DM's Corner: The Devil's in the Details

How much detail should you go into in a game before the whole thing collapses under it's own weight?

Do you track food and water for the party?

Does each character have to keep a running tally of encumbrance?

They may seem like minor details, but I find they can be a great source of plot hooks and sometime necessary information.

Lembas, part of this good, nutritious breakfast

Lets talk about food and water first. Granted, you can easily assume that the party can hunt and forage for food and water. Or you can take for granted that they stock up on food in town before heading off into the wilderness to avoid the tedium of tracking how much they have on a given day, but that can also do a dis-service to your game. Say you want to surprise the party with a little "survival" adventure where they are lost in the desert and need to use their wits to survive, but not for a few days. If you have never tracked food and water before, and are suddenly asking them to do so, would it ruin the surprise? Would you have a party of adventurers who now know they are going to be starving and dehydrated pretty soon? Of course. Now, it may not be a huge problem to suddenly say "By the way, you've been in the desert for 6 days now, and you're out of food and water" to get the survival ball rolling, but would the players then feel slighted that they weren't allowed to prepare properly?

Glutton for Punishment

Sometimes I wonder why it is I prefer DMing to playing RPGs.

Anyone that has run a game knows how much time and hard work are put into a game long before anyone is sitting on the other side of the screen from him/her. You spend hours upon hours organizing maps, reading background material, brushing up on encounters so they run smoothly, getting into the mood so you project the right atmosphere, gathering appropriate music (if you're into that, which I am) and printing out page after page of information vital to making a game as enjoyable and involving as possible. All this on the hope that it will entertain a few Mountain Dew swilling critics that just showed up to kick ass and eat pizza for the night.

Yet somehow, that is so much more fun than just being a player. I have spent weeks preparing games and doing research to be ready for my players. And the time just flies by because I am having so much fun delving into ancient tomes of forbidden lore, summoning images from the interweb that once seen, they can no longer be unseen, and telling stories that chill the spine and raise the hairs on the most hardened adventurers neck all for that moment of triumph when the party explodes in cheers of victory after successfully navigating a quest *I* was able to bestow upon them.

There is a great satisfaction in being an entertainer for just one night a week.

DM's Corner: Railroading Is Not A Crime

Have you ever been accused of railroading a party? A while back (before my self imposed exile from GMing) I was running a short adventure for a few friends. It was a 1st level adventure for "Just made up", wet-behind-the-ears adventurers. The beginning premise is that the party stumbles on a dead adventurer in the wilderness and find the deed to an inn. Once arriving in the town that the inn is located, they find that it is in disrepair, thus beginning the adventure to restore it and run it as an adventurer hot spot. After all, all those "You all begin in a tavern" adventures have to take place somewhere!

DM's Corner: Free Form DMing and The Formula

I’m what I like to call a “Free Form” DM. When I write an adventure for a party, I tend to write a skeletal outline for the events I want to take place and some of the major encounters, but other than that I just go in with an idea and no set plan. I don’t like to have every room accounted for and every encounter thought out in advance. I think this is because my history with gaming groups clearly tells me that “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”. Not that I think of a party as the enemy, but I am writing an adventure to challenge the party and this they are sort of an adversary.

DM's Corner: Gaming Music

I'm not sure if I'm in the majority or the minority is doing this, but I like to use accessories other than just the standards: Module, Rulebooks, Paper, Dice and Pencils.

While I'm running an adventure, I like to have my handy-dandy Laptop of Holding by my side. Stuffed inside this miscellaneous magic item I keep all sorts of gaming-related music that I play depending on the situation. While in town I like to play a more whimsical, upbeat music to give the impression of safety and security as will as the diversity of the streets and the people walking around. When in a dungeon I like something a little more sinister and brooding to put them on edge and when combat breaks out it has to be high energy, blood pumping songs to get the players energized for the fight. Here are some of the albums I like to use:

DM's Corner - Adventures in Downtime

So what does a party do during the down time in adventures?

Do they sit around on the ground armed for random encounters while the wizard sleeps to regain spells?

Do they just make a camp fire and set up watch for the night?

or do they even have down time? Traveling day after day to the ominous sound of the gods rolling random encounter dice?

DM's Corner: Survey says...

It's always seemed to me that the hardest part about any campaign is the introduction.

Once the game is started and the party is in the groove, everything runs smoothly, or at least it's EASIER for it to run smooth. The difficult part for any DM is introducing a group of new characters to one another. Sure, there's the ol' "You all meet in a tavern" sorta thing, but how often can you pull that one off? This is obviously not a "realistic" game we play, but the quickest way to take players out of a game is to blow off the very first thing you show them. You need a realistic intro to any new campaign so the players feel there is some previous attachment to the other character's. Otherwise, it can quickly break down into selfish, individualistic agendas.