The Dm's Helpful Guide

[Cpt Micha]

Welcome to the sequel article of the Helpful Guide Series.

Abit late yes, but here it is. As I see it there are alot of lost soul Dms out there. Whether they became Dms suddenly and recently because their group just got into gaming, or because their old Dm left. Or still because they just want to give their Dm a break.

Or that they are seasoned veterans of both sides of the table and have simply become too set in their ways the old ways, this article series is meant for all of you.

And it is also meant for those of you who are thinking about becoming dms too. Hopefully this series will be as successful as the last in helping people, or just stopping to make them think about the way they did things like the last one was.

On our first week we shall discuss, the most basic premise behind being a good Dungeon/Destiny/Game Master. Playing with the Players.

Now, I know some of you right this very moment looking snidely down your nose at the computer screen. Stop it if someone slaps you on the back you'll be stuck with that expression for the rest of your life. And it's really hard to be sociable looking snidely isn't it?

Some of you might be laughing "I already do that" being your response. Do you now? Really? Think about it as we go on with this article oh wise fellow group "leader".

First we will discuss what this means. Playing with the Players.
Some of you are no doubt thinking of the last time you cruelly tricked and slain your party. stop that You are doing it wrong.

Yes, there is a WRONG way to Dm. Contrary to what some of you are probably thinking right now. That is not the sort of Playing With Your Players I mean here. What I mean is this, stop treating the game as an adversarial contest. This is a game meant to be enjoyed by everyone, and played by everyone at the table even the guy "running the show". If your spending all of your time in "versus mode" and not enough time playing -with- your players you've gone astray from what it means to be a Dm.

The point of the game is not to kill the party. That's bloody easy to do. Regardless of whatever rules, or powergaming your Pcs are capable of, it's easy to kill them off. The point of the game is to tell a story, and not necessarily YOUR story. So stop punishing them for diverging from it. The story is created by -everyone- at the table and the game is as only as fun as it's least enjoyable moments. Let's be clear there, what does that mean?

Oh sure your Pcs might sit around and crack jokes about how their Holy Swordsmen party mate kicked the bucket 7 times in just as many minutes, but really that's not a fun experience. Infact more often than not if you are that kind of Dm, your campaign will probably be pointed out as bad examples and of what NOT to do, with other players and gamers. People don't enjoy getting TPKed because the dm needed to get his "Kill the pcs jollies". If the point of the campaign is to kill the pcs, you should tell them upfront that they will die, it's just a matter of time. If Pcs die off in mass numbers they want it to be meaningful, not just to you but for the whole of the group.

At this point some of you are like "wha?" others are looking snide again Stop it, or I'll get your mother to slap your back The most fun you are probably going to have as a Dm, don't come from the moments where you get your sadistic murderous fantasies out of the way.

Don't pick "favorites" at your table either. I'm serious... there might be some people you like less than others, these people don't (always) deserve death. Just a talking to at a later preferrably non public date.

It's not your job to make the PLAYERS life miserable. Even in a knock down drag out slash fest where the whole point is to see just how long the Pcs live.

Playing with the Players also includes Saying Yes. Rather than "No" every time. Now, the dmg does cover Saying Yes, but let's elaborate for a moment on what that means. What it means, is that almost anything -should- be possible with a character. If he asks if he can swing from the chandelier and land infront of the bad guy with his weapon drawn then say yes.. and give him the means to do so.

You should always consider your players, and the kind of campaign you and they would like to be participants in. You are all co conspirators playing the great thing known as Role Playing Games, not adversaries.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, think about how you play. Is it with or against the players?

There are a ton of Dm styles, that fit a wide variety of campaigns. We will try to cover these in the future. We'll also discuss the merits and pitfalls of each as well as the player archetypes and what they -really mean-.

[Cpt Micha]

We shall start with the most basic, of basic building blocks for a campaign.

No, it's not world building. It's even more basic than that. And that comes much later. "I don't need this!" Stop that. Don't spoil it for everyone that doesn't know what this basic thing is.

This is something every DM needs in order to have a successful session. Players.

There are many breeds of players and many hybrids of those breeds we'll start with the one that generally causes "True Rpers" the most grief and obnoxiousness, we will then move on to the ones that also cause problems at the table typically speaking. We shall start with the bad apples and go up from there.

The Munchkin Loser. No, I don't mean a Power Gamer, or Slayer. No, this guy takes it to a whole new level. One above and beyond the call of problem. Rather than you know, having a life this guy sits down and faps to his rule books every night (figuratively or literally, does it really matter?). Sometimes The Munchkin Loser doesn't even actually know the rules As Intended. The Munchkin Loser is most often also a Rules Lawyer but not always.

He's the kind of guy that thinks this www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_(DnD_Optimized_Character_Build) Is an actual legit character. Do not give this guy one inch because he will take far more than a mile. This guy shouldn't be allowed at game tables quite frankly because he she or it doesn't understand the point of the game in the first place.

