Comments on: 4 ways to leave a lasting impression on your players

By: pete

pete — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:20:23 +0000

the next day i’d go rob an armored car. oh -wait that’s already been done.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:48:51 +0000

As a DM, roll a d20, on an even, everyone takes 10d6 lightning bolt damage, no saving throw, on an odd, spawn a terrasque, or 6

By: Kurtis

Kurtis — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:42:45 +0000

If you read anything I have written then you know that I have been DMing for (sigh) 20+ years. One thing that I came up with was a DM’s challenge for the players. As we all have gone through a campaign where as Bitsy put it: my players become lethargic. The DM’s challenge is that you have your circle of players each come up with 5 ideas for adventures that they would like to see in a game, then you have them all choose five ideas from the ones they came up with. Now you have 5 ideas that the players came up with, therefore they feel like they have had a roll in the creation of the campaign you now build around there ideas. In this way your players will be more engaged in the campaign waiting with baited breath (some needing breath mints) until there “adventure idea” comes up in the campaign. It also lets you use your intelligence and “time” to better use.

By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:21:24 +0000

I have been DMing since I was 12 and I know that I have grown because of the various people that I have run games for. I have had a huge number of players over the past 20 years (wow just realized this is an anniversary year) and I can name each as well as remember something that they have done in a game. I make it a point to have the players write a history for their characters and then I will use some aspect at somepoint in the game. This really has helped bring backstories into the game and seems to bring the characters out of the paper and into technicolor. Many have been suprised that I would go to such links as to remember and include a minor portion of a characters history into a game that I am running. It’s a lot of work but I can’t run into even someone who has played just one with me and have them ask if I remember when . . . I know that it has been a long developement for my games and I am constantly refining them, but the goal is to have fun and nothing to me is as rewarding as having someone ask “Do you remember in youyr game when . . .” Thanks for the chance to share.

By: Ravyn

Ravyn — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:54:53 +0000

Bitsy: Meh, combat isn’t the best part of the game for everyone. Some of us tend to wish it would all go away so we can get back to the interesting stuff; I’m as often as not one of the scariest people in my group when it comes to a fight, but I’d much rather be playing political games with the next group of condescending troublemakers or getting to know the nifty NPCs, and running mystery arcs or attempts to throw parties where I can play to my strengths.

What I’d do:

Try something really different. Two of the best-liked sessions in my game involved, respectively, fourteen high-powered individuals (including the PCs) playing high-stakes Calvinball, and the attempt to defend an abandoned city from invaders using only maintenance- and entertainment-specialized constructs. (I don’t know which was more priceless, halting one of the invaders using Magitech DDR, or the staredown between another of them and the robo-potted-plant.)

Ask them what they want. I wouldn’t give it to them exactly as they expected, of course, but if there are elements they’d really like to see, it shouldn’t be too hard to work them in.

Give them world. If I don’t have a vibrant place planned out for them to walk through, with a little bit of history to look into and at least something there they’ve never seen before, I need to be able to invent one. (At least that’s the easy part.)

By: Yax

Yax — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:08:11 +0000

@ Ethan:
That definitely will give them something to rememberq

@Bitsy:
Run shorter combats and/or take notes when you’re a player.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:30:51 +0000

In my third campaign i played in, our entire party got arrested and i escaped the shackles with a 32 escape artist check…than i killed my team when they were shackled up, black lotus poison is a b!^&h 3d6/3d6 constitution damage, they were all dead in minutes. EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT!!!

By: Websites To Play Games

Websites To Play Games — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:27:51 +0000

Good site I \”Stumbledupon\” it today and gave it a stumble for you.. looking forward to seeing what else you have..later

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:41:39 +0000

The first time that I ran a campaign, I learned very quickly how Players random actions, not to mention die rolls can throw a wild card into sessions that I had carefully planned.

One NPC started out to be some name-less thug that my players were supposed to just ‘deal with’. Low and behold, this turned out to be and NPC that would not go away. In two encounters, one a bar brawl and the other a midnight-dark-alley fight, my players rolled poorly and I rolled very well. Before you knew, my own players were building up this name-less NPC as some evil thug that was bent on making misery on their lives. So, for my player’s sins on letting their imagination get the better of them, I gave this NPC a name and a reputation that then dogged them for two and a half years of gaming time.

One simple encounter, that’s all it was supposed to be. But we all loved every minute of it.

Jim

By: Bitsy

Bitsy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:30:49 +0000

Yeah, the only thing I ever have trouble with in my games is that the entire party turns lethargic whenever they hit combat. I mean, I must be doing something wrong since that’s supposed to be the best part of the game, right?