DM Thread? DM thread.

I have so many players asking me to DM something, some new, some old.

I don't have any idea on what game I want to DM this time.

Zero inspiration.
Suggestions?

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>>45045064
Have them play as a circus troupe on the run from their ringmaster?
You'd get your strongman, knifejuggler, bearded lady, etc.
Alternatively, have them all go through character creation, then you start the campaign 200 years into the future when they're all dead and they start off as skeletons. They need to consume flesh to slowly regenerate their bodies and their sanity. Something like darksouls?

I'm GMing a 5e campaign, and the Paladin of Bane wants to make a church and attract followers during his downtime. Is there a roll of some kind for this? Was thinking of giving him rewards as he hit certain milestones.

>>45045064
Maybe try a completely new genre that you haven't DM'd before?
I've wanted to jump across to something Sci Fi like shadowrun or eclipse phase.
Problem I have with Eclipse Phase is the buckets of rules. Anybody know a rules-light sci-fi space/cyberpunk game?

>>45045064
gurps

>>45045320
gurps

>>45045349
>Not Recommending Fatal
Do you even boardgames bro

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>>45045320
>you haven't DM'd before
I like to try new games and setting, but i have an allergy to obsolete systems.
It's hard to find some good modern system.

Last i found were Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game and the Gumshoe (Exoterrorists and alike).
Those were pretty good.

>>45045924
>obsolete systems
What?

>>45045924
if you like crunch give Twilight 2013 a go. Pretty nice for survival horror as written, and could easily be reskinned for a counter-terrorist cell.

>>45045967
Obsolete systems.
Like, games that could very well have been written in the 90s.

Where rules are made thinking of realism and accuracy, instead of gameplay and storytelling.
Freaking hate those.
>inb4 i'm been DMing since the 90s, but damn, i always hated that approach to RPGs

>>45046083
You really shouldn't use a word like obsolete to describe your personal preference.

>>45046114
But they are.
That is an approach typical of those years.
The back you go, the more heavy and prevalent that style was.

You can call it "classic" if you want.

>>45046126
They aren't obsolete because some people still prefer them, you can call them a different subgenre or something. Obsolete implies an objectively worse way of doing things to get the same result. But this situation is based on subjective opinion, and you could also say that the games aren't trying to do the same things in the first place. So, no, it doesn't apply at all.

Am I doing this right?

In my sr5 game I'm having my players infiltrate an old castle to capture a rogue GOD who has employed mercenaries and some mages to guard him. If they grind to a halt or engage too many mercs then the police would assault/siege the place and occupy some mercs. Is this an acceptable way to ease the encounter or at least change the dynamic if things get hairy?

>>45046222
only if there is a reason for the police to show up. perhaps they should receive a tip-off that the police are planning a raid on the place and they need to get in and out before the police get the god first. It would allow them to benefit from the police involvement in the short term but still give them an incentive to avoid direct contact.

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new gm here.
I'm planning a one-session D&D 5 game with a group that seems to lean very chaotic good-neutral, and most characters being more rogue-ish (bards, rogues, etc). I'm looking for a good and quick reason for them to break into a Lord's Manor during the night. Any suggestions?

>>45045924
>i have an allergy to obsolete systems

how can an imagination-based game ever be obsolete?

>>45046667
>break into a Lord's Manor during the night.
Nobility party
Some obscure item there
spooky skeletons

>>45046754
Well yes, the how and such I have pretty much down. But how do I convince a group of allright people to break into an upstanding noble citizen's home?

>>45046767
What if he wasn't upstanding? If he's a bad guy, they might be more willing to break in, especially if they feel like there is a reward.

I really want to run my own OSR styled (old school DnD themed dungeon crawling game) online here, but I'm not 100% sure how hard I should make it. The old games seemed to thrive on being hard as fuck, with lots of death for the PCs, but I'm not sure how much I want that.

Also, general DM advice for newer DMs would be appreciated.

>>45046788
I suppose, yes. Maybe have a dirty rumour around him that the officials don't feel like investigating, combined with one of my PCs having a jewel that's a potential mcGuffin that I could link to that Lord... Thanks for the idea bounce!

>>45046767
They discover that he is a good person under the influence of an evil artefact or individual. Whatever dohickey they need to recover is necessary to free him from evil's influence.
Thus they have in one neat parcel a reason to break in and a reason to do it without hurting him.

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>>45046667
Evil lord, or at least caught up in some shady stuff, if you're leaning towards moral greyness. They get a tip that there's some stuff that can help put a finger of law on him. Maybe to stir the people, if it's more chaotic. CN is also about personal gain, so something belonging to PCs?

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
D&D 5e

>Why are you DMing?
One of our friends ran a D&D 5e adventure and it was a bad time for everyone. In the hypothetical situation that the people in this group never play a pen-and-paper RPG ever again, I want their last experience to be enjoyable.

That, and I never find the game as fun when I'm a player.

>Who's in your party?
A sorcerer, a paladin, a bard/fighter, a monk, and two fighters.

>Where is it?
Homebrew setting which acts as a hodgepodge of various fantasy and science fiction tropes.

>When did you lose your sanity?
Last time I lost it was two years ago. I do far more work than is necessary when I DM, so I burn myself out pretty quickly. I usually call for a couple of weeks off to get my composure together, and typically resume the adventure. I didn't bother resuming it then, though.

>What are you DMing?
5e. The starter set module, for now. We're almost finished though. I'm wondering what I'm going to do when we finish this one up -- I might do another module. I feel like if I were to write my own session, I would want to change the setting, and that might necessitate a change of characters. My players seem pretty attached to them already, for the most part, so I don't know if they'd want to roll with that.
>Why?
Only one other guy had experience with D&D at all, and I've always been curious. When that other guy brought it up to the group it only took some light coercion to get me to do it. It's much more fun than I expected. Easier, too, for the most part, although again I'm not writing my own adventures yet.
>Who's in your party?
A very CG half-orc paladin, an elf ranger, a dwarf rogue, and a halfling wizard. Everybody has darkvision except the last guy so I've been trying to think of a magical item that could do that and maybe some other cool thing: a magical pare of spectacles would be really cool, I think. Does anybody have any ideas for this?
>Where is it?
Faerûn. Actually, is it OK to spell that "Færûn"?
>When did you lose your sanity?
Um... not yet, I guess. DMing is almost like a high for me, though, and sometimes (usually a day or so afterwards) I just start to feel like utter shit. Or maybe I just drink too much coffee when I DM. I dunno. /blog

>>45045138
Use a charisma check of DC 15, give him a d4 of followers. Modify the DC if you feel something justifys it. Same with how many followers he is achieving. It takes about one day of downtime spent to make this roll and also costs 2 gp of expenses.

>What are you DMing?
Dnd 5e
Call of Cthulhu 6/e/7e
L5r
Star wars Edge of empire
>Why are you DMing?
everyone else makes the "i don't think id be good at it" claim
>Who's in your party?
Kind of a long list if we're talking character wise. But if we're talking people, just a couple of my friends from back in highschool
>Where is it?
rotate between everyones homes
>When did you lose your sanity?
When we played star wars and they became so obssessed with winning that they stopped roleplaying entirely and talked purely in dice. ( i use my turn to make an attack and give a boost dice to ___) ( I have 3 advantage, so i give the boost dice to next player)

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
D&D5E

>Why are you DMing?
Because we rotate campaigns weekly, and this week is my campaign.

