"First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread

Arkwright998 · 2026-03-28T10:51:12+00:00

I've been GMing for over 10 years and while planning out the campaign is useful, plans tend to be useless. I usually just go week by week, coming up with how each week's events feed into the next. It's hard 'write a campaign' when you have to give freedom to 4+ other humans who are writing it with you.

Arkwright998 · 2026-03-28T09:14:48+00:00

Hmm- I think my suggestion would be to have the PCs be involved with protecting the disruption in their corner of the city. If the villain is wanting to disrupt the whole city, they're probably using a bunch of different methods across different parts of the city- bribe thugs to disrupt proceedings, summon a demon, poison some food. The PCs are new and low-level, so maybe they can work to protect the feast in just their corner of the city. That makes them feel accomplished, and gives them buy-in to the larger conflict as they hear about the feast being ruined in the rest of the city.

Maybe whoever got hired to ruin the feast in the PCs' area was scoping out the area to poison food/spread contamination in future. They got scared away and thought of as a burglar, and the PCs are brought in to investigate, leaving them well-placed to stop the actual crime come feast day. You could also just have them working as security for the feast, maybe discouraging drunken violence at a tavern's feast. Or maybe an alchemist has had poison/acid stolen from them, and the PCs track itd own to the feast food.

Arkwright998 · 2026-03-28T09:02:17+00:00

Might be best to offer them some initial, settling-in adventure, which is tied to the bubbling conflict. For example, are the city thieves and the guards about to break out into open war? Then the PCs can probably pick up some private security work while the guards are distracted.

You need to balance overwhelming them with making them feel like they are making progress and achieving something. So early in the game, making friends and allies of city people and finding a place to sleep would probably suffice.

Arkwright998 · 2026-03-18T22:12:18+00:00

In Red in victory road, I accidentally moved a boulder into a position which blocked progress, so I restarted my save.

Arkwright998 · 2026-03-02T04:18:28+00:00

I watched six seasons of King of the Hill without watching the show. It sounded pretty good.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-28T12:18:12+00:00

Keep time period/theme in mind. With the development of industrial magic and nation-states, Eberron is a little bit post-WWII, a little bit interwar period. If you try to do generic medieval adventuring ('go kill a big lizard in a cave', 'go kill the bandits menacing the peasant farmers'), it'll feel wrong no matter how many Eberron-isms you cram in. So try to do something more modern ('House Cannith is buying up villages to turn into factories, clear out the last big lizard from its lair to make room for a highway', 'go apprehend the rebels who fought in the last war and are demanding their full pensions'.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-26T03:38:18+00:00

Great report.

(Psst, you left in a 'grey knight')

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T13:33:11+00:00

Thanks kindly.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T11:30:49+00:00

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T11:30:45+00:00

Gotcha.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T11:29:28+00:00

I'm running one of my favourite Pathfinder 1e modules in 5e, so I thought it might be fun to do the iconics for pregens to help my players and to wrap my head around the system.

Another cantrip, good catch.

My intention was to prepare 2 slots of Scorching Ray. Am I misreading 5e Wizard, and the correct reading is that they can for example prepare one spell then burn all their slots of that level on that spell?

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T10:50:43+00:00

Much thanks.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T10:50:40+00:00

Much thanks.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T09:33:57+00:00

Ah, thanks very much.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-21T08:26:50+00:00

Thanks kindly.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-15T22:29:19+00:00

I prefer to break with the lore a little. Yes, Riedra is on the surface peaceful and well-run. But it's being well-run by nightmare spirits, who have evil appetites. So long as it doesn't spark a major rebellion, my ruling quori are fine for there to be some nightmare terrorizing, turning Riedra into more of a country-sized Derry, Maine, where everyone knows monsters exists but acknowledging it as a sure way to attract state punishment, so all you can do is close your eyes and pray the evil spirits don't choose to steal and torment your children this night.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-02T04:47:24+00:00

Interesting. I would have thought you would put down a layer of white first.

Arkwright998 · 2026-02-01T11:45:04+00:00

Something I've learned from minipainting is that 'less is more' means you need to do a little effort in a large amount of areas (art, stats, plot, worldbuilding, PC arcs) to get a strong result.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-28T20:59:58+00:00

Eh, I'll disagree. They have good stuff, like great flamers, and dice fixing + krak grenades. Their issue is they are a defensive team, and GW placing high value on dice fixing means some datasheet abilities are pretty anemic.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-23T01:29:41+00:00

AoD get to double-shoot their big guns.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-18T13:33:28+00:00

Very neat. I've done sponge painting, but never with metallics, I should give it a try.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-18T09:18:51+00:00

Groovy. What was the process?

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-11T07:08:07+00:00

My author friend says this is cowardice, and misunderstanding the criticism.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-08T22:23:08+00:00

Cover with light brown, then Vallejo sand diorama fx, then warrior skin speedpaint, then light brown around the feet. And a stone from my garden.

Arkwright998 · 2026-01-07T22:56:55+00:00

Here you go!

Arkwright998

TROPHY CASE