D&D Campaign

Don't over plan. and be prepared to change those plans in a moment's notice.

Invariably you will spend hours and hours crafting elegant plotlines, staffing adventures, and creating enemies.

And your players will blow through them on the way to the more interesting black pyramid off in the back ground that you threw in for some color.

Bart get ready to have some fun...

1...Keep the game moving and interesting with what you throw at the players. The more original the DM can be and away from the standard D&D and Monster Manuel, the better the game for the players.

2...No head hunting as the DM, but by the same token, don't let a single player constantly challenge your authority. You are the god and you make the rules...

3...Encourage your players to be creative, but in a realistic way. Award extra points for creativity.

4...Don't allow a single player to monopolize the direction of the game. As DM you can not tell them what to do or where to go, or how to respond, but you can direct them by what you throw at them.

5...Expect the unexpected from the players. Some will challenge you and if they have a good reason, allow it.

To give an example, I had a player challenge me on an attack by stating that he jumped into a river and swam across. I had him give me his character sheet that showed what he was carrying. He was carrying everything he ever won, bought, stole, or found. I added the weight up in gold, and then figured out the current of the river, his strength, and then made him role a twenty sided dice. He needed 98 or higher to make it to the other side. It was funny watching the other players suddenly start removing things from their characters, but it got the point across.

6...To prevent games from becoming bogged down in every tavern the players pass, and winching in mixed groups, make a player role for sexual diseases if it gets boring to you.

7...Secretly deduct stamina or strength of players who do not rest, eat, piss, etc.

8...Deduct same from players playing out of their alignments.

9...Allow for discussions, but keep them moving. If it ain't about the campaign, then stop the discussion.

10...If a player is not paying attention to what is going on, and its their turn and they don't know what the response is to what they are doing...up the ante, wound them or something. This will keep the others paying attention.

11...You are god and you make the rules, but be a benevolent god. Forget compassionate though...

12...Some players get upset when a DM kills a favorite character, don't let it bother you. I used to make them give me the characters folder and that character became one of my non player characters in future games. Again, this makes characters think instead of just attacking everything that moves.

13...Magic users, always check to see what the players are doing. I got rid of the conjuring for X amount of moves because it slowed the game down. As long as the magic user informs me that he is conjuring or going to use a magic device on his turn, I accepted so long as they could do so, especially once they got up to about 8th level.

14...My group was hard core, I made the players write down what their persona, habits, likes, dislikes etc are. I read them so I would know if they are playing out of character. I also used that information as god to put them in situations separate from adventure, but yet, it becomes part of the adventure.

Mostly, just have fun and use your wonderful writers imagination, your players will love ya for it.

In my college days, some of our games ran 36 hours, but the typical game was usually around 8-12 hours or until everyone passed out. I do advise taking 15/20 minutes break every hour. Sometimes I played medieval music softly in the background to help enhance the mood.

After 30 years, my group still meets once a year to play, and just stay in touch. Some of our kids have joined the group now. My own daughter says it helps her to appreciate my writing. A lot of us were also in the SCA back then and so we understood armor, swords, one on one fighting as well as grand melees.

My number one advice for newbie D&D fans: PLAY EXALTED! If you don't like it, change it and reward good-roleplaying with mechanical effects.

If someone just says they hit the goblin, let them roll. If they hit the goblin with flair or style, give em a slight attack bonus. Use that for persuasion and bluff checks as well!

And, last but not least: If the players are going to try some insanely stupid plan, like...say, firing themselves at the pirate ship with a balista...let them go for it. If it works, they'll talk about it forever. If it doesn't, it'll be hilarious.

Yup. That's pretty much what I was going to say.

You don't want to lead your characters around by the nose--you want them to feel like they're in a complete, developed world that's theirs to explore.

Here's some of the strategies I use:

* Some events will happen even if your characters do nothing. For example, if I wanted them to go to the castle and stop an assassination, but they don't go, that plot doesn't just die away. They're going to have to leave town or deal with the turmoil that occurred in the wake of the assassination. No matter where they go, at some point, the news will probably get to them. These plots have a timing of their own, set by the DM before the game starts.

* Some events will happen no matter what the players do. They're like a triggered cut-scene in a video RPG. It might be a specific villian that will just "happen" to be involved in whatever they choose to do--no matter WHAT they choose to do. It might be a plague that comes into town the night after they do (meaning they get blamed, or whatever it is your plot needs)...but the thing is, it doesn't matter if they rush right into town or if they take the scenic route, when they get there, this happens.

* Only make character sheets for important NPC's, or draw out places that are very necessary to the plot. Run everything else off of templates. Just a handful of variations can make a whole town full of houses and people. It seems like a shortcut (and it is) but it means that even if they surprise you and decide to ride through three towns that session, you have stuff ready.

