DMing: real and theoretical problems in my case.

[LordEntrails]

alright I'll keep these things in mind. The cartographer occurred to me. Would this be a combined DMNPC?

Nope, not a role playing character, but a real person who is mapping things out. Traditionally it's one of the players who makes a map based upon the description provided by the DM. But if the DM has an assistant, then that person can see the real map and make the player facing map without giving away any secrets.

[Yehudah]

Nope, not a role playing character, but a real person who is mapping things out. Traditionally it's one of the players who makes a map based upon the description provided by the DM. But if the DM has an assistant, then that person can see the real map and make the player facing map without giving away any secrets.

I'll keep that in mind. LordEntrails, I cannot respond to your private message because it says your inbox is full.

[LordEntrails]

I'll keep that in mind. LordEntrails, I cannot respond to your private message because it says your inbox is full.

Inbox cleanup up. You should be able to PM me now

[Yehudah]

Inbox cleanup up. You should be able to PM me now

Sent. thanks.

[GavinRuneblade]

Alright so I've resigned myself that it's going to have to be the DM in my circle of friends.
This has multiple problems for me. Or at least I think it will. I would like to have my own character in the party, but that seems like a conflict of interest, and I probably cannot have one because of it. Now honestly, I DON’T want the party to fail. Just the opposite. So, a positive bias could also be a problem. I may have to do multiple smallish campaigns to truly figure everything out.
I have another friend who may be helping me as a co-DM. He’s trained in narrative.
Are there any tricks to help myself remain objective?

The thing with DM controlled PCs is that if you think of it as a PC it is a problem. If you run NPCs that travel with the party for a while for their own purposes and may or may not be actually loyal to the group... that is something different. The way to keep it objective is to not have it be set up for progress and power gain, levelling, etc. It is an NPC and it has story-related goals that it is seeking to achieve and those are its rewards, not levels.

I personally also never let an NPC solve problems for the party or make decisions for the party. They provide advice and answer questions but they aren't someone the PCs can trust the way they trust each other and know they are part of a joint social compact to work as a team for the sake of the game. When their goals are complete or cannot be complete, then they leave. My players know that they can round up a posse of local militia to help with some enemies, like bandits, but not others, like a dragon or vampire. They might be able to convince that retired adventurer who gave them advice to come with them for one last adventure. Or they might make an alliance with one of two rival factions that includes having a traveling companion for a while. But they never make the mistake of thinking that NPC is "one of us". And they know that I play all my NPCs true to the story, without giving them special treatment because "this one is mine personally".

My record for having a single NPC travel with a party is about 15-ish sessions out of a 200+session campaign. A dragon bit off his body leaving just the head for the party to find or he might have made it to 20.

Is it considered bad form to narrate dungeons, rather than having physical maps? I ask because it might make it a little easier to prepare, as I’m going to have to design a lot of dungeons otherwise. Something I’ve done a little experimenting with but definitely I don’t know much in the way of design rules. I also have poor visual-spatial reasoning. It’s kind of like a murky darkness up there.

Many game systems are designed to work without maps. But there is a long tradition of DMs with crappy maps. Dave Arneson, who invented D&D with Gygax, famously used butcher paper and markers and drew the maps by hand as they played. I started with pads of paper and eventually upgraded to graph paper so I could draw actual squares.

Instead of miniatures there's a whole ton of "standees" which are paper that you print, cut out, and fold then glue or tape so they stand up and they have monster or character pictures on the front and back. Some of them look amazing. Some are just pictures on paper. Some are done using 3d imaging but at varying levels of skill. But the price is basically whatever your local kinkos charges for 1 page of a color photocopy.

If you want to go full on narrative, check out the advice and blogs and articles and videos for games like Dungeon World or 13th Age. Those are built without maps or measurements. Distances are concepts like in melee range, nearby, and far like mattkure explained earlier in this thread. Powers/spells/actions have rules for how many people they can effect, typically stuff like if you play it safe you can target 2 but going for a third ends up catching an ally as collateral damage.

For starting DMs, my favorite sources of advice are:
Matt Colville
Cody at Taking20
Sly Flourish
The AngryGM

And specifically to help with running combat: The Monsters Know What They're Doing

If you look on the DM's Guild, there's a ton of great stuff for free or "pay what you want". Maps, adventures, DM guides, etc.

[Yehudah]

The thing with DM controlled PCs is that if you think of it as a PC it is a problem. If you run NPCs that travel with the party for a while for their own purposes and may or may not be actually loyal to the group... that is something different. The way to keep it objective is to not have it be set up for progress and power gain, levelling, etc. It is an NPC and it has story-related goals that it is seeking to achieve and those are its rewards, not levels.

