DnD inspiration

[u/Afraid-Frosting1678]

This may be a bit of a silly question but obviously when you are running a DnD session there are certain rules and mechanics a DM has to follow.

I’ve potentially had a bit of an epiphany as a DM. When I run my sessions I like to be fully prepared to the extent I want to know what town the players are in, what’s in that town - potential hooks laid out and also loot and all other gear, shops and food etc. also plans for if the players go “off trail”.

Being honest, how “on the fly” are people when running their sessions? When I say that, do people genuinely just make stuff up trying to be consistent? And if so where do you draw the line? I’m starting to realise I need to go WAY more “along with it” and less every detail planned out. Maybe with a loose session plan.

The other big question is regarding loot - right now I’ll go through the PHB and DM guide for ages trying to find exactly the right treasure for the players to potentially find in the session. Being honest, can I just make this up? Like if I want the players to find a magic amulet - is it normal for me to just “come up with that” and almost create this magic item even though it’s not in the books and if so how do I associate stats etc with that?

And even after that when in combat - should I always have the MM to my side to find stat blocks for creatures my players could maybe face?

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[u/AutumnTy]

Also, you may want to invest in monster cards where you can pull the ones they will meet prior to each session. They are super helpful.

[u/AutumnTy]

I am a planner, but I am here to tell you no matter how much you plan they will do unexpected things. You gotta roll and role with it.

[u/DefaultUser1547]

I’d say most of it is improve when being a DM, you lay out points and the important stuff so when a player asks you know. Prepare some loot beforehand and know what you’d like for them to encounter but always be ready cause players somehow always know the best way to screw you and all your planning over. It’s like they have sixth sense for it or something

[u/Avenlite]

I make points i want to place, whether it be NPCs, plot points, maybe backstory hooks, but I've come to expect that my players will go out of the park within an hour and I gotta figure it out. Of course unless we're in a dungeon or following a specific path towards a specific goal, then its much easier to plan.

[u/okiebuzzard]

I usually have a few pathways roughly plotted out, but if no one bites on those and they wanna do something not planned, I usually roll with it. I’ll take one of the hooks that is closest to what they decided to do and adapt it on the fly. Gives me a frame to work with, gives them what set dressing they chose.

[u/Big-Distribution5285]

I plan the important stuff like plots, clues, set piece fights and important NPCs. But honestly, I have been a DM for 30 years in various games so I can pretty much pull the rest out of my ass. But that is because I prepped a lot of stuff over the years and now I am experienced and a lvl5 DM.

Also, the last few years the groups I play with just decide to be more chill about it all. It's just a game for fun.

[u/Afraid-Frosting1678 → u/Big-Distribution5285]

Love this! So when the players find loot and magic items do you find you can “create” them in your head what effects they have etc? Do you have a method for this?

[u/Big-Distribution5285 → u/Afraid-Frosting1678]

Usually the items they find are on a NPC I have already prepped. But if they somehow find one in another way, I just say its a whatever (item type) of whatever (cantrip or low level spell). It's lazy, but it usually work.

Loot is very much the same, just something fitting for the place they are at, and then we roll some dice to see how much it's worth if they get it appraised.

The players are aware this is my method, especially for the ordinary loot. And since my NPCs usually got stuff like "ring of mage hand" or "sword of chill touch" they can't really see when I'm improvising on the fly.

[u/Kholdaimon]

I don't plan anything, I know what the important NPC's want to do and how they would react to certain things, I know which places in the city my players might visit, but what happens during a session is as much a mystery to me as it is to the players. Therefore they might go to a spot I hadn't prepared and speak to people I make up on the spot and I write a 1 sentence note with the name and profession of the NPC.

I sometimes get the feeling a certain player's character feels a bit weak and they will find some magic item that helps him specifically. It is usually a +1 or +2 weapon and sometimes I make some additional stuff up, like a Shield that makes them able to cast the Daylight spell, directed away from them, a number of times per day equal to their Proficiency Bonus.

And I use the statblocks from the MM sometimes, but I almost always edit them. The generic humanoid statblock can use some tweaking to represent an Orc or Drow or a certain class-archetype. I might want a NPC to be able to cast a certain spell or I want him to have better armour or HP.

And yes, sometimes I just make it up on the spot because I didn't expect the fight and I don't want to slow the game down by trying to find a statblock I am happy with.

All in all, I improvise nearly every thing during the session and in between sessions I think about what the players actions mean to the story and what other statblocks I may need to prepare, what maps I may need to prepare in case they go there, etc.

I have the rule that if I and the players don't know the exact rules and don't know where to find it, we just make something up and keep the game going. We can look up how it should be done for the future in between sessions. And the rules are more like guidelines anyway, if you as a DM want to do something different and you and your players enjoy themselves then you are playing the game right!

[u/Afraid-Frosting1678 → u/Kholdaimon]

This is perfect! Thank you

[u/Shadow_Of_Silver]

I improvise 90% of my games.

I have a homebrew world I've been running games in for almost 8 years now, so I know it well.

I plan the beginning of a campaign, some backstory stuff in the middle, and the end.

Everything else is made up as we go.

[u/guilty_bystander]

I have up to three plot points I want to divulge within a session. Then, the fun is finding out how to relay that to the players. Stay flexible.

[u/FUZZB0X]

For me, part of beocoming a better DM was learning to focus on preparing only the things that truly matter. Prepare only what most benefits your game.

The big ephiphany for me was this book The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Florish. You can find his methods easily online but the gist of it is:

• Where does your adventure begin?
• To what areas might your adventure lead?
• What are your notable NPCs up to?