The one upside to The Munchkin Loser, is he helps guarantee the coming of better created Rule Sets and New Editions due to "his" eagerness to exploit the system at the expense of everyone else's enjoyment.

Many gaming groups dissolve with this guy's presence. Tell it that it's powergaming stupidity will not be tolerated or eject it from the game table if it does not comply. Sometimes the alternate solution is killing his character with something far more cheesed than it could ever hoped to contemplate. Use the Internet to your advantage here.

The next and probably the second worst Player is the
Rules Lawyer This guy, knows everything and anything about the Rules or thinks it does. Rules Lawyers will stop and break down the game just to be right when he "Spots the Dm as being wrong". Even if it's a rule that everyone else at the table is looking at him like he's on crack with his or her interpretation. This guy never stops. Rules Lawyers to a lesser extent can be useful, if they show some form of discretion, as their extensive knowledge of the rules (the ones with discretion are often the ones that actually know the rules, and the intent) can be useful. A discretionary rules Lawyer can be a valued resource. Unlike The Munchkin Loser.

The Attention Whore This guy... likes to pretend that he's roleplaying. But really he's not. He's doing any and everything to make sure the spotlight rests upon him. From "I walk into the bar and do the nearest barmaid infront of everyone" to "I go craft swords! How well do I do?!!!" to "Hey guys I'm back.. (insert metagamed picking up of interrupted npc pc interaction here)" Like I said, this guy stops at nothing and I do mean nothing. Usually talking to an Attention Whore solves many of his problems, but in the case that it doesn't the game quickly degenerates into either an all too happy TPK, or Friendly Fire Incident. Or the campaign just ends because no one really wants to sit there for two hours watching this idiot prattle on.

The New To The Group Other Dm This one I had personal experience in dealing with. This guy never ceases to shut up about his campaigns. Maybe he feels the need to impress the others, or maybe he just can't relinquish control. But this guy really needs to give it a rest. He'll constantly say things like "Well if you guys want a real challenge, you should play my campaigns!". Even if the "perfect traps" he comes up with quite frankly are so easy to get out of or circumvent you have to wonder why he even put them in the game to start with.

This guy while being a player, also demonstrates usually the tactical ability of bread mold, which also lends you to wonder about his "Dm Credibility". If he'd just shut up, sit down and learn how to play with the rest of the group -who brought him in- and not -the other way around-. Maybe just maybe the game could become enjoyable. I'd say talking with this guy would make life better for everyone, but some times this guy just won't catch the hints. This guy couldn't pass an Insight check to save his life. He's no fun for anyone else at the table, eject him too if you feel talking with him would be worthless.

The Insert Race Fan This guy never stops prattling on about how awesome X race is. Sometimes this is combined with any of the above which makes it all the worse. Usually this guy is fairly reasonable, and you can get him to stop. Unless this person has zero self control. In which case game sparingly with him.

Now as far as the "good player" types, the Dmg actually covers these guys sufficiently enough that I will not discuss them in length aside from the important note that, not every player fits in to those molds perfectly many are abit of everything, or combination of one two or three of those archetypes.

Now that you know what the Players are, how do you get them? It's easy! Do you have friends that are willing to try new and exciting things? If so ask them to play D&D with you! What is the worst they can say? No? Okay, then find someone else! Appeal to their inner freak, find out what they are geeky about (be it Trek, Star Wars, Anime, Football, Cars, Movies, Books, videogames etc). Say "It's like X except you are the character!" Or, "You know that scene in X? You could do just that sort of thing in (Insert Rpg here)"

Pro Tip, Also mention other possible activities that might be done later on. Usually let this other thing be something that you both enjoy (you are friends after all). They will begin to gradually associate your Rpg with the other fun things in their life. Free Food and Beer tends to help too I've found.

What about total strangers you ask? Here's how I do it. Go down to the Friendly Local Game Store/hobby shop and Lurk. See what they are interested in, employ similar tactics after making small talk and figuring out what they like. Ask them if they'd be interested in playing a session or two.

Yes, Gamers are social creatures! No the two are not anathema to one another! *Gasp shock * You can manage being social yes? If you can do that, you can recruit new stranger gamers. PS you filthy gamer, don't forget to bathe first

Without players, you don't have a campaign or session. And honestly, it's more fun to play with other people, than it is to play by yourself isn't it? (and you definitely would get far less strange looks from those you associate with) so get your pasty butt out there, meet people and drum up a campaign!

[Cpt Micha]

Hello friends. It's been a while hasn't it?

This week we shall discuss another key element to the game.

No not world building. Still more basic than that even. Stop trying to jump ahead.

This article is about Campaign Themes, Styles and some helpful pointers to help convey the appropriate feel for these at the game table.

