Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Hook and Big Bad

What Was the Hook?

So let’s quickly refresh, what was the hook for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The players went with (and I helped decide on) plot hook #4. You can see all of them here.

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

The Big Bad

Demons, this is going to be one where there are demons in it. Though, since it is something of legends, and with how long elves live, this happened ages ago. That means that what is known as demons doesn’t have to be demons, that is just what the legends call them.

The First Story Arc

I think the first arc is pretty simple, it is really the hook of the story. But I want to set it up in an interesting way. And you can read up on how I want to use story arcs and recommend people use them in their campaigns here.

The first big arc is going to be what I call The Realization Arc. This arc is going to be about figuring out what is happening. I’m not actually going to tell the players which story they are playing. I am just going to set-up some for the world, I’ve gotten my buy-in, but when we do character creation I’m going to give them a few parameters and that’ll be it. So what is this arc going to look like?

The Realization Arc

The first session is going to be a jump straight into action. But let’s break it down a little bit more.

• The inciting incident
• Town in panic
• Investigation
• The Annals
• We Need To Find Heroes

So what is the inciting incident going to be? Well, it’s going to be an attack of some sort, not on the town but around the town. An example of what I mean is think of the start of the Wheel of Time series. There is an attack on the town but it starts with attacks on the farms and the town and strange things happening near the farms. So the characters are going to learn about it and have to help with it.

Now, I want to dive into this further right now and talk about it, but let’s then talk about that second arc that we’ll be setting up as well. Because the next article is going to be working on world building first and the following one on that session one.

Dungeons and Dragons Full Campaign Arcs

So, I said I wanted to talk about the next one. But there is more than that, I want to deal with arcs that are going to show up in the campaign. Now as I write out all of these, this is not the whole campaign. I expect more arcs to occur, but these are some of the pillar arcs that I think need to happen for the story.

• The Realization Arc
• A Fond Farewell
• Traveling to the City
• We’re Here, Now What?
• Gaining Trust
• ??? I expect more arcs in here
• How Do You Seal a Demon?
• ??? More arcs
• It’s Now Or Never

The Groundwork For A Fond Farewell

So, when I look at this, I want to start laying the groundwork for that next arc. And that next arc is going to be a short arc. A Fond Farewell should be a session or maybe two. It is a chance for the characters to build up more relationships and define who they are as characters. So I want to start creating NPC’s that the characters will interact with. One thing, though, that I want to do is give the players each a note card or two with my NPC template on it. And during session zero, each player is going to make an NPC that they are closely connected to.

What does that look like? You can see that here in my Dungeon Master Tools – World Building Article. But simply put name, defining feature, brief description. And I think I want to add in one in this case. What is the connection to the players. For a small village, everyone is going to be connected. So I want to see the players create meaningful NPC’s who are connected deeply with their character. It is not going to be a lot of work, I just want one or two per player.

How I’ll Use Them

So, when I get those NPC’s how do I want to use them? Firstly, those are going to be the main points of contact for the characters in the town. At least one of them is going to be part of the inciting incident. An important rule of Dungeons and Dragons is put every meaningful character in harms way at some point in time. And if I start with it, that is great. Not all of them will be, but if some make sense, that I want to put them in harms way.

I want to create tension too for the upcoming farewell. The town mayor or village elders, whomever is in charge, is going to send out the player characters. Why, because they are the saviors of the village and the ones who maybe can survive the journey to a town or city. I hope that someone creates a NPC who is a single parent, or maybe even a child who is going to be left behind. I want it to feel. And if they don’t, I might create one for them.

Final Thoughts on A Story Arc in Dungeons and Dragons

I like where this Dungeons and Dragons campaign is going. When I world build coming up here soon in a new article, I want to create the frameworks that this first arc will work in. That means I want to create that the land is like. Is it going to be a hunter gatherer type of setting or more agrarian in nature? That is the fun of world building. And I think my arc works well in any of those.

But as I do that, I want to keep it focused on this first arc. If I plan out too much, such as the nations and city they are going to go to, that is a lot. It is important to only know the large rules for the world. For example, is it high or low magic. And that is not going to affect this first arc too much, just character creation. For this first arc, I want to give the players a description of the town, surrounding area, and not much more. As always, I want to remember, keep it simple, stupid. And in this case, I am stupid.

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What Is Failing Forward?

Failing forward comes from players having to do skill checks. A skill check is something that you use as a Dungeon Master when you want to see if the players notice or know something or can complete an action that they are trying to do. An example of this would be the rogue doing a stealth check or something like that.

The idea of failing forward is that the players roll their skill check and they fail it. But instead of them not getting the information or completing they action, they still do that. However, it is going to add in some sort of complication for them. So they succeed but there is a cost instead of them getting it without that cost.

Why Use It?

So why use something like this? The big reason as a Dungeon Master that you want to use failing forward is some things need to happen. Let’s say the players don’t remember a bit of information about the Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal (BBEG). And it is something that their characters need to know to be able to eventually find the BBEG. So you have the players roll history checks for their characters, what happens if they fail? Now they are soft locked out of knowing that information.

