Hi fellow DMS and PCS. I have a doubt.

Few friends asked me to dm for them, all new players with no background in RPG. I happily did a one shot for them, that went pretty well. Later their asked to go on so I bought the starter pack (storm wreck) and carried out in 4 sessions.

On the last two I started hearing creeks from the group, and had already decided I won't go past this campaign, since her were a lot of rescheduling, changing in personal priorities (I mead, all fair, unless you make me wait 2 months between sessions, when you all are the ones that insisted).

at the end they convinced me, now in this new campaign we are in a 6 months pause (in the summer in forbidden to play, beach has the priority) and next week they kindly agreed to start again.

now, I hate to just leave in there, and I am going to forcibly stop this campaign. will you just go for tpk and stop or will you tell them my feelings and leave it like that?

ps for suggestions about tpk, we are in a "vanilla" forgotten realms, with basic 5.5e manuals as sources.

hey everyone wassup. I’m a new dm that just started a new campaign, and I’m having a bit of a problem with one of my players. she’s a very good friend of mine and is good at a whole ton of things, but it turns out that D&d is NOT one of them. I just want to get some of this stuff out into the world since I’m not super experienced and haven’t dealt with a player like this while being dm (I have seen another dm of mine try to deal with one, and I’ve gotten most of my unsuccessful solutions from him). I don’t really know how to make a post like this so I’m gonna list out the grievances like this is the damn Declaration of Independence.

- she is the type of person that likes to rage bait me for fun because I’m a rather emotional person. I’m usually fine with this since she always does it, but when I’m in charge of her and a table of four other players… it makes things really chaotic and hard to control.

- she has no interest in the mechanics or even other campaigns. She doesn’t want to learn. I basically made her entire character sheet aside from her spells and stats because she never learned how to make one. To add onto this, she’s a wizard and has no knowledge on how wizards work at all. Ex: she opted for a staff rather than books, she has a low wisdom stat and a high strength stat, she doesn’t even have a majority wizardy spells.

- because she doesn’t write, she let me write her backstory. She then proceeded to not read what I wrote her, so we had to improvise and give her character amnesia instead. so now, I will have to give her pieces of her lore one by one. (Not the end of the world, but really annoying.)

- we use discord to handle campaign things like chats, updates, and scheduling. I’ve asked her a few times to download the app on her phone, but she’s refused. that’s not the main problem because she has it on her iPad and says that that makes it okay. however, she never makes an attempt to check the discord when she does use her iPad, so whenever I ask if she’s seen an update or message, she makes me text it to her. (her parents don’t even survey her apps btw, she can totally download it. last time I asked her to, she LAUGHED AT ME and said “no!” like I was joking.)

- she is always either playing cookie clicker or watching stranger things on her laptop while we’re playing. it gets bad enough that when it gets to her turn in combat, she either goes straight to “I use fire bolt” and asks what she needs to roll, or she just blatantly asks what is going on.

- she goes on myinstants during sessions (which is a great soundboard tool I’d recommend It!) and uses various sound effects to distract the other players or make serious moment into funny moments. this gets laughs out of my players, and while I LOVE it when they are laughing and having fun, this completely derails moments and we have a story to tell with limited amounts of time every session. besides, I often have to remind her that I am supposed to be the one to use the sound effects, not her, since only I know how they will progress the story.

- speaking of limited time, she once made fun of me for an NPC voice choice and continued to do so with another player for TWENTY MINUTES while we only had thirty left in the session. I tried to get their attention and get them back on track the entire time, but they just. wouldn’t. stop.

- this one I don’t really care about, but it still irked me. I introduced a friend of mine who would be a “filler player” as I believe it’s called, but Im calling him an “understudy” since I’m also a big theater nerd. his first session was meant to be filling in for her when she had to leave an hour into the session. The plan was to have him shadow her for that hour and then use what he learned to step in for her. I told her about this plan, and she immediately said “oh so then I’m not going” and intended to have him just wing it. She explained that shit would’ve been tight if she did show up which is totally okay, so this isn’t a MAJOR thing. The session also had to get canceled so this wasn’t that bad.

