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Cryopyre
2007-07-18, 10:16 PM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)

2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.

Also, any tips that helped you when you started DMing would be great. I would try to learn directly from playing with another DM, but I'm the only 3.5 one in town.

DiscipleofBob
2007-07-18, 10:21 PM
1) How about a DM screen? Those have a lot of that information ready at hand or so I hear.

2) Well, you can force the role-playing by putting non-combat situations in your game. Be careful trying to force it though. The one game I'm DMing I had a pretty girl pickpocket a psion and ended up getting burned alive in seconds, despite the fact that the psion had been told that she was very important in the local organized crime ring and that rubbing her the wrong way would send assassins after him.

And here I am now writing up statistics for assassins... -_-'

Kyrsis
2007-07-18, 10:29 PM
1) The DM screen is a good idea. When I started, I just bookmarked everything I thought would come up with sticky notes. Hopefully your group is patient with you; it helps.

2) Role playing is a little harder. It depends on the style your players want. If all they really want is some good old fashioned hack and slash, it's tricky. I always ask for a little bit of info on each character before play so I can figure out which character will be motivated/care about what. I always have an idea of some encounters on hand, so when I can tell the players are losing interest in role playing and are itching to throw the dice, I can stick in something quickly.

earlblue
2007-07-18, 10:33 PM
Well, if you are really interested in Role playing (as oppose to Roll playing) then forget about orgainizing confusing rules, 3.5ed or otherwise.

First tip: Play first, discuss later.

I am the most experience DM in my group, but I try to get the rest to take turns at DMing and playing. I am not saying that I know all the rules by heart, but there is a tendency for the rest of the group (when they DM) to look to me when a situation comes up and nobody seems to know what the rule is.

And I always tell them: Let's carry on with the game first. We can always find out what the rulebook says later. The DM can make a judgement call first, and if later turns out to be wrong, he can reverse the ruling.

While it does seems illogical to have your meltdown +5 magical armor to repair itself mysteriously when the DM discovered that it should not have melt down (according to the rules)... no harm is done. It is just a game. We are just human (well, some of us).

Second Tip: It is all about having fun. Even for the DM.

For my group, we are mostly working adults and each have our own life. We could spend our time playing computer games, or go travelling, but we choose to spend, whenever we can arrange a game given our busy schedules, some hours playing D20 games. For us, it is a social game. We get together and talk, roll dice, imagine ourselves in another world.

We certainly don't want to argue over rules this much. It is the game that is fun, not arguing over rules!

Stop bothering about rules so much!

K.

Tellah
2007-07-18, 10:36 PM
Before starting any game, look at your players' character sheets. Get a good feeling for what they're capable of. Then put together a printout of all the intricate rules they'll use and with which you have difficulty. If you've got a spiked-chain tripper, copy and paste the rules for tripping into a text file. If you've got a Cleric and you'll be sending undead their way, print out the rules for turning. Tack on a few of the Wizard's more confusing spells, like grease and color spray. Print it out at the smallest font you can still manage to read--I have the eyes of a very old man, so that's 10pt for me--and have it at hand, behind your DM screen.

Roleplaying is best encouraged by example. Make your NPCs memorable, with names, voices, personality traits and goals that your players will remember. If you've ever taken a drama class, you'll have a leg up on it. If not, here's the key lesson from the Stanislavski acting method: everyone has an intention, or goal, and everyone tries to pursue his intention with tactics. If I want you to give me your wallet, I can try many different things--threats, pleas, charm, sleight of hand, or some other scheme--and I'm thinking of how best I can do that. I'm not thinking of how I can make an audience see that I'm a scary robber. No one ever wakes up in the morning and says, "I'm going to act like an illiterate highwayman," so you shouldn't be thinking of that when you want to roleplay an illiterate highwayman. Give all of your NPCs goals, and have them try to pursue them as best they can.

Finally, ask your players what they like, and ask them often. It's the best way to improve as a DM.

Joltz
2007-07-18, 10:49 PM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)You can use whatever organizational system you like, post-it in the book, page numbers noted on a paper, whatever you like (I have a good memory).
2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.
[/quote]That's a hard one. It depends on how well you're prepared for it and how much your players want it (see the little girl burning someone mentioned). If you wanna force it, you need a big monster who can defeat the PCs, but probably won't. That, or some other immediate threat to stop them from killing everything.