So let me define what I mean by soft locked. They aren’t completely locked out of that knowledge, but you need to feed it to them another way. But the idea of failing forward is that they get that information, they pull it up in from their memory, you don’t need to create a new role playing situation or create a reason why they would learn it again. They just know it. But, as I said, there should be a cost to it. And I wills how you what I mean by that when I give some examples later on.

When Not To Use It

So there are times not to use it as well. I think that failing forward is a very useful tool for a Dungeon Master, but sometimes it doesn’t make that much sense to do it. If they fail to disarm a trap, okay, don’t fail them forward. Let them be creative to figure out another way to avoid the trap, or to set it off and just make a run for it.

But the other big time is when it doesn’t matter that much. If the player wants to search a room for gold and they role a one, who cares. They toss the place and the three gold they might have found they don’t find. Or the barbarian wants to throw something a long ways, they roll a strength and roll low, that’s fine as long as it’s not part of the plot that they need to do it.

So, just to recap, use failing forward when you need them to succeed to progress the story. Don’t use it when it is for flavor, the players doing something that doesn’t matter, or there are other ways around the problem.

Examples of Failing Forward

So let’s talk examples, and I want to do a couple of different ones here. But just to demonstrate how you can use it well. And this is something that I’d plan on in the moment. Don’t try and pre-plan for your session checks that your player characters will have to do as the Dungeon Master, it just adds work that might not happen.

Example 1: The Deity’s Hidden Past

The characters are coming to realize that there is something off about this deity who has reached out to them for help. They know some general knowledge on the deity but how much do they actually know. If they roll well they are going to know that the deity was actually killed years ago and now someone has taken it’s place and that matters because they would then know not to trust them.

So all the players roll religion checks, and because this is ancient history it’s a harder check. The best role is an 8 and now they players really didn’t succeed on this check.

What is failing forward going to look like here?

You give the characters the knowledge but you give them more knowledge than is actually right. You explain it to them in the way of a long forgotten myth that is passed down still in some tribes, but was passed down verbally for years. The general details of the deity’s death are there, but specifics are wrong, and who killed the deity is wrong and you give them a lot to sort through that is right or not.

Example 2: The Chase

The other example I want to give is of something a bit more physical. The players were supposed to have snuck up on a criminal and knocked them out. Instead they talk to them. And they tell them exactly what is going on. So the criminal is running through the market now throwing things down behind them.

The players need that item to progress the storyline. So you give them some challenges to complete with athletics and acrobatics. They roll really poorly on their checks while on the chase.

How do you keep the guy from getting away? Well, you already know the answer, you fail forwards.

In this case, that is going to look like issues with the market in the future. The barbarian is in pursuit and runs through a cabbage cart instead of pushing it of their way. The rogue leaps over a stall with an acrobatics but instead just jumps onto it and runs through all the tomatoes. Now the people in the town won’t like them. Yes, they get their criminal in the end, but there is a consequence to their action.

Final Thoughts on Failing Forward

This is an important tool for the dungeon master. And in the examples I gave, I want to just say one thing. The issue that can arise can be something the players know or the players don’t. In the second example the people working in the market are going to be raising a big stink and shouting after the characters so they will know. In the first example, the players might suspect but they won’t know for sure and they won’t know what is right and what isn’t.

And then use it as a tool for the future as well. There are examples I could give where the character is undercover and fails a check to blend in. Now the boss knows that they aren’t who they say they are, but instead of acting on it, the crime boss just holds onto that for later. The players might know that they failed and be surprised, but now it’s something that they are worried about coming back to bite them later.

How do you use failing forward? Is it something that is part of your campaign, or do you not even make the players do a check when they need to know the information?

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Traps

The first area to cover is traps. Traps are generally not too complex a thing in Dungeons and Dragons or in your RPG. In a fantasy setting you have physical and magical traps that players can go into, and since I write these from the point of Dungeons and Dragons, we’ll work with that system.

When using a trap there are a few steps for creating something interesting. Though not every trap needs to be that interesting. It, instead, is able to be used to set expectations if you want. I create a trap in a room at the start of the dungeon, every player is going to check every room for traps. And I think there are good uses for that. But let’s talk about those steps.

• Type of Trap
• Finding Trap
• Disarming Trap
• Setting Off Trap

Type of Trap

Each of these is simple in it’s own right. But you need each of them to be there. Firstly, what type of trap is it goin to be. Physical, magical, and if it’s physical, pit trap, spike trap, poison trap. Or if it is magical, fire, water, changes room, teleport? There are a lot of fun things that you can do. But pick that and that is going to determine some other things as you go down.

Finding Trap

Next is how can the players find the trap. Even if it is arrows being shot off of a floor trigger when they step in a spot, there are signs. Or a magical trap, there might be a glyph that is triggered. But I think there are two worthwhile numbers coming up with. First, what is the difficulty for just passively perceiving the trap? If someone is very good with their passive perception can they just spot it? Or what is the perception check to see it. And then, what is an investigation if they are looking for a specific type of trap.

The second one shows up more if it’s a known trap. If in room one there is a pit trap, in room two they might look for a pit trap again. That is investigating to find something specific. So use both.

