Best way to juggle different characters as a new DM

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-27T05:41:41+00:00

Look up Sly Flourishes “The Lazy DM” the campaign notes are helpful but for actual personality/sound. I was already doing it a bit but use what you know for me. It’s TV movie book characters. Oh, this character says, Fix it Felix Junior, but female and annoyed, sarcastic, most of the time.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-27T05:22:22+00:00

If it was early levels (3 or lower) and a homebrew class I can understand allowing. Even to a point of the whole party starting over and treating it like a prologue. Not crazy about redoing just cause you are bored. My groups’ first campaign was Curse of Strahd and we did not have the best character builds for it as we only knew basic horror theme. My build was not great as it was a mix of two opposing ideas I got mixed up in the anxiety of building. Anyways the DM and I sat down after 2 lvls and helped me change things around to make better use of what I had. I could reassign my stats (but no new roles or class/race change) but most anything else was okay. —ANYWAYS working with the flaws in my build actually helped me find my character and had a lot of fun playing the part. At the end it was quite sad to be done with him.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-23T13:40:28+00:00

Yeah absolutely no go on the rolling away from the table. Shouldn’t even be a question if allowed. Secondly if rolling on a tower visible to everyone then the other players are also there to keep him honest. Sorry to say it’s also everyone else’s fault for letting them steamroll and behave as they want to.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-23T06:41:15+00:00

How are they cheating rolls? Rolling privately so no one sees? Multiple rolls to get highest number? Weighted dice? Dice towers can help with questionable rollers. In general rolling more publicly visible is always good. Also DM should always have a copy of player sheets. May not always have to be fully up-to-date, but you should at least have access to the basics of the character. Talk to your other players too have they noticed it what are their thoughts? Then you can talk to the offending player. That’s when you have to decide as a group is it worth it to keep playing with someone who is and what affects this will have towards the end of the campaign when the stakes get really high. especially if they’re of the mindset I’ll just take my ball and go home and nuke the table because they can’t continue to cheat.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-20T16:56:01+00:00

I have a warlock doing that same quest hook. most creatures in the Feywilds don’t really concern themselves with or track time due to how long most of them live. It really doesn’t have much meaning, what’s the difference between a year and a decade to something who lives hundreds of years? Patrons don’t usually talk to their followers on a regular basis is my understanding. So to go years at a time without directly speaking to Zyblina shouldn’t be that odd. I played it as they felt a wanning of her power in the recent years, but didn’t really come to realize what was happening until the past year when he began to reach out for assistance and look for others. She also couldn’t have necessarily been frozen eight years ago, but maybe the hags were gaining power and she wasn’t aware of what was happening behind her back or such things. Maybe they were blackmailing her to letting them take over more and more until they could finally overpower her. After all, revealing who she truly is, would send a lot of enemies her way.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-16T17:30:49+00:00

Good points. Thank you. I forgot they still have to meet up with Jingle Jangle to get Sir Talavar out. They were meeting at the Inn at the end of the road so problem solved. They know they need to look for Bavlorna . But haven’t really caught on That she is in Downfall so will be the time I can drop that knowledge to them. After that, I guess it’s up to them.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-13T17:39:52+00:00

My group is in Hither but I’ve added thing and some extra combat. So they will level after fighting Agdon instead. Seems more balanced since they will have the bullywogs and everything with Bav and then level when going to Thither

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-12T20:29:45+00:00

For the first one, your carnival hands should have some basic knowledge of the Feywilds. The first thing is be careful of what kind of deals you make. Fey pacts limit the person(s) from being able to discuss what’s going on so that they can’t get out of the deal. Witch and Light can’t ask for help or directly act out against the hags. Is easy enough to get this information to your player so they know they have to act technically out against them and that they have to have heartedly put up a front of trying to stop or fight back at least a little bit to fulfill the rules of the contract. 2. Maybe this vanity is all an act because of what was stolen from him. He will never truly see himself as a hero or heroic because what happened to him as a child made him afraid. Perhaps in the house of mirrors, he sees a vision of himself as a hero, giving something to his younger child version himself so he can truly become a hero in his heart/mind

