#dm help

[itseasytoremember]

My best piece of writing advice for any aspiring DM is to not write every single story beat you want your party to get to, but instead write the bad ending if no one helps the situation.

I'll give you an example;

There's a kingdom run by dwarfs that is known across the land for making a specific kind of technology that a few military generals want to turn into a weapon, but the current king and his daughter are both peaceful rulers who do not want to start war. The generals are planning a coup, and the plan is to kill the ruling Monarch and his daughter who is betrothed to a neighboring party, and replace them with her much more pliable younger brother. This will start a civil war with the neighboring countries, destabilizing the global area and eventually creating a powerful militarized empire that will cause ruin and destruction.

Now I could write a story beat about meeting in a tavern and someone giving them party tickets and I could write another beat about them getting clothing and then I could write another beat about them going to the party and then I could write another beat about them stopping in assassin, but they might not do any of that, And I've wasted hours and hours of writing.

Instead, I'll write that the bad ending; the assassins will kill the princess at this party. The assassin won't be caught at the party, because of that they'll be able to get back to her betrothed's room and plant the murder weapon, and with that they will convince everyone that it was Uxoricide (had to look that word up).

Because I have the bad plan, any meddling/ investigation my players do will alter the trajectory, and can be related to the story. I know they're going to want to be at this party, so I'll focus on that, but I'll give multiple options of entry and make it so no matter what they choose to investigate, they'll get a different aspect of the plot.

This way the villains have these really concrete plans that the players are trying to uncover and thwart, rather than meandering around for a while, and you aren't planning 85 scenarios hoping your players will choose something. Make a map, put different revelations in different parts, and trust your players to find them

[thedegu]

Othos Players DNI

designing a boss encounter 03/08/2026, and want some input on what I have so far, and a particular mechanic I'm having a hard time designing. DND 5e

important mechanics: a party of 5, 13th-level characters played by people who have over 25 years of combined experience of playing TTRPGs, most of which are 5e, so we have to hit very hard for it to be interesting and difficult for them. The party currently consists of a barbarian/paladin, artificer/(gloomstocker) ranger, (twilight) cleric, warlock/paladin, and warlock (shes a guest character)

The main issue I am having is that I want this to be a puzzle fight, not just a hit-it-until-it-stops-moving style fight. The TLDR is that the monster they are fighting is an undead bisected elder brain. I want to riff on the right-brain left-brain thing, giving them similar stats but different strengths. For the puzzle part, I want the sections to have a high minimum damage threshold that the party needs to turn off somehow. It is a psychic barrier that either physically repels the incoming strikes or stops the attacking party from being able to strike through to the creature.

a *very* rough idea of its statblock. Like I said, the right and left brains would be similar, but with different active effects they can do and different spells they can cast.

lore-wise, this elder brain was found in the Underdark by the BBEG, who took it and experimented on it. She now uses it as a conduit to control parts of her army known as the Human Almalgamations-- undead soldiers who are not quite zombies but not quite sentient undead either, using modified illithid brain slugs to control them. The BBEG herself is a god-queen vampire (long story), and while she has a few thousand vampires underneath her, they do not make an army themselves (also, she only turns those with human heritage, but that's less important in-game).

She might have more than one of these under her control, but this is, at the very least, the first elder brain she's had these successful experiments on. It's just a tool to her and her generals, and while the vampire queen is more interested in the arcane, psionics have their uses, too.

This is set in Nebidisk, my high-magic acronial setting, the vampire queen and her cohort are heavily inspired by pre-Soviet Russia, circa the early 20th century, and late 19th. Her full title is Tsariana Rosline Greywinter, the God-Queen of Vampires. she's also the head of a large country, as well as being the direct god of death, the arcane, and undeath. not too important for this particular encounter but i feel like its important context

I am also pulling from the Monster Manual V, for dnd 3.5, for some of the abilities, but if people are more familiar with it and can point me in a more precise direction, I'd really appreciate it.

[moons-magical-archery]

serious question, how do I make NPCs that my player doesn't try to kiss?

I'm doing a German modern fairytale adventure and made a Krampus (bipedal goat that kidnaps children) that is incredibly jealous of the Easter Bunny for having job security. (the whole kidnapping thing is a side job that doesn't really pay well, and his therapist told him to stay away from children for a bit)

So I made this goat guy nine feet tall with sharp teeth and red eyes yet my player found him attractive and wanted to roll to kiss him. She got an 18... so like I just kind of let her kiss him but didn't make him do anything. I did say that if she tried to take it further I would start an attack round.

Every single time we do any sort of campaign, me DMing or someone else, she tries to kiss any sort of antagonist NPC.

Does anyone have any advice? How do I make relatable evil characters that can't be romanced?