>Who's in your party?
A ranger (male)
A ranger (female)
A warlock (male)
A werewolf (female)

>Where is it?
Currently, we've become stranded in a snowy mountain range unfamiliar to us, but a settlement looms in the distance.

>When did you lose your sanity?
My players are wonderful and sensible, and I love running games for them. Our rotation means that every other week I get to be a player in an unrelated campaign.

I'm actually going to start my first gurps game with a friend of mine being the one man party.
The setting is a low fantasy setting based on 5th century europe with a decedant and dying roman/greek influenced empire which is surrounded by barbarians based on the celts,germanics and huns. I plan on making all the monsters based on monsters from those cultures.

>>45045138
>image
>hey kid, wanna buy some pot

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>What are you DMing?
Victorian Paranoia homebrew set in late 1800 london
>Why are you DMing?
Because I like making shit up and bullshitting on the fly
>Who's in your party?
street kid thief type, originally non-lethal till the other players fucked it for him, now max payne
nobleman's son with lots of webley revolvers, the guns are his only character defining trait
slav expat student, accidentally started a communard uprising in brixton, unhinged and psychotic
ex-trauma surgeon, old man with lots of ether, the "sensible" one, only reason the others aren't dead or in jail
>Where is it?
At present the PCs own a pub, a small gang and a mandingo fighting ring, I gave them some nobles they do work for in exchange for not getting fucked by the police after their repeated murders and robberies. Last session they were trying to stop the assassination of some ambassador at a ball on a job from one of the nobles. They surprisingly ended up making a plan and sticking to it, only killing one person and actually protecting the guy. I was impressed.
>When did you lose your sanity?
First session, the doctor character made an amazing roll with his "modern science" skill to literally resurrect some guy they'd tortured to death as a frankenstein's monster thing so they could keep interrogating him. I have since embraced the madness and don't even bother making any prep just stockpiling GM resources and improving my way through everything.

>>45049811
Lantern of Perfect Perception:
It is shaped by a lantern, but instead of glass, it is covered in black metal. The one holding the lantern gets the ability of Darkvision.

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
KillSixBillionDemons RPG. It's based off the comic, and still in development
>Why are you DMing?
It seems like a simple enough game with interesting dice rolling mechanics. Plus I love the webcomics and the universe is so strangely abstract and metaphorical, you can make almost anything out of it.
>Who's in your party?
no one yet, got a few friends interested, but they'll be choosing classes and races tomorrow
>Where is it?
In this world of KSBD the universe is described as the 'Flaming Wheel of Creation', in which the immortal flame rests as its axle, containing the throne of creation. The spokes of the 'wheel' are the flames of the great gods, and this flame nourishes all of the multiple realities contained within the wheel. I'm starting the game in The Throne of creation, and I'll probably exile the party to a spoke in the wheel or into the impression the wheel leaves behind after I set them up with the BBEG. The campaign would be them escaping back to reality and creation while defeating the bad dude (haven't decided who he/she/it is yet)
>When did you lose your sanity?
Already have trying to follow this goddam universe logic. It's really abstract.

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>>45053653
meant to include relevant image

>>45045011
>New DM
>running AD&D campaign to keep it simple
>using dad's old reference books and screens
>friends are all first time players
We got them in for a one shot, they had a great time which is actually the issue because the idea of a 'one shot' didn't sink in so well and they want to play again every month.

The real issue being that most of these guys have pockets full of spaghetti and do almost nothing outside of eating mountains of doritos and playing vidya well into their mid twenties. They're gonna take it pretty damn hard if I tell them that I kind of just used that game as some holiday entertainment and I had no real interest in continuing to commute every month to run it.

Is a skyping DM for first time players in any way plausible?

>>45045011
>Be playing minotaur barbarian in 3.5
>we are playing a desert campaign (think dnd egypt)
>pharoah dies of random illness
>he had no heirs so the city governers are fighting for power
>guy we are working for goes for all out war against another city
>we (the PCs) are acting as commandos and go in under cover of night the night before the attack.
>I come up with "brilliant" plan to use the city's air cav (bunch of griffons) to literally carry us into the enemy army camped outside the city and drop us onto the command tent
>be fighting enemy commander and his staff, alarm is sounded
>company of archers is closest unit nearby, runs up and gets in formation (front row kneeling, 2nd row standing)
>I decide to charge them before they can fire, my weapon of choice was a spiked chain.
>kill random guy in front, great cleave through about 20 more before I roll a 1.
>DM allows a free intimidate check for that ridiculous shit, roll pretty well.
>archers shit themselves and sprint away from the hulking blood-covered murderbeast

>>45055879
>same campaign, minotaur barbarian
>that night assault went well, we were able to kill the commander and escape.
>the next morning we march in with the army, first ones in the city after the gate gets busted down
>see a paladin coming at us riding a giant celestial beetle, tons of soldiers sprinting towards us
>we manage to fight our way up to the top of the gates guard tower
>party wizard throws up a wall of the force on the ground in front to slow enemy reinforcements
>i start throwing javelins at the paladin, do a small amount of damage
>party archer shoots the paladin, does decent damage
>party wizard casts ray of stupidity on the beetle, it goes down to 0 int, immediately plummets
>it happened to be over the wall of force, gets bisected
>enemy paladin managed to roll free of the wall

>>45055904
>same campaign
>later on in the campaign, chasing a psionicist through a city
>he escapes into underground warehouse
>we run into a large room, like 15 rogues spring out of nowhere at the edges of the room, they were clearly waiting for us
>they all work for a cult, the high priest summons his murderbeast from the center of the floor (he was controlling a purple worm)
>purple worm bursts through the floor, I get an attack of oppurtunity
>crit on AoO, it dies. great cleave and kill literally every rogue
>high priest was out of range, my turn comes around.
>roll intimdate on the high priest. success.

>>45055918
>be minotaur barbarian in same desert campaign
>hired to go through pyramid to look for mcguffin clues
>be rummaging through pyramid, suddenly mummies
>wizard casts wall of fire between us and them
>everyone has to roll like 4 will saves against the mummies fear effect. i fail twice and get paralyzed for like 4 rounds.
>party is actively fighting mummies
>one of them walks through the wall of fire (taking a fuckton of damage and AoOs from a couple people) and walks up next to me
>next round he coup de graces me
>apparently a mummy just walks through multiple AoO's and a wall of fire just to wait a round to coup de grace someone.

>>45053600
That's pretty cool, but that's the thing: a few of the other guys are starting to get magic items. I don't want the wizard's only magic item to be "you can now see as well as everybody else could from the start." I'm looking for additional benefits that such an item might be able to confer. They're low level so I don't want to get too bonkers, but I want it to give a) darkvision and b) something else that isn't too gamebreaking.