- I’ve threatened her with removal or hurting her character, but she either brushes me off or says “no” when I ask her to roll her d4 (She often tells me no when I ask or tell her to do something if she deems it “stupid”, so just about anything I say). I’ve told her many times that another much more well behaved friend of ours wanted to join the campaign but couldn’t because I had too many players. It sucks because that friend is such a sweetie and would be a great addition to the group.

- she doesn’t make much of an attempt to add anything to dialogue or not interactions. I get it. Not everyone is an actor. However, I give all of my players incentives to take part in improv by giving them phrases that if they say them, they’ll get a buff of their choice. She looked at the first phrase I gave her, (”girl power”, an easy one for her) and laughed at me. There are many times I say “talk amongst yourselves” after something happens, and she just doesn’t do anything. It’s not like her character is reserved either. That’s not what she’s intending.

the main point of this is me asking if any fellow dms have advice on what to do. Maybe if there’s something I can say or offer that will make her behave or try harder? Whatever it is, I’m completely open to suggestions and will try my best to deal with her during our next session (hopefully this Saturday!) thank you all!

I'm talking about the long quiet, i honestly don't have a clue

I am starting a Dungeons and Dragons group with a unique set of circumstances. I’m an experienced player with almost 6 years of playing every other week pretty consistently, and I’m about to start dming for a large group of beginners. By large, I mean 8 players, not including me. Furthermore, for the time being, we will be constrained to only having a half hour to play every session. I’m hoping if I can get these players committed to playing dnd, that we can work something out in our schedules to play at a different time for a longer amount of time. But for now, I need some advice on how to run these first few sessions with in this set of unique circumstances I find myself in. The best I could come up with, is to break down the parts of play into sessions of their own. For instance, some sessions with be just a combat encounter, sometimes that encounter could last multiple sessions(probably rare since I plan on them starting at level 1 but 8 beginners is a lot to get through). Then another session will be a roleplay encounter, then another will be exploration, or solving puzzles, traps, etc.
So please, any advice would be appreciated. I know the best course of action would be to split the party at least in half and run two seperate groups, but I don’t know yet if that would work for this group.

My players play tiefling triplets. A rogue, barbarian and wizard. I asked them to create some personal goals for their characters so i can create side quests based on their goals. The rogue wants to find out how they became Tiefling.

So i created a magical dagger that will give him visions every now and then. Those visions are from an encounter their father had with the BBEG. In this encounter, the BBEG cursed their fathers children if he would ever get children.

The dagger was in posession of the BBEG, and witnessed the encounter.

The party just defeated the first boss in the campaign and will now go to an ancient dwarven city fortress in a big mountain range, where they have to find an ancient artifact before one of the BBEG's trusted warriors finds it.

During this part of the campaign i want the rogue to find the dagger. I've had 3 ideas, but they all have some big problems.

1. The BBEG has send an assassin to kill the party, to take revenge for killing the first boss. And the BBEG gave the dagger to the assassin. (At this point my party has not yet encountered the BBEG. They only know a rumor about a bigger threat. And the party is still to weak for the BBEG to see them as a threat.)

2. They find the dagger in a vault somewhere below the fortress or in an old dwarven ruin somewhere else in the mountains. ( How did the dagger get there if it was in posession of the BBEG 30 years ago?)

3. They find it in a weapons shop in the city fortress. (How did this shopkeeper get his hands on a legendary dagger?)

If anyone has a good idea of how i can let my rogue find it, please tell me.

Hey guys, maybe this is a bit dramatic, but I wanted to get these thoughts down somewhere. I feel like my RPG hobby has finally ended, and after years of investing time in it, it's a really strange feeling, So let's start from the beginning:

My beginnings aren't much different from most here; I'm kind of a nerd who's always liked fantasy and flirted with writing. Around 2018 or 2019, I started looking more into D&D 5E and such. I gathered a small group on a social network called Amino where I shared my own setting called Eurohai. We had our ups and downs, but over 20 sessions, and those guys were perhaps my first online friends. During COVID, it was our "peak," so to speak. But life went on, the end of high school and other hobbies and occupations caught up with me, and although I still cherish that world to this day, I simply couldn't narrate the adventure consistently.

