Some Notes On Dm-ing Adventures
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SOME NOTES ON DM-ING ADVENTURES Version 1.0 by J�rn Losneg�rd Translation from Norwegian with additions by Olik - Ole A. Ringdal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: This is a preliminary version, with no organization at all. The original was written as the ideas came to mind, with no attention paid to layout or legibility. Additions and revisions will be made in the future. Enjoy! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adjust the monsters' Hit Points and THAC0s if they get too much the upper-hand during a fight. It quickly becomes boring for the players if they have to spend days waiting for resurrected characters to recover. But do not apply this too much - let the players also consider the possibility of withdrawal. Keep in mind that the players won't consider withdrawal if they have to get past the monsters in order to complete the adventure. It is often a good idea to place objects, places, and persons in the adventure that really do not have anything to do with the adventure itself. This is important for the realism of the game - not every observation or encounter the PCs experience is crucial to the completion of the adventure. Don't let the adventure "run on a straight track"; let the players sort out for themselves what is important and what is not. An adventure with lots of monsters makes the session consist mostly of rolling dice for initiative, hits, and damage. This takes a lot of time, and quickly gets boring. If it is possible, place a few, powerful monsters in the adventure, instead of many weaker ones. Keep in mind that the adventure is supposed to be mentally challenging for the player, and physically challenging for the character. A way to put some much-needed variety into the game is to use the PCs' abilities other than their fighting skills to use. Place obstacles that is more easily solved through clever use of the players' characters, than through brute force and combat. It is very important, though, that the overcoming of a particular obstacle does not depend solely on a single character's abilities or skills. Consider a locked door. If there's a thief in the party, he may try to pick the lock. If that fails, a mage may use magic like the knock spell to open it. If that fails, too, a strong fighter may try to bash in the door. Always leave room for other solutions than the first one that comes to mind when designing the adventure. Variation is probably the most important aspect of a successful campaign. Don't let every adventure start with "Well, you're all enjoying the brew at the local tavern, when...". At least, change the setting for the introduction. When changing the adventures themselves, always change the themes and the goals, don't just substitute rewards and monsters. The players demand that something is always happening. If it's their own responsibility that nothing happens, they are not allowed to complain about the DM. But if the DM has them walk through one empty room or hallway after another, this quickly becomes boring and it's the DM's fault. If many empty rooms are
unavoidable to the adventure, at least change the description from time to time, so that the players can visually imagine themselves being there. But be consistent - don't make the players think "Wow! There's got to be something important here!" each time you try to put a little variation to the "emptiness". Keep the differing descriptions coming all the time - don't change your descriptions only when there's something interesting around. When the players ask the DM questions about the adventure, it is important for the DM to answer in the same way all the time, both when the questions are important and when they're not. Never answer that a particular question is totally irrelevant to the adventure, unless the players are way too far off the track. Keep in mind that a DM does not exist to lead the players astray - if you do that, it quickly becomes boring for you, too. It is also important that the players are able to get back on track more than one way, but don't make it too easy. Remember that the most important things about adventures are that they are both challenging and enjoyable to the players. It's not much of a game when the characters just go around picking up magical items. Adventures must have a detailed background, something which makes it seem possible that the adventure could happen in the gaming world. Also pay some attention to the consequences of the adventure and the characters' actions. It would seem kind of stupid if the characters murder the king in one adventure, and in the next adventure, they're the new king's (the late king's son) best friends. When placing magical items in an adventure, think of the consequences those items will have in later adventures. Don't make the characters demi-gods just for the heck of it. Magical weapons are so much more exiting if they don't always are +1 or +3. Instead of letting the characters find a longsword +3, let them instead find a longsword +1, called "Flame Master", with the ability to flare up three times a day to inflict additional fire damage. It is clever to have background stories ready for the NPCs participating in the adventure. This also goes for places and objects that the PCs interact with. With adequate backgrounds, you can readily answer questiongs the players will inevitably ask, and be quick and concise. This helps you to enforce the principle of consistent answering, i.e. not letting out a stream of ready information about important NPCs/objects, and having to pause and think of something to say for the less important NPCs or objects. If you stutter and say something clearly improvised (unless you're really good at improvising), the players will quickly dismiss the subject and move on until they encounter something important, which they will clearly notice when that shows up. If you're an aspiring artist, draw some sketches and pictures for the adventure. Visual objects are much more exciting than just lines drawn on squared paper (i.e., maps). This helps the players visualize the world their characters live in, and helps flesh out the adventure. It is also an enjoyable diversion from the often tiresome dialog and dice-rolling that comprise too many home-made adventures. If you're a clutz with pencils and crayons, rip off pictures from books or other published material, but remember respecting copyright laws... I can't forget mentioning the amazing effects music can have on the atmosphere of the session. There are lots of good classical and new age CDs out there that are perfectly suited for such occasions, with my favorites being classical horror movie soundtracks, in particular "Bram Stoker's Dracula", the "Alien"-trilogy, and "Silence of the Lambs". Movie soundtracks in general are more effective than "plain" classics like Mozart or Bach, unless they are kind of moody and low-key like much of Beethoven's work is. Needless to say, heavy metal or Top 20 like
