I'm interested in running Crimson Throne, but I have bad ADHD. Any tips?

[Zhentarim]

I'm interested in running Crimson Throne, but I have bad ADHD. Any tips?

[pabelfly]

I'm interested in running Crimson Throne, but I have bad ADHD. Any tips?

What would you feel your ADHD would do in terms of preventing you from running this game?

[ngilop]

What would you feel your ADHD would do in terms of preventing you from running this game?

I have severe ADHD and it has never once 'interfered' with my ability to DM, quit the contrary for some odd reason is has enabled me to do better, as it seems my ADHD likes RPGs. I think it has to do with the whole 'your job as a DM is never done' combined with the "i can never finish anything ADHD" and somehow my ADHD enjoys the fact that there is a compatibility between the two.

I can give you generic everyday DMing advice, though.

1) read through the entire adventure before you play.
1a) take notes ( better to have too many than not enough) of certain things that catch your eye about the adventure that you feel you will need to know information about at a different point of the adventure.
2) takes notes during the adventure (again more is better than not enough) on things that come up during game play that make things later on different or just have a strange interaction
3)be able to change as players tend to do very odd things that make absolutely no logical sense
4)focus on fun, do not let the rules getting the way of you and the player's enjoyment of the game
5) during game play know when to call for an ability check and when to just say the task succeeds or fails without a roll.
6)give up on being perfect. Nobody is and you will not be the exception.
7) adjust the game to better suits your player's playstyle, this will require tuning periodically throughout the adventure
8) remember your job is to be a referee of sorts, this is a DM vs Player game, thought some think that it is.
9) before the game session, read over your notes and read the part of the adventure for that session

[Zhentarim]

What would you feel your ADHD would do in terms of preventing you from running this game?

Having time to plan sessions and having focus to actually read the books.

[Crake]

Having time to plan sessions and having focus to actually read the books.

The whole point of running a module is not needing to plan sessions, because the book has done all that for you.

[pabelfly]

Having time to plan sessions and having focus to actually read the books.

Option 1) Try and read the material first. Ideally, you should read it twice and take notes on what you want to change to best suit yourself and your group. It could be tying it into previous games, changing enemy stats, and so forth. The material tells you the how and why everything happens and what motivates the characters. It gives you enough information to let you figure out what to do if the players try to do things not in the module (they will come up with things to do that are not in the modules)

If your ADHD prevents you from reading the material, I have an alternate solution for you:

Option 2) Create your own setting. I've had good success with a system called Microscope, run that for session zero (you'll probably want to spend at least three hours on this). It's a pretty easy system to learn, Microscope is eighty pages but you could condense this down to five tightly-spaced pages of writing and rules. While it's good for one person (you) to learn the system in advance, you can teach everyone else what to do at session zero, and they will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Microscope lets you work with your players to create a setting timeline, and you all mix up ideas together to create concepts and storylines you're all interested in. From that, you should have enough setting information to come up with your own adventures for your players and only have to do prep work in terms of writing adventure outlines and creating appropriate encountrers

[AsuraKyoko]

Option 2) Create your own setting. I've had good success with a system called Microscope, run that for session zero (you'll probably want to spend at least three hours on this). It's a pretty easy system to learn, Microscope is eighty pages but you could condense this down to five tightly-spaced pages of writing and rules. While it's good for one person (you) to learn the system in advance, you can teach everyone else what to do at session zero, and they will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Microscope lets you work with your players to create a setting timeline, and you all mix up ideas together to create concepts and storylines you're all interested in. From that, you should have enough setting information to come up with your own adventures for your players and only have to do prep work in terms of writing adventure outlines and creating appropriate encountrers

Microscope is quite fun, and using it to make a campaign setting has worked well for me in the past. It also helps get the players to be both familiar with and invested in the setting, since they had a hand in making it.

[Biggus]

having focus to actually read the books.

One of my best friends has severe ADHD and he finds audiobooks more accessible than written ones, it might be worth a try. There's some pretty good text-to-speech software out there for books which don't come in audiobook format.

Alternatively, just start reading the books and see if they grab you. If you're anything like the people with ADHD I know, it'll either grab you and you'll hyperfocus on it, or it won't and you'll soon realise it's not going to happen.

[Zhentarim]

One of my best friends has severe ADHD and he finds audiobooks more accessible than written ones, it might be worth a try. There's some pretty good text-to-speech software out there for books which don't come in audiobook format.

Alternatively, just start reading the books and see if they grab you. If you're anything like the people with ADHD I know, it'll either grab you and you'll hyperfocus on it, or it won't and you'll soon realise it's not going to happen.

I think text to speech may help, especially if i'm following along reading too, like doing subtitles on a youtube video

[Biggus]

I think text to speech may help, especially if i'm following along reading too, like doing subtitles on a youtube video

Yes, or making notes, or even just looking at the pictures :smallsmile:

My friend said text-to-speech has helped him a lot, if you can't find a good one let me know and I'll ask him what he uses.

[Fyxur]

I ran this as a first time dm. I suffer from anxiety, depression and ptsd. I skimmed ahead and adlibed the rest.

[Fyxur]

My point is if I can get over crippling anxiety and lacknof focus you can too! I believe in you!

[Zhentarim]

My point is if I can get over crippling anxiety and lacknof focus you can too! I believe in you!

Thank you for the vote of confidence.