Roleplaying is one of the hardest things to DM (you gotta look at it from all those points of view). I'd recommend just doing the basics as you learn to DM. One thing about role-playing and plot that I learned the hard way (other people did it to me, not me to them) is that you shouldn't force your players onto a plot. Give them a plothook and hope they're cooperative enough to bite. If you want them to take a certain path and you absolutely don't want them to take another, don't let them choose to begin with (they should have some choices though).


Also, any tips that helped you when you started DMing would be great. I would try to learn directly from playing with another DM, but I'm the only 3.5 one in town.
Like I said above, I found it easiest to start with the basics. Now I have waaay too many books and I'm making my own campaign setting from the inside out (I'm very proud of what I have so far ^_^)

Yeah... looking back at what everyone else posted makes mine feel small and un-useful. Go back and read everyone else's posts again :smallbiggrin:

Jarlax
2007-07-18, 11:00 PM
the index in the back of the PHB and DMG will be your friend until everyone gets settled with the rules. however an easier way, is download the D&D SRD off the wizards website and print all the rules you will use the most onto 3-4 pages of paper to quickly get at when needed.

roleplay is hard. if your PC's are looking for a hack and slash adventure no matter how much you encourage roleplay they might not get into it. if your players show up with a back story or an idea of their PC's ideals or goals then run with the stuff they provide.

valadil
2007-07-18, 11:13 PM
Before running my most recent game I reread the PHB and parts of the DMG. Stuff that I didn't know got copied onto the first page of my notes. All the weird rules were in one place for quick reference. It helped tremendously. You didn't ask about this part, but I also printed up all my houserules and gave each player a folder with a copy, their character sheet, and basic info for the city/setting.

Don't force roleplaying. RP sucks when its forced. You gotta make your players play characters they want to roleplay instead of builds they can powergame. I'm not saying you can't optimize and interesting character, but the character has to come before the build.

My trick is to require a backstory. No really, I don't let players join if they can't give me a page of backstory. I know enough potential players that if this turns people off, I can get different players. I justify this by telling everyone that this isn't a dungeon crawl and an interactive storytelling session. Powergamers lose interest in that sort of activity.

Anyway, once players give you backstories you can write plot hooks they care about. It's just a matter of making sure your players have motivated characters and feeding them things that motivate them. If you're lucky/creative you can combine backstories as a way to bring characters together.

Diggorian
2007-07-18, 11:23 PM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)

First, I think it's AOOs. :smallwink: Go thorugh the tricky rules with a highlighter and bookmark the page. Simple and effective.


2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.

I agree and practice what Tellah suggested regarding leading by example. Play up your NPCs to the hilt, full of character. Your players will instinctively rise to the level you set.

Also, just tell them you give roleplaying XP for RP encounters. Gauge a CR based on the encounter and go with it.

Dausuul
2007-07-19, 12:25 AM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)

Seconded on the DM's screen for AoOs and the like.

As far as grapple rules go... grappling is just a mess. I've been playing and running D&D for years, and I still end up just winging it half the time where grappling is concerned. Fortunately, most grappling is initiated by the monsters, so you don't have to deal with it if you don't want to--just remember that any monster with the Improved Grab ability will be significantly weaker if it doesn't use it, so knock its CR down a notch or two.


2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.

Ah, the age-old question. It can be a bit of a challenge in D&D, which has a habit of devolving into accounting-fests, but it can be done.

IMO, the key to an immersive game setting is vivid NPCs. That doesn't mean you have to know their stats chapter and verse, nor does it mean you need a long elaborate backstory for every one--in fact, writing up big backstories for NPCs is usually a recipe for boredom, because your players don't care. Nobody's interested in backstory and the players will tune you out if you start going on about Joe NPC's childhood.

So, aside from the bare minimum necessary to define the NPC's role in the plot, forget backstory--concentrate instead on giving your NPCs personality. Use funny accents. Wave your arms around. Pick a character trait to define each NPC and then exaggerate it.

