From: lucifer <[l--i--r] at [infernal.demon.co.uk]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: DM FAQ 3/4 [LONG]
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 95 17:26:16 GMT
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The FAQ's About DMing
Updated 09.dec.95
Version: 2.03
Part 3 of 4
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The Place, The People and The Plot
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CONTENTS (global)
Part 1: An Introduction
Part 2: The Frequently Asked Questions About DMing AD&D
Part 3: The Place, The People and The Plot
Part 4: Example Adventures and Miscellaneous Subjects
CONTENTS (local)
Storytelling Questions (How to tell a good story)
Advanced topics?! (Designing game worlds, adventures, spells..)
Fundamental Plots. (A look at the basic plot types)
The making of a society (How societies are formed)
The making of an NPC (Methods for recurring NPCs)
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STORYTELLING QUESTIONS
Q: What should be the format of an adventure?
A: Each adventure should have the Begin-Middle-End cycle. Sometimes you may
have several of these going on at once. It is best if only the beginning
and the end overlap, to keep things clear and fluid. Follow the format
of books:
- Introduction
- Call to Adventure, or Hook
- Successive Developments
- Apex, Moment of Greatest Tension
- Resolution
- Denouement, or Tying it All Together
Q: At what point should I end the game session?
A: It is best to end it at a point where the characters are in a "static"
position (if you are in the middle of a combat, then a lot of information
has to be carried over to the next session), for example, when the party
is camped. Sometimes cliffhangers work, but these should be done at a time
when no extra paperwork needs to be carried between sessions (i.e. before
the big fight, not during), at a point where characters will have time to
"get in character", and make sure all the players can turn up on time.
If you have to end a specific time, then make sure that the party will be
in a "static" position before that time, and end it there. This will avoid
"Oh, just a couple more minutes.." situations.
Q: What subject matters should I avoid?
A: Fundamentally, everyone should enjoy the game. If there is a subject
matter that some players find uncomfortable, then avoid it. If it does
not further the plot or improve the quality of the story then there is no
real point in using it. I personally feel that games should be about the
same morality level as a UK cinema certificate 15 (I don't know what that
is in the US).
Q: What can I do to improve the atmosphere of a game session?
A: There are many "devices" used to do this:
- Music, played quietly throughout or as an introduction to a certain
scenes.
- Pictures, Props and Scenery, can all provide an alternative to the
standard descriptive process.
- Descriptions, if you include feelings and mood in you descriptions
these can help a great deal.
Q: The characters are going on a long trip, what can I do to make it
interesting?
A: You must remember that you do not have to role-play everything, just as
books don't mention every detail ("as Conan flushed the toilet.."). This
means that if the journey is not an important part of the plot or will
simply "get in the way" it is sometimes just best to describe the trip
with a paragraph or two, e.g:
"The trip lasts fourteen long days, the weather maintaining a steady
and dreary downpour, making the whole journey miserable. The travelers
who crossed you path where similarly depressed and declined to talk.
Finally, with great pleasure you can see the walls of Kear-Thaleth in the
distance."
Usually however you may wish to role-play some of the events of the trip
but again, all of the "minor" events need not happen. Some of the events
may be part of the plot, some may be irrelevent but planned, and some may
be completely random (the DMG and the MCs provide charts for random
encounters). Make sure you know what the parties marching order is (this
can be important for ambushes), as well as who keeps watch, and when at
night (for any night time activity).
If you roll up the random encounters before the session it gives you a
chance to give you a little background on the situation, for example when
they bump into the orc party what are they actually doing and why (are
they cooking, walking, surprised, do they see the party before they see
them). A sample of events will often go something like this:
"For two days the journey has been fairly routine, the warm weather has
been constant and the travellers you have encountered have been friendly
but intent on completing their trip. On the third day, as you set off
after lunch, you [points at a player] notice some blood off to the side
of the trail."
Occasionally you might like to mention non-confrontational events that
occur during play such as a flock of geese flying over-head in formation.
Weather should also be mentioned, particularly if it is non-seasonal.
Sometimes you might like to get the party to come up with their own things
to pass the time, for example, they might want to go hunting deer.
Q: Are there any other methods to DMing, other than 1 DM and 1 player per PC?
A: Yes, there are several, these include:
Each player has a couple, or more characters. The advantage being with a
small group you can "make up the numbers". The disadvantage being that it
is very difficult to role-play two characters at once, and for the other
players to know which one is speaking.
Another method is to have more then one DM, this can allow one to be the
voice of the NPCs, and the other to do descriptions, and handle the
mechanics. This may cause problems when the DMs argue, however.
Yet another method is the rotating DM style, whereby each person DMs for
a period of weeks, then one of the players swaps places with him. This
can become very confusing, but it does give everyone the chance to
actually play.
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ADVANCED TOPICS?!
Q: How do I design a game world?
A: Imagination, Pencil, Paper, Time.
You have to decide on some fundamental aspects (local and global),
such as technology level, magic level, politics and Government, climate,
species, gods, and Darwin! (development of life), ecosystem, etc.
