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Legoshrimp
2008-02-14, 08:27 PM
I am a new DM and am looking for tips and suggestions on running my first campaign. Any help would be usfull.

AslanCross
2008-02-14, 08:44 PM
1. Know the players' expectations. Players who enjoy combat a lot won't necessarily like a campaign with a lot of diplomacy and political intrigue.

2. Establish what kind of campaign it will be based on these expectations. A horror campaign, for example, would involve frequently putting the PCs in disadvantageous positions, which some players might find frustrating.

3. Some DMs do better when they improvise, others do better when they plan. It boils down how you perform better. I'm able to do better in RPing sessions when I improvise, but for combat I always, always have to prepare in detail.

Miles Invictus
2008-02-14, 09:30 PM
We can help you better if you fill in some details about your game. What setting does it use? What story do you want to tell? What books are allowed? How many players? Are any of them experienced?

Hal
2008-02-14, 09:44 PM
Give all of your players a chance to shine. Nothing makes someone feel like they're wasting their time like playing second fiddle every session to the guy who dominates every fight / hogs every NPC / takes every magic item / etc.

Legoshrimp
2008-02-14, 09:45 PM
My game will be using generic DnD.

I am not sure what my story is going to be. I am looking for somthing somwhat easy to run. Being my first game that I am DMing.

The books I have are just the core rulebooks. I also have the stuff from crystal keep.

There will be two PCs. Neither of them have much experience. One has played never winter nights and some of the other games and one session of a game my friend is running. So he knows the basic rules of the gaem. The other has had no experience.

Thanks for helping.

Durendal
2008-02-14, 09:50 PM
If you want to run a quick one shot to get an idea of what Dming takes I would suggest trying one of the free adventures on the Wizards of the Coast site. There are a couple of pretty good level 1 games there. I especially like the "A Dark and Stormy Knight" one.

Legoshrimp
2008-02-14, 11:33 PM
Thanks for all of the advice. I forgot to mention that the pcs were going to be a paladin and a rouge. I do not know if that will help you give better advice in any way, but thought it might.
:smallbiggrin:

PlatinumJester
2008-02-15, 07:05 AM
Thanks for all of the advice. I forgot to mention that the pcs were going to be a paladin and a rouge. I do not know if that will help you give better advice in any way, but thought it might.
:smallbiggrin:

Take the Paladin aside and tell him to try and avoid the Paladin Stick (basically if saying if it isn't good, then it's evil and though must be stopped). Give him a Phylanctry of Faithfulness as early as possible.

Also, try not to focus the campaign too much on undead, golems, plants or oozes since it will frustrate the rogue alot if he can only sneak attack 1/10 enemies etc.

AslanCross
2008-02-15, 07:09 AM
Running published adventures might be your best bet. The Wizards site has some free ones, so check them out. A Dark and Stormy Knight should be fine for level one.

Keep in mind, though, that most adventures are balanced to be played by four characters. (Fighter/Cleric/Rogue/Wizard or characters who can fill similar roles) More than that and it becomes rather easy, less than that and it could get tricky. It would be best to get a couple more people.

Edited for grammar. @_@

Legoshrimp
2008-02-15, 12:01 PM
I had not looked at the Phylanctry of Faithfullness before. It souds like a good thing to give him.

I looked at the dark and stromy night adventure. It looks like it will be a good thing to start with.

I am going to try to get a few more players, but I will likely not be able to so i am planing on having two npcs as part of the party. Which brings up another question. How should I use npcs? How much of a personality should I give them? Should they just be in the backround or should they be playing more of a major role in the story? Also I will most likely need help on figuring out how to balance the npcs role in the story if they play a more major rule. I definitly do not want them to steal the spotlight (so to speak) from the actual pcs.

Thanks to everyone who has helped and thanks in advance to anyone else.

Demonknight
2008-02-15, 12:13 PM
If you are gonna to use NPCīs (and with just 2 PCīs youīre gonna ;) ), they should be there as members of the party but not to steal the spotlight from the pcs, itīs their story and you are not there to steal it from them.
If you put a npc on the party and it ends being there to be the one who keeps saving them in every fight, the one who the story seems to revolve around them and the ones who knows everything... well, it would be better for you to just be a PC and not a DM ;)
Try to give them a spellcaster and a cleric or a melee oriented class, act as support, not as giving command to them.
On other note remember that the important is that everyone is having a good time, you and them, itīs not you vs them.
Your monsters are gonna to die, a lot! Try not to take it personal :smallbiggrin:

Start the campaign slow from small to big, and see what they liked and donīt liked in each session.
Remember that you are the referee and itīs your final word that counts, donīt be bullyied by players who just want items and gold for free.

