1y ago

Good advice for DMs old and new alike

Edit: Spleling

60 comments

If you think they'll be too simple then it should only take your players about 20-30 minutes to solve.
Wow. If those PCs could read, they'd be very upset.
- If you think they’ll be too simple then it should only take your players about 20-30 minutes to solve.
  That being 15 minutes to tell stupid jokes, and 15 more to burn down the building and leave.
  
  Almost happened in the last Warhammer session I was in. DM made a door that had three locks depending on knowing alchemical symbols, formulae, and the geocentric model. Because the GM forgot that Warhammer doesn't have a flat "magic knowledge" roll like Arcana in D&D 5e, the party mage doesn't know anything, the rest of the party was illiterate, and everyone got so frustrated that everyone except my character tried either breaking the door or entering through the window while the wizard was still home and foiling their attempts. To our credit, we were able to figure out the first two locks with trial and error, with the first being a very simple balancing of the four elemental triangles around a plus sign in a plus shape, and the other being three symbols in a vertical line, the problem was seven symbols to be arranged in a circle. After my party face character shook herself from her puzzle frustration and realized that the wizard is actually home, she just asked him for what we came here for, he was cordial about it, and we left when we got it. During that time, the GM gave the solution (because Wizards are assholes that love to brag about their genius to the stupids) which taught us that in geocentricity, neither Venus nor Mars are closer to Earth than Mercury is, and the sun is between Venus and Mars because of course it is.
- What's funny is that no one's mentioned Ironsworn's slew of random tables that are completely free online, much less the wealth of similar on Perchance. 🤓

I don't understand how cereal box puzzles would translate over to DnD.
I also don't know about ripping off movie and TV characters and just swapping out the names. I suppose it depends on the character, but I feel like this is the easiest one to tell that it was "stolen".
Using Pokémon descriptions for monsters is aces though, even if you use the older mons. I think Monster Hunter monsters would also translate over pretty well.
- During a game of Star Wars d6 rpg i ran a group through basically the train job episode of firefly (that was in solo 12 years later) and they did not realize it until we were watching firefly together. I also ran them through the cloud city plot from ESB while they were on cloud city.
  
  That's what I mean though. If they are even somewhat aware of the characters you are borrowing from, they'll know the NPCs are rip-offs, regardless of a name swap. I feel like you would have to do more than just change their name. Perhaps combining characters to make 1, or modifying character traits so they're not 1:1.
  I suppose it also depends on whether or not your players care about that sort of thing though, and if you as the DM don't come clean about your shenanigans when caught.
- Mazes, riddles, color coordinated pictures, I think the cereal boxes point is actually a good idea for a kernel of a puzzle.
  This post just made it very real to me how I could DM a game.
  Cool cool cool
  
  As a forever DM, it's pretty fun to DM and I think everyone should give it a shot
  Especially if you enjoy the roleplay aspect, you get to roleplay so much
- I also don’t know about ripping off movie and TV characters and just swapping out the names. I suppose it depends on the character, but I feel like this is the easiest one to tell that it was “stolen”.
  You wouldn't put them wholesale into a game. For example, you'd mentally label an NPC as a 'Spock' and play him as intellectual and logical. Another as a 'McCoy' and play him as compassionate, emotional, and a bit of a catastrophiser. Obviously, you wouldn't use them together as the crew of a ship (along with a 'Kirk' and a 'Scotty'), that would be a bit on the nose. And you wouldn't steal characters' history or catch-phrases, you would just use the core of the character as a shorthand for personality, as a guide for how they might present themselves, think, and interact with others.
  There's no reason, say, a fantasy city council couldn't be run by:
  a 'Hannibal Lecter' (brilliant, urbane, lover of the finer things)
  a 'Lesley Knope' (energetic, rules follower)
  a 'Sarah Connor' (determined, uncompromising)
  a 'Stringer Bell' (confident ambitious, maybe with a secret past)
  a 'Dr. Gregory House' (cantankerous, confrontational, cynical)
  
  Ah, now I get it! Thanks for spelling it out for me.
  
  That being said, I straight-up stole Dr. T'Ana from Lower Decks as a ship surgeon.
  
  While reading this comment I had the thought of a stoic warrior type that was very much an outsider to the society he was mostly operating in but very open to learning about the things that are new to him. Occasionally he would really embrace some part of that culture and make his own references to it.
  I'd probably call him Jaxson and get away with it until he said indeed.
- Did you memorize all the Dora the Explorer plotlines? Should they switch to Go, Diego, Go?
  
  I never mentioned anything about the Dora the Explorer plotlines. That one actually sounds like a pretty good idea. And yes, they should get some from Go, Diego, Go while they're at it lol.
- I'll make it all even simpler.
  Go to tvtropes! Copy and paste.
- Yeah the puzzle one might be tough but the rest are pretty good
  The TV characters thing is also one that's kinda meh
  
  See I think the tv characters idea is great. You’re not going to literally imitate them. But you also don’t need to build every single NPC from scratch and method act lol. Sometimes I’ll go “alright this dude is basically Barney Stinson” or whatever in my mind and then just let it roll.

This is good advice except for the bit about Dora the Explorer. That would require watching Dora the Explorer.
Sub in any genre movie or TV show you know well. If you players catch on and recognize it, that's even better, because then they think they know what to expect, and that's when you zag on 'em.
- There's plenty of episode synapses available everywhere for every show. You don't have to watch them, just have to read them
  I've stolen places from different shows and plot beats from other shows quite a bit since I started DMing about a decade ago
  Only recently did someone catch on that the location (the dungeon they delved into) was stolen from a show (well, more "heavily influenced" by a show (think someone gave a elevator pitch for a location and I built from that)) though no one has caught on yet that they've been exploring Idaho now for 2 years. I've even laid maps down on the table for people to look over and no one's caught on yet.
- Farscape is my go-to. It's niche sci fi that I've watched, but none of my players has...