First--as an old grognard, I really like your channel. Even though I don't play 5th edition, you take on things that DMs have been struggling with since the 1970s. I'm not quite that old--I first started rolling dice at a Boy Scout summer camp in 1982 and first started DMing in 84. But don't sell yourself short. Just from the questions and issues you take on--you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. I'm going to split this up into two separate posts in hopes that it doesn't get rejected. 1) Libraries and book stores. This one is pretty easy. If you think about a medieval fantasy, most libraries are going to be , very very small--15 books would be a lot. A wealthy lord would have maybe 50 to 100 volumes. Bookstores would be nonexistent. If you wanted a book, you would have to hire a scribe and commission to have it made. And the materials, parchment, velum, inks, drawings and illuminations---all that costs. So a single, non-magical book would cost hundreds of gold pieces. Things are a lot less overwhelming when your shrink things down. Save yourself time and headaches. 2) Mega-dungeons--these are a labor of love. You either love it, or it's a chore. If it's a chore, there are a lot of places where you can buy maps. There are also numerous 1st edition modules that WOTC is reskinning for 5th edition. You can find many of these in PDF forms for free on the web. Also, one of the points of a mega-dungeon is that it's a wondrous, weird, deadly place that the characters come back to over and over, where they advance several levels. B2 Keep on the Borderlands could take your character from levels 1-4 if you cleared the whole thing. Unless this is what you're after a mega-dungeon might not be right for your campaign. 3) Shopping--unless there's something happening in the market place that advances the story--this is shoe leather. Professor DM covered this topic really well in his video on shoe leather. He asked a very good question--how often do we see Batman buy tires for the Batmobile? From my perspective, it's like going to the loo--unless something happens in the bathroom we can skip it that part. So unless something actually happens in the market place that advances the adventure--I just have players give me a list of things they want to buy and I decide on the availability. I'm actually stunned that 5th edition doesn't have a list of standard costs for equipment. I mean stunned. That said, 2nd edition probably has the most exhaustive equipment list for just about anything you can think of--2nd ed PHB, Complete Book of Thieves, Complete Book of Bards, Combat and Tactics, and Spells and Magic can all be found for free in PDF or RTF. Now, I strongly recommend against having magic shops. Characters should pay for magic items in blood, not gold. Just my personal opinion. But if you are going to have magic shops--the 1st edition Unearthed Arcana has a list of magic items and their gold piece cost on pages 84-89. You can find that in a free PDF online.
4) Running multiple NPCs in one room? You sort of have to think of this in the way a playwright or a writer might. You have your main NPCs, no more than two. You have secondary NPCs--probably a handfull, and then you have walk-on characters who might have a single line of none at all. Unless there is a reason they don't--your main NPCs will do most of the talking, and they are the ones the party will want to interact with most anyway. The Council of Elrond from Fellowship of the Ring is a great example. There were lots and lots of characters present, but the main two voices were Elrond and Gandalf. 5) Running really smart villains...This is tricky but very doable. First, if the villain has anything to say about it, the encounters will never be balanced. NEVER. They will bring enough force to bear to kill the party in three rounds with average die rolls. Second, they will never face the party alone. They will always have lieutenants and minions who are dangerous enough to force the party to divide their attacks. Third, they will always have at least two ways to escape if things turn against them. ***Honorable mention--combat. Combat is the main mechanical engine of the game. There is so much to say about this, but to keep things brief-- PDM on Dungeon Craft has numerous episodes in his archive that can help anyone run faster, more engaging combat. Topics range from initiative to reducing character hit points. You might not agree with everything he advances, but it will make you really think and help you reconsider what your doing and how you're running things at your table.
Everything can be an opportunity to do exposition, to roleplay, to relate something to the backstory of some player, etc. I understasnd that DMs had prep done and want to deliver that, but sometimes you gotta improv and deliver it somewhere else!
@fratystuff6737 Everything can be. But nothing has to be. If you say, "Can I buy X?" the answer might just be "yes" and that's it. I'm not saying I would refuse if a player created a scene. I'm just saying that it almost never happens. I don't starve my players of NPCs to talk to - there's always a lot. There is a culture of expectations around everything. If you expect to RP out every purchase you will if you don't you won't. If an item is rare/illegal that's part of the plot so it will be. Are those items frequent? No. I feel like nothing is being missed out on here. If (like in the video) you don't really like shops, you're missing nothing to skip ones that aren't interesting. I think the key is - Is it boring? If so, it's done. If there's an interesting place to go, it will be RP'd whether it's a shop or not. I just did a missing person storyline so several of the people the party questioned were local businesspeople who knew the person. Did I RP BECAUSE they were shopkeepers? No. Lots of them were shopkeepers.
The way to play a smart villain is to cheat. You should have access to the players character sheets. This should let you prepare counters to specific spells and features and make it look like the villain pulled solutions out of their... brain to counter and make them look smarter.
RE Shopping: You want X. No we don't have one in stock. We can special order it. How much did you want to put down? Well you pay a finder's fee on top of the price of the item itself. And there may be a delivery fee. One of my players foolishly said: "If you find it, I'll go pick it up myself." Famous last words. It took several sessions to get to the city with the item. The other players kept chasing side quests. The PC who wanted the item died outside the city gates.
I completely agree with you on the Library and or Study. There is always one wizard who wants to know all the titles. I recently booked marked the BG3 Wiki on all the books you come across in that game, great resources for Title and quick descriptions.
If you don't like running libraries, Advanced D&D 2nd Edition had a "system" built into it that approached this problem, it was called "consulting a Sage or Expert." -- It would usually list a price that the person from that field would charge for the research, knowledge or skills to aid the player characters.
Bookstores have a desk at which to make requests, not browsable. It’s medieval times, the printing press hasn’t been invented. Books are rare and each one is copied individually by a scribe.
NPCs - I don't do voices either, but I describe mannerisms and the try to do their rhythm of their speech or catchphrases for them. I typically also give each NPC a sort of quirk - might be they carry a cane, wear an earring they always play with, have a hat with a long feather that keeps getting in the way, etc. That way I can narrate some of the conversation interspersed with descriptions of the affectations. In a location with lots of NPCs I keep the number of NPCs that the party is interacting with at any time fairly small - the others are just talking amongst themselves and some party members may catch a snatch of their conversations that piques their interest.
I am old school rpg gamer and I must admit I like most of the stuff you dislike. Libraries are great and I wish my players would visit them more often. It is a place of knowledge and can even hold an adventure in hunting for vital information. Megadungeons can be fun. They hold the real horrors of adventuring, when you can't just leave so easily, can't get a rest for healing or memorizing spells. And preparing them is not so difficult. I love running smart villains. They are always surrounded by an entourage of followers, henchmen, and they are protected my magic items and spells. They always have a teleport spell ready. And they don't wait for the pcs to looking for them, they have spies and lokate spells active and hunt the players down if they make a mistake. My players hate them. Shopping is boring, I agree. Cities hold some horrors for me because of the infinite possibilities, but I have prepared one now for my players.
The trick to running really intellegent characters: Use a tiny bit of meta gaming. It's not outside the realm of posibilities for a villain of that intelegence to be able to anticipate some or a lot of what the group may do. Don't be afraid to let a really smart villain be bested. One common fault of rreally smart villains is being overconfident and underestimating the group. Classic moves that can help bring life to your villain. I don't actually hate any of these. I don't typically see myself in a position of running large groups of NPCs but I myself wouldn't have an issue with it. I am one of those world builders that builds whether I need it or not. So large groups of books not an issue for me, that said I typically try to put the focus on those books that will possibly serve as a hook for later adventures and books that will contain the info the group needs or wants about their current story arch. I am fortunate enough to have groups that are not overly concerned about excesive reading and if a player is playing a bookworm type they don't require the title of every book they get. Honestly a good way to assist with that is allow the player to make up the title of whatever book they are trying to get themselves. If you prefer not to do that generators are good. But don't feel compelled to think up every book if you don't want to. I realy don't. I don't do mega dungeons mainly due to how long it can take to get through one. Plus I like my dungeons to have once had a purpose besides being the lair of monsters and other groups. Therefore I like my dungeons to be reminiscent of ancient tombs or burial crypts. Or ancient forges and things like that. I don't have to think of what each room really was back in the day but most of them I try to. Because of this I prefer dungeons that are more on the small to medium scale. Plus I love using miniatures and tiles (whether hand made or bought) and there tends not to be enough room for a large layout.
I hear you. When I end up playing multiple PCs -- especially in some kind of council or meeting -- it's like I'm putting on a little play for the players. Sometimes the Townmaster, the Jarl, and the Captain of the Guard are talking to one another and a couple of adventurers don't have much to say. So the players sit there while I run through my small repertoire of voices, every once in a while calling on them like a school teacher. They don't complain, but I feel silly (and usually make a comment about DM Theater Hour).
To your comment at 9:26, 4th edition had a hard and fast list of prices for literally everything, and people claimed it was "WoW clone lol" so they stopped doing it.
as a long time GM, your list is not surprising. most of the items give even the most experienced GMs a difficult time. for most of these, limit the options of the players. for stores and libraries, I use time as a factor. the characters are searching for a specific book, set a DC and have them roll. each character that rolls, spends an hour searching. if 4 characters each roll twice, that's 8 hours searching. stores are similar, the DC is the likelihood of the item being available. as far as combat, that's a loaded question with a thousand answers. as far as the other topics - improv! practice, practice, practice. being able to create spontaneous events and encounters is paramount! I don't mean, find a random table and roll - but actually create something from nothing. most importantly, what you create doesn't have to have any importance to the actual story. the spontaneity and randomness of encounters during either a lull or in the height of the interactions is part of the joy of being the GM.
Bookstores and libraries - never thought about them much, and now they give me the willies. Intelligent bad guys and combat fall into the same category for me. It’s balance, but not in a balanced encounter kind of way. I DM for a group of combat veterans, one of whom always has elaborate (and usually effective) battle plans. He optimized his build for a certain type of play, and being a former military officer, does a good job of getting the group to fall in line with his plans. It’s maddening. I’m running Vecna against this group. If I fight fair, using the published Vecna stat block, this will be a ten minute capstone to a two year campaign. If I play it like I think Vecna would, giving him the abilities a god level caster should have, it will be a five minute TPK, followed by the party becoming his undead thralls. Neither outcome is particularly satisfying, so I’m trying to figure out a better way.