>>45046667
>>45046754
>>45046767
>>45046788
>>45046832
>>45046853
Wait, wut. Why is this a copypasta, and why are one of my posts involved?

>>45056033
Wait, this thread is confusing the shit out of me.

>>45045011
Hey dmfags, how many tpks have you had in your time as dm's?

And tell me what your thoughts are on a DM with 70 tpks, on the same group.

>>45045011
>what are you DMing?

Pathfinder

>Why are you DMing?

I wanted to run a game for newer players we started with Hollows last Hope, and Crown of the Kobold King modules but evolved into much more.

>Who's in your party?

A halfling ranger (halfling) who is an escaped slave
A swashbuckler (human) who wants revenge on the man who overthrew his parents ship and killed his family.
A cleric (human) from obligitory asian continent with no backstory
A prankster bard(gnome) who is loyal to the fey.

>Where is it?

The country of Andoran in Golarian (pathfinder)

>When did you lose your sanity?

I am getting close, but I haven't yet.
I assume it will happen when the prankster bard kills the party on accident.

>>45056155
I was in that thread. I think you're bullshitting but your stories are too hilarious to not be true.
Tell us more

>>45056234
Yea, that's the thread I am talking about.
Not my stories tho.
I think tpks are the hallmark of a horrible DM.

I've had none. Ever. I make it a point to keep players alive so the game can go on. No one wants to make new characters.

I want others thoughts tho.

>>45056155
i was just in that thread. you are literally dming the three stooges.

>>45056360
while i tend to agree with you.....the actions that he described in those situations were just deserving of tpk they did it to themselves honestly. i strive to not unjustly or randomly murder my players, but if they do dumb shit there will be consequences. i never intentionally want to hurt their characters though as a person, i just do whatever the in-game world says happens, you know?

>>45056409
>>45056360
>>45056234
>>45056364
What's the thread/story on this?

>>45056458
its on /tg/ right now its in the catalog it was on the front page for a while

I can run campaigns in my sleep, but I have a damn hard time coming up with ideas to start campaigns around.

>>45056409
Keeping the PCs alive would help the players improve.
I guess it was fun for them, but most of us like a more serious game. That many tpks, show a lack of improvement of the DM and the players.

>>45056514
Well I don't see any results for TPK or total party kill, so mind linking the thread?

>>45056547
Its a "that guy" thread.

Still in catalog.

>>45056518
Start in the middle of a low-level adventure. Narrow your introductory blurb down to seven sentences, and have the last one explain the action that the party just go into: The Biggitty Bigguns campaign in Little Landia has soured. Peasants flee the empty fields of Landia, as banditry prevails. Thugs and ruffians prey on the Littlefolk. You find yourself amongst well-meaning comrades, rebuilding a farmhouse whose roof collapsed. The foreman of the project, your squad leader Mister Goodguy, calls the four of you to him. Standing on a pile of rubble he says "Gentlemen, I--" but gets no further as an arrow shoots from his chest. The surrounding brush rustles to life as bandits emerge with swords drawn!

And now your players know where they are, know each other, know what they're fighting for, know who they're fighting against, and have a stake in taking some vengeance. Where you go from there is wherever you want--your players are in the middle of a conflict you've already established, and they'll do whatever they please anyhow, so let it write itself.

>>45056772
>fuck this this sounds boring we burn down the brothel

>>45057058
So your campaign is centred around a merry band of arsonists. Just start in the middle of some kind of action. It saves the awkwardness of first sessions.

>>45057086
STOP RAILROADING ME

>>45057117
Never once heard that complaint actually levelled at a table. It's like the "problems" with alignment: the only place it's an issue is on internet forums.

>>45057166
I want to DM for or play in your group. That guy purposely goes out of his way to fuck up campaigns if he doesn't like the direction they're taking.

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>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
Gurps 4th ed; Cyberpunk future, post apocalypse with elder god bbeg
>Why are you DMing?
Former gm. Zero caliber from other players. One capable gm is on night shifts and stupid busy enough he couldn't hammer out an up to snuff campaign (by my standards or his)
>Who's in your party?
Murder hobo mercenary cyborg
Aspiring drug addict hacker tuts
Clueless wasteland warrior/ex cop
German-weeaboo mechanic idiot
>Where is it?
Mostly Japan/Pacific satellites. Currently interior Brazil, soon the moon.
>When did you lose your sanity?
When bulls hit drama led to a 3 week hiatus. We have seriously not had a good excuse to not be gaming, and I'm going stir crazy. I will fucking run a roll20 game soon if shot doesn't happen

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Working on a world for my campaign. Does anyone have any websites or .PDFs that would help me determine what kind of resources towns near deserts/marshes/mountains/forests/ect would have and what they would produce? Wikipedia has been ok, but with all the random browsing I've been doing on it it's gonna end up taking me months to flesh this all out.

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Sick of rummaging through a box to get my shit together so I'm working on my folder. Got another game on the 9th, can't wait.

Another thing, I have an PC rolling as a tiefling, he's currently casting disguise self on himself. Detect and dispel magic would be effective on this right?
I'm intending for the Townmaster to shake his hand and double take at what he think he felt as apparently it only masks the visual aspect rather than the physical.

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>>45057520
Whenever I'm world/map building the first thing I put down are the towns.

I put the town of Ashwood down on my map.

Why is Ashwood here? It's by a river so the people can get water, they need lumber to build so they'll need some trees, I think Ashwood would quite big so the treeline will be some way from the town as they have cut down a lot of trees to get where they are.

What about minerals? I'll put a mountain or two over here, maybe they have a small mine nearer but it's exhausted so they have to go to the mountain, maybe they could have set up trade with the dwarves. Metals for food and things they find difficult to grow. I'll put a dwarf hold near the mountains, what would they need to exist........

Etc etc

It's how I've always done it and I think I've got the balance right most times, I've also completely bollocksed it up too.

Here's a map I made for a friend of mines younger brother. I did this in about 40 minutes on Inkarnate.

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
GURPS set in Sunless Sea/Fallen London.
>Why are you DMing?
I really like the setting
>Who's in your party?
A sad veteran field surgeon from the war with hell
A creepy 14 year old orphan girl with psychic powers.
A tribal amazoness type.
a 3000 year old tomb colonist ferryman from ancient egypt.
An england northerner fence whose obsessed with apples.
>Where is it?
The Neath a giant cave roughly the size of europe.
>When did you lose your sanity?
A long time ago.. but not due to this party I'm very hopeful about the people who are in it.

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
Savage Worlds, because fuck starting DM'ing with D&D.

>Why are you DMing?
Because the group's forever DM got sick of it and essentially said 'someone else run something, because i'm not'

>Where is it?
Golden Age of Piracy!

>Who's in your party?
A gunner pirate, a child pirate, an elderly pirate, a french pirate aaaaaand a half-russian half-jamaican native witch doctor(...?).

>When did you lose your sanity?
I'm still in the honeymoon period of DMing. While I know I started shit, I've got to the point where my players are enjoying themselves and I'm approaching competent (original DM's words, not mine. I know I still have a shitload to improve on). I'm sure in six months time I'll be raving mad like the rest of you.