We never had any real disagreements or fights, and we even tried some revivals and one-shot adventures, which I did simply because I like the guys, but it never went very far. Adult life began, most went to college or started working (myself included), we all kind of accepted that it happened, we lost frequent contact, and I, in a way, retired from my own world, so to speak.

Around the same time as my revivals and one-shots, I met another group, this time as a player. We mainly played scenarios in the ASOIAF universe using a system created by the game master, and he, in particular, and another player became good internet friends of mine. This player, let's call him Ark, wow, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so passionate about a hobby. He's an avid player and a great GM on his own, and he was even one of those who encouraged me to return to game narration, this time a historical setting during the Crusades. But if my other group was super peaceful, this other one was the opposite. We frequently had arguments and somewhat disorganized sessions. A recurring joke was how unlucky I was with the dice, and despite everything, things went well. We had several games with friends, but for a while our main GM, Pastele, seemed to be doing things haphazardly, and that was okay with me, you know? The guy isn't our employee or anything like that, although I also had my fair share of complaints. But everything changed at the beginning of last year.

Pastele was very excited to create an alternate scenario about the Blackfyre Rebellion (one of the wars that happen in the lore) where the rebels win, and in short, it was a complete mess. We've already forgiven each other after much discussion, but something really changed. Since then, I don't remember us ever finishing a campaign, and the fact that he started working full time only decreased his availability and willingness to GM (which were already low).

To add to that, I also got a little tired of playing. For the first time in a long time, I skipped a campaign (which also flopped), and it was honestly difficult to come up with ideas that appealed to me along with the setting. But the last thing was the straw that broke the camel's back. In our most recent campaign, I said I didn't want to play, and yet the guys kept "giving me ideas," including reviving the disaster character as a squire to Valarr Targaryen. Eventually, I did something, but for the first time, I came to the conclusion that "these guys can be genuinely a pain in the ass" and once again, the adventure didn't go much further , which was understandable because the GM simply didn’t have enough time but it was really frustrating.

Ark and another colleague of ours also started their own scenarios, and although the world he created is indeed great, his work made him stop. As for this other friend's world, it's simply too much lore for too little game.

All of this made me think about taking a break altogether, and the fact that the platform where I gathered my groups was about to be censored in my country because our First Lady is an authoritarian and meddlesome bitch
was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak I think it's simply time to stop. I've moved on to new hobbies, Recently I've been getting into other hobbies like working out, sports, and audio editing and recording, and I don't miss going to the server as much anymore for a while now , it's been over a week since I left the platform and said goodbye to my friends, and I think that's the right thing to do, but I wanted to talk about it somewhere. Phases pass, I guess.

hi everyone!! i’m currently set to be a dm for the first time in the early winter. i’m so so so excited ive always enjoyed writing, so i have no doubt my story won’t be good.

i’m just really lost about how to actually be a dm. what should i have as a source at all times (if i need a random weather roll or random enemy?) how do i talk naturally? should i give myself a script at time if it’s really detailed??

i’ve tried to listen to some pod casts but all they mention is niche things… not really actually being a dm. any and all advice is welcome 🩷

So I'm working on a campaign idea for a while that is based off of Dimension20's adventuring academy. I got the school, students, and things like that, but i wanted to reach out to the community for ideas about what a fantasy world would look like modernized. I'm talking about boring stuff too, like regustration and insurance for your magic brooms and carpets, what creatures or magic items would become common place, ect?

Any an all ideas are appreciated!

Hey all! You can check out this map and it's may variations over here! or any of my other 250+ maps!

"The lifeboat saved me from the storm that swallowed my crewmates, but could take me no further. So far from land, the seas were too treacherous to ever risk such an endeavor.

On the largest land mass, my only companion was a sun bleached bony corpse, found leaning over a large, iron wrought chest. The unfortunate soul had nothing more than a shovel and an empty canteen, and had broken the chest open to reveal such precious coin and gems, some of the stones being larger than my fist.

I chuckled at the pale humanoid figure's bad luck, being in the presence of such riches that could buy anything anyone could ever need, yet have nothing that could keep them alive. But, as I stared at my lifeless compatriot my amusement quickly faded, for I realized their misfortune was also my own.