* Allow LOTS of freedom in character creation, but require that every character has a reason to be part of the group, and a reason to care about the group. Maybe they're related to another character, maybe the whole group is a military unit, whatever. There has to be something that will make the group cohesive. For years, I didn't have this rule...trust me, the whole game runs MUCH smoother with it.

* Ask questions about each character, so you get a feel for what will get the character emotionally involved. Then litter your campaign with things that will involve certain characters, giving each one the opportunity to have their own sort of miniature plot arch, that focuses on their specific thing, within the larger story. Do not make these absolutely necessary, though, if you can help it. Characters don't always stay in character.

* If your characters have strong ties to one another, and you know what motivates each of them emotionally, you can usually set up a scenario where the group has to choose between something that matters a lot to one character or something that matters to another. Or you can set it up so that the majority of the group is inclined to go against a strong moral (or other) prohibition in one of the characters. These sorts of internal disputes really get the characters talking and arguing amongst themselves, and promote the very best kind of role play. I know when I've done my job when everyone is standing around the table (rather than sitting at it) arguing in-character about stuff that only matters to their characters. This is just like a novel--the setting and plot are great, but the CHARACTERS are the story. When the characters take over, you're golden.

* Because your plot should be tailored to your characters (IMO), it's usually a good idea to make characters during the gaming session PRIOR to the actual start of the campaign. That gives you time to factor in character-specific details.

* If you plan to lead them by the nose (for instance, I once sucked the PC's into a dreamworld where they had to preform certain feats in order to escape), then give your players enough information that they can make characters who will naturally want to do what you want them to. If you're doing a dungeon crawl, tell the players something like, "This is going to be a dungeon crawl, so make characters with a reason for doing that." My husband ran a campaign based around magical armors, at one point, and he passed out basic (far from full!) details about the armors and said, "Your character has to have a reason to want one of these. I don't care why or which one." For another campaign, I set the rule, "Your characters must have an extremely dark secret, and they have to have one thing they want more than anything else in the world."

* Too many DM's forget that the game exists to amuse the players. If one of my players loves having their character threshing through baddies like nobody's business, I'll try and give them at least one opportunity to do so...even if I have to fudge some die rolls. If I catch a player lying about their own die rolls, as long as it doesn't negatively impact other players, I pretend not to notice. If I know someone is a peace keeper within the group, and that person is playing a character designed to keep the group together, I don't mind if it's also designed to be stronger than any of the other characters in the game...so if they ask for special abilities or whatnot, I'm very inclined to say yes.

I'm sure some people will say that without fair rules, the game is rigged and not as much fun for anyone. But that hasn't been my experience. I keep the semblance of being fair and even rigorous about the rules...but I actually see gaming as a co-operative story telling, where I set the stage and each player controls their character. If they envisioned a character with cat-like grace, but their dice rolls suck, I'm going to make sure they still have at least a moment or two in the sun, where their character really does work the way they had planned. Unless they're really enjoying the clumsy thing. Then I go with it.

I thought D&D went out in the 80s.

Cheat. You're the DM, your rolls are secret. Don't cheat so often it becomes obvious, but cheat enough to keep the game fun and rolling in a reasonable direction. Cheat when it would be more entertaining than what your roll actually was.

Also, know your group. Some players are minimaxers, which frankly drives me crazy, and others are there for the socialization. If you have more minimaxers than socializers, you're going to have to stick to the rules and do a lot of fighting, etc. If you have more socializers, concentrate on the story.

And for heaven's sake use online resources. I spent my first few months DMing concocting elaborate maps, etc. and then discovered the wealth of online content available. Do not spend five hours researching medieval castles so you can draw your own accurately. (I... might be a little OCD.)

I use OpenRPG

Bartholomew said:

There are computer tools for this!?

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Plenty, from campaign cartographer to WOTC's own character creator. I don't recommend having a laptop at the gaming table though. It tends to divert attention. Print out your materials.

As for other advice, the first and most important thing would be to decide what kind of campaign you're running. Is it more of a story based campaign where tje DM is expected to present a big adventure for the players?
In that case in addition to what has been said before,

*Always have a backup plan for your backup plan. I can't count the number of times i started with situtation similar to: "So, you're sitting around your table when a guy walks up to you.....
We shoot him." (ok that was Shadowrun, but it's essentially all the same, in D&D i've had players just walk past mysterious dungeon entrances and so on)
It's not so useful to end the session with "ok, you shot the guy who was going to give a job, now you sit around and nothing happens"
Plan out two or three ways to get the players hooked into the adventure you planned out because they're quite possibly going to ignore or not recognize one or two. And it feels much less like railroading to players.

*Absolute do get a screen and don't be afraid to fudge the dice rolls if you think it improves the game.

