AgentPaper
2008-10-06, 11:59 PM
I only started DMing recently, and with no real example to go off of (I volunteered to DM for our group who just started a while ago) I really feel like I could be doing a better job. So, I come here to ask for help from fellow DMs or even players who have played a while. General DMing tips would help me a lot, as well as tips for my current campaign.
First, for my campaign, I feel I'm not putting in enough opportunities for roleplaying, or non-combat encounters in general, but whenever I try to make a campaign with more than just bash down the door and kill all the enemies, I corner myself into a campaign where there's no fighting at all, or just come up blank. As well, most of my players aren't roleplaying most of the time, though they say they want to do it more. I don't think any of them want to play through a soap-opera or love affair type deal, but acting like someone other than themselves would probably help. The main issue here is our natural tendency for silliness, cracking obscure jokes and doing things completely out of character for laughs. (I myself find myself drawn into this sometimes) Does anyone have any tricks they use to make players be more serious?
Another issue I have is planning. Usually I just wing the entire campaign, letting the players do what they want for the most part and make their own story. This would probably work well for many players, but my group is the rare breed that actually wants to be railroaded. So, I tried to plan out the next few encounters of the game, but somehow I just ended up making a series of fights with nameless goblins.
On that note, I have another problem: My players seem to refuse to use any strategy in fights. I throw encounters at them that shouldn't be too much trouble, and they usually end up using a few dailies and very low health. (This is 4e) I'm especially worried since, for the end of the current series of fights (The one I planned out I mentioned above) I planned to have them fight a dragon as the encounter 3 levels above them that the DM guide suggests. With the trouble they've been having with encounters 1 level above them, I wouldn't be suprised by a TPK. I've been giving magic items and gold and such as recommended by the DM's guide as well, though many of the rewards is part of the dragon's horde, so they won't have quite as many as they should by the time they fight the dragon. So far, I've had to dumb down the enemies, passing up opportunities to kill off players, hitting fighters and paladins instead of weaker players in easy reach.
The DM guide also recommends giving the enemy superior terrain to work in, but I'm afraid that would make a hard encounter into a TPK as they happily blunder into the fight. As an example, I gave out a hint in an earlier campaign that there was a dragon nearby. So, of course, they immediately decide to rush in and kill the dragon while they were waiting for something else. I had to make the dragon land and fight the party on foot to give them any chance at all, if the dragon had used his normal strategy of flying around attacking, he would have slaughtered the party and taken virtually no damage.
So, if anyone has any specific advice on here, or just any general ideas to help me make the game more fun for everyone, I would really appreciate any help you guys could give.
First, for my campaign, I feel I'm not putting in enough opportunities for roleplaying, or non-combat encounters in general, but whenever I try to make a campaign with more than just bash down the door and kill all the enemies, I corner myself into a campaign where there's no fighting at all, or just come up blank. As well, most of my players aren't roleplaying most of the time, though they say they want to do it more. I don't think any of them want to play through a soap-opera or love affair type deal, but acting like someone other than themselves would probably help. The main issue here is our natural tendency for silliness, cracking obscure jokes and doing things completely out of character for laughs. (I myself find myself drawn into this sometimes) Does anyone have any tricks they use to make players be more serious?
Another issue I have is planning. Usually I just wing the entire campaign, letting the players do what they want for the most part and make their own story. This would probably work well for many players, but my group is the rare breed that actually wants to be railroaded. So, I tried to plan out the next few encounters of the game, but somehow I just ended up making a series of fights with nameless goblins.
On that note, I have another problem: My players seem to refuse to use any strategy in fights. I throw encounters at them that shouldn't be too much trouble, and they usually end up using a few dailies and very low health. (This is 4e) I'm especially worried since, for the end of the current series of fights (The one I planned out I mentioned above) I planned to have them fight a dragon as the encounter 3 levels above them that the DM guide suggests. With the trouble they've been having with encounters 1 level above them, I wouldn't be suprised by a TPK. I've been giving magic items and gold and such as recommended by the DM's guide as well, though many of the rewards is part of the dragon's horde, so they won't have quite as many as they should by the time they fight the dragon. So far, I've had to dumb down the enemies, passing up opportunities to kill off players, hitting fighters and paladins instead of weaker players in easy reach.
The DM guide also recommends giving the enemy superior terrain to work in, but I'm afraid that would make a hard encounter into a TPK as they happily blunder into the fight. As an example, I gave out a hint in an earlier campaign that there was a dragon nearby. So, of course, they immediately decide to rush in and kill the dragon while they were waiting for something else. I had to make the dragon land and fight the party on foot to give them any chance at all, if the dragon had used his normal strategy of flying around attacking, he would have slaughtered the party and taken virtually no damage.
So, if anyone has any specific advice on here, or just any general ideas to help me make the game more fun for everyone, I would really appreciate any help you guys could give.