Questions tagged [gm-techniques]
For questions about the practical arts and methods applied to gamemastering (GMing).
1,804
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When a spell that clouds the target's judgement is cast on a player character, how can I make sure they act accordingly?
If an NPC spellcaster, or any other magic source, magically clouds the judgement of a PC, how can I make sure the character acts according to the spell's nature?
Is there anyway to do this without ...
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2
answers
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How accepted is it for GMs to "lie"? [closed]
Many GMs seem to be averse to declaratively stating any categorical untruth about the gameworld. If something that happens in a scene is not what it seems, they describe the event in terms of what the ...
5
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2
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How do I rule on spells without casters and their interaction with things like Counterspell?
The players in my Curse of Strahd game have reached the Amber Temple. While there, they recently breached a certain door, for which the module indicates
One of the PC's is a wizard, and he had a ...
31
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Help! My PCs polymorphed my boss enemy! What do I do?
Our Druid has recently gotten access to the polymorph spell and has started polymorphing the opponents I so lovingly crafted for our (well, mostly my) enjoyment. (So far, he has been turning them into ...
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2
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In this joke, what should the Dwarf have said? [closed]
Link to joke
Context: the party is traversing a mountain pass in a blizzard a la Lord of the Rings scene. DM has everyone roll the dice to see if they don’t fall down the cliff, and dwarf warrior in ...
54
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5
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How do I prevent myself from freezing up during a game I'm DMing?
I'm a new DM/player with only a few weeks of experience in playing the game at university. My flatmates and I decided that we should all have a D&D game after I explained the concept to them.
They ...
29
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12
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How to avoid killing player characters due to a single (un)lucky roll?
Especially at low levels, Pathfinder characters can usually be killed easily by a single enemy attack, provided the dice fall in said enemy's favor. An example:
The PC has a Constitution score of 10 (...
32
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4
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How to alleviate the tedium of PC death at higher levels?
In our high-level Pathfinder game, player characters die relatively often, whether to save-or-die or just to high damage.
When a PC dies, then players either defeat the enemy or escape, and unless the ...
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3
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Should players see maps of locations they are in? [closed]
I am currently DM'ing Storm King's Thunder. The book contains many maps, and each of them has a DM version and a player version. I am wondering if other DMs/GMs show their players these maps. For ...
7
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Gathering Intel - Strategies on balancing social time for different types of players?
I am both a DM and player for our group in two separate campaigns. Some of us are brand new and some are semi-moderately experienced.
I have a noticed a pattern in both games where some players, (...
13
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How can I prepare my party to reasonably be able to bring down a prismatic wall?
Background
In my campaign I have a villain who uses misdirection and avoidance as their main combat methods. They won't fight directly, but they use summoned creatures, minion allies and illusions to ...
10
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2
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Paranoia Play-by-Post GMing Techniques
I am planning on running a play-by-post (pbp) Paranoia Troubleshooters game. Due to the nature of a pbp, we may lose out on the dramatic tension of a proper Paranoia game.
What are ways to increase ...
50
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8
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How do I explain to an AD&D player that items that increase Armor Class in D&D 5e are overpowered?
Context:
I have recently started a campaign with a new player that comes from an AD&D background. He wishes to convert and import his character to the campaign. We did this once, and I helped him ...
43
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I gave a too powerful magic item at too low level for a bad reason, what to do?
When a paladin in the game I run went into the local store ran by an ex adventurer, he went to the back to see the fancy swords, and asked if any looked like his holy symbol. The god he follows is ...
5
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1
answer
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Campaign in already existing world and story - fear of NPC domination
I am attempting to create a campaign utilizing a setting and lore from an already established series, World of Warcraft, but I fear my players may feel their story and characters overshadowed by this ...
6
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1
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How should players purchase supernatural backgrounds when using a Prelude?
Hunter: The Reckoning has a concept of of a "prelude". A prelude is essentially a one-shot or one-session adventure which tells the story of how a normal, mundane human became called to the ...
