Do's and Don'ts of a Dungeon Master?

[the_green_dragon]

This wasn't D&D, it was a game that was in "beta" and was looking to get published. The principle is the same. We started playing the game and the dungeon master gimped me from the start.

I couldn't drive any vehicle, especially any flying vehicle.

Why? He thought I would pull a 9/11 and crash the plane/helicopter/airship into a town or tall building. Killing us all. he also made sure that all the bad stuff happened to me so I couldn't ruin their RP with my comic relief character named "chicken wing."

So let people have their fun, its a game. It ultimately doesn't matter.

I would do this to you too, if chicken wing was someone who would deliberately sabotage the group and ruin their fun, then I would say that it does matter.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Everyone has been saying that you have to allow the players to do what they want, be respectful to them etc. All makes sense. My question is, as the GM/DM, all the work you put into stuff (my group is fine) is it reasonable to expect some respect for the time and effort put into running a campaign? I hear stories all the time about how players screw up a whole campaign in some unfathomable way and the word is that the GM/DM just has to deal with it. That comes across as a bit unfair, why is that the general consensus?

In my experience it depends on the precise situation, and the game being played.

There's a difference between indulging a histrionic or uncooperative player (for example, the player of a character whose sole motivation is tied to some minute element of their backstory of no interest to anyone else, or a character who deliberately sabotages the plot in order to turn it into some kind of personal story just for them) and going easy on a well-meaning player who is nonetheless determined to pursue a course of action so foolish you didn't even think of it.

Generally speaking, I'd say the rule is to avoid punishing players for your mistakes if you can help it. If you've let a character into the game who just doesn't belong there, or who has no motivation to follow the plot or cooperate with the other characters, or whose interests are diametrically opposed to your ideas, then punishing the player for that is going to come off as arbitrary. While it's an issue which needs to be addressed, it's probably one which needs to be done apologetically and preferably out-of-character.

On the other hand. We all know GMing is not a democracy. At the end of the day, the players are playing individual people, however aweasome, while the GM is playing the entire universe! In any genuine conflict, the players don't have good odds! For this reason, being a good GM requires a degree of humility in terms of interacting with players. Of course, if a GM is genuinely not having fun I don't think anyone is suggesting they need to suck it up and deal with it for the good of the players, but generally speaking the emphasis is on them to show restraint and sometimes that means forgoing the chance to be the star (by wowing players with your lovingly constructed and intricate plot, for example) in favour of allowing the players to be the stars.

 

[franticfarken]

Make the maps, make a story. And let people go nuts, don't try to nurse them through the story and hope the worst comes to worse. However if you can tell the people who are playing your story are about to die. Make up bonus stats and give them a handicap so that they don't fall flat on their faces.

Example (Star wars role-play)
We had to escape on a ship, however none of us had any pilot perks. One of us attempted to find the manual, while each turn when the chance of him finding it increased each turn (as the rest of us were fighting pursuers), same principle when we started the ship.

Example of letting your people drift off from the story:

originally we were meant to chase someone through Nar shaddaa for information, however I decided to talk to someone in the corner of the bar. Our DM completely improved this NPC, one thing lead to another and we were dealing drugs for a dealer. Which eventually lead us onto the right path of transporting the drugs towards a corrupt commander on the ship we were meant to sneak onto from the Chase information.

AS LONG AS YOUR STORY FLOWS QUITE WELL, LET THEM DO WHATEVER THEY PLEASE.
It makes for a very funny session.

(You don't have to play everything by the "proper books", have it an easy house rules version for your first RP attempt)

 

[Avalanche91]

I don't have a lot of experience DM'ing and my friends don't have a lot of experience playing, but here's what I found.

1) Learn to wing it.

During our first run one of the players decided to create a fishing rod out of a stick, a string and a stone. So far so good. When looking for information she decided to throw the rod out and of course rolled a 20. I never even made rules for fishing, so I had to think of something off the top of my hat and allowed her to catch a shiny magikarp.... Which they then ate. Now they have a bunch of golden scales they are still looking to pawn off.

2) Prepare to be derailed.

Nothing will go as you plan. Ever. I had a difficult ambush planned and one of the girls manages to intimidate nearly every opponent into fleeing. I had a intricate sidequest planned involving a cult within the church and the players never enter. I punish one of the players for going to the red-light district by having the whore steal all his stuff only to have him run over town naked, looking to beat the thief up. Goes hand in hand with learning to wing it, you'll need to improvise. And if the setting allows it, allow it to get ridiculous.

