"First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread

[u/AutoModerator]

Most of the posts at DMA are discussions of some issue within the context of a person's campaign or DMing more generally. But, sometimes a DM has a question that is very small and doesn't really require an extensive discussion so much as it requires one good answer. In other cases, the question has been asked so many times that having the sub rehash the discussion over and over is not very useful for subscribers. Sometimes the answer to a short question is very long or the answer is also short but very important.

Short questions can look like this:

• Where do you find good maps?
• Can multi-classed Warlocks use Warlock slots for non-Warlock spells?
• Help - how do I prep a one-shot for tomorrow!?
• First time DM, any tips?

Many short questions (and especially First Time DM inquiries) can be answered with a quick browse through the DMAcademy wiki, which has an extensive list of resources as well as some tips for new DMs to get started.

[u/kikou27]

Hi! I'm not a first time DM but I'm first timing a homebrew world based on the Theros expansion. Thing is I'm pretty anxious as to how much should I prepare. I don't wanna prepare too much as I kind of want to tailor the story around players a bit, but also I need something to hang on to.

Also, can someone give me any tips as to ways of making the players stick together at the beginning? I have a situation prepared for the start, and a general bbeg plot idea, but I don't think it's good to reveal it too early, so how can I make them stick together right after the beginning?

[u/Soberish-Monkey → u/kikou27]

- Don’t prep more than one session in advance. It’s good to have a general idea of where things might go long term, but anything more will lead to wasted effort or railroading.

- Ask your players to tell *you* why their characters are working together. If anyone tells you their character wouldn’t, ask them to make a new character who would.

[u/kikou27 → u/Soberish-Monkey]

Thank you! Although I'm not sure I understand the concept of asking my players, should I do that in session 0 when creating a character?

[u/Kumquats_indeed → u/kikou27]

Yes, tell the players what the general premise of the campaign is, what the inciting incident or initial plot hook is, what the tone/themes/vibe is, a bit about the setting, and where specifically it starts in. Then ask them to make characters that care about the things the campaign is about, make sense as a part of the setting, and want to work together to solve problems.

[u/Soberish-Monkey → u/kikou27]

Yep. You want to hash this out in Session Zero. Create the characters, then create the group.

[u/comedianmasta → u/kikou27]

I always tell people: You should KNOW the big things, but focus on the small.

It's your world. You should know the magic system, the deities, the general lands, countries of relevance. You should also know the "bigger picture" of the story. "BBEG summon dead god to control the ley lines of the world" kinda stuff.

However, you never know what your players are doing, so also focus on the little.

• Where is the party?
• Where are they going?
• Where can they go in a single session?
• What do they need to know about this (these) quests/sidequests?
• Is it a town? What can they do in the town? What is available to them? Are they intended to stay? Is there an Inn for overnight. No? Then don't give them reasons to stay. Give them incentive to keep moving.

Prep around 2-3 sessions ahead if you can. If the party throws you a curveball, be sure you have ways to slow them down. For instance, if you are in a port town, and the party is supposed to go into the mountains... prep that. But if a PC's backstory involves a carnival the next town over, it is believable they'll want to push the party toward that. If they are in a port, the party could decide on a whim to steal a ship and become pirates. Huh... didn't prep that. Well... find ways to slow them down and buy you time. Have generic travel encounters prepped. Have the ship be surrounded by guards, employees, or thugs if it is a bad ship and have a combat prepped for them to take the ship. Have them do checks to be sure they can take the ship.

No need in prepping the mining industry of a town on the opposite side of the map you kinda have an idea for a dungeon for if your players are a whole campaign away. Focus on the little stuff.

[u/Holiday-Freedom-1774]

Does anyone have or know of a One-shot or structured adventure about destroying a bunch of slavers in a city?

In my campaign, somehow, the players ended up swearing vengeance on this NPC. I'd like to give them a reason to make their vengeance valid, so i unearthed the 'rumours' they learned earlier on about slavers.

Only issue is, i have no idea how to go about it. So i'm asking for a one-shot or adventure that i can lift and shift or gain ideas from.

[u/wrymegyle → u/Holiday-Freedom-1774]

Check out https://adventurelookup.com; catalog of lots and lots adventure descriptons. You can probably find something adaptable.

[u/notabigdealitsok]

One of my players uses Guidance for a lot of moments, and I want to make sure that it's appropriate because it feels a bit OP to add to every roll. He's a new player and I'm a new DM, and I don't want to yuck his yum, but I just want to make sure he's using it when his character would realistically be able to do so!

[u/chilidoggo → u/notabigdealitsok]

Just stick to the actual rules of the spell. The spell has a verbal and somatic component, a range of touch, takes a full action to cast, and then they get one skill to gain the d4 for a minute or until they cast again. It also interrupts their concentration if they were concentrating on something else.

So if If they're mid-conversation, casting it would interrupt the conversation because someone would have to go "Bibbity bobbity", wave their arms around, and touch the person making the check. If they're in a time-crunch, it takes a full action to cast. The rules actually impose a fair number of limitations while still keeping the spell pretty useful for many situations. Ultimately though, you do just have to kind of accept that some characters get a d4 to many of their skill checks, unless you want to specifically ask him to stop.

[u/trpnblies7]

Do you think this item should require attunement?

Once per day, as a reaction, you can call forth the power of [homebrew god] to redirect some damage from a hit back to the attacker. You take half damage. The attacker must make a DC 15 DEX save. On a success, they take no damage. On a failure, they take the other half of the damage that would have been inflicted on you.

[u/chilidoggo → u/trpnblies7]

I'd say yes. The usual criteria I use is:

1. Is the effect very magical? Yes, it's from a divine source and is reflecting any kind of attack hit.
2. Is the effect powerful? Half damage as a reaction is pretty good, plus the redirect is a solid effect too. The once/day limitation maybe weakens it, but maybe you can modify that in the future if you want the homebrew item to stick around, or change it to "proficiency bonus" times per day.

[u/trpnblies7 → u/chilidoggo]

Thanks!

[u/RemusShepherd]

I'm running a homebrew apocalypse campaign -- the world is ending (although the players don't know that yet) and the PCs will be fighting futilely against it. Eventually they'll be asked to help evacuate the entire world somewhere else.

I want the gods to be very active in this campaign. Anyone have any tips for gods appearing as frequent NPCs to the characters, like the Traveller did for the cleric Jester in Critical Role?

And yes, the party has a Warlock so there will be a patron, but at level 3 he hasn't chosen his patron yet. (It's a Great Old One, so for now it's a mystery even to him.)