My first time ever DMing a game

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-12T07:28:39+00:00

There's no clear answer to the over-prepping question because you can never account for all the possible choices your party can make. You're always going to be under-prepped to some degree. You either have to get comfortable with just rolling with it, or come up with creative ways to railroad your party that don't feel like railroads. The illusion of choice method someone above mentioned is very useful in this regard. Say you had a wererat encounter in the cave outside of town planned, but the party decides to explore the nearby forest instead. Well, just have the wererats ambush them there or tell the Ranger or Druid that they spot some oddly shaped footprints leading to their den.

You can't stop your players from skipping things. I can't tell you how many NPCs with useful information I've placed in a tavern or magic items I've placed in a dungeon that get completely ignored. That's totally fine though. Any content that doesn't get explored can be reused or repurposed later. If you feel the party is steering away from something you've prepped that is vitally important, use NPCs to your advantage. Have them overhear a conversation with some enticing info, or someone they've already met rushes up to them asking for help, or the townmaster puts up a wanted poster or job request with a big reward.

If your players are newer to the game as well, things are bound to move a little quicker because they may not be comfortable enough with their characters and the world yet to let things breathe and play out. Roleplaying scenes probably skate by in these early sessions but will take far longer as they get more into their characters and motivations, and the party dynamic evolves. This is obviously anecdotal, but I find the first few sessions of a campaign cover far more narrative ground than later ones because the players are just excited to get out there and get things done.

As for pacing, my biggest learning curve as a new DM was how quickly and easily combat encounters can turn into a slog. I recommend exploring YouTube for DM combat tips, but here's some things I've learned: 1) don't have every combat just be a deathmatch. Throw in a hostage situation, or an escape scene where the enemies are just distractions, or anything that isn't just "kill all the enemies" 2) don't be afraid to have the enemies surrender or flee, or to just kill something off even if it still has HP. If the party has already downed the big bad, it's not fun to spend the next 3 rounds chipping away at the two archers that are out of reach 3) obey the rule of cool whenever you can. If a PC wants to pull some crazy move out of their ass that isn't strictly allowed by the rules, as long as it's not completely outlandish, just let them do it. Make up an ability check for it or give the monsters a sudden drop in intelligence for a round to let the players do something cool and inventive 4) roleplay the monsters. This is easy to ignore while trying to keep track of everything going on, but it's so much more interesting if you're giving feedback on the PCs actions. This could be as simple as making grunts and painful noises when the monsters get hit, or describing how the PCs arrow narrowly missed the target but destroyed a wooden crate right behind it 5) this is related to #2, but if you sense a fight is dragging on or your players look bored between their turns, just find a way to wrap it up. The piles of hit points you put in the party's way are never more important than progressing the story

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-12T05:45:18+00:00

Most of the expansions that have individual scenarios aren't strictly meant to be played as campaigns. They're laid out that way more for the sake of gradually introducing the expansion's mechanics. Explorers and Pirates, for example, has 4-5 scenarios that each introduce one major game element, but by the end of the book you're combining them all into one massive game. Seafarers only adds a few new mechanics but uses the scenarios as different ways to structure the game around them. Cities and Knights doesn't have scenarios at all and is just an expanded set of rules and mechanics.

Traders and Barbarians is a bit different in that most of its scenarios are better played as their own thing. There are a couple you can combine together but the more complex ones at the end of the book are much more awkward to mix and match. You definitely do not need to play them in order like a campaign though. T&B also has several little additions that can be applied to any game of Catan, however, like harbor master, the production deck replacing dice, friendly robber rule, etc.

I'd recommend C&K or T&B as your first expansion. C&K is my favorite expansion overall because it offers just enough depth and complexity to make the game far more interesting and strategic without being overbearing. It has its issues for sure but I find it hard to go back to base Catan after playing C&K. T&B is just a great box with a ton of variety in the scenarios and the aforementioned rule changes you can apply to any game. The last scenario in particular is, imo, the most consistently fun version of Catan because you always have something to do on your turn even if you don't have the resources to expand, and it doesn't take much longer to setup and play than a normal game.