3) Contingency plans.

You have an epic story planned out? A great hook to get players involved in the plot? Chances are they will miss it unless you railroad them into it and players are not too fond of being railroaded. Have more than one way to draw them in.

4) Reward roleplaying.

Speaks for itself, but very valueble in a club of newbies like myself. Players can feel uneasy pretending to be lizardfolk or magic bears or whatever so find a way to reward them. One of my friends has developped an incredibly annoying habbit to haggle for the quest rewards. "50 gold to find that fugitive? sounds a bit meager doesn't it? Would 'you' risk your life for just 50 gold?"

 

[Schadrach]

Don't let your players min/max. Have them roll their stats like everybody else. It's a lot more organic that way, and can hopefully avoid hostility and a wizard starting with only three hit points.

Even if you let them use point-buy or similar, the answer is to functionally penalize being over-specialized by occasionally dragging characters out of their comfort zone. Min/maxxed characters have a bad habit of being terrifically good at one thing and rubbish at most anything else, and once it's clear that you aren't going to let everyone stay in their one tiny niche all of the time, that tends to clear itself up. The wizard with 5 HP but ultimate arcane destructive power learns really quickly when the enemy realizes he's a highly threatening yet squishy target.

DO NOT let other players do your job. Earlier in the World of Darkness game, our group was plotting an infiltration of a corporate office when one of the characters mentions "My boss is gay," to attempt to stonewall our femme fatale. OK, that might have made it more challenging, but that shouldn't have come from another player during the planning stage. It should have been dropped on us by the GM during the mission.

Sometimes the players doing your job isn't so bad. Once when I got to be a player rather than a DM, we encountered a red dragon with the DM knowing I'd try to parley, our arhcer would blindly attack it, and I'd refuse to fight on religious grounds (I actually offered to help it kill the archer [it politely declined], but no one else in the group could speak Ignan so they didn't know that).

Do give the players options on what they can do. Exploration is huge in D&D. You can also grant 20 xp per player per room explored. This rewards exploration, and can help your players gain at least some xp even if there is no combat.

I have a tendency to award XP based on reaching goals or milestones, rather than combat. If the party is (for example), delving into a deep dungeon looking for some McGuffin, I might award XP for reaching each floor, for obtaining the McGuffin, and for escaping with the McGuffin (regardless of how they went about it).

Very important one: Do not, under any circumstance, expect the players to follow the story you thought about. They are not you. They might do things in a way you didn't even think about, or might want to do something different altogether. Just...always keep in mind that your players can very quickly stray from the path you gave them.

I cannot emphasize this one enough -- they will go the opposite of whatever way you expect, they will utterly break any scenario you conceive of in ways that ruin anything you plan. So plan around your plans being broken.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't have a plot that you want them to follow. A good DM can guide them into the direction he wants them to go, while making them think it was their own decision. Though something as simple as a quest that you know the players will want to go for, works too.

I usually take the "all roads lead to Rome" approach -- I come up with enough story hooks that no matter what they plan on doing they run into one, and if they don't take the bait then the bad guy (or sometimes good guy, my players are known to be unrepentant assholes) actually manages to get away with their plot, or perhaps someone else steps up and gets the shinies and glory and gold (but not very often, generally the bad guy winning causes them to have to deal with the fallout in a less avoidable way -- for example that goblin tribe overran the trade port, disrupting trade, and making it harder to find goods in the region).

 

[LadyLightning]

Makes sense, Comic, but truth be told, the explosive force thing is another assumption that people make about any magical effect(or quasi-magical, in your case) that ~looks~ like an explosion must ~behave~ like a real-world explosion. In fact, at least in Pathfinder, an ability that does not include any sort of knockback mechanic or deal Force damage does not have any explosive force. A wizard's Fireball spell is not an explosion ~ it does not knock things off of pedestals. It is simply a flash fire. I would imagine that an Alchemist's bombs would work the same way, up to the point where you choose to take a discovery that changes the damage type to Force or adds any sort of knockback mechanic.

"A fireball spell generates a searing explosion of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d6) to every creature within the area. Unattended objects also take this damage. The explosion creates almost no pressure."
~Pathfinder

People don't read all the descriptions to their spells 9/10 times. This is another great piece of advice for a new DM.

