GM Tips, Tricks, & General Advice

[Garrett Bishop]

Okay I have a question.

How do you make a series of mundane events/tasks seem fun? I am always afraid that I am going to bore a player or two into leaving. For instance, your shingles (Rooftop running) scene.

See now I would have just made it a series of rolls thinking the players were wanting to get to the capture, or non-capture of Trina (The character your players were chasing) Was it all in the module or did you make that info up, and if so, how?

Garrett

[cailano]

Okay I have a question.

How do you make a series of mundane events/tasks seem fun? I am always afraid that I am going to bore a player or two into leaving. For instance, your shingles (Rooftop running) scene.

See now I would have just made it a series of rolls thinking the players were wanting to get to the capture, or non-capture of Trina (The character your players were chasing) Was it all in the module or did you make that info up, and if so, how?

Garrett

It was a combination of module, me and all the players being into the scene.

The module suggested a series of skill rolls based on some cards that could be laid out on a table. I converted that to something that could be done in play by post, and then then made the rule that every area would have both a short cut (requiring a skill check) or a safe route (which allowed slower movement, but no skill check.) I also thought of different obstacles and worked in some new skill checks (like sense motive.) I also added in the rules for the ground chase and the Hellknight encounter down below so that everyone would have something to do.

Then it was description. You guys came up with the idea of making multiple skill rolls at once, and that really helped. I played off of that and tried to make it a breakneck chase with lots of descriptions reflecting how insane a rooftop chase would really be, and keeping the pace up as much as possible. I also jumped from player to player very quickly, which is kind of like a film editor using fast cuts to add excitement to a scene in a movie.

Good synergy happened when the players started getting into the scene and writing about how they were freaked out about how dangerous the chase was, how determined they were to catch Trina, etc.

It was a scene that really demanded good play from everyone involved, players and DM alike. It could have been a boring series of skill rolls, but instead I think it worked out to be one of the highlights of the entire AP. I definitely learned a lot from that scene. I'll never think of environmental encounters the same way again.

EDIT: I just thought of something else I did to add excitement to that encounter (always remember a game needs great encounters!) I told you guys up front that Trina would escape if she reached a certain area. That was partially out of a sense of fairness, but it was also to add a "ticking clock" element to the chase. You knew you had to catch her by that area or not at all. That encouraged you to take risks with your characters, which made the chase more dangerous and thus more exciting.

[cailano]

To answer Garrett's question in a less scenario specific way:

And I want to do this because it is a really good question. How do you make a non-combat encounter exciting?

First off, you have to think about it. What is going on in the scene? Let's say its about traversing a narrow bridge over a steep gorge. That's a classic cinematic scene.

What's the worst that could happen? Well they could fall and die. That's pretty dramatic but I don't personally like "make this roll or die" scenarios, so let's give them some options, and leave falling and dying as something that can only happen after a series of bad rolls / decisions.

So let's break the bridge into three sections, beginning middle and end, and lets add some variety to the rolls.

The beginning is the most stable, so we'll call that an acrobatics check to stay on it. DC 12. Not too hard, but just for fun we'll add armor check penalties to the roll. That should get your full plate wearing paladin sweating.

The middle is more narrow, and the gorge has a high wind whipping through it. Worse, the rock itself (we'll say its a stone bridge) is weak. The middle will take three rounds to cross on foot. Each round it is an acrobatics check DC 15 to stay on. ALSO each round the player must make a stealth check to use a light step on the stone. If the PC fails the roll, the bridge section crumbles, and they need to make a jump check to clear to the next section before they fall. Armor check penalties again apply.

The last section is so weak that it collapses at the first step, requiring a Reflex save to stay on. Now the players HAVE to jump to the other side, and make a climb check at DC 18 to hang onto the rock slope at the end.

To be nice, we'll say that the players can make a reflex save any time they mess up a roll. This is a "second chance" roll to save their character's life. Hero points can be spent to guarantee success on any single roll on the bridge.

( I really recommend hero points. Look them up in the PRD, they're a great addition to the game.)

Now we have the makings of a death defying encounter. It's interactive, deadly, and just begs for great descriptions. Your players will come up with all sorts of work arounds. They might tie rope to each other for instance. Let them! It makes dying less likely, and the paladin falling through the middle of the bridge while tied to the orc barbarian is a freakin great scene that your players will be talking about for days. Plus, think of all the fun strength checks for the barbarian to not fall along with the paladin! And if he does, who is HE tied to?

You make this all work with great description, using the writing tips up above.

The Bridge of Agony stretches out before you, an impossibly thin arch of rock spanning over three hundred feet of gorge. You look down over the edge of the nearside cliff, and the Serpentine River is a thread of silver a half mile down.

