DM Rants

[mao]

The Min Maxing PLayer>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I don't have a prob with these guys. The way I look at it, is if he can break the rules, the rules are bad not the player.

Admittedly my exposure to these is limited but I've also seen a trend that goes along with min maxing. In my experience they are also good to excellent RPers. They might actually be the total package

In the very limited amount I play, I'm sort of this. We Min Maxers tend toward spellcasters, and I havn't played a fighter in prob 10 years.

The one time it was a prob was when I was DMing 4th and the Min Maxer made all the char's, Now that was a NIGHTMARE. Level appropriate foes died in 1/2 a round. YIKES. That is when I stopped being such a "seat of the pants DM". But I learned a lot and went up a few L as DM. An unfortunate circumstance that really really stretched me as a DM. I'm truely glad for the lessons learned

[mao]

Don't make impossible to hit creatures, it is very frustrating for the players. Once in a GREAT while this is OK, but mostly it's just a time waster. The simple solution is to just give the thing more HP but there are creative ways to make the creature last longer
-Give it a force field that shows damage
- A swirling wall of living runes that absorb hits(functionally no dif from force field)
-Give it a "mastermind" ability that allows mooks/bodyguards to absorb hits

[mao]

no, No, NO! Nobody wants to read pages and pages of handouts. Nobody will pay attention to them. One of the very successful tricks I learned from running a 31 year long campaign: Less is more. I always UNDER explain everything. It creates an itch in your players, makes them THIRSTY for any scrap of knowledge. You will eventually be rewarded with players deeply engaged in every scrap of your lore.

[mao]

My rule number 2 is : Learn to say Yes!
When it really doesn't matter, always say yes to players, especially when it encourages good RPing.
They want to jump on top of T-Rex?, give them an easy roll to make and give them no game modifier
Say yes when heroics are involved
Treat your players like heros, in my game the PCs are always the top of the food chain , even when they are first.
Let them gain fame(it doesn't need to come with any other compensation)
A player has a monster he always liked fighting? Bring it on!
after all : What Does It Cost You?

[sixdemonbag]

These are great!! I agree with all of them, especially 3 and 4. DM monologuing and always saying "no" is something I've noticed that can really drag games down and frustrate players. My personality is such that I'm a people-pleaser, so my main goal is to facilitate player creativity and control, not my own.

An aside: I've been enjoying your game ideas very much!

[mao]

Jan 13, 2018 13:39:30 GMT -5 sixdemonbag said:

These are great!! I agree with all of them, especially 3 and 4. DM monologuing and always saying "no" is something I've noticed that can really drag games down and frustrate players. My personality is such that I'm a people-pleaser, so my main goal is to facilitate player creativity and control, not my own.

An aside: I've been enjoying your game ideas very much!

I have bunch more of these, I am teasing them out. Thanx for reading my stuff, leave a comment or two on something, my ego is starving

[mao]

One of the games I a have been running a little and working on a lot started me thinking on what I hate about shows like Grimm and X Files: The monster of the week. A world with hundreds(maybe thousands) of monsters does not make a lot of sense. True we have to deal with a weekly or so game, and we have a lot of encounters to fill up, but a limited monster game could be cool too.

When I started to world build I limited myself to 10 types of PC killers, but most of which have ten or more racial or regional variants. One of the main ones in the setting is werewolf there are tons of movie types to draw from. Another is variants in Wight to include some that are Liche like. The Apex predator in my word is the chimera, I have tons of heads, bodies and magical types( this has replaced the dragon in the myths).

Make sure that you fill all the niches that you will need when you start, you also might want to leave room for a cool future idea.

[mao]

MONSTERS SHOULD TRY AND RUN AWAY,WAY MORE THAN YOU ARE DOING IT NOW! (me too)

[mao]

Rule #3


Nobody watches, everybody at the table plays, no exceptions! I broke this rule EXACTLY one time since 1977 and sure enuf it was a problem. I let a guy sit in to see what the game was like, he started a loud side conversation and I went off on him. I lost a player and reminded myself how important it was. I even made the 60 year old mother of a 17 year old girl play when she wanted to check us out. She did pretty good for a civilian. Be firm with this one!