Gotta say though, I'm so glad I made a historical campaign. It makes prep/research so much easier.
>players are leaving Trinidad
>Threw some encounters at them while at sea, their ship's pretty beaten up
>players check the map to see what ports they can stop at
>map is just stolen from Sid Meyer's Pirates!
>uh, lets go to Margarita
>Oh fuck, I didn't anticipate this
>furious googling during bathroom break
>turns out the port was attacked and taken over by a honorable scottish pirate during the exact timeframe of the campaign
>MFW when history has given me a setting, sidequest and memorable NPC for five seconds of googling

How do you guys handle silly voices?

Accents and impressions don't come naturally to me, but they're something I'd like to learn.

Hey guys.
My friends aren't the super creative types, so I did this up as a way to ease them into their characters.

http://imgur.com/a/E7Skm

I told them that we could change stuff, of course, the idea isn't to tell them what their character is, but to help them into coming up with their own stuff. Plus it's a pirate campaign!

>>45059466
It needs some formatting work -- what did you use to make this? The rows of text are kind of uneven in places -- but I really like the idea. One thing, though: depending on which background they pick, each gets a pretty neat item, for example "Darrow's Endless Cigar." Are you going to plan for multiple people to pick the same background? If so, that might make these legendary items feel a little less legendary. Maybe make it so that each background gives a more mundane item, and the party as a group gets a list of artifacts to choose from? Just something to consider.

Minimal(2 session) experience as player and never GMd wanting to GM. Any system recommend for beginners?

>What are you DMing?
Pathfinder

>Why are you DMing?
My usual DM has gotten fed up with being one of two DMs in our usual group for the past five years, so I offered to give it a shot for the first time. three months going, so it's alright so far.

>Who's in your party?
Traveling gunslinging chef who favours diplomacy in all situations.
Loyal barbarian Trox (Large sized burrowing bug man) with 4 Int and no concept of death.
Old-ass Conjuration Wizard on the brink of Alzheimer's and death.
Plague Bringer Ratfolk who acts as the party's rogue and Wormtongue.
Hedonistic Aasimar Oracle, sultry diplomat and too bishie for his own good. Voted most likely to become Slaanesh.

>Where is it?
Golarion. Currently running Reign of Winter, but the events of this campaign will carry on into a homebrew setting next campaign and eventually into Dark Heresy. I'm positive the Oracle wants to become Slaanesh.

>When did you lose your sanity?
Nothing too terrible so far. It'll likely fall apart when I realize that switching from Pathfinder to Dark Heresy in the same universe is a terrible idea.

>>45058857
I think that doing vocal warm ups like scales, sirens, and tongue rolls are a good start. I'm one of those weirdos who does theatre stuff and those are always very effective for finding where your vocal range is comfortably.

>>45045011
I am DMing 5e, my first time.
Because no one else wants to and I am inspired by Matt Mercer.

A tiefling bard, a half-orc barbarian, a high-elf sorcerer, a dwarven fighter, and a drow rogue. All level 1.

Right now we're doing the Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Btw, they want to try to fight the young green dragon later on. Should I let them or try to steer them away from it?

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>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
5E, Dark Sun lite-homebrew

>Why are you DMing?
Because being a player is for low born scrubs.

>Who's in your party?
No one yet, still designing. I think once I build enough content to get players to level 4 I'll start recruiting.

>Where is it?
Players begin in Tyr sometime after Kalak dies.

>When did you lose your sanity?
A few months ago after running the worst session of my life. I haven't DM'd since and have only been working on this campaign.

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I wish to GM a low fantasy game where the players are all part of a noble house falling on hard times.

I wish to use GURPS as the system.

I want to invite players from /tg/ instead of my normal group for this.

I have never played GURPS and have no idea what I'm doing.

Am I insane? Have I lost it?

>>45045064
I like running published adventures or finding old modules that can be converted to whatever edition my group is running. With world building and encounter design taken care of, it lets me focus on aspects of DM'ing that I need work on like descriptive narration and improv.

>>45059676
Oh well that's what the form was for. It was a multiple choice sheet, and based on what they picked was what they got. Kind of helped in dealing with "no I want to be captain!!!!" So they each got their own one. I suppose it's not that uncommon to have them pick the same choices, but they won't know what each other answered so it's not too bad. The items are pretty fun :) Specifically the map, which is just a map I drew myself and plan to add to for every place they explore.

>>45060163
I have been reading Plato's Republic and have decided to blend it's philosophy and insights into my quests and arcs. Player will essentially help build the city's new infrastructure from scratch now that all the slaves have been freed and power groups are realigning themselves.

Level 1 will have the group entering the city after news of the sorcerer king's death starts to draw curious travelers. They'll familiarize themselves with the districts and maybe a couple NPCs before deciding on a place to settling into. By the time they reach level 4 they'll be intricately familiar with the city and have caught the attention of the templar who will assign them more important tasks for ensuring the well-being of the city.

I like all the old D&D tropes and aspects of questing and crafting from WoW so I'll work that in somehow too.

DM Story Time

So years ago I ran a game in which one of the 'bad guys' and the good guy 'dmpc' plot hook delivery man were the same person, but with magical disguise. He was supporting the PC's goal for his own reasons and this is something the players were meant to figure out on their own.

So one day they're in a dungeon I had meticulously planned out, the only one I ever did actually, and I wanted to use the spell Maze. Instead of checks, I made an actual magical maze. This was before GoT was on tv so I stole the House of the Undying maze. I made each room an important scene or something emotional. One room was a mausoleum where the Ranger's wife was crying over his grave. One was the Sorceress's sister being murdered (she knew she had died, this confirmed the killer.) One revealed the fate of an informant who had gone missing. So there were a few future possibilities, and a few flashbacks. One of the rooms was a brothel. I pointed out too many details about this room, including a young boy sweeping the floor. I described his hair colour ("dark brown, curly"). They scrambled on to the next room without listening to me.

As they said they were leaving and I relented, my bf who knew the story of the game but wasn't playing gestured to me but I didn't understand, and he said "one pointy ear??" and I said "OH right, the kid is half elf!" and they just said "Yaya we move on" like.. aaaghhh

and that is my story.

Anyone got any tales of players just not getting the clues you try to give them?

Same guy from
>>45059756

I'm cross-posting this from the Pathfinder General, hoping you folks will have a better idea on how to execute this.

So I'm a madman who is going to transition from Pathfinder to either Dark Heresy or Only War over the course of several campaigns and we're currently in the first campaign. I'd like the players (who'd be going by WH40k RPG rules by the time this occurs) to be able to be in the Warp or the Eye of Terror without instantly becoming a tumor on Nurgle or a flesh hookah for a Daemonette.

So, any ideas on what sort of magic item or residual magic effect that'd allow a non-magic user to traverse Warp-Fuckery semi-safely?

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>>45045011

What are you DMing?
5e

Why are you DMing?
because I graduated college with massive amounts of debt for an english degree and trying to find myself while working 2 jobs and trying to get back into writing. I guess I should have just said "trying to get back into writing."