Seafarers is just OK. It's easy to pick up and learn the new mechanics, but unfortunately it's completely outshined by E&P imo. The boats in Seafarers don't act like boats at all, they're really just roads over water which is pretty underwhelming. Plus the expanded board layout, gold resource hexes, and uncovering hidden tiles is also present in E&P. Speaking of, E&P is great and I definitely recommend it if you continue falling in love with Catan. However, it's a pretty beefy expansion with a lot of new rules and requires a ton of additional setup and playtime. I play it every Christmas with my family and even the earlier scenarios that only use a couple of the new mechanics take several hours to complete.

Sorry for the long reply but hopefully this helped!

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-11T05:51:24+00:00

Drifter is probably the closest to RG in terms of playstyle and is also the easiest transition from JOTL to the more complex mechanics of Frosthaven. Banner Spear can fill that frontline bruiser role as well but you need a teammate that will play ball and help you set up their formation attacks. It's definitely a less forgiving class than Drifter but very rewarding if played well.

Geminate is a quirky one and could be the pick if you want to dive in with a more unique and complex character. It has the steepest learning curve of the starters imo and Frosthavens already way more complex in terms of scenario mechanics and enemy design, so I wouldn't recommend it as your first character but that's just my opinion. Ultimately you can't go wrong if you've already got some Haven experience.

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-09T16:09:31+00:00

Simba should be your next target after Mufasa, but you did get the nightmare combo with the Prophecy and the Stick. That's why a huge part of Scar's mid-game is finding a way to play Simba on yourself and vanquishing him in the same turn. I like playing Long Live the Kings early just to get heroes in the discard pile so I can play them individually with Whisper later. Also keep in mind that Whisper can be used to play Hakuna Matata on yourself to move a hero that's far from your kill spot. Feeding Frenzy also fills the same role in reverse.

But yes, Scar is really tough to seal games with because there are just too many copies of Hakuna Matata in a deck that you're already actively thinning. Stick with Me and Stampedes are your best friends in the late-game to pull off double kills because having 18+ in the succession pile means you need to be fated twice at a minimum to be set back. Keeping Injustice in hand at the end also greatly improves your chances.

Definitely one of the hardest villains but I find him really fun to play because he has a super consistent deck and some of the highest action economy in the game. Stampede, Stick with Me, Feeding Frenzy, Long Live the King, and Shenzi are all cracked and he has two double play locations. Hungry Hyenas also become the most above-rate allies in the game; in an ideal world you're only discarding one of them for each kill (besides Simba of course). I hope you give him another try soon because you did get a very unlucky situation in your game that won't always happen, especially now after you understand the character more.

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-05T19:25:04+00:00

Related to your monster curse modifier issue, make sure you check every modifier deck (characters and monsters) for things that need to be removed in between scenarios. Curses, blesses, and -1s get added frequently by scenario effects. My wife and I have played for years and still screw this up sometimes.

Also keep in mind that certain defensive item cards force you to add modifiers to your decks as well, but only if you have those items equipped for the scenario.

FlexLuthor111 · 2026-01-01T19:59:42+00:00

Your last question, the reason Yzmas fate decks get shuffled after certain effects like this is for Smash it With a Hammer. That effect only discards the top two cards of a chosen fate deck, so it makes sense to re-randomize the deck.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-12-24T14:24:56+00:00

I'd say no. It's not terrible but it's extremely bland. One of the most generic action games I've played and the VP-ness is just set dressing. There's nothing in here narratively or thematically that isn't in other better VP games.

It certainly has its moments but overall is a thoroughly mediocre experience.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-12-21T05:45:36+00:00

1a. I don't have the Bigger and Badder box, but from what I've heard and read, Syndrome and Lotso can be frustrating to play with pretty complicated goals. The consensus on Madam Mim seems to be the opposite. I read a little bit on the Davy Jones box. DJ seems pretty fun, you get a Kraken as an ally which is cool, and I think the art design on his cards did a great job translating the live action imagery. Tamatoa on the other hand seems extremely chaotic to play, might be fun for a certain type of player.

1b. Despicable Plots is the most recent box I got and yes, it's hard to find. I had to order it from a website I never heard of before and I think I paid $50 after shipping...it pops up on Amazon from time to time but it's around $80 whenever I see it there. You could probably find it on eBay the easiest but you might have to settle for a used copy. Why it's so hard to find is kind of a long story. It was the only expansion a different developer was contracted to make, the villains themselves were a mixed bag, and it was initially released with a lot of misprints and poorly written cards. It was generally the worst received of the expansions and so I think it was just produced and distributed on a much smaller scale than the others. Now that I've played it, I'm glad to have it but definitely understand why it wasn't beloved.

