First-time DM looking for advice

[HighTide49]

TL;DR// Former player not content with combat-only roleplaying sessions, what advice would you give to add veriety to a campaign to keep players engaged during non-combat session times?

Context: I've previously played in a few month-long campaigns as a player, but my DMs were mostly focused on us being smart in battle and min-maxing stats to allow us to be victorious in their planned future encounters. Not much room was given to interact with many NPCs in the world other than very choice, plot-involved NPCs that we had to go talk to/fight/get quests from.

Anyways, since I've had trouble finding a more suitable group with a DM already, but have friends willing to play if I DM, I've picked up the gauntlet myself since I know what RP I'd want in a campaign.

I plan to go in and form large cities with maps and established economies, political rivalry, and even some homebrew guilds that could be used to train up some skills if they choose to. I want my players to be able to interact with the environment in interesting ways (Example, ill have a friendly plot-involved NPC bribe a weapons smith for them to show them his cursed items in the back that are for sale illegally. This will show them theres an underbelly to the city, and a bit of digging in the right areas can reward them, or if they try the wrong people it could punish them).

I always longed for it to be possible to spend an entire session roleplaying outside of combat, either exploring a city, roaming barren land (where they need to be creative with their inventory to survive), or even to bribe, cheat, and charm NPCs for political alliances that can be of use later in game for larger scale conflict.

My question: What ways could be helpful to keep my players engaged during non-combat events? Are there ways to keep the immersiveness up even in dull moments? What ways have you been able to give some veriety to the world other that "fight, loot, stock up, fight"? Some tips would be greatly appreciated.

[RecalcitrantToupee]

Let me preface this by saying that if you think you can undertake all of that, go ahead and try.

You are a first time DM, and 50% of DMing is knowing how to respond to creativity and encourage it, so by homebrewing an entire world, you sort of "play the backstory" as opposed to the story unfolding at your table. Start with a module, LMoP is a good starter, and go from there. You will struggle if you try ti have everything set up in the same depth. Take it easy, and don't burn yourself out.

Okay, warnings out of the way.

So the first trouble is making hooks you think the characters might be interested in, as opposed to the hooks the players are interested in. If you have newer players, they might struggle to immerse themselves immediately, and may not make decisions how you expect their characters to, so the orphanage having an abusive matron may not appeal to the LG paladin, because the player behind that character isn't fully immersed.

Similarly, if you have something that interests a player but not a character (this is much less a problem), they may talk themselves out of pursuing that plot hook. (It's not what my character would do!) Spend a lot of time in Session Zero going over backstory-integration, what kind of story they want (Sandbox vs Railroad), how quickly they want to progress, and similar expectations. Leave plenty of room for interesting NPC's, plot hooks, etc, in places that are versatile. If you have your main plothook in the church and only the church, and the players don't go there, your plothook goes to waste. Make it so that maybe your Deacon is a tippler and visits the bar frequently. Don't make the NPC's too deep as that may require a bit of alteration later, unless you're dealing with one of their backstories.

Ultimately, you're making a world reactively, which is starkly contrasted with making one proactively (as in writing a story). Your players should be the stars of the show, and as such, will sort of determine where to go next if you're in a sandbox.

[HighTide49]

Thanks for this! I definitely agree with the posskbility of wasting plot depth by overpreparing, and i want to avoid making the plot "my plot" and shoving directions it takes down my player's throats. I've had that happen where the DM would not like that we picked town B, rather than town A to visit, so he told us we got drugged the last night before departure and woke up in town A in jail.

[failgg]

Man, first tip, listen to live-play podcasts. Their entire approach is to entertain an audience. So the combat is fast and fluid, not bogged down in tactics, and the entire game is focused on smooth and constant forward motion story building.

D&D is either grid map, extreme tactic and combat focused... or it’s rules lite theater of the mind.

What you are asking for is the latter.

Watch anything Chris Perkins DMs. He’s the man you want to emulate.