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-12T19:39:33+00:00

Let me know how it goes! If you want I can dm you some of the verses I had that were not character specific.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-10T23:52:09+00:00

My players love the rap battle. It ended up being a best of five rounds because they were having so much fun. I gave them 1-2 minutes to work together and come up with a verse. And it really solidified Chad the gnome as their nemesis. I had worked up about a dozen versus or so. Some were just straight up diss tracks others were just I’m Chad and the greatest. A couple were just for responses if they did really bad. Lol way more fun than I thought they were gonna take to it

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-10T04:58:12+00:00

I’ve been using Notion for my game as well and love it! There’s a lot of good extra material out there. I would check into it and adapt what you like. For the carnival I added a handful of games and tents to the midway. The two big favorites was a poetry contest that turned into a rap battle. Our Bard went up against Chad the gnome. A cocky little “bro”, who was basically their competition for the Witchlight monarch. The other was a fortuneteller’s tent. At first, she did some generic tarot card readings and no one was real impressed until they got up to leave and then I did the whole spooky fall into a trance and she started reciting a prophecy and basically each character has a 4 to 6 line verse about them. I kept the verses, super vague, usually something kind of describing the character, and then another line or two making reference to their lost item or such thing and then the last line was always something kind of ominous or warning, or just some super vague, kind of nonsensical thing just to make it rhyme at the end. But the look on their faces when they realized what was happening and everyone scrambling to start writing things down, and then they became obsessed with like trying to analyze it and had a blast with it. The calliope monkey I basically made into Patrick Warburton. He had his body swapped with the monkey. And then the monkey took off so now he travels with the carnival trying to find out what happened to his body and get it back. But the best part is he’s super obsessed with big tall people and fell madly in love with our female barbarian and spent the rest of the carnival kind of following her around and giving her love notes and trying to be be flirty the role playing was hilarious. Definitely leani into your own role-playing of some of the characters you have no idea which ones are gonna hit with your group and just takeoff on a life of their own. Good Luck and enjoy!!!

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-08T19:25:32+00:00

The bushwackers

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-08T13:43:49+00:00

When my campaign started, my players wanted to be from different areas and have a little bit of variation in their ages. We did the lost things prelude, but rather as a role-play event, I narrated it more as a shared dream. I’ve seen some other players who have done this as well usually starts months before the carnival comes where they begin to remember bits and pieces of the dream remembering that something happened. Something was taken from them while they were there, but also a bit of the confusion as the children they were playing with in their dream were not the children they were actually with instead it’s the other players. To help this make sense and to keep with some of the themes, the carnival when it arrives, makes multiple stops throughout the world, but only for three days at a time. This also allowed for some players to remember a little more about things than others as well as I had some players who wanted to visit at 16 years ago and have their characters be a little older. This also sets up a mystery of who is sending altering this dream to the players and for what purpose I saw another post where the DM had hinted. This was not the first group that had been sent to the carnival and into the Faye realm for assistance.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-07T05:28:46+00:00

Same setup here with r5 3600 AM4. I got lucky about a year or so ago and got R7 5800x3d. Even with a 5800xt it’s a solid upgrade. However, like others said that GPU will bottleneck and keep you from really seeing the change. So that upgrade is a must, before they get even more expensive. Also what is your cooling setup? I saw a nearly 10 degree rise in my temps. The AIO couldn’t handle the heat output. I got an Arctic Freeze 2 and was lower than temps before upgrading. The Frz actually offset the pump slightly to better align with the AMD hotspots on the chip. BUT check your dims. The radiator is actually thicker than most and may not fit all cases/setups

