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unsexy_bard
2019-08-02, 11:57 AM
Hi there! Im just learning to dm and i was wondering if i could let someone read my campaign? i want to make sure im doing it "right". i know every dm has a different style but im not completely sure if im going about writing this right. If i want to actually play this campaign i can treally have any of my party read it.
one of my party members who is also a dm gave me a cool tip which is basically figure out your ending and then write the rest, or let your party write the rest.
i think i have the hang of it but i just want a more experienced dm to look it over.

thank you kindly!
Unsexy_bard

Edit: Oof i totally forgot about this detail, :\ the tip from my friend was in regards to mystery plots. i don't know how i could have forgotten that.

Koo Rehtorb
2019-08-02, 12:04 PM
I think that's fairly bad advice. You shouldn't have any idea whatsoever what the end of your campaign will look like at the beginning.

Sam113097
2019-08-02, 12:19 PM
I'd be happy to look it over for you! I would agree with the last comment though. Don't have an ending written. Instead, focus on a very strong "First Act". In the first few sessions of your campaign, you should basically have all of the main characters, enemies, and plots you want to work with set up, with an idea of their goals. The idea is that you "stack blocks/ set up dominos" or story and adventure points, that the players will start to "knock over" as they decide what to do. I'm sure you'll do great!

Yora
2019-08-02, 12:21 PM
Having an idea in what direction things are likely to develop can be quite useful. So you have a backup plan for how to continue when the party approaches a kind of dead end.

But I think the most important thing for new GMs is to start with something simple. It goes for all GMs of any experience that you should not try to run the most amazing campaign you can imagine, but run the kind of campaign you are actually capable of running.
When you start out, this generally is "Let's go and do one thing in one dungeon, that should be possible to wrap up in three our four sessions, and after that we'll see what other adventure the party could go on." All GMs can do that, and when it doesn't turn out well, you're quickly at a point where you can start a new thing and try doing better with the things you learned.
But it really sucks when you have something planned for 40 sessions and characters going from 1st level to 15th, and after six sessions everyone starts thinking that this isn't actually that fun and you'd rather be doing something else. Long campaigns with amazing stories do happen occasionally, but that's really more of the exception and happens by accident. And I think the chances for that happening are actually considerably better when you deal with new things one at a time instead of planning too much in advance.

I don't know what companies publish these huge complete campaigns, but I think they are really bad examples for how you get your own campaigns done.

Cygnia
2019-08-02, 12:26 PM
No plot will every survive first contact with the players. Allow yourself the freedom to improvise should it make for a funner experience for everyone involved (including you).

No brains
2019-08-02, 01:14 PM
I'll give your story a look if you're still looking for input.:smallsmile:

In general, maybe you should not have 'The end' in mind, but know what the movers in your campaign are trying to accomplish. Then, consider what those movers need to do in order to accomplish those goals. Make it so that the players' actions will interfere with, not necessarily stop, those goals. This way the party will feel like they're doing something.

For example: Maybe Lichie Lich needs 1337 souls to become a demigod. Lich decides the best way to do this is by setting up a sacrifice cult. As a backup, Lich has cultists get a magic tattoo that gives them their soul when they die, this way they can give souls not only through capturing sacrifices, but also when the cultists are killed. Now Lich has an income of souls and an insurance policy.

If the players act fast and do things 'right', they can kill all the cultists and stop the income. However, they may be unintentionally fueling the problem if they slaughter everybody. Now they players know that their actions had SOME impact, even if it is not a positive one.

Be aware that the players may catch onto this, and will try to capture, not kill cultists- maybe while trying to remove tattoos and redeem them. Let this happen, but ready a backup twist. Maybe Lich wanted to become a demigod to fight another demigod for whatever reason. Now the players can achieve a victory over Lich before ascension, but now they also have a backup final boss if regular-Lich was unsatisfying.

Being a DM is opening the Choose Your Own Adventure from Hell. The players will make choices that aren't printed and when that happens, you turn to pages that are irrational numbers.

Or maybe the players play nice. Who knows.

shawnhcorey
2019-08-02, 02:45 PM
If you want to do it right, then leave room for lots of player input. It's their game as much as it's yours.

"There is nothing like search for something to find something, though the something you find may not be the something you are searching for." JRR Tolkien

The same is true for GMing. Be prepared to change your plans when your players do something unexpected. Most of the time, your players inadvertently have better ideas as to what should happen. Their fears are better than any of your plans.