Who's in your party?
2 nice dudes, and 2 new people who are starting this sunday. one of the newbies is trans. if that matters. I don't think it does.

Where is it?
roll20

When did you lose your sanity?
it was when I was on my medication. now I'm off it. No longer a robot and can think creatively woohoo

>>45045011
>What are you DM'ing
3.5 for a few friends

>Why
Because I didn't realize how fun 3.5 would be to play, and because it was easier than finding a game.

>Who
Haven't started yet, in the world/character building process rn

>When did you lose your sanity
When I realized all the coolshit I was missing by not playing, but it came back with all the coolshit that I can do with questbuildings.

Give me a good name for a starting city, essentially plagued by corruption, poverty, and just a real shithole in general

>>45062098
Grenham, Haldibor, Zennibar, Vos, Tedriot.

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>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
Rogue Trader
>Why are you DMing?
Because it's the only way that I can play nerd role playing games, and I can't find anyone else to GM to save my life.
>Who's in your party?
One pretty cool guy who's been with me for a while, he's just consistently decent, apart from one time he drank like half a bottle of tequila during a session and went kind of nutso. There's one guy who was in my first game I ever ran but is so incredibly laid back I don't even know if he understands the setting of the game. I've got a brit who's a breddy cool guy, except he's playing a girl so I'm inclined to think he's a twink. There's another kinda normal dude that talks a lot, but everyone else doesn't really talk a lot so he needs to make up for it, I guess. Then there's the new guy, he's a greek. His accent is really strong and he has the shittiest internet known to man so it's difficult to understand him sometimes, but when I CAN, he's pretty good.
>Where is it?
Online, Broheim
>When did you lose your sanity?
Last week. I tried to start up an Only War game in addition to RT, but I just lost it. I couldn't fucking handle starting another game with new people, I got so fucking burned out. I need to be a player. Please. For once, God, let me PLAY.

>Have a large social network spread out over a ~50 mile metropolitan area
>most friends are not into RPing and have never heard of it, so I start a campaign for a few people on my side of town, the east side
>group gets going, it's me and 4 guys, and we play a fairly serious Warhammer game
>learn a friend of a friend on the west side is a GM and his games are wildly popular
>even people from my side of town drive all the way over there to play in his games
>he lets his players play anyone, so the last campaign was Naruto fighting Batman over Princess Leia
>sheer idiocy of the setting and plot makes me pale but my friends eat it up
>depressed
>THEN find out there is a friend of a friend in the north with a similar group
>his is even bigger, with regular games of 11-20 players

I feel like the last sane man. They are all literally having fun the wrong way. I understand that there are different opinions, but they're all doing the RPG equivalent of sitting around laughing at farts. What the hell is wrong with these people. I'm depressed that they would enjoy that, let alone enjoy it more than a real RPG. I don't just mean a real RPG with me, I mean they specifically love the games because they're silly

Hi. I'm not sure where to ask, so here. I'm looking for a system for generic fantasy with a moderate amount of magic. It has to be relatively rules-y, to make character creation contain enough number-crunching, but still not bog down actual play. Sort of like D&D, except not D&D because D&D is shit. I've settled down at Savage Worlds, but it doesn't look like the best choice. GURPS is not an option. So, what do?

>>45062620
Burning Wheel.

Is BW still a thing?

>>45062708
Can you please give a quick rundown on what it's like? As in "if it has classes, levels", and that. I found the wiki, but it seems really big.

Player narration: a good thing?

Thinking about introducing it into my next session.

>>45062486
>Someone else's fun is the wrong kind of fun.
It's ok, I understand that feel. I've experienced similar. I DM serious campaigns with heavy RP, but when I play in other people's campaigns they are basically just giant jokes with some miniature combat spread out in it.

>>45056155

A few. Sometimes the players fall into a vortex of collective stupidity. It's also almost always owing to the environment and not monsters. Like swimming in the ocean at night in full gear with no ability to swim. Or crossing an arctic wasteland with no way to navigate or idea how to survive. Or walking into an obvious death trap that the party straight up assumed would be okay to just blunder through and take some damage or something.

Technically the DM can always rescue the party with angels on jetpacks or something, but I feel that this cheapens their agency over their own well being. I always do my best to make it feel like players live or die by their choices and not mine. Sometimes it works. Sometimes players get upset.

I get the feeling I'm never gonna get the hang of GMing. Tried running Shadowrun for my existing (barely) group, had to abandon ship mid-session from lack of player interest. All they're interested in is D&D, except one player who's a FASA grognard (I despise d&d). Can't get another group together, because that one contains the entirety of my RPG-interested within 6 time zones of me (and no FLGS within 40 miles at least).

Advice? Consolation? Screams of "git gud"?

>>45065233
Craigslist hookers bro.
They'll do anything for a little cash.
>hire 4 hookers
>" OK, cherry and midnight, you'll both be fighters. Natasha, you're our healer. And candy, your the mage."
>game on.
+blowjob after the game.

Trying to help ya anon.

>>45065280
I actually do have a better chance of finding four hookers in this dump to play tabletop than getting my current group to change games long-term.

That's... Disheartening, and particularly strange. I'll file that one away.

>>45065233

Well, Shadowrun is a horrible system (for a great setting), so I can't really blame anyone for that falling apart.

Anyway, it sounds like they're at least willing to give systems you're interested in a try--that's a lot more open-minded than a lot of groups if you believe /tg/. So Shadowrun didn't work. Play some more of what they like for a while (unless you hate it to the point where even the magic pixie dust of "playing with friends" can't get you to have fun with it, in which case dip out), then find another system and throw it at them. If they're not jerks (and especially if you're the only guy willing to GM), they'll give it a shot.

I've found that a good way to wean players off of D&D is one-shots. Simple games that you play for a session or two, and they always have the comforting thought that, no matter how weird it is, they're back to rolling d20s and making Reflex saves next week. That's how I did it anyway. Gives them an idea that other systems can be fun without freaking them out about abandoning their baby.

Holidays are a good time to do it. Run Dread on Halloween. Run Maid RPG on April Fool's. It feels less like you're getting rid of D&D than it does that they're playing a bonus-game or something. Seriously, it works.

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>>45045011
I never learned or heard of a "proper" way to DM when I started out so I just bullshit 99% of the adventure. Like I have some cliff notes on the line of events to happen (bbeg encounter 1, receive from political power, macguffin hunt, etc.) and then I just sorta let the party do their shit while throwing things at them on the fly. It seems to work out so far (at least for the groups I've DM'd) so I never really strayed from that strategy.

About to run a campaign where the players are all noble brothers currently got a Human paladin, Human fighter and a tiefling sorcerer. Need general quests ideas or ideas for other noble families they can encounter. Only quest I currently have planned involves the tieflings heritage and a sealed door in the basement of their compound. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

>>45059756
>traveling gunslinging chef who favours diplomacy in all situations
>not flavours diplomacy
absolutely disgusting

How do you dms decide which game to run next when you have multiple story ideas and your current campaign has come to a close?

