I'm getting ready to DM for the first time. I'm gonna do a generic one-off campaign I found while I work on world building my own setting. What sort of advice for a newfag can /tg/ offer? It'll be 5e.
>>46387926
>I'm getting ready to DM for the first time. I'm gonna do a generic one-off campaign I found while I work on world building my own setting. What sort of advice for a newfag can /tg/ offer? It'll be 5e.
-Don't do riddles.
-Give the PCs a reason to work together,
-Allow UA
-Ban the Ranger. It can't pull its own weight.
-There are three types of plans
1) Those the players destroy
2) Those the players figure out
3) Those you will actively pretend exist
Never, EVER express dissappointment when players don't follow an actual plan/satisfaction when they do. Always, ALWAYS pretend players are following/destroying a plan when you actually have no clue what happened. You're in the business of A) Making your players feel competent and smart and B) Coming across as incredibly well-prepared, tough and competent.
-Demand backstory
-Use backstory
-Don't kill NPCs the PCs have as part of their backstory
-Do feature NPCs the PCs have as part of their backstory in some meaningful way
-Never put your PCs into the way of an NPC you're not prepared to have them kill without proper protection
-Use the Inspiration system. It's not incredibly effective, but it does some interesting things
-Players don't read rulebooks. Explain what you want a player to do in full.
-Only let one player each do a non-combat check
-If a player fails a non-combat check, narrate it as the challenge being unexpectedly harder than expected rather than the PC suddenly being inexplicably incompetent. For example, don't say that a thief just kind of drops his lockpick but that the lock seems to have rusted-shut. Again. You're in the business of making your players feel competent.
-Same goes for combat
-Listen to your player's OOC speculation and always find a way to prove them half-right. You're in the business of making your players feel competent and smart.
-Be confident
-Have fun.
>>46388120
All seems solid. What is UA?
>>46388165
Unearthed Arcana. Supplementary material that adds options. It's available for free on the D&D people's website.
>>46388195
Gotcha. I want to run one using my own setting and shit, but have a ways to go before I work up to fleshing that out. What would you suggest in terms of combat, that is to say Theater of the Mind or actual map? I much prefer having a map as a reference point, but figured if I could find some grid paper that had larger squares I could sketch reference maps. None of us own miniatures.
>>46388262
>Theater of the Mind or actual map?
Not that guy, but I prefer to go with a mix of both.
At my local game store I was sold a tile map which can be drawn upon with permanent marker and wiped clean after use. I go with theater of the mind and draw maps or diagrams up when they're needed.
>>46388262
It depends on your preference and situation. I almost always use the grid. It's much easier when there are more than 3 enemies and you want to add cool shit. It can get confusing whithout a visual reference of where is everyone. Use coins or unused dice if you don't have minis.
>theater of the mind
I fucking hate that expression
>>46388334
Yeah, I figured I'd mostly do it for combat encounters that are sort of premade, and if something comes up organically it would just be on the fly.
>>46388348
That's about what I figured I'd do. Seems like the best bet. I would use another term, but it's the only one I ever hear used.
>>46388120
I basically agree, but
>Ban the Ranger. It can't pull its own weight.
Seems a little extreme to me. If a player wants to play a ranger, why not let them? If they need a little boost to keep up with the other players, then give it to them. For Beastmasters, I double the companion's HP and give them death saves. Marksmen get the Hunter's Mark spell as an at-will class feature. That seems to take care of any imbalances at my table.
>>46388980
>a little extreme
It's very extreme. It also works. I'm not in the business of giving OP *GREAT* solutions, only solutions that *WORK* and aren't bound to give someone the short end of the stick because they wanted something the devs didn't.
>>46388262
Map is very useful when you have lots of enemies and sort of annoying when you don't.
>>46388262
How many players do you have? The usefulness of the map is directly proportional to the number of creatures involved in combat.