King of Nowhere
2019-08-02, 02:52 PM
I think that's fairly bad advice. You shouldn't have any idea whatsoever what the end of your campaign will look like at the beginning.

true to this forum's traditions in giving bad good advice, this is a gross overstatement, or at least it can be seen in multiple ways, not all of whom are correct.

there's nothing wrong in having a general idea of how your campaign is going to end. specifically, who is the big bad, what's his plan, how will the plan interact with the players.
So, you have a general idea that the campaign is going to end with a boss fight between the big bad and the players. that's not bad.

what you should avoid is scripting your campaign without giving freedom to the players. you know the big bad is there, but then let the players figure out something. I suggest not scripting that part, it encourages railroading. instead, encourage them to come up with original plans.

that's also depending on players. some players are very propositive and hate having a road paved for them, some are passive and won't know what to do unless prodded.
basically, first piece of advice is figure out your party

Koo Rehtorb
2019-08-02, 02:55 PM
So, you have a general idea that the campaign is going to end with a boss fight between the big bad and the players. that's not bad.

It is. You can have an idea of a particular big scary dude in the setting. Don't plan on having a final battle with him. Maybe that ends up happening, or maybe in session two the PCs decide that he's the real deal and they sign up to be his minions and that's the rest of the campaign. Don't plan for specific things happening.

Great Dragon
2019-08-02, 03:45 PM
Greetings: Unsexy_bard !

I did want to offer my assistance.

There is some good advice here.

Although, watch out for Overplanning.
I only pick one or two Characters of each type the Players are likely to encounter: Mentor/Questgiver, repeating NPCs (Bartender, etc), and Villains. Then figure out what the (basic) Personality, Goals and Motivations of each is; which can help you figure out their likely responses to the Actions of the Players.

I have put in quite a bit of things that I use and do for my own Game/s in Ancient Realms (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?591658-Ancient-Realms).

My Realms thread also has some links to other things that I've posted that apply, or that I find interesting by other members.
By all means, post comments and ideas/suggestions.

King of Nowhere
2019-08-02, 06:47 PM
It is. You can have an idea of a particular big scary dude in the setting. Don't plan on having a final battle with him. Maybe that ends up happening, or maybe in session two the PCs decide that he's the real deal and they sign up to be his minions and that's the rest of the campaign. Don't plan for specific things happening.

I said "general idea" in that "the players are likely to fight this guy in the end". of course it could go differently. maybe the players will want to be his minions - though personally i would not want to play or DM an evil campaign, and I'd make that clear from the start - or maybe they will bribe away the minions of this guy and defeat him without ever encountering him.

but you know they will have to deal with the big bad eventually, and you know the most likely scenario is that they will have a big climatic fight.

what's important here is being willing to change plans if the players push for a different direction. "Having plans for what happens if the players take the most obvious choices" is simply good preparation. Refusing other (reasonable) choices to the players, that's railroading.

Tawmis
2019-08-02, 08:17 PM
I've started doing (rambling) videos that talk about various tips for being a DM... especially a new DM. (It's down in the signature).

But as a new DM, what I would do is plan out the general adventure.
As others have said; unless you rail road (and do not rail road!) the adventure, they will wander around where you're not expecting.
That is simply going to happen - and if you railroad you take away their character freedoms.

So be ready to improvise.

A lot.

Improvising is honestly one of the BEST skills a DM can have. When the party does something unpredictable and you roll with it, and don't pause to see what you should do; that way you don't ruin the momentum. I've been DMing for years now (off and on), and the recent group I DM for (all new to D&D), have really taught me how to be a better DM. When they do the unpredictable stuff and I roll with it and keep the game moving; then when we're all done, I explain everything - they're always amazed about the amount of stuff that's improvised and not all "scripted."

LordEntrails
2019-08-02, 08:23 PM
"Don't prep plots" Google it. Read the blogs you will find. Take them to heart. You are not writing a story when you create a campaign (despite how published campaigns appear). You are (or should be) creating a setting or environment where their are various groups/factions/powers that all have their own motivations and goals. Then you figure out what happens as the players interact with the world around them.

Great Dragon
2019-08-02, 09:30 PM
Hi Tawmis!!!