Oh, and really really really enjoy yourself!

Itīs hard work but i will not leave my chair for nothing short of Tharizdun chasing me!

Ascension
2008-02-15, 12:21 PM
I am going to try to get a few more players, but I will likely not be able to so i am planing on having two npcs as part of the party. Which brings up another question. How should I use npcs? How much of a personality should I give them? Should they just be in the backround or should they be playing more of a major role in the story? Also I will most likely need help on figuring out how to balance the npcs role in the story if they play a more major rule. I definitly do not want them to steal the spotlight (so to speak) from the actual pcs.

Since neither of your PCs are dedicated casters, this is probably a good idea. Feel free to give them a personality (at least do so if your players are interested in actual roleplaying... if all they're coming for is the mechanics, might as well give them a magic-machine and call it quits), but keep them primarily in the background of the story.

In order to keep them from stealing the spotlight in combat I would suggest focusing them on indirect combat techniques. Instead of using direct damage magic, for example, use summoning spells to give the rogue something to flank with or use buff spells on the paladin. Despite the paladin's limited healing ability, it is vital with this party setup for one of your NPCs to have at least some healing capability.

If you're going to have to run a two-player game, though, this sounds like a fun one. Paladin and rogue... it's like a mismatched buddy cop movie! You should have them play "Lawful cop, chaotic cop" with a prisoner at some point... :smallbiggrin:

Yakk
2008-02-15, 01:52 PM
Before you play, sit down and have 2 orcs fight 4 goblins. Don't be afraid to look things up if you aren't sure for this practice fight.

That will help your first fight with real players go smoother. :)

A 1st level paladin and rogue -- that's ok. Try to get them to work a connection: siblings might be a good choice.

...

For NPCs, how about a Wizard and a Cleric sound good.

The Cleric is an acolyte of the order the Paladin serves. The Cleric is old (50+), doesn't wear armor, has 8 strength and constitution, and has a walking staff.

The Wizard looks like an apprentice scribe with a toad pet. He has a toad familiar (+3 HP, makes him less squishy), has a backpack full of papers, and is otherwise unarmed. His voice breaks sometimes.

The Wizard should have some spells that will be used to help with the "hard" encounters. Go for damage and/or buffing and/or debuffing over "I win" spells.

The Cleric's main purpose is a heal-bot, honestly. He should have 1 or two other features.

Optionally, the Cleric is an old woman. Or the boy is actually a girl pretending to be a boy.

...

If you use the "you took shelter from the storm" premise, the adventure does lack incentive to actually explore the tomb. Being told to travel by the tor and "examine the contents as you pass", as a side-order, might be a good incentive to go deeper into the tor.

...

Note that at level 1, summoning sucks: it lasts 1 round. You burn a round and get a single round from your summoned creature, which then poofs...

sonofzeal
2008-02-15, 03:54 PM
Note that at level 1, summoning sucks: it lasts 1 round. You burn a round and get a single round from your summoned creature, which then poofs...
Note that at level 1, pretty much EVERYTHING sucks. Fighter-types like your Paladin don't have the BAB to hit reliably, spellcasters don't have the slots or CL to do anything worth a darn, the difference between trained and untrained skills is marginal, heavy armor is completely unaffordable, and even Barbarians can go down hard on one good hit. At level 1, without serious optimization effort (which your players won't be doing for a while yet), everyone sucks, and sucks more or less equally, and in more or less the same ways. There just isn't enough to distinguish characters from eachother, and they're all super-fragile.

I'd highly recommend starting at level 3. That's where I started when I first gamed, and that's where I got some new DM friends of mine to start, and it's always worked out. By lvl3, Spellcasters have enough magic to cast at least one spell per fight and be reasonably effective with it, martial characters can reasonably expect to be better in combat than non-martial characters, people have enough gold to buy their basic equipment comfortably, and everyone is generally starting to be really decent at their chosen roll.

Stormwolf
2008-02-15, 04:30 PM
Give careful thought to the balance of the encounters... nothing is more demoralising for a party with a new DM to walk straight into a TPK situation.

