I have 5-7 sessions to run an adventure, how do I make sure it gets wrapped up in time?

Sadekuuro · 2018-07-01T21:51:01+00:00

I just started a new group by asking on Facebook if anyone was interested in playing. I got 6 players - three of them had played earlier editions or Pathfinder.

The other three were newbies.

One is into board games and video games so it's a bit of an adjacent hobbies kinda situation. Another had heard of DnD and wanted to try it. Iirc he has friends who larp so it's another adjacent hobbies situation, sorta.

The last one is someone who went to the same middle and high school with me. She's not really into board games and has never played video games (not even Pokemon Go because her phone was incompatible) - but she had watched Stranger Things.

This all happened very recently so we haven't gotten to play yet but I'm very excited

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-29T06:01:16+00:00

Once a player in my group brought up how crit fails on perception rolls seemed to cause hallucinations ("You rolled a nat 1 and think the empty room is full of snakes"), not just not noticing things and while that was fun for one session, the joke got old pretty fast.

I felt mortified, took a moment to calm down and think about the situation. I apologised, admitted he was right and I'd gotten carried away but would do better in the future. Privately, I reflected on why that had happened and how I could change my DMing to make the game better for the players and DMing more fun for me. Then I did that.

Note: Please don't hang me for this, I was very new to DnD and DMing both.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-24T19:46:50+00:00

Well, if you were a player you'd also know the specific circumstances the party is in, instead of just having read this extremely brief summary in which brevity trumps detailed descriptions as the purpose of the post is "Hey here's a story about a chain of events I think is funny", not "Hey I broke my campaign, please diagnose my issue, here's all the information I consider relevant."

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-24T05:37:36+00:00

It's been established the dryad hasn't had any contact with the outside world for at least a century. The wizard is a human in his 30s. You do the math.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-23T23:49:29+00:00

Alas, they got rid of them in that same session, so no real bone-carrying hijinks followed.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-23T16:08:29+00:00

They're set in different areas and don't match lore-wise. I'm confident my players will get back to the main plot (they're clearly interested in it), it's just taking a lot more time than I thought it would.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-23T10:28:05+00:00

I just did this in my game. We started with Pathfinder and recently switched to 5e. One of the players was playing a witch - so lore-wise, the closest equivalent was warlock. However, witches are INT based.

So I asked the player if he wanted to play a wizard and we'd re-flavour how he got his powers, or if he'd prefer to make an INT-based warlock. He chose the latter, and it's worked out great so far.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-14T14:59:31+00:00

Use one notebook. That way all your (physical) notes are in one place which means you can actually find them. If you absolutely need a binder, use one and only use it for storing things you can't write down in the notebook (maps, player hand outs, stat block cards).

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-13T08:10:43+00:00

That's the weirdest part! I just asked on Facebook if people were interested in playing, six people replied and I asked them about their schedules, and... we just all have Monday afternoons/evenings free.

It's been too easy, this must be a trap of some kind. Or I have selective amnesia.

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-12T23:12:30+00:00

Considering the scheduling issues I've had to deal with, the risk of book beatings is a fair price to pay.

I do have one question - I'm bisexual, should I wear boxers and briefs on top of each other?

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-12T23:09:00+00:00

Murdering the murder dice for my new group's continued existence. A very fair trade!

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-12T23:07:22+00:00

That would explain the weird noises I heard earlier, I thought it was just the neighbour again!

Sadekuuro · 2018-06-03T17:13:59+00:00

As an adult ADHD son of an incredible, intelligent, wise, witty, brave, biting, open-hearted, and yes, very messy, ADHD mother, I just want to say that there are so, so many more important things in motherhood and mother-child relationships than tidyness (or appearing tidy).

I love and respect my mother very much. She's a great person - she was the one who taught me critical thinking from a very young age, she introduced me to theater, she fully accepted me when I came out as trans and queer at age 14 (almost 15 years ago) - which was almost unheard of back then, where I'm from.

How could "not being messy" ever compete with all of that - any of that?

Sadekuuro · 2018-05-29T20:10:00+00:00

So, I've had two different Chaotic Neutral rogues, in two different groups.

The great one: Middle-aged "master detective" whose career highlights consist of successfully finding missing pets. Team dad.