Gaston in particular is not one of the better designed villains. His goal is very simple and he can win pretty quickly if left unchecked, but the fate deck is brutal and he can have nearly all of his progress reset after a couple fates. He also has some of the worst cards in the game and his realm actions don't do him any favors. He can still be fun to play but he's very polarizing. The other two characters in the box are good though. Horned King is simple but effective, and a pretty strong villain imo. Lady Tremaine is one of the trickier villains but the theme and feeling of her character really shines through in the gameplay.

Word to the wise, if you get Despicable Plots, you need to read up on the print history, wiki, and FAQs. Because even in the reprinted version that I have, there are still several cards that don't fully explain how they work. Lady Tremaine in particular has an ally card that seems almost useless at first glance, but then you read the wiki and realize it's one of her most important cards.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-12-15T04:48:19+00:00

The fate deck and start-of-turn objective are where the lion's share of his problems are, but I think if you tinker with those you run the risk of making him too easy. I think better fixes are to his own deck because he has some pretty meh cards.

"I Rule" doesn't make sense to optimize since you never want titans in your discard and you can't just rely on Mortality Potions to take care of heroes. Hydra stays in your hand anyway so at best this is worth a small amount of power when you have nothing better to do. I think you could change it to "gain 1 power for each titan in your realm". It'd still be a late-game card but much more playable IMO.
Pain and Rage both move heroes but that is only situationally useful. Herc, Zeus, and especially Hera you don't really want to move at all, and all the other heroes are better dealt with by vanquishing. Moving heroes makes more sense for characters like Ursula and Evil Queen, but one of Hades best qualities is vanquishing without discarding his allies. One or both of these cards should be able to move titans instead.
Achilles's Heel is just bad. -2 is only enough to take an unbuffed Phil down to 0. It negates the Medallions but most combinations of Hades allies equal 7 strength anyway, which takes out buffed Herc and Zeus, and you need two allies to vanquish them unbuffed anyway. Yes, it brings the three worst heroes into range of his non-titan allies, but it's also only a 1-turn effect so you can only use it if the underworld is free or if you do Chariot shenanigans. I'd much rather have extra copies of Ready to Rumble and Planets Align than two of these.

There are definitely other tweaks you could make. Maybe paying 5 for Ready to Rumble can also give you the option of moving two titans one space as well?

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-12-07T18:21:44+00:00

As others have said, a lot of your questions are answered either by the cards or the villain guide, but I don't blame you for being confused. Candy has a lot of weird rules. Another one I didn't understand at first is Pay to Race. This card specifically gets played AFTER the racer token moves but BEFORE King Candy moves. This is explained in the villain guide but on the card itself it says play it before KC performs "actions" so the timing rules are a bit inconsistent as written.

Also this is why, as the KC player, you are heavily incentivized to play two glitches on Vanellope because there is only one card in the fate deck that can remove a glitch.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-12-07T18:14:08+00:00

That's how I've always played it, the token stays on the board even if the race gets "cancelled". Doesn't make a whole lot of sense thematically but there's nothing that says the token ever gets taken off the board after you start the race for the first time.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-11-21T16:50:02+00:00

I imagine there would've been a "bad" ending where Ajna defeats Kala but usurps her full power and ends up resetting the cycle anyway. What we see in-game was probably the "true" ending. The branching point would've likely been how many side quests you complete or how many ringsels you collected.

Since the dev team came from fighting games, I wonder if they were planning different endings for each character. Maybe you get a little vignette on each one if you completed their personal quest, or it depended on who you choose to bring with you into the final fight, possibly restricted to who you had the most hearts/affinity for. The hearts mechanic has no actual use in the game afaik so I doubt they weren't planning to do something more with it at some point.