@LordEntrails:
I don't do Facebook
(after losing the 2nd account to hackers, plus the emails connected to them, I refuse to return)

Is there another way to get the information to Ultimate Undermountain? I like that MegaDungeon, and am interested in finding stuff for it.

As for Discord, I would need a Permanent Dedicated Internet, which might always be beyond my budget.

For long conversation/s you can always use Email ([email protected]).

LordEntrails
2019-08-02, 10:30 PM
Hi Tawmis!!!

@LordEntrails:
I don't do Facebook
(after losing the 2nd account to hackers, plus the emails connected to them, I refuse to return)

Is there another way to get the information to Ultimate Undermountain? I like that MegaDungeon, and am interested in finding stuff for it.

As for Discord, I would need a Permanent Dedicated Internet, which might always be beyond my budget.

For long conversation/s you can always use Email ([email protected]).

No problem, just email me at lordentrails - at - gmail com and I can pass on whatever info you want to know :)

Tawmis
2019-08-03, 02:38 AM
As for Discord, I would need a Permanent Dedicated Internet, which might always be beyond my budget.


Discord does not require a permanent dedicated internet. It's just a persistent chatroom with the ability to speak also. So you'd just load it when you want to use it.
The Discord chat channels are hosted on Discord, not on your machine.
For example, I have a Discord channel; and if my computer is turned off, people can still log into discord and chat it up, because my machine has nothing to do with hosting.

Great Dragon
2019-08-03, 06:21 AM
@Tawmis:
I didn't know that.
Does it work on a phone or have an app?

Now, if only I had some people to interact with on there, I might do that.

Wuzza
2019-08-03, 07:40 AM
I find it interesting that some people are saying it's a bad idea to know how your campaign will end.

Anyone play any published adventures? Admittedly there are usually two or three outcomes, but they don't leave it for the DM to come up with an ending...

I would say a better approach is to have an idea on how your campaign will end. You don't need specifics at this point. I'm all for player driven story, and quite a few times at the end of a session I've said to my players "I had no idea you would do X, I guessed you would do Y". I had prep'd for Y, but being able to change things on the fly is part of DM'ing. Also, if your players go on an unexpected path, don't be afraid to say to your players "I need 5 mins or so just to prep something. Use it as a tea/coffee/snack/toilet break.

That said, it really does depend on your group, and you wont know until you start playing. My group like to have a certain amount of story to follow. I guess you could describe it to a certain extent as railroading, but they still feel as if what they do is affecting the world around them.

Cygnia
2019-08-03, 08:06 AM
@Great Dragon, it does work on your phone (thankfully).

shawnhcorey
2019-08-03, 08:12 AM
Anyone play any published adventures? Admittedly there are usually two or three outcomes, but they don't leave it for the DM to come up with an ending...

I DMed a good number of them. And I had to let my players come up with their own "ending" since they always go off script. :smallsmile:

Great Dragon
2019-08-03, 08:28 AM
I DMed a good number of them. And I had to let my players come up with their own "ending" since they always go off script. :smallsmile:

This always happened to me.

And in past Editions, I got lots of people that would figure out which Module I was using, go out and get it to know what to expect and plan for. Which then made me adapt by still using the Overall Plot, but changing details along the way.

Tawmis
2019-08-03, 09:30 AM
@Tawmis:
I didn't know that.
Does it work on a phone or have an app?
Now, if only I had some people to interact with on there, I might do that.

There is indeed an app for Discord.

Cikomyr
2019-08-03, 09:42 AM
Hi there! Im just learning to dm and i was wondering if i could let someone read my campaign? i want to make sure im doing it "right". i know every dm has a different style but im not completely sure if im going about writing this right. If i want to actually play this campaign i can treally have any of my party read it.
one of my party members who is also a dm gave me a cool tip which is basically figure out your ending and then write the rest, or let your party write the rest.
i think i have the hang of it but i just want a more experienced dm to look it over.

thank you kindly!
Unsexy_bard

Edit: Oof i totally forgot about this detail, :\ the tip from my friend was in regards to mystery plots. i don't know how i could have forgotten that.

Here's what i will give you as an advice.

You should look at your campaign and your plot as one big slanted plane.

Your players are marbles you throw on that plane. You know they will be going "down", but you have no idea how exactly where they will end up. You shouldn't prepare everything based on the expectation they will do the exact things you want them to do.