[tofu-bento-box]

alright curse of strahd people / other DMs. i need plot brainstorming help. wig and revivivivify no reading past the read more or checking the notes. i’m warning you. i’ll know 👁️ 👁️

thanks in advance!!!

so my plan for the leadup to the final battle in my curse of strahd campaign is to do arcs based around the four horsemen of the apocalypse. we’ve already covered war (#1) via the fall of argynvostholt, famine (#3) is self-explanatory, and death (#4) is the final battle.

the issue is pestilence (#2, and the next big arc). i made krezk a mining town, and the abbot has been helping the party at little to no cost, so i’m planning on setting it there. there are two very minor NPCs that got on the abbot’s bad side, so i’m planning on having them be the first victims. they’ll come to the abbey looking for help and get turned away (barring successful party intervention). if the party manages to pry some forgiveness out of the abbot, there’s still gonna be an issue, because the abbot can’t fix whatever’s wrong.

the issue is i cannot figure out what the fucking pestilence is. some creeping black gunk? where did it come from, how is it treated if not by magic, why can’t the abbot just snap their fingers and fix it?

dug too deep in the mines? something like the blight in datv? parasitic creature? hivemind? slime mold that feeds off of magic, so magical healing makes it worse?

THIS IS A PLEA FOR HELP. please DM me or brain dump in the notes because i’m hardcore stuck on this.

**because of some of my players’ triggers, please don’t base ideas on real diseases (no cancer, no 1:1 terminal illness replication). parasitic stuff should be okay, same with more fantasy style diseases**

[lunar-eclipse-bunnies]

Long time dm here: 12+ years of experience. Here's some tips:

Relax. You got this.

It isn't all on you. DnD is cooperative before anything else. I like to think of my role as being like a video game console: I'm there to provide a physics engine and lay down a scenario, but that doesn't work unless my players help out by buying into the scenario and accepting the way I run those physics. If anyone at the table is throwing off the vibe, your job is to remind them that they need to cooperate or it won't be fun.

On that note, communicate with your players. Communicate frequently and make sure you talk over any problems anyone has, and also call out when people are being awesome.

Your favorite home brewed item, mechanic, or monster is going to break the game. No, not that one that you've suspected of wrongdoing for months. That one is going to be comically underpowered. I'm talking about the clever mythology reference that neatly explains why your favorite region is as cool as it is. Yeah, that. It'll let a level 3 barbarian become immortal or something. When this happens, calmly inform your players that this was a mistake and the game will be much better if Gregnagax The Oaken-Thewed can't suplex the tarrasque.

Seriously, you will need the phrase "that effect is unbalanced, so we won't be using it."

You will need the table of damage by severity and level. It's on page 249 of the DMG. It is absurdly useful. Anytime you need to improvise damage, this chart is useful.

Print out your monster and npc Stat blocks. Flipping through the books in combat sucks.

Your campaign will go off the rails. Your plans will be destroyed so badly you don't even recognize them. This is normal. After the damage is done, consider how the people in your world will react to what just happened. Congratulations, that is the plot of your next session.

Remember to keep play fresh. Spice up combat heavy areas with cool lore moments, throw social encounters into clue gathering, make the mayor a very silly person, let the stablehand whistle all the damn time. This is especially helpful if you're including mysteries or politics, since vibrant worlds can make allegiances and deceptions less obvious.

You are not Matt Mercer. Matt Mercer has a whole production team behind him, years of experience, and a party of professional actors. I love the DnD Renaissance, but it can make a dm feel really inadequate. This is a game of basements, rickety chairs, old dining room tables, and improvised miniatures. I promise that you will feel silly for your first couple of sessions. That's okay. You'll hit your groove, and it'll be fun tabletop evenings, not professional quality polished narrative and character arcs. Those silly low-budget moments are the best sign that you're doing it right.

Most campaigns are confined to one or two tiers of play. Levels 3-to-10 is common. Campaigns to level 20 take years, and I've never been in one or run one that got all the way there. You'll spend a lot of time doing shorter campaigns, one shots and the like. If you manage to play to level 20, great, but be ready to accept that you might not. Campaigns fall apart because people have busy lives, and that's okay.

And finally: relax. You got this.

i shaking this is extremely helpful thank you?? /gen

i never realized it before but the game console analogy is very helpful and also very true!! all the (good) dms i've had have always been very good at painting pictures of what's going on/explaining how the world works and if anything, i want my world to be really colorful! and i want my players to enjoy playing in it

thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!!! very much appreciated by this babey dm <:)

[amoodybun]

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[disgraceofabird666]

Am I doing this right or am i being too much of a control freak?

Basically im running a homebrew dnd campaign for my friends. The setting, story, and npcs are mine but im using basic statblocks for smaller enemies. I've written mostly everything for the setting and misc. Info for players that might know certain things in character.

The problem is that i feel like im being too controlling over the world. Ive only spoken to one play about his character but he kept asking me what i would do if i was him and i didn't want to say anything because i want to give my players creative freedom when making their characters and i also don't want to be that DM and force people into roles they might not want to be in.

Im also a first time DM so i think this is just putting on extra stress because of it.

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Outsourcing my D&D campaign to tumblr because my mind is blanking

When designing a dungeon made by an adult dragon capable of turning himself into an elf, should I make it primarily...

Dragon-sized

Elf-sized

Voting ended onJun 26, 2024