The wind whips your hair, and you have to lean into it even here to keep your balance.

There is nothing for it. You have to cross.

(( See OOC for the crunchy bits of how you cross the bridge. ))

Who wants to go first?


That was a really long answer to a question that seemed simple enough, but was actually critical to running a memorable game. Hope that helped!

[cailano]

The Myth of the "Most Powerful" Class

All gamers know this stuff. Wizards are the most powerful class, or maybe the druid. Clerics are broken as well, and fighters and rogues just suck out loud. Let's not even talk about bards.

I'm here to tell you that everything you know about this is wrong. This isn't some lame MMO. This is a role playing game and YOU, the game master are the one that makes sure everyone has something to do.

Screw "balance." I don't even know what that means. I know for sure it only applies in combat, and only in very generic situations.

In an open battle field, with hundreds of orcs charging across the broken earth, wizards are going to rule the field. Their area effect spells such as fireball are going to decimate a bunch of weak opponents like orcs.

But what happens if there five separate units of orcs and only time to cast three fireballs? Now the orcs are right on top of the group and that wizard better tighten up or he's going to get run over.

Well he can just fly above the melee or teleport away right? Maybe. Actually, I have a short list of spells I always houserule don't exist in my game. Fly and teleport are among them because they break encounters and plots left and right. I always take them out, along with raise dead and wish. It makes for more thrilling games.

Once the battle is joined the melee classes like fighter and ranger take over as "best." Right?

Well.. maybe. What if there are thirty more units of orcs behind the ones the PCs are already fighting? Someone has to get to the shaman leading them to stop the whole battle. If you can't fight through you'll need to sneak through... wait, now rogues and rangers are best!

See my point? A good encounter can emphasize one PC over the others and give an individual character a moment to shine. Great encounters give EVERYONE a moment to shine.

A good game master can guarantee that every adventure will have a variety of encounter types. Comabat, stealth, investigation, role playing, diplomacy, environmental, chase scenes, faith based scenes, and combinations thereof. A balanced party is critical.

There is no best class. If there comes to be one, the GM isn't doing his job.

[RaistlinMC]

Nice column you have here, Cai. Well done, dude.

Oh, and thanks for the shout-out. "Improvisational genius" is a bit much...but my players and I have a good time, no doubt.

[cailano]

Nice column you have here, Cai. Well done, dude.

Oh, and thanks for the shout-out. "Improvisational genius" is a bit much...but my players and I have a good time, no doubt.

You have a 7000+ post game that started out with a world description and "what do you want to do? I'll build the game off that." Talk about putting the PCs first. I stand by my statement.

(( everyone else, forget Ra-Thauln he's got a rare talent and he's an experienced writer. In general I recommend you prepare your adventures and know where you're going. ))

[Hibernate_Paths]

Cailano, thanks for doing this thread. I've actually been following your Crimson Throne campaign for a while now. A couple months ago I was looking into playing a PbP D&D game but didn't know how they worked. I wanted to read up on one to see how they play out. I just happened to find your game and wow...what an adventure! I'm glad yours is the one I stumbled on, because you and your players have created quite a cool tale so far.

I used to DM for my friends many years ago, but I've forgotten much of what it entails. You're thread is a great help and is inspiring. Thanks!

[cailano]

Cailano, thanks for doing this thread. I've actually been following your Crimson Throne campaign for a while now. A couple months ago I was looking into playing a PbP D&D game but didn't know how they worked. I wanted to read up on one to see how they play out. I just happened to find your game and wow...what an adventure! I'm glad yours is the one I stumbled on, because you and your players have created quite a cool tale so far.

I used to DM for my friends many years ago, but I've forgotten much of what it entails. You're thread is a great help and is inspiring. Thanks!

Thanks, that's awesome. If you need anything in the way of links to resources or have any questions just find me here or shoot me a PM.

[RaistlinMC]

And to be fair, Cai, you don't get the credit you deserve. Because let's be honest: How many other PbP games are there where the DM needed to take three weeks off, and when he did and came back, not one player had left the game.

Now that's pretty impressive dude.

I have loved your game since the minute I played it; yours is the best way to play a pre-written module via PbP.

And thank you for what you said about me. If there's one thing I can do, it's write in the second-person perspective. It's like a choose your own adventure as you go. For whatever reason, that just makes sense to me

But in the end, I couldn't do what you do, with maps and work and reading that you put in. I, along with everyone else in our game, appreciates what you do man.

[cailano]

Conflict


At the heart of every good scene is conflict.

Note: I didn't say at the heart of every good encounter, I said at the heart of every scene.