For example, maybe Joe NPC hates orcs. Every time the PCs talk to him, look for a way to work orcs into the conversation. When you're "playing" Joe, glance back and forth constantly, as if watching for orcs. When somebody slams a door too loudly, have him leap up, put his back to the wall, and snarl, "Come on, you filthy tusk-toothed buggers! Have at you! Er... oh. Huh. Thought they were back. Sorry about that." If you want to really drive home the point, you yourself can leap out of your chair when you do this. I guarantee your PCs will remember that guy, and they will have an opinion of him (good or bad, it's pretty much random and there's no predicting it). The more such NPCs you have, the more involved in the story your players will get.

Nogard
2007-07-19, 12:59 AM
Anyway, once players give you backstories you can write plot hooks they care about. It's just a matter of making sure your players have motivated characters and feeding them things that motivate them. If you're lucky/creative you can combine backstories as a way to bring characters together.


This is excellent advice! Intertwining the characters' past. present and presumably future has created the most memorable games in my experience.

PlatinumJester
2007-07-19, 07:02 AM
Don't restrict to much stuff. Banning things like the Polymorph sub school and the Quivering Touch spell is fine since they are incredbly overpowered. However banning other things or restricting other stuff that isn't overpowered will just annoy your players.

Don't let the party members kill each other. Even if it is roleplaying, it annoys the other party members. So if another PC is about to kill another PC, intervene by making them hear banging on the door or a rustle in some near by bushes to distract them. If a party member does kill another party member without good cause then make that person bring the snacks and drinks for the next game and don't give the murdered PCs owners next character XP reduction.

Also, make sure that each player has their own dice. It disrupts the game when a person repeatadly says "Can I borrow your dice" and it really pisses off the players who have dice.

And one more thing - don't let people homebrew stuff. Once one person does it then the entire party will want to do it and checking and making them re do it and then checking it will annoy you immensly. This applies more to spells and races rather than prestige classes and weapons/items. Just make sure you check over anything homebrewed personally.

Good Luck.

Dhavaer
2007-07-19, 07:15 AM
Giving NPCs some little (or not so little) distinguishing feature can be quite effective to instigate roleplaying. Just enough to give them character, and for the PCs to react to somehow.

Evil DM Mark3
2007-07-19, 07:26 AM
:elan: Bookmark Bookmark Bookmark the required pages!

As for roleplaying, here is a good one to try. Have the PCs put in a situation of control over a relatively important decision, such as which mage gets given the Guild Crown that was stolen and thus becomes head of the guild. Make BOTH candidates undesirable in some way, have neither of them as good choices, thus making the choice tricky. Leading by example is good too. Demanding a backstory and giving out small (say 50-100xp) bonuses for good RPing (and, if everyone joins in, make sure that overall everyone gets as much as everyone else :smallwink:) is a good way of getting the powergamers into it too.

ALOR
2007-07-19, 07:55 AM
i agree with most of the other posts so far on your specific questions so i'll just give you some advice that i go by

1. listen to what your players are talking about. often when the pc's are brainstorming on how to get through a dungeon, or what your BBEG's big plot is they come up with some amazing ideas. You intern can get sparks of insperation by listening to them
2. let you plots be flexible. If you go into a night with a set step by step adventure , by page 2 you will be completly lost. PC's will screw up and well thought out adventure, it's just in thier blood. so be flexible, have a loose outline of what you want to do and then be prepared to shoot from the hip.
3. and last and this one will get me flamed.
cheat.
As others have told you buy a DM screen. Not just for the charts and tables but for the wonderful protection from pc's eyes. Cheat when it makes your story better. if you've made an encounter to hard, well then gosh your monsters start missing. Don't use this meathod to "win". remember you as the DM can't technicly cheat anyways. Its your game so what you say goes

good luck :smallbiggrin:

nerulean
2007-07-19, 08:07 AM
The thing that's worked best to encourage rollplaying in my group was a couple of 'no numbers' oneshots we ran back at the beginning of summer. Granted, they're not to everyone's taste, and if your group is only there to slay dragons then they're probably not going to get much out of it and it probably isn't worth trying, but if your group's amenable then it can be awesome.

Essentially, we were given a setting and all made up characters off the top of our heads without writing anything down. We'd say things like 'okay, I'm going to play a kind of bardic druid character with a wolf animal companion' to give the DM an idea of what each of our strong points were and what we envisaged our roles in the group as, and then after that all gaming terms were banned. We'd say what we were trying to do and the DM would tell us if we succeeded or failed, and would flip a coin if he thought an element of randomisation was required.

