Preparing for my first session as GM

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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

The thing with players is, they will spend hours fiddling about in places you don't expect them to, thinking something completely innocuous that you really hadn't even thought about is THE MOST IMPORTANT PLOT POINT EVER! and rush through the important bits, paying scarcely any attention to the important hints, don't worry too much about pacing let the players control that, after all it's THEM taking the risks in the dark :D

PS Love the touch with the Kobolds, though your players seem to have a fetish for throwing corpses at monsters...
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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Boggo wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:36 am The thing with players is, they will spend hours fiddling about in places you don't expect them to, thinking something completely innocuous that you really hadn't even thought about is THE MOST IMPORTANT PLOT POINT EVER! and rush through the important bits, paying scarcely any attention to the important hints, don't worry too much about pacing let the players control that, after all it's THEM taking the risks in the dark :D
I've been noticing that already. It's fascinating to see how different people respond to different parts of a description. Like with the Kobolds, I hadn't described them doing anything especially menacing, other than standing in the dark and silently observing, but certain members of the group were convinced they were evil and a threat and that the retreat was just a ruse to draw them into another trap.

And yeah, they do have a weird habit of throwing corpses around. :lol: Especially the halfling, who's turning out to be a real wild card.
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

Mars wrote: Sat Feb 11, 2023 1:15 am And yeah, they do have a weird habit of throwing corpses around. :lol: Especially the halfling, who's turning out to be a real wild card.
Ironic, since the Halfling is going to be the least useful at corpse slinging :D
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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Just wanted to post a quick update to mention we finished our third session last night. Got through the rest of the cells and the torture room--both the giant crab spider and the spitting cobra basically succumbed to a barrage of missile weapons.

The party hesitated for a while with the barrel in 4e--they were worried it was a trap or had some kind of slime ooze monster in it--but they ended up tipping it over and finding the ring. They also found the potions in the bone pile that the crab spider was hiding in, and they sort of sussed out that two of the potions were healing potions and the other two... weren't. So far they've stashed all the potions and are planning on consulting with Father Thelbain when they get back to Morgansfort, for further assurance (they've still got a few of the healing potions they were issued by the Father, and are using those first).

They also found the secret passage that leads to the Rabbit Hole, and I accidentally left the wolves absent (since my roll had shown them absent from the Wolf Lair, I sort of assumed they were absent from the whole dungeon during this visit), but now that I've looked back at it I realize the wolves are probably supposed to be encountered here if they weren't already killed in the Lair.

One detail I added in was a crude charcoal drawing made on the passageway wall that, upon inspection, seemed to be a depiction of the player characters' party--tall figures for the humans, one shorter for the dwarf and one even shorter for the halfling. I'm planting it as a seed connected to the idea that the kobolds are trying to communicate and possibly ally themselves with the party against the goblins. Not sure if it worked, though--mostly it just creeped the cleric out.

They found their way down the side passageway in the Rabbit Hole, and blundered open the secret door to room 8. When they saw the orcs, and the orcs saw them, they panicked and the Magic User successfully cast his sleep spell. There was some debate over what to do, but I pressured them to decide quickly ("You've only got fifty seconds... now you've only got thirty seconds...") and the halfling ended up deciding it for them by dispatching the biggest orc, which sort of pushed the rest of them into following suit. Interesting moral conflicts; hard choices not free from regret.

They're currently pretty loaded down with coins, and are planning on taking their haul back to Morgansfort to upgrade gear, and then come back for more.

In general, as the party gets deeper into the dungeon and the story grows, it seems to offer more and more dramatic and imaginative potential. From a storytelling perspective it feels kind of like gym class for the imagination (but without any of the negative, "I'm lazy and tired" connotations actual gym class sometimes provoked in me).

One question I've started to ponder is: why a d6 for initiative? It results in lots of players acting simultaneously (though if someone has a dexterity modifier, that breaks the tie), which I guess is an accurate way of depicting the chaos of battle--with everything happening at once. But at the same time, from a game-playing perspective, it might be easier if the results were slightly more asynchronous. Often I end up with three people who rolled the same number, and though I can understand in theory that they're acting at the same time, it's sometimes awkward when you have to ask them one by one what they're going to do (who do you choose to ask first, for example). I've been flirting with the idea of having them roll a d12 in hopes of spreading the order out slightly (still with the idea that it's all happening very quickly, though now thinking "this person is acting a millisecond before the other"), and also because I like d12 dice and there doesn't seem to be much opportunity for people to roll them in the game as it is.

