Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I played a game of DnD 3.5 today with two of my friends. First time playing it with them, and I thought it was gonna be pretty fun. In the beginning it was rather epic, as none of my stats were rolled below 11, and the GM allowed me to tie a punching dagger on the front of my crossbow. Pretty sweet stuff. Then it went downhill for the next few hours.

"The town has been attacked by ten kobolds!"

"Your boat has been attacked by five orcs!"

"You knock on the door of the fortress, and get attacked by five kobolds!"

"Oh no! Fighting the kobolds summoned an ogre shaman!"

"After killing the shaman, you are transported to the Earth Realm, where you are attacked by a demon with a mind-flaying sword!"


I SWEAR TO SWEET BABY JESUS. Dying every other fight wasn't exactly fun, and the GM kept ressurecting us in further and further improbable Deus Ex Machina ways. There wasn't any room for Role Playing: It turned into a tabletop wargame, what with a new fight every five minutes. We ACTUALLY spent more time in combat than not, and eventually the storyline stopped making sense. My teammate was way OP (as for some reason he was an Earthbender from Avatar), the GM kept trying to one-up him with ridiculous stuff, and I was left going "...this is silly." Here's the thing: In about two weeks, I'm gonna be GMing a game of Dark Heresy for my birthday, so in an attempt to avoid any ridiculousness, I have two questions for all of you!

1. Have you ever experienced any simply ridiculous, un-fun circumstances brought on by the GM?

2. If you were the GM, what would you do to ensure your players had a fun experience? Any tips for me as a GM?

Well, if you want your players to have fun ask them what they want to do in your game, or what would be enjoyible for them in the game.

Good luck, Gming is hard.

Always make it challenging, but never impossible. Also never put in too many good items, its not fun if players all have uber stuff. And if someone rolls something overpowered on a random chart, always be willing to tone it down if it would make someone overpowered.

I've been in the middle of so many GM-nightmares,it isn't even funny. The worst,though,was a game of D&D 2nd ed where my Ranger got killed 12 times in the course of a single session.

However,some tips are...

1.Make sure that the encounters are balanced. I know it sounds easy,but it can be very difficult to achieve. Ideally,most encounters should be set up to where the PC's should win,but there should be a sense that if they didn't play smart or get a few good die rolls,they'd lose. It's tough to balance in between being a killer GM and making sure the PC's are pushed. That's not to say there shouldn't be a few encounters with lesser foes thrown in from time to time,but the PC's certainly should not just be allowed to walk over everything.

2.Along the lines of the encounters being balanced is making sure that the PC's are somewhat balanced,too. There's few things more difficult to deal with than a group of relatively mundane characters with 1-2 munchkined out cheese monkeys. If you try to make the encounters tougher to deal with the overpowered characters,then the other PC's get overwhelmed. If you keep them at the power level of the more mundane PC's,then the OP characters just kill everything.

3.Avoid the dreaded GMPC. Nothing po's a gaming group faster than the GM attaching an NPC to the group that is,in effect,the Game Master's Player Character(GMPC),particularly when the GMPC gets access to equipment the PC's can't get and/or seemingly gets other preferrential treatment. It's ok to have recurring NPC's that pop in from time to time,and the PC's should obviously have a sense that they are not the most powerful beings in the game world,but the PC's should be squarely in the spotlight,most,if not all,all of the time.

4.The PC's have to be able to have free will. Many GM's make the mistake of creating an epic storyline that the game will be based entirely around,then the game detonates when the players don't want to travel along the designated path the GM has laid out for them. It's good to have an idea of what your "end game" will be,but don't get too far ahead of yourself when it comes to laying out the path to get there. Some of my best ideas for game sessions have been sparked by things that the PC's did the previous game session. The players appreciate things like this,too,as it shows them that the choices they make and the things they do actually do affect the storyline.

5.Keeping tabs on player morale is important. You should periodically check with them to see if there are any changes they want to the game and get feedback. The single most important part of your players having fun is that they have to like their characters. It makes little difference how great the plotline is if a PC doesn't enjoy playing their character. Every PC should feel important to group,and the GM should work in plot devices to make sure every PC gets their chance to shine front and center.

Thanks for the advice! But, about the GMPC thing...

I was actually thinking of doing that almost as a plot device sorta thing. For the first thirty minutes or so, saddling the players up with their Inquisitor, making sure they don't do anything stupid, ect... and when I think they have a good grasp, killing off the Inquisitor with a surprise attack by a Chaos Marine, to see how they react. Planning on having an environmental way to kill it, but I'm hoping the players either do something smart, or run away very fast, since it just KILLED THEIR INQUISITOR. Even if they decide to fight, I'm not gonna have it just blow them out of the water, but there's definitely going to be some injuries, and annoyed glares from the GM.

Guardsmanius wrote:Thanks for the advice! But, about the GMPC thing...

I was actually thinking of doing that almost as a plot device sorta thing. For the first thirty minutes or so, saddling the players up with their Inquisitor, making sure they don't do anything stupid, ect... and when I think they have a good grasp, killing off the Inquisitor with a surprise attack by a Chaos Marine, to see how they react. Planning on having an environmental way to kill it, but I'm hoping the players either do something smart, or run away very fast, since it just KILLED THEIR INQUISITOR. Even if they decide to fight, I'm not gonna have it just blow them out of the water, but there's definitely going to be some injuries, and annoyed glares from the GM.

Since you're planning on killing the NPC in front of the party,and doing it early in the game session,your idea doesn't really fall into what I would consider a "GMPC." Generally,a GMPC is an NPC that is constantly with the party over a long period of time,effectively becoming a PC being run by the GM. There will be times where you will want/need to have an NPC tagging along with the group,which is fine,but you should avoid having NPC's joined at the hip to the party over months of game play.

When my group first started RPG'ing, for the first few sessions our DM had a character just a couple of levels ahead of our own (he was level 3 when we were level 1, then he just shared XP and advanced like everyone else). It was a good way to both ease players into the setting/game as well as ensure that the players could handle the encounters that were set if they got overwhelmed. The GMPC can always make sub-optimal targeting choices if the players are doing well.

And my advice is that if they players "break the game" (ie they roll those 3 20's they need to do whatever challenge they were supposed to fail, have fun with it ). Our group managed to capture someone who was meant to escape by rolling a series of lucky dice and so scuppered a whole story arch of chasing this guy around, fighting monsters, finding clues, etc. Always have at least a vague backup plan for when that happens

Got it. Keep alternate paths in mind... I think I can do that. I'm beginning to get a generalized idea of a rather nebulous objective, but I can refine it. I still got two weeks. I think it's basically going to be "This guy leads these cultists. Kill this guy". I'll leave the how to the players.

Will you have time to let the players try to track down the cult as well, or will you essentially just give them the location and let them storm the place?

Easiest thing you can do to allow your players to have a great game, is to let them do what they want. Dont fight them, that just makes things restrictive.

Just remember who is in control when dealing with overpowered or troublesome characters / players. The GM giveth, and can taketh away.
Too much combat is not fun for anyone except the player who is also a wargamer.
Try to make sure that each player has the spotlight several times per session.
Ressurection should be unheard of for lower level characters. A death or two can keep them interested and challenged.