Disarming Trap

Next up is disarming a trap. Know kind of how this is going to work. Let players maybe brute force it, if you don’t have a rogue in the party. The Barbarian rips up the pressure plate on the floor, sure. But generally, rogue with thieves tools. Or if it’s a magical trap, do they need to dispel magic?

But this is again about creating that difficulty for the check. It might be a 12 for a rogue with thieves tools and slight of hand to be able to disarm it. It isn’t that complex a trap. But if you don’t have the rogue that day, or the barbarian gets there first, it might be a 18 strength/athletics check to rip it out of the ground. So know what numbers you want. But more so, know the ballpark. If you think they may come up with an alternative way know if you want that to be as easy as a normal way or harder.

Setting Off Trap

Finally, they might just set off the trap. Now, traps can be their own mini little puzzle in a game. What is going to happen if the whole party falls into a pit traps. Now they need to get out. Or maybe it is going to be timed event now for them to get through clouds of poison while taking damage?

Sometimes it is as simple as, a volley of arrows shoot and that is it. Or the player literally gets their foot stuck in a trap (or hand if they were disarming it). But think about how you want to use the trap and the trap affect to advance story or create interesting interactions if you want.

Bonus Dungeon Master Tool – Traps and Expecations

I talked about this a little but I knew I wanted to come back to it. What is the expectation when you create a trap in the first room of a dungeon? Well, the simple answer is, there are going to be more traps. In fact, there are going to be lots of traps. The player is going to check every room for traps.

Change Them Up

Now that the players are checking for traps there are a few things that you can do. Firstly, change up the traps. Not every room should have a trap, but when you set the expectation that there can be traps don’t waste your and the players time by only having one in the first room. But change up the traps, magical and non-magical in nature.

Only One

Or, do only have a single one. But make it so difficult and terrifying that most groups would immediately run in fear. Since a good adventuring party doesn’t have enough fear or brains to know to be afraid, they will just keep checking for traps. If you do that, though, make the rest of the dungeon a cake walk. All the energy was on the start of it, the rest is just empty hallways because no one ever gets through.

Develop History

Another thing, and last one I’ll talk about, is you can develop history. The history of the dungeon could be new traps are being created so it means that someone is still down there taking care of it. Or you might find adventurers who were killed before and the players gather pieces of history from them. Nothing like the first room and the adventurers see someone dead in a sprung trap. Now you immediately plant concern and can give them some history with the adventurers journal as to what they knew of this dungeon.

Puzzles

That is more on traps than I had expected. But I think that doing a great job with traps can make for an interesting campaign. And it is going to give the rogue something to do besides trying to steal everything that isn’t bolted to the ground.

But now we are onto puzzles. And puzzles, I think, offer three different routes to go. Though, the routes can overlap in some ways. But I want to firstly talk about who the puzzle is for, that is two of the routes. And then finally, what if there isn’t an answer.

Determining Who the Puzzle is For

This might sound odd. But there are two groups that the puzzle could be for. When you create a puzzle it is either for the characters in the game. Or it is for the players out of the game. Neither is a wrong way to create a puzzle and doing both can offer a lot of fun in the game for the players. But this is the first thing you want to determine when you create a puzzle, who it is for. Because that is going to change what you do.

Puzzles for the Characters

Puzzles for characters are going to be less of the cryptograms, jumbles, patterns, things like that. Instead, for the characters, a brain teaser or pieces of history and knowledge needed are the type of puzzle that you are going to create.

You go to the temple of the god of death, for example. Well, what is it that your characters know about the god of death? You create a puzzle where they need to know something about it. The players outside of the game don’t know this god of death unless you gave them a document with it all in there (don’t do this it’s a waste of your time). But the characters in the game sure do because it’s the god of death, they’d have heard of it at least.

So think about the checks that you want them to make. It might be an investigation to see if they can tell how someone beat the puzzle before. Or it might be a religion check to determine what they remember about the god of death. Again, it’s the god of death, the characters know of it for sure, but do they know the right detail.

So a puzzle for the characters is all about the checks that they do. And you decide how hard or easy you want it to be. But if you make it too hard, also have a way around it.

Example – The God of Death

So let’s run with this god of death example. There is a dungeon where they need to get down to the lowest level. They know that there is a secret passage called the River Styx that they can use to get down to the bottom. But they get there and it’s locked away behind a riddle.

“Bestow they worship upon me, pay the tolls once, twice, and three. Coins of death marked for their fate. Hours gone don’t tarry late.”

Solution

So, what is the answer to that riddle? The players need to provide the total value of the cost to cross the River Styx either three times or six times. Once, Twice, and Three could be 1+1+1 paying it three times. Or it could be 1+2+3, paying the set each time. I think I’d set this as an intelligence check of 10, pretty simple if they want both options.

But it is also a specific coin. What is a coin marked for death. Well that might be a soul coin from the hells. A soul given up to a devil would be interesting payment to get across the River Styx. This one is more of a religion check, and I think while people know of the god of death, it is taboo to worship them, so it’s less common. Make it a difficulty check of 15 for religion, so tougher.