Atmosphere, in the game sense of the word is a very key factor in setting the style and feel of a campaign, even more so than the world itself that your players participate in.

For example, it is very hard to create the proper atmosphere for a horror campaign when everything is sun shine, happy song birds and rainbows. You're going to have a very hard time making your players feel tense, and just a little paranoid. (though using such a scenery change among the typical, dark dank raining and thundering outdoor and caves could set them off kilter!)

When creating a horror campaign you need to make sure the atmosphere or their surroundings are fitting to what is going on. You need them to be dreading what's behind that next dark corridor. But you also need to avoid over doing it because the thrill of surprise gets old after a while.

It's also very hard to convey a Swashbuckling high seas campaign without ships, pirates, and the like ! Remember keep your atmosphere fitting for your Campaign Theme or Style.

Here's some tips for picking a Campaign Theme to run.

Know your player's wants It's hard to be enthused about a Campaign you don't want to really do (either because you hate the Theme or don't feel the mood for that theme). Ask them questions about what kinds of campaigns are they going to like taking part in.

Try to have multiple Themes in Mind before starting a new campaign This sort of ties back in to the first one, in that you make up a few Themes you want to try (or have your players do it for you) and you have either them pick one. Or you pick out one of the Themes they suggested for you to run. This leads for a compromise position (since not everyone always gets what they want)

Campaign Themes

Campaign Themes come in a wide variety of styles. The Dmg Calls these the Subgenres.

Horror Horror, is a fairly iconic sub genre of D&D, this goes back before the days of the Ravenloft module I'm sure though it's the one I think most strongly about. A good tip for pulling off Horror, is of course building the sense of dread and paranoia within your players.

Fun little variants such as Taint and Insanity (if you want to see em, I've got notes on these in the Argoth section of this board) can really help play up the drama, as the players feel their characters become more tainted from the darkness they face and less and less sane.

Another fun trick is choosing monsters which fit this theme. Undead particularly zombies, vampires, and mummies are very strong traditional Horror monsters. A bit newer school (To D&D) or rather less movie school is the Lovecraft influenced Abominations and Aberrations.

Horror Fantasy, remember tends to be very dark and gritty with the distinct feeling that even if you win, you'll probably still die. What makes Horror so great is that it leaves your players in awe of the events that unfold involving them (or rather terror filled awe if done correctly).

Sub sections of Horror Fantasy is Gore And Blood. This kind of fantasy takes more after modern Horror and Drama films. People die bloody gruesome deaths (Ala Saw style traps). Pulling this style off, rewards the puzzle gamers in the group as well as the Slayers, and Roleplayers as they think of clever ways to defeat the traps which invariably maim or kill them.

Tier Best Suited. Heroic.


Intrigue Or as some people call them Political Campaigns really aren't my cup of tea per say. There's alot you can do here though to make a good campaign with this theme. Intrigue campaigns your lovely Combat Prowess pretty much takes the back seat. It and the non combat encounters of a "typical D&D game" swap places. Instead of the Non Combat being part of the Highlight Reel, it's the front and center of the campaign. Combat is used to culminate and accentuate parts of the story in explosive climaxes after sometimes up to months of building up the drama.

Tips for this. Combat becomes used sparingly.
Include more dialogue with your non combat encounters, do your best to make these facets of the game engaging and intriguiging. Actually socialize with those skill rolls for Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Insight. Bribery, treachery and shifting alliances are the common theme in Intrigue. Maximize this.

Pull back on the access to Divination Magic.

Tier of play Any

Mystery Mystery is another more combat light fantasy sub genre or campaign theme you can run for your lucky players.

The first thing to remember about Mystery is that gathering information is very critical, so like Intrigue up your quality of dialogue. Make it worth the Pc's while to actually engage in it. Keep the story moving and don't get tangled in the minutiae.

Pull back on access to Divination Magic. And abolish alignment.

Another converse tip you can do for the Mystery subset known as CSI, is leave Divination in, infact increase the amount of it. Make use of said magic like a Skill Challenge in it's own right, to gather the evidence or rather decipher it and it's meaning.

Tier of play Any

Swashbuckling I'll make no bones about Swashbuckling, as a Dm and a Player alike I get giddy like a school girl with the idea of Swashbuckling. I love this Theme. I really love it.

Swashbuckling, is the High Seas Fantasy Adventure typically (or Sky Pirating too....). Characters do over the top zany stuff, usually involving light blades, and lighter armor and some form of fire arm, along with some form of ship, ballroom, etc. Swashbuckling is not as gritty as normal fantasy, by any means typically. Characters as the Dmg says typically spend more time on ships, in ball rooms, courts, and cities than they do in dungeons.

Combat and Non Combat for Swashbuckling Encounters tend to run along a 50/50 split, or maybe even 60/40 (where as Intrigue is more 70/30, 80/20).

Protips.

