Max K. said: Hi there all of you glorious people, I'm a relativity new DM which is the main reason for this post. I would like to ask you, yes, even you a couple of questions. should you choose to accept this quest....just you know...scroll further down....simple stuff, easy exp. ANYWAY. I am an INCREDIBLY shy person which is why as of now I just prefer to play with some of my friends, the problem here is that planning is a bitch. Everyone has shit to do and with a group of 8 people I can't seem to get 4 people together for even a one-off adventure. My questions are therefore: -Any tips at all on planning D&D games...preferably without bribes... -Any starting tips on DM'ing in general -And lastly, any advice to start my GLORIOUS dm career here on roll20 for anyone who made it this far down...may you roll only 20's First off: Get your notes squared away either with handouts, journal, or even post it notes if you are a paper pusher type then get your game setup done as best you can. Get your maps loaded, get your monsters sheeted , token'd , and macro'd then place them where you want them on the gm layer. Put some GM notes on the gm layer so you will remember that there is a trap on a chest in room 1001a and that the black pudding is oozing down a crevice from a higher level, etc... Secondly: Listen to your players. Ask them after the game what did they like and what did they think could be improved. This is their game also and they need to have that sense of ownership. I usually have that after my roll20 games and call it my pro's / con's report. I ask my players what was one thing that they liked in that session then I asked them for one thing that they thought could be improved. I also sometimes have a forum thread in my game forum for posts like that in case they can't think of something right then. Lastly: If you can afford it, spring for a subscription . You will not regret it. If 5 or 10 dollars a month is to rich for your pocket, ask your players to chip in a buck or two each ( gifting ). If you have 5 players and they each toss 2 dollars in, that is a pro subscription right there and the cool thing is that they can gift till the game campaign ends and if another wants to create and run a game, the group can just start gifting the new GM then when the first GM wants to pick up his old game, the group can switch back to gifting him and he can renew his subscription which will reactivate everything as it was before the old subscription lapsed (as long as nothing was deleted or removed during the lapsed time).