Yes! It's just so hard to strike the balance between making something really challenging yet somehow still winnable. You want it to feel earned and live up to hype you've been building throughout the game. It's definitely a challenge
My advice is actually for the later your two scenarios---Vecna being able to TPK the party without breaking much of a sweat (after all, Vecna won't fight fair) Sometimes, a balanced encounter is exactly what you don't want. My advice is the make it clear in the very first round that Vecna is an enemy they cannot fight and win against. But give them an escape hatch before the TPK occurs. In many ways, Vecna is a world ending foe. Treat him as such. The ways to beat Vecna is by foiling his deigns--not by killing him out right. Maybe have a goal where the party lures him into a trap where other worldly entities are able to ensnare him for a thousand years or more. But there are certain villains and certain personalities who should be flat unkillable. Doesn't matter if the party is 40th level. It's up there with the evil party that goes to Shadowdale in the Realms and loots Elminster's lab and library. It should be party ending if the players persist.
1. With libraries, you only decide on the relative books that need to be there. The 1st book that is not relevant you have them open it & realize it is full of historic thoughts that most people today (in game) believe to be inaccurate, or a selection of cook books that talk about roasts from animals no one has heard of, or the players believe are extinct. 2. Megadungeons should always be built underground resulting in limiting the players choices so that they can't fly to the top & miss most of the adventure. If you need to stop the players from accessing a lower level you put an arcane lock on the doorway that requires an up-cast knock to open limiting them to using the door only after the caster has high enough spell slots to knock that door. 3. Shopping, if the players want a specific item & it doesn't break anything for it to be in the shop, the shopkeeper says, "Well, the old widower near the swamp died a few weeks ago & his kids brought in a box of things they said they were not interested in maybe we can find something like that in there?" If it will be a magic item that they are not ready for yet, "I have a cousin in the city she might be able to pick that up from a friend & bring it to me. That will take some time & I'll need X coins to cover their traveling when they arrive in addition to the cost of the item, which could cost as much as Y." This gives you the option to fulfil that request in the future, but extracts the cost now & gives you time to plan for when they will get it, or they can decide to wait until they get to city Z. 4. Multiple NPCs you need to have a leader who interacts with everyone in the party. 5. Genius level villains are a problem, generally you find your best intelligent friend who is ok with talking about imaginary scenarios & just visit those thoughts. (It is super hard though.) 6. Combat can be an issue. There is a lot going on when you are a DM & it makes it difficult to keep all their abilities in mind while running the monsters. I don't know how many times I forgot, "Oh dang, that monster can regenerate & I didn't apply those hit points.", resulting in the creature going down in a ridiculously short time. When I'm a player I do that too. I have a friend who made a spreadsheet of what his character could do separated by type of action (BA, action, move, ReA) so he could go down the list & make sure he used every feature he could in a round. If one feature was dependent on another he put that set of actions on the sheet 1st to remind him of the dependency. I've considered doing this, but that would mean I would have to plan in advance, and I just don't, which is why some of my games suffer.
While I feel your pain, I have many thoughts. 1. Libraries - start with the random book generator seeded with a selection of setting appropriate extensions. Then ensure players know that looking for a book takes time - vital time that is taking away from adventuring. If they're plucking from the shelves at random, this works. If they are looking for a particular work - then checks are required, and also - more time to find it. 2. Shopping - similar to libraries above; handwave all but the most specialist items. Who cares if you can get a good deal on iron rations - really. Now, a good deal on a jewel-encrusted mace - that's worth haggling over. Otherwise your response should be, "yes, that's standard prices, look it up, cross off the gold". 3. Large Dungeons - this is a mainstay of DM'ing, I feel sad you don't enjoy it. This is where the DM gets to exercise their creative leanings, make cool locations, sprinkle them with monsters, traps and treasure, weave a little explanatory lore around the place and you're done! Depending on how large we're talking here you can create a 'large' (30 rooms?) dungeon a week, easy. 4. Groups of NPC's - pick a spokesperson! No group of people just has everyone talking over each other when they meet another group - they almost always have a 'face' person. 'Voices' are not required for all NPC's. You can give them a cadence, vocabulary or mannerism quirk to differentiate. 5. Combat - this is soooooo important to a game. This is where the ultimate life-or-death stakes come into play. Plan out your main NPC/Monster moves ahead of time during prep. Your plan won't survive first contact with the players, but you'll feel more confident and have considered options which you can still use. So, yeah - good video - but I found that each of things you mentioned was either something I love (large dungeons and combat) or able to be turned around from a hate to a love with some preparation and 'DM tricks'.
30 rooms imo isnt a large dungeon, large is about 120 rooms, very large about 300 and a mega dungeon id say is close to 1000 rooms. Though even by this definition i know a lot of gms that can do 120 rooms in a week so i agree on that part
@@greasysmith3150 Yes, the "large" size wasn't defined, but lets say, anything greater than 30 rooms isn't "small" anymore. If you remember to include a few empty rooms to convey that sense of abandonment, even less work!
I agree about Book stores. Often it;s an issue that players aren't normally looking for Lore. They want magical books or scrolls. Or they want books that will give them bonuses to skill checks. Shopping I personally hate, because not only does it drag out, but despite my statement at the beginning of the game that there are NO magic stores where they can buy Magic items anywhere in my world, the first thing they do every time they hit a town id ti try to find a store that will buy or sell Magic items. (sigh). As to your stated issue with it, first I would suggest looking at the DMG under the section about magic item rarity. the 2014 DMG gave a general value range for magic items based on rarity. You can use this to set prices and to let players 'haggle'. In addition, and I suggest this for any DM. In 3rd edition they created the Arms & Equipment Guide. The thing about the editions is that one thing that has barely changed is the cost of things. Thus, the equipment prices in this guide could be used with little to no changes. Now the old system of giving a +2 bonus for an item is gone, but if you wanted an item to give advantage or a +1, that would be easy. The selection of unusual items in this guide was incredibly comprehensive, from elven tree tents to a wide array of prices for spices and dry goods. from a muzzle and leash for your mastiff, to a beekeeper's outfit to the cost of Marzipan... it's all in this book. Until they decide to release an equivalent for 5e, I will use this... it makes having shops and merchants easier.
I love this list, especially the honorable mention of combat! I keep meaning to make myself a flowchart cheat sheet of what the monsters/NPCs can do but never do it.
In regards to running a smart villain. There are 2 or 3 things that I found help me a lot. 1 is meta knowledge of the players. (Not to the extent that it's ME vs the players) If a player rogue asks, "do I understand the internal mechanics of a lock?" My answer is, " your character would know that". Same concept. If I can (as a DM) justify how my villain would know something about the players without having to jump through more than 2 circumstantial hoops, then the villain knows it. 2 acting on that knowledge, thus routinely meeting the players on the villains terms. Ie. After a big fight, or in a place full of civilians and always having a plan of escape like greater invisibility, mislead or contingency. 3 and this one is a straight shout-out to the Dungeon Dudes, getting to read their statblock and character page for the Queen of Thieves. This is a beautifully written character by a master DM and the greatest value of all is that it showcases how an intelligent villain would prepare for the worst around every corner. Dr Monty Martin got to really analyze how the more advanced spells would be put to use by someone with the time resources and dedication. 10 out of 10 on this character.