Bring in some form of firearms to the game. (if you want some balanced firearms I've got some in the Talsidias section of the forum. I know another shameless plug) It definitely helps get that Renaissance and Pirates Of The Caribbean Feel.

Use some form of high flying daredevil encouraging style of adventure! Nothing's cooler than swinging from a chandelier and kicking the ogre into a burning brazier... until you do it while in a ballroom on a sinking ship.

Paragon and Epic Tier games are insanely fun for Swashbuckling Adventure. Heroic works too, but in my opinion the Swashbuckling Game doesn't really shine until level 11 or so.

Sword And Sorcery Sword and Sorcery is another favorite of mine. Some people think "Lotr" when they think S&S but that's not what it is. Think more like Conan.

S&S is a very gritty dark campaign style that often also bleeds into Dark Fantasy. Characters tend to have much darker motivations in S&S. Mostly selfish reasons .

Much like horror, you want to try to set the mood for a dark and gritty feeling game. Taint and Insanity (specially for Caster characters) tends to be a very good tool to implement for these campaigns. Try to portray casters in gritty decadent sort of way, along with ancient cities with empires on the verge of self destruction. There might be a pleasent facade in a S&S campaign but under all that civilization on the surface is a rotten layer of corruption and darkness.

Preferred tier Heroic- Paragon

War War isn't one of my favorite themes by anymeans because in my mind it's just so much Rail Roading waiting to happen and I really can't think of anything here that the DMg doesn't cover.

Aside from this protip.

If you are running a War Campaign. For the Love of God Use Minions.

Wuxia Dmg covers this one pretty well actually.

Pro tip : Change the monsters thematically speaking reskin them to something more oriental in nature.

Preferred Tier of Play, All.

Hunters In the Hunters Campaign the Pcs are a band of willing or unwilling Heroes thrust into a conflict of hunting down a specific type of enemy such as Demons and destroying them. Hunters, generally speaking hunt for personal reasons or just for the gain of wealth. Hunters, campaigns also can share a great deal in common with Mystery.

Pro tip,
Try to make sure everything is at least somewhat relevant to the Hunt.

Make sure the Pcs, are given enough knowledge about their chosen foes in an in game world sense. Make it feel as if their characters really and truly are Hunters. (Be it Demon, Werewolf or what have you).

Preferred Tier, All.


These aren't the only ones by any means, but these are the ones I feel D&D is best at performing presently speaking. Also you can often combine themes together to create something with a very unique flair with no effort.

[Cpt Micha]

Are you sitting there afraid of your next session that's due in three weeks?

No? Yes? Maybe? You are not sure?

Has the campaign been going on for months and months, or are you just starting it up? Are you finishing it?

You don't know?!

You feel lost now? What do you do? You know you have to do this, but you don't feel prepared. Someone help!

Fortunately I am here to help you, with another basic principle of Dming. No it's not world building. Sheesh. We'll get to that eventually. I promise. No today we are going to discuss Pacing Yourself. This is a very important step in alot of ways for dming.


One very key element of proper pacing starts with your preparation time. Like The Batman, a campaign is at it's finest when there has been some Prep Time involved. Prep Time can turn the tide of an upcoming "just fun" session to an awesome session. Conversely it can also ruin a session, if not enough or too much prep time is implemented.

Prep Time Prep Time is short hand for the amount of time you spend or need to plot out your next session.

Now that we have the dictionary out of the way. Let's move onto the core about this all so important thing. Some Dms believe the -more- Prep Time you have the better, and to some extent I will agree with them. But there is a such thing as too much Prep Time. I know a great many Dm over the years (hell we all do it folks) that simply prepares too much material for his players, more than they will ever use in a given session (and since most of the time it's not really usable at a later date won't ever be used)

Alot of Dms too will "Cram " Cramming is bad, because the human mind can only focus optimally on a given task for only forty five minutes or so. (It's a proven fact I think) So you end up with a much larger chance for errors than a series of days where you spend just a little bit of time each day working out your next encounters and plot points.

This is how I do mine. As I generally speaking have the luxury of time between sessions (at least a week) I create two encounters or challenges a night for the pcs and move onto something else in my life. Generally this takes me about forty five minutes or so for me to accomplish.

I spend enough time on each encounter to make sure it makes sense for the area the pcs are in, and maybe to spice it up a little so it's not a completely flat room or something odd like that. I generally speaking plan out my encounters for an entire level's worth before the session comes up. This gives me leeway typically speaking for two sessions or so if the Pcs -really blast- through combat and the role playing of the campaign.

If I still have time before the session, then I typically spend around forty five minutes each day coming up with the "campfire scenarios" (read filler material that just accentuates the campaign) I come up with what I feel is a reasonable time for this, and go from there. Given we have around six hours or so of play time, usually this is around two hours of "filler", for every four hours of being in an encounter. (of one kind or another)

This isn't how everyone does it, but this is the easiest method I've found so far in my experience.