Once you have drawn a map, and put in a few towns, roads, rivers, ponds,
seas, forests, woods, cities, borders, countries, continents, races, cave
systems, volcanoes, mountains, hills, underground caverns, trade routes,
currencies, etc, you have to NAME them.
Each city or town will have a name, notable personalities, pubs, streets,
entertainment, history, income, army, militia, police?, rules (real and
pretend), guilds, thieves, water source, allies, enemies, language,
population, population breakdown, races, racial-allies, racial-enemies,
etc.
Putting you off? This is a lot of work, but remember only the places that
the PCs will be affected by need a lot of detail, but the more information
you have the better since it can potentially give you adventure ideas.
Also, try out http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html for info
on world building (I haven't checked this myself though).
Q: How do I go about designing an adventure?
A: Start with an idea, write down everything you think of. Remember a few
rules.
- Motive. The PC's must have an incentive to actually adventure. This
can be anything from simple greed, to something based on a characters
past (always have players write down their characters history).
Cause and effect. People don't always do stuff because they want to,
they do it because they have to. The king raises taxes, the people
can't afford to pay, thus is born Robin Hood. Victims of circumstance.
Civil unrest, civil peace, drought, good farming years, etc will all
effect people both directly and indirectly.
Chaos. People don't always do things because they have to, they do it
for "the sheer hell of it". Random events can and do happen, but are
usually put in as red-herrings to the main plot.
- Encounters. What and who are they going to meet. Why are those people
there, how do they eat, who do they work for. Don't just use the
wandering monster chart because that does not explain why creatures are
there. If you have time make your own for each area, for a random
encounter. Better still, cheat, plan everything! It's always better as
a player to know there is a reason for a monster to be where it is.
- Rewards. What sort of character rewards are there? Land, money, magic,
training, etc.
Q: What makes a good adventure?
A: PLOT, Surprise, Mystery, Romance, Puzzles, Magic, Horror, Suspense, and
characters with personalities.
Q: What makes a good campaign?
A: A good plot-line, and series of sub plots. They don't have to be obvious
to the players, but they should exist.
Make sure that events not involving the PC's take place. A war might end,
two nations might join, a river might flood, armies might be gathering,
etc.
Q: My players want to design spells / I want to design spells, what do I do?
A: Write down the effects of the spell, the damage, area of effect etc.
Usually the casting time is equal to the level, but there are exceptions.
Compare the spell to existing ones and you assign a level, if you are not
sure err in the side of making it more difficult (It not being a `common'
spell means it is less practised, unusual, etc). Choose which sphere or
school with regard to other spells. Don't allow spells which do exactly
the same thing, at exactly the same level as a spell of a different sphere
or school, because this defeats the object of the whole thing.
In the case of a priest spell, the character will simply pray for it (in
most cases everyone who worships that deity will have access to the spell,
sometimes everyone who can cast that sphere). The deity may, or may not
allow for it, or may require special worship etc before the priest may
use the spell. To show greater commitment the deity might have the prayer
put into an exact wording, may require fasting, a special task, etc. The
prayer may even have limited access within the same preisthood, causing
possible political and personal tensions.
In the case of a wizard spell, the wizard must research the spell in a
laboratory for a decent length of time. Further details are in the
complete wizards handbook.
Q: I want to invent a new creature, how do I do it?
A: Before you get down the game statistics you have to ask the following
questions: what does it look like, what does it eat, how long does it
sleep, how does it breed, is it docile or violent, when, how was it
evolved, what noises does it make, where does it live, what climate does
it like, racial variants, etc. Not all of these are necessary, but do help
to flesh out the creature.
Now look at it's game statistics, first compare it to natural creatures
like horses and lions. Then find a creature that it most resembles (if
there is one) and look at the game statistics for that. Compare any
natural weaponry it may have with real weapons (e.g. are its claws the
size of a dagger, or are they like a club?). Compare supernatural
attacks with similar creatures, likewise with supernatural defences.
Once you have the creature designed, ask a few questions: how would this
creature effect local wildlife, what other creatures would hunt it, what
creatures are scared of it, how does this creature effect the local and
global ecosystems, and even what does it taste like!
Try attacking it with varying levels of NPC's (if you have the PC's
character sheets even better). Try intelligent attacks and random attacks.
In addition, try attacking this creature with other monsters varying from
a chicken, a lion, a wraith, a basalisk, a giant, a werewolf, an owlbear,
and a great wyrm. With each creature ask yourself which you would want to
win and why, and adjust your creature accordingly. If you know someone
who role-plays, but is not in your group, try and playtest it with him.
Try it with the characters anyway, gradually fine tuning it. Put down any
differences to racial variance and sub-species.
Q: I want to invent a new race, how do I do it?
A: Again, before you start with game stats, you must come up with their
ecology, asking many of the same questions as above as well as: Is there
a racial stereotype, how often is this deviated from, their psychology,
their philosophy, their technology level, their ethos, their religion,
their rituals and traditions, how do they relate to each other and other
creatures or races, where do the live. With all of these question you also
have to ask why.