>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
Pathfinder
&
Heroes unlimited
&
Beyond the supernatural

Why are you DMing?
Because I like to give people a story and see what they do with it. I like to run games for people. I mean run games that the people playing in them ask for.

Who's in your party?
Pathfinder: A spiritualist, a bard, an oracle, a druid, and a cavalier

Heroes unlimited changes from game to game but the most constant group is a vigilante named ultimate stealth, a psychic named Eric Strata, a mutant who evolves based on what he's fighting called Blitz, and a Viking wielding a magic spear called Asguard

Beyond the supernatural is a low end psi, a couple of high school students, and a demon hunter.

Where is it?
Two are in my home weekly the other is online.

When did you lose your sanity?
A few years ago when things really clicked on how I should be running my games.

>What are you DMing?
Unknown Armies, 2nd Ed. Players are a ragtag group of friends trying to find their missing friend, later discovering he accidentally ascended as the avatar of the slacker.

>Why are you DMing?
I love UA's system and can't stop thinking ofnideas for it

Who's in your party?
A adrenaline junkie entropamancer who models himself on 50's greasers, a jolly fat man glutomancer who's commited to eating one of everything, even the inedible, a scaredy-cat Kleptomancer, an avatar of the flying woman who's the best foghter in the whole team and a mousey tropamancer who literally self inserted into the story.

>Where is it?
At my house, but in game as a road trip across america in a war rig they comissioned a mechanomancer to build for them (so long, subtlety!)

When did you lose your sanity?
"We need to stop a bunch of technomancers performing a ritual to petition the archetype of the mother to allow A.I to be invented!"
"Let's start a riot"
*a few rolls later*
"Well, Boston's been destroyed"

> What are you DMing?
5e starter set, But i picked up some books
> Why are you DMing?
I'm the most interested and likely the most patient
> Who's in your party?
NG cleric, CN monk(overseas atm), CN rogue(who is overseas as well) and a NG wizard, who was previously a wizard but then changed to a psychotic ranger who got killed.
> Where is it?
Faerun? Now in Neverwinter city, So I've had to put together a whole lotta shit to populate the city with, hence picking up books
> When did you lose your sanity?
When my currently NG wizard, former autism wizard and psycho hermit birdman ranger kept pushing boundaries.
Now that I've killed his ranger I feel no guilt in killing any future PCs

I'll clarify that his first character was "too boring" so I let him change
And he turned the ranger into an idiot psycho, which was hard to RP with but okay
But then got into an argument with some guards, asked to leave the area, warned repeatedly, drew his weapon, was surprised that he was responded to with more guards and violence, arrested, put into a holding cell where he attacked yet another guard by peeing on them and was knocked out cold in one hit
I reasoned that his character would be attended to after some time had passed as he was seen as a mentally disturbed individual
Failed his saving throws, got angry at me for killing his guy

I think I'm in the wrong thread

>>45065511
>noble brothers
>human
>human
>half-demon bullshit

come on

>>45066204
Maybe they have the same mother?

>>45059788
>I am inspired by Matt Mercer

Wow are you me?

My party got to Phandalin and rushed straight into the Redbrand Hideout and got stomped, they all decided that they weren't enjoying the starter characters so we rescheduled whilst they thought up their characters.

I can't wait until they get to Thundertree as with the cultist as well there is an opening for some dialogue, the Dwarf Druid is a member of the Emerald Enclave so I've written some stuff for him and Reidoth to speak about which should be cool.

Personally I would keep them away from the Dragon for now, think a bit more on what they might do when confronted with the dragon, they might reach it before anyone has asked them to get rid of it, have a few possible build ups/outcomes ready.

My guys just went and slew the Orcs and Wyvern Tor. The Dwarf fighter killed Grughor so I let him decide what happens. Grughor was prone so he struck him so hard in the Bollocks they shot up through his body and came out of his eyes sockets. The Dwarf then proceeded to remove it's head and chain it to the bottom of his Greataxe so when he swings this dismembered Orc head with balls for eyes swings with him. It was hilarious when they returned to Harbin Wester to claim the bounty, I had him eating soup, they chose to plop the head in his soup, he was so disgusted he simply tossed them a bag of gold.

>>45046146
Keep telling yourself that as you convert the weight of the armor you are wearing from gold pieces to pounds and determine the damage your weapon does from the size of an enemy. Jesus Haploid Christ, there is realism, and then there are times where things are just obtuse.

>>45045924
Cypher system is new, and I think it's pretty good.

>>45056001

Continuing the lantern theme, there's a small glowing light inside. Once a day you can gain advantage on a spell of your choice. The light then goes out, but the lantern still grants darkvision.

Might be too OP? How low-level are you?

>>45045011
Im DMing an undead centric game which will eventually require the PCs to gather an army and will eventually switch to storming hell (not sure if Im gonna use the 9 Hells or the Infinite Layers of the Abyss) in 5e.

Im DMing because I want to play and no one else in my group of friends wants to or can. Another lad used to do our sessions when we tried 4e but he burned out fast so now he just helps me with encounter and world building.

My party are all friends of mine. One is laying a Human Druid, one is playing an Elven Summoner (warlock homebrew pact option), one is playing a Dragonborn Paladin and the last one is playing a Dwarven Barbarian.

We play in meatspace in the arsehole of nowhere.

Sanity was lost long ago.

So, heres my thing: Im looking for magic items to give the party shortly. They're gonna be coming up on lvl 4 and I want to give them minor but useful stuff. So far, Ive had suggestions to give the dwarf a tanker that infinitely refills, which would be useful because hes meant to be an alcoholic and I plan to use addiction rules. Anyone got any ideas?

>>45045011
I've been thinking of running a campaign where the players are constantly denied actual weapons and have to improvise based on the environment, and objects around them for combat.

>>45068595
2 things spring to mind:

1) Make sure they know that you have that intended from the off or they may get pissy down the line.

2) If your system has magic or any class analogous to the Monk, it might be wise to ban them otherwise the entire premise could be ruined.

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>>45065333
>Run Maid RPG on April Fool's.
I've been trying to think of an excuse to spring this system on my players for a while now
if I make them play it on April Fool's, they'll all think that I'm doing it as a joke and that I don't actually really really want to run it
bless you, Anon. Now I just have to track down a physical copy. Costumes can come later.

>>45068304
They're level 3 right now. The paladin (who's already pretty hueg) found a +1 magic sword a while back, but nobody else has any magic items so I've been trying to think about a way to keep the parity up. I'm beginning to warm to this magical lantern, though, because I can think of a place where they'd be likely to find one. That's not a shabby effect, either.

>>45068531
The dwarf should get those beard ringlets that transform his beard into a bag of holding so he can pull whatever he wants out of his beard

>>45068757
Sounds cool.

I need some ideas for the rest of the party. I could just use the stuff in the DMG but I'd like to give them some more unique stuff if possible and see what they can do with it.

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>>45068949
You can always just make up really weird items like a rope that hardens into a pole when it hears a code word or a knife that can't cut through living flesh. Sure it sounds useless, and it probably is, but if you give them several items like that odds are that at least one of them will be used unexpectedly.