On a related note, don't be afraid to fudge the occasional secret dice roll if it advances the storyline. Don't make a habit of it unless your poker face is very good though. Similarly don't be afraid to pick up the dice and roll them behind your screen whenever you feel like it... or if you need some thinking time - it keeps the players on their toes ;) If they ask what you're rolling for just look innocent and say "oh nothing...."

Most importantly remember you're the storyteller as well as the arbiter of your game.

Yakk
2008-02-16, 04:35 AM
*blink*. No, summoning sucks. A level 1 summoning spell produces a creature that is usually weaker than a level 1 fighter, and it lasts for 1 round. :)

Color Spray, Sleep, -- both cause about half of a large number of bad guys to nearly lose.

A fighter character who picks up a greatsword and has 14 strength is doing 5 to 15 damage -- which insta-gibs anything under CR 1, and has a good chance of taking out a CR 1 opponents in a single blow.

At +3 to hit, against a gnoll: 45% chance to hit.
Against an orc: 55% chance to hit.

If you go defensive, 12 dex, scale mail and a large wooden shield gives you 17 AC for 57 gp. Not amazing, but not bad.

...

So you can make a viable melee, there are good spells, and level 1 adventuring can be survived.

But summon monster at level 1 just sucks!

Shademan
2008-02-16, 06:06 AM
try to submit to the teachings of Dr.Cox.
it is called "i hate my players" and you must throw everything you got on them!
this might make them a bit angry so you could make a compromise and go for "i dont hate them i just dislike them" and throw half of what you got at them.

and most importantly: make sure they have fun

Yami
2008-02-16, 06:56 AM
First rule of new systems, at least in my group;

Start with a fight.

Make some mooks, craft cheap and dirty npcs, like 2 warriors, and let the pc's play them. Gets familiarity with combat out of the way, without sacrificing characters.

Bonus points for tying in the battle with plot. (such as having the pc's play guards on watch during a goblin raid if the parties gonna be pillaging goblins.)


As for making a four person party. I'd advise against the two NPC's. Just have your players make two characters each. In this way you need only focus on the monsters in combat. As a bonus, one character may die without the player feeling too distraught.

sickler
2008-02-16, 07:31 AM
This post is all just my opinion and may not reflect the interests of you or your players, so just take it with a grain of salt.

Stick to Core Books to start. There are more than enough rules in there for now to keep a new DM and PCs busy for their first couple of sessions before bringing in any extra rule books.

Two PCs with no NPCs is very do-able. However, you'll have to keep in mind that most games are geared for a balanced party of 4 so adjust battles accordingly. However, the benefits of this are your two players will be in control of their actions fully, so they'll learn more about the game than if you were to give them a hand, as well as it'll let them feel more confident in the future in understanding their characters strengths and weaknesses. A double benefit is that it'll allow you to focus more on simply DMing than having to constantly control 2 NPCs and the amount of information and guidance you give your players. It'll also make decisions easier since you won't have to play both sides of the fence (and will also keep the blame off you more for not playing your NPCs as well as you play your monsters :b)

While it could simply be from their inexperience with the game, paladin/rogue choice sounds like they are more interested in an NPC-interaction/skill game than a straight up hack'n'slash, but as I said, could simply be they have different expectations for those classes. Really try to encourage your players to think before they do, especially if you decide to go with just the two-player party. Fighting should be a last resort for two reasons: 1. paladins shouldn't make a habit of chopping everything they see to bits unless they are looking to fall really early in their career and 2. rogues aren't that buff.

If they continually are running head first into rooms without even a Listen check, run through rooms filled with crates and corpses without a Search check, and attack all sorts of monsters without a Detect Evil/Knowledge check, you might want to either recommend some class changes for the next session, talk to them more about what their classes were really designed for or just start playing mean until they learn better (be careful with the latter unless you want to have your DMing cut short).