Then you have to design a `typical creature' as for humans, elves, giants
in the DMG (i.e. a creature of no level). Like with a new creature, you
should compare this creature to others, and see what role it fills in the
echo system (could the take over the world, would the be wiped out, etc).
Then see what `classes' the race can be, there is a guide chart in the
DMG (and also in the monstrous compendium). This may depend on whether the
race is humanoid or not. Is it a PC race or NPC only? How common are
characters which have a character class?
Q: I want to invent a new magic item, how do I do it?
A: Like everything else the item should have a history to allow it to `really
exist', the players need never know this but it helps give even an item a
`personality': Who made it? Why did they make it? Did anything go wrong?
Who was it for? Is it unique or was it copied?
Do you want to make the item a bauble, minor-magic, major-magic or an
artifact? Again compare it with other items. Then assign the game
mechanics to it.
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FUNDAMENTAL PLOTS
Adventures occur mainly because of conflict, here is a list of the most
common of these:
- Man vs. man
- Man vs. himself
- Man vs. god
- Man vs. religion
- Man vs. magic
- Man vs. technology
- Man vs. nature
- Law vs. chaos
- Good vs. evil
- Sanity vs. madness
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THE MAKING OF A SOCIETY
In the role-playing enviroment some of the more subtle points about the world
can be left unexplained (i.e. you don't really need to catalogue _every_
species of flaura and fauna into geographic sub-regions), however the
characters are human beings in a human society and that has a real effect of
human to human interaction.
Aspects of the society that are important are:
- The ruling bodies, and the method by which they rule. Is the position
inherited or gained by vote of the populace or sub-group of the people?
- Are all people equal? Are there nobles? Is each gender equal? Are there
slaves? Do all people have rights?
- What are the laws and the penalties for crimes? How common are crimes?
- Is the populous taxed? By money or by service? Does money even exist?
- Sometimes the society may be in a state of transition from one method
to the other.
In a fantasy RPG game world there are potentially three conflicting groups
who will influence the populous: theocracy vs. technocracy vs. thaumocracy
(religion vs. science vs. magic).
Each of these groups may have views on how the world and the universe exists,
e.g. the world flat and the sun revolves around it. They will all have a
differing amount of control over the people, whether it is by force (i.e. the
inquisition) or by psychology. They will all have areas of learning and
practice for the various beliefs. Do the groups occasionally agree, or even
gang up on one of the others? It is often one of these groups who _really_
run the country via heavy influence that a king or emperor cannot have,
however sometimes a particularly strong ruler can use this the other way.
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THE MAKING OF AN NPC
The recurring Bad Guy is used throughout many books and films. Some say it
is a cheap plot method, that may be so, but it works! Would star-wars be the
same without Darth-Vader?
Like the essence of a plot, the essence of a good NPC is a conflict with the
players. This is primarily for conflict of goals (opposing side) or simply
for pride (revenge for previous slights or feeling threatened by their
presence).
The NPC should be a match for the PCs but this needn't be through direct
power, other examples are:
- Friends, The NPC simply knows a lot of people who would rather help him.
- Loyalty, someone owes him a favour.
- Political, the NPC holds political power in some community.
- Legal, the NPC has the backing of the law.
- Money, the NPC just has so much cash he can _buy_ his companions.
- Royalty, the NPC is a noble, lord, knight, and uses words like "treason".
- Magic, if not through himself he has some magical power or item.
- Religious, he has the backing of the church.
- Demonic, he is a witch and relies on imps to do his work.
- Guild, he has the backing of Ye-Stone-Masons guild.
- Fey, he has friends among the little people of the forest.
- Military, he has a greater position in the military than the players.
The "Playing" NPC, is a commonly used method by DMs, whereby they have an
NPC who is one of the party. This is usually done so that the DM can play as
well as DM, or sometimes to help fill a gap in the party (e.g. they don't
have a cleric). More often then not the DM will find they are slightly biased
towards their "special" NPC, then to other NPCs and this can cause problems.
If the DM is playing the NPC so that he can "join in" there are several
points that he should be aware of that will effect the style of play. If the
NPC just hangs around the party and doesn't make any "command" or "normal"
decisions, then he is not being played as a proper character. If he must be
with the party, then he should be role-played like any other character, he
should argue, he should make points, and he should have no special "rights".
There is no real reason that the DM should play a character to fill out the
numbers. Parties which do not have all the classes, or parties which have
to go against extra-ordinary odds are often the most interesting. If the
party doesn't have a cleric, let them find the occasional healing potion, if
they don't have a wizard, let them find the occasional scroll/potion/wand.
If they are under-staffed then you have more opportunity to pit them against
the "lesser" and perhaps more interesting monsters.
Most importantly, just because it is your NPC doesn't give you the right to
cheat. Certain items suddenly appearing in the backpack because you forgot,
gaining a new magic item that you suddenly thought of. If this is YOUR
player character, then you must apply the rules relevent to all player
characters, or else this is severely unfair on the players.
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w `o' [l--i--r] at [infernal.demon.co.uk] (The Dark Abyss)
|--O-' Give a doller to charity, you know it makes sense.
| / \____^ A hundred to be exact.. :)
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