37
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My players have a habit of always torturing enemies they capture for information, how can I make our adventure less macabre? [closed]
So I'm running the lost mines of Phandelver as a new DM and we're about 5 sessions in. I've noticed a pattern that seems to repeat itself: the players defeat and capture an evil NPC character that ...
31
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6
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I feel like my DMing skills are making the game less enjoyable
I'm DMing a party of five, a rogue, cleric, wizard, fighter, and a ranger that comes every other week. Everything goes well for the first hour and a half, but then after that I can tell my narrations ...
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0
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The road not taken, or should a GM allow replays? [closed]
Some people say adventures are supposed to be unique experiences that cannot be recreated. What if the player wants to replay the same thing from the beginning, but try a different fork in the road? ...
3
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3
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Total catastrophic failure, or should a GM ever allow re-rolls and do-overs? [closed]
It's a critical moment in the game at the end of a marathon session, everyone is on the edge of their seats, and the player rolls... a 1. Evil bad guy wins, party dies, game over. As a GM, what should ...
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If an NPC and a PC roll identical initiative who goes first?
Normally, when 2 players roll identical initiative in combat, they decide between themselves the order they do things in and then stick to that on subsequent rounds.
How should the DM handle it if the ...
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3
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I'm not good at DMing, but I don't think they really care... do I quit? [closed]
So I've been doing some thinking and essentially realized I'm a garbage DM. I am literally the embodiment of Railroading and unwillingness to listen to their wishes. I love my lore way too much and ...
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The BBEG wants to delay the party in the final battle... (spells)
I have thought of a few methods they might accomplish this. The easiest, mechanically, is to give him spells to accomplish this.
Some details about the campaign/fight (major spoilers for Paizo's Ruins ...
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The BBEG wants to delay the party in the final battle... (narrative delay?)
I have thought of a few methods they might accomplish this. In this question, I am wondering about a potentially more controversial option. I am considering having them attempt to monologue or engage ...
3
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1
answer
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NPC Gear Advice
I'm GMing a 1st Edition Pathfinder campaign after a long hiatus from GMing and starting up NPCs has never been a strong suit of mine - typically I try an officially made, appropriate statblock for the ...
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How can a BBEG deal with a Wall of Force and Sickening Radiance spell combo without trivializing it?
This question has already been asked in general form here, but was closed as too broad: "How to deal with broken combos?". I'm going to make an effort to make the scenario I'm asking about ...
4
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2
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DC of Knowledge arcana/religion for information about spell mechanics
What's the DC on knowledge arcana/religion checks to know the mechanics of a higher level spell?
In my current campaign, the players try to find a scroll of true resurrection to revive a dead party ...
30
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8
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Can a persuasion roll avoid battling the BBEG?
So yesterday I was DM’ing our weekly D&D 5e session. For practical reasons it was a one-shot. At some point, one of my players, a Lvl 10 Bard, ends up in the BBEG’s lair alone (an adult red dragon,...
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How to deal with low agency players?
I have a group of four players who meet in-person and are very intent on playing "Dungeons & Dragons" specifically, but suffer from astoundingly low agency. In discussion, the group very ...
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How do I handle when my players overestimate the importance of an encounter/a location?
TL;DR: How can I (and should I) make the players' efforts worth their while when they overestimate the importance of an encounter or a location?
I am running a homebrew DnD 5e adventure where the ...
22
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6
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How to provide knowledge to players?
I've read a lot of articles on player vs. character knowledge, where the crux of the article is always that players know more than their characters, and metagaming is an issue. For good or for bad, I ...
18
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3
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How to make Arcane Eye and our game style fit better together?
Our DM works fairly improvisationally, which results in a playstyle that is fluid and responsive to our actions. We have relatively short sessions, so we like to keep the game moving. There is no ...
14
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5
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GMing with an overtuned skill monkey
I have a player in one of my games, who has managed to create a build that can roll a minimum of 41 by level 7 across a large plethora of skills (mostly excluding dex/str based skills). They use these ...