This real back-to-basics approach encouraged the whole group to give a lot more thought to character than statistics, and we all had a blast. If you think doing a whole evening like this is a no go for your group, you could suggest that maybe for an hour or so, or until you've finished one particular non-combat encounter, you all turn your character sheets over and just go with the flow.

Evil DM Mark3
2007-07-19, 08:15 AM
3. and last and this one will get me flamed.
cheat.
As others have told you buy a DM screen. Not just for the charts and tables but for the wonderful protection from pc's eyes. Cheat when it makes your story better. if you've made an encounter to hard, well then gosh your monsters start missing. Don't use this meathod to "win". remember you as the DM can't technicly cheat anyways. Its your game so what you say goes

good luck :smallbiggrin:

This cannot be stressed enough. Use is with care, never use it to win but if you mess up then use it. The rule of thumb I use is "are they going to die because I overstreched them? Or is it because they where stuipid?" I only ever use it in the former. If you know you are up against a red dragon and that it is immune to fire and prepare a lot of fireballs, death is too good for you.

mudbunny
2007-07-19, 08:23 AM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)

The Wizards of the Coast recently had a series of articles on grappling

All about Grappling 1/4
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050301a

All about Grappling 2/4
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050308a

All about Grappling 3/4
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050315a

All about Grappling 4/4
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050322a

If there are rules that are slightly confusing, print them out and keep them in a binder so that you don't have to flip through books.

When in doubt, make it up (+2/-2 conditional modifiers) and figure out how it should have been done later.

The Wiazrds also has a nice archive on Rules questions and explanations
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/rg

Oeryn
2007-07-19, 09:04 AM
TheWamp started a pretty good thread with Tips for DMs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49054). There's some pretty helpful stuff there.

I've already thrown in some advice on that thread, but I'll add this. BE the bad guy. Think of him as a character, not just a plot device. Have him make plans, and be able to be flexible, if things don't go his way. They say that no plot will survive contact with a party, and it's true. PCs will ALWAYS come up with a plan that you didn't anticipate. But don't make your bad guy stick to his plan, no matter what. Let him react to changing conditions, and do what's best for him. Even if it's to retreat, and live to fight another day.

Remember that your world is a world. Things happen, whether the PCs are there or not. You could have the coolest "castle defense" scenario in the world set up, but if the party decides not to go there, there's not much you can do.

This also ties into the last point. If the BBEG is attacking the castle, generally it's because he wants the castle, not because the PCs are there. Make him go ahead and do it, anyway. Let the PCs deal with the consequences of their actions and inactions. Maybe they'll have to go and re-take the castle somehow, and you'll still get to use your cool scenario, except reversed.

Let your world be a world, and not a set of random adventures that revolve around the party. It'll feel more real that way, and it'll give the players a sense of urgency, once they realize that something's gonna happen, whether they do something or not.

Ashtar
2007-07-19, 09:43 AM
You have a doubt about a rule? Apply it. Take 5 - 10 minutes, to run a fight between two creatures using that rule.

You want to try unarmed combat, grappling, Aoo in Grapples?
Try a monk 5 (from DMG) versus a Fighter 5. No weapons.

You want to try Aoo's ?
Try a ogre with a spiked chain versus a rogue with tumble.

Once you have run these fights, make YOUR OWN comments on index cards with your wordings and comprehension of the rules. They might be wrong, but you're consistant.

As for encouraging role-playing, when they encounter someone, and say: "My character Bob is talking to xxx..." ask them to talk in character. Become the NPC for the conversation, change voice, have a tick, play with a spoon. Get them in gear and it should flow. Also encourage it, maybe with +2 modifiers for RPing the action.

Jimbob
2007-07-19, 10:52 AM
A Dm screen is very good, handy for all the odd bits you forget.

