>MFW GM has no real intro for the campaign
>MFW GM gives me no reason to be vested or interested in the world
>MFW GM does not try to set the tone at the beginning to the players.
Look i'm not looking for like >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhjDnrw34QA This. C'mon GM gimme something better than "you start in a tavern" or whatever.
>>45719963
Time to try GMing then, Anon!
I made this https://youtu.be/_e6p0AMW4y8 for my players and wrote a paragraph as introduction for the setting.
>>45719963
Our campaign started in a tavern (well technically a brothel, but they served alcohol), but I also wrote several primers for the campaign detailing the recent history and important figures the characters would know about.
>>45720008
Impressive anon, impressive. Mind telling me what you put into it? Like are those videos you got somewhere or do you have knowledge in basic animation?
>>45720005
But then i couldn't bitch about my GM.
>>45720008
Reusing the Innistrad MTG video is cool as fuck.
>>45720008
Really impressive anon, I know nothing about the setting but I feel like I do now. Did you animate all of that by yourself? I'm guessing they're using official dnd pictures?
>>45719963
You awake among the blistering heat, the warm stone beneath you of polished granite with a frisk of sand that whips and whirls about the floor, assaulting your face which lays beside the ground. Where are you? As you open your eyes you see before you a blinding light shaded only by the shadows of pillars that hold a domed structure above, the round platform level with the dunes your reprieve from the harsh dessert outside, gold with the flowing sea of desolate landscape. And around you, in this wayshrine like area, are others that lay about in the same way, slow raising to their feet. Who are they? The vaguest memory of their forms and faces dancing in your memory, names and personalities you used to know but have gone away and are all but cleaned from your memory. Why are you here, where is... Here? Somewhere in the strangeness of the barren wastes, looking for something. You remember a feeling of stiffness, you remember the creeping sensation of peril as you desperately clung to an idea. You remember the word 'cure' drifting through your mind... What now?
>>45720110
>Our campaign started in a tavern (well technically a brothel, but they served alcohol), but I also wrote several primers for the campaign detailing the recent history and important figures the characters would know about.
That's awesome. That's a way people should do it.
>>45719963
>>45720137
My intro -
6 Months since you lost all titles, honor, and your names. 5 Months since you were sent to the front to die and reclaim your honor. 4 Months since you (kept) survived(ing), besting all (Shadowland) foes. 3 Months since you last heard your names spoken without contempt. 2 Months since fire sparked in your hearts. 1 Month since you found (old) allies. 2 Weeks since the last sighting of Shadowlands creatures and their taint. 1 Week since the celebrations started. 5 Days since you received a message. 2 Days since you arrived in this village. 3 Days until blood flows while pyres burn. Today a meeting.
>>45720199
I'm guessing that's for a Rokugan game? Either way, the desert thing is for a survival horror about disease.
>>45720214
Yep. Very excited to play it.. in 2 weeks :(
>>45719963
>MFW GM gets three sheets to the wind every week and calls sessions after an hour or two because he's too drunk to play.
>>45720199
Railroading, man
>>45720563
Why do people on this site think that unless you give them a open world with no boundaries, and they can do literally whatever they want - it's railroading?
>>45720199
It has been six months since you and the rest of your adventuring party captured a prisoner, knocked her unconscious and threw her atop a badger warren to be devoured as a sacrifice to the mighty Badger Lords on a whim. Five months since a strange, stocky man with white-and-black hair approached you with a small and a written message, the letter saying that the Badger Lord himself saw your sacrifice and is willing to accept your service. Four months since you joined the Pathfinder Society. Now, another message- different from the ones which so often precede your Pathfinder missions with small requests and quests- has arrived under your door. The Badger Lord calls you to a tavern with the sign of the Dancing Devil in the Chelish city of Egorian, promising a reward for a deed well-done. With your fellow disciples, you ready yourself for travel.
>>45720110
>>45720130
It's the old Innistrad promo video.
>>45720934
Lol.
>>45720563
You take the "railroading" or you start in a fucking tavern.
Take your pick
>>45719963
>mfw you're bitching about it on /tg/ instead of giving the dude some constructive feedback
>>45721450
But if he did that, he wouldn't be a real /fa/tg/uy.
I let one of my players bring his friend into the group.
He made her entire character For her. She just sat there playing on her phone.
When her turn came up in the initiative order and I asked her what she wanted to do she gave me this smarmy look, like "I dont know, asshole, what do I do."
>>45721735
We've all had one of those at the table. Can't really be too mad since they all had their own set of circumstances that ended up with the being dragged to the game.
>>45721770
Its toxic though.
