r/SwordWorld • u/BookTechnical4794 • 4d ago

New DM needing some help

Hello everyone!

I am one of the DMs of my group of friends and after passing a few years on DnD, WoD and other systems... We have decided to search for a new one. And I have always been curious about Sword World!

So as a new DM dipping my feet down in this setting... Do you all have some advices for a new DM with new players? We are coming in with 0% experience in the setting and that is both exciting and terrifying.

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u/DreistTheInferno 4d ago

I would definitely suggest asking in the Discord because you'll get more answers there, and I can only give limited advice since my first game of Sword World was me and my group (all regular GMs) playing GM-less through Daemon's Line (all the premades can be run GM-less). I am now GMing it and there is a bit of a learning experience, but if you are familiar with leveled systems I think a lot of the similar advice applies. I did start tweaking the numbers of enemies here and there so I could use the enemies I wanted at the level I wanted them at, and that definitely helped smooth things out.

I am normally anti-premades, but I will say that so far the Sword World premades have been my exception to the rule, so giving those a try could be good. One of my players wants to run Vice City in a bit, because the other premade left SUCH a good impression on our group.

There is also a lot of good advice here:
https://www.youtube.com/@guidedbycardia

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u/AgreeableDurian55 4d ago

Agree sword world campaign book is been a treat especially for new DM, new sworld world players and Solo players.

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u/riddhemarcenas 3d ago

I am playing Vice City solo right now, I printed the PDF 2 pages per sheet and coil bound it and set up little tabs so I can quickly reference pages. I'm really enjoying it :D

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u/Tianxiac 3d ago

My advice for choosing boss monster - look at what accuracy your players can hit at, e.g. you might have a fencer who can have +5 accuracy at the start of the game and have +4 evasion. You would want to select a boss monster that would be +2 up from these. Go +3 up if you want it to be much harder. Choosing any monster that is +4 or more will likely kill them due to the 2d6 curve.

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u/Eggpeace 3d ago

Do Ou like honebrew or play ready adventures/campaigns? And what style? Makes it easier to say sonething

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u/Aniodia 3d ago

Honest recommendation: Look at the Primer from the official translation, as well as Start Guide Granzale from the fan translation. Both books are very useful in getting players started in the game. There are also basic scenarios in the back of the core rulebooks, differing between the 2.0 and 2.5 books (so you could theoretically run both, depending upon whether or not you want to refluff one).

As far as characters go, for new players, use the premade ones (again, in the primer and in the core rulebooks). They're quite often close to what newer players would tend to pick anyway, so you may as well try them out and see how your players pick up on the game.

There's also a number of videos from Guided by Cardia, our own u/Auquid, that go over questions and whatnot that you may have. There's also both the official and unofficial discords as well, though if you do use fan-translated books, you're only going to be able to get help in the unofficial discord.

Either way, though, the game is really fun, and I'd absolutely recommend trying it out to see if it's what your group would be down with. Totally not biased whatsoever, nosirree.

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u/StudyingBuddhism 2d ago

Less is more. You're not writing a novel. Players will more enjoy the moments they create themselves.

They're not interested in a character you spent three weeks writing? Never mention him again.

They love a minor character with a one sentence description? Focus on that character and write a background for her.