Pacing Alot of Dms seem to have another problem which can correlate to the first one. Pacing. Some Campaigns seem to go by at a race to the finish kind of pace. While this is fun and entertaining in a campaign built just for it, in a campaign that it is not designed that way it's disheartening and you feel as if you've been missing something.

Don't rush through everything, unless you are trying for a quickie campaign. Take your time, let the game flow at a natural pace. You'll discover what this pace is for your players over time. Once everyone falls into the rhythm, you'll see the proper flow of time that a campaign takes. Some players like it fast hard and mean, others want it slow and steady.

Don't be slower than molasses either. You might think Tolkein is the gold standard for details and world building but it isn't. We don't care about how the grass blows in the wind. Chances are if it's windy the grass is going to follow it. Don't bog the game down in mindless dribble for crying out loud. Tolkein had a bad habit of liking to read his own words too much in my opinion. (GASP HERESY! but it's true. My opinion is just that so bugger off)

Don't be like Tolkein, it's the Pcs game too. Also don't bog the game down with too many campfire scenes to "make the world seem more immersive". It doesn't really help. Pc imagination is a great deal stronger than you might think it is.

Save your all important descriptions for the important things in a campaign. If you do it too often Pcs will eventually not be able to tell when you want something to be important to the story line. Describing a new city upon arriving is one thing. But we don't need repeated descriptions throughout. An Oak Door is an Oak Door. Don't describe the grain pattern of the wood unless it's some how important.

Pay attention to the pace that the pcs move at and try your best to follow it, the game's much more enjoyable for everyone that way.

[Cpt Micha]

This week, we are going to discuss Encounter building.. Where is World building? Quit screaming for it dammit or you'll never get it!

Encounter Building is a very critical step, in Dming. I think alot of Dms focus on things like World Building and the Macro Scale but often times give very little thought to how the Encounter and Micro level interact with the bigger picture. Encounter building is just as if not more so than the Macro Scale. Encounters are in short how the game world actually functions more or less. So it's most important to get them right.

You don't have npcs rolling skill checks for Knowledge when there are no Pcs about do you? No Good... I don't have to call the nice guys in white coats.

Remember you don't want to be playing by yourself.

Encounter Building, is best done when the Dm has taken everyone in the group's tastes into account including his or her own, and the over story.

For example if you have alot of people in the group that don't like combat encounters, don't design alot of combat encounters for your Pcs, go with what the majority wants. If you have alot of guys that are very new to the game, you might wish to introduce Roleplaying elements into the Combat encounters (since Combat is the easiest part of the game to learn).

Something else you can do to spice up an otherwise dull encounter, is to add a Skill Challenge.

Here's how you run for a mixed group that wants a combat focus and non combat focus. Run a skill challenge during a major encounter.

Run a skill challenge as an encounter. *some otherwise Invincible enemy that can only be defeated by knocking columns down onto him, properly setting off traps in the room against him, causing the room to fill with water and drown him etc*

At the same time, maybe attacks directed against the Invincible guy cause him to be stunned, dazed, knocked prone or whatever instead of damage being dealt. This keeps him off of the "non combat" guys while they set up the traps to kill him.

Key Skills/Abilities could be STR, Thievery, Perception (to notice the features in the room that could be used as weapons), Acrobatics (to maybe lead him over a pit)

Don't tell them what the key skills are. Just go with what they say and make something up on the fly. For example when one says "I want to use an Acrobatics check" perhaps, instead of jacking the Dc to something insane, you simply say "there appears to be a narrow ledge across a pit that you could attempt to lead the big dumb bastard across..." Success means the Bad Guy falls into the pit. Which could lead into another part of the skill challenge, perhaps knocking a column down onto him, or whatever.

I think you get the idea?

This would be a really cool dynamic encounter, and certainly provide alot of tension.

Or another scenario you can test out, is have an encounter in which the pcs are trying to enlist the help of potentially friendly npcs, to help them beat a host of enemies during an encounter during a social type skill challenge. They are still in combat, and also are completing a social encounter at the same time.

Yet another thing you can do is set up the Social type moments during a combat where successes relay key information about the mission (or whatever the Pcs quest is).

Also remember terrain. Don't forget to keep it interesting every once in a while with a trap here and there, maybe a cliff there, a bridge over a waterfall here. A volcano there. A large Clock Tower. Make the terrain dynamic and interesting and capable of being used during the encounter.

This is the sort of thing I mean here. Build to taste, and build to keep with the story of the campaign. Integrate non combat sequences where needed to tie the encounter to the campaign. Remind the pcs that the game doesn't stop when you enter a combat encounter, and vice versa.

[Cpt Micha]

So you have Players, and you've got the basics down and your first dungeon completed. So naturally your PCs want to move on. What do you do?!

They want to go to town, but you have nothing for them? Or maybe you do have something for them.