Has anyone tried straying from the d6 for initiative? Is it opening up a can of worms somehow, and I'm not seeing it?
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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Originally it was a d6 for each SIDE everyone on each side acted first, then everyone on the side that lost went, it's a holdover from Skirmish wargaming. D6 is fine though, D6+dex mod, then when you have multiple people acting on the same number highest dex score (3-18) goes first, then second highest etc, I always make monsters act last on their initiative number (so if a player and the monsters are both on a 4 for example, the player acts before the monsters every time) changing it isn't opening a can of worms, but really using a different die isn't going to make much difference, you will get slightly less duplicate rolls, but almost imperceptibly so unless you go to d20 which actually makes it hard to keep track what impulse you are on. I basically just start calling at 9 (if I have anyone with a +3 dex mod) then 8 (if I have anyone with a +2) then 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 letting them act on their roll (since I have no-one with a higher than +1 dex mod I start at 7 atm)
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Solomoriah
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Solomoriah »

That's a bunch of numbers...

:D

I've used a d10 initiative system in the past. But simultaneous action is fun and challenging for the players. Remember that reach can modify this, for example.
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Dimirag »

Mars wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 2:23 am
One question I've started to ponder is: why a d6 for initiative?
The d6 is the "go to" die for lots of stuff, at some moment it seemed that only the d20 and d6 was used, other dice where added later.
Mars wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 2:23 am Has anyone tried straying from the d6 for initiative? Is it opening up a can of worms somehow, and I'm not seeing it?
There are lots of OSR games using different dice or even different initiative systems (some even don't use initiative).
Initiative's work is to put the combatants in an order so its easy for the table to act, other games may give some extra rules attached to it.
Character based die, action points, action segments, d12, d20, use the one you feel is the best for your table and game style.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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Thank you Boggo, Solomoriah, and Dimirag for the perspective. I think I'll try d12 for initiative next session, just to compare it to the 3 sessions we've used d6. (Next session isn't until March 1.)

Also, after looking at the Milepost Advancement document and running the numbers a few different ways, I've decided to go with the XP approach mentioned by Boggo--basically using XP as listed but not dividing by party number. I'm also planning on awarding XP, in conservative amounts, for overcoming challenges not related to monster encounters (like giving them XP for figuring out the trap in the first session). Three sessions in, doing XP this way, I've got numbers running from 302 (for a Halfling Thief that only played in the most recent session) to 905 (for a Human Cleric that has played in all three sessions). I like that it provides a faster advancement than the method mentioned in the book, but that it also derives from what they've actually accomplished during the session. (They seem to be getting slightly more active in each session, so their average XP-per-session might start to increase.)

One other thing I've been wondering about: If I wanted to start a Campaign Journal thread, is there a place to do it on this BFRPG forum? Or would it be better to do that on another forum, like Dragonsfoot (which has a section specifically for Campaign Journals)? (I've had fun writing up descriptions of the events in the sessions, but doing so keeps bumping this thread up to the top when it's probably no longer relevant to the general purpose of the forum--which seems to be more focused on discussion and rules questions.)
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Solomoriah
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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You are welcome to post a campaign journal in General Discussion. If we get multiple "live" CJ threads, I'll create a subforum, but for now I don't think there's enough demand.
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Solomoriah wrote: Sun Feb 19, 2023 10:23 pm You are welcome to post a campaign journal in General Discussion. If we get multiple "live" CJ threads, I'll create a subforum, but for now I don't think there's enough demand.
Thanks for the reply, Solomoriah, and sorry it's taken a while for me to follow up. Been swamped with work, and then the whole family caught a cold (our third this year--but I guess that's typical with a three-year-old in daycare). I still like the idea of doing a Campaign Journal, but honestly after this last week it makes me realize it might be hard to find the time to do it. Still, nice to know it's an option.

Next planned session I'm running is March 1st. If any new questions pop up I'll ask them here. I appreciate the feedback and advice people have offered. Thanks!
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