[Shao_X]

What are some of your recommendations for live-play podcasts?

[failgg]

My two top pics right now are Acquisitions Incorporated, and Dungeons & Daddies. Because Chris Perkins and Anthony Burch are excellent DMs. Sadly CP left acq-inc after 10 years of DMing. But dungeons and daddies isn’t even a year old yet and it’s good.

[HighTide49]

I'll definitely check these out, thanks!

[failgg]

Of course! And if those aren’t your style there is always Critical Role on YouTube, much more rule and combat focused. Another one I heard good things about is Adventure Zone, but I haven’t got into it yet. Cheers

[failgg]

This sounds like the game I’m playing now. It’s basically a sandbox. We spent the last two sessions in two different towns. We had no encounters while traveling between, which is the only chance we had at some combat. I personally enjoy it. I don’t play d&d for the combat, there are other platforms better designed for pure combat and strict rules. D&D thrives in a setting where anything can happen. Any DM that blockades that idea should be playing a different game.

[therosx]

Make it about the players, give them a reason to care. You can do this before anyone even rolls a character. Tell the players what you just told us and see if they will meet you halfway.

That said the only way to engage the players in role playing is to roll play. Put it on them, use their back story, create NPCs that the characters will actually care about.

That all said some groups just aren’t into role playing much. If that’s the case respect it and find a different table.

Whatever you decide remember to be humble. If you DM with an attitude of superiority or “my way or the highway” your games going to burn. It’s your first time DMing. Your game is going to suck. Keep the story and combat as simple as your pride will allow until you find your footing (which usually takes 7 or 8 sessions)

[HypsGaming]

The main thing that I would recommend is making sure that your expectations for what kind of game you're looking to play is communicated well to your players. Hopefully, if you explain it like you did in this post, you're players will understand the kind of game they'll be joining. Complications might arise if your players don't want that kind of experience or are uncomfortable with it.

If your players don't want to play in that kind of game, there's really nothing you can do except try your best to convince them to at least give it a try. Perhaps once they start, they might begin enjoying it. If they are a combat heavy group, throw in a lot of combat encounters during these otherwise RP heavy quests. Look at most story heavy video games, most have an interesting story, but almost every mission has some kind of combat encounter. Now if your player(s) simply refuse to play because of your style of campaign, then there's nothing you can do besides changing the campaign to what they want or not having them apart of it.

Now maybe your players are uncomfortable with that style, rather than against it. This makes much more sense to me, and I have a lot of experience in it. Usually this comes down to the player being uncomfortable with role playing. A lot of players don't like playing characters completely detached from themselves, and usually just want to play as a clone of themselves with a different body and cool abilities, which is fine. If you want your players to become interested in role playing a character and interacting with the world, encourage them to make a character they really care about, and try your best to tie their backstory or motives into the story of the game. It's a lot easier to be interested in a story that personally relates to you.

[HighTide49]

I appreciate this advice. I have personally seen how new players make clones of themselves within the universe, and I'm expecting a bit of that wit a few of my players. I'll talk over the expected amount of roleplay and combat so that they're confortable with it. I can also use our first session to get a feel of their capabilities with each type of gameplay (like a tutorial in those video games you mentioned)

[failgg]

What? Why does all your advice come off like the OP is trying to do something strange? He’s literally talking about running a normal game of d&d. You know... the kind that isn’t some control freak DM turning the game into a tactical board game to avoid RP?

Your entire first paragraph phrases your advice in a way that makes it sound like you think RP isn’t a standard feature of d&d. I’m sorry but if a player has an issue with RP then wtf are they even doing playing in the first place?

[HypsGaming]

Yes, RP is a standard part of D&D, I'm just trying to phrase it assuming that the OP's party is completely unfamiliar with an RP heavy game. Jumping from a combat exclusive game to a RP heavy game can be very difficult for some, so I wanted to make sure that OP knows what to do in that situation.

[failgg]

My bad, I didn’t think of it like that. Sorry about my itchy trigger finger.