>>45068993
Good point.

Thanks for the image, by the way. Could be useful for a once off.

>>45045011

>What are you DMing?

Dark Heresy 2e, but I'm planning to wrangle Continuum's time travel and combat shenanigans into it once the stop being babysat by Interrogators. Unsure if their Inquisitor will be part of the Ordo Chronos, or the 40k universe is Ynre or whatever the Narcs/Crashers call the universe they can escape to, away from the Hivemind Time Lords.

>Why are you DMing?

Because I found being a player too reactionary, and I make my players think when they play.

>Who's in your party?

Female Tech-Priest [Lady Kurtz], overzealous and has multiple flamers of various size, loves abusing authority and the smell+taste of burnt flesh despite being half-metal; not the craziest of the group

Female Noble Medic [Nurse], promiscuous, scary with a knife and enjoys sexually harassing her allies (which is at odds with her IRL self); second sanest of the group

Bolter Bitch in training [Bolter Bitch], surprisingly stable Emperor-botherer; the only sane (wo)man

Male Guardsman [Stockholm], paranoid and trigger-happy, frequently abused by the ladies, occasionally drugged and raped by Nurse*; batshit insane

*I'm not for ERP, so we cut to black, as it were, unless Cultist/Xenos/PC Coitus Interruptus occurs. Plus, he's earning that nickname...

Also, related storytime, but screw doing it now.

>Where is it?

IRL: Roll20

In-game: A hive world

>When did you lose your sanity?

As a wizard, about to cast a great spell against a giant scorpion on the edge of a cliff, being the only one prepared to fight - then the fighter knocks me unconscious then jumps off the cliff along with the others, using my body as a shield. Broke a leg, both my arms and damaged my lower spine, leaving me paraplegic. Fantasy wheelchair time!

>>45068531
How about a rope of hauling that halves the weight of anything being pulled by it.

Eyeglasses of dark vision (self explanatory)

>>45063342
Can you clarify what you mean by that?

>>45069608
Sounds interesting.

Most of the characters have darkvision already I think, off hand, but those eyeglasses would be useful for the Human.

As for the rope, it sounds very specific unless Im missing some uses for it...

>>45069689
Imagine a member of the party has fallen off a ledge, they party throw the rope down to him, he weighs 180 pounds, he ties the rope around his waist and the rest of the party begins to lift him up, as his feet leave the ground he suddenly becomes half his weight at 90 pounds, the DC could then be lowered to reflect this.

Same goes for if they were trying to pull a pillar or column over possibly, this may become a valuable asset in the late game, it may need some kind of initial load limit like 250 pounds or something.

>>45070147
Thats actually a good idea. It certainly has potential.

>>45070169
Glad you like it. I love coming up with magic stuff, I'm currently writing up an encounter at a market where a gnome has got his hands on some magical items from a school of magic. They are enchantments by acolytes and trainees so they aren't perfect. I imagine he'll have a few items which he knows the effects of and a Bargain Bin/lucky dip bit where people play a flat 100 gold per item but the items function hasn't been identified.

It's fun coming up with daft/useless one.

>>45056360
I don't completely agree. I think whether TPKs happen and if so with what frequency depends on the group, the game, the style, and the mood. I came up with an old school background (started in the '80s using material from the '70s) and, while I have enthusiastically adopted more modern philosophies of gaming, I am glad I learned the way I did.

I don't like killing PCs in general and will sometimes arrange for them to survive when their luck is bad because I have found that tends to be the most fun for everyone in most games. But not every game is the same. There are games where you just do not fudge. There are games where you don't take it easy, where things are lethal and you press every advantage. Things are hard and unfair and the dice fall where they may, where getting by is a real challenge. When it all comes together, it's really amazing. The players feel like they've really overcome something, like they've taken their destiny into their own hands and stared death in the face and won or lost and did it on their own terms.

>>45057166
I've seen it come up in online games (always from annoying, bitchy players, though that may be coincidence) but never in person.

>>45056518
I've had that problem, too. Have you tried asking your players what story they want to tell? How about using an oracle (tarot cards or whatever)?

>>45057669
>Detect and dispel magic would be effective on this right?

Yeah, those would work. I'm sure you can go some interesting places with this, but I'd advise a certain amount of caution. You don't want your player thinking you're being a dick to him. If it was me, I'd make sure he has a way to weasel out of it if he's reasonably clever.

>>45060295
GURPS can get pretty complicated depending what all you use, but in my (admittedly not wholly neutral) opinion it is pretty simple at its core. I think GURPS could be a good system depending on what you want. What are you hoping to do with your game? How do you want the game play to feel (if you've thought about that)? If you just want to try GURPS it might be better to start as a player, but I think you'll do fine if you do the preparation.

>>45046667
Fuck mother heist of heists. The big score and while they explore the ancient manor, they discover something beyond themselves.

>>45060645
That sounds fun. I like games that are stories about folks who come up from basically nothing going on to do big things and wield influence.

>>45060727
>One revealed the fate of an informant who had gone missing. So there were a few future possibilities, and a few flashbacks. One of the rooms was a brothel. I pointed out too many details about this room, including a young boy sweeping the floor. I described his hair colour ("dark brown, curly"). They scrambled on to the next room without listening to me.
>
>As they said they were leaving and I relented, my bf who knew the story of the game but wasn't playing gestured to me but I didn't understand, and he said "one pointy ear??" and I said "OH right, the kid is half elf!" and they just said "Yaya we move on" like.. aaaghhh

I guess I'd have to be in your game, but that seems like a pretty obscure clue. Is there only one half elf in the setting? What does that have to do with the guy from the first paragraph? Was he a half elf? Was he a half elf in both identities?

I guess I might have tried to figure out the significance of the scene if the others were something important, but then again I might not. If I couldn't figure it out quickly I'd probably just move on, especially if there were a lot of extraneous details I couldn't sort out.

I do think it is bad form for the group to try to move on while you're still describing. Is there more to the story? I'd like to hear it.

>Anyone got any tales of players just not getting the clues you try to give them?

Of course. I think we all do. I'll see if I can think of a good one,

Also

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

>>45062486
>his is even bigger, with regular games of 11-20 players

Jesus, that sounds like a nightmare.

There's some fun to be had with insano fanfic freeform forum rp bullshit, especially if it's in person rather than on a forum, but, yeah, I'm with you. That is very much not my thing.

>>45065466
That's a fun way to play, but unfortunately it only works if your players have initiative, which a distressing number lack. I'm glad you've got a good group.

>>45070894
I know what you mean about caution. I have to keep reminding myself to not be a dick, even if he is playing an edgelord he has spent the time making his tiefling and has something planned. You are right, maybe its wiser to use it to the partys advantage some how or keep probing but give him the option to dodge it.

>What are you DMing?
Was 3.5, converted to path

>Why are you DMing?
Players were sick of our last GM's bullshit ENCOUNTERS: THE GAME where we would straight up fight what ever new mini was being shilled by wizards that week. They wanted an evil campaign, role play centric.

