First Time DMing, Suggestions?

[Bookworm702]

So, here's the cliff notes version of the session: the party, a LG human diviner, a CG human ranger, and a CN warforged psion, all at level 3 all start out in a setting where technology is just beginning to bloom in the city of Greenhill, a major trading city situated between the three major lands of humans, gnomes, and orcs. they start to go to the barracks and run across three guards chasing a thief that stole a sack of money from a local aristocrat, Madame Boufet (pronounced boo-fay). they stop him, and the guards commend them and take them to the sherriff. Upon explaining what happened to the sheriff, he takes the party aside and asks them to investigate the cause of half eaten live stock in the city park, which has so far eluded him. While the ranger scouts out the park and finds large dog like tracks leading into a patch of forest, the diviner prepares his spells and the psion spars with the head of the militia, Thorn Ostrecsson. All three investigate the forest and a dire wolf attacks them. The ranger almost dies, but they all win, bring the corpse to the sheriff, who takes them to the armory. There the ranger found a magic +1 punching dagger, the diviner got a second level spell, and the warforged got a collapsible quarterstaff. They all go to the Barrel and Cheese, where the ranger and diviner sleep for the night and the psion watches the road outside for the night. I now have absolutely nothing left for them to do. tips, suggestions, comments?

[Ranos]

The wolf had a druid master, and he's PISSED.

[Olo Demonsbane]

Wall of Strike Attacks! Crits!

[Aneantir]

Wall of Strike Attacks! Crits!

Wall of Strike? I believe you mean wall of text. I think you rolled a one on your Craft (Witty Comment) check.

[Kylarra]

You've actually got a pretty good segue towards various plothooks. Since they've already proved some basic competence, you can have the sheriff ask for their assistance on whatever bad happenings happen to be going around town. Maybe an aristocrat is suspected to be connected with the local thieving ring, but he can never prove it. Perhaps a merchant pays off someone in order to do illegal business, but because of their connections, the local police can't touch them.

Or if they don't enjoy vigilante business, you can just have him continue to put out help requests to them every so often for other encounters similar to this, either things they can't figure out or just don't have the manpower to deal with right now, but it'd be nice if they could deal with it.

Beyond that, you've got a thriving city, maybe a merchant needs guards. Pressured by the local thieves guild. Someone fears assassins and has heard of their helping the sheriff. Maybe even one of the corrupt aristocracy wants to pay them off before someone else does. Perhaps someone wants them to "take care" of a rival.

[dragoonsgone]

Modules are always a good place to get ideas.

http://www.farlandworld.com/tools.html#adventures

http://www.dungeonmastering.com/camp...-dd-adventures

Honestly though if they gave you some backstory, now would be a good time to do a little follow up.

Sounds like a fun game though. If you have an idea where you wanna go with it, try to head there. If you want it sandbox, you can always just throw out plot hooks

[Sinfire Titan]

I'm not going to help you with the story line; that's something that should be up to your players and you. I feel that offering my opinion on such a thing would only encourage you to guide your players towards a suggested plot hook (be it mine or someone else's).

Instead, I'm going to give you DM advice.

• Don't Knee Jerk to everything. There's an answer to every type of cheese out there, even Pun-Pun.
• If your players find a situation or interation you are unsure about, write down the interation on a pad of paper and put it on hold. If it is urgent, take a minute and read through it througholy before making a descision, and tell your players that this ruling is not final by any means.
• Be open-minded. This is harder than it sounds. If a player comes to you and shows you a glass-cannon, let them fire it once or twice every few sessions or so. If they abuse it, or begin irritating the other players, put a nice crack in the glass (so to speak).
• Never, EVER, let your BBEG taunt the PCs in person. His gloating should be done through a proxy, such as a Programed Image.
• Rule 0 is both your best friend and worst enemy. Abusing it is not recomended. When in doubt if you should exercise that authority of yours, ask the forums.
• Familiarize yourself with your player's builds and what they will be capable of. Copy down their characters onto a peice of paper, then ask around the Optimization boards to determine what they will be able to handle. This will allow you to customize encounters to their abilities and alerts you to potential storyline threats. This is a forum dedicated to handbooks for various classes, and is a compilation of a good chunk of 3.5's abilities. Ask around the Playground and this forum for advice regarding individual cases. Oh, and avoid WotC's main forums; they've completely effed with it, and it now sucks even worse than when they first implemented the 4E boards (that was a hellhole of its own breed).
• I say storyline, but I actually mean Story Ball. No relation to the Idiot Ball. The players should decide where the story goes, you should be the one to decide what they find when they get there. You are setting boundaries on the outmost perimeter; anything inside that sphere of action should be fully allowed for your players.
• If you aren't comfortable with a wide-open sandbox world, consult your players with the story you want to run them through. If it's a pre-made module, be sure everyone agrees to help you run the book. Its easier to run a pre-made if the PCs agree to it first. This way, they can be alerted if they are trying something the module didn't take into account, and you can let them know you need time to get an appropriate answer for their actions.
• Again, don't panic. The best way to be prepared is to know what classes are capable of what abilities. The Tiers threads are fairly complete and capable of giving you a general idea of what an optimized member of that class can do, and who you should be worried about. They don't take into account individual player skill or specific builds, but they are very accurate nonetheless.

[Katana_Geldar]

The DM always has this as an out: "You guys talk in-character for a few minutes, I need to write something down."

[FoE]

Honestly, this is the point where you start a new adventure.

But if you want to continue using the wolf as a plot point, make it the pet of some suffciently powerful creature, like a hag or a giant. The owner attempts to avenge the loss of its beloved dire wolf or demands the party compensate it for the wolf's death.

Alternately, have the killings of livestock continue. Obviously, you caught the wrong predator ...

[Roc Ness]

Have a guy named Whyt Wyzahd look for his evil brother Dahk Wyzahd

This is just a suggestion which involves a stupid pun.


But in all seriousness, create a small quest that doesn't involve travelling very far. Once characters start to wander it becomes confusing, so either confine them to the town or create a predetermined destination.

[Wings of Peace]

If you can't think of anything specific you want plot wise my advice is dungeons. Just throw down some tiles on the spot. Make a big one for the treasure room and fill the rest with baddies and other things. No need to place the baddies till they enter the room either so as they progress through the dungeon you have full control over how hard it gets. It's easy, it's fast, and it still has that drama of having to make it back to the exit if something goes wrong.

[Jair Barik]

Theres a number of websites out there with random dungeon generation tools but only use this for floor plans at most. My recommendation? If your low on time have the Guard leader advise them to go see his superior in the local major city as he has some more important work for adventurers like them. This should bide you some time to work out a more major plot and you can always give them some interesting encounters on the road there. Random encounters need not be random