True Hero Gaol
2018-01-17, 04:05 PM
Hello all, I am new to the D&D world and newer still to the art of DM’ing, and was hoping I could ask a few questions about the task!
I have a group of friends that are all very interested in the game and that are currently running a short campaign with another DM just to get the feel of the game before we dive in ourselves. We have some grand ideas for a campaign that we want to build but bought the Starter Set to get some ideas before jumping in. I went ahead and got all the books I considered relevant to starting our adventures (Players Handbook, DMG, Monster Manual, Xanthars Guide, Volo’s guide, and the Sword Coast book) so we are fairly prepared resource wise. Also, when it is relevant in the questions, I have an iPad I plan to set up as my adventure tool.
My main questions would be as follows: (All of these about DM’ing)
Encounter tables: Do you as the DM have a skeleton setup that you run all of your encounters off of and plug in monsters as the scenario fits OR do you make sure you set up tables for every adventure that you know you are running and match up monsters accordingly? Do you run these off any spreadsheets or just word documents? What is your feeling on the apps or webpages? How much info for monsters do you keep on the tables? Just the names and damage or do you have a card system you set up rather than going through the books every time?
Loot tables: Similar questions as above for the encounters, do you make tables and plug in as you go or roll for the items? How do you handle random items in the wild, like discovering hidden items on your path, do you bring into account passive perception or do you hide things along their path that can only be rolled for? When it comes to a treasure chest or loot from a monster do you roll for the contents every time and randomly assign or do you have an idea of it ahead of time? Do you stick with the rarity suggestions pretty rigidly or do you pull all items fairly evenly? Do you pull out item descriptions (or have an app that you trust?) or do you just go to the books every time?
Spell descriptions: A lot of spells are spread out amongst the books, do you have a separate table that you pull depending on the characters you have in it, is their an app, or do you pull out only what your characters are playing/the monsters you plan to bring out?
Publishing adventures: Obviously just starting out our adventures probably won’t be anything to write home about BUT eventually the goal would be to get some things published on the site. Does publishing allow only BY THE BOOK (If its not shown it doesn’t exist kind of rigidity) items and monsters or are you allowed to create your own items and monsters and still have it published? What is the limit to creating your own items and monsters if the first question allows? Would it be that they have to be something that could reasonably exist based on the rules of the game set out by 5e or is it basically just up to their site to make a final word on it? Being that the rules say to be published it must be in the “forgotten realms” does that mean it has to exactly be based IN an area of that land OR can it reference surroundings and deities “implying” that it is in the forgotten realms and be able to come up with some random castle or area in that world?
Extra Published Content: If it is published on the dungeon masters guild, so it is “officially published”, does that mean that it can be used in the creation of other publications OR are you only allowed to use “core” books to create publications? There are a lot of monsters, spells, encounters, classes, etc. etc… on the site and I wanted to know how much of that is ok to use and still be able to be published? I am assuming from the other content I have seen I may be thinking that the rules are stricter than they actually are BUT I want to make absolutely sure before I invest our time into something that just simply wont work.
How do you handle the extra published content with a player? Like, if a player finds a race or a class that is “published” (so technically “ok”) do you allow it to come in your adventure or do you have restrictions? I am guessing that is all DM dependent but if anyone had any basic rules of thumb that would be helpful, I would appreciate it.
Is there any content that is allowed (other than the books I outlined above) that you would suggest as necessary for a DM? Any of the published content, official adventures, stuff like that?
Use of Maps/Combat boards: How extensive do you get with your dungeon sheets/maps/combat boards? I had an idea to make long distance maps in a hex pattern with removable hexes that all contain encounters, items written on them, encounter rates, stuff like that on them with a master sheet that I would have to know what is happening in each instance and then a separate combat sheet or Dungeon sheet to pull up for each encounter respectively. Anyone else have a way they handle these? Would you consider these absolutely necessary?
Any help on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.
I am definitely an over planner and know that this doesn’t have to be over complicated BUT I would rather be prepared with everything that I can if I have the option!
I suspect most of this information would be easiest to arrange in an excel sheet or word document but if anyone has any suggestions for apps or things I may be overlooking I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!
I have a group of friends that are all very interested in the game and that are currently running a short campaign with another DM just to get the feel of the game before we dive in ourselves. We have some grand ideas for a campaign that we want to build but bought the Starter Set to get some ideas before jumping in. I went ahead and got all the books I considered relevant to starting our adventures (Players Handbook, DMG, Monster Manual, Xanthars Guide, Volo’s guide, and the Sword Coast book) so we are fairly prepared resource wise. Also, when it is relevant in the questions, I have an iPad I plan to set up as my adventure tool.
My main questions would be as follows: (All of these about DM’ing)
Encounter tables: Do you as the DM have a skeleton setup that you run all of your encounters off of and plug in monsters as the scenario fits OR do you make sure you set up tables for every adventure that you know you are running and match up monsters accordingly? Do you run these off any spreadsheets or just word documents? What is your feeling on the apps or webpages? How much info for monsters do you keep on the tables? Just the names and damage or do you have a card system you set up rather than going through the books every time?
Loot tables: Similar questions as above for the encounters, do you make tables and plug in as you go or roll for the items? How do you handle random items in the wild, like discovering hidden items on your path, do you bring into account passive perception or do you hide things along their path that can only be rolled for? When it comes to a treasure chest or loot from a monster do you roll for the contents every time and randomly assign or do you have an idea of it ahead of time? Do you stick with the rarity suggestions pretty rigidly or do you pull all items fairly evenly? Do you pull out item descriptions (or have an app that you trust?) or do you just go to the books every time?
Spell descriptions: A lot of spells are spread out amongst the books, do you have a separate table that you pull depending on the characters you have in it, is their an app, or do you pull out only what your characters are playing/the monsters you plan to bring out?
Publishing adventures: Obviously just starting out our adventures probably won’t be anything to write home about BUT eventually the goal would be to get some things published on the site. Does publishing allow only BY THE BOOK (If its not shown it doesn’t exist kind of rigidity) items and monsters or are you allowed to create your own items and monsters and still have it published? What is the limit to creating your own items and monsters if the first question allows? Would it be that they have to be something that could reasonably exist based on the rules of the game set out by 5e or is it basically just up to their site to make a final word on it? Being that the rules say to be published it must be in the “forgotten realms” does that mean it has to exactly be based IN an area of that land OR can it reference surroundings and deities “implying” that it is in the forgotten realms and be able to come up with some random castle or area in that world?
Extra Published Content: If it is published on the dungeon masters guild, so it is “officially published”, does that mean that it can be used in the creation of other publications OR are you only allowed to use “core” books to create publications? There are a lot of monsters, spells, encounters, classes, etc. etc… on the site and I wanted to know how much of that is ok to use and still be able to be published? I am assuming from the other content I have seen I may be thinking that the rules are stricter than they actually are BUT I want to make absolutely sure before I invest our time into something that just simply wont work.
How do you handle the extra published content with a player? Like, if a player finds a race or a class that is “published” (so technically “ok”) do you allow it to come in your adventure or do you have restrictions? I am guessing that is all DM dependent but if anyone had any basic rules of thumb that would be helpful, I would appreciate it.
Is there any content that is allowed (other than the books I outlined above) that you would suggest as necessary for a DM? Any of the published content, official adventures, stuff like that?
Use of Maps/Combat boards: How extensive do you get with your dungeon sheets/maps/combat boards? I had an idea to make long distance maps in a hex pattern with removable hexes that all contain encounters, items written on them, encounter rates, stuff like that on them with a master sheet that I would have to know what is happening in each instance and then a separate combat sheet or Dungeon sheet to pull up for each encounter respectively. Anyone else have a way they handle these? Would you consider these absolutely necessary?
Any help on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.
I am definitely an over planner and know that this doesn’t have to be over complicated BUT I would rather be prepared with everything that I can if I have the option!
I suspect most of this information would be easiest to arrange in an excel sheet or word document but if anyone has any suggestions for apps or things I may be overlooking I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!