*Don't bother will all the uselessly detailed out-of-combat rules. I don't mean skills, i mean the stuff from the DM manual that even gives you rules on how to calculate the number of blacksmiths in a town of a given size. It consumes time and just winging it will work much better anyway.


If on the other hand you're running more of a hack&slash style game, consider that your job is mostly to play the NPCs, i'd recommend having character sheets prepared for every opponent (or using the monster manual for random encounters) and even doing open rolls so the players can see your dice.
Always have a backup dungeon prepared, you're going to need one sooner or later.
Don't be afraid to throw real challenges at the players.Work out opponents that match the general CR of the players and then let combat play out however it does. Resurrection spells exist for a reason.
While you play the NPCs, it's a good idea to make a few notes for each type about the way thy act. That way you can keep them acting consistent without metagaming. E.g.. maybe the orc barbarian could sidestep the paladin and take out the mage player, much improving the NPC chances of victory, but you've characterized him as a total berserker in meelee who first hacks down what's in front of him in combat and doesn't think about tactics. On the other hand you might have some bandit archer who specifically tries to avoid close combat and goes after mages first. Essentially have the NPCs use real tactics instead of acting randomly and uncoordinated but don't have them move like chess pawns either.
Check out the WOTC forums. I recommend that for this style of gameply, because imo, those forums are full of rules-lawyering, min-maxing and generally gaming the system which of course can be great fun, but only belongs in a campaign with a solid focus on combat, not story.

Watch out for players like me.

SPMiller said:

Watch out for players like me.

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I just looked up my list of links to D&D resources and most of them have moved. However, Obsidian Portal is a great place to start.

I second the suggestion to know your players and cater to them. Some people like a more immersive roleplaying experience and could care less about combat. I've been in both styles of games: hack-and-slash world-romps and intrigue-filled talk-fests where I think the only thing we killed was a mountain lion.

Both were a blast.

I believe the GM/DM exists solely for the fun of the players. Too often I've seen GMs who view themselves as the enemy and build scenarios around players outright losing. I like Whitewolf's approach better: If you consider yourself a Storyteller, everyone will have more fun that way. Unless, of course, you're in it primarily for the killing - in which case, it's potentially valid to want to kill the entire party. (Hey, the world can be a dangerous place....) Just make sure everyone has the same expectations.

I have the most fun when my character goes through trials and tribulations, meets interesting people, and ultimately comes out ahead despite all odds. I have the least fun when the GM's super-powered NPC does everything for me. I've been in too many games that were basically an excuse for the GM to show off.

Not cool.

Also, you might want to think about how realistic you want your game to be; thothguard suggested penalizing players who don't explicitly state that their characters take time out to eat or use the restroom. I expect these things to occur unless I explicitly state that they don't. It depends on your players, and it depends on your expectations.

Definitely have your characters come up with a bit of a backstory that gets them involved in the stakes of the game. Also, encourage them to create connections with each other that predate the game. You'll find it's easier to gather your party when your characters are related or at least passingly acquainted through a friend - no need for the "five adventurers gather at the inn" bit.

Zoombie said:

And, last but not least: If the players are going to try some insanely stupid plan, like...say, firing themselves at the pirate ship with a balista...let them go for it. If it works, they'll talk about it forever. If it doesn't, it'll be hilarious.

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I cannot stress this enough. One of my friends had the Strong Bad philosophy (of Homestar Runner fame): "Everybody to the limit." Sometimes the results were good... and sometimes not. But always awesome.

Bartholomew said:

I am having my scenario start with some missing children in town. I have two or three new players, and I am forcing them to all roll one alignment within True Good (because I really don't want to deal with a chaotic evil rogue and a lawful good paladin in the same party) and I am also forbidding all of the non-core classes (except for the Skald, because it's thematic) so that everyone gets a sense of the game's real balance (I already made someone throw away a half-dragon half-tiefling fighter / ninja.)

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Ah aligment. I can recommend that you don't consider alignment as some kind of actual attribute value. First, even penalizing players won't stop the paladin from slaughtering villages if he really wants to, second they'll just start to cook up excuses why their actions comply with their alignment, and third it's not fun to be forced to act a certain way by your character sheet. The mage doesn't get forced to cast spells either, he could go bash goblins with his staff if he actually wanted to.
Instead, keep an alignment sheet where you note actions by your players that are significantly good, evil, lawful, chaotic etc. And if you think the lawful good paladin has got a few to many mentions in the evil column, inform him that his alignment just changed to lawful neutral and might change to lawful evil if he goes on like that.

If they decide to just go to a different town, I think there will be a lot of undead beserking owlbears on the road.