I have a folder with every thing I will ever need to know and if the players think of some thing a bit strange then all I have to do is look in my folder and there it is. Its mostly for adventures where a player could do some thing so just incase I have it written down, and what is written down by a DM goes at the end of the day :smallbiggrin:

Oh and postick notes! Every Dms best friend in my eyes, you think of some thing, write it down stick to your book or the page where it is and there you go. Hope that helps :smallsmile:

valadil
2007-07-19, 11:02 AM
Something I forgot to add before is that you should make sure that you come up with consequences for everything. This doesn't mean that every shopkeep they're rude to or every old lady they help cross the street will come back into the story, but you need your players to see the effect their character has on the world.

What I did in my first game was keep a list of everyone they talked to and their attitude. After game I went back and looked to see if there was anything I could use later on or anything to punish them for. Just make your world react to the characters. Let them leave a dent. Of course, there's always the disruptive players who want to do more than leave a dent. If they go on a killing spree through town, devote a couple sessions to them getting hunted down by paladins and tossed in jail. That plot will be infinitely more fun for the players than anything you could have written ahead of time because it was plot that they made happen. They own it. Let them derail the game if they want, but adjust things afterward. Move that important NPC into the jail cell next to theirs. They'll never know that they were supposed to meet him in a bar, but if they meet him in prison they'll get more attached to whatever plot he springs on them because the prison plot is still their own thing.

I could ramble about this stuff all day, but I gotta get back to work.

Superglucose
2007-07-20, 12:17 AM
This is a list we circulate at the local card shop. Well, not word for word, but the general gist of it is there. We call it our 'guide to good Dming'

Know your rules.

Make sure there are USUALLY consequences to their actions, but realize that nothing frustrates a good rogue more than not being able to rob the average store.

Hide almost all spot, listen, disable device, etc. roles. Here's the rule I like to use: if it carries any sort of penalty for failing (Say they MIGHT set off the trap w/e), hide it. The worst thing is hearing the DM say you failed and looking at that three and knowing that there's something you missed.

Pass notes when you want only one character to know something. Pass lots of notes, many of which saying things simply like "There's a cat walking the street. It has black stripes." This once got an entire party freaking out that there was a wizard stalking us.

Put in a 6-second rule. A character has six seconds to tell you what they are going to do during their turn. If they fail to tell you in six seconds, they do nothing. This is only a good rule if your players aren't new, however. If they're new, increase it to say 12 seconds. But there's nothign worse than having your players confer for a couple of minutes on which goblin the fighter should hit this round.

Try to discourage metagame thinking. If your players are arguing out of character about something for a particuarly long time that has to deal with the game, move hte game on without them. There's nothing more focusing then you breaking up an argument about who gets the +3 shortsword than "A Mindflayer manages to sneak up from behind you while you were arguing and manages to grapple the wizard."
Granted, that last one isn't particuarly useful if they just came from a major encounter, but it can be useful.

if someone is dominating the group, don't invite them next time if you can avoid it. If you need that person, try to speak with them after a meet.

A good puzzle is often more fun than combat. Good examples are: books that need to be closed in a certain way, some of the older riddles adapted to levers pulling a draw bridge... something simple to give the brains of the players a workout. But make them rare.

Sometimes, when your party is a bit cocky, throw them a challenge they almost can't beat. A not so good example (though it turned out in an utterly unexpected way) was introducing the first level party of five by having two members get captured by a level 5 orc wizard and a level 7 orc fighter. Now, here, you specifically want to avoid having someone with a penalty to Diplomacy or Bluff try to talk their way out of the situation, but something they hvae to use words to resolve can be fun, and its especially satisfying when your party rushes into combat only to watch themselves flee the next round.

Try not to kill too many members, unless your partymates like that. I'm currently in a group where people like the challenge of staying alive, and almost all of our characters have come close to dying (and indeed, as my sig says, I've killed a few myself).

Oh, yes, finally. Always make sure that if your party wants an adventure, there's one waiting for them. A while ago I had a DM who we had to basically ask him "Can we have an adventure hook now?" and coax him into telling us the adventure. This is jsut annoying and not fun at all.

Oh, and try not to have your party executed by the state because they ate the wrong pie... that really sucks. This actually happened and we kept asking exactly why our fighter was getting executed, and the only response we got was 'treason.' Needless to say, it happened again when we came accross another pie... and then once more when we brought a pie to the imperial palace. We didn't find out ANYTHING about these pies until the end of the game (literally last meet).