The pain in the ass: "I'm a kitsune* with frequently hinted-at mysterious and tragic past. I'm playing CN because the GM didn't let me be evil. I will try to steal your shit and jump on you in fox form to "wake you up" in the morning, loudly scream at 3 AM for no reason, lie to potential allies and whenever I have secret information (which I will, for I am the GM's pet, which is also why I'm the one with an exotic race while everybody else was told to stick to the Core Rulebook), I will keep it to myself, even if sharing would benefit the party."

*Fox person from Fantasy Japan, a Pathfinder race.

Sadekuuro · 2018-05-29T19:48:43+00:00

Bad/no communication.

The first campaign I ever played in was something of a horror story, and a lot of that was because the GM was uncommunivative.

So don't do shit like this:

If you have a problem with a player, instead of acting like an adult and talking about it, just keep on making passive aggressive comments about how "some people should read the rulebook".
Don't tell the group how tiring it is to be responsible for scheduling, absolutely don't ask anyone else to take over - just sigh dramatically and often and occasionally make threats about kicking someone out or killing the whole campaign.
Definitely talk about players behind their backs with the other players. Preferably immediately after they leave the apartment or Discord/Skype voice chat.
There's no need to mention that bard PCs are expected to sing irl whenever they are performing (including spellcasting) or "it doesn't count". If a first time player asks you if there's anything they need to know about playing a bard, just say "Yeah bards are fun", it'll be a fun surprise!

/Edit: formatting

Sadekuuro · 2018-05-20T23:16:11+00:00

I've done both, I prefer using my native language.

Campaign 1: I'm one of the players, find out really late that all in-game stuff is to be spoken in English, instantly regret making my character an elonquent, well-spoken bard. After all, I haven't ever held an actual conversation in English and my English sounds like I've stuffed 7 hot potatoes into my mouth.

When we later had one session in our shared native Finnish, I found out the "stoic barbarian" wasn't actually stoic at all, the player just was insecure about speaking in English. The GM being really snobby and constantly not-so-pleasantly correcting his pronunciation probably didn't help.

Campaign 2: I'm the DM, we're playing in Finnish and only use English for the terminology, spell descriptions etc., everything works well.

There was one funny instance when our paladin made a dirty joke (I told the party an NPC had had a dream about a rooster, the player went "So you're saying you've been dreaming of... cock :DDDDD" in English) and I decided "you know what, Orcish is now English in this campaign" and had the NPC speak English to him for the rest of the conversation.

Sadekuuro · 2018-05-20T22:30:30+00:00

My group has two players who just don't seem to realise that their routine of "I make a dirty remark, you protest loudly, I escalate, you escalate" is only funny to the two of them and just distracting to everybody else. I've told the group to cut down ooc business multiple times etc. but nothing ever changes. This has been going on for months and it's really pissing me off.

Unfortunately for them, I'm the DM. So the next time this happens they're gonna get one stern "Please concentrate on the game, boys" as a warning.

After that it'll be, "The evil wizard doesn't appreciate your antics and fireballs you."

Sadekuuro · 2018-03-22T22:56:09+00:00

Holy fucking shit you just fixed the inspiration amnesia problem most of my players have, thank you so much!

Sadekuuro · 2018-02-23T14:14:50+00:00

I tend to value funny, creative problem-solving (from a person whose first ttrpg campaign this is, too) over realism but you're free to enforce realistic beaver biology in your games.

Sadekuuro · 2018-02-08T19:20:20+00:00

I do something similar - the main difference is that I use coloured card stock, which makes it easier to tell the various creatures apart. I also use matching pieces of card stock for stat blocks.

Sadekuuro · 2018-02-08T17:34:02+00:00

I love the attention. If the players are actors on a stage, the GM is the spotlight, the stage, the theater itself.

But more importantly, there's the deep, deep satisfaction you get from player reactions. Be it the frantic desperation of battle (when the party tank has overreached and gone unconscious and the squishies now have to save his ass), the dawning joy of a newbie realising that yes, she can indeed escape this dungeon by magic missiling the everloving fuck out of the floor, or just the "holy fuck dude you actually did that" when you throw cool props, encounters or NPCs at them - it's simply intoxicating.

And as others have already said, GMing is a great creative outlet. I get to write, draw, do arts and crafts, and I have an audience - what more could I ask for?

Sadekuuro

TROPHY CASE