I wrote these tips while watching the video. They're not meant to subvert the issues presented, but to (hopefully) aleviate them. Libraries and Bookstores: Just kick play up a level of abstraction -- "What kind of books are you looking for? Then resolve whether they can find those kinds of books. Maybe with an Intelligence (Investigation) Check, and summarize the contents of the books (some of which grant a bonus, like books of lore grant to skills about knowledge). That said, if you're going to put a library or bookstore in a settlement, it's likely wise to come up with some highlight books that an attendant might be peddling (or trying to keep secret) -- not too many, maybe three. You can use these to telegraph important people (through memoirs or stageplays), monsters (through histories or tragedies), or settlements (through any of the previous). Massive Dungeons: I don't know if you cam fairly say that DMs don't like running massive dungeons, because... A lot of DMs run massive dungeons. "Mega-Dungeon" supplements like Barrowmaze seem to sell pretty well and review pretty highly, and I know DMs who enjoy gradually building up "their dungeon" for years and years which tend to get pretty massive. You mentioned not enjoying prepping these yourself, which is more than fair, but there are a few "Mega-Dungeon" supplements you can get your hands on and run -- though some may need conversion. That said, for prepping a big dungeon, you can do focused prep: prep one area in detail, and give the players a reason to spend a lot of their game time in that one area -- that's where their macguffin for their current quest is, that's where the super magic key to area two is, there's a motivating mystery there, etc (and of course the obstacles for acquiring those things), and prep an outline for the rest of the dungeon just so you kind of know what's elsewhere and can be consistent in descriptions and explanations and such. For the outline, something like, "B. Massive underground Dwarven forges now taken over by Orcs," can be enough to make sure you're not going to contradict stuff. And if you need to improv a little bit toward the end of a session, you've got some material. You can even throw in a fight with some Orcs; nothing kills time in (later) D&D like combat... Shopping: So, some thoughts. One, it's totally cool to prepare a set list of what is being sold here in a settlement (maybe including on that list "anything from the PHb equipment list") and sticking to it. If it's not on that list, it's not in stock. Sorry. The players might be able to request items and then the shopkeepers can order it or ask around, giving you a chance to prepare accessibility or prices (or quests!) -- you might even be explicit with the players that the request process is a meta-mexhanic to give you-the-real-person real person time to prepare. If you see the shopping session coming up, you might ask the players what they'll be looking for ahead of time. The second thought is that you said that your group enjoys roleplaying these shopping trips out rather than "handwaving" them... But you said that after you explained that you put shopping trips on this list because YOU do NOT like roleplaying them out. So... Are you sure your group prefers to RP them? Here's a thing... I think the term "handwaving" produces a false dichotomy and unfairly demeans abstraction. Here's the false dichotomy part: There are lesser and greator degrees of abstraction (rather than the two poles of Playing Every Moment and Just Replace Gold On Sheet With Item) and you can move between them in a single scene. For example... GM: So, what do y'all wanna buy? (Very abstract) Player: I was hoping to get a set of Mariner's Plate. (Very abstract) GM: Right, but they're not seeling that at the general store, so how would you find a set? (Still abstract, but a fact about the general store.) Player: I figure I'd ask around at the docks. (Pretty abstract, but we can imagine, say, a comic panel of the character talking to a sailor with an inquisitive look on their face.) GM: That's a good idea. You are eventually pointed to the office of an overseer at the drydock. (Ends a little less abstractly.) Player: Alright, cool... (Totally abstract, asking for more.) GM: In the overseer's office, you meet Amalia the Lash. Weather-beaten. Half-Elven, maybe thirty. She has a hard-look and a peg leg. She demands twenty-five-hundred gold for her old suit of armor. (Very abstract description of the office; totally abstract statement of the meeting; very concrete description of the seller; very abstract description of the starting price.) Player: Hold on. I take a seat in the chair at the desk, and say, "Why are you selling the armor?" (Concrete description of action; no summary.) GM: She spits jnto a dish near her desk and says, "Merrow. I was workin' security on a crew sailing north west o' here. We landed on an uncharted island, but damn merrow harpooned me leg and tried to pull me under. Merrow draggin' me one way, crew draggin' me t' other. Merrow were winnin', and woulda pulled me down alone. So the captain cut me leg off. A hard decision, but the right one." She smiles wanly, "That was the end of my adventuring days, and the captain set me up with this gig. 2500 gold." Do you agree? (Very concrete here; everything the GM is saying is happening in scene. With one exception: The GM asks the player if they agree, kicking it up in abstraction and focusing the action toward a close in the scene.) Player: Wait. What's behind that wan smile? Can I check Insight? Thanks; 18. (Very abstract, referncing only the smile, but bucking the GM's press toward abstraction because they're interested in the details of the scene. Totally cool.) GM: You see acceptance in that smile, for her injury and her life. Levened with a bit of bitterness toward the merrow. (More on the concrete side; this is something the character is experiencing.) Player: Okay. I don't want to pay the full price, can I offer to slay those merrow in exchange for the armor? (Back on the abstract side. It's even a little unclear if the character is doing what the player is asking about.) GM: Check Charisma Persuasion.15? Okay. She says that for each merrow you can prove you've slain, she'll take 200 Gold off the price. Do you agree? (Abstract: just summary here.) Player: Yeah, someone else can do their shopping now. (As abstract as it gets.) 1/2
Large Groups of NPCs: This is another place where abstraction can help. Summarize the broadstrokes -- atmosphere, logistics, even dialogue. Describe the highlights. Characters are best defined (in my opinion) by their decisions. If two NPCs are talking to each other, tell the players the gist of what they say, and highlight a line or two of dialogue. Then describe the decisions those characters make and how it changes things. If the players are planning to talk to a bunch of NPCs in quick succession, have them provide their itinerary and then abstract the whole thing monstage style, zooming in at specific points lf dramatic interest -- to you and/or the players. I don't let the players drag us into concrete-description-land and keep us there all session; in fact, I explain this stuff to them, and invite them to get on-board. All that said... I do try to think of what each character think, wants, and is like to consider how they would interact with each other and respond to the situation evolving around them. I have them take the initiative sometimes. Smart Villains: Here are some tips that come to mind: Draw on the wisdom of crowds -- There are a lot of online communities out there willing to think-tank your big bad's genius plan; use them to check your prep. Mostly that's useful before sessions, but they might also be able to crowdsource tips for play in the moment. Discover your villain's plan as it unfolds -- That is to say, cheat. When your genius villain is (at risk of being) thwarted, tell yourself (and maybe your players), "They planned for this." Then decide how. Et, voila a genius scheme in action. Maybe give yourself some limits against on this ability so that it's not totally unfair. You might go with a psychological weakness (The villain cannot have prepared for the betrayal of their "true love"!) Or a limited number of uses (one to three), or a game-time cooldown (two uses per week (so they can prepare)). Remember the essence of strategy -- That is, fight when losing the battle can win you the war. Pit your enemies against each other; bait your enemy into taking a pawn so that you can take their queen; attack when you can retreat but your enemy can't. Use these principles in prep and in action, and they may be enough to portray your villain in all their big-brained glory. Combat: I've heard a lot of the opposite of this advice -- "Players take too long to resolve their turns" -- I know I can feel like I'm taking a lot of time on something when no one else at the table does. Is it possible that either there's time on players' turns when you could be considering your move (when they're picking a spell or calculating their to hit and damage for instance) or that this is a perception issue and your players don't feel like you're taking too much time? I would ask them what they think if you haven't already. But, let's assume that it's a legit real issue that you're taking too mich time on your turns. What can you do? You could outsource some of your work on the player turn -- for instance, designate that the player to the right of the turn-taking player (or maybe THAT ONE PLAYER who knows the rules off the top of their head) is responsible for helping find rules and clarify an interpretation-pitch when you're busy. You might give them the monsters' AC and have them resolve their own attacks and have them track damage on monsters -- then you just have to note when their tracked damage total meets or exceeds the monster's HP. You could slow down the players' turns (very risky!) Have them roll their attack and damage seperately so they. Have them confirm the saves of their spells before casting them (this is a bit like the earlier advice, innit?). You could call for a soft break. Say, "I'm going to need a few minutes here; now might be a good time to hit the bathroom or get some water. Then the pressure is off you a bit. You might give a player a monter to run. A bit controversial, I'm sure, but you might have a player who's willing and able to play a mqonster with integrity. Then there's a turn when you aren't being attacked or acting. Like I say, these ideas are meant to help, not to dismiss. 2/2 I guess my comment was too long to post in one entry...
Ok point 1: On bookshops and libraries. Direct players to the relevant section of the bookshop/library and give them a few book titles. Then make sure there is information they need in them. Don’t worry about the players going far off the direction you put them on. If they do, you can encourage them to come up with book titles on their own. Or just have a selection of random book titles to feed them and let them imagine the rest. On point 2: Mega dungeons are always best when that is what the entire campaign is focused on. The characters have entered (or are trapped) in the mega dungeon and have to deal with all the monstrous factions, single powerful monsters etc that exist in the mega dungeon. Just throwing a huge dungeon at them and expecting them to crawl through it in an evening is not realistic or even sensible. On point 3: On shopping, you have three real options here: the first is the classic magic shop. I always roleplay it out a bit. But honestly; it add a ton of mundanity to the fantasy world. Bilbo baggins didn’t go to the magic store to get Sting. They found it when they defeated some trolls. Which brings me to the second method. Magic items are only found through adventuring. This is best when you lean into the sword & sorcery aspect of D&D (which you should). People in town don’t find magic items because magic items are found in dangerous places by adventurous people doing adventurous things. It’s a reward that feeds into itself. Want more treasure? Do more adventuring!
A third option is the classical clash of the titans (the original 1983 or so movie; not the 2000s one). Where magical items are the gifts of the gods to mortals they favor. Its an interesting idea and one i haven’t done in any of my games. You can easily mix the two as much or as little as you like.Also; magic items that do neat things are always more interesting than magic weapons and armor. Point 4: multiple NPCs can be a tough nut to crack. My advice is to make sure the focus of the scene is on the party; not on the NPCs. That way you don’t have to hold a conversation with yourself while your players act as a captive audience. Try to split the time each player spends conversing with each NPC as evenly as possible but be aware that some players will want to take up more time than others. Point 5: playing smart villains. two options: Option 1: Write out a plan of action for your villain to follow and stick to it. Make it so he can adjust it on the fly and still accomplish his goals. That way he’s not completely boned the first time the Pcs defeat some part of his plan. This drags out the adventure (probably good). And makes the players think he’s very smart at outmaneuvering them. Minions with communications that slowly reveal his plans to the players is a good way of showcasing this. option 2: cheat that’s right. Cheat. Use your players' plans against them. When they come up with something. Throw something in there that will thwart their plans. The trick is to make it hard, but not impossible. So you can’t thwart every plan, if they come up with something genuinely clever or cool. Let them have it.
Ginny Di has a pretty good video on running shops, so hopefully that’ll help you a bit. As far as running smart characters & combat, the blog (or book series) The Monsters Know What They’re Doing is gonna be your BFF in those regards
Some combat advise: note down what each enemy is supposed to do on a note card. I print out my statblocks and write down a "script" for what the creature is supposed to do during combat so I don't have to think; I just follow that script. Hope this helps!
I definitely agree on smart NPCs, and I consider myself smart. It gets especially tough for me if it's deeper into the session or if I've been playing other NPCs, because I might not be in that character's mindset and I've spent so much mental energy already
I have a couple of players who would like to spend a couple of sessions just looking around in town. The challenge is I have a couple of players, including myself, who find that gets boring quickly. Trying to balance sessions when some people like role-playing 80% and others who wish combat and adventure was 80% of the sessions is a huge challenge.
It's okay to not enjoy combat. If it's a stress point for you, maybe try running a few practice battles. You can set up a few small solo scenarios just to establish a rhythm. Good list. I definitely agree about shopping.
