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Post by Arc on Jan 10, 2005 17:56:22 GMT -5
This is a new thread that will be dedicated to hints tips and tricks to DMs and Players alike on how to make D&D (specifically Aeos) a better ROLEplaying game. This Thread will have ideas on how to build plots around characters, how to let things slide in a game, how to create interesting and emotional characters, and how to use bring the game to a higher level.
Please Refrain from posting your own advice without permission from a moderator.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 11, 2005 1:11:17 GMT -5
I've always spent more time thinking of how a GM could improve a game cuz most of the time as a player I spent hacking and slashing my way through a dungeon, but always trying to spend more time in cities where I could interact with people and create plot. Unfortunetly for me, most my GMs seem to want to toss me into dungeons to find "uber loots" which of course help me beat the living senses out of some other thing I'd have to hack and slash at.
So the first thing I'd like to suggest to all GMs is stop planing to have a fight. Not every fight can be avoided but given creative enough players they can easily get around it. The only time a fight should be planned, is when you need your PCs to kill someone they may not want to. Then crossfire works great.
Something else I hate that GMs will do. They will make plans. First of all, GM a little while and you will learn that whatever plans you make and think will be awesome, your players will tear apart. The most you can really do for planning is set out a starting point, and an end point. I understand you want to tell a story, but what's great about a story where the main character doesnt do what the auther wants?
In that respect I would suggest only to create setting and an initial motivation. You want your players to see the world that they are in and persue something that they want. They need to find something in that setting that they will pursue and you can narrate. When they have nothing left to pursue, change the setting.
But all that is hard for a GM to jump right into doing so here's a small list of somethings you can do to do more ROLEplaying:
1. Put the players into a situation that you don't have a solution for. Players are creative and are dying to use the items and or skills they have accuired. If they can't figure it out, try making the situation a little easier, though still having no idea of how you could solve it.
2. Always reward ROLEplaying. Whether it be XP, bonus skill points, feats, money, opportunities for more plot, special abilities, items, you name it! Get a feeling for what your players want, then give little pieces of it when they play thier character well, play thier character with actual emotions and fears. which brings me to...
3. Find out what your players really want. Too often GMs roll up random loot in treasure chests, or place an item in a set spot. This causes people in the party to wind up with useless items to them, but could really help someone else in the party. Give items to people who need them. We're all greedy adventurers after all. I always hate the goody-goody group that shares and shares alike, not realistic. So sometimes you have to control who gets what, by placing things in a box just because it's that character looking in that box.
4. Be ready wiith versatile settings. Your PCs will wantot go places and do things. Create some versatile settings in your mind that can be used for mulitple plots. A generic city could be the location for all kinds of stuff. The most important part though is the people you put in those settings, they are what gives the places character.
5. Be ready to change the plot at any time. If something hits you as more a cooler plot than the one you're currently running, or if it seems like it's what your PCs want, change it without telling anyone. Pretend like that was the original plan, your the GM, your the only one who knows.
That's all for now, I can't seperate one thing from another in my mind right now.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 11, 2005 1:33:45 GMT -5
Oh and one other thing I'd like to comment on when it comes to playing Roles. It's always been something I hated about D&D and always compared to White Wolf.
When you buy a White Wolf game, about half to two thirds of the book is fiction and plot. When you buy a D&D book, most of it is stats and how those stats affect combat. The monster manual needs to be a creature manual. Cuz right now all it has are stats, a little description paragraph, and a slightly longer paragraph on how they respond to combat.
It erks me. D&D needs to be less books on stats and more books on plot ideas and fiction. WW puts out books with nothing but plot suggestions sometimes, D&D makes books with campiegn settings but they always have stats for monsters and stats on loots. oy!
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 12, 2005 19:21:36 GMT -5
I forgot to post this one.
Try to go an entire session without rolling a single die. Too often we're too attatched to making characters with uber stats. As a GM, just let it all happen as you see it would be cool. Whatever makes it more interesting to play. Don't frustrate your characters by making everything go in the straight line you want the story to go.
"One more thing." - Uncle
GMs, you are the storyteller, not the enemy of the player. You are not trying to kill them, and they certainly counldn't kill you. Your NPCs will die, it happens. Don't get too attatched to them. Don't ever throw your own character in there, it will make you really attatched. You want to play WITH the roleplayers, not against them.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 13, 2005 5:06:13 GMT -5
Speaking of rolling dice, never let your players know what your rolled. Infact, never let your players know any of the numbers of anything if possible. That way you can always change what your rolled, and it forces you to describe a lot more. Ever find yourself saying, "You do 8 damage." when you really should be saying, "Your arrow flies past your compatriot's ear, sending a twinge through his neck and eyes, and grazes the bandit's shoulder, tearing away flesh and spilling some blood on the soft dirt." Granted that may be a lot to say for one combat action but I prefer combat to go faster than most people run them. D&D gives too many hp to everything, no human could take more than three arrows before dropping dead, no matter how much combat training they have.
