015-04-15, 05:23 PM
So, a question came to me. How would you all recommend handling experience points? The base game seems to mostly reward it for combat encounters, but what about roleplaying, quest completion, rewards for inventive solutions and creative thinking, etcetera? Would you suggest a system where there are simply set level-up points, keeping combat xp but occasionally rewarding extra for other things, or halving combat xp and giving xp for all the things I mentioned? Or something else?

Keltest
2015-04-15, 05:31 PM
So, a question came to me. How would you all recommend handling experience points? The base game seems to mostly reward it for combat encounters, but what about roleplaying, quest completion, rewards for inventive solutions and creative thinking, etcetera? Would you suggest a system where there are simply set level-up points, keeping combat xp but occasionally rewarding extra for other things, or halving combat xp and giving xp for all the things I mentioned? Or something else?

I generally reward creative problem solving in addition to combat. Ill also give experience for the completion of goals even if there was no fighting (ie Rescue the prisoners, and they were all snuck out past the guards nonviolently).

I would also suggest that you consider just having one party XP pool instead of individual character XP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods, but party XP is simpler and easy to keep track of, which is good for a first time DM.

The Grue
2015-04-15, 06:34 PM
I generally reward creative problem solving in addition to combat. Ill also give experience for the completion of goals even if there was no fighting (ie Rescue the prisoners, and they were all snuck out past the guards nonviolently).

I would also suggest that you consider just having one party XP pool instead of individual character XP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods, but party XP is simpler and easy to keep track of, which is good for a first time DM.

Counterpoint: XP in general is a headache to track, in addition to incentivizing certain modes of play over others(like "Why would I sneak into this fancy dress party and seduce the Baroness when I could just launch a frontal assault on the castle and slaughter everyone to get more XP?"). Consider throwing out XP altogether and adopt a more narrative model - for instance, the players level up whenever they achieve something impressive, when they reach the end of a story arc, when they recover the next shard of the MacGuffin etc.

The adventure paths I've read all have notes on, approximately, when the party should level up if you're running the adventure straight from the book, which makes it easy to shift to the XP-less model.

Darth Ultron
2015-04-15, 09:26 PM
So, a question came to me. How would you all recommend handling experience points? The base game seems to mostly reward it for combat encounters, but what about roleplaying, quest completion, rewards for inventive solutions and creative thinking, etcetera? Would you suggest a system where there are simply set level-up points, keeping combat xp but occasionally rewarding extra for other things, or halving combat xp and giving xp for all the things I mentioned? Or something else?


D&D has always been bad with experience points. There are detailed rules for combat XP, but little else. Other then some ''oh you should give XP for other stuff too..sometimes''. Really, the best way is to just give XP whenever you feel like the characters should level. Or at least when the players would like it. Strike a balance between ''not leveling up every five minutes'' and ''one level a year''.

I say the best D&D system was 2E. Other then combat, you got XP for doing things by level. The idea was if you used a class ability to over come a problem, you'd get 10 XP per class level. So a 5th level wizard casting a spell would get 50XP for that. Skills were more 5XP, other ideas 25XP. The basic idea was to get the players to use things in the game. And it works quite well.


There are plenty of free fan made D&D adventures online, just do a search.

Gavran
2015-04-15, 10:05 PM
I'd already intended to this, I was thinking that whenever I made a campaign I would list the 'focus' of the campaign, be it exploration, combat, intrigue, etcetera, to make sure players knew what they were getting into.Be super specific. People will see "this game is combat focused" and go "okay, I can build a character who is good at combat, I like combat" and apply regardless of what kind of player they really are (except maybe the rare minorities who are really really into one aspect of the game or really really dislike other aspects - but I believe most people like at least a part of each main thing.) "This game is focused on objective based combat encounters as your characters try to protect the village of Townville - the odds will not always be in your favor, but non-combat solutions will often help" paints a much clearer picture.

Take some ideas from the Same Page Tool (https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/the-same-page-tool/) or hell, outright require players fill it out (ideally sent to you in a private message so as to avoid cross contamination.) Fill it out yourself first, too. There are no wrong answers, only a loose measurement of how compatible everyone's playstyles are.


So, a question came to me. How would you all recommend handling experience points? The base game seems to mostly reward it for combat encounters, but what about roleplaying, quest completion, rewards for inventive solutions and creative thinking, etcetera? Would you suggest a system where there are simply set level-up points, keeping combat xp but occasionally rewarding extra for other things, or halving combat xp and giving xp for all the things I mentioned? Or something else?

In firm agreement with earlier posters. Definitely do not do individual XP - 5E specifically has Inspiration as a reward for roleplaying, and any further rewards should IMO be story-based. And ideally not really just for that character. E.g., the duke is impressed by <thing> and as a result grants the whole party a small favor down the road (or other small boon.) Let the players make the request IC even. In other words, the reward for engaging more with the game is a more engaging game - not arbitrary points.

And, feel more than free to get rid of XP all together. If you want to track it for the group there's nothing wrong with that, but you really don't need to. Just make sure not to go super long without a level up (particularly if you start from 1, 5E can be fairly lethal at the lowest levels.)


Edit: Oooh here's another thought I just had: one of the best things you can do for party cohesion in a normal game is have everyone do character creation together. In PbP that's harder to do, but also there are people who just want to find any game at all for a character they already made - which is obviously not ideal. I've never seen a PbP game really try to make it happen together, but consider telling the potential players not to make characters until everyone has been chosen, and then asking each player to link their character to at least one other character in some way. For me this is sort of unexplored ground, so I'm not sure where the line lies; "I would like to play a Wizard" for example is probably fine, but I think I'd personally be happier without even that.

Malexia
2015-04-17, 06:32 PM
I decided to take your advice, Gavran, and run Prices of the Apocalypse before doing my custom setting campaign. Link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?410274-Princes-of-the-Apocalypse&p=19126707#post19126707) if anyone's interested.