Theres 2 tricks that I use to subtly guide how the plot goes:

1- have a solid grasp of your world and characters so you can figure out how your world will react at something unexpected your players will do. Thats a somewhat "sandbox" approach to storytelling, and it's the healthiest way of approaching things. If your players ignore plot hooks, have these ignored plot hook have consequences later so your players will understand that the choice they made impacted the world.

2- Twist your world and story on occasion to fit the character 's actions. That's a "scripted" approach to narrative. Use this one sparingly, and for the love of God make sure your players aren't aware you are using it.
The mysterious strange arrives in town always 1 hour after the PCs. The Escaped Princess will ALWAYS cross the PC path at the right moment.

For me, I use method 2 for "setups" in my world, and then consequences are determined by method 1. So the players will always coincidentally meet the quest giver at the right time, fight place. But if they spend a week doing nothing in town before going after the thief, the thief will be long gone, Ya know what I'm saying?

Knowing exactly where you want your story to end should mean you have a solid understanding of your world and characters so you aren't flat footed regardless of your players actions.

Great Dragon
2019-08-03, 12:10 PM
@Great Dragon, it does work on your phone (thankfully).


There is indeed an app for Discord.
I can only do maybe only one day a week in the afternoons
are you perhaps interested in doing this with me?
(Others are welcome, I believe?)

@Cikomyr: Those are ok, but it's less obvious that your using them when they are hidden within/behind knowing what the main NPC/s and Villain/s are trying to do, and their available resources.

King of Nowhere
2019-08-03, 12:16 PM
2- Twist your world and story on occasion to fit the character 's actions. That's a "scripted" approach to narrative. Use this one sparingly, and for the love of God make sure your players aren't aware you are using it.
The mysterious strange arrives in town always 1 hour after the PCs. The Escaped Princess will ALWAYS cross the PC path at the right moment.

For me, I use method 2 for "setups" in my world, and then consequences are determined by method 1. So the players will always coincidentally meet the quest giver at the right time, fight place. But if they spend a week doing nothing in town before going after the thief, the thief will be long gone, Ya know what I'm saying?


if the players are even remotely genre-savy, they will know anyway. but that's one of the acceptable breaches from reality, and not a problem.
just prod them if they dally too much. I had a time when the party was taking too long doing a quest because they kept going back to town and stuff, and I ended with someone else fiinishing the quest first and taking the treasure.
I left for them a few tons of copper pieces that the other people deemed not worth carrying, though :smallbiggrin:

GrayDeath
2019-08-03, 02:45 PM
A lot of overall good advice, so I`ll jsut add my 3 Cents as well ^^



First and foremost: You have to clearly seperate the 2 main shticks of a DM:

Coming up with a Setting/Story/Plot (which depending on your group can be hugely difficult or totally easy^^) and actually DMing (Rules decisions, exposition, reaction and actions of NPCs and so on).


For the first, I give you a tip I would have sorely needed when I started DMing around 0 years ago:

Do NOT make a plot that ends/runs like y favourite book/Movie/Anime, and expect your Palyers to sit and follow it.
It almost never works.

It is much better (and easier) to come up with a setup (from the clicheed your village is being threatened by..." to exotic things ), check that the group fits/Can solve it, and just go.

Later you mwill see what your palyers like, and know where to put the next ploot hooks (or, if they actually enjoy a mroe story driven game, the rails^^).


For the second, I will psot my 4 COre Rules:

1.: Preparation is (almost) everything. You are thea rbiter and the world. You HAVE to know the rules, the setting and everything in between very very well. After all, your palyers depend on getting the right Info/the rules to be followed.

2.: Do not overprepare (this aims almost completely towrds the If they finish X; they will maybe go do A, or Z, or....). Why? Because A: You dont know if they actually will finish, B: If they do, it is often the case they dont see your hints, and C: You will otherwise overwork yourself with lots of stuff, that you wont need in most games.
This one is very ahrd until you ahve a feeling for how fast your group tends to go through adventures.

3.: If in doubt, the Players are right.
There are few things worse than interrupting a game for a long rules discussion, so you will often be called to rule a situation.
Unless it is compeltely clear that the correct interpretation is against the players (for example because its the point of the adventure, or the Players have sub per rules knowledge) rulings that favour the palyers in Game save a LOT of trouble.
Later on, when the game is over, you can go over it in detail, and if you should find youw ere wrong, tell your Palyers "I ruled X because Y, but from now on this will go Z".