There are a few ways to swing this situation.
1. You prepared for this already, no thanks to myself. In which case I salute you.

2. You make something up on the fly. You give them a rather generic description of their first town in order to stall them off.

3. You give them a nice description of their first town because the dungeon aside this is their first impression of the world.

Which of these is correct? All of them. All of them are equally correct ways to swing it.

Which one is more correct? That depends on your group naturally. Which is why this article was not the first one that I wrote up. Because by the time you get to this point in the chain of events, you probably now have a pretty good idea of what kind of things your group likes and enjoys at the table. Which is the most important step in world creation in my opinion.

If your group is more the beer and pretzels kind of group (also known as casual players), then the second choice is probably perfectly acceptable. The game is more focused on the fun had in Encounters and not so much the minor details such as a fleshed out world.

Some of you are probably looking at me like I'm a heretic now but it's true. Fleshing out the world is a minor detail in the scope of Dming and game sessions. It's importance is solely dependent on the preferences of the group, it's not an absolute core bit that must be done in order for the game to be enjoyed by everyone at the table.

This article will attempt to briefly explain the casual world building style and the more, indepth Dedicated style. Remember both approaches are equally valid and dependent upon your group. We will also touch a little bit on what kind of world you would like to build.

The more casual style I've found is more focused on a loose macroview of the world. You've got the basic layout of the oceans and continents and some cities here and there. Or maybe you just have a map of the country side, with villages dotting the country side. Either way works here. The important thing is, you have a map for the pcs to follow and understand that isn't too riddled with details that your group won't want to explore anyway.

The Casual style, also is brought over to the more dedicated group in several regards. The more dedicated group's map after all is just a more focused and detail oriented version of a casual map.
In a casual map the only things that should be especially marked are the most important places on the map. Little no name villages are just assumed to exist every so often, you don't need to focus on them at all. Just the possible adventuring sites, major roads, rivers and lakes, and major population centers.

The more dedicated style and more detail oriented map making, you might spend time not only doing the basic maps of the Casual style, but detailed maps of various cities. Alot more rivers, and minor tributaries are covered on a more detailed map and there are alot more population centers generally noted on these maps, country borders are noted as well.

Casual world building you might have one or two countries that you cover in high detail, or several countries that you cover in loose detail. This is a great style for a group just starting out, because you aren't sweating the details, and are perhaps letting the world fill it self out as you play. Or maybe there aren't any countries at all, and the players are forging a new civilization out of the remains of long gone civilizations. Casual World building, also plays greatly to a Dm who has great impromtu skills.

Dedicated World building, you have several countries, their political systems, religions, ethnic groups, and alliances worked out along with the borders. Major NPCs in positions of power are noted. You may even go so far as to flesh out personality traits with each of the countries, along with their cultures and grasp of technology. This is a great style for the group that really enjoys exploring the world and pushing the boundaries of your creation.

There are drawbacks to each of course, Casual's being that there's not a great deal of depth to the world generally speaking, and that might be a buzkill for players that really like to get into the deep end of the pool, if the Dm isn't capable of winging it very easily. Dedicated's being that more casual players, may find the world too filled in, and over killed on details. It just depends on what kind of group you have and what kind of DM you are.

There are also several degrees of course within the two styles, and that's something that describes most worlds. Most worlds are within a combination of the above.

Types of World
There are several kinds of campaign world out there. Most of which are created based on the Theme of the campaigns being run in them.

Horror Themed worlds like campaigns, emphasize the monsters, and just how vulnerable the heroes are. The world needs to be constructed in a way that horror is conveyed when you describe a scene. For example it's not very fitting for a horror campaign if you have a River of Sunshine and Happyness in your world.

Super Fantastical This world is a little more zany and whimsical than any of the others. Or it is extremely magical. The sky might be purple, and there might be pink polka dotted elephants roaming about. People might live in the heart of a volcano. A Super Fantastical world, is one where Magic is as necessary as Air for life, or has become such a staple to the denizens of the world that they think nothing of it.

Real Fantasy This one focuses on very low magic. Magic is viewed superstitously quite often, and the world almost seems more like an analogue for Earth, with some minor changes. Examples include, Tolkien and A Song of Ice and fire.

Steampunk Steam punk is a blend of magic and steam technology typically. In it, magic and technology are often one in the same. There are several kinds of steam punk out there with varying emphasises on technology and magic. Examples include, Warmachine/Iron Kingdoms

Technology Instead of Magic, the focus is pure technology. This is almost more of a Scifi or Science Fantasy type of setting. Technology might be superstitous or arcane, and there might still be magic in the setting as well. Examples of this are warhammer 40k.

Apocalyptic The world is like Dark Sun or Fallout 3. Desolate wastelands, or destroyed civilizations are the name of the day here. Magic can be done in varying degrees. What is important though is that the world, is not the same as it once was, so try to leave little reminders to the pcs of what the world before must have been like.

