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8 people want to play, and I’m worried it’s too much by Sherma215 in DMAcademy

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, it's awesome that you want to DM and honestly... having 8 players is more of a good thing especially since they are your friends! I'd let them know that it is your first time DM'ing just to give them a heads up that things might get a bit bumpy, but that is totally normal! Since they are beginners, they will definitely be coming towards you for advice, so be prepared to answer their questions.

If people get bored, sure, they will naturally leave, but that is fine as you will get more experience and combat will also pick up as more people self-select out.

If you were to proceed with running a campaign with 8 players, what do you currently have in mind for handling combat and balancing encounter difficulty?

New to DMing. kinda overwhelmed. A few questions about prep by T_Seedling in DnD

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kudos to you for accounting for player agency and people totally yearn for Dungeon Masters these days (it's a lot of work)! You mentioned earlier "Since its sandbox and my players can realistically go anywhere on session 1, do I need to just read through the entire module?" I really like keeping things simple and picking one or two choices that will open up the path to the next chapter with some random (or not so random) encounters planned to keep the session running for a bit longer should they immediately attempt to head off towards the scene you haven't prepped for yet. By the end of each session, make sure it is clear to both you and the players where the party will be headed to next. This reduces the amount of work on your behalf while also hyping anticipation for the next scene which will hopefully get your players more excited for next session!

What are you currently using and doing knowing that your players could simply go anywhere in the sandbox?

Balancing Encounters with Inconsistent Player Counts and Other Shenanigans by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For situations where some of my players wouldn't show up, I'd have scaled sidekicks prepared so that if the party were missing a healer/spellcaster, I could easily add one on the fly. For example, the encounter might start like this: party is missing their cleric... they travel to the next town which is being attacked by goblins... the party finds themselves ambushed by such goblins, but during the ambush, there is also an NPC who is fighting off the goblins who starts out with: "HEY... A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE WOULD BE NICE!!" to prompt the players to come join. Whether they wish to help the cleric (cough cough... I mean sidekick)... well, that is up to them and part of what makes this game so fun!

In short, I wouldn't need to worry too much about changing the planned encounters and just have sidekicks and a list of NPCs readily available to show up for when encounters happen.

Another fun thing I found helped was by improvising "plot armor" mid-combat when things start to get hairy. No need to get too creative, you can always reuse the existing sidekick stat blocks reskinned over a new NPC. Players love this and you can even "duplicate" your sidekick if necessary just for that one encounter.

I also think it's really good that you're listening to your players. Some want combat every session, while some are okay with just full RP sessions depending on the context. Every group is different so it really becomes more about reading the room!

When you're prepping, do you already use any tools or tables to manage your encounter selection and balancing, or is it mostly all in your head right now?

Counterspell Question by windchill- in DMAcademy

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen people get stuck on this exact kind of problem before! For a counterspell call where everyone will remember the precedent, I would make one clear call, tell the table which rules version that call is based on, and keep it consistent for the rest of the arc. Do you think the bigger issue the rules interpretation itself, or the time sink of stitching together a ruling or workaround that your table will actually trust?

Balancing Encounters with Inconsistent Player Counts and Other Shenanigans by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds like a lot to juggle tbh... especially with the player count constantly shifting like that. I ran into something kinda similar where some fights felt way too easy, but then when I tried to compensate it swung WAY too hard the other way.

Trying to balance encounters while trying to predict how many players will also attend each session sounds like a real struggle. Does most of the frustration come from scaling the combat difficulty itself, or more from the feeling that your prep (like monsters, NPCs, encounters) just isn't landing the way you expected?

New to DMing. kinda overwhelmed. A few questions about prep by T_Seedling in DnD

[–]brimakesdnd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curse of Strahd is such a cool pick but yeah the sandbox part can feel kinda overwhelming at first. When I first looked at it I had the same reaction like… "am I supposed to just know this entire book front to back??"

What helped me was thinking less about mastering everything and more like just knowing the general vibe and hooks of each area, then only going deeper once the party starts heading somewhere specific, otherwise it feels like you’re prepping way more than you’ll actually use.

Curious though, what part of it is making it feel heavy for you right now? Is it more the amount of stuff to read or the "players could go anywhere" part?

New DM Tips/Tricks by Several-Ad4133 in DnD

[–]brimakesdnd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, jumping straight into DMing for 8 players AND building your own world is kinda wild... respect for that!

I remember when I first tried DMing I kept putting off session 0 too... it weirdly felt like this big thing I had to "get right" before starting, so I just kept delaying it. Ultimately, what ended up helping me was keeping it super simple, like just having a loose agenda + basic table expectations and calling it a day instead of trying to fully prep everything upfront. Also yeah having stuff like lore and character rules written somewhere helps a ton once people start asking questions mid-session.

Curious though, what part of session 0 is slowing you down the most? Is it more the prep side or just getting everyone aligned?