4.: You are all in for the fun.
If someone is NOT having fun, you alla re better off finding out why and, ideally, changeing the situation so that all ahve fun.

This of course assumes a lot of things to be true. That the group ahs similar things they like ina n RPG. THat noone has a really bad day. THat you ahve no jerks in the group. THat its not "Just a nitpick" or something that the Player did to himself (inGame, anfd if he/she was warned!). And so on and so forth.

However, to sum it up: If you are not having fun, it is liekly to make the game elss fun for your palyers as well. If they are not ahving fun, they are likely to be more disruptive.


Hope it helped a bit.
:smallcool:

erikun
2019-08-03, 02:54 PM
My first recommendation to a new DM would be to aim for something smaller. Don't try to design "a campaign". (as in, months or years of gaming all tied together) Instead, try to create some dungeons, or adventures, or small scenarios where the party can resolve things in one session or two. These things can be tied to the same group or location to keep things consistent, and the campaign can come later when you are ready to make it, with some adventures to bring the plot into focus.

If you are looking for help on mystery plots, I would recommend reading about the Three Clue Rule (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/10632/roleplaying-games/technoir-and-the-three-clue-rule) and just in general, go for more information rather than less. It's easy to think you are providing too much information when you have it all in front of your, but the party likely won't even know what is going on when a mystery begins. They'll need to gather everything by exploring things and talking to characters. I'd also recommend to keep it short (ideally one session), don't be afraid to allow the party to reach the conclusion "early", and don't be afraid of throwing an encounter at the party if they seem to be stalled. Once you have some experience, you can see what works and what doesn't with your group, and design more complex mysteries if you want.

You might also throw in some restrictions if you don't want the group to immediately execute their first suspect. Something like the criminal needs to be taken in for questioning by the guard, of there is a curse and the goal is to find the cursed AND a method to remove it, and so on.

Inchhighguy
2019-08-03, 07:24 PM
My two coppers:

1.Know the rules. Read the rules. All of them. Understand them. If you have a question or don't get something: ask. You have a great fourm right here to get answers to any question.

2.Prepare the physical stuff. Make sure you have everything you might need. Rule books. Printed out things. Pens and pencils. Blank paper. Maps. Pitcures. Dice. Whatever. Also have extras for players....

3.Keep it simple. You don't want to do a massive Game of Thrones meta story plot. You want to focus a bit more on a tiny town and a hunted ruins....that's it. If your talking more then say five minutes to make something, your likely making too much.

4.Learn quick when to say No and maybe/yes. Players will ask for stuff all the time, but you should never always say yes...or no. Remember, if they ask you can say no.

5.Take lots of notes. Make notes of rules. Notes about characters. Notes about anything you want to remember and know.

Zhorn
2019-08-04, 01:46 AM
Read EVERYTHING.

The PHB constantly. You be surprised the number of times your understanding of the rules will change between your first reading and your most recent one.
The DMG at least once. You don't need to retain it all, but trying to understand it will adjust your understanding of the PHB.

Module/Adventure books. Any you plan to run, read cover to cover once or twice. You want to be able to run parts of these on the fly when your players throw you a curveball, so having a big picture view of where the story is going can help a great deal when a chapter goes off the rails.

Forum posts. Questions and answers. Sometimes there are things you just would never learn on your own. Everybody is a resource worth utilising.

Fiction. Everything is content. A fun little game is to take any story you know fairly well (book, movie, comic, etc) and frame it in your mind as a d&d adventure. Break them down into encounters (don't stat them out, just leave them as abstractions). When explaining D&D to my Dad the first time, I spent most of the time talking about The Mummy (1999, Brendan Fraser) as the perfect example of an adventure balanced around combat, exploration and social encounters.

DrMartin
2019-08-04, 10:39 AM
Figure out your NPCs (good and villains) motivations, what they want and (it's just as important!) what they don't want - and have a rough idea of what happens if they get what they want. A consequence of this is: don't plan how your players are going to defeat the big bad guy - that is your players' job to figure out! focus on planning what happens if the bad guy gets what he wants.

Remember that even as a GM, you sit down and play a game with your friends and have fun playing it. You sit down to provide them with great elements so that they can tell a story through their characters, not to herd them into a story. Be curious to see where they go with what you give them.

