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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How do you all make travel interesting for players? [duplicate]
I'm curious on how you all make travel more interesting for your players. I want to honor the geography of the world (aka you don't just teleport anywhere) and I've tried some things that have been ok,...
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How do I get my D&D group to engage to a minimum
I've been DMing for a group for a year. Initially, they were mostly new to D&D—one had a bit of experience, and two were fans of D&D shows. I've played quite a bit myself, so they asked me to ...
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What adventures are good for use with a square grid map? [closed]
I'm new as a DM, and I'm planning to run Dragon of Icespire Peak for a group of four players. However, I already can tell that it will be time-consuming to map out each of the potential locations the ...
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How can I make online combat more interesting?
I'm a fairly new GM, this coming Saturday is going to be about my 4th session, I think, and I'm playing a 5e reskin of a video game with a good group online via Discord and the Owlbear Rodeo VTT. So ...
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How do you handle your data backend as DM? [closed]
I'm a brand new DM with zero experience in the field, though I have played a few campaigns as a player. My first campaign is almost finished, at least for the plot/writing/arc parts. My problem now is:...
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Should my players fill out their character sheets during a tutorial session?
I am starting a new dnd 5e group, and all the players have never played before. I did session zero, it all went well, but I think they were overwhelmed by the amount of information. I asked them for ...
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Already have the story before a PBtA game
I'm studying the rules for MOTW for the first time and I think I'd like to run a round soon.
I'm getting a little confused reading the rules for the agenda where it says "play to see what happens&...
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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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What do mailed letters look like in the Forgotten Realms?
I've got a noble NPC that will be sending an important letter to the PCs, but I can't decide how that should work. I imagine he'd be paying a courier to bring it straight to them, so size and shape ...
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What are the strongest uncommon magic items? [closed]
So soon enough I am going to be hosting a level 10 one-shot, and each player gets to start with 1 uncommon magic item. I want to know which ones are strong so I can look over them and make sure they ...
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Are there any 'official' templates used for writing out adventures in D&D 5e?
I'm trying to seat this question in the idea of "Tools and equipment used while playing table-top RPGs" and not just have it be a matter of opinion. Please feel free to suggest edits so I ...
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Is it appropriate to bring a player character back after they had been "killed"?
A player character "died" in battle early on in this current arc I'm DMing, and I had already decided that either this character would be in pursuit by the big bad or would be taken captive. ...
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When do you consider a scene important enough to warrant a battlemap? [closed]
I was thinking about the act of looking for battlemaps, and was wondering when, in pre-planning, did you ever decide that a scene was important enough for a battlemap?
Example 1: A room where you ...
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How do node-based scenarios interact with the GM vs. Players turn system in Mouse Guard?
With node-based scenarios, you plan multiple nodes and place three or more clues from the current node to adjacent nodes. The Alexandrian has a good series on them, that starts here.
From what I ...
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What to do when a player roleplays an extremely persuasive argument, but flubs their Persuasion check?
I have been the DM of a wonderful group of Stack Exchange friends playing an urban fantasy campaign of D&D 5e for some time now, and a question came up in our group Discord that has got me ...
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Shortcuts for GMs preparing a boss sheet
Due to time constraints, I simply do not have the time any more to read through the list of all the feats, all possible enchantments, and all the prestige classes, to then build a boss.
What are the ...
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Need clues that an NPC is hiding financial hardship. (Sci-Fi/modern) [closed]
I'm planning on running a Traveller game soon. The premise of the session is that an NPC has "stolen" his own artwork in order to get the insurance money (because it is insured for more than ...
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Can I use a trap that will kill a character, if the party can either find a creative solution around it or cast Revivify?
We're running a series of one-shots with differing DMs every session, keeping the same characters and only swapping out the person who is DMing. The party is a little overpowered, and I wanted to do a ...
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As a GM, how do I make sure a self-contained session (an episode or one-shot) reaches its completion within the designated session length?
I'd like to convert my campaign over to more of an episodic format -- a complete hook, story, and conclusion in each session, with each session feeding into a bigger story/arc, just like a TV series. ...
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As a GM, how do I build a complete group of players that fit my style and preferences?
I've been GMing for some years now. During that time, I feel like I've developed somewhat of a style/preference with the kinds of games I like to run. While I feel my games can be enjoyed by a variety ...
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When writing and preparing a campaign should I include all the side stories and all possible encounters? [duplicate]
I have worked out an entire world with a story and several side stories (they'll be optional) should I just put them in the middle of the story of where they'd be available or should I put them into a ...
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In the Forgotten Realms, what happens when a god dies?
By the end of next session, due to my PCs (through a mixture of burning temples, using dark magic, and killing avatars) a god in the Forgotten Realms that the PCs have a rivalry with will probably be ...
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How do I accommodate a blind player at my remote table?
For remote play at our table, we use a camera stuck on a microphone-boom-arm that we can rotate by 360°. We found out that we prefer it to have our rest position at about 45°, instead of top-down ...
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What are the rules for mixing races?
As a DM I want to build an immersive and memorable, but also logically coherent world. I have a question about races.
What are the rules for mixing races?
For example, is it possible to be half elf ...
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Troglodyte has two different bite stats?
I'm pretty new to this GMing thing, and am running a prebuilt Pathfinder module. I am setting up the next encounter for my party and noticed that the Troglodyte entry in the bestiary has two different ...
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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, (...
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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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How to scale up exploration challenges to mid and high levels?
As a DM, I feel like I have a pretty solid grasp on how to build interesting combat and social encounters for parties of any level. However, I often struggle to do the same for the exploration pillar ...
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Preparing for so many quests on Dragon of Icespire peak
I am about to start Dragon of Icespire peak, and I'm a bit uncertain on how I should prepare for it: I read Slyflourish's tips for DoIP, and I'm aware of some of its pitfalls, including low leveled ...
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Allowing your party to plan their own mission
Based on some feedback from my players, I'm going to allow them to plan their next mission, which will be a 'seemingly' straight forward heist affair onboard a moving vehicle (limiting their ...
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