Edited to add:

The most successfull DM I had kept a copy of everyone's character sheets, and when a character updated theirs because they leveld or bought something, the DM updated his copy. He had all their stats on hand, was able to custom tailor all encounters, and could make secret spot checks for us without telling us what we were rolling (it was eery to watch him start rolling a handful of dice even though most of the time it was nothing... but when he rolls that d20, looks at one of us, and starts rolling d8s...), and most of all, if it wasn't on his copy, we didn't have it. It really kept us honest.

bugsysservant
2007-07-20, 12:42 AM
My (probably worthless) recomendations: Each session ease your players into a couple of tricky sections of the rules. The first would obviously be AoO, which is something you can't avoid knowing, but for fun, toss in someone with a reach weapon the first session. The second try a fighter dual wielding a whip and a short sword, using the first liberally to trip and disarm. The third introduce a grappler, either a specialized fighter, a monk, or some animal (too tired to think of one, too lazy to look), who will bull rush and grapple in a fight. Interspersed should be opponents who use slightly tricky, but not major things, like mounted combat, or the grease spell. Don't forget to repeat them occaisonally, so your players won't forget the rules, but don't make exotic forms of attack the norm. You can even tell your players in advance what rules to buff up on before the next playing session, they are new after all.
If you have one, and don't mind using it, a laptop can help greatly, since you can roll massive numbers of dice, look up rules, and keep notes without your players watching. Way better than a DM screen, although they aren't mutually exclusive.
Finally, for your first campaign, think minimalist. Play core only, except for maybe the BBEG to give the players a surprise. Try not to house rule or drop rules too much, till you have had more experience. Don't even worry about the uber-cheese, since you won't have to deal with powergamers. Relax, and have fun. If you don't fixate too much on what might go wrong, and try to have a good time, with any decent group role playing should happen most of the time. Good luck.

AslanCross
2007-07-20, 12:59 AM
I'm a new DM myself, but I find the following work well:

1. I use a laptop to keep track of stuff that goes on. It serves as my DM screen as well. I always keep statblocks of my NPCs and monsters in the program I use (OneNote), but I always type down the most relevant statistics (AB, AC, melee/ranged damage for warrior types and spells, DCs and the like for casters).


2. Might be too late, but it helps to have your players work on their character backgrounds way in advance, even if they don't know what builds they'll actually be doing. Since I'm running this campaign as part of our creative writing club activities, some of my players are at least competent writers. Check out our rogue's characterization: http://dndrogue.wordpress.com

It definitely helps to provide consequences for everything they do: for example, one of the groups I handle did not bring a rogue to their current adventure and so found it very difficult to open a locked door in a garrison they're raiding. They had to get the monk to bash it in. He succeeded, but the loud crack echoed throughout the entire keep and now they're pinned inside the room they opened by a squad of elite hobgoblins and a cleric (while these were actually supposed to appear in an encounter on the second floor instead).

Actually making the villains say things helps a lot---the boss in this adventure is a high-level hobgoblin who worships Bane (he's a Zhentarim recruit). I voice-acted him, taunting the PCs and their gods. This actually caused the paladin (who almost never RPs) to actually respond by calling upon the name of Tyr. Since then he's been RPing more consistently.

Dairun Cates
2007-07-20, 01:25 AM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)

2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.

Also, any tips that helped you when you started DMing would be great. I would try to learn directly from playing with another DM, but I'm the only 3.5 one in town.

The answer to all of this is quite simply practice. You'll learn your own ways over time, and every group is different. In order to keep my group happy, I have to let them pretty much kill a cat girl once a session. They like playing fairly loose and humorous games, so in the interest of my group, I run them like that. You know the Mr. Welsch list and the "Things I'm not allowed to do in gaming"? They're one of those groups. It's about the hardest bloody thing to keep in line sometimes.

As such, I HAVE learned a few tricks here and there.

As for the rules:
1. The GM screen mentioned earlier is a wonderful idea. They're incredibly helpful for remembering rules.

2. It is ALWAYS better to make a ruling and be wrong than to look up something obscure in the book and break the flow of the game. Make up a rule for the action at hand if you don't know the rule. If you were wrong, then simply explain to the player that you found the rule, and you'll do it that way from then on.