Conflict drives a story at every level. Obviously, encounters must have it or they aren't really encounters, but always look for a way to pepper your story with more of it. Maybe you're playing a module where one of the key contacts is the chamberlain to the king. Who says he has to like the PCs? Would it be possible to have him fill his role in the module while actively working against them or at least giving them a hard time whenever he's in the room? If so, that might be the way you should play it. If its not possible, is it possible to work in a new NPC to add conflict to those scenes? That would be a perfect reason to add a subplot to the game, and if you do it right the PCs might enjoy the resolution to that subplot more than the main story of the game. Nothing gets players riled up like a good old fashioned jerk thrown right into the heart of your adventure. Why? Because the players have never likely fought a dragon or necromancer, but they have definitely run into one or more jerks they would have loved to see get what was coming to them.

Conflict doesn't have to be PC vs. NPC either. The environment can be a source of conflict; think of the environmental dangers that forced the Fellowship of the Ring into Moria in the Lord of the Rings. In my campaign, the PCs are currently dealing with a plague that threatens to decimate their home city. Does your rogue like to steal? Maybe a conflict with the local guard, the thieve's guild, or a vengeful victim is in order. Does your wizard like to summon elementals? What happens when an elemental lord decides he doesn't like it? Is your warrior a famed swordsman? What happens if a local fencing student decides he'd make a nice test of his skills? What happens if that student happens to be the son of a vengeful local duke?

Always look for ways to add conflict to your adventure. There should never be a dull moment, or even one where the PCs have only one thing to worry about. Keep your players on the edge of their seats and your game is bound to be successful.

[Guest]

Just passing through and wanted to say nice job putting this thread together. Post #34 is pure truth and something almost all DMs, noobs or vets, somehow seem to lose track of at some point.

Build the encounters around the group, not the group around the encounters.

Keep up the good work.

[cailano]

Raising Dead and Wrecking Battles

Not everyone is going to agree with me on this, but I've eliminated the spell raise dead from every game I've run since the days of D&D 2e. Why? Because it is outside the genre of fantasy.

At its best, I think games like D&D and Pathfinder let players live out their favorite fantasy books and movies. Yes, I'm aware that people come back from the dead in these movies, but it is usually a miraculous thing, certainly not something the characters can do at will. Think of how much that would ruin the stories if it was.

Now... think to how many scenes revolve around character death in the really great stories. Those scenes have emotional impact, and generating an emotional response is the goal of any sort of storytelling including game mastering.

Think of the scene in Lord of the Rings (if you haven't seen it stop reading this and come back when you've finished the Trilogy ) when King Theoden realizes that his son has died and been buried while he was under Saruman's curse. That scene chokes me up every time. Now let's re-imagine it using Raise Dead.

Theoden: Simbelmÿne. Ever has it grown on the tombs of my forebears. Now it shall cover the grave of my son. Alas, that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live to see that last days of my house.


Gandalf: Théodred's death was not of your making.


Theoden: No parent should have to bury their child.


Gandalf: Actually, you know I think he's still in the range of my raise dead spell. I can bring him back. We - ah - might want to dig him up first.

Theoden: Oh. Well I guess I was just upset over nothing then. I'll get a shovel.

Let's not get into every plot triggered by the death of someone important. Raise dead breaks them all. It's easier to cut it than to try to constantly work around it. Play for keeps.

There are other spells out there that can really take the excitement out of your game. I mentioned my three favorite targets for house rule elimination in an earlier post, but I'll bring them up again here: teleport (any version) flight (except levitation and shape changing) and wish (all variants.)

Teleport of course is the ultimate movement. At high levels it makes overland travel (a genre staple) unnecessary and necessitates elaborate fantasy defenses of just about every important room in your game. It makes wizards very hard for melee oriented monsters to pin down in fights, thus increasing their power dramatically. Flight is also out of genre. Having a wizard zip around the field like superman again removes the effectiveness of melee oriented monsters entirely. I do allow levitation in my games because it is a good defensive spell that doesn't seem to break combats, but not flight. I allow flight by shape changing because I think it is more in genre for a wizard to turn into a bird or bat than to have superman style powers.

I once had a player complain that without flight aerial encounters would be ruined. My counter was that the lack of flight actually saved aerial encounters. What makes an aerial encounter so thrilling? The possibility of falling. There are still flying mounts and what not, its just that without that handy ring of flight the PCs have a reason to hang on tight.

Wish and its variants probably don't need much explaining. They either need to be nerfed so hard that they aren't really anything resembling a "wish" at all, or they just beg to break entire campaigns. Bottom line, your players don't need them at that high a level, they are a headache and don't bring anything that great to the game. I just eliminate them entirely.

How about you? What spells do you house rule out, or do you like them all? I'd love to hear from other GMs on this.