music is totally disrupting to the adventuring atmosphere. There are some CDs from the Black and Gothic scenes that can be appropriate, with slow, dark rythms accompanied by lots of synth or strings. One time or another, the characters will surely be separated from each other during the course of an adventure. I recommend not using this feature too much, because of the many difficulties this brings. The DM suddenly has a lot more to coordinate, it is difficult to accurately keep track of the time the different groups spend, and the players themselves have to wait longer between each time they can play. If this gets out of hand, the whole session may end up being split over several rooms, or the DM writing notes like hell to the players. Should something big and ugly turn up, the party is suddenly more vulnerable. Keep in mind, though, that separating the characters are unavoidable if this is necessary to allow the players to fully role-play their characters. This especially goes for thieves, which are sooo much more exciting to play if the are allowed to sneak around a bit on their own. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------This document has been edited for legibility purposes by OLIK / Ole A. Ringdal [email protected] / http://home.sol.no/olear --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
unavoidable to the adventure, at least change the description from time to time, so that the players can visually imagine themselves being there. But be consistent - don't make the players think "Wow! There's got to be something important here!" each time you try to put a little variation to the "emptiness". Keep the differing descriptions coming all the time - don't change your descriptions only when there's something interesting around. When the players ask the DM questions about the adventure, it is important for the DM to answer in the same way all the time, both when the questions are important and when they're not. Never answer that a particular question is totally irrelevant to the adventure, unless the players are way too far off the track. Keep in mind that a DM does not exist to lead the players astray - if you do that, it quickly becomes boring for you, too. It is also important that the players are able to get back on track more than one way, but don't make it too easy. Remember that the most important things about adventures are that they are both challenging and enjoyable to the players. It's not much of a game when the characters just go around picking up magical items. Adventures must have a detailed background, something which makes it seem possible that the adventure could happen in the gaming world. Also pay some attention to the consequences of the adventure and the characters' actions. It would seem kind of stupid if the characters murder the king in one adventure, and in the next adventure, they're the new king's (the late king's son) best friends. When placing magical items in an adventure, think of the consequences those items will have in later adventures. Don't make the characters demi-gods just for the heck of it. Magical weapons are so much more exiting if they don't always are +1 or +3. Instead of letting the characters find a longsword +3, let them instead find a longsword +1, called "Flame Master", with the ability to flare up three times a day to inflict additional fire damage. It is clever to have background stories ready for the NPCs participating in the adventure. This also goes for places and objects that the PCs interact with. With adequate backgrounds, you can readily answer questiongs the players will inevitably ask, and be quick and concise. This helps you to enforce the principle of consistent answering, i.e. not letting out a stream of ready information about important NPCs/objects, and having to pause and think of something to say for the less important NPCs or objects. If you stutter and say something clearly improvised (unless you're really good at improvising), the players will quickly dismiss the subject and move on until they encounter something important, which they will clearly notice when that shows up. If you're an aspiring artist, draw some sketches and pictures for the adventure. Visual objects are much more exciting than just lines drawn on squared paper (i.e., maps). This helps the players visualize the world their characters live in, and helps flesh out the adventure. It is also an enjoyable diversion from the often tiresome dialog and dice-rolling that comprise too many home-made adventures. If you're a clutz with pencils and crayons, rip off pictures from books or other published material, but remember respecting copyright laws... I can't forget mentioning the amazing effects music can have on the atmosphere of the session. There are lots of good classical and new age CDs out there that are perfectly suited for such occasions, with my favorites being classical horror movie soundtracks, in particular "Bram Stoker's Dracula", the "Alien"-trilogy, and "Silence of the Lambs". Movie soundtracks in general are more effective than "plain" classics like Mozart or Bach, unless they are kind of moody and low-key like much of Beethoven's work is. Needless to say, heavy metal or Top 20 like
music is totally disrupting to the adventuring atmosphere. There are some CDs from the Black and Gothic scenes that can be appropriate, with slow, dark rythms accompanied by lots of synth or strings. One time or another, the characters will surely be separated from each other during the course of an adventure. I recommend not using this feature too much, because of the many difficulties this brings. The DM suddenly has a lot more to coordinate, it is difficult to accurately keep track of the time the different groups spend, and the players themselves have to wait longer between each time they can play. If this gets out of hand, the whole session may end up being split over several rooms, or the DM writing notes like hell to the players. Should something big and ugly turn up, the party is suddenly more vulnerable. Keep in mind, though, that separating the characters are unavoidable if this is necessary to allow the players to fully role-play their characters. This especially goes for thieves, which are sooo much more exciting to play if the are allowed to sneak around a bit on their own. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------This document has been edited for legibility purposes by OLIK / Ole A. Ringdal [email protected] / http://home.sol.no/olear --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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