I used to have these problems, but I overcame them. Let me see if I can look at each one and come up with a solution to them to make your life as a DM easier. . 1. Libraries and Bookstores: Easy fix. In prep, make three books for each character. A book will have a title, 1 sentence synopsis, and it’s use. (“Good People and Why We Hate Them”. Cyric’s guide to Murder. Advantage in religion vs Evil religions) The three books are Low, Mid, and High. Low books are flavorful and do nothing (DC 10). Mid books have a minor value (DC 15). High books have significant value, maybe even related to the plot(!) (DC 20). When the party investigates the area, one player rolls for the group. Skill check is up to you. After that, the player rolls a dice that has a value greater or equal to the number of party members in the area (4 players = 1d4. 5 players = 1d6). The number rolled on this die tell you how many players benefit from the skill check. The die roller chooses which players benefit. . 2. Massive Dungeons: Professor Dungeon Master’s Universal Dungeon Terrain. (I’m just going to leave this here: ruclips.net/video/7_hq7JE55CQ/видео.html ) But also, plan at least 5 rooms per level. Combat takes a bit, so you don’t have to go crazy here. . 3. Shopping: See #1. However, there is a chance your friends want to go on a shopping trip. Which is fine! Break out the timer (30 mins is pretty good for a campaign and 10 mins for a one shot). In prep, make a map, use AI to draw out a few locations, the descriptions of the place and the shop keeps, a mundane item list with prices, and print that bad boy up. (If you are playing online, you can pin the locations on a map and set up a shop system where the players go shopping with out you while you take a quick bio break.) Need an NPC for on-the-spot role play? Players guide, roll up alignment, flaws, wants, and needs. Spend 2 minutes making the NPC. Spend 5 minutes playing the NPC. If the players enjoy this character, put it to the side and use the NPC as an asset later for good or worse. You can flesh them out between sessions. . 4. Large NPC Groups: Summarize, summarize, summarize. Unless this is a major plot point where the PCs can earn experience points, abridge this cut scene. Pick a speaker of the NPCs that other NPCs would focus on. The other NPCs are in two camps: either agree or disagree with this speaker. Of those that disagree, pick a speaker. These are your two major NPCs that the PCs will focus on. It is up to the PCs which side to take, if one at all. You can switch out speakers from one side to become a new speaker leader, but they are “Assisting” the speaker. (aka giving them advantage) Unless the PCs can change the outcome of this social encounter, recap the cut scene and move on. If the Players do interact, keep the rounds low to move the story along. A volley (a social combat round) consists of NPC speaking with PC response. Change the reputation after the response. Then the PCs talk and the NPCs response. Change the reputation after the response. Keep these rounds as long as you would a combat encounter. The encounter is over when the players win over the NPCs or if the NPCs hate the party. Or combat breaks out. Been known to happen. . 5. Smart Characters: There is no wrong way to run a character in your campaign. You can increase difficulty by adding Lair actions and Waves. A smart magic user can have lair traps. Litchs have weak NPC clones. Melee NPCs have waves of NPCs that rush the room. Ranged NPCs shoot from hiding spots while activating traps. And charisma baddies publicly make the PCs look bad and make life difficult for them without even being there. Change up the expectations. It don’t matter so long as you make it memorable. I play Strahd like he is Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show (He likes to play with his food before he eats them). . 6. Combat: Automate your combat. In prep, for each creature set write down the following: Melee, Ranged, Nothing, Something. Melee: What does this creature do if they can walk up to a PC? Ranged: What does this creature do if they need to run to a PC? Nothing: What does this creature do when there is no one around them? Something: What do they do if a is in the combat area? (Example: Goblin, Melee/attack1d6 sword, Ranged/attack 1d6 bow, Nothing/Run for help, Something/tries to destroy .) You can adjust on the fly when needed, but mostly you are on auto pilot so you can tell the story.
as a DM if they want me to name all the books in the library i go, "well there's screw you volume 1, screw you volume 2, screw you volume 3, screw you volume 4, - if they do not get the point by then i tell them i will get more descriptive (and nasty) it one of those thing i mention in session zero that i ain't doing - That' the thing of "name ever book" is usually a "lets torment the DM" type of thing, if you want some books (depending on subject and rarity) i just role some dice (figure it out on a chart or in my head) and might say "you find one book with a minor passage on it" or "you find several Books which have the information you will have to spend (making them roll) a few hours reading" then give them some hand outs - but i never try to bog it down, got to keep it going And as for shopping is generally "you go in and get the stuff you are looking for" and "all the store's have a no barter policy", Shopping in DnD is like dragging a 1 ton ships anchor behind your car it basically drags it down to a crawl , and for a GM its a crawl describing all the stuff in the store is VERY annoying (and feels like travelling over glass shards for me) and also wastes play time for the group in general, if there is some thing they might find interesting i put a list up on the screen with prices (or willing to trade for a side quest) you got to keep up the momentum , keep the players invested or i find the game dies
The massive dungeon thing is so real. My players are planning to do a B&E in Ravenloft next week and I'm kinda terrified. I get a headache whenever I start thinking about the all stairs
Castle Ravenloft is such a maze. I remember writing so many notes in my book just to help me keep track of where all the stairs and passageways led. Best of luck!
To all the players who want yo read every book in the make-believe library or book store, if ever the concept of being a bad sport in an RPG applies, it's here!
Solid points to think about. The multiple NPC is always a tough one to manage. Having a printed image of the character can also help if held up when they are talking to reinforce who is speaking. Oh, I do not have any interest in shopping episodes. Can easily be handled outside the table-time as there are more opportunities to push the narrative forward that interest me.
Shopping is painful! Especially in my early days of DMing. Nowadays, I simply introduce the shopkeeper and have set prices/quests on items. Unless there's some sort of exception, I try to get through shopping ASAP. I like mapping/prepping dungeons. I have dungeons that are upwards of 15-25 encounters perhaps. But I love the interconnection between levels. (Does cutting the bridge mean it makes a new crossing in the chasm/chamber below?). I've prepped dungeons... Even years in advance.
I don't consciously do voices. I describe the character, then I just portray them. My voice and manner of speach might change a bit but the players imaginations do most of the work.
Haggling. I hate it in real life, and hate pretend haggling even more. I've taken to letting players have a small discount in shops based on charisma but I don't want to play it out. And it's even worse with quest givers. "No, NOT each. Now do you want the quest or not?" lol
Combat was easier in 1e, generally the monsters didn't have anywhere near as many abilities. I can definitely notice now when I reviewed the antagonists soon before the session starts and think about how their tactics, etc, versus the times when I just wing it.
I love making dungeons, but I can't stand prolonged, complex social interactions. The Wanderers' Guide to Magic and Merchants and Enchanted Emporiums are great resources for running shops.
it the DMG each magical item has a rarity..at the begiining of the chapter for magical items is a table for cost of magic items of each rarity...the blue or superior items are 501 gp to 1000 gp in value. but in older editions they had the price right beside them....also the exp cost to make them.
The first thing I just do not like, running a published adventure. They are way too long, for most groups they do not even finish with all the original members due to private life changes. I mean, blocking off every Wednesday for two years already sounds hard to pull off. I finished Tyranny of Dragons and that experience completely cured me from even trying to run another published adventure except for The Lost Mine of Phandelver. The modules who have my interest all have some sort of gap of information I wish it was there, but it's short of info where I need it. Picking up the book, preparing the adventure feels like homework. After every page I just wonder, "what did I just read"? Where I have to re-read sections I just read. Second thing is puzzles and riddles, I am just too stupid myself. Even getting them pre-written from sourcebooks or online, I find it very hard to understand them.
Yes! I very much dislike running a library. It has to be a high level handwave thing. Shopping can easily be handled with a random magic shop generator. I really dislike running NPCs that can help the party in combat. Tomb of Annihilation had way too many. I hate running a seduction scene. Straight to narration.
I love combat, but when a player starts roleplayong during conbat, my eyes light up! When they kill the beast or enemy without remorse or comcern, i worry for their allignment... my game does not have alignment as a choice, but what you do... its not a mechanic, but the gods do see that
For smart villains, definitely cheat. If you make a "stupid miscalculation" when your players go to exploit that, suddenly the villain planned for that to draw the players out. Always have them have exactly the thing needed for the moment. They cast the right defensive spell just before the party showed up (or the right offensive spell for the position the players are in, like fireball or lightning bolt), they rigged some alchemist's fire to drop just where the PCs are standing (maybe have a few other vials drop where they aren't so it isn't AS obvious), have enemies show up behind the players so they feel blocked in and start shooting them with poisoned arrows.
With libraries and bookshops I do two things: 1) Ask them what they're looking for - maybe they're trying to figure out the weaknesses of a monster or the cure to a disease. 2) If they just look, then I lore dump the masochistic world building minutia that my brain needs to figure out sometimes...like perhaps they find a book about how dyes are made and which areas of the world they would have to be connected to based on ingredients needed, or fertilisers, stone masonry, fungi etc etc. The latter, it's up to them to make it useful
First I have to ask is that a gengar on the shelf behind you? Second, most of my gaming group doesn't like shopping either so it's usually handwaved. "I want X" "It's this much" "Ok I'll take it"
I'd say to find the reason your smart villain is also a dumbass. Strahd is arrogant and overconfident. Sauron lacks psychological insight into his enemies' motives. The 1,000 year old lich has simply lost perspective about the times ("kids these days"). It gives you both a reason they f'd up, and makes their character more interesting.
"you cant possibly name all the book of this place and decide the content of them" Me: erm.... I do that... I have done it tons of times, usually on the spot ._. Also i love making dungeons on the side wether i run them or not, i love making them ._. So yeah, i am stopping the video here cause i cant relate at all
@@apjapki Oooh! That just so happens to be where an ancient undead dragon decided to build his lair. The 50k gold was his first haul. The first of many. Or, that just so happens to be where the entrance to such-and-such dungeon is. I'm sure it's still safe.
I get a few of these. But the combat one...Huh. Not trying to be rude or anything but, what do you actually enjoy about it? Not liking combat in dnd is like not liking milk in icecream. Seems like you and your group is not-playing dnd almost. Probably worth trying a new system?
What I hate about running 5e dnd is...running 5e dnd. Have played every dnd edition, 4e is more enjoyable than 5e, and I hate 4e. Just leave dnd behind. So many other games exist
Bonus points if you catch the typo 😂
First--as an old grognard, I really like your channel. Even though I don't play 5th edition, you take on things that DMs have been struggling with since the 1970s. I'm not quite that old--I first started rolling dice at a Boy Scout summer camp in 1982 and first started DMing in 84. But don't sell yourself short. Just from the questions and issues you take on--you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. I'm going to split this up into two separate posts in hopes that it doesn't get rejected.
1) Libraries and book stores. This one is pretty easy. If you think about a medieval fantasy, most libraries are going to be , very very small--15 books would be a lot. A wealthy lord would have maybe 50 to 100 volumes. Bookstores would be nonexistent. If you wanted a book, you would have to hire a scribe and commission to have it made. And the materials, parchment, velum, inks, drawings and illuminations---all that costs. So a single, non-magical book would cost hundreds of gold pieces. Things are a lot less overwhelming when your shrink things down. Save yourself time and headaches.
2) Mega-dungeons--these are a labor of love. You either love it, or it's a chore. If it's a chore, there are a lot of places where you can buy maps. There are also numerous 1st edition modules that WOTC is reskinning for 5th edition. You can find many of these in PDF forms for free on the web.
