Roll20 uses cookies to improve your experience on our site. Cookies enable you to enjoy certain features, social sharing functionality, and tailor message and display ads to your interests on our site and others. They also help us understand how our site is being used. By continuing to use our site, you consent to our use of cookies. Update your cookie preferences .
×
Create a free account
This post has been closed. You can still view previous posts, but you can't post any new replies.

Searching for someone who could teach me how to be D&D 3.5 Game Master

I'm really new to this but I really like it, would really like if someone could explain me how to make my own world/storry and pretty much everything so i can get me and my friends start playing.
1470919636

Edited 1470919769
Sure, just make up stuff. It doesn't have to be a tolkien-esque world filled with details down to the very last village, it can be anything you like, to whatever degree you like. If you want an animé based world with flying airships, laser weapons and dimension-hopping portals, you do that. Your world can be anything you want, as there is no rules as to what can and can not be in a world. Otherwise you could start off with a preset game world, such as Faerûn (the game world of Baldurs Gate & Neverwinter Nights), as there is already a bunch of information and maps of that. As for story, the same thing goes. Make up whatever you want, wether it be a Game of Thrones-esque political intrigue for succession of a kingdom, with a lot of corrupt noble houses involved, or just an open-ended story without a story, where the players can go do whatever they want like in Skyrim. And again, there's lots of campaigns to find, even free on the internet made by other people. I started my very first game set in Faerûn, with a simple game i got from a site I do not remember, nor who made it originally,&nbsp;regarding a well that had been poisoned. I changed a few things, such as the main enemies being goblins, threw in a friendly wizard that had been captured and could offer help, and I was pretty much done. For a special effect, I did say that the water in the village's well was colored deeply red, and I had prepared a pitcher of water with red food coloring in to offer my players. So while I could give you in-depth 'information', it would merely be my viewpoints on how I am as a DM, but it usually goes down to making stuff up. It doesn't have to be 'tolkien-esque' or meet any other form of standard, as long as you have fun with it, and it isn't met with horribly harsh critique comparing it to horse manure. But I did find recently a thing you could watch for more in-depth information. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&index=1&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&index=1&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP</a> _
Dartanous said: Sure, just make up stuff. It doesn't have to be a tolkien-esque world filled with details down to the very last village, it can be anything you like, to whatever degree you like. If you want an animé based world with flying airships, laser weapons and dimension-hopping portals, you do that. Your world can be anything you want, as there is no rules as to what can and can not be in a world. Otherwise you could start off with a preset game world, such as Faerûn (the game world of Baldurs Gate & Neverwinter Nights), as there is already a bunch of information and maps of that. As for story, the same thing goes. Make up whatever you want, wether it be a Game of Thrones-esque political intrigue for succession of a kingdom, with a lot of corrupt noble houses involved, or just an open-ended story without a story, where the players can go do whatever they want like in Skyrim. And again, there's lots of campaigns to find, even free on the internet made by other people. I started my very first game set in Faerûn, with a simple game i got from a site I do not remember, nor who made it originally,&nbsp;regarding a well that had been poisoned. I changed a few things, such as the main enemies being goblins, threw in a friendly wizard that had been captured and could offer help, and I was pretty much done. For a special effect, I did say that the water in the village's well was colored deeply red, and I had prepared a pitcher of water with red food coloring in to offer my players. So while I could give you in-depth 'information', it would merely be my viewpoints on how I am as a DM, but it usually goes down to making stuff up. It doesn't have to be 'tolkien-esque' or meet any other form of standard, as long as you have fun with it, and it isn't met with horribly harsh critique comparing it to horse manure. But I did find recently a thing you could watch for more in-depth information. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&index=1&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&index=1&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP</a> _ Thanks man, I was aiming more for universe close to witcher, so from what i know I need to make world map, write story about kings/lands and so on, but I'm more interested in stats, I have no idea about rolling and how to make fill my character sheet ( this one&nbsp; <a href="http://awakenvideo.org/pdf/DnD%203.5e%20and%20you%" rel="nofollow">http://awakenvideo.org/pdf/DnD%203.5e%20and%20you%</a>... ) can i reach you somewhere for more information?
That's the easiest part, all is explained in the core rule book. There is a summary of the steps to do here : <a href="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7501997&postcount=6" rel="nofollow">http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7501997&postcount=6</a>
Victor Ward said: That's the easiest part, all is explained in the core rule book. There is a summary of the steps to do here : <a href="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7501997&postcount=6" rel="nofollow">http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7501997&postcount=6</a> Thanks
1470931359

Edited 1470931452
Filling the world is up to you. Though, personally, when I'm DMing I find there are two approaches that work best. Big to Small or Small to Big. Either way, the result usually should be about the same. You can start with a big world, give it some general history (Oh this place was messed up by a war, this place is a heavenly shrine untouched for eons) then figure out where you want your story to take place (lets start them off in a peaceful village somewhere in the middle, or, lets start them off in a goblin cave on the outskirts over here, as prisoners). Whatever you decide, you bring the detail level up as you zoom in. Know who runs the nearby cities that they may want to travel to. Know what kind of monsters you want to be wandering the woods and roads that they might encounter. Then when you get to the actual place they are at, you want high detail. Maps. NPC's. Encounters. Or you start Small and go Big. Start with the tiny village, and basically build the world around it. What is important is that you focus the details on the places they are going to be in. There will be time later to flesh out the world they cannot yet see, and you don't want to build out too far because they may decide they have no interest or reason to head to that place. Build as the adventure moves. You don't need to know if the King of HighElfTown is a level 10 warrior or a level 15 mage until he's right there in front of the players. And the other thing is, dont' assume the story is going to play out one way or another. You might get the party rolling against a guy and have them turn around and say "You know what? He's right to be pissed at the king. We wanna help him get away." I had a party spend an hour planning to diplomacy their way through what should have been an all out brawl. And they only failed because I knew that the kobold leader spoke common. Prep work is the key :)
"And the other thing is, dont' assume the story is going to play out one way or another." "Prep work is the key :)" Isn't that bit contradictory? As a DM I tend to rely much more on improvisation, since my players are used to take initiative. And as a player I loathe when DM try to force you down their contrived failed novel.
Victor Ward said: Isn't that bit contradictory? As a DM I tend to rely much more on improvisation, since my players are used to take initiative. And as a player I loathe when DM try to force you down their contrived failed novel. I don't see it as contradictory. &nbsp;The prep work is crafting the broad avenues that your players could take and fleshing out npc motivation. As it is with PCs, the more you understand an NPCs motivation the better you can rp and improvise. &nbsp;There will always be times where your players go a completely unexpected route and force total improvisation, but in my experience that had been rare.
1470950339

Edited 1470950486
Gen Kitty
Forum Champion
I hate to do this to you guys, but none of this discussion has anything to do with Roll20 itself. From the Roll20 Community Code of Conduct : The Roll20 Forums exist to discuss topics directly related to the use of the Roll20 program. Anything that more fittingly could be discussed on another website SHOULD be discussed there. Here are some good places to discuss this topic: /r/rpg /r/dnd /r/ADND /r/LFG