New DM advice

Don't try to anticipate what your players will do. If you plan out too much, you'll end up painting yourself into a corner.

Instead, build setpieces that you can drag and drop into the game wherever you need them. That cave full of goblins in the woods suddenly becomes a sewer full of goblins under the city.

>>51360372
Don't have any advice to give but I'm even more desperately in need of it. No gaming clubs/groups where I live at all, and trying to start one with a few friends, but none of us have played anything beyond tabletop 40k before. Guess who's been designated DM
kill me

>>51360580
For you: https://youtu.be/e-YZvLUXcR8?list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_

That's somewhere to start. Call him what you will, the advice is at least better put than with most others who try to do similar things.

And you >>51360372...

Well, you can check latter parts of the video series ^^ but a real gamechanger is the nodular play. Never make up intricate turns of events that require players to do exact things, rather build up the game from character motivations, both player and NPC. Then, with those motivations, create some basic ideas what can happen. Why does the village troublemaker find the book of necromancy? What are the past happenings that have caused them to become a troublemaker? Ideas start flowing when you start asking simple questions.

Never try to expect what the players are trying to do, plan everything around that.

>>51360966
Continuing actually.

For example, it is easier to plan around player inaction than action. Have the base assumption of each node be that they miss it, and have things happen in a way that they will most probably hit at least some of them.

Then it's just playing with cause and consequence.

>>51360372
If you give an npc a specific voice/accent make a note of it when you do.

I've given pc's accents then later given them no accent or the wrong accent.

>>51360372
Voices. Voices are great. It doesn't have to be super detailed or a full blown accent; even a little quirk in how an NPC talks or interacts (a lisp perhaps, or the love of a specific word or action maybe) can do wonders for how your players remember the characters.

Also keep cue cards. Each important NPC gets one. Jot down notes on the NPC's quirks and motivations. Use those as reminders on how an NPC should act. Helps keep things straight.

Not related directly to NPCs but know what your players want in terms of an experience. Are they looking for a chill game or a more intricate experience? Reconcile this with what you want and find a common ground that satisfies both parties and you'll be kosher.

>>51360454
This is the best pieces of advice I've ever received or given. Plan out cool scenes in your head, then slot them in when they're appropriate. The players don't necessarily have to stumble upon the lair of Torak to come across the rickety swaying bridge with archers peppering them and goblins trying to chop away at the ropes on the other side, while they try to drag away the caravan of slaves.

There are only 4 paths a player can do in any obstacle.

They can:
1: destroy the obstacle.
2: befriend the obstacle.
3: avoid the obstacle.
4: be defeated by the obstacle.

It doesn't matter HOW the players do this or how they pull it out of their ass, have a plan for what to do next, and minor notes on how the plot will change depending on how they get past it.

Will they get a rep for being good killers after taking out a whole bandit camp?
Will they have a potential ally down the line since they fed the swamp lizard a live kobold?
Will they have an angry guard in the way on the way back?
Will the party wake up in prison, or be dead?

After they've got past one obstacle, you should have another one ready to throw at them - locked door, monsters, terrain hazard. The players should be the one to solve it, not you. It's your job to make sure you know what to throw at the party afterwards.

>>51360966
Thanks, I'm a few vids into this series and I'm really enjoying it, finding it very useful.

>>51360966
His DMing advice is top notch but I can tell I wouldn't like to play in his hombrewed setting. He just seems too attached to some of the themes and characters in it so I'd bed he'd railroad you pretty hard in it even though he claims to be a sandbox purist.

>>51362429
The impression I get from watching his videos is that he is utterly unopposed to tweaking the odds a bit if he thinks it will improve the player experience. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely not terribly sandboxy.

1. The players are always on rails. What matters is whether or not they can see them

2. The DM rolls dice because he likes the sound they make

>>51360372
I have two major suggestions the fist is to just start. Start GMing and your first session will be an absolute cluster but if you do it once continuing will be so ruch easier. You will find yourself over and under prepped in all the wrong places.
If your not using a module, instead of coming up with a million "if they do this, then this will happen" consider the setting without the players interacting with it.

>>51362462
I agree, if you sandbox correctly dying is just as much fun as succeeding. He's obviously there to tell a story, which makes sense, he is a writer but players who sign up for a sandbox are there to play a game not necessarily be told a story.

Which edition faggot

>>51360454
>>51361313
>>51362949
>>51364243
This.

>>51361111
>>51361069
>>51362698
Ignore these cancerous retards

A GM is the conduit of the system, you tailor the game experience to fit the player mood and ability but you're not there to tell your own indulgent story, you're there to let the players engage in the world in a way that would develop into their own story through play - your guiding hand is in the crafting of the world, not in fudging rolls or creating railroads and cutscenes. And your player's job isn't to be writers or actors. Good roleplay isn't a 10 page backstory and amateur theatrics at the table, it's engaging in the world realistically from the POV of your PC. Immersion isn't in shitty accents and arts & crafts set pieces, it's in depicting a believable, internally consistent and interesting world.

Don't baby your players. Reward clever play, punish shit play. Don't force encounters to be about combat, you should teach your players early on that it's often the right decision to run or at least seek non-general advantage (like in the environment). Always offer multiple 'solutions' to any unavoidable encounter, avoid linear maps. Always follow time keeping, encumbrance and monster morale rules. If 5e, consider 1:1 gold for XP (and less XP for combat) unless you want the game to be combat-intensive.

This is all just chemo against new school shit that people will try to force down your throat and will take years to deprogram out if you don't start now. It's shit game design that's the result of runaway player entitlement.

Also this
>>51364279
You too >>51360580