"Explosive bomb*:
The alchemist's bombs now have a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet. Creatures that take a direct hit from an explosive bomb catch fire, taking 1d6 points of fire damage each round until the fire is extinguished. Extinguishing the flames is a full-round action that requires a Reflex save. Rolling on the ground provides the target with a +2 to the save. Dousing the target with at least 2 gallons of water automatically extinguishes the flames."
~Alchemist Discovery

This is what you're referring to. Again, you've illustrated a perfect example of using real world interpretation for terms like "blast" and "fire damage".

"Blast" only means "rapidly expanding" unless the description specifically includes reference to force.

"Fire damage" only means "intense heat" unless the description specifically states it adds damage over time or ignites flammable objects. Scorching Ray, for example, is Fire descriptor; nowhere does it say it ignites objects.

Pretty much this exactly. In most cases, unless a spell explicitly says it does something, you can assume that it doesn't do that thing, and there's probably a different spell that does that thing. Vancian magic, yay ~_~

 

[DeimosMasque]

Normal social conventions plus learn what you're players actually want from a game.

So much this! Especially the second part. Communication is the key to any successfully run ttrpg. What you need to do is sit down with all the players, tell them what setting is going to be like, what kind of campaign you are planning to run and work with them to make sure they can play the type of characters they want to play in the setting.

In fact, it is probably for the best to get everyone together and making characters together as a group before the first session. This helps create a cohesive party that is diverse and interesting. It's one of the easiest traps to fall in, just having all the players come with their characters to the first game with no discussion.

True story for my first D&D 3e game: I did exactly that, I was going to run an Eberron game and that was all I told my players. Day of the game comes... I have three clerics and a sorcerer for a game that I wanted to do some city politics and treasure hunting with. Two the of the clerics even had virtually the same load out of weapons and equipment. Suffice to say that didn't go well.

Next time I ran a game we all sat down, discussed the setting, what my plans were, what they wanted to do and we came together and make a nice set of characters and a had adapted my own plans to fit their choices and backstory ideas and all that.

Basically don't fall into the Me vs Them mentality that many DMs get in. Your not there to win, your there to play just like them.

 

[Requia]

Basically don't fall into the Me vs Them mentality that many DMs get in. Your not there to win, your there to play just like them.

Some players *like* players vs DM. Mind you those players would have gotten together in secret to make a super awesome party you couldn't beat, no need to worry about them really.

 

[DeimosMasque]

Basically don't fall into the Me vs Them mentality that many DMs get in. Your not there to win, your there to play just like them.

Some players *like* players vs DM. Mind you those players would have gotten together in secret to make a super awesome party you couldn't beat, no need to worry about them really.

That much is true as well. But it is definately important for them to know what KIND of D&D game they are going to be in... otherwise that 400 fully fleshed out NPC city that you had planned your players to spend a year of RL time in before they go anywhere else is going to hear:
"I WASTE 'EM WITH MY CROSSBOW!"
"I PULL OUT MY HACKMASTER +12!"
"I'm bring nuclear-winter Fireballs over here!"

 

[RaikuFA]

The one time I played I hated it because of this: My DM kept killing me off just for shits and giggles. Don't be that DM or you'll be alone.

 

[SecondPrize]

Remember always the greatest tool of the DM, "Rocks fall, you die." Also be fast on your feet, you may spend 10 hours preparing some awesome trap or encounter that's just richly detailed and well thought out and then they just walk by it. Accept these things and move one.

 

[Hemlet]

Having DM'd for a group that fluctuates between 6 and 10 regular players for almost 2 years now, I've learned a few important things:

-When dealing with a larger than average group, don't be afraid to say "alright, and now we're gonna move over to these characters for a bit and find out what they're doing". Time dilation is a thing in fiction and it can be a thing in D&D as well. This helps prevent some characters from hogging the spotlight. It's not the most elegant solution, since it has players sitting out for a while, but it's a solution that works particularly well for when part of the group is in combat and the other part isn't.

-If you do have a character that seems to be hogging the spotlight (it won't usually happen on purpose, it just happens sometimes), try to find a way to let the rest of the group or neglected characters shine. Maybe a roleplay moment, or a situation that specifically requires their skill set.

-Don't plan too much. Planning is important, but try to keep those plans flexible. Create your world, create your Main Problem, and make a bunch of smaller problems leading up to that Main Problem. Figuring out a solution to those problems (or ignoring said problems entirely) is up to your players. Common sense prevails from that point on. Did your players not bite that plot hook of a magical plague bringing a city to it's knees? Maybe next time they pass by the city has a drastically reduced population or NO population.