What If They Fail

So what if in this case they all fail their religion rolls. They don’t know about the soul coins. But after feeding in a bunch of coins and nothing happening are they locked out of the dungeon? No, there is a longer path that is more dangerous for them. But if you need a roll to succeed to progress the story, always gives a different, harder way for them to go forward. If it is just a case of finding some treasure that would be nice. Sure, it is possible that they never figure it out. But if it is for anything related to story, give them that other option.

Puzzles for the Players

Next up, a puzzle can be for the players. This one I think is a bit simpler. Yes, you still might incorporate checks that the characters can do to give the players hints. But it is all about the players for this one. A cryptogram is a great example of this. You give them a little bit of a key and then let them get going on breaking the whole thing. It is something that all the players can take part in, but it isn’t part of the game and it isn’t meant for them to roleplay it out.

I am going to skip an example on this, but it can be a lot of different things. I made a room with gouts of flames that were being shot out. As I describe what the players watch, I kind of expect the players to take notes and solve the path. It isn’t something you do by trial and error but in that case, I also make it simple. And if the players aren’t solving it, I give them an intelligence roll and give some more details that make the puzzle simpler.

Puzzles with no Answer

The final thing is something that I think more Dungeon Masters should do. This is going to be the best Dungeon Master tip overall for traps and puzzles. It is simply, don’t create a solution. This is something that you can do with puzzles but also just with issues that arise. Throw the players a problem and see what happens.

Why wouldn’t you have a solution, though? The simple answer is, the players can come up with one. And this is something that can be done in character as well. You just wait until they try something that you think makes enough sense or is cool enough to work. When they suggest it or they try it, it can work as simple as that. And let’s face it, there is one of you and probably two to eight players, so more brains, more creative solutions.

This also can let you set a time for it. If you think, I want them to sweat a bit on this trap, give them ten minutes to discuss it and try different things, or maybe even longer if it’s supposed to be key and important. Or if it is supposed to be pretty trivial, make it that way, let the first cool or fun idea work.

Example from My Game

This came to be because I actually created one of these, kind of, last night in my game. The players were on a labyrinthian type floor of a tower, the main dungeon in the campaign. Every room was the same except for a few had plaques on the wall. The big thing is that they needed to get to the stairs for the next level. To do that they needed to go into rooms and figure out where to go.

In the rooms, and only a few of them, did I leave clues for the players. But the clues were fairly general. In the first room it said the following.

First Puzzle

“Beware – Zombies
Go this way.”

That was next to one of the four doors in the square room (one per wall). The players had to decide what that meant. But little did they know, and they messed this up in an interesting way, was that every room a character went into had more and stronger zombies. So if they fought, each time the zombies would get tougher and tougher and more and more.

Second Puzzle

So the player went the right direction, eventually, after one had done a loop to see how it would work and ramping up their difficulty. Eventually they got to another room with another plaque and a dead adventurer.

“Two Far
[down arrow]”

This meant head back two rooms and go south. Now going back is going to cause more zombies and harder zombies to appear. At this point, by the way, the zombies had +23 to hit and were dealing 1D6+21 damage.

The Real Puzzle

So the new puzzle was simpler but harder. How do we get through rooms without getting hit by the zombies. They had already spent a fair number of resources on a battle or two with the zombies. And I didn’t give them a solution. If they had gone the ideal route, it wouldn’t have been a major deal. But because they went further and created more zombies, it was way harder for them.

So two flight spells later and the Warforged character being disguised as a zombie the players got to the right room. But they needed to do it in a way where they weren’t taking 3-4 attacks of opportunity each, Because say it was three, all likely hit with a +23 to hit, and that’s a minimum of 66 damage, a lot for even a level 16 bard.

Final Dungeon Master Tools for Traps and Puzzles

This is the reminder that I give at the end of all of these Dungeon Master tools. Or if not at the end, sometime in there. But the point of everything is to create a great experience at the table. And that means progressing characters and stories as you go along. When you create a trap and a puzzle that should be in your mind as well. Because when you do that the most fu n is going to be had at the table for both you and your players.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Players at the Table

Let’s actually start out by saying, this topic isn’t all bad. Yes, I am going to have a little section to kick it off on how to handle poor players at the table. But there are a lot of good topics and positive things that you can do. So I want to spend more time on those because cultivating the good behavior is as important as dealing with poor behavior.

Poor Behavior

So let’s talk about poor behavior to start. This can take a lot of different forms, and the next topic is going to let you handle some of it. If you have a group you know well, you probably know how people are going to act. If you need to add in new players from outside a group, everyone has a different dynamic. And there are some people who are not going to handle the game you run well.

This can be for a lot of reasons. It might be a min/max player who sulks if they miss an attack or someone else gets to do something that “they are better at”. Or it might be the alpha who tries to explain how everyone should run their character and what you as the Dungeon Master should be doing instead. Or it might be outside of game behavior that just makes people uncomfortable, like bringing politics to the table, saying inappropriate things, or general rude and disrespectful behavior.

For me, this is a three strike situation. The first time I see it or it is mentioned to me, I talk to the player. They maybe don’t realize what their behavior is doing or that it is causing issues at the table. Second time it happens, let them know that they’ll be gone if it continues. And then third time, they are gone. Now there are some things that are just completely inappropriate and it might be zero tolerance there. But know what that is for you and your players.