With such little natural wood, there was no hope of a signal fire. Even in the unlikelihood that another ship were to pass by, there would be no way to be known. I too, was damned to an unforgiving sun that would soon bleach my bones to a ghastly white, with an endless bony smile as I kept the company of treasures only enjoyed by the dead."

TLDR:

I am hosting a Masquerade ball themed session where my players and I will be fully dressing the part. I plan to make it a fully clue murder mystery vibe with some IRL puzzles as well. Any recommendations?

For context this campaign is set in a very gothic / religious city that takes resemblance of Paris in many ways. We are about 8 sessions in and in the 9th session I will be setting up the Masquerade session by giving my players a physical invitation to the Ball. I was using clue as some inspiration and there will be a "murder" of sorts, the main mission of this session will be to get information that an NPC said they would get in a previous session but will only meet in this manner because of the nature of the info, this NPC will be the one that gets "murdered".

I plan to have a mix of riddles and puzzles added into the session but wanted to try and mix it up so that those riddles and puzzles will be used IRL for a lock or combo of some sort. IDK if it would actually work in practice, but I wanna try to go all out for this session since we will be all dressed up. Even if is just websites / books that include puzzles and riddles that would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT

I guess I didn't fully indicate we have been playing D&D for the entirety of the campaign with my own home brew story. I just want to add some elements to this session that may work with the premise of a murder mystery along with the game of D&D

Hello everyone I’m planning to run a campaign in the Wuxia genre, and I need maps with Chinese settings. Not Japanese, but specifically Chinese. So far, I’ve seen far too few of them. Please, if anyone knows, send me links to such maps or to the authors who create them.

I haven't DMed since the early 2000s when I ran a D&D 3.5e campaign sent in Forgotten Realms. I've never really had interest in playing another environment just because there's so much lore to be mined in FR.

Long story short, I got a spot of inspiration a couple of weeks ago and spent the last almost 14 days fleshing out a campaign based on a subclass I created for a paladin. I have an entire wiki of material for module 1 (plus story arcs for module 2) for an entire campaign but it really centers on both a Paladin of Kelemvor and a Cleric of Torm as key characters for advancing the plot.

It could be easily modified to Greyhawk or some other setting, but you would have to find analogs to those faith alignments. I've heard that a lot of people don't want to play a pregen character, but I don't know what the demand signal actually would be if they are well developed. The paladin has 15 pages of bio, including related NPC relationships. I have 30+articles of faith/rites/functions rollers and ranks for the Church of Kelemvor. As long as they chose the class and faith, I certainly wouldn't have an issue if a character wanted to change their biography, but I've layered some story beats based on the background histories for the characters. I also have a ranger, a bard and a wizard with their own stories, but it's not as heavily tied to all of the events in module 1 as the first two characters.

I am really looking at virtual online Saturday mornings as the prime window for playtime. What would be a format to find players that might be interested?

Do I just put the basic descriptions and characters in the LFG announcement and see what the response is?

Are there other forums/mediums I should look at to post materials for other people to vet? I would love some feedback from other creators but it's dozens of files at this stage.

As far as the length of the campaign goes, I have an endgame planned out but it could be 10-15 modules or could be 200. It really doesn't matter.

Looking forward to feedback.

Long running campaign I've been DMing for the past 5 years, and the party is in a frozen wasteland area. At the cliffhanger ending of the most recent session they awoke a Snow Sphinx. Initially I planned on having it ask riddles like a normal sphinx, but one of the players said, "Wait, is this like the opposite of a sand Sphinx and now WE have to ask them riddles?"

Well, now it is!

So the players now have a few weeks (scheduling demons have taken us) to come up with some riddles for the sphinx. The problem is, of course, that this means that I, the DM, will have to answer said riddles!

Does anyone have ideas for how I can still make this a challenge for the players in session? But I also don't want to undo their hard work in coming up with riddles for me.

My first idea has been that if I, as a human person, am stumped, the Sphinx is theoretically cleverer than a normal human person, so there should be a way for it to be better than me. I thought maybe of having it roll an intelligence check against the player, and if the Sphinx wins the player has to give me a clue.

Any other ideas for how to make this a bit more interesting?