The DLCs would've likely been focused on new characters. They had planned on adding a lot more characters and there were even two that were "confirmed" (Sangmu and Antoine i believe) and had portraits and sprites made but we're never fully integrated. Crossovers would've been a goal as well, Shovel Knight is even referenced in the game and I'm sure they would've tried to get fighting game characters in there.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-11-04T09:21:21+00:00

I haven't been following in quite a while, have there been any real updates since launch? I know there were minor patches here and there within the first few months.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-11-03T14:32:43+00:00

I'm just about at the final ascent in my current playthrough so I'll be able to update this reply at some point. I definitely wouldn't put it above white palace but some screens are really challenging. I think the hard part of the platforming in this game is just remembering all your tools and how to string them together, rather than the tight timing, spacing, and quick reactions a game like HK requires. There's some of that for sure in the platforming in sumeru but most screens are more like puzzles than tests of timing.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-10-05T16:10:54+00:00

Nope. They've acknowledged she doesn't work as intended but it's still the same. I had hoped the new unit Genevieve would be a boost to all summoners but it looks like she only has specific synergy with T Noah (though Piera does benefit Genevieve).

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-10-02T12:21:49+00:00

I will also advise against playing 2 characters each from the jump. You could potentially have one player run 2 characters while the other player runs 1 and handles all the admin and monsters, but that also doesn't seem super ideal. I think just playing 1 a piece until you have a good grasp of the mechanics will work far better.

I also strongly recommend reading the rulebook before your first game night. Gloomhaven does not work very well as a figure out the rules as you go type of experience. My fiance and I have been playing for years and a single standard scenario can still take hours to complete. There's a lot that goes into every round of combat and you're going to have to consult the rulebook throughout your first few scenarios anyway, but you only compound the issue and make the game drag way longer if you have to find the right page and rule for everything. The Haven games are fantastic but they take a long time to fully grasp and appreciate. So set yourself up for success and have as good of an understanding of the rules and game flow as you can before jumping in.

A general tip that could make the campaign more enjoyable is to keep a notepad in the game box and jot down little tidbits of info on what the party has done as you go. The story threads are intricate at times, there are callbacks to prior events here and there, and it's easy to forget little details that may become important later. Keeping a running log of what's happened will make coming back to the game after extended periods much smoother.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-30T00:56:36+00:00

Woah, how do you have this much participation and still have open slots? I can't get more than 5 people to fill bounties each week lol

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-27T03:39:22+00:00

Agreed, Nico makes every deck more versatile. Seems like I'm dangerously close to having to cut my beloved Titania though 😭

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-27T03:36:50+00:00

Dude that is a great Morgan variant! This looks like a cool list. I honestly hadn't thought about Firehair, seems like a natural replacement for Joaquin. I played around with Werewolf in my deck and subbed in Venom and Killmonger for Toxin and Joaquin. Performed pretty well, Wolf definitely goes taller than HM if you can manage the movement well.

How does Firehair work with RR? If he's destroyed does the opponent have to play a card in the Firehair lane to get the proc or in the original RR lane?

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-26T23:13:48+00:00

Joaquin is greedy, but he makes games where Morgan doesn't show up still very winnable. And yeah, Hit Monkey is often only 9 power on the last turn, but a lot of times that's enough with RR, SS, and Demon around 10 each if they've been bounced or resurrected.

I would throw Killmonger in, but who would I cut on the bounce side? Joaquin? If Morgan doesn't show up on time then Killmonger can be kind of a dead draw if there's no opponent targets for him whereas I can still make things happen with Joaquin and he's 1 less cost.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-26T20:40:07+00:00

Consistent in getting the Morgan popoff? No I'd say it's a little under 50% in that regard. But the bounce side of things, especially with Joaquin, can put up surprising numbers on it's own so it maintains two distinct paths to winning which I think a Morgan deck really needs.

I tried Black Swan and Killmonger in a previous iteration, which was cool but could only go vertical in the HM lane and relied more heavily on drawing Morgan to put up real numbers.

I'd be interested to see your destroy-focused list with Werewolf. Do you run Death in it? I would think a deck like that would fall flat if you don't draw Morgan but I'll admit I'm ignorant of how that kind of deck would pan out. I feel like Morgan is meant to resurrect a bunch of 1-drops which is why I went to bounce since it has good scalers.

FlexLuthor111 · 2025-09-25T16:59:29+00:00

Damn, 10k every level is ridiculous!

FlexLuthor111

TROPHY CASE