>>45719963
>mfw DM holds individual solo sessions for each player
>mfw we roleplay out some important events in the PCs' pasts and explain how we arrived at the city we start in
>mfw he puts us at level 3 when we finally meet
This nigga gonna burn himself out
I just work with my players individually to fit them into the setting and the hook, then i start it where it should
>>45720537
Huh, that's also
>mfw the only way to tolerate my players is to get three sheets to the wind.
/tg/ is legitimately horrible at DMing, and all the advice you'll get here will lead you to being shit.
>People here actually think "You guys are in a tavern..." is a good starting point for a campaign.
>People here actually think that they're somehow going above and beyond and being an awesome DM by changing the place from a tavern to somewhere else, like "You guys are in jail. How did you get here?"
>People here actually think that they're being creative and doing real work by starting their players in the middle of a scene and then just having everyone scramble to make up a reason why they're involved "You're running from guards. Why are you doing that?"
>>45721933
..Then what is the correct way to GM, oh master.
>>45719963
>C'mon GM gimme something better than "you start in a tavern" or whatever.
I started my campaign with the first two PCs freezing to death and trying to get to the next village. Does that count?
>>45720935
Oh. Nice try passing it off as your own then.
>>45721933
In high fantasy worlds where being an adventurer is a legitimate trade and way of life, where do you suppose adventurers learn about good places to adventure? Could it be a social hotspot where lots of people meet and talk? Possibly some sort of tavern?
Get the fuck over yourself man.
>>45719963
But I'm too lazy not to.
Once the players listen to the intro paragraph, usually I just go 'ok, you're level 3, tell me how you got there'.
That way everybody, me included, knows the other's plot hooks, how the party got together, and what they want to play - with no effort on my part!
Throw in a 6-pack or two, and it becomes a great session that will give you ideas for the rest of the campaign if you have no clue where to go with it.
>>45719963
>Be first time GM
>Think up a hook for my campaign that involves the entire party meeting each other at a local festival and getting to know each other playing some festival games, but then have to work together to solve a murder
>One person in my group flat out states, "No. My character doesn't go." when we start
>Everyone else ends up leaving the festival shortly after arriving.
>>45721847
Cherish Him. Deliver Him from the evils of rulesbitching, for His is the Will to make your adventures great, for He lets you bask in his glory and He sacrifices his time and helath for you.
Praised be the GM who gives all to His players and asks for nothing in return but a good game.
Seriously though, anon if you don't provide the best snacks and foodstuffs for this awesome GM, shame on you.
>>45722261
Yeah, first time GMing... do it with friends who can take humps and bumps and the occasional rails.
>>45722116
>Being this inbred
>Campaigns are "lol ur an adventurer go take a job from da tavern"
>Thinks this is good
>Thinks this is creative
>Thinks this is enjoyable
>Thinks this is something to aspire to
Thank fuck I'll never have to suffer through one of your dungeon-of-the-week, video game campaigns.
>>45722261
Here's the thing: Without knowing how you HANDLED the whole thing (which may have been shit), you were actually doing the right thing. You were, at least, on the right track to proper DMing by creating a campaign introduction that is designed to bring the players into the scene in an active way without dropping them into a place that has no explanation and tells them nothing about the world.
The problem, and the reason you failed, is not really that you had shit players (which they were, but that's not the point), it's that you gave them the wrong type of option. You framed the introduction in such a way that they already created their characters, and THEN they were herded into the party/whatever, and they hadn't created characters designed to make sense being there, so they saw it as an option to say no to.
That is the mistake. What you SHOULD HAVE DONE was tell them exactly where they are going to be when the campaign starts, while they're first starting to think up their characters. "Has a reason to be at this party" should have been a guiding principal for them all while character building, so that come the opening of the game, they all were constructed with an actual, in-character reason for being there and caring what happens. That way, they don't have the option to just say "no", because if they're going to just say "no" to the hook that brings the party together, you can just boot them right away and find a new player before the game even starts.
>>45721978
Happy?
>>45722426
Fuck, you're salty.
Why do you get so upset about how other people play pretend, Anon?
>>45722865
>Be shit
>Brag about being shit
>Insist you're good
Are you mad you got called out for being terrible?
>>45722883
Well, goddamn. Have a safe day, Anon. You're obviously Beyond having a good one.
>>45722524
>What you SHOULD HAVE DONE was tell them exactly where they are going to be when the campaign starts, while they're first starting to think up their characters. "Has a reason to be at this party" should have been a guiding principal for them all while character building, so that come the opening of the game, they all were constructed with an actual, in-character reason for being there and caring what happens.
This!
So many of these kinds of headaches can be avoided simply by discussing key aspects of the campaign in general and the kickoff in particular BEFORE people even start working on characters.
>>45723261
Most recent game of mine? I told them all "you have answered the summons of the king, to join up with his militia in [insert town here].
BAM
All players build with this expectation, and all appear in place. They receive their orders and are now on their way to glory in the kings name.
Done, hooked and railroaded