-Don't be afraid to say yes. If you have a player who wants to try and do a leaping Cleave from one gargantuan psychic nightmare worm to another, by all means let him give it a go. That doesn't mean he'll actually SUCCEED, but you at least let him try. He might roll really well and pull it off!

-Don't be afraid to say no either. According to the rules, a character technically has an unlimited amount of free actions per turn. Free actions include things like talking and other incredibly minor actions that require no real thought to perform. That being said, a person can reasonably only snap their fingers/shout out a sentence/fart a certain number of times in a 6 second window. If you feel rules are being abused, lay down your law.

-Do not coddle your players. Everyone showed up to have fun, yes, but it's hard to feel excitement or tension when your players start to think that they can get away with anything. It's alright to fudge dice rolls once in a while, like if you don't want to straight up murder the wizard in a surprise round before initiative is actually rolled, but most of the time I've found it's good policy to let the dice land how they may. If the dice say you're dead, then sorry, but that's the game sometimes.

-If there are any powerful people/creatures of note in your world, consider having stat blocks for these characters prepared ahead of time, juuuust in case.

-Having a general "town guard" template stat block is very useful. Swap gear and feats around as appropriate for the area and you're good to go.

-Learn from your players! I freely admit to not having as good of a grasp on the rules as I should. If your players draw your attention to something that you've been ruling incorrectly (like my totally goofing on how the saves for the Phantasmal Killer spell work), then take note. Everyone having a good time is the most important thing, so while your ruling as DM is final, that doesn't mean you're always right.

-Something that I will do for my next campaign, create a pre-rolled stat array for people to use. This eliminates any glaring power-gaps in regards to character stats, and also allows you to pace the game more how you would like. For example, if you want your players to be a group made up of total badasses give them a stat array of 18/16/14/12/10/10. They put those stats wherever they like, and no one is left desperately trying to keep up with people who just rolled better stats than them.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Another one I thought of, and it's been mentioned already I think:

Listen to your players, and feed off of them. Don't give them too much information too fast. Let them process the fantasy and arrive at their own conclusions. Players have a tendency to run their mouths when planning and discussing ideas. Listen for those ideas, they may in fact be better than yours.
With some quick revamping I've used player ideas to turn a story I considered "meh" into a story they all loved, based solely on where their imagination took them, as opposed to mine.

 

[SweetShark]

This wasn't D&D, it was a game that was in "beta" and was looking to get published. The principle is the same. We started playing the game and the dungeon master gimped me from the start.

I couldn't drive any vehicle, especially any flying vehicle.

Why? He thought I would pull a 9/11 and crash the plane/helicopter/airship into a town or tall building. Killing us all. he also made sure that all the bad stuff happened to me so I couldn't ruin their RP with my comic relief character named "chicken wing."

So let people have their fun, its a game. It ultimately doesn't matter.

So he thought you roleplay as a character in Grand Theft Auto universe.
Would be the same with the fantasy world? Kill the captain of a big ship and crash it to a giant Kraken for example or ride a horse and crash it inside a bar?.

 

[daveNYC]

Make sure that you and the players are on the same page about what sort of game you're looking for. As long as that's the case, then a lot of other stuff becomes less of a problem.

Try and make the game revolve around the player's actions, not the dice rolls. If the players do something absolutely brilliant, then they should probably be given an edge even if you start rolling 20s.

Design the story around the tools the party has available, or at least can lay their hands on. Don't slap traps on everything if the party doesn't have a rogue, or at least a way to hire one.

 

[mistahzig1]

Allow for behind-the-scene action with your players.

My gaming sessions always had a note pad where players could pass me note on stuff they didn'T want others to find out.

One b*stard spend his guard duties exploring and looting instead of protecting his sleeping friends. That bastard made a fortune until that one time at bandcamp...

 

[Mangod]

Make sure that you and the players are on the same page about what sort of game you're looking for. As long as that's the case, then a lot of other stuff becomes less of a problem.

Try and make the game revolve around the player's actions, not the dice rolls. If the players do something absolutely brilliant, then they should probably be given an edge even if you start rolling 20s.

Design the story around the tools the party has available, or at least can lay their hands on. Don't slap traps on everything if the party doesn't have a rogue, or at least a way to hire one.