Also, one of the points of a mega-dungeon is that it's a wondrous, weird, deadly place that the characters come back to over and over, where they advance several levels. B2 Keep on the Borderlands could take your character from levels 1-4 if you cleared the whole thing. Unless this is what you're after a mega-dungeon might not be right for your campaign.
3) Shopping--unless there's something happening in the market place that advances the story--this is shoe leather. Professor DM covered this topic really well in his video on shoe leather. He asked a very good question--how often do we see Batman buy tires for the Batmobile? From my perspective, it's like going to the loo--unless something happens in the bathroom we can skip it that part. So unless something actually happens in the market place that advances the adventure--I just have players give me a list of things they want to buy and I decide on the availability.
I'm actually stunned that 5th edition doesn't have a list of standard costs for equipment. I mean stunned. That said, 2nd edition probably has the most exhaustive equipment list for just about anything you can think of--2nd ed PHB, Complete Book of Thieves, Complete Book of Bards, Combat and Tactics, and Spells and Magic can all be found for free in PDF or RTF.
Now, I strongly recommend against having magic shops. Characters should pay for magic items in blood, not gold. Just my personal opinion. But if you are going to have magic shops--the 1st edition Unearthed Arcana has a list of magic items and their gold piece cost on pages 84-89. You can find that in a free PDF online.
4) Running multiple NPCs in one room? You sort of have to think of this in the way a playwright or a writer might. You have your main NPCs, no more than two. You have secondary NPCs--probably a handfull, and then you have walk-on characters who might have a single line of none at all. Unless there is a reason they don't--your main NPCs will do most of the talking, and they are the ones the party will want to interact with most anyway. The Council of Elrond from Fellowship of the Ring is a great example. There were lots and lots of characters present, but the main two voices were Elrond and Gandalf.
5) Running really smart villains...This is tricky but very doable. First, if the villain has anything to say about it, the encounters will never be balanced. NEVER. They will bring enough force to bear to kill the party in three rounds with average die rolls.
Second, they will never face the party alone. They will always have lieutenants and minions who are dangerous enough to force the party to divide their attacks.
Third, they will always have at least two ways to escape if things turn against them.
***Honorable mention--combat. Combat is the main mechanical engine of the game. There is so much to say about this, but to keep things brief-- PDM on Dungeon Craft has numerous episodes in his archive that can help anyone run faster, more engaging combat. Topics range from initiative to reducing character hit points. You might not agree with everything he advances, but it will make you really think and help you reconsider what your doing and how you're running things at your table.
"I can only do three voices and none of them well."
RELATABLE
i have one...and i messed that one up too
I've never really seen the attraction of roleplaying shopping - unless the shopkeeper is an actual NPC with their own role in the plot.
Everything can be an opportunity to do exposition, to roleplay, to relate something to the backstory of some player, etc. I understasnd that DMs had prep done and want to deliver that, but sometimes you gotta improv and deliver it somewhere else!
@fratystuff6737 Everything can be. But nothing has to be. If you say, "Can I buy X?" the answer might just be "yes" and that's it. I'm not saying I would refuse if a player created a scene. I'm just saying that it almost never happens. I don't starve my players of NPCs to talk to - there's always a lot.
There is a culture of expectations around everything. If you expect to RP out every purchase you will if you don't you won't. If an item is rare/illegal that's part of the plot so it will be. Are those items frequent? No.
I feel like nothing is being missed out on here. If (like in the video) you don't really like shops, you're missing nothing to skip ones that aren't interesting.
I think the key is - Is it boring? If so, it's done. If there's an interesting place to go, it will be RP'd whether it's a shop or not. I just did a missing person storyline so several of the people the party questioned were local businesspeople who knew the person. Did I RP BECAUSE they were shopkeepers? No. Lots of them were shopkeepers.
The way to play a smart villain is to cheat. You should have access to the players character sheets. This should let you prepare counters to specific spells and features and make it look like the villain pulled solutions out of their... brain to counter and make them look smarter.
RE Shopping: You want X. No we don't have one in stock. We can special order it. How much did you want to put down? Well you pay a finder's fee on top of the price of the item itself. And there may be a delivery fee.
One of my players foolishly said: "If you find it, I'll go pick it up myself." Famous last words. It took several sessions to get to the city with the item. The other players kept chasing side quests. The PC who wanted the item died outside the city gates.
I completely agree with you on the Library and or Study. There is always one wizard who wants to know all the titles. I recently booked marked the BG3 Wiki on all the books you come across in that game, great resources for Title and quick descriptions.
That's a really smart idea!
Drives me crazy when my players make me have a conversation with two NPC's. So my players get to watch me talk to myself.
Exactly.
Once there's more than one of me in a room, I summarize the conversation rather than have it outloud. "So they talk about [situation] and decide..."
Romantic sub-plots. I really struggle with those.
"sane magical prices" is a list of all the magic items with more accurate prices attached. its available for free on a few forums.
OMG Yes! Playing super-smart villains is so much harder than ones that are just super arrogant. I totally agree!
If you don't like running libraries, Advanced D&D 2nd Edition had a "system" built into it that approached this problem, it was called "consulting a Sage or Expert." -- It would usually list a price that the person from that field would charge for the research, knowledge or skills to aid the player characters.
Bookstores have a desk at which to make requests, not browsable. It’s medieval times, the printing press hasn’t been invented. Books are rare and each one is copied individually by a scribe.
NPCs - I don't do voices either, but I describe mannerisms and the try to do their rhythm of their speech or catchphrases for them. I typically also give each NPC a sort of quirk - might be they carry a cane, wear an earring they always play with, have a hat with a long feather that keeps getting in the way, etc. That way I can narrate some of the conversation interspersed with descriptions of the affectations. In a location with lots of NPCs I keep the number of NPCs that the party is interacting with at any time fairly small - the others are just talking amongst themselves and some party members may catch a snatch of their conversations that piques their interest.
I am old school rpg gamer and I must admit I like most of the stuff you dislike.
Libraries are great and I wish my players would visit them more often. It is a place of knowledge and can even hold an adventure in hunting for vital information.
Megadungeons can be fun. They hold the real horrors of adventuring, when you can't just leave so easily, can't get a rest for healing or memorizing spells. And preparing them is not so difficult.
I love running smart villains. They are always surrounded by an entourage of followers, henchmen, and they are protected my magic items and spells. They always have a teleport spell ready. And they don't wait for the pcs to looking for them, they have spies and lokate spells active and hunt the players down if they make a mistake. My players hate them.
Shopping is boring, I agree.
Cities hold some horrors for me because of the infinite possibilities, but I have prepared one now for my players.
The trick to running really intellegent characters: Use a tiny bit of meta gaming. It's not outside the realm of posibilities for a villain of that intelegence to be able to anticipate some or a lot of what the group may do.
Don't be afraid to let a really smart villain be bested. One common fault of rreally smart villains is being overconfident and underestimating the group. Classic moves that can help bring life to your villain.
I don't actually hate any of these. I don't typically see myself in a position of running large groups of NPCs but I myself wouldn't have an issue with it.
I am one of those world builders that builds whether I need it or not. So large groups of books not an issue for me, that said I typically try to put the focus on those books that will possibly serve as a hook for later adventures and books that will contain the info the group needs or wants about their current story arch. I am fortunate enough to have groups that are not overly concerned about excesive reading and if a player is playing a bookworm type they don't require the title of every book they get. Honestly a good way to assist with that is allow the player to make up the title of whatever book they are trying to get themselves. If you prefer not to do that generators are good. But don't feel compelled to think up every book if you don't want to. I realy don't.
I don't do mega dungeons mainly due to how long it can take to get through one. Plus I like my dungeons to have once had a purpose besides being the lair of monsters and other groups. Therefore I like my dungeons to be reminiscent of ancient tombs or burial crypts. Or ancient forges and things like that. I don't have to think of what each room really was back in the day but most of them I try to. Because of this I prefer dungeons that are more on the small to medium scale. Plus I love using miniatures and tiles (whether hand made or bought) and there tends not to be enough room for a large layout.
I hear you. When I end up playing multiple PCs -- especially in some kind of council or meeting -- it's like I'm putting on a little play for the players. Sometimes the Townmaster, the Jarl, and the Captain of the Guard are talking to one another and a couple of adventurers don't have much to say. So the players sit there while I run through my small repertoire of voices, every once in a while calling on them like a school teacher. They don't complain, but I feel silly (and usually make a comment about DM Theater Hour).
To your comment at 9:26, 4th edition had a hard and fast list of prices for literally everything, and people claimed it was "WoW clone lol" so they stopped doing it.
Ironically leading to people doing exactly that on dmsguild…
as a long time GM, your list is not surprising. most of the items give even the most experienced GMs a difficult time.
for most of these, limit the options of the players. for stores and libraries, I use time as a factor. the characters are searching for a specific book, set a DC and have them roll. each character that rolls, spends an hour searching. if 4 characters each roll twice, that's 8 hours searching.
stores are similar, the DC is the likelihood of the item being available.
as far as combat, that's a loaded question with a thousand answers.
as far as the other topics - improv!
practice, practice, practice.
being able to create spontaneous events and encounters is paramount! I don't mean, find a random table and roll - but actually create something from nothing. most importantly, what you create doesn't have to have any importance to the actual story. the spontaneity and randomness of encounters during either a lull or in the height of the interactions is part of the joy of being the GM.
Bookstores and libraries - never thought about them much, and now they give me the willies.
Intelligent bad guys and combat fall into the same category for me. It’s balance, but not in a balanced encounter kind of way.
I DM for a group of combat veterans, one of whom always has elaborate (and usually effective) battle plans. He optimized his build for a certain type of play, and being a former military officer, does a good job of getting the group to fall in line with his plans. It’s maddening. I’m running Vecna against this group. If I fight fair, using the published Vecna stat block, this will be a ten minute capstone to a two year campaign. If I play it like I think Vecna would, giving him the abilities a god level caster should have, it will be a five minute TPK, followed by the party becoming his undead thralls. Neither outcome is particularly satisfying, so I’m trying to figure out a better way.
Yes! It's just so hard to strike the balance between making something really challenging yet somehow still winnable. You want it to feel earned and live up to hype you've been building throughout the game. It's definitely a challenge
My advice is actually for the later your two scenarios---Vecna being able to TPK the party without breaking much of a sweat (after all, Vecna won't fight fair) Sometimes, a balanced encounter is exactly what you don't want.