7
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2
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What can remove the bane effects of Elder Runes in Dungeon of the Mad Mage?
In the campaign Dungeon of the Mad Mage there are bane effects on Elder Runes that are cast like symbol. One of the runes mentions specifically that it can be dispelled by remove curse or greater ...
10
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I have a player who will not stop cheating [closed]
As the title says, I have one particular player that has a digital file version of Curse of Strahd and is hellbent on cheating. They have done just about everything from faking dice rolls, using ...
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How can I make players still feel rewarded after looting a dragon hoard?
Disclaimer: This question is tagged dnd-5e, since consideration of the value of money or the magic item system might be relevant. I do, however, doubt that an answer based primarily on these would ...
8
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2
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How do I model time passing differently for different characters?
I am the DM in this situation and a character has wandered into a small area which links to another plane. In this plane time passes differently, so 1 minute in that plane would be 1 hour in the real ...
10
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5
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How do I DM for this group when we can't handle a large group properly, but also can't count on any smaller group all attending?
I just concluded an online game with my players. (We played 5E, but I want to move to Dungeon World.) I started with four players, and that has since grown to around ten people wanting to play, which ...
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12
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How can I make crime meaningful for rich players?
For the D&D 5e campaign I'm DMing, the party has been caught for a murder of a government official and put on trial. Out of character, a player pointed out that his character can just pay for a ...
2
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0
answers
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How should XP be awarded when facing enemies with class levels? [duplicate]
A lot of games I've been in have had either enemies with player levels or straight up PvP. How should XP be awarded when facing enemies like that? Should you attempt to calculate the CR of the enemies ...
61
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7
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What to do if a player expected much more than DM gave?
I was not the DM in this session, it was my GF, but she does not speak English so I'm here to ask for all of us. We've faced an issue we can't seem to solve.
It was our 2nd game, none of us have ever ...
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Can conflicting descriptions of the recent past be handled better than GM fiat?
I've been having a problem in RPGs lately where participants, myself included, have radically different ideas about what just happened on a basic factual level. For example, in a recent Pokémon RPG ...
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Group with split likes in D&D game: role playing and combat
I'm running a game for 4 people, 1 of which has played D&D before. I have only ran a first session. This session lasted for about 5 or 6 hours, and it seems that it was a lot of fun for them. I ...
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How can I handle a player who seems to utilize skills their characters don't have?
Well the tag is slightly misleading as these players do not cause problems. However I have encountered several players who exhibit skills their real life counterpart has without actually metagaming. ...
17
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9
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How should I deal with a player who wants to circumvent combat when the rest of the party wants to fight?
I'm a very new DM running a homebrew DnD 5e campaign for a couple of friends.
One of my players, who is by far the most experienced, plays a bard who is definitely optimised for roleplay, and that ...
26
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10
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How do I deal with a player wanting to do an activity that takes weeks when the party doesn't want to?
I'm currently running a campaign with 5 players at level 3, one of which is a Wizard Dragonborn who's entire character is devoted to becoming a real dragon by the end of the campaign through some kind ...
41
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11
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Consistency between "yes and" with "no, because I'm the DM"
Context: I enjoy running softer systems, with Numenera being my latest favorite. I discard rules left and right in favor of what feels right during the play. I love the "rule of cool" too, ...
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How do I present an unbeatable encounter without frustrating my players?
So, I have run Curse of Strahd sometimes, but every time I run it I find a new problem in my DM'ing haha.
I will try to make it answerable without specifically CoS experience and keep it spoiler free.
...
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4
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A player got upset because he made a wrong move and now I can't DM
Backstory
I'm a newer GM (I've only run 3 3.5e games and 1 5e game over the last 20 years of playing RPGs).
My group has a DM/player who is extremely experienced and knowledgeable about all things RPG....
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How can I check if a new group is OK with a plotline from an ethical standpoint without spoiling the plot?
TL;DR: I am unsure if the plotline I planned is "too dark" for a new group, and would like to discuss the level of grit with them without spoiling the plotline. How can I do this?
I am ...