Defiant
2008-10-16, 04:52 PM
I present to you my first ongoing experience as a full-time DM. I would appreciate any advice you could give me in regards to how I've performed and whatnot. Primarily, I'd like to vent! :smalltongue:
We have this group organized at the university where I volunteered to be the primary DM. By the second session, we had so many people that we had to split it into two groups. Much to my dismay, just about everyone flocked to the other DM's group, such that I actually had to strike a deal with him that I'm keeping the original players I started out with (with some modifications). Those modifications specifically were one extra person that couldn't make it to the first session that was one of my close friends, and one less person whose attitude and lack of focus really annoyed me (of course, I never told him that). Both were fine with it.
It was very disheartening to see everyone who was talking about joining the D&D group want to go to the other DM's game. Some contributing factors might have been that I was new as a (full-time) DM, and his campaign was very off-the-wall, while I preferred a regular campaign limited in extra rules and wacky made-up things. But that was alright, I had my group, and I didn't want a large group anyways.
Of course, at first I did not forbid any stuff that was from books outside of my knowledge, as long as I could skim it and see that it would be OK in terms of balance. But once everyone left leaving me with 4 players, the majority of which were my friends, I could persuade everyone to keep it mostly to the core books.
Another contributing factor might have been the fact that my campaign trudged along so slowly because there were so many people. I had two intro missions that were primarily railroaded hack-and-slash while everyone settled in, before the party started to get more freedom. There a few reasons for this. First, I wanted it to start like this, especially given the background of the campaign (they were conscripted into the Special Forces). Second, since it would take a while for everyone to get settled in, especially as they'd come late or whatever, they wouldn't miss too much from the intro. The only problem is that these railroaded hack-and-slash intro missions took much longer than originally planned because the group was so large. I had planned them out to be worth 1, maybe 1.5 sessions, and it took 3 sessions while I even cut out a few encounters. Only after that were we able to get rid of the separate group.
When we finally managed to break off and get rid of everyone else, I was happy that I could get my actual campaign going. However, one of my players started considering going to the other group, wanting more roleplaying. I tried to explain to her why my campaign started off to such a slow start, and that there would plenty of roleplaying, myself being an avid fan of it. She agreed that she'd at least see how next session would be.
The next session (by now fourth overall) went by excellently. There was good roleplaying, adequate amounts of combat, and excellent story interweaving. Everyone was pleased, including her, telling me that my campaign was good, and it was indeed a wrong impression: she'd stay with my group.
The most recent session that was a week ago also went fairly decently. It turned out being a sort of sabotage mystery that the players failed to solve (mostly because of ridiculously unlucky rolls). That girl I was talking to you about left early to attend some kind of show (I was irked by it, but I did my best to hide the fact that I was upset, because logically it was understandable). The session trudged on a bit too much in the going-nowhere roleplaying part, so next session I'll put an early end to that train of play.
We usually (used to) meet at around 6PM to go until 11PM, with a usual break in between. Now this is where I became very upset. That girl has now dropped out of my campaign and joined the other one (the method with which she did so was questionable, one day before our session and ending with a "lol sorry", but whatever). I have now scrambled to find another player that would fit in well with our group, and have managed to get a player's friend whose classes end at 8:30PM.
My plans for the campaign include more interweaving plots that I'm sure will be very exciting for all involved.
But my confidence as a DM is still very shaken. :smallfrown:
I had even prepared nice little sheets outlining their mission objectives as given by their commanding officer.
Have I done anything especially wrong? So far, I've tried my best as a DM, I'm just wondering if there's anything that I've missed. Feel free to give any other comments as well, I'd appreciate it.
Oh, and by the way, thanks for letting me vent :smallbiggrin:
We have this group organized at the university where I volunteered to be the primary DM. By the second session, we had so many people that we had to split it into two groups. Much to my dismay, just about everyone flocked to the other DM's group, such that I actually had to strike a deal with him that I'm keeping the original players I started out with (with some modifications). Those modifications specifically were one extra person that couldn't make it to the first session that was one of my close friends, and one less person whose attitude and lack of focus really annoyed me (of course, I never told him that). Both were fine with it.
It was very disheartening to see everyone who was talking about joining the D&D group want to go to the other DM's game. Some contributing factors might have been that I was new as a (full-time) DM, and his campaign was very off-the-wall, while I preferred a regular campaign limited in extra rules and wacky made-up things. But that was alright, I had my group, and I didn't want a large group anyways.
Of course, at first I did not forbid any stuff that was from books outside of my knowledge, as long as I could skim it and see that it would be OK in terms of balance. But once everyone left leaving me with 4 players, the majority of which were my friends, I could persuade everyone to keep it mostly to the core books.
Another contributing factor might have been the fact that my campaign trudged along so slowly because there were so many people. I had two intro missions that were primarily railroaded hack-and-slash while everyone settled in, before the party started to get more freedom. There a few reasons for this. First, I wanted it to start like this, especially given the background of the campaign (they were conscripted into the Special Forces). Second, since it would take a while for everyone to get settled in, especially as they'd come late or whatever, they wouldn't miss too much from the intro. The only problem is that these railroaded hack-and-slash intro missions took much longer than originally planned because the group was so large. I had planned them out to be worth 1, maybe 1.5 sessions, and it took 3 sessions while I even cut out a few encounters. Only after that were we able to get rid of the separate group.
When we finally managed to break off and get rid of everyone else, I was happy that I could get my actual campaign going. However, one of my players started considering going to the other group, wanting more roleplaying. I tried to explain to her why my campaign started off to such a slow start, and that there would plenty of roleplaying, myself being an avid fan of it. She agreed that she'd at least see how next session would be.
The next session (by now fourth overall) went by excellently. There was good roleplaying, adequate amounts of combat, and excellent story interweaving. Everyone was pleased, including her, telling me that my campaign was good, and it was indeed a wrong impression: she'd stay with my group.
The most recent session that was a week ago also went fairly decently. It turned out being a sort of sabotage mystery that the players failed to solve (mostly because of ridiculously unlucky rolls). That girl I was talking to you about left early to attend some kind of show (I was irked by it, but I did my best to hide the fact that I was upset, because logically it was understandable). The session trudged on a bit too much in the going-nowhere roleplaying part, so next session I'll put an early end to that train of play.
We usually (used to) meet at around 6PM to go until 11PM, with a usual break in between. Now this is where I became very upset. That girl has now dropped out of my campaign and joined the other one (the method with which she did so was questionable, one day before our session and ending with a "lol sorry", but whatever). I have now scrambled to find another player that would fit in well with our group, and have managed to get a player's friend whose classes end at 8:30PM.
My plans for the campaign include more interweaving plots that I'm sure will be very exciting for all involved.
But my confidence as a DM is still very shaken. :smallfrown:
I had even prepared nice little sheets outlining their mission objectives as given by their commanding officer.
Have I done anything especially wrong? So far, I've tried my best as a DM, I'm just wondering if there's anything that I've missed. Feel free to give any other comments as well, I'd appreciate it.
Oh, and by the way, thanks for letting me vent :smallbiggrin: