Questions tagged [gm-techniques]
For questions about the practical arts and methods applied to gamemastering (GMing).
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Player has a great character Idea, But it seems difficult to balance
I have recently started a small scenario with a couple friends which have all come up with interesting character ideas. But one player in particular has something really... exotic. Basically he plays ...
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Do players/characters know when a monster uses its Legendary Resistance?
Assuming that players are causing a monster with the Legendary Resistance ability to make enough saving throws that it will use them all up, should the players be aware when that point has come? (As a ...
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How to make physical character's combat become more tactical and interesting?
My situation:
The fighter-type PCs (fighter, ranger, monk) feels the combats are boring for them. They have nothing to do rather than attack. Their maneuvers (trip, disarm, etc.) usually fail because ...
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Gracefully roleplaying the end of the world without implying mass extinction [closed]
I am currently running a campaign that I have set in a world that is fading slowly. The idea is that, while the players cannot stop the end of the world (it's kinda similar to the heat death of the ...
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How do I run stealth and perception? Passive perception vs active perception
I'm a new dm and I want to introduce some ambush style encounters in my game. I told my players recently that I will not ask them if they want to be steathly when moving around a dungeon because I ...
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How can we streamline a game with seven players in DnD 5e?
The question is: how do I balance gameplay when it comes to initiative?
The game is in person, every other week or so. My party is comprised of 7 players, two of whom are noobs. I, myself, and also ...
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Magic Items and their allocation [closed]
I have a predicament I've come across in a campaign I'm running. Here it is.
In a past session my DM (a friend of mine) challenged me to complete the entire trial with strict restrictions.
The ...
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How should I as a game master motivate my players to pursue their mysteries?
I recently started running the Nights of Payne Town campaign with my TTRPG group. We play with custom-created characters, not pre-builds. All of us are long-time TTRPG players but are completely new ...
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How do you manage the impact of deep immersion in RPGs on players' real-life?
In a recent fantasy campaign, one of my players had trouble separating from their character after very immersive session. When her character's mentor figure died protecting the party she seemed ...
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How to Encourage Players to Engage in Diplomacy and Negotiations Instead of Resorting to Combat?
I've noticed that my players tend to lean heavily into combat as their go-to solution for just about every problem. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good battle as much as the next person, but I've ...
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In the final act, how to drop clues without causing players to feel "cheated" they didn't find them sooner?
I'm a bit of an "on the fly" GM: in terms of writing a story, I prefer to sketch out the skeleton, and add flesh as the players move along the limbs. The quest to find the Plot Device, at ...
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Does the DM need to declare a Natural 20?
I see a lot of D&D content out there and when combat starts eventually someone gets a roll of 20, a so-called Natural 20, shouts out "Nat 20" and everyone cheers. The DM then does some ...
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How to take large amounts of money away from the party without causing player resentment?
So, basically, last session, the person the players were escorting went back to his hometown, where he owes a massive debt to the residents. The residents of the town threatened to repossess his boat ...
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How to describe a scene that a small creature chop a large creature's head off?
So let's assume a halfling (small size) wielding a Vorpal dagger attacking a storm giant (huge size), and the Vorpal ability gets triggered.
As a DM, how should I describe this scene? Would the dagger ...
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How to role-play monsters with Diplomacy ranks?
I see a lot of monsters have diplomacy ranks on their sheet, and some of them even have a pretty high rank of it. I assume that means those monsters should be able to (and would likely tend to) use ...
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Pulp campaign - end game?
I've seen "pulp" used more and more to describe the opposite of the cataclysmic trope whereby a campaign has arch-villains threatening to destroy the world. It's not hard to see what a lot ...
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How to handle it if one player wants to take a risky course of action that nobody else wants?
Here is a situation that happened in a game that I was DMing:
The PCs had the option to ambush another group of adventurers, but this was highly risky: the PCs would be in trouble if caught. I ...
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When should I tell my players that they have forgotten something?
My players have been operating out of a certain small town for my whole campaign. They've adventured around the area nearby quite a bit already (just finished Session 23).
Recently, my intended ...
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How do I encourage players to use items and strategy in combat, instead of just standing there and saying "I attack"?
Scenario: I am a first time DM, playing with two of my best friends, who are first time players. One of them plays a Dwarf Cleric, the other one a Wood Elf Fighter. We played "Dragons of ...
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How do I include players too scared to take action?
I have started running Keys from the Golden Vault with my group. We just finished the first heist, the Murkmire Stone, which we ran at level 1.
This caused one of the players to take (relatively) ...
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I'm a rookie GM with rookie players using a published campaign. How do I let players run the campaign after narratives without stepping in? [duplicate]
The title mainly explains my situation. I'm using The Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign from the D&D Essentials Kit. I want to run as the GM, but am unsure of what to do if players don't know what ...
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How do I run a campaign that only goes to 6th level, and want to go to 20th level?
I want to be the DM of a published adventure: The Dragon of Icespire Peak, but am unsure of how to run it beyond 6th level. It offers suggestions to run beyond 6th level that I just don't understand. ...
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I want to pivot our campaign to Curse of Strahd, but the party is level 13. What should I do? [closed]
I'm a newbie DM running a remix of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Our version of this adventure is less about speedy chases and clock ticking, but more about politics, alliances, mystery and deception. We'...
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Is it possible to run a combat tournament without players feeling left out?
One classic trope of shonen anime is the tournament arc. Characters get to show off their individual skills and personalities, you get the opportunity to introduce and spotlight lots of interesting ...
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How to start Role Playing as a complete group of beginners? [closed]
As the title says, we are a group of 4 complete beginners in Role Playing but we are very determined to start by one or two sessions.