[mao]

Pet Peeves

Both are dice related.

1) STOP ROLLING THE DICE IN YOUR HAND!!!!!!!!
I can't stand it when players shake and shake their dice in their hand!
JUST ROLL THE darn DICE!!!!!!!!
(If they are describing what they are doing in an RP way, that's FINE, but to shake and shake saying"C'mon Daddy needs a 20!" I just want to strangle them)

2) WORST OF ALL: ROLL THE DICE ON THE darn TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
Really, how hard is this? You are doing something a 4 year old can do right!
It got so bad at one point, I made a house rule that dice off the table= lowest poss roll!
DON"T ROLL THE DICE TOWARD YOURSELF!!!!! This is ASKING to throw them off the table!

[mao]

Per Peeves two
I'm only semi involved in character creation, usually the extent of my intervention is selecting "volunteers" to play the Cleric and the Wizard. The cleric is necessary because I love a combat heavy session (I've mentioned previously: It is my best trait as DM). I find Wiz characters near indispensable for the kind of game I run (for some reason I can't fathom, I'm not thief friendly, got nothing against them).But the area I can be most intrusive in is: Character Names!

The players pick in this is very important to me. Silly names are right out! Usually overly complex, long or hard to pronounce will drive me into a frenzy.

I've really softened on this over the years, My new player a couple of days ago broke just about all my rules except silly. I did what I did now and gave him a short nickname and enforced it. He is Brew now( it was part of his incomprehensible name). Only thing I go active on these days is silly.

Really not sure why this is so important to me. It's not like I've had a ton of problems with this over the years.

I guess everybody has their quirks and this is a big one of mine.

[mao]

EPIC FAIL


So after running Mysantia for so long ,I needed a break from fantasy . I started an epic supers game using Villains and Vigilantes. Everything you could have done wrong I did.

The game was supposed to be about dimensional shifting aliens who had super super tech. For years the players were never given any solid clues about their foe. I dragged the game on and on, degenerating into a series of fight after fight. Attendance was bad and nobody cared about the plot. I never did anything with the hero's that didn;t involve combat.

Worst of all I made all the characters myself, without any player input. As th aliens shifted the dimentions around , the players often changed characters.

How could I not have seen how bad this all was?

To this day my game still suffers because of this atrocity.

I suppose the lesson I learned was being an imperial DM is only good if the players buy into the premise.

I look back in wonder at what I had done.

[mao]

Cheating DM #1
Ok in all but the most complex of battles , I almost never give HP to monsters. I just sort of wing it. I've got three basic categories, "Orcs, Ogres, Boss"

"Orcs" are your basic cannon fodder. 1-2 hits are a kill unless the players roll really bad, don't pay much attention to how much they do for the most part.

"Ogres" are your Gnoll Chieftain's, your bugbears your minor boss etc. These usually I let die after 35-50 Hp mostly 3-6 hits or so. I am fairly careful to regulate kills on these types.

"Bosses" have a huge range till they die, usually I'll wait till the party has used about 75-90% of their resources before it drops. Sometimes if the players have a great plan I'll let it die like a chump.

Now there is one rule I use with this, if I am winging the encounter (like usual) I don't kill pcs. Never. PC death I reserve for Major encounters that are carefully planned out and can with bad play lead to a TPK. This should be reserved for the rarest occasion, when the stakes are very high.

This being said my #1 ability I possess are my compelling combats, it's s much easier to do when the fight ends pretty much exactly when I want it to I am the KING of railroading DMs but remember I was able to sustain a 31 year long campaign this way. This way is prob for very advanced DMs but it is quite liberating.

Carefully award kills and spread the wealth!

[mao]

Cheating DM #2
Ok we've already established I play fast and loose with my monsters, so what about the dice?

I view the dice as a guideline, not set in stone. I don't even often give my monsters a set to hit number. It's almost like I do "high/low", but not completely. I take into account AC, a bit.I've had a very few canny players realize this and always go with Con instead of Dex. They tried to share the wisdom but luckily for me, they were unable to impart this wisdom. I extend this to the players to some degree. Last night I played and the cleric was rolling terrible on his channels. He rolled particularly low on his last one(6 on three D6). So with my eternal motto of "What does it cost me?" I let him reroll(he got an 8 the second time). I will often do this with a player who has been consistently rolling low damage, again "what does it cost me?" The players will even say "What does it cost you?" in supplication, usually I'll give in.

Monster saving throws are tricky with this, I am very inclined for monsters to "fail" rolls that involve damage.
Saves that lead to minor penalties to hit and damage are also likely to fail.

Don't let the dice get between you and a good game.

[mao]

Cheating DM 3
Ok so we've established my cheating ways. How do I justify player death? The short answer is mostly I can't. I haven't killed a PC in the longest time. There actually have been complaints. Came very close this week thou, critical hit on Stone Mage put him 1 hp from death. It's something I've grown so soft on. I almost always reserve PC death to poor playing and very special boss encounters (That I have completely stated out) The 21 yr old me would be MYSTIFIED by the games I run today. I am planning on bringing back the little thou. We'll all see if I pull the trigger on this.

[mao]

BUY THE BOOKS!!!!!!! DON"T MAKE ME GET ALL THE PLAYERS HANDBOOKS

[mao]

Ok , I just don't understand the love for sandboxing. I never really read that much about it cause' I think the whole idea is silly. I know I might be old and set in my ways but for the last 5 years or so I've really grown as a DM. I've searched many topics on my art and really saw how I had stagnated, but SB no thanx!

For one thing, I really don'r see how you can justify player death in one. I run super detailed rich complex worlds and the idea of letting the PCs romp to their hearts content just doesn't appeal to me. Sounds like a great way to end up dead.

Railroading is a bad term, no doubt concocted by said sandboxers. With railroading you can set clear goals and run epic universe saving stories that I have come to love so much. Selected areas can be run sandboxy, for short periods of time. I can easily see a sandboxy start to a game set in a limited geographical area , alowing the players to learn about where they will be adventuring before their epic journey begins

I will wear my conductors hat proudly for the rest of my DMing career, leading the PCs on epic endevours.

[ripx187]

Jan 14, 2018 12:56:56 GMT -5 mao said:

Pet Peeves

Both are dice related.

1) STOP ROLLING THE DICE IN YOUR HAND!!!!!!!!
I can't stand it when players shake and shake their dice in their hand!
JUST ROLL THE darn DICE!!!!!!!!
(If they are describing what they are doing in an RP way, that's FINE, but to shake and shake saying"C'mon Daddy needs a 20!" I just want to strangle them)

2) WORST OF ALL: ROLL THE DICE ON THE darn TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
Really, how hard is this? You are doing something a 4 year old can do right!
It got so bad at one point, I made a house rule that dice off the table= lowest poss roll!
DON"T ROLL THE DICE TOWARD YOURSELF!!!!! This is ASKING to throw them off the table!

LOL That is cranky!

As a player, and as a DM, I love it when the roll is a gamble. When they put everything on the line. This is it! Maybe you've got 2 hp left, and the enemy has 4. If I'm using a screen, so that they know that I am not going to fudge, I'll take it down and explain everything to the player. I milk every last bit of tension and drama of the situation. I want players closing their eyes and screaming as they toss the dice. Being reluctent to roll the dice means that the player is into it. That this roll matters more than normal.

I do like your idea about dice falling off the table, maybe there could be some in-game consiquences, such as friendly fire, or stumbling during combat, that sounds like fun!

 

[ripx187]

I've got some hard rules that disagree with some of yours. Namely, if the dice don't matter, don't roll them. Combat is a part of our game, but it isn't the point of the game. I do cut corners, much of the combat we do do is Random Encounters, but I assign the random encounters to fit the theme. On my stat blocks, for hit points, I roll up 3 different results and during play, I'll roll a d3. Sometimes, if there are lots of enemies I'll have one or two low hp, a couple of max hp, and the rest will be middle. If there are tons of bad guys, I'll ignore hp completely and go by hits. Fighters do 2HD of damage, Clerics and Thieves do 1HD, if the player rolls a max damage (because I don't tell them that I am doing this) then I'll double the HD damage, or just kill the enemy. I prefer to have these kinds of combats to be against 4 HD monsters so that I can just draw a bunch of pies and fill in the slices.