>Who's in your party?
Barbarian- Murder hobo, barb template because he was locked in a tower, not actually naked and brutish
Swashbuckler- Daughter of famous dread pirate. Trying to take her late fathers fortune from her old brother.
Merchant- Jew ass merchant peddling drugs and amassing cohorts for mafia style shit.
Ninja- Not as weeb as youd think. Played by the quietest girl in our group, on a mission to find out why the Dragon who rules the country to the north is rounding up fey creatures.

>Where is it?
Its set in homebrew world. Planet was found desolate, floating in cosmos by Hextor, who claimed it, and then his brother Heironius decided to fight him for it. Neither knew this rock was the last cult of Tharizdun who plan on summoning him back someday.

>When did you lose your sanity?
When the players all tried to out do each other on backstabbing and subtle jabs that every session must contain 45+ minutes of "The fake names you chose were stupid!" or "Im going to the meeting alone even though its a bunch of drug lords who hate me!". Literally if one player says they should go right, another says left to spite them and the other says forward to spite them both. I feel so bad for the ninja player, she just wants to be around people.

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>Asking players about their characters for an upcoming campaign
>"So my character vehemently hates and openly criticizes the government"
>"So my character is a government agent"

>>45072502
Tell them to work it out between themselves.

>>45072502
>Make a paladin of bahamet
>Real judge dredd style
>Playing as a pc with two other players who areWEEB AS FUCK CLAIMING WIFUS AND SHIT
>'Befriend' a man who trains dragons by punching them.
>Terrible players adore him, all over his dick because hes a fucking grog from critical roll rip off.
>GM has made it know that when a fan favorite character dies, the entire group threatens to quit

No joke, the animu bunny girl almost died and they logged off and called the GM, threatening to leave if he didnt fix it. I am literally in this shit show of a campaign because the GM asked me to as a favor.

>>45072692
Why does he play with people as abusive as that? You'd be doing him a bigger favor if the two of you found some other people to play with together.

>>45072692
That sounds awful.
Get out now anon, your sanity will only slip further. Unless you are into masochism, then go nuts.

>>45046667

They have found details of a criminal group operating under this nobles influence to avoid detection through bribery and corruption. They kidnap young women and take them to the manor. The party could go in full TAKEN style and fuck shit up.

So how do you go about giving the players downtime? I always have difficulty getting the players to relax a bit in-game and do the various side stuff they can like crafting, shopping, faffing about.

I also find it tough to give them that downtime in the first place. I move them from quest point to quest point as efficiently as I can to avoid them losing the thread. What do you guys do to make sure there's enough stopping points?

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>>45045011
>What are you DMing?
DnD 5e
>Why are you DMing?
I'm actually more comfortable telling a story. Being a player is fun, but I like the world-building aspect of being a DM.
>Who's in your party?
The Party Leader: Shu, a Monk turned marshal. Turned the rest of his party into his deputies. He's usually first to the punch and doesn't take much time to ask questions.
The Party Scoundrel: Muz Chundo, a half-orc sorcerer turned snake oil salesman. He's trying to swindle people as he can to free his son from a life working on the railroad.
The Party Conscience: John Smith, a half-elf spellslinger who is in a pursuit of knowledge about his elven heritage after being lied to by his army-working guardian about the origins of his birth. He spends most of his time rolling 1's when firing ice bullets, thus causing them to discharge the spell around his hand. He blames the faulty ammo on his companion Valryn. His wily behavior often reflects how everyone on this party behaves.
The Party Jester: Favor, a young teifling bard whose drive for universal acceptance has left him scarred. He's credulous and easily impressionable, but has a kind heart. He seems to get dragged into insane situations, often literally.
The Party Medic: Valryn, a gnome engineer who escaped the army with John. Being an outcast most his life, he's usually seen shadowing John and considers him his first and only friend. He's a slacker when it comes to helping the team, and his inventions have been quite fruitless thus far. His medic skills are sketchy at best, and his hacksaw methods have left John with an ineffective prosthetic hand.
Where is it?
Roll20 since I'm out of state, but all of my friends are lazy, so this actually worked out for us.
When did you lose your sanity?
I usually quell it with the bottle of rum I keep next to me during our usual sessions. It helps me with my improv skills as well.

Pic related, an unfinished sketch of the party so far.

>>45068531
I'd advise you t'look in the Libris Mortis, the 3.5 book, for inspiration if nothing else. You can port some shit over - it's a whole book about undead.

>>45073673
Oh hell the fuck yeah. Thanks dude

>>45064380
>when I play in other people's campaigns they are basically just giant jokes

Are you my doppleganger? Are you going to kill me and replace me?

I really don't get this. Why do so many GMs put up with so much fucking around and "LOL I FART ON THE BARKEEP" bullshit.

>>45072692
Can I play a bunny girl? Instead of complaining OOC, I will just have my character scream and vomit blood before falling lifeless on the cold stone floor.

I've never DM before but I'm starting a game of pathfinder with some friends (none of us have played any tabletop RPGs but we're all genuinely interested in the game). My question is, am I going to be in for a rough time? I'm certainly interested in learning the game- any tips or help for starting DM?

>>45073316
Well, you could try to tell them "this is downtime" in an OOC manner. You don't have to do everything strictly IC.

>>45073918
Because if its what the party on the whole wants and the DM doesn't mind, why not?

The issue, really, is serious/semi-serious players ending up in groups with lolrandumb players. Thats just not good for anyone in the group really

>>45074321
Pathfinder is a maths heavy but very flexible system, so keep that in mind. Id suggest limiting the books you use to start so your dont end up needing 40 books to keep track of what everythings doing and able to do.

Bar that, dont be afraid to fudge things or admit mistakes but focus on keeping the game moving where possible. Don't forget Rule #1 and Rule #0: The objective is to have fun and the DM is right. Dont let that become your beatstick though. You, as the DM, have final say in all matters but dont power trip. That won;t be fun for the players and they may not come back.

Most of all, remember to do some simple prep (know some of what you plan to use, for example) and try stay relaxed. You might feel some pressure to perform but don't worry about it. You're a noob DM and Im sure your players will be cool about it as long as they know that.

>>45074342
True, but it feels awkward to just say "OK, Fuck that demon cult for a few days. Go ahead and putter around town doing whatever you feel like."

The other issue is that they don't really want to get too split up during actual game time for fear of combat, so they tend to do a lot of the downtime stuff during the week through IMs with me. I don't mind it much, I find time for it, but it's not really the same....you know?

>>45074592
Build in scenarios where things aren't happening urgently.

For example, the Demon Cult have gone into hiding and can't be found but they'll be conducting a ritual in 5 days time to summon something, right? So, you get to the village where the ritual will happen and you have 3 days until anyone from the cult starts to show up so you have 3 days of downtime.

Another option is to say that the party need to meet an agent of someone or other and it'll take 3 days for them to get there, that sort of thing.

>>45074592
>"OK, Fuck that demon cult for a few days. Go ahead and putter around town doing whatever you feel like."
That's awkward because you're mixing OOC and IC in the same sentence.