Questions tagged [gm-preparation]
For questions about the techniques that game masters use to prepare for a game session. (For preparing a campaign, use the [campaign-development] tag instead.)
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Increasing CR for more players
I am currently running a short Pathfinder published adventure (We Be Goblins Too!) as an interlude between campaigns. For reasons not relevant to this question, I have 7-8 player coming each week. ...
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How to prepare good session break points in LMoP?
Context
I'm starting a new D&D5e table with 6 players. As the sessions will be played during the week, mostly at night, and most of us need to be up by the morning the next day, our time is hard-...
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How to keep motivated to plan game sessions
I have alot of trouble motivating myself to make games for me to GM. I have the whole story plot for the adventure, clearly in my head, and I have ideas of how to keep them on track with the main ...
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Players skipping side quests just to have a laugh at the DM
Something that's happening frequently at my table recently is that the players are making choices deliberately to waste my preparation.
If they see something that obviously took some preparation that ...
- 5,373
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Setting up a Dungeon Map
So I don't know if anyone on here has used the 4E Keep on the Shadowfell but when you get to interlude 2 the PCs enter the dungeon, but the map is huge. When we play, I have the characters move over ...
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Creating Horror Atmosphere [closed]
I'm relatively new to DMing/GMing. All the people that I play with have DMed at least a few times. The only thing I've run is a prefab from Tales of the Yawning Portal.
My problem
I want to make a ...
- 1,274
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What do I focus on in a Fate Core one shot to showcase its differences to my D&D group?
I'm a player in a D&D 5e group that play since about 1 year. I like it, but I find the d20 dice system and plethora of rules to be constraining and coming often in the way of good story telling. ...
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One of my player is writing an extensive background for my one shot, how to tell him we're not using background for this one-shot?
I've announced a one shot in a Discord server, and prospective players have contacted me to join it. We don't know each other.
I asked them to prepare their character before the session, and it ...
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1
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How to handle 16 players in a PVP focused campaign?
I have a group of people (16 in this case) who looks like love to debate a lot about wich can be the best supernatural creature of nWoD.
I asked as a joke if they want to test. One thing conected to ...
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How to showcase NPC's rich backstory?
In an upcoming game I have an NPC whom I've picked from a previous game. The NPC in question has already had an interesting background, and was evolved from the endgame state to suit the new campaign ...
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3
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How to be sure that an adventure is short enough to end in one session?
Recently I am in the situation where I have to start mastering some adventures to people I don't know. They can have some experience or not at all.
It's needed to end in just one session, because it'...
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System for Easier Randomized Monster Generation in Pathfinder
I'm a very new GM and I've been running a custom setting in Pathfinder recently. It's post-apocalyptic and due to weird mutations/magic the monsters that the players can run into will often be unique, ...
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Handling Slightly Unpredictable Situations [closed]
So it was my first time DMing for experienced players and were playing through The Sunless Citadel. Most of what happened happened accordingly to the book expect dialogue, which I was expecting. What ...
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How do I make information that I give my players "accidental"?
I like the idea that the players of my campaign are meddlers. Creatures who have came upon knowledge only by accident or putting their noses where those noses don't belong. The idea that the ...
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Ambient music for online sessions [closed]
I'm DMing a Forgotten Realms campaign online, and wanted to ask how people play music so everyone can hear. I'm looking for a site or application, possibly that I could integrate with Fantasy Grounds, ...