Setting Expectations

That nicely leads into this element of the game. And this can be done at a session zero, or before even. But let people know what the expectations are. A lot of them are simple, but let’s throw together a list.

• Show up to Sessions and let us know if you need to miss
• Pay attention in sessions, aka, don’t use your phone or laptop for anything beyond not taking
• Engage
• Be respectful of others
• Keep others engaged
• Don’t hog the spotlight
• If something is uncomfortable, speak up
• Play to the style of the campaign

So all but the top points are really about what The RPG Academy has as a golden rule. That is, “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.” It is something important for the whole table to know and understand. You want everyone to have a great time gaming.

The last one is probably a little bit different than you often see. And that is why I think it could be useful to talk about. Play to the style of the campaign. And we’ll talk some about what that means in more detail in the next section. For setting expectation this also refers to, know the setting. If I, as the Dungeon Master, send out an idea to get you hooked in and it’s a low magic, components are hard to find, grim setting, don’t come in with a wizard. Or if you do play a wizard know that it is going to be hard. Come with ideas and intentions to play into the setting.

The Right Mix

The right mix is a big one for the Dungeon Master. And I think it is something that people often don’t understand. I write about the three pillars of Dungeons and Dragons. And I think that they can be true for all RPG settings. But know your players and know how to mix them the right way.

Firstly, if you know that a campaign is going to be very heavy on combat, let the players know. You don’t want them to build the squishiest druid who doesn’t have a single attack of defensive spell. At the same time, if this is a low combat campaign, let them know as well so they don’t make a fighter with only combat skills.

But I think more importantly is to learn as you go at the table. See what your players gravitate towards. A group might prefer combat and exploration to social interactions. If that is the case, make those two elements the larger parts of the your campaign. On the flip side if they love to interact with NPC’s, give them chances to do so and put combat on the backburner.

I want to stress that there isn’t a perfect way to do this. There is no combination that is going to be ideal all the time. Some sessions might be all combat even for a group who prefers social interactions. General rule of thumb is make it lean into the players preferred style. And when you go towards what they like least, make it matter for the story.

Engaging Everybody

Finally, this one is about the group and players, but often times is about a specific player. And this is something that you can get help from players for, but as the Dungeon Master, it falls on you as well. In an RPG group you likely have the more and less talkative players. So don’t let the more talkative players steamroll the less talkative players. That goes back to keeping everyone engaged.

Tips

As the Dungeon Master a few simple tips. When the players are discussing options, ask the quieter player, “What do you think?”. Put the ball in their court for them to answer. Or if the players are in town shopping and everyone is talking about what they want, ask the quieter player what their character would want. It’s not singling them out, it’s bringing them into the events that are currently happening and getting their input.

What you want to avoid, though, is singling them out. Things like suggesting they be the one to decide on what the players do might feel like too much pressure. And it might cause them anxiety in which case they won’t be having fun. So the goal is always to bring them into what is happening.

This is where you can also recruit another player to help. Maybe not the most talkative player, but someone who can hold their own and is empathetic. Let them help you with this. That way the engagement is coming from beyond just the Dungeon Master. And a player can more easily suggest that another players character comes along with them.

Example

Let’s say the party is getting split (don’t do this too often) and two player characters go one way and two go another way. Instead of them just splitting up and whomever is by themselves gets the quieter person, let the other person ask them to come along with them. That is a positive interaction to get that player involved.

Final Thoughts

So that is it, for now, for Dungeon Master tools. I know I put a lot out there for it. I hope that a lot of it just stacks up nicely for you as a Dungeon Master. The goal from this whole series has been to make being a Dungeon Master seem less daunting.

The Steps

Now, I know that this all feels like a lot when I write it all down. But let’s break it down one last time into smaller chunks that you can do. And don’t start the next one until the previous one is done completely.

Step 1: Come up with your idea. Read up on the campaign tools. And reach out to some people for your group.

Step 2: Do a Session 0, and make an agreement about some standards and expectations for the game. The latter part is in this article, and then read up on Session 0 here. And you’ll help facilitate character creation.

Step 3: Break down your first arc and first session. But really focus on that first arc here. This is step one of your planning.

Step 4: Plan that first session and do the world building needed for it. This is a quick follow-on to what you did in step 3, but more in depth and focused. And this is also when you look at combat, social interactions, and exploration, depending on what is in that session.

Step 5: Play

Step 6: Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until you hit a new arc, then back up to 3.

Hopefully that is simple enough. And as I said, do each one separately, don’t do too much at once. I want to continue some and I want to talk to the players next. So look to start next week for Dungeon and Dragons and RPG’s for players.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Social Interations

The NPC

Let’s start out with the NPC. How do you create a good NPC as the Dungeon Master? We already talked about this in world building. You can read about that here. But let’s recap it for the basics. You want to create an NPC, add in these things: Name, Defining Feature(s), Brief Description. That’s what you want to start with for it. Maybe add in an occupation as well so you can keep track of who is a shopkeeper, a quest giver, or any other role.

Again, the mantra is keep it simple as you plan out the NPC. If you want to add more to the NPC, add it in the moment. Give the NPC an accent, jot it down where you created your NPC at. That way you remember for next time, though odds are your players won’t remember either. But the big thing is keep your NPC creation simple so that you aren’t over planning and over engineering them.