We thought of using the D&D system, with everyone preparing ...
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How to arbitrate climactic moments in which characters might achieve something extraordinary?
A common plot point throughout the kinds of fantasy literature that inspire D&D settings can be described as a central character growing beyond themselves, reaching a previously unknown peak of ...
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How should I handle an unidentified deck of many things?
I know some people hate and fear the deck of many things, but as a GM running a high-lethality sandbox campaign, there's many things I like about it - and I'd like to deploy one for my players to find....
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How to make the exploration loop more interesting (exploring rooms etc.)?
Situation
One issue that I have experienced very often in the past, both as a player and a DM, with beginners and experienced people, is this phenomenon:
The party enters a dungeon or building, and ...
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How do I convince my players the fight wasn't rigged?
I am a DM in a homebrew setting (and system) that I made. We recently started the first big quest and it kicked off with them fighting two enemies.
In the fight, they were going to lose, but through ...
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I have two players that enjoy each other's company to the point they're ignoring other players turns, ideas, and RP in general
Like the title says, two players engage in mostly quiet small talk amongst themselves. However, they miss what the other characters are saying, both to the DM and to each other, meaning either I or ...
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How to present background information and NPC backstories?
The books for a published adventure I've GM'd recently (PF1's Wrath of the Righteous) contain a lot of background information about NPCs, events and locations, which is very fun to read for me as a GM ...
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How to handle rolled stats when I think one player cheated on theirs?
My group uses 4d6 drop lowest for stat generation.
The other players feel that the rolled stats of one of the other players are 'too good' in comparison to their rolls and I'm not certain that they ...
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How to keep new players following the questline? [duplicate]
Recently I've started DMing a premade campaign (Curse of Strahd) for 4 players and I'm having issues keeping them along the pre-made questline.
I've been playing an official campaign to practice being ...
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How to stop a player from looking up monster stat blocks in combat?
In my 5th edition Eberron campaign I have a player who is determined to metagame in combat which makes it really hard for the others to actually get much enjoyment. Recently the problem player gained ...
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What are the techniques for writing descriptive posts in a timely manner as a game master?
To clarify, especially after Covid I have become an exclusively text based game GM and I am looking to improve my description of events (and maybe add a bit of an artistic flare) but that results in ...
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Magic Item for summoning minions?
This question is a follow up for my question Can a player use two characters in a campaign? Instead of adding another PC to the party to make up for how squishy the group is (the group being a wizard, ...
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Can a player use two characters in a campaign?
I've been the DM in a campaign based in the Eberron world and the party is made primarily out of squishy level 4 characters (wizard, druid, and a bard.)
During one of the combat encounters we had an ...
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How can I add more roleplay to the game I'm DMing when not all players want that?
This is mainly just a question I decided to ask out of curiosity because sometimes I can get bored of a campaign and I wouldn't want to end it because the players could still be enjoying themselves. ...
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What's a clock and how do I use one?
I've heard of using a 'clock' to help manage encounters and create tension, but how do you create and use one within a campaign/session/encounter?
I have seen it used in other games, like Scum and ...
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Is Gaseous Form + Invisibility + Nondetection such a powerful combo for scouting and infiltration? How can I make it more challenging for my players?
Some context: I'm a newbie DM running a campaign which requires the party to do a lot of scouting and infiltration missions. Especially in buildings. It's a city campaign happening in Waterdeep so I ...
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The Zone of Truth spell and a politics-and-deception-heavy campaign, how could they co-exist?
Some context: I'm a newbie DM running a campaign which is a remix of the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure. It's a campaign full of politics, alliances, betrayals and deception. All the major powers ...
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What's your best practice as a DM to "protect" your awesome campaign's mystery "against" the Divination spell?
Some context: I'm a newbie DM running the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign for my party. What's so special about this campaign is that it's full of intrigue / politics / betrayal and mystery. Also it'...
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What could attract the attention of hostile creatures? [closed]
So in my game of D&D 4e, the PCs are going to travel through the woods and the swamps, and an idea I have for this section, is that there's a type of creature in there that is more agressive than ...
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How do I stop a character with a lightsaber from just cutting open every door and wall?
So I'm late stage in an Edge of the Empire game and I would like to present my characters with a challenging final battle. They're on a Star Destroyer whose captain is trying to turn it into a mobile ...
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I have a PC with PTSD, how should fear effects work? [closed]
She’s a first time player & struggled to come up with a backstory. She brought up having amnesia caused by trauma.
After playing for a couple of sessions, hearing the more experienced players’ ...
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What should we be aware/cautious of when hacking together these systems? [closed]
We've talked new games and settings, what we like and those we found awkward.
We haven't played all of the following together, we have a diversity of experience so I can rely on the opinions of others ...
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How do I adjust an already easy adventure for a party made of healers and tanks?
I am planning for a campaign I'll start soon, the advice sought here is not system specific but the system is Starfinder and the adventure is the Adeventure Path Drift Crashers.
My party is made out ...
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What rules exist for running a mixed in-person/asynchronous campaign?
I have a group of friends who enjoy playing TTRPGs together (primarily D&D 5e) but who do not live near each other. We are looking for ways to play together more often, but some of the group ...
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Are there any challenges during an in-person game that aren’t a factor online?
I have been asked to run a one-shot D&D game by a friend for a certain event. The game will be an in-person session, with everyone physically present, whereas I only have experience running online....
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How do I put my own twist on prewritten adventures [closed]
I am a new DM, and I am quite good at running encounters, making interesting environments to explore and creating compelling NPCs. I struggle with the storytelling aspects of the game. I know the ...