My advice is the make it clear in the very first round that Vecna is an enemy they cannot fight and win against. But give them an escape hatch before the TPK occurs.
In many ways, Vecna is a world ending foe. Treat him as such. The ways to beat Vecna is by foiling his deigns--not by killing him out right. Maybe have a goal where the party lures him into a trap where other worldly entities are able to ensnare him for a thousand years or more. But there are certain villains and certain personalities who should be flat unkillable. Doesn't matter if the party is 40th level.
It's up there with the evil party that goes to Shadowdale in the Realms and loots Elminster's lab and library. It should be party ending if the players persist.
1. With libraries, you only decide on the relative books that need to be there. The 1st book that is not relevant you have them open it & realize it is full of historic thoughts that most people today (in game) believe to be inaccurate, or a selection of cook books that talk about roasts from animals no one has heard of, or the players believe are extinct.
2. Megadungeons should always be built underground resulting in limiting the players choices so that they can't fly to the top & miss most of the adventure. If you need to stop the players from accessing a lower level you put an arcane lock on the doorway that requires an up-cast knock to open limiting them to using the door only after the caster has high enough spell slots to knock that door.
3. Shopping, if the players want a specific item & it doesn't break anything for it to be in the shop, the shopkeeper says, "Well, the old widower near the swamp died a few weeks ago & his kids brought in a box of things they said they were not interested in maybe we can find something like that in there?" If it will be a magic item that they are not ready for yet, "I have a cousin in the city she might be able to pick that up from a friend & bring it to me. That will take some time & I'll need X coins to cover their traveling when they arrive in addition to the cost of the item, which could cost as much as Y." This gives you the option to fulfil that request in the future, but extracts the cost now & gives you time to plan for when they will get it, or they can decide to wait until they get to city Z.
4. Multiple NPCs you need to have a leader who interacts with everyone in the party.
5. Genius level villains are a problem, generally you find your best intelligent friend who is ok with talking about imaginary scenarios & just visit those thoughts. (It is super hard though.)
6. Combat can be an issue. There is a lot going on when you are a DM & it makes it difficult to keep all their abilities in mind while running the monsters. I don't know how many times I forgot, "Oh dang, that monster can regenerate & I didn't apply those hit points.", resulting in the creature going down in a ridiculously short time. When I'm a player I do that too. I have a friend who made a spreadsheet of what his character could do separated by type of action (BA, action, move, ReA) so he could go down the list & make sure he used every feature he could in a round. If one feature was dependent on another he put that set of actions on the sheet 1st to remind him of the dependency. I've considered doing this, but that would mean I would have to plan in advance, and I just don't, which is why some of my games suffer.
One thing I hate running?
More than a few feet...
I feel this in my soul! Your comments always make me cackle btw 😂
@misfitadventurers Ta 😅
While I feel your pain, I have many thoughts.
1. Libraries - start with the random book generator seeded with a selection of setting appropriate extensions. Then ensure players know that looking for a book takes time - vital time that is taking away from adventuring. If they're plucking from the shelves at random, this works. If they are looking for a particular work - then checks are required, and also - more time to find it.
2. Shopping - similar to libraries above; handwave all but the most specialist items. Who cares if you can get a good deal on iron rations - really. Now, a good deal on a jewel-encrusted mace - that's worth haggling over. Otherwise your response should be, "yes, that's standard prices, look it up, cross off the gold".
3. Large Dungeons - this is a mainstay of DM'ing, I feel sad you don't enjoy it. This is where the DM gets to exercise their creative leanings, make cool locations, sprinkle them with monsters, traps and treasure, weave a little explanatory lore around the place and you're done! Depending on how large we're talking here you can create a 'large' (30 rooms?) dungeon a week, easy.
4. Groups of NPC's - pick a spokesperson! No group of people just has everyone talking over each other when they meet another group - they almost always have a 'face' person. 'Voices' are not required for all NPC's. You can give them a cadence, vocabulary or mannerism quirk to differentiate.
5. Combat - this is soooooo important to a game. This is where the ultimate life-or-death stakes come into play. Plan out your main NPC/Monster moves ahead of time during prep. Your plan won't survive first contact with the players, but you'll feel more confident and have considered options which you can still use.
So, yeah - good video - but I found that each of things you mentioned was either something I love (large dungeons and combat) or able to be turned around from a hate to a love with some preparation and 'DM tricks'.
30 rooms imo isnt a large dungeon, large is about 120 rooms, very large about 300 and a mega dungeon id say is close to 1000 rooms. Though even by this definition i know a lot of gms that can do 120 rooms in a week so i agree on that part
@@greasysmith3150 Yes, the "large" size wasn't defined, but lets say, anything greater than 30 rooms isn't "small" anymore. If you remember to include a few empty rooms to convey that sense of abandonment, even less work!
Awesome video!
Hate the players, not the game.
I feel you with multiple NPCs or smart NPCs.
I agree about Book stores. Often it;s an issue that players aren't normally looking for Lore. They want magical books or scrolls. Or they want books that will give them bonuses to skill checks.
Shopping I personally hate, because not only does it drag out, but despite my statement at the beginning of the game that there are NO magic stores where they can buy Magic items anywhere in my world, the first thing they do every time they hit a town id ti try to find a store that will buy or sell Magic items. (sigh). As to your stated issue with it, first I would suggest looking at the DMG under the section about magic item rarity. the 2014 DMG gave a general value range for magic items based on rarity. You can use this to set prices and to let players 'haggle'. In addition, and I suggest this for any DM. In 3rd edition they created the Arms & Equipment Guide. The thing about the editions is that one thing that has barely changed is the cost of things. Thus, the equipment prices in this guide could be used with little to no changes.
Now the old system of giving a +2 bonus for an item is gone, but if you wanted an item to give advantage or a +1, that would be easy.
The selection of unusual items in this guide was incredibly comprehensive, from elven tree tents to a wide array of prices for spices and dry goods. from a muzzle and leash for your mastiff, to a beekeeper's outfit to the cost of Marzipan... it's all in this book. Until they decide to release an equivalent for 5e, I will use this... it makes having shops and merchants easier.
I love this list, especially the honorable mention of combat! I keep meaning to make myself a flowchart cheat sheet of what the monsters/NPCs can do but never do it.
Voices! Ugh! Every time, and I mean EVERY time, my NPCs slowly evolve into an Australian accent. And I am not Australian!!!
In regards to running a smart villain. There are 2 or 3 things that I found help me a lot.
1 is meta knowledge of the players. (Not to the extent that it's ME vs the players) If a player rogue asks, "do I understand the internal mechanics of a lock?" My answer is, " your character would know that". Same concept. If I can (as a DM) justify how my villain would know something about the players without having to jump through more than 2 circumstantial hoops, then the villain knows it.
2 acting on that knowledge, thus routinely meeting the players on the villains terms. Ie. After a big fight, or in a place full of civilians and always having a plan of escape like greater invisibility, mislead or contingency.
3 and this one is a straight shout-out to the Dungeon Dudes, getting to read their statblock and character page for the Queen of Thieves. This is a beautifully written character by a master DM and the greatest value of all is that it showcases how an intelligent villain would prepare for the worst around every corner. Dr Monty Martin got to really analyze how the more advanced spells would be put to use by someone with the time resources and dedication. 10 out of 10 on this character.
Agreed with libraries and book stores
I just did this in my last session
I wrote these tips while watching the video. They're not meant to subvert the issues presented, but to (hopefully) aleviate them.
Libraries and Bookstores: Just kick play up a level of abstraction -- "What kind of books are you looking for? Then resolve whether they can find those kinds of books. Maybe with an Intelligence (Investigation) Check, and summarize the contents of the books (some of which grant a bonus, like books of lore grant to skills about knowledge). That said, if you're going to put a library or bookstore in a settlement, it's likely wise to come up with some highlight books that an attendant might be peddling (or trying to keep secret) -- not too many, maybe three. You can use these to telegraph important people (through memoirs or stageplays), monsters (through histories or tragedies), or settlements (through any of the previous).
Massive Dungeons: I don't know if you cam fairly say that DMs don't like running massive dungeons, because... A lot of DMs run massive dungeons. "Mega-Dungeon" supplements like Barrowmaze seem to sell pretty well and review pretty highly, and I know DMs who enjoy gradually building up "their dungeon" for years and years which tend to get pretty massive. You mentioned not enjoying prepping these yourself, which is more than fair, but there are a few "Mega-Dungeon" supplements you can get your hands on and run -- though some may need conversion. That said, for prepping a big dungeon, you can do focused prep: prep one area in detail, and give the players a reason to spend a lot of their game time in that one area -- that's where their macguffin for their current quest is, that's where the super magic key to area two is, there's a motivating mystery there, etc (and of course the obstacles for acquiring those things), and prep an outline for the rest of the dungeon just so you kind of know what's elsewhere and can be consistent in descriptions and explanations and such. For the outline, something like, "B. Massive underground Dwarven forges now taken over by Orcs," can be enough to make sure you're not going to contradict stuff. And if you need to improv a little bit toward the end of a session, you've got some material. You can even throw in a fight with some Orcs; nothing kills time in (later) D&D like combat...
Shopping: So, some thoughts. One, it's totally cool to prepare a set list of what is being sold here in a settlement (maybe including on that list "anything from the PHb equipment list") and sticking to it. If it's not on that list, it's not in stock. Sorry. The players might be able to request items and then the shopkeepers can order it or ask around, giving you a chance to prepare accessibility or prices (or quests!) -- you might even be explicit with the players that the request process is a meta-mexhanic to give you-the-real-person real person time to prepare. If you see the shopping session coming up, you might ask the players what they'll be looking for ahead of time.