Sandbox play took me some years to figure out. The benefits of it are that you can do less writing, or to be even more specific, prevents overwriting. My club plays once a month, I do need to make sure that we don't waste time, but I don't want to railroad them either. We currently play a game of investigation. There is a monster, the players have to identify/locate the monster, find a way to hurt him; and then hunt him down. They are playing D&D while I am playing a kind of wargame. The Sandbox is the theatre in which we play in. Now, granted, writing the sandbox can be fairly intense work, but honestly, it is no more than a bunch of notes that are just brief enough for me to create at the table.

As far as my writing and prep goes, once the sandbox is in place, I have very little writing to do. I write only for the next session and if the players don't cooperate it is no big deal. Right now in my current game, I've got an idea of what the monster's lair is, but I haven't even started mapping or keying it yet. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself because a better idea can come up during play. I know what information I want to give to the players, and I have some none mapped locations which will give them tools that they need. I don't know if they will take the bait or not, if they do, fine! If they don't, that is fine too.

The sandbox is simply a way to automate the world around them to make it come alive. I move things during prep. In my current game it takes place in a war zone, the British/India rules vs Burmese Resistance Fighters, I also set plans for my main bad guy. I move large groups of people on my calendar so if the players are in an area that is under attack or whatever, then they have to deal with it.

As far as play goes, my players generally have enough to go on to make their own decisions. Sometimes I have to slow them down because they are used to playing video games and this isn't a video game. I can predict what they need to be successful, but I am also playing my villain and I want to play him to the very best of my ability too. If the players believe that they are being railroaded, then they know that they better get off of the tracks because chances are they are being manipulated by the villain. 

At the same time, I do write scenes as needed during prep, just so that I can keep the game running smooth. However, if it is too smooth, I get bored. I want the players to control the dialog and the direction of the game, and I want to react to them. I want to PLAY the game with them. That is important.

[mao]

A lot of what I prep for is to have plenty of material for the game at hand,plus the PCs (even at 1L) are always dealing w/ epic crisis'. You can't run epics w sandboxes. When I first started DMing (40 years ago) I ran my Mysantia game as a gritty "fight for a bowl of rice" but I quickly began to do the epics. The great thing about D&D is thee is no right way, as long as everyone is having fun.

[mao]

Anatomy of a Killer DM
In October of 1981 I started the Mysantia game that would ultimately run for 31 yrs as a weekly game.
I was a Killer DM, death was frequent. Starting all chars at First and making them roll hp, several were forced to play w/ 1 HP. WE were playing at a community collage and we played 6-8 times a week.
The players were fanatical. The city of Mysantia was heavily influenced by the Thieves World books.Not many TPKs(none that I can think of) but many sessions would end in 2-4 deaths.Treasure was near non existant, they often adventured for food. Looking back I am amazed that the players put up with the cut throat street level adventures I ran. I caused several peeps to fail out of college because we played around my class schedule, not anybody else's. It's one of the things that proves to me I am a compelling DM else they never would have put up with it.

[mao]

My Wierdest TPK

Two man 1st L party going into my dungeon, Fighter and MU I believe. Almost immediately they are met by 4 hp, short sword armed skeleton. Very, Very, Very long fight ends in TPK. We quit for the night. Also the shortest session I ever ran about 30 min.

[mao]

I have a huge collection of minis. One of my sub collections is familiers. I have around 60. the Warhammer game used to have about 20 , which was the start of the collection in 1986.

So I've got all these cool little guys: what to do with them? I put a demi-plane of familiers in my game.
Even non-Wiz going there can get a familier. Surprisingly it was never a popular destination, but this is where my campaigns beasties come from.

I give them to lichs, dragons, whatever and often make them very tuff for a warm up fight for a boss fight.