Social Interactions

This one is tough to give a ton of advice on. The biggest thing to create good and memorable social interactions is to have social interactions in your game. Why, because it just requires practice. There are things like “Yes and” that we’ll talk about with social interactions, but it really is true across the board for your RPG as well.

But let’s face it, as the Dungeon Master the hardest element is coming up with things on the fly. And while you can plan out some combats, and you might know the direction of a conversation with an NPC, you can’t know how the PCs are going to interact with the NPCs.

The player character is being aggressive with the king, what do you do? They are asking about the shopkeepers family, what do you do? They want hire a street urchin as an informant, what do you do?

You need to be able to react in the moment. And you get better at that the more you do it. It’s a skill for players to, what happens if the king becomes hostile to them? But as the dungeon master, you can plan for that, you can’t plan for the players interacting.

“Yes and”

So let’s talk about “Yes and”, it’s probably something you expected sooner. But this is an improv idea of going with the flow. If the players say, “I want to hire the street urchin as an informant” and that isn’t your plan, how do you go with the flow. “Yes and” is the answer. So let’s look at this example I’ve created.

Example – “Yes and”

Street Urchin: I saw the robber run down that alleyway.
Player: Thanks for the information. (pause) We think there is a group of thieves who just came into town, if you keep your eyes and ears open for anything suspicious we’ll pay you a silver a week for information.

As the Dungeon Master, this isn’t our plan, this is a one off NPC that we didn’t even plan ahead of time, now the players want to hire them. So we “yes and” it.

Street Urchin: Sure, I’ll help for a silver a week, but I’m not going to do anything dangerous, and I want a meal every time.

What We Did

So it threw us off our game, kind of. But we created some rules around it. The players now have an informant, it costs them a silver per week, it costs them a meal per week. And the Street Urchin has said that they won’t do anything dangerous. We created some guard rails around the character. And this being an unplanned NPC that matters now, it creates some of our world planning for the character.

Name: Street Urchin (until they ask for a name then have them name it)
Defining Feature(s): Always after a good meal and eager to chat, but is cautious if anything looks hard to do or dangerous since they can’t afford to get hurt.
Brief Description: They are a small, undersized human who is living on their own on the streets. They ran away from home after their village was attacked by goblins. As far as they know their family is dead. And they don’t have enough food or money to go back and find out. But they have been making it on the street by being careful and cautious around anyone who looks dangerous.

Other Social Tips

So what other things are worth noting about social interactions. Firstly, keep an eye on two things that the players do. Players will tend to find NPC’s that they like and NPC’s that they don’t like. Those are your key NPC’s for your game. When you need someone to give out a new quest, go with one of those, on either side. Because it is going to make it more interesting and gives you a framework for good interactions.

What do you do with them, let’s look at the different types.

NPC’s Players Like

So these are going to be the ones that you do a few different things with. The simplest is that the majority of them are just going to continue to be friends with the players. Let’s take the street urchin for example. They just want a friend, they are going to be nice to the players because the players feed them and give them money, they won’t turn on the players.

The next option is that you put them in harms ways. The players are going to want to protect them, so let’s again look at our informant street urchin. They try and be careful but these new thieves are good and realize that the street urchin is informing on them. So the group of thieves go and kidnap the street urchin to lure the players into a trap.

The final option is that you make them betray or always be evil. This is harder for the street urchin, in some ways, but the secret backstory could be that the street urchin is actually the head of the group of thieves and used them to get rid of a bad apple at the first meeting. And now they are feeding them just enough good information that the players trust them while they really are planning and executing a bigger and grander heist.

NPC’s Players Dislike

Now the flip can generally be true, in some ways. The NPC could just stay unlikeable and be a rival to the players. In fact, build them up as an adventurer who gets their own party and is beating the players to completing some things to really drive home that rival feeling. But that’s a rare case, mainly you just keep them antagonistic to the PCs.

It’s also fun, once in a while, to give them an interesting and truly heartfelt backstory. They are abrasive because they don’t trust adventurers. An adventuring party kidnapped their brother and made him work for them carrying around their packs and things like that. And they don’t know where their brother is, the adventuring party left and didn’t come back from an adventure so they fear the worst. But it comes across, until you get to know the NPC as just being mean to adventurers, which the players are.

Now, the final one is putting them in harms way. But why would the players care. Well, you need to tie that to more of the plot. They hire the adventurers to keep them safe, but the adventurers don’t like them, that’s some fun interactions. Or they get kidnapped, but they are important so there is a good reward for getting them back, can that tempt the players?

Final Thoughts on Social Interactions

The best advice that I can give is just do it. You are going to stumble, you are going to need a pause. I’ve ran a game where because of a social interaction we took a ten minute pause to use the bathroom, grab food, things like that. You don’t need to always figure it out on the fly, if you need to take the time to make it work, do that. And the more you have these social interactions the easier it will get. It might never be easy, but it will become easier.