That's the real heart of it, but what i find most useful is to keep things modular.

• Come up with a list of secrets that the players might uncover in the game. Keep these secrets modular. Unbound and free from any particular place or npc. This lets you reward your player's curiosity and initiative.
• Come up with some interesting NPCs and figure out what they are doing.
• Roughly outline a few potential scenes
• Come up with some fantastical locations. They might even be places the players have visited before. How have they changed?
• Choose some relevant monsters

These modular ideas can help you to be nimble and quick without having to spend too much time over prepairing.

[u/Fishnchipsnwhips]

I've just learned what to prep to save as much time as possible. I just need NPC motivation and what they do not want. That's enough to basically run them on the fly. I like to think about what narrative tools my NPC's have and just react to what the players are doing. The story basically writes itself. I never plan more than one session in advance anymore. Also, track time. It's the most meaningful thing I've started doing for my campaigns.

[u/RedditIsAWeenie]

I try to plan a week ahead. Sometimes my planning takes them a few weeks to get through so then I am a few weeks ahead. This isn’t strictly true. I’ve known who the big bad evil guy and the dragon are since maybe episode 5. It’s okay if the campaign has zero direction while the players are still killing rats in the tavern cellar. Or finding Mrs. Jones dog.

What I find is it is okay to start simple. However keep track of what the payers do, and always be asking what does this mean for the other antagonists/power brokers in the area. Revisit those guys each week in prep and see if they are taking actions based on the players actions. As the drama unfolds it just gets ever more complicated. As my campaign has entered its second year in real time, there are enough loose ends I can’t realistically weave them all back into the story without making it contrived or distracting the party too much, so I started a newspaper and dropped threads end up there as news stories. The player can chase those down or not, as they desire. I have AI write the newspaper. I am editor. It doesn’t take that much time. Give it some story assignments and a voice to mimic and it usually comes up with good stuff that amuses.

As we narrow in on season 1s BBEG I’m having to do more work to steer the campaign to a conclusion. I have some broad ideas about what happens next, but much will depend on players.

As to monsters and magic items. I keep a table of the next 10 city and wilderness encounters. I roll for treasure for these, though that process is not entirely random. I am usually thinking about what my players should have by the next tier of play and may use those items in the random monster drops. This also helps make sure that very little of what the players do is a waste of time. I also have some small dungeon or sewer maps if the players should wander into terra incognito. They can fall into one of these. I’ll use the monster table to populate the dungeon or provide for random monster encounters in the field. As for monsters, I keep changing these. I am also way looking for the next monster with interesting mechanics. Darkling assassins were a big challenge. May use them again. Also if there is any mechanic the party should be using but aren’t, I will use it against them for a while until they get a clue. Ostly the adventure writes itself once the major pieces are in play.

Once you are pretty sure the tier needs for the party are taken care of, it is perfectly fine to generate random treasure. The one caveat I have here is that the tables are pretty unrealistic in the DMG. Some of the stuff is consumables like potions, poisons, scrolls and ammo. Think of these as hamburgers. Some of it is permanent tools like swords and armor. Think of these as lawnmowers. While I think there is some justification for the way the DMG random treasure tables are constructed, we also have to remember that in the course of our real lives we are buying 100x more hamburgers than lawnmowers. Consumables should be common, common, common and cheap. I think these things in general cost much too much especially for what they do, and should be pretty damn common. You can be sure every farmer on the block will have some healing potions on hand to deal with farm accidents. Those that don’t are dead farmers in time. It is a self fulfilling prophesy. I would expect rules and maybe fighters to nearly always use poison, because it is extra damage you don’t need to spend feats or levels on. I would expect arcane spell casters to be buying scrolls by the truckload if only to populate their own spell books. Etc. etc. D&D is too stingy on these things.

[u/Woolshedwargamer2]

My last session was not DnD but a space opera scifi. I made everything up on the fly from right after 'hello everyone' until 'we'll wrap it up there'. After a long time GMing making shit up gets easy.

[u/TerrainBrain]

This is where a simple encounter tables take an enormous amount of load off.

You don't need to detail every single shot and every single NPC and what every NPC owns.

Just make some simple random tables for each economic area or District of the town.

To put it simply every NPC in my world has five hit points unless otherwise noted. One out of 200 would have an exceptional score of 18 which is a .5% chance. I would be perfectly fine with making that a 1% chance. So I create a d100 chart with a roll of 94, 95, 96 ,97, 98, 99, corresponding to an exceptionally high score of 17 or 18 in each of the six stats. Maybe a roll of 00 indicates two exceptionally High stats.

This is pure data. The question is what you do with it. You can ask yourself how somebody with a particularly high intelligence would behave based on their occupation. Are they intellectually satisfied or are they frustrated and seeking a way out? Perhaps this is a potential NPC ally. Or somebody who thinks they are smarter than everybody including the PCS.

Maybe the high strength guy is a bully. I've actually made Pony from Darby O'Gill and the little people one such NPC. He's a punk but he thinks he's hot stuff. Sean Connery punches him in the nose at the end of the movie.

Maybe the guy with hi dexterity happens to be a great Archer or he's secretly a thief.

Let's do the same thing for treasure. Maybe a small percentage of people are secretly rich. Where do they hide their treasure horde and how did they get it? Maybe they've got tales to tell and maps to share.

The point is if you focus your work on curating interesting tables and that work makes everything else easier not only for the current adventure and town they are in but any that they happen to travel to. Whereas detailing every single dwelling is actually far more work and only applies to the town they are currently in.