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That's pretty obvious railroading though (unless the owlbears somehow tie into the story)
But you could just let them go to the next town and start the adventure from a different thread. I.e. if they left town after hearing about a murderer, tell them about the missing children in the next town they end up in. (And have the murderer be active in both towns once the story gets to him)

In my campaigns, all roads led to the same place. I never gave them too much information about where they were (so they were usually in a foreign territory), so wherever they went I would just put "the town" or whatever there. So for example, at the beginning, I drew a big map of the continent and outlined the basic conflict. They got some basic info about the countries on the continent and, from asking around in their hometown, got some leads that would suggest they could go in several different directions with their quest. They picked a country to venture toward, and I plopped down the castle with the weird things going on in that country. So as long as you're a little creative with your world and maintain some ambiguity, you're fine.

Oh, I also highly recommend the pre-written campaigns D&D sells. I got a few and used the maps and altered the storyline to fit my world. So all the monsters and whatnot were already pre-made, and the NPCs were there as well, although they had slightly different things to say. It took a LOT of work out of the whole thing.

Lhun said:

Ah aligment. I can recommend that you don't consider alignment as some kind of actual attribute value. First, even penalizing players won't stop the paladin from slaughtering villages if he really wants to, second they'll just start to cook up excuses why their actions comply with their alignment, and third it's not fun to be forced to act a certain way by your character sheet. The mage doesn't get forced to cast spells either, he could go bash goblins with his staff if he actually wanted to.

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I hate the alignment system, and I prefer DMs who tend to ignore it more than enforce it. Real people are multi-faceted; even characters in fiction have their dark moments. I don't think I'd ever look at something shameful my MC just did and erase it because "it's not in his alignment." Just my $0.02.

Quasar said:

I hate the alignment system, and I prefer DMs who tend to ignore it more than enforce it. Real people are multi-faceted; even characters in fiction have their dark moments. I don't think I'd ever look at something shameful my MC just did and erase it because "it's not in his alignment." Just my $0.02.

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I don't think it was originally intended as some kind of mind control that has the character in his grips even over the wishes of the player. I think it serves very well as an attribute that derives from the players actions and is used for interaction with alignment-based magic (such as smite evil), which is a pretty nice gameplay mechanic. And also has interesting implications for worldbuilding.

Lhun said:

I don't think it was originally intended as some kind of mind control that has the character in his grips even over the wishes of the player. I think it serves very well as an attribute that derives from the players actions and is used for interaction with alignment-based magic (such as smite evil), which is a pretty nice gameplay mechanic. And also has interesting implications for worldbuilding.

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A fair assessment. Still, I've seen it mis-appropriated by DMs and rules-mongerering PCs who invoke "alignment problems" to punish characters for not acting in accordance with their wishes. I will say that I think alignment-based magic is interesting. I pick an alignment when I play, but I almost always go with something like True or Chaotic Neutral so I don't have to justify my actions at every turn.

I guess I just haven't been satisfied with the implementation or the general interpretation of the mechanic. But that could be more to do with the groups I run in than the mechanic itself, I'll grant.

I love the neutral alignment for magic users because its always...whats in it for me.

JoNightshade said:

Cheat. You're the DM.

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It's not cheating if you're the DM. You're just deciding which rules are relevant and which ones aren't. And really, rules only apply to the players.


oh, and remember, they're the hero. Not you. You get to die a thousand deaths. you get to run away, defeated. In the end, they win.

But kill one of'em every so often, just to keep'em on their toes.

The biggest mistake that new GM's do in RPG's is to assign way too much loot, especially magic items and coins. The creatures often are the loot in my world. Wyvern skin, can make a nice scale armor if you have the right skills. The local prince would look favorably on the adventurers who cart in a boar for a feast. The second mistake is to spoon feed the plot and leak too much information too soon.

Also, like others have said, good or evil is behavior, not a die roll or a stat.

Be rational as far as a fantasy campaign can be. The Orc officer isn't going to have a +3 sword as loot. He'd have been weilding it. I found it amusing when players slew the ogre wearing plate armor only to realize that they couldn't carry away the armor as a prize. It was too heavy and bulky. They came to the conclusion that they needed a wagon. They stole one, from a rival. Later, when the rival necromancer attacked them and they laughingly hid inside an interdimensional room, they came out to find the horses slaughtered.

GeorgeK said:

The biggest mistake that new GM's do in RPG's is to assign way too much loot, especially magic items and coins. The creatures often are the loot in my world. Wyvern skin, can make a nice scale armor if you have the right skills. The local prince would look favorably on the adventurers who cart in a boar for a feast.

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Absolutely: it's very easy to let power creep in to a game. Getting cool stuff quickly just means the players want cooler stuff sooner. I like the idea of the creatures being a form of loot.

That said, sometimes it sure is nice to be rewarded with that new cool magic item, those jewels, or random artifact. I think part of the fun of the game definitely comes in the form of neat loot. I was in one game where the focus was a little more on becoming Epic characters, and that meant we ended up running across a boatload of treasure.

That wouldn't work in a "normal" campaign, though. Definitely suit to taste.