Down to our final Dungeon Master Tools topics:

• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Exploration

Firstly, let’s talk about why exploration is difficult or often overlooked in a campaign by the Dungeon Master and the players. Exploration is often this idea of travel of getting from here to there. We think about Lord of the Rings, as an example. There is a lot of “exploration” going through Mordor, the part with Tom Bombadil that everyone loves so much. But with that, often times just walking isn’t going to be all that interesting, and we see that in Lord of the Rings as well.

So when the party of players leaves the town, what do they do? They start walking. And it might take some time to get somewhere. If the Dungeon Master is doing a good job it won’t be too long of a walk, but Tolkien made it a very long walk. And things happen along that walk. But I think that exploration is more than that.

Exploring on the Walk

But I think it’s important to talk about exploring along the walk. We see exploration happen along the walk in Lord of the Rings. Some of it pays off in interesting ways for the characters, and other parts, well, not so much. And I think a Dungeon Master can learn from this.

Example from Lord of the Rings

Let’s, for this example, say that all the players are the four hobbits in Lord of the Rings. When their NPC mentor seemingly dies fighting a giant monster they can’t defeat, that’s an interesting element along the way. Of course by this I mean Gandalf the Grey fighting the Balrog. But there are other elements, like the side quest to Tom Bombadil that don’t make that much sense.

So the point of the example is make it matter to the story. I want to go back and talk about story arcs again. Not to beat a dead horse, but story arc planning can help make the exploration more interesting. Why, because, that is the chance to start dropping breadcrumbs for arcs to come. In Lord of the Rings how much more epic is it when Gandalf returns as Gandalf the White?

Example with Story Arcs

Here’s our story planned out:

• Find treasure
• Fight Mid-level boss
• Learn about Big Bad
• Search for way to stop Big Bad
• Get information from wizard
• Find artifact
• Confront big bad

Let’s say we are on that first arc of finding the treasure. Before we head out of town the group is confronted by a gang of street toughs. They all have a crimson band tied around one arm as a notable feature that you call out as the Dungeon Master. When you finish up that arc, because it’s part of the walking out of town, you go onto that mid-level boss. And sure enough the boss’s henchmen have a band tied around their arm that is crimson.

So what did I do there? I tossed in seemingly a random encounter, gave it one piece of flare, an arm band, and paid that off later. Will the players remember it, possibly. But let’s also say the players maybe don’t kill all the street toughs because some run away, those street toughs will remember the players for sure.

Exploring in Other Ways

So we talked about that journey exploration, but sometimes exploration isn’t so much that traveling. Sometimes you might want to focus on exploration being a dungeon or something like that. If there is an old lost ruin of a dungeon, no one might know what is in there. And the NPC’s probably don’t have a good map of it. So this is another way to add in exploration in a more meaningful plot or character driven way.

Example from Lord of the Rings

So is there an example again from Lord of the Rings? There certainly is. The Mines of Moria are a pretty standard dungeon. While it does offer some of the bigger arc stuff like I talked about with Gandalf, there is another story that is progressed through this exploration. And that is of Gimli finding out what happened to the other dwarves. It’s a good character developing arc for a specific character.

Example with Story Arcs

So let’s keep this story going that we’re doing. The players are out of town after fighting those street toughs. They maybe need to deal with some more wildlife along their way, but they reach the crypt where the treasure it hidden away. You know, the one where they are going to need to fight the undead. Read up on that here with combat.

We know from talking about story arcs and planning sessions that the players know a little bit about this place. But the information they got was from a drunk who ran away from this place. So it isn’t likely that the person knows everything for the players to know. That is when you start to explore with the players and they explore this tomb/crypts to get down to that last hidden crypt. And that leads us to our next thing, creating a dungeon.

Creating a Location

So, I say it’s about creating a dungeon. It doesn’t need to be that, it can be any sort of explorable location. If the players need to find something in a woods, that is an explorable location. But it is called Dungeons and Dragons for one RPG, so I do think of Dungeons.

What do you do as a Dungeon Master to prep a location? I think there are a few ways that you could try and make this work. Let’s start with the easiest way, you can use an existing tool. This is one dungeon generator that I have found that I think is nice – https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/. And even if you don’t use the dungeon that is generated, I think it’s nice to look at to help shape up some ideas of how it can work.

The other way is to sketch out a dungeon. You don’t need to plan everything out, but if you want to create a dungeon, I think jotting down a few things can be useful. Firstly, draw out some shape of the dungeon. That is where the generator actually can help too, even if you don’t want to use everything they put in there, you have a specific monster(s) you want to use, for example, it can give you a shape.

Then jot down some notes about the dungeon. Are there traps, and what type of traps are they? Are there wondering monsters or specific monsters that could be in a room in rooms? And what types of monsters do you want to use. You don’t need to plan each combat, but you can create a list to make it feel a bit more living.

Example Dungeon Creation

Firstly, I whip up a map from the Don Jon site. I want to use a map of some sort. That is just my template for my dungeon. Or I draw up a map. Mainly I want to create as many rooms as I want and I want to know how it maps out. The reason for knowing that is I want to create some dead ends and other things to mess with the players.