[willvr]

Honestly; I get where you're going on this, and I can't argue it; but I do allow all spells; though some.. modified. In my homebrew world; Raise Dead series is heavily modified; that all it allows you to do is have a chat with Death to try and get the character back. In a Roman-world I ran once, only Hades' Priests could bring someone back; and they better have a good reason or Hades' would be on them.

Divination spells can be pretty nasty too though; especially if you want to run a mystery-type game.

[Garrett Bishop]

Raising Dead and Wrecking Battles

Not everyone is going to agree with me on this, but I've eliminated the spell raise dead from every game I've run since the days of D&D 2e. Why? Because it is outside the genre of fantasy.

At its best, I think games like D&D and Pathfinder let players live out their favorite fantasy books and movies. Yes, I'm aware that people come back from the dead in these movies, but it is usually a miraculous thing, certainly not something the characters can do at will. Think of how much that would ruin the stories if it was.

Now... think to how many scenes revolve around character death in the really great stories. Those scenes have emotional impact, and generating an emotional response is the goal of any sort of storytelling including game mastering.

Think of the scene in Lord of the Rings (if you haven't seen it stop reading this and come back when you've finished the Trilogy ) when King Theoden realizes that his son has died and been buried while he was under Saruman's curse. That scene chokes me up every time. Now let's re-imagine it using Raise Dead.

Theoden: Simbelmÿne. Ever has it grown on the tombs of my forebears. Now it shall cover the grave of my son. Alas, that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live to see that last days of my house.


Gandalf: Théodred's death was not of your making.


Theoden: No parent should have to bury their child.


Gandalf: Actually, you know I think he's still in the range of my raise dead spell. I can bring him back. We - ah - might want to dig him up first.

Theoden: Oh. Well I guess I was just upset over nothing then. I'll get a shovel.

Let's not get into every plot triggered by the death of someone important. Raise dead breaks them all. It's easier to cut it than to try to constantly work around it. Play for keeps.

There are other spells out there that can really take the excitement out of your game. I mentioned my three favorite targets for house rule elimination in an earlier post, but I'll bring them up again here: teleport (any version) flight (except levitation and shape changing) and wish (all variants.)

Teleport of course is the ultimate movement. At high levels it makes overland travel (a genre staple) unnecessary and necessitates elaborate fantasy defenses of just about every important room in your game. It makes wizards very hard for melee oriented monsters to pin down in fights, thus increasing their power dramatically. Flight is also out of genre. Having a wizard zip around the field like superman again removes the effectiveness of melee oriented monsters entirely. I do allow levitation in my games because it is a good defensive spell that doesn't seem to break combats, but not flight. I allow flight by shape changing because I think it is more in genre for a wizard to turn into a bird or bat than to have superman style powers.

I once had a player complain that without flight aerial encounters would be ruined. My counter was that the lack of flight actually saved aerial encounters. What makes an aerial encounter so thrilling? The possibility of falling. There are still flying mounts and what not, its just that without that handy ring of flight the PCs have a reason to hang on tight.

Wish and its variants probably don't need much explaining. They either need to be nerfed so hard that they aren't really anything resembling a "wish" at all, or they just beg to break entire campaigns. Bottom line, your players don't need them at that high a level, they are a headache and don't bring anything that great to the game. I just eliminate them entirely.

How about you? What spells do you house rule out, or do you like them all? I'd love to hear from other GMs on this.

I have to disagree with almost all of your points.

Raise Dead should be able to be used within a day or two, IF the characters can afford the cost. Just imagine if Koral (My Rogue) was fighting the Undead Prince, and got him to 1 HP, but then the prince ended her life and escaped to heal up and be good as new. That would turn an epic fight into something you would see at the end of a scooby doo episode.

As for flight. Wizards can create creatures that they can mount and fly upon, so wouldn't it be easier just to cast flight on themselves?

Teleport could be a spell that was only usable OUT of combat. I mean if a wizard has so many spells then Teleport has to be in there.

Wish? I sort of agree. I think limited wish would be best, or the wish would have to be worded in such a way that no errors occurred.

For instance. If my character found a wish ring, with one wish on it, and wished for a million gold pieces. There are many ways you could screw with that character.

• He has a million GP's but doesn't know where they are.
• He has a million GP's land right on top of him, possibly killing him.
• He has a million gold pieces, but the treasure was willed to him/her and they need to go on a major quest to find it all.

Another example would be. "I wish my wife was alive again."

• She could be alive but have followed a different life path and is now married to someone else.
• She is alive but in prison for killing 10 men.
• She is alive but she is a Lesbian.
• Etc.

[willvr]

Eh. Wish should only be screwed with if you're trying to take it above the very specific parameters the PHB sets for it. The 'Wish my wife was alive again' doesn't. It's replicating a high-level spell - 7th; unless she died in such a way a True Res. was necessary.