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Post by Arc on Jan 13, 2005 14:48:14 GMT -5
"Hit Points are a measure of a character's ability to turn a potentially fatal wound into a less severe one." -DMG
First off, D&D is not a realistic setting. It isn't even really intended to be. D&D is intended to represent a fictional world in which the players are heroes (or antiheroes) of their own story.
Imagine that a normal person is wounded by three arrows. An arrow doing 8 damage to an opponent of low level probably hit his torso, perhaps thighs or upper arms. To a high level character, unless the damage is very great, most wounds indicate that perhaps the character had fended off almost the entirety of the blow, making it a grazing strike, hardly effecting him at all. 8 damage to a high level character may have simply scratched his wrist. It by no means indicates that the arrow is totally lodged into his body.
At any rate, Combat is best done fast, I agree wholeheartedly. Also, Keeping numbers to yourself as a GM is not only good for keeping battles flexible, it also adds an element of confusion to battle. Its best to keep the descriptions of specific attacks in combat short, and bring more details in for Critical hits and other spectactular events.
As for Plot ideas and Fiction, that is exactly what we are here to provide for our fellow gamers.
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Post by Arc on Jan 13, 2005 15:50:50 GMT -5
A GM's job is to provide the challenges, storyline, world, and population of a a world that the players play in.
You must know the players to understand what they want in the game. They in turn, must know what YOU want also. You are no less important than they are, in the game. So you must find a common ground that each person can enjoy, and this can be very hard.
Story-wise, The ending point is the problem. You may never get the intended effect if you do not have events to occur. Howerver, if you let your players react the way they feel they should react, no only are you letting (forcing) them to roleplay, you are forming a more elaborate story. You can also take pleasure in events they they players can or cannot control that lead them along YOUR story, as long as you are flexible enough to accomodate them.
Your NPCs may not be the main players, but unless you are running a "nontradional" campaign, they are absolutely neccesary to the world. Imagine a movie where the bad guy is the underdog and is crushed by the overwhelming might of the heroes. They don't sound much like heroes any more do they? The NPCs you create are the other sides of the story, wheter they directly or indirectly influence the players. Making NPCs who are human and can be felt for is a skill very valuable in gaming. Otherwise, people do not much care about the people in the story, only about themselves. A good story is one where you empathise with the characters in it. Having this aspect will increace the level of realism in the game without changing a single rule.
A Word on Bad Guys. Not all of the NPC ideas described above are true of all "bad guys." Many villians are so ruthless or so full of hatred that they lack humanity alltoghether. Remember that the Players may only meet this person one time, and likely vanquish him then. That is your one oppertunity to make the bad guy seem like a bad guy. Use that chance to portray the villian as as inhuman and hatefull as possible. Also, it makes a much better story if your villian can survive for several confrontations, learning what he can from his adversaries. Its better to make the players fight for victory than to hand over a hollow fight on a silver platter.