I personally also never let an NPC solve problems for the party or make decisions for the party. They provide advice and answer questions but they aren't someone the PCs can trust the way they trust each other and know they are part of a joint social compact to work as a team for the sake of the game. When their goals are complete or cannot be complete, then they leave. My players know that they can round up a posse of local militia to help with some enemies, like bandits, but not others, like a dragon or vampire. They might be able to convince that retired adventurer who gave them advice to come with them for one last adventure. Or they might make an alliance with one of two rival factions that includes having a traveling companion for a while. But they never make the mistake of thinking that NPC is "one of us". And they know that I play all my NPCs true to the story, without giving them special treatment because "this one is mine personally".

My record for having a single NPC travel with a party is about 15-ish sessions out of a 200+session campaign. A dragon bit off his body leaving just the head for the party to find or he might have made it to 20.


Many game systems are designed to work without maps. But there is a long tradition of DMs with crappy maps. Dave Arneson, who invented D&D with Gygax, famously used butcher paper and markers and drew the maps by hand as they played. I started with pads of paper and eventually upgraded to graph paper so I could draw actual squares.

Instead of miniatures there's a whole ton of "standees" which are paper that you print, cut out, and fold then glue or tape so they stand up and they have monster or character pictures on the front and back. Some of them look amazing. Some are just pictures on paper. Some are done using 3d imaging but at varying levels of skill. But the price is basically whatever your local kinkos charges for 1 page of a color photocopy.

If you want to go full on narrative, check out the advice and blogs and articles and videos for games like Dungeon World or 13th Age. Those are built without maps or measurements. Distances are concepts like in melee range, nearby, and far like mattkure explained earlier in this thread. Powers/spells/actions have rules for how many people they can effect, typically stuff like if you play it safe you can target 2 but going for a third ends up catching an ally as collateral damage.

For starting DMs, my favorite sources of advice are:
Matt Colville
Cody at Taking20
Sly Flourish
The AngryGM

And specifically to help with running combat: The Monsters Know What They're Doing

If you look on the DM's Guild, there's a ton of great stuff for free or "pay what you want". Maps, adventures, DM guides, etc.

thanks! i'm bookmarking all of this.

[TheoGeek]

I'm a friendly DM. I want the players to have fun, and sometimes having fun is a super dangerous encounter, and sometimes having fun is "YES!!! I HIT THE GUY'S EYE WITH AN ARROW THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE DOOR!"

You'll screw up, but you will learn. Ask for grace, and if they are having fun, they won't care.

[Aramis Dante]

I love theatre of the mind games. You really don't need a map very often anyways if you remember these five things. What, when, where, how and who. Make those descriptions for each setting you plan on having an encounter in and your job is 90% done, Use a Theasarus and dictionary, my best friends. The other 10% is just acting, which you would do anyways as a player. Also, if you have trouble imagining distance, particulairly in a dungeon. Two things, buy a tape measure and measure out a hallway, a room, or whatever. To get an idea of the area you will be playing in. Second if you can get permission to walk through a house under construction, NO TRESSPASSING, that wil give you a god's eye view of actual distances. As a last resort you dont have to map out an entire dungeon just the rooms that you will have encounters in most will probably be standard 10x10 or so rooms anyways. But the Five things I mentioned above are crucial in giving the illusion that each room is unique and different.

Example 1. [10x10] You enter a room that is covered in soot, the room extends two average body (human) lengths in either direction. At the far side is what appears to be a passageway, smoke pours from it, giving the room a sulphuric smell. You can tell from the burned surfaces of the table to your immediate left that whatever transpired, happened recently. The table is still warm to the touch. To your right is what is left of a bookcase, and the floor had what was once a beautiful rug, now charred and worthless. This appears to have been a study in better times. To confirm your suspicions, a charred writing desks stands on the other side of the table you recently touched.

Example 2. [10x10] As you draw closer to this room, the heat becomes almost unbearable, you can see flames ascending from the center of the room, as you get closer, the sweat pouring from every open pore of your body, you see that the room is a giant pit. The source of the fire is unclear for just glancing at the flames burns your eyes with glistening tears. You notice that there is about an armlength of flooring surrounding the room. The floor is hard surfaced because no wood flooring would stand to the heat of this fiery pit. The flames lap up to a vent of some sort, it appears to be of some kind of metal. On the other side of the room is another passage way. The question now is can you make it to the other side or not.

Both examples are a theatre of the mind and both use 10x10 rooms. If you had to draw a square for each one with a pit and one without. Your done. Monsters are up to you. Remember to use a tape measure if in doubt