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Post by dimensioneer on Mar 9, 2015 20:24:48 GMT
Hello, my name is zach I'm 20 and I've been playing d&d for about 3 months now. After our DM showed up unprepared for a session I ran a campaign I had been working on because we had talked about switching roles in the future. He liked being a pc more and I am enjoying dming a lot. I'm running a campaign right now and would love to get some insight and ideas from people who have been playing longer than I have.
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Post by Alexis on Mar 9, 2015 20:43:11 GMT
Hey Zach! I've been playing D&D for 6 months now (as DM, I've never played a PC before) so I got just slightly more experience concerning being a DM but not playing a PC ;-) I'm sure you will find a lot of inspiration and advice here, because I certainly did and of course still do (I've only joined the forum a month agoh). Enjoy!
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Post by Erasmas on Mar 9, 2015 21:26:03 GMT
I have been playing D&D (off and on) for about 20 years, the last 14 of which have been are a nearly weekly basis... and during which I have been the DM more often than not. The biggest thing about DMing that you have to understand is learning what works best for you and the group of players which you are running the game for. D&D is so many different things to so many different people, most of which will not agree on the "how things should be done" portion. For me, personally, I cannot recommend this video enough. It is almost an hour long, but I found it to be incredibly insightful. In addition, it supported many of the finer points about DMing that I have come to discover on my own through years of trial and error. Good luck! Enjoy!
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Post by Admin on Mar 9, 2015 21:34:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2015 21:43:51 GMT
Got any specific problems, ideas or outlines you can throw at us Zach? We are standing by, eager to lend a hand.
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Post by dimensioneer on Mar 10, 2015 3:40:12 GMT
how do you all deal with mapping? I just draw out the whole thing at once, do you draw the room as they enter it?
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Post by jasonblade on Mar 10, 2015 11:47:29 GMT
how do you all deal with mapping? I just draw out the whole thing at once, do you draw the room as they enter it? I find it best to draw things out before the group ever meets. Say you are sending them into a dungeon and you don't have premade tiles that you can fit together as they proceed, you can draw it all out on paper. Lay down only what they can see and have seen and only add papers as they progress. It would be the same if you had tiles. One of the big things I have learned as a DM is prep and how important it is.
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Post by michka on Mar 10, 2015 12:50:59 GMT
Greeting Zach. I've been gaming for over twenty years now. I can still remember playing my first games, and it was a blast. I can also remember the first games I ran, and those were some of the best stuff I ever ran. There's something to be said about playing before anyone tells you how it's done. And I totally agree with Erasmus. Each group finds their favorite way to play.
The best advice I can give is tell a story. It doesn't have to be a great story. It doesn't even have to be original. The game will be better if it is great of course, and originality is always a good thing. But if the players want to know what happens next, you've done your job. As for mapping, you'll find many folks around here lay out 2.5D dungeon tiles for the rooms. Before I found out what 2.5D tiles were, I drew out maps on one inch grids I printed at home.
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Post by Erasmas on Mar 10, 2015 15:16:39 GMT
I, personally, avoid doing the whole thing at once as often as I can. If you have to, use fog of war to keep the element of surprise on your side. One of the sweetest things to me, as a DM, is the "Big Reveal". If you have your whole dungeon/map laid out ahead of time... then your players will be able to anticipate something about what is coming up. Even when using fog of war, they can tell how large a complex is, whether the right wing of a hallway leads to only a room or two or if its the heart of the dungeon, etc. I like for them to come to a door and not know if there's a cavernous room on the other side of it, or if they're prepping weapons and spells only to find out that it's a broom closet.
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Post by skunkape on Mar 12, 2015 16:47:00 GMT
Hello and welcome! Main piece of advice I would give is make sure you and your players are having fun! Find a style that you like and that they'll enjoy as well and stick to it! By style I mean, do you like straight dungeon crawls, or a mix of role-playing and roll-playing (combat), or story telling? Do you want political intrigue? Can the player characters change the world, or are they just a small cog in the much bigger machine?
I have found that once I had figured out those things, I enjoyed running the game as much as I enjoyed playing.
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