Don't be afraid of starting from very simple ideas or hooks. Complexity will emerge on its own through your players' actions.

Pacing is key. If a fight is taking too long and its outcome is clear, cut it short. Say "the last goblins run away" or even "you make short work of the rest of the bandits".

Keep a big bad guy "in reserve" from day 1. It doesn't have to be directly involved in the group's first adventure, but if you have an idea for an important villain/antagonist in the region, you can drop clues and connections to it early. Maybe your party will go in a completely different direction - but having an idea of one important player in the area is a great help for improvisation.

Lacco
2019-08-06, 07:39 AM
Hey there, unsexy_bard!

It seems there are lots of volunteers, I'll gladly offer my advice.

For mysteries my advice would be: don't have it figured out. Let players figure it out for you.

Other advices for your first adventure/GMing:


For your first adventure:

Think closed spaces. As already mentioned above, if given any chance, players will explore exactly the parts you have no idea about. So for first adventure - agree with the players about a premise (e.g. you accepted this job and are travelling), enclose a space (e.g. a blizzard is coming) and provide interesting location (e.g. a haunted lodge in the woods) with plenty of space and prepared stuff to explore.

Two black & white choices, one gray-gray. Try to include several choices - my usual rule is that players should get at least 2 choices with relatively predictable results (law vs. anarchy; order vs. chaos; good vs. bad;…) and one that has no "right" choice (either morally gray situation or decision with no predictable result). Depending on your group, this may be good or bad idea - so check which suit them. If they freeze completely, see below.

Keep it moving. Remember Chandler's advice: if the story stops moving, make two men with guns enter through nearest door. Now replace "men" with adversary NPC and "guns" with clue. Make them fight for it, talk it out - but give them another possibility/clue/way out. It's all fine if they discuss the morality of the situation - but keep a finger on the pulse. If discussion is lively and everybody listens, write down notes (they'll give you ideas). If they are stuck - give them decisive clue.

Utilize your players. If you are lucky, you get few pretty active players - take suggestions, ideas - listen to them talk about your diabolical plan that you don't have (players will inevitably reach the conclusion that the "trap free" road is the worst )- just write down what they say and use it either now or next time. If you get a mind blank - e.g. they talk to a random NPC you did not expect them to - ask for details. "Ok, how does he look like?"; "What's his name?"; "What do you expect he might know?". Let them come up with part of the NPC - and use "yes, but…" (PC: "He's a barman, he'll know about the cult hideout!" GM: "Yes, he might… but he'll want a favour in return.").

Limelight. Don't keep your spotlight on one player (the most active). Ask what the others are doing. Keep eye contact. Give everybody chance to shine.

Don't go BIG, go GOOD. Don't build a world when all you need is a village and small dungeon. Don't start with bombastic plot when your players might just want to kill some goblins. Don't prepare a movie - do pilot episode for TV series. Give them small goal they will definitely reach by the end of first session, but prepare several hooks for the next episodes. It's better to have few really well-prepared locations than huge world without any details.

Improvisation is a skill. Practice it. If they want to talk to the NPC drifter you put there just as window-dressing, let them. Ask for few moments, get a deep breath, visualise the NPC (good advice is: think of combination of actors/characters from movies/tv series - the more obscure the better - and do their impression; it does not need to be good ) and go for it. If they want to make a shortcut through the forest instead of going on the road? Ask for a 5 minute break and see if the encounter you prepared works for a forest - or skip it entirely.

Fill empty spaces with interesting ideas. If they evade the encounter you planned on road, put another in the forest - it does not have to be a combat encounter. Put something eerie, fun or plain mysterious there. If they interact with it, write down their ideas - and remember what they did. If they find a meadow with standing stones and when they enter the whole area starts to go dark, let them try few things. Maybe they awaken few skeletal warriors of past, maybe it's just a place full of negative energy. Keep it mysterious, but have a way to keep it moving.

Improvisation favours the prepared. Keep a list of ideas. List of NPCs. List of names, list of random traits, list of random backpacks - write down ideas for anything. If you are prepared, improvisation will work much easier for you.

Feedback: ask for it. Ask open questions (What did you like most? What did you not like? What do you think happens next with NPC X?), make notes, don't take it personally. People often don't know how to ask for feedback or how to give one - so try to get good ideas from it. Improve.