3. As a new GM, don't be afraid to admit mistakes. You're new. You are going to let something unbalanced that steals the show slip by. In cases like this, it is best to admit your fault and ask the player if he'd politely either lower the power on his character or find a way to not steal as much of the spotlight from other characters. If your players are friendly, most will oblige a compromise at least.

4. Make a lot of characters from a lot of different classes and races. First, it will make the campaign more diverse and interesting. Second, it will allow you to learn the rules a lot faster.

5. Fun overrides Realism. Don't let it go overboard, but players play tabletop games to escape reality. Let them slip by the occasional ludicrous plan.

As for getting the players into it:
1. Encourage the players to develop flaws and role-playing hooks. The reward here is that they will have more at stake in the game and look like a bigger bad ass when they overcome it. Plus, it might mean more loot. Players love that sort of thing.

2. Develop your role-playing with all the classes in mind. Believe it or not, some players that play fighters actually like to role play and get bored with your campaign if every encounter with people leaves them out. If the player is not paying attention to the campaign and is instead reading comics or watching TV, you've probably lost their interest. Anyway, throw a little bit of something for everyone in there even if it's just the group needs rock advice from the dwarf.

3. Don't develop your monsters to screw over specific classes. NOTHING is more frustrating than getting to a battle and being nigh useless because a DM won't let you be creative with your actions and anything that's straight forward is negated by the monster. You'll still want the occasional rust monster, mind flayer, or Adamantine Golem, but don't overdue it. The rogue, fighter, wizard, cleric, AND bard will hate you for it. There was a while in a campaign where EVERY bloody monster ate my fighter's weapon. Demons and Oozes and Rust Monsters, Oh my! It got really frustrating.

4. Force your players to write backstories and weave them into the plot. If they feel the plot is personal, the players will roleplay more.

5. It sounds weird, but sometimes just throw something completely unexpected at them. Thrown against a raving lunatic and his flying sentient potato sidekick, the players will have no choice but to be creative, and this usually means role-playing. Some of the best role-playing my group has had has come from ludicrous situations, jailbreaks, and bar fights.

6. Get into and have fun. If you're having fun and loving the campaign, the players will follow suit. If it ever feels like a job, mix things up a lot. Twist the plot in a whole new direction.

7. BE INCREDIBLY FLEXIBLE. Let things change. Don't railroad the players. This is the most important thing to learn, and it practically encompasses all the rules above. As a GM, you are an actor, a rival player, a referee, and a host. Learn to be all of them and treat them as such. If your players don't want to play monopoly, don't bring monopoly. If your players are straying from the plot, let them stray a little. A good GM can eventually reel them towards some of the directions he wants, but it's very subtle. Your players shouldn't know you're pulling their strings a bit.

Well, I could go on for hours, but those should help a bit.

bugsysservant
2007-07-20, 12:17 PM
2. It is ALWAYS better to make a ruling and be wrong than to look up something obscure in the book and break the flow of the game. Make up a rule for the action at hand if you don't know the rule. If you were wrong, then simply explain to the player that you found the rule, and you'll do it that way from then on.

Can't believe I forgot to mention that. This is critical. If people wanted to have perfectly defined, 100% consistent rules that will never change, they would play a computer game. Above all keep the flow of the game moving.

Superglucose
2007-07-20, 01:35 PM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)



Make sure your players know the rules is always a good idea. And another good idea is to keep a PHB open to the Combat section at all times. No flipping through the book.

Raum
2007-07-20, 05:17 PM
I'm a new DM and I need a couple of tips.

1. How should I keep myself organized on some confusing rules and peoples skills (like grapple checks and OOAs)Using stickies to tab relevant portions of the book will help when you need to look up rules. The DM screen is a good resource for the rules in table format and some of the others. Plan your tactics ahead of time and you can familiarize yourself with the relevant rules.


2. How should I instigate role-playing and more passion in the storyline.Two general methods; by example, and by concentrating less on the rules.


Also, any tips that helped you when you started DMing would be great. I would try to learn directly from playing with another DM, but I'm the only 3.5 one in town.The most important tip - have fun. Don't let rules, plots, changes, or anything get in the way of fun. Another is to "expect the unexpected." In other words, the PCs will surprise you sooner or later and do something you hadn't planned for - roll with it, it may end up being even better than your initial plans.