For the first mission in a two-player party. Focus more on skills and interaction with neutral NPCs before combat. Heck, searching an abandoned location (mine/house/tower/anywhere) without any encounters might even work to encourage the use of skills for treasure/clue finding. It is vital in my opinion that they learn to appreciate the softer parts of DnD before they get into combat or you'll find further down the road that they'll be quick to make the wrong decisions. It can backfire though that they'll eventually want to attack the first semblence of a monster on sight just to rush into combat without proper precautions so don't make them wait too long. As stated by sonofzeal:

they're all super-fragile.
This is completely true, but that doesn't mean you should throw away level 1 and 2. Not everyone was born kicking the **** out of dragons and saving princesses. Award problem solving, RPing, and general "intelligent" actions with some exp reward (which you assign at the end and give them good reason why they are assigned it so they will continue to attempt to make these good decisions in the future. be careful though in what you assign it for or you might find your players overdoing it...)

EDIT: (because Yami posted while I was spending all that time)

Start with a fight.

Make some mooks, craft cheap and dirty npcs, like 2 warriors, and let the pc's play them. Gets familiarity with combat out of the way, without sacrificing characters.
This is an exceptionally good idea which I will be stealing for whenever I start DMing with new players. Make some bland characters (you can prepare them yourself unless you want to give your players some extra practice in character creation) for them to mess around with in a fight for 15-20 minutes to learn some basics. Throw them against some cannonfodder who you can utilise all sorts of combat abilities with. Purposely make them offer your players AoO, use all sorts of different move/standard/free actions just to display what kinds there are, use grapples/charges/bullrush/trip/disarm attempts, a couple 5foot steps, and maybe a readied action. Keep throwing monsters at them until they get sick of it or you kill those useless PCs.

Then start the real game and have fun. :)

#Raptor
2008-02-16, 02:26 PM
I'm just a greenhorn myself but I might just have a couple of useful suggestions... well, see and judge for yourself. :smallsmile:

If you go for the NPC solution...

Maybe go with a Druid instead of a Cleric. The animal companion will give both of them more flanking opportunitys and he can buff very similar to a Cleric. Prepare mostly healing though, so he won't overshadow them. Perhaps max out survival and get him the track skill to maximize his "generic outdoor dude" qualitys. Rogues and Paladins don't have much outdoor-survival or nature relevant abilitys/skills.

Enlarge Person & Reduce Person might be useful lowlevel buffs from the Wizard. Enlarge should be obvious and Reduce makes sneaking and hiding a whole lot easier for the rogue, the +to dex and attack and ac isn't bad either. Protection from X is rather powerful for a lvl 1 spell, too. Actually if all he ever casts are buffing & support spells, you just as well might make that guy a Sorcerer instead, so he can buff & support more often. On the other hand, the knowledge skills of a Wizard could be useful.

Find a good reason why the npcs listen to them but hold back otherwise. You could make them hired mercenarys/guides or such. That'd explain why the are reclutant to go wading into combat if not ordered to do so, but will help out the PC's and generally listen to what they say and follow theyr orders. Or perhaps one of the PC's saved the life of one of the NPC's once (similar to the relationship between chewbacca & han solo) - that actually might work better for the wiz, because there really isnt any reason for a codzilla not to wade into battle.

Legoshrimp
2008-02-17, 11:49 PM
Thanks for all of the help.

I will definitly start with a battle to teach them the basics. It will also probally help me some. I agree that it would be better if i did not have to control any npcs in the party, but I am pretty sure that the players could not really control two characters at once. I was thinking maybe either no npcs or just one for healing. Does anyone know how the cr system would change if it was just two or three characers? If I do have no npcs how should I give the pcs healing? Would wands work or maybe some other item?

If I have them search some building what should I put in it? should I put in a lot of traps? In that situation how would I be able to have the paladin do things. it seems to me like the paladin does not have that many skills to help in the searching of a building. I would not want the paladin to be left out.

The reason why they are a paladin and a rouge is that the paladin did not care so I chose a random race and class which hapended to be a human paladin. The rouge was because we were playing the basic game (also how i am pretty sure that they could not handle two characters) and the player who was the rouge acted quite rougish and enjoyed playing the rouge. I am thinking that it might be esier to switch the paladin to a cleric. That would make there less of a need for an npc cleric or druid to heal them. The cleric could still be able to fight a bit. I am not sure if it would work, but it seems like it might be a good way to make it so I do not have to control the npcs. Does any one know if that would work or be a horrible disaster if so tell me.

Another question is how much should I put traps into my game. I know I should have some for the rouge but I do not want to put in so many that it would make the other pc bored or anything. I would like some advice on striking a balance or should I mostly use locked doors and the such instead of traps?

Sometimes the rouge might not be able to play any sugestions on a one player game?

Thanks!