The second thought is that you said that your group enjoys roleplaying these shopping trips out rather than "handwaving" them... But you said that after you explained that you put shopping trips on this list because YOU do NOT like roleplaying them out. So... Are you sure your group prefers to RP them? Here's a thing... I think the term "handwaving" produces a false dichotomy and unfairly demeans abstraction. Here's the false dichotomy part: There are lesser and greator degrees of abstraction (rather than the two poles of Playing Every Moment and Just Replace Gold On Sheet With Item) and you can move between them in a single scene. For example... GM: So, what do y'all wanna buy? (Very abstract) Player: I was hoping to get a set of Mariner's Plate. (Very abstract) GM: Right, but they're not seeling that at the general store, so how would you find a set? (Still abstract, but a fact about the general store.) Player: I figure I'd ask around at the docks. (Pretty abstract, but we can imagine, say, a comic panel of the character talking to a sailor with an inquisitive look on their face.) GM: That's a good idea. You are eventually pointed to the office of an overseer at the drydock. (Ends a little less abstractly.) Player: Alright, cool... (Totally abstract, asking for more.) GM: In the overseer's office, you meet Amalia the Lash. Weather-beaten. Half-Elven, maybe thirty. She has a hard-look and a peg leg. She demands twenty-five-hundred gold for her old suit of armor. (Very abstract description of the office; totally abstract statement of the meeting; very concrete description of the seller; very abstract description of the starting price.) Player: Hold on. I take a seat in the chair at the desk, and say, "Why are you selling the armor?" (Concrete description of action; no summary.) GM: She spits jnto a dish near her desk and says, "Merrow. I was workin' security on a crew sailing north west o' here. We landed on an uncharted island, but damn merrow harpooned me leg and tried to pull me under. Merrow draggin' me one way, crew draggin' me t' other. Merrow were winnin', and woulda pulled me down alone. So the captain cut me leg off. A hard decision, but the right one." She smiles wanly, "That was the end of my adventuring days, and the captain set me up with this gig. 2500 gold." Do you agree? (Very concrete here; everything the GM is saying is happening in scene. With one exception: The GM asks the player if they agree, kicking it up in abstraction and focusing the action toward a close in the scene.) Player: Wait. What's behind that wan smile? Can I check Insight? Thanks; 18. (Very abstract, referncing only the smile, but bucking the GM's press toward abstraction because they're interested in the details of the scene. Totally cool.) GM: You see acceptance in that smile, for her injury and her life. Levened with a bit of bitterness toward the merrow. (More on the concrete side; this is something the character is experiencing.) Player: Okay. I don't want to pay the full price, can I offer to slay those merrow in exchange for the armor? (Back on the abstract side. It's even a little unclear if the character is doing what the player is asking about.) GM: Check Charisma Persuasion.15? Okay. She says that for each merrow you can prove you've slain, she'll take 200 Gold off the price. Do you agree? (Abstract: just summary here.) Player: Yeah, someone else can do their shopping now. (As abstract as it gets.)
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Large Groups of NPCs: This is another place where abstraction can help. Summarize the broadstrokes -- atmosphere, logistics, even dialogue. Describe the highlights. Characters are best defined (in my opinion) by their decisions. If two NPCs are talking to each other, tell the players the gist of what they say, and highlight a line or two of dialogue. Then describe the decisions those characters make and how it changes things. If the players are planning to talk to a bunch of NPCs in quick succession, have them provide their itinerary and then abstract the whole thing monstage style, zooming in at specific points lf dramatic interest -- to you and/or the players. I don't let the players drag us into concrete-description-land and keep us there all session; in fact, I explain this stuff to them, and invite them to get on-board. All that said... I do try to think of what each character think, wants, and is like to consider how they would interact with each other and respond to the situation evolving around them. I have them take the initiative sometimes.
Smart Villains: Here are some tips that come to mind: Draw on the wisdom of crowds -- There are a lot of online communities out there willing to think-tank your big bad's genius plan; use them to check your prep. Mostly that's useful before sessions, but they might also be able to crowdsource tips for play in the moment. Discover your villain's plan as it unfolds -- That is to say, cheat. When your genius villain is (at risk of being) thwarted, tell yourself (and maybe your players), "They planned for this." Then decide how. Et, voila a genius scheme in action. Maybe give yourself some limits against on this ability so that it's not totally unfair. You might go with a psychological weakness (The villain cannot have prepared for the betrayal of their "true love"!) Or a limited number of uses (one to three), or a game-time cooldown (two uses per week (so they can prepare)). Remember the essence of strategy -- That is, fight when losing the battle can win you the war. Pit your enemies against each other; bait your enemy into taking a pawn so that you can take their queen; attack when you can retreat but your enemy can't. Use these principles in prep and in action, and they may be enough to portray your villain in all their big-brained glory.
Combat: I've heard a lot of the opposite of this advice -- "Players take too long to resolve their turns" -- I know I can feel like I'm taking a lot of time on something when no one else at the table does. Is it possible that either there's time on players' turns when you could be considering your move (when they're picking a spell or calculating their to hit and damage for instance) or that this is a perception issue and your players don't feel like you're taking too much time? I would ask them what they think if you haven't already.
But, let's assume that it's a legit real issue that you're taking too mich time on your turns. What can you do? You could outsource some of your work on the player turn -- for instance, designate that the player to the right of the turn-taking player (or maybe THAT ONE PLAYER who knows the rules off the top of their head) is responsible for helping find rules and clarify an interpretation-pitch when you're busy. You might give them the monsters' AC and have them resolve their own attacks and have them track damage on monsters -- then you just have to note when their tracked damage total meets or exceeds the monster's HP. You could slow down the players' turns (very risky!) Have them roll their attack and damage seperately so they. Have them confirm the saves of their spells before casting them (this is a bit like the earlier advice, innit?). You could call for a soft break. Say, "I'm going to need a few minutes here; now might be a good time to hit the bathroom or get some water. Then the pressure is off you a bit. You might give a player a monter to run. A bit controversial, I'm sure, but you might have a player who's willing and able to play a mqonster with integrity. Then there's a turn when you aren't being attacked or acting.
Like I say, these ideas are meant to help, not to dismiss.
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I guess my comment was too long to post in one entry...
Ok
point 1:
On bookshops and libraries. Direct players to the relevant section of the bookshop/library and give them a few book titles. Then make sure there is information they need in them. Don’t worry about the players going far off the direction you put them on. If they do, you can encourage them to come up with book titles on their own. Or just have a selection of random book titles to feed them and let them imagine the rest.
On point 2:
Mega dungeons are always best when that is what the entire campaign is focused on. The characters have entered (or are trapped) in the mega dungeon and have to deal with all the monstrous factions, single powerful monsters etc that exist in the mega dungeon. Just throwing a huge dungeon at them and expecting them to crawl through it in an evening is not realistic or even sensible.
On point 3:
On shopping, you have three real options here: the first is the classic magic shop. I always roleplay it out a bit. But honestly; it add a ton of mundanity to the fantasy world. Bilbo baggins didn’t go to the magic store to get Sting. They found it when they defeated some trolls.
Which brings me to the second method. Magic items are only found through adventuring. This is best when you lean into the sword & sorcery aspect of D&D (which you should). People in town don’t find magic items because magic items are found in dangerous places by adventurous people doing adventurous things. It’s a reward that feeds into itself. Want more treasure? Do more adventuring!
A third option is the classical clash of the titans (the original 1983 or so movie; not the 2000s one). Where magical items are the gifts of the gods to mortals they favor. Its an interesting idea and one i haven’t done in any of my games.
You can easily mix the two as much or as little as you like.Also; magic items that do neat things are always more interesting than magic weapons and armor.
Point 4: multiple NPCs can be a tough nut to crack. My advice is to make sure the focus of the scene is on the party; not on the NPCs. That way you don’t have to hold a conversation with yourself while your players act as a captive audience. Try to split the time each player spends conversing with each NPC as evenly as possible but be aware that some players will want to take up more time than others.
Point 5: playing smart villains. two options:
Option 1: Write out a plan of action for your villain to follow and stick to it. Make it so he can adjust it on the fly and still accomplish his goals. That way he’s not completely boned the first time the Pcs defeat some part of his plan. This drags out the adventure (probably good). And makes the players think he’s very smart at outmaneuvering them. Minions with communications that slowly reveal his plans to the players is a good way of showcasing this.
option 2: cheat that’s right. Cheat. Use your players' plans against them. When they come up with something. Throw something in there that will thwart their plans. The trick is to make it hard, but not impossible. So you can’t thwart every plan, if they come up with something genuinely clever or cool. Let them have it.
Ginny Di has a pretty good video on running shops, so hopefully that’ll help you a bit. As far as running smart characters & combat, the blog (or book series) The Monsters Know What They’re Doing is gonna be your BFF in those regards
PDM did a good on on shopping too---it's his shoe leather episode. Best advice out there.
The Monsters Know What They're Doing is a great resource for newer DMs! I think I covered it in a video a couple years ago. I definitely recommend it
Yes, libraries.
_"What books are there, what are the titles?"_
Arfmgh!!
Some combat advise: note down what each enemy is supposed to do on a note card. I print out my statblocks and write down a "script" for what the creature is supposed to do during combat so I don't have to think; I just follow that script. Hope this helps!
I definitely agree on smart NPCs, and I consider myself smart. It gets especially tough for me if it's deeper into the session or if I've been playing other NPCs, because I might not be in that character's mindset and I've spent so much mental energy already
Lengdary reaction. Roll an intelligence contest against the character intelligence. Counter target action of that character.
I have a couple of players who would like to spend a couple of sessions just looking around in town. The challenge is I have a couple of players, including myself, who find that gets boring quickly. Trying to balance sessions when some people like role-playing 80% and others who wish combat and adventure was 80% of the sessions is a huge challenge.
I ran most of a campaign set inside a library. In hindsight, it's surprising the issues you mention didn't come up more often.
It's okay to not enjoy combat. If it's a stress point for you, maybe try running a few practice battles. You can set up a few small solo scenarios just to establish a rhythm.
Good list. I definitely agree about shopping.
I used to have these problems, but I overcame them. Let me see if I can look at each one and come up with a solution to them to make your life as a DM easier.
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1. Libraries and Bookstores: Easy fix. In prep, make three books for each character. A book will have a title, 1 sentence synopsis, and it’s use. (“Good People and Why We Hate Them”. Cyric’s guide to Murder. Advantage in religion vs Evil religions) The three books are Low, Mid, and High. Low books are flavorful and do nothing (DC 10). Mid books have a minor value (DC 15). High books have significant value, maybe even related to the plot(!) (DC 20). When the party investigates the area, one player rolls for the group. Skill check is up to you. After that, the player rolls a dice that has a value greater or equal to the number of party members in the area (4 players = 1d4. 5 players = 1d6). The number rolled on this die tell you how many players benefit from the skill check. The die roller chooses which players benefit.