Blended Fantasy This world is alot like Eberron, there may be alot of traditional elements in it, however there are alot of newer concepts such as Steampunk or Superfantastical blended in. Many campaign worlds fall into this category.

These are just some of the many types of worlds there are out there. Hopefully this article has steered you in the right direction. Good gaming!

[Cpt Micha]

Roleplaying NPCs
So you've got your world, you've got your dungeon crawl. But you want a little something more. How do you do it?
Well it is fairly simple really. You introduce roleplaying of course. Yes, even the monsters need to be Rped from time to time. Even the best imagery and description of terrain in the world won't save a flat uncharacterful campaign. For a game world, to really come alive there have to be NPCs, and with those NPCs comes roleplaying. Which is what this article is going to cover in some broad strokes.

The first step to roleplaying npcs, comes with the quests you are making with your party in mind. Someone usually has to give the PCs a quest unless the party is extraoridinarily motivated to go into random dangerous locations and risk their necks for no real reason. Quests should be designed ideally around the party and what their character's ideals, goals or motivations are. NPCs that give those quests should likewise be done.

For example, if there is a now invalid wizard locked in his own tower but he can make the pcs a powerful item, perhaps the quests he gives the Pcs should be best oriented to that goal. Or perhaps, the quests he gives the pcs are oriented to a more selfish goal, such as making himself able to do these sorts of things himself.

A helpful way to get NPCs that are more PC compatible, is to write down a handful of bullet points about each character, ask the basic questions about each player, where are they from, what is their past like, do they have any family, their names, genders that sort of thing. All of these can be used to make an NPC more friendly and thus a quest more likely to be accepted.

The next step beyond the shared goals of the NPC, is coming up with a personality for the character. There are a handful of traits you can find useful for this in the Player's Handbook in the 1st and second chapters. You don't have to totally flesh out the NPC, just enough for them to seem like a living breathing thing to the player is enough. How far you can go, is up to you and your group and their comfort level.

Something you can try to do to really make an NPC stand out, is give them mannerisms, be it a funny accent, a smoker's voice, or a dark serious manner there are things you can do while roleplaying your npc to make him really stand out from the crowd. Npcs are characters too, they just aren't the main characters. Think of Non player characters as the Supporting cast, and the players are the Star Cast. You can't have a good film without at least a presence of supporting characters, and that's what the NPCs fufill.
Be it a wise old mentor in his last moments, or the Client hiring the pcs up for a guard job of a convoy of goods, along the King's Road.

One of the things that is critical to remember is the Roleplaying shouldn't totally stop once the combat dice are being rolled. In D&D, the game is at it's best when you are rping in combat. Monsters that can, call out threats and challenges to the pcs. Cowardly monsters surrender at the first sign of serious trouble.

Elites, or sub bosses as I like to refer to them, generally should go a little beyond this even. As they are a focal point of the campaign (even if a minor one) they should act a little beyond that. Try to give them dialogue, or at the very least skill check options. Try to give your Elite, sentient monsters a history that the pcs can learn upon encountering the villain in question. Give them dialogue at the start, when they are bloodied, and give them dying words.

Sometimes you can even, have an Elite become an ally over the long run if the Pcs spare the lucky fellow. Perhaps, later the Elite in question can give the pcs quests to fufill as well. And perhaps the indebted critter, will offer the players services either at a discount or for free. perhaps they even will recieve the offer to join an organization as a direct result of their actions.

Solos, are also something that you should roleplay in combat and out of it. Solos unless they are unintelligent beasts are almost always supposed to be a fight the Pcs remember, and in my opinion in ways that have nothing to do with combat. The Solo even more than the Elite, is a main character in it's own right. Treat it as such. Even before the Pcs encounter the Solo in question, if it has lackeys (and most solos do) they should be referring to their boss either reverently *such as is the case with Kobolds and Dragons*, or with utter terror *such as someone working for Orcus perhaps* of what will happen if they fail.

When the Pcs, turn in a quest how do your Npcs handle it? This depends on the personality you gave them. Some will feel as if it was about damn time you finished the quest, others will act as if they feel grateful for your pcs help. Others still will, just sort of brush it off, and offer up the new quest that they have to give your party after the last quest was completed.

Artifacts, and particularly noteworthy magical items should also be roleplayed. Albiet in a different way, Artifacts are almost sentient or are sentient powerful weapons of legend. Npcs seek them out, or jealously horde them. The Artifacts themselves have their own goals and designs, if a pc is about to do something not in accordance to the artifact's desires, don't just slap the penalty on them, have the artifact communicate it's desires to the player first. See what the player does with it.