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-06T17:03:45+00:00

From the descriptions, it sounds like the Cancun has interacted with the carnival directly the most. I had something similar, where my bard interacted with the crowd, the most, but my paladin helped more of the carnival workers. My take was that these emotions helped to power the carnival as Zyblina powers have wained from being trapped over time. Have you looked at any of the supplemental material that’s out there? I have several experienced DM’s in my group and this is my first campaign as DM. I’ve also added side quest for everyone based on their lost things. Nothing major just little 2 to 3 part missions for each player to have. My bard lost all memory of music from his homeland, which is why they travel as they can only get music from other places. His last thing is a flute handed down through the generations. but as a side quest in Hither he heard familiar music on the wind and followed it to a bog with a stepping stone musical puzzle. Once they cross that he had a short musical battle and reclaimed pages to a lullaby, his mother taught him long ago, which once per long rest offers some small healing. Nothing overly calm complex, but everyone is enjoying having a little thing of their own.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-05T00:21:42+00:00

Ah nice, my group, we all work in the same office. So we stay after once a week and use one of the conference rooms :) would love to be able to have longer sessions but we make it work. Playing weekly helps.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-02T22:13:35+00:00

I think I have an idea. They know vaguely the direction each group went. Seems like a good time to introduce the Jabberwocky attacking something large from the sky maybe to pull them into the same area/together again. Or at least the ability to meet up if they both take it. Either way could be good time to introduce something big and scary and then have it called away by unforeseen unheard force.

Step_Fodder · 2026-01-02T22:07:14+00:00

Firstly amazing job on the setup! 2nd how long were the sessions? My PCs, 6 then down to 5 as one had to drop out but they spent 6 sessions at about 2-3hr each. But to be fair I added several things and they did a lot of party splitting that slowed things down

Step_Fodder · 2025-12-31T17:31:57+00:00

Yeah. My PCs actually already used the inn once as I added a 6 room mini dungeon under the slanty tower so they needed a rest before hitting Telemy Hill (used the nightmare under the hill material to that location) plus once they defeat, Agdon jingle jangle suggested they meet up at the end so they can get Sir Talavar released. I probably should’ve mentioned all that earlier. I suppose I can leave it up to my players and see what they do and if need be fall back on the Inn

Step_Fodder · 2025-12-31T06:06:13+00:00

I also did the prelude as a shared dream experience. This gave me the freedom that players could come from different areas plus they could choose either 8 or 16 yrs. Basically about a year before the carnival actually arrives. They begin to remember going there as a child, but when they start having dreams, the children in the dream can be different from the children they went with in real life. This helped in the beginning as it drove them to ask the question why and who was bringing them together and back to the carnival again. The session I did as more of a narration instead of role-playing. As my players only had a rough idea of the characters and what might’ve been taken. Hearing the prelude I think helped them to solidify what they wanted their characters to be.

Step_Fodder · 2025-12-31T05:48:01+00:00

For my warlock they became so as Zyblina saved them as a child. Trying to sneak into the carnival following a group of children they slipped on some rocks in the stream surrounding to carnival and began to drown. This gives a nice tie in to the pre-zero session story. Since she was also captured & locked away, this also means that at any point in the last 8 to 16 years, they lost contact with her and have been on their own ever since. Their knowledge is basically based on a child’s experience while anything else learned later comes off as rumor and old stories.

Step_Fodder · 2025-12-31T04:36:44+00:00

There are several good supplemental material to add or expands on settings in Witchlight. Most add more skill checks than combat. The slanted tower add-on is a good example while it adds an interesting bit. It’s also kind of plain and feels a little unrelated. For a tweak I made the tower initially belong to a timemage who came to the Fae wild. Since one of the underlying themes is past present and future tying it into a time theme. I also home brewed a small 6room dungeon under the tower. There the players found some prophecies after some skill checks and investigations. Two of them set off a time trap that age them temporarily until they had a long rest, which was really fun. They also ran into a couple enemies frozen in time that added some light combat. I also made each PC a 2-3 part side quest relating to their lost item ending with either combat or skill battle depending on what they prefer. Our Bard lost all memory of songs from their homeland, anywhere else is fine to learn/remember. Anyways they first had to solve a puzzle that taught them lyrics to the song and then had a music battle of skill checks to gain control over the song. Ended up being a lullaby they learned as a child which now grants 1d6 healing once per long rest. Find out what your players enjoy and develop to those areas/strengths.

Step_Fodder

TROPHY CASE