More later, of course.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 16, 2005 19:36:15 GMT -5
Alright, I've tossed a lot at the GMs, time for a few pointers toward the PCs. GMs have a lot of responsibility when and frustration when PCs are content to sit around on thier duffs waiting for the GM to hand them a "quest" or toss them in a dungeon to hack away. The main reason why PCs just sit around and do nothing is not enough thought into their character. They've not decided on the character's motivations, desires, needs, goals, etc. In short, come up with a character history. I would always earge that the character be something not too far from the who you actually are, this makes it easier to get into character. Remeber that they are not invincible heros, they're just normal people who happen to be in that situation. Play thier emotions, not just their actions. Another VERY important thing to remember: The GM is not the enemy, you are not playing against the GM as much as the GM isn't playing against you. If you get nothing out of this paragraph get the idea to trust your GM. Failing a dice roll is not the end of the world. Being knocked unconcious won't kill you, not even if in all likelyhood it should. Your GM doesnt want his PCs to die anymore than you want your character to die... well maybe little more  . REAL people make mistakes, so what's wrong with playing a real person. I'll make this comparison more than once in this post, I've wanted to play an ordinary human in WoD before. Not even a hunter, just a normal person because the setting itself would lend everything else needed to make great roleplaying. Pursue plot on your own. Do something while you're in civilization, not just drink at the bar, fight in arena battles, steal stuff, buy stuff, and dick around. There's people in civilization! People contain potential for plot, information, quests that you may actually WANT to pursue, all kinds of stuff. You can even create plot on your own. One example I'll use is when I played Star Wars without a character sheet, best roleplaying I've ever done, I didn't even have a memory beyond that I can cook real well. I got planet side after activating the self-destruct on a pirate space station but that's another story. The first thing I did was get a job, cooking at a bar resturuant no less. Then I put out flyers for a big party at the bar and got the word out a new taste was in town. Then I set the wookie in our party to be our bouncer. I had a friend who was actually playing a group of five serve bots... well do his thing. In the preparation for the party I had those servebots upgraded to be able to... I can't even remember what and got connected to the organization that actually made them, and at the party was working on stealing the girlfriend of the guy who runs the company. Anyway, he was mostly a social character, and as a side note an android who didn't know he was an android, but it got all kinds of stuff rolling. It was a little frustrating for the people who built primary combat characters though, we hadn't seen much action yet asides the self destruct thing though. That was long winded... What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to follow the exact plan that the GM may have for you and pursue whatever you want, the GM will figure out how to work that other stuff into it. |
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 16, 2005 20:42:57 GMT -5
Ok, this is for the GMs again. I guess I'll title it too, I learned this from White Wolf and love it.
How to deal with failed rolls
Failed rolls don't necessarily the most obvious form of failure. A lot of time I like to keep DCs to myself for this purpose. Lets say you're trying to make a jump from one roof to the next to escape someone who's chasing you. You don't make the dc. The obvious failure would be you fall, and possibly to your doom. But the other way of handling this is that you make the jump but on the other side is a gang execution of someone that you happen to land in the middle of. See the failure doesn't mean you fall, just that the situation is now worse than before. You can jump back because the other roof is higher, you can't just run cuz then you have guys on you who want to clean up the situation of witnesses, not to mention they have guns. It forces the player to think fast or they'd be caught. It may also be a chance to reward some creativity and good roleplaying. Say they bluff and yell, "We're busted! Ditch!" and they believe the PC, then the person who was about to be excuted could be saved an be indebted.
I think I mentioned this before but I'll mention it again. You don't have to roll dice, you're the GM, make whatever happen you want. Like in the last situation where they bluff thier way out of a sticky situation, don't even roll to see if they buy it, just have them buy it becuase you like the creativity.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 16, 2005 21:02:57 GMT -5
I can't remember what I said much earlier but I have a feeling I may have over emphasized, or rather pulled the emphaseis too far away from NPCs. What I meant by it was party NPCs. Having NPCs in the group of PCs makes it too easy for the GM to use them to save the PCs or guild them. In group NPCs need to be used carefully as to not take away the decision making process or making difficult situations too easy.
However, regular NPCs need to get some reconition. They're the base of plot and adventure. Each one needs to have believable personalities and be balanced. No person is invicible or an island. Each one has motivations, needs, and things that erk them. Try to have a list of personality traits in mind that you can readily tag onto NPCs for personality. It also makes it easier to generate NPCs on the fly.
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Post by Seraphine on Jan 21, 2005 20:09:08 GMT -5
In retaliation to the explaination to hit points:
First of all if that were true how come the same magic missle doesn't do the same kind of damage? Or does the ability to redirect damage also apply to magical damage even though the recieing character may have no magical training of any sort?
Secondly the damage on weapons don't go up along with leveling. Strength may but at a rate of 1 per four levels, which means you won't get a +1 to damage until 8 levels.
That second point is also one of the things that bothers me, your attack roll doesn't influence your damage roll at all. The only way an attack roll can influence the damage roll is if you crit, and that onlyl happens how often? That's right about 1 or 2 out of 20 swipes. Rouges get backstab and you can improve your critical range through feats but there is no marginal improvement even though a fighter may be getting more and more experienced.
But these are my qualms with D20.
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Post by wowposter on Sept 4, 2008 9:48:04 GMT -5
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Post by wowposter on Sept 5, 2008 15:48:15 GMT -5
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. REAL people make mistakes, so what's wrong with playing a real person. I'll make this comparison more than once in this post, I've wanted to play an ordinary human in WoD before. Not even a hunter, just a normal person because the setting itself would lend everything else needed to make great roleplaying.