This needs to be emphasised, because it can lead to problems. One game I was in the GM and the other players had forgotten to tell me what sort of campaign we were playing, so I showed up with my fairly combat heavy character... only to learn that the game was one of courtly intrigue, espionage and investigation. Oops.

Fortunately, the GM figured out a way to get around that: the campaign was centered around investigating who had attempted to kill the Imperial family (the empress bit the dust, bu the emperor and his daughter was still alive), so it stood to reason that we'd run into some form of armed resistance, and that we might have to investigate and move around in the shadier parts of the city to find the culprits. And, as you might have guessed, having a thuggish bruiser in those situations can be really useful; if the courtier of the group couldn't talk a guy into telling us what he knew, yours truly got to break his fingers.

Still, the initial troubles could have been avoided with some better communication on mine and the rest of the groups part.

 

[SquidSponge]

To quote Assassins' Creed:
Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

In other words, there's some great advice on this thread but treat it all with a pinch of salt since ultimately there is, in most cases, no "right" answer and you should be prepared do what you must. Not least because much of the advice here directly conflicts with each other. Therefore, you need to know the players, find out what they like and whom you can bluff (ona related note, get good a lying, as "fudging" is a great tool (to be used sparingly)).

An my current campaign is as good an example as any - one guy is, OK, a bit of a "rules lawyer" and dislikes the "rule of cool", but his encyclopaedic knowledge is useful to save on looking up rules (especially useful since the DM is more the storyteller-type and isn't so clear on combat rules sometimes). I am more laid-back, and like the "rule of cool", used sparingly - I am also open to a gentlemen's agreement with the DM on occasion, which the aforementioned friend would never go for. Another member of the group doesn't care for the talky-talky and just wants to smash things. Another member is pretty much the opposite. I guess my point here is that your players may be a group, but they are still individuals who often require different handling (some more "handling" than others).

I'd stress, in particular, the importance of retaining a neutral attitude (ie, you control the guys trying to kill the party, but you shouldn't be trying to kill the party).

As more of a flavour point - avoid, where possible, describing things in terms of mechanics - for example, "a huge gout of blood spurts from the assassin's carotid artery as Nevin's axe bites into his neck" is better than "you crit for 40 damage, the assassin dies". Or, "I excel in the conjurer's art, but have little faith in diviners and refuse to participate in the dark arts" is better than "My specialist school is conjuration, divination and necromancy are opposition schools".

Finally, Pathfinder FTW. I love that system, and if you know 3.5 the transition is pretty much painless.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Very important one: Do not, under any circumstance, expect the players to follow the story you thought about. They are not you. They might do things in a way you didn't even think about, or might want to do something different altogether. Just...always keep in mind that your players can very quickly stray from the path you gave them.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't have a plot that you want them to follow. A good DM can guide them into the direction he wants them to go, while making them think it was their own decision. Though something as simple as a quest that you know the players will want to go for, works too.

Two examples:
One DM had noticed from previous games that we liked having estates of our own in the game world. So with a new campaign he let us start out in the army with the promise of fame and a title if the war was won. And once we had said estates and the land that went with it, we of course had to deal with what happened on our lands.

And the DM of the group I'm still playing in used the relatively easy 'get an item, find out it's an ancient weapon that must be destroyed because the enemy is looking for it' quest. But he wrapped it up in an interesting backstory and all kinds of different places to go to and things to do. Plus the promise of quite a nice reward for every quest of course.

TLR:
Make the players feel like they are in control and that their actions have an impact on the world, while still guiding them along the path you want them to take for the story to continue.

This person speaks the truth. I've DMed for 20 years now (I'm 31) and the biggest trick is to always let your encounters and locations be set pieces that can be dropped into any random location the players head. Occasionally it's important to say, "The Valley of Gwangi is in this specific location on the map" but that's rare if you're willing to be flexible. There's a way to place general things in certain locations, "Here there be giants!" or whatnot without railroading (forcing) the players into anything. Also, try getting player to fill out some character background so you, the DM, have ideas for plots and hooks that can personally involve the characters' interests. Not all parties do this style, but it'd great if you're up for crafting stories that are more complex than, "Go here and kill that". Don't be afraid of improvising and making things up as you go, but also remember to pay attention to things your players say. They'll latch onto the most random small details you throw out in passing sometimes, so do the same and make a passing reference to one character's interest in baking turn into a plot point where a former mentor requires rare ingredients (or something similar). Finally, make the NPCs actually do things in their spare time. The king doesn't just sit on his throne waiting around for people to do everything for him, he's out doing things.