Using the Pathfinder rules these days the lore of the bonded item is too great and pcs never take them

In my homebrew rules , I made them pretty powerful, but also allowed bonded item instead, again the pcs never take them. My rules even allow them to "respawn" after death like 4 times a day. Nope bonded item rules supreme(for those of you that dont know: the bonded item allows the wiz to once a day cast any spell they know spontaneously)

Some ideas on familier types (as most things on this blog, geared for low level play.

Wiz type casts spells at 1/2 L of owner

fighter tyoe 1/2 casters HP and fights as fighter caster L

messenger/ scout type Flies and is highly intelligent capable of independannt thought speech and can be any distance from caster

thief type 1/2 wiz L

cleric type can use CLW once a day

Another use I have for the minis is as "true goblyns". Goblyns more akin to western myth, fey type.

[Crimhthan The Great]

I have to say I disagree with a lot of what you have said, but I will post my replies in their own thread, carry on.

[mao]

Jan 16, 2018 20:35:04 GMT -5 Crimhthan The Great said:

I have to say I disagree with a lot of what you have said, but I will post my replies in their own thread, carry on.

Feel free to put your thoughts here, I have learned I am not for everyone.

[Crimhthan The Great]

Jan 16, 2018 20:37:36 GMT -5 mao said:

Jan 16, 2018 20:35:04 GMT -5 Crimhthan The Great said:

I have to say I disagree with a lot of what you have said, but I will post my replies in their own thread, carry on.

Feel free to put your thoughts here, I have learned I am not for everyone.

Nah, I don't want to derail your thread, I started my own. Just remember my comments are not to condemn you, but to convey my opinion and experiences. Where I agree with you I will comment in this thread.

[Crimhthan The Great]

Jan 13, 2018 11:03:47 GMT -5 mao said:

Don't make impossible to hit creatures, it is very frustrating for the players. Once in a GREAT while this is OK, but mostly it's just a time waster. The simple solution is to just give the thing more HP but there are creative ways to make the creature last longer
-Give it a force field that shows damage
- A swirling wall of living runes that absorb hits(functionally no dif from force field)
-Give it a "mastermind" ability that allows mooks/bodyguards to absorb hits

I agree with this completely, don't put something into the game that has no solution and no way out. If the creature is too high-powered in what ever way the players should have options that don't involve having to fight it whether they want to or not. Now if they choose to fight it despite every opportunity to avoid it, then that is on them.

[Crimhthan The Great]

Jan 13, 2018 11:04:48 GMT -5 mao said:

no, No, NO! Nobody wants to read pages and pages of handouts. Nobody will pay attention to them. One of the very successful tricks I learned from running a 31 year long campaign: Less is more. I always UNDER explain everything. It creates an itch in your players, makes them THIRSTY for any scrap of knowledge. You will eventually be rewarded with players deeply engaged in every scrap of your lore.

Again, good point, handouts are overrated. Writeups are for the ref, not for the players. If the players want to know more about anything, it is up to them to ask questions. Why waste time (my time) giving them information that they neither want nor need. Good players (learn) to ask questions.

[Crimhthan The Great]

Jan 13, 2018 11:05:57 GMT -5 mao said:

My rule number 2 is : Learn to say Yes!
When it really doesn't matter, always say yes to players, especially when it encourages good RPing.
They want to jump on top of T-Rex?, give them an easy roll to make and give them no game modifier
Say yes when heroics are involved
Treat your players like heros, in my game the PCs are always the top of the food chain , even when they are first.
Let them gain fame(it doesn't need to come with any other compensation)
A player has a monster he always liked fighting? Bring it on!
after all : What Does It Cost You?

I mostly (90%) agree with this, and I will let them attempt almost anything.

[Crimhthan The Great]

Jan 13, 2018 13:39:30 GMT -5 sixdemonbag said:

These are great!! I agree with all of them, especially 3 and 4. DM monologuing and always saying "no" is something I've noticed that can really drag games down and frustrate players. My personality is such that I'm a people-pleaser, so my main goal is to facilitate player creativity and control, not my own.

An aside: I've been enjoying your game ideas very much!

I am NOT a people pleaser, but my main goal is to facilitate player creativity, problem solving and encourage fast decisive action.