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2. Massive Dungeons: Professor Dungeon Master’s Universal Dungeon Terrain. (I’m just going to leave this here: ruclips.net/video/7_hq7JE55CQ/видео.html ) But also, plan at least 5 rooms per level. Combat takes a bit, so you don’t have to go crazy here.
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3. Shopping: See #1. However, there is a chance your friends want to go on a shopping trip. Which is fine! Break out the timer (30 mins is pretty good for a campaign and 10 mins for a one shot). In prep, make a map, use AI to draw out a few locations, the descriptions of the place and the shop keeps, a mundane item list with prices, and print that bad boy up. (If you are playing online, you can pin the locations on a map and set up a shop system where the players go shopping with out you while you take a quick bio break.) Need an NPC for on-the-spot role play? Players guide, roll up alignment, flaws, wants, and needs. Spend 2 minutes making the NPC. Spend 5 minutes playing the NPC. If the players enjoy this character, put it to the side and use the NPC as an asset later for good or worse. You can flesh them out between sessions.
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4. Large NPC Groups: Summarize, summarize, summarize. Unless this is a major plot point where the PCs can earn experience points, abridge this cut scene. Pick a speaker of the NPCs that other NPCs would focus on. The other NPCs are in two camps: either agree or disagree with this speaker. Of those that disagree, pick a speaker. These are your two major NPCs that the PCs will focus on. It is up to the PCs which side to take, if one at all. You can switch out speakers from one side to become a new speaker leader, but they are “Assisting” the speaker. (aka giving them advantage) Unless the PCs can change the outcome of this social encounter, recap the cut scene and move on. If the Players do interact, keep the rounds low to move the story along. A volley (a social combat round) consists of NPC speaking with PC response. Change the reputation after the response. Then the PCs talk and the NPCs response. Change the reputation after the response. Keep these rounds as long as you would a combat encounter. The encounter is over when the players win over the NPCs or if the NPCs hate the party. Or combat breaks out. Been known to happen.
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5. Smart Characters: There is no wrong way to run a character in your campaign. You can increase difficulty by adding Lair actions and Waves. A smart magic user can have lair traps. Litchs have weak NPC clones. Melee NPCs have waves of NPCs that rush the room. Ranged NPCs shoot from hiding spots while activating traps. And charisma baddies publicly make the PCs look bad and make life difficult for them without even being there. Change up the expectations. It don’t matter so long as you make it memorable. I play Strahd like he is Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show (He likes to play with his food before he eats them).
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6. Combat: Automate your combat. In prep, for each creature set write down the following: Melee, Ranged, Nothing, Something. Melee: What does this creature do if they can walk up to a PC? Ranged: What does this creature do if they need to run to a PC? Nothing: What does this creature do when there is no one around them? Something: What do they do if a is in the combat area? (Example: Goblin, Melee/attack1d6 sword, Ranged/attack 1d6 bow, Nothing/Run for help, Something/tries to destroy .) You can adjust on the fly when needed, but mostly you are on auto pilot so you can tell the story.
as a DM if they want me to name all the books in the library i go, "well there's screw you volume 1, screw you volume 2, screw you volume 3, screw you volume 4, - if they do not get the point by then i tell them i will get more descriptive (and nasty) it one of those thing i mention in session zero that i ain't doing - That' the thing of "name ever book" is usually a "lets torment the DM" type of thing, if you want some books (depending on subject and rarity) i just role some dice (figure it out on a chart or in my head) and might say "you find one book with a minor passage on it" or "you find several Books which have the information you will have to spend (making them roll) a few hours reading" then give them some hand outs - but i never try to bog it down, got to keep it going
And as for shopping is generally "you go in and get the stuff you are looking for" and "all the store's have a no barter policy", Shopping in DnD is like dragging a 1 ton ships anchor behind your car it basically drags it down to a crawl , and for a GM its a crawl describing all the stuff in the store is VERY annoying (and feels like travelling over glass shards for me) and also wastes play time for the group in general, if there is some thing they might find interesting i put a list up on the screen with prices (or willing to trade for a side quest)
you got to keep up the momentum , keep the players invested or i find the game dies
The massive dungeon thing is so real. My players are planning to do a B&E in Ravenloft next week and I'm kinda terrified. I get a headache whenever I start thinking about the all stairs
Castle Ravenloft is such a maze. I remember writing so many notes in my book just to help me keep track of where all the stairs and passageways led. Best of luck!
To all the players who want yo read every book in the make-believe library or book store, if ever the concept of being a bad sport in an RPG applies, it's here!
Solid points to think about. The multiple NPC is always a tough one to manage. Having a printed image of the character can also help if held up when they are talking to reinforce who is speaking.
Oh, I do not have any interest in shopping episodes. Can easily be handled outside the table-time as there are more opportunities to push the narrative forward that interest me.
It doesn’t solve things completely but remember that even really smart people still do stupid things. Same goes for villains
Shopping is painful! Especially in my early days of DMing.
Nowadays, I simply introduce the shopkeeper and have set prices/quests on items. Unless there's some sort of exception, I try to get through shopping ASAP.
I like mapping/prepping dungeons. I have dungeons that are upwards of 15-25 encounters perhaps. But I love the interconnection between levels. (Does cutting the bridge mean it makes a new crossing in the chasm/chamber below?). I've prepped dungeons... Even years in advance.
At least bookstores are 25 gold a pop. 😂
I don't consciously do voices. I describe the character, then I just portray them. My voice and manner of speach might change a bit but the players imaginations do most of the work.
Haggling. I hate it in real life, and hate pretend haggling even more. I've taken to letting players have a small discount in shops based on charisma but I don't want to play it out. And it's even worse with quest givers. "No, NOT each. Now do you want the quest or not?" lol
Combat was easier in 1e, generally the monsters didn't have anywhere near as many abilities.
I can definitely notice now when I reviewed the antagonists soon before the session starts and think about how their tactics, etc, versus the times when I just wing it.
so your nightmare is going to Candlekeep huh? :D
I love making dungeons, but I can't stand prolonged, complex social interactions. The Wanderers' Guide to Magic and Merchants and Enchanted Emporiums are great resources for running shops.
it the DMG each magical item has a rarity..at the begiining of the chapter for magical items is a table for cost of magic items of each rarity...the blue or superior items are 501 gp to 1000 gp in value. but in older editions they had the price right beside them....also the exp cost to make them.
The first thing I just do not like, running a published adventure. They are way too long, for most groups they do not even finish with all the original members due to private life changes. I mean, blocking off every Wednesday for two years already sounds hard to pull off. I finished Tyranny of Dragons and that experience completely cured me from even trying to run another published adventure except for The Lost Mine of Phandelver. The modules who have my interest all have some sort of gap of information I wish it was there, but it's short of info where I need it. Picking up the book, preparing the adventure feels like homework. After every page I just wonder, "what did I just read"? Where I have to re-read sections I just read.
Second thing is puzzles and riddles, I am just too stupid myself. Even getting them pre-written from sourcebooks or online, I find it very hard to understand them.
Yes! I very much dislike running a library. It has to be a high level handwave thing.
Shopping can easily be handled with a random magic shop generator.
I really dislike running NPCs that can help the party in combat. Tomb of Annihilation had way too many.
I hate running a seduction scene. Straight to narration.
I love combat, but when a player starts roleplayong during conbat, my eyes light up! When they kill the beast or enemy without remorse or comcern, i worry for their allignment... my game does not have alignment as a choice, but what you do... its not a mechanic, but the gods do see that
I hate romance/flirting within the game. I tell my players at session 0, i dont want it and they definitely dont want to see me trying to do it.
For smart villains, definitely cheat. If you make a "stupid miscalculation" when your players go to exploit that, suddenly the villain planned for that to draw the players out. Always have them have exactly the thing needed for the moment. They cast the right defensive spell just before the party showed up (or the right offensive spell for the position the players are in, like fireball or lightning bolt), they rigged some alchemist's fire to drop just where the PCs are standing (maybe have a few other vials drop where they aren't so it isn't AS obvious), have enemies show up behind the players so they feel blocked in and start shooting them with poisoned arrows.
Nothing is ever a mistake, the villain just had more information than the players realized.
With libraries and bookshops I do two things:
1) Ask them what they're looking for - maybe they're trying to figure out the weaknesses of a monster or the cure to a disease.
2) If they just look, then I lore dump the masochistic world building minutia that my brain needs to figure out sometimes...like perhaps they find a book about how dyes are made and which areas of the world they would have to be connected to based on ingredients needed, or fertilisers, stone masonry, fungi etc etc.
The latter, it's up to them to make it useful
First I have to ask is that a gengar on the shelf behind you? Second, most of my gaming group doesn't like shopping either so it's usually handwaved. "I want X" "It's this much" "Ok I'll take it"
It is! A gengar in a pirate hat lol
I'd say to find the reason your smart villain is also a dumbass. Strahd is arrogant and overconfident. Sauron lacks psychological insight into his enemies' motives. The 1,000 year old lich has simply lost perspective about the times ("kids these days"). It gives you both a reason they f'd up, and makes their character more interesting.
"you cant possibly name all the book of this place and decide the content of them"
Me: erm.... I do that... I have done it tons of times, usually on the spot ._.
Also i love making dungeons on the side wether i run them or not, i love making them ._.
So yeah, i am stopping the video here cause i cant relate at all
I would have the player tell me what's in each book.
@@TroyKnoell A treasure map to find 50,000 gp.
@apjapki Cool. Do you follow it? Where does it lead you?
@@TroyKnoell Somewhere peaceful and safe
@@apjapki Oooh! That just so happens to be where an ancient undead dragon decided to build his lair. The 50k gold was his first haul. The first of many. Or, that just so happens to be where the entrance to such-and-such dungeon is. I'm sure it's still safe.
@@TroyKnoell Interesting book.
I get a few of these. But the combat one...Huh. Not trying to be rude or anything but, what do you actually enjoy about it? Not liking combat in dnd is like not liking milk in icecream. Seems like you and your group is not-playing dnd almost. Probably worth trying a new system?
What I hate about running 5e dnd is...running 5e dnd. Have played every dnd edition, 4e is more enjoyable than 5e, and I hate 4e.
Just leave dnd behind. So many other games exist