Noteworthy magical items are a little different with artifacts, in that they are not truly sentient, they do not have their own goals and desires. They simply convey feelings from time to time to the wielder, or visions. Perhaps the item does have a goal, but it is a minor one such as avenging it's last wielder's death in the upcoming fight. Picking up a noteworthy item for the first time, may impart a vision upon it's player. Mechanically a Noteworthy item is no different, than a "normal" magical item. Other than it's backstory and history.

As a fun variant for Noteworthy items, you can try out the scaling item rules in Adventurer's vault.

React with your NPCs, to the things the players do and say in game. The world becomes much more dynamic, and seems much more realistic for doing so. You don't have to do all of this at once of course, gradually getting into each of these is something that takes a little bit of patience, and practice at doing. Once you do however, I think you'll find that the game experience for everyone at the table will become at least a little more enjoyable.

Happy gaming!

[Cpt Micha]

You can argue whether or not this should have been the first article or if it should be the last one, but really I feel the above articles are really more important when it comes to running the game. Most of the above articles are dealing with Social issues, or story organization issues which are the most important facets of the Game as far as being a Dm goes to me. But that's just my opinion.

There are some people out there that have a really hard time DMing for whatever reason when it comes to 4e. Some perhaps feel that since they haven't memorized every line in the Phb they can't DM. Some maybe are just scared by all the content in the system released up to this point. While those can be legitimate concerns they really are a Mountain out of a Mole Hill.

With no further ado. Here are my basics for what you need to actually know Rules Wise.

1. pay attention to the Bonus type. Presently there are Feat Bonuses, Enhancement Bonuses, Power Bonuses, item bonuses, proficiency bonuses, racial bonus, armor bonus, shield bonus and untyped bonuses.

2. Like Bonuses do not Stack. Feat bonuses do not stack with other feat bonuses for example. Bonuses of a different named type Stack. You will find this rule on page 275 of the PHB.

3. Damage Resistance always takes the greater value. They do not stack. The same applies for Temporary Hit Points.

4. Unnamed Bonuses also always stack.

5. Study the Rules for flanking/CA.

6. Study the Concealment rules. Page 280 of the phb.

7. Read the Chapter about Combat in the Player's handbook. Particularly read the Attack of Opportunity Rules.

8. Read the Marking Mechanics. Some of your monsters can Mark.

9. Page 42 of the DMG is a very good guide when you aren't sure of something. If you find yourself unable to recall a specific rule you can even use this page to just keep the game moving in some circumstances.

10. Learn the basics of the Status Effects. You will find these on the Dm's Screen and in the Player's Handbook. Page 277 in the PHB

11. Read the skill section of the Player's Handbook. get familiar with each of the skills.

12. Know what Keywords are.

13. Know the Stats, (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha). Page 16 and 17 of the Player's handbook.

14. Penalties always Stack.

15. Honestly read Chapters 1, 2 and 3 and actually follow the advice given in the DMG. They really do help.

And those are the most important rules or sections you really need to know as a Dm.

If there are any rules you are unclear on, flip open the PHB and go to the table of contents. You will probably find the proper page number there.

[Cpt Micha]

I've found that a combat planner helps tremendously, it lets you keep track of monster initiative, party initiative, who did what damage and to which target.

Particularly in D20 games where there are a lot of combatants with alot of different ability sets, the ability to have just a quick reference space, with their abilities, and their place in combat helps out a great deal.

This saves on table space, as you don't need to have five different books on the table, just your trusty notebook.

I start my combat planners by writing out the monster stat block, beneath that I leave the next five lines blank. Give plenty of space on the left to right margins as well. This lets you put multiple monsters of the same type together. When a monster uses a per encounter, I place a mark of some kind on the top left of the entry, and go from left to right as more monsters use their powers. The reason you leave the five lines blank is you can record the damage from individual players here. A little ways over to the right is Round2, Round 3 etc. I usually write out about 8 spaces per monster entry.

Repeat on down the line and you have a pretty coherent grasp on your combat at all times, including a handy round counter so you know just how many rounds you guys are going through before victory is achieved.

for example

Pangolin Level 1 Brute. Large
Initiative+1 Senses +5 Perception low light vision.
Hp 36/36 Bloodied 18
Speed 8. Ac 14, Fort 15, Reflex 13, Will 10
Attacks Claw +4vs Ac 1d6+4.
Defensive spines when bloodied Pangolins use their sharp edged plates upon their attackers close 1. 1d8+6
Str 19 (+4) Con 16 (+3) Dex 13 (+1) Int 2 (-4) Wis 11 (+0) Cha 9 (-1)

Round1 Round 2 Round 3 Round4 Round 5 Round6 Round7 Round8
A
B
C
D
E

Then I draw a line at around the U in round if I have multiple of the same monster. This lets you know which one took damage etc and keeps track of it. The more monsters of the same kind you have means more lines.

Also to save space you might want to exclude the Ability scores and just write their modifiers, or perhaps you'll leave them off completely if the monster isn't going to be making skill checks.