Traps

Next I want to put in some traps. But I don’t need to put them into specific rooms. For our example of this undead crypt, I know I want the last door to be trapped, it’s the final room it makes sense, so I put a trap there. Otherwise I put one in the first few rooms, so the players know to look for it, and then I roll to see if there is a trap or not and what type of trap. In this case, I want a spike trap and a poison trap, so I grab stats for them and create a little table.

Monsters

Then I think about what monsters do I want? If you know what you want it makes it easy. But much like the traps, create a table to roll for monsters in rooms or not and what type of monsters. In this case I want a couple of ghosts, including one I place in specific side room who isn’t actually evil, but just wants to go to rest and the players can help with that. And then some different combats of varying difficulty. And I roll when players enter rooms and then roll for bad guys.

Items

Finally there are items. A good dungeon should have some things in there as well. And you need to decide how much you want the players to find or how little. Since this is really early game, I want it to be a little. What I think makes sense is that some of the tombs will have bodies with jewelry on them, so the players can get a few cheaper pieces of jewelry to sell and then buy other items with. Plus there is going to be the item somewhere that the friendly ghost wants, and I’d place that specifically. And last the item at the end that the players already know about.

Always For the Plot or Characters

Final thing is that exploration is always for the plot or characters. I think that random encounters can be okay, but it needs to make sense. A random encounter is generally not for the plot or the characters. It’s for some combat in a game, and generally it’s the type of combat where it’s just kill everything that attacked, which isn’t that interesting. But they can be used to set the tone of the world, how dangerous it is, and then you drop them.

There can be reasons to use random encounters, but generally your exploration and combat in exploration should be for the plot. Even the locations you encounter should be for the plot. It’s great to find a random ancient ruin, maybe there is some treasure there, but does it serve anything? If the answer is no, why did you stop there? Make it serve either the plot, or for those random side quest locations, make them serve the players backstory.

Final Thoughts

Exploration is more than just random encounters as you get from place A to B. If that is what you want to use for exploration, than skip this pillar as it won’t be that fun or exciting for anyone. Instead montage through it and get to the locations that matter. Sleeping out in the woods and a few rolls where nothing happens as players keep watch, not that exciting.

And, as a Dungeon Master, when you do exploration and flesh out the world, I want to reiterate my last point, make it matter to the plot or to the characters. Even if it’s a new NPC and the players help them, make it meaningful. It doesn’t need to be a major thing, but one final example, our crimson arm band street toughs, maybe they messed with a shop keeper so the players help that shop keeper get something to keep the business going. Yes it’s not directly tied to the main plot, but it uses characters who matter to story arcs, so keep it simple and keep it tied in.

Down to two more Dungeon Master Tools topics:

• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Combat

We all know what combat is, so we’ll kind of skip over that detail, right? Well I think we generally know what it is there is a mindset that it means “beat the bad guys”. Combat certainly has that in it, but I think it is better defined as taking actions in conflict with an aggressively hostile party to end the hostile situation.

Now that is a bit of a mouthful. But the reason for that is that often “beat the bad guys” but it might be, escape through a group of hostile enemies, or run away from the combat. Or it might be protect an NPC who is trying to get to an objective or needs time to complete an objective, so you need to defend them. And it is even the situations where you beat someone down enough that they beg for mercy or a truce when they k now they are defeated.

How To Do Combat

So let’s start out with some basics again here. We now know what combat is, so how do you do combat. And I want to talk about two ways and suggest you do the second one.

The first way is to have a battle map. This is going to require minis, things on the map to denote enemies or terrain and things like that. It’s going to be a bit more complex because as the Dungeon Master you need to plan this out ahead of time to have everything ready.

The second way is theater of the mind. This is where you know what the battle is like in your head. Everyone imagines what it looks like and you work through it that way. Now there is a drawback of this is that it is a skill to be learned. It’s not always the easiest to do right off the bat, but it is simpler than always creating a combat.

Theater of the Mind

So we know what theater of the mind is. So you want to do that, how do you keep track of everything?

The first way is to simply add it into your notes as you go. When players and enemies roll for initiative I write that down and as combat goes, I might draw a line between player characters and enemies who are adjacent to each other. That way I can keep track of who is who. The more you run theater of the mind, the easier that is going to be to keep track of who is where just in your head.

That is going to be the simplest way of keeping track by drawing lines. Another way, if you want to help with that theater of the mind element is to create your own battle map. If you are fairly confident a battle will happen in a session, or you do this on the fly, you draw up where the player characters and enemies are. Then you just erase and move them as they move and attack and die. This is more work, but might be a decent first step.

When To Use Battle Maps

Now the answer for you might be never. I rarely use battle maps because I plan my combats on the fly. But if I know there is a big set piece, I am more apt to use a battle map. And I understand the desire to use a battle map. A big map and set-up is fun for players as the Dungeon Master alike.

So I believe in using them sparingly. I use them for a bit boss combat. If you return to the story arc article, each arc maybe has a final fight. Let’s look at this example again.

Example Arcs

• Find treasure
• Fight Mid-level boss
• Learn about Big Bad
• Search for way to stop Big Bad
• Get information from wizard
• Find artifact
• Confront big bad

Find a treasure doesn’t seem like it has a combat. Well, it can. And this is a great time to talk about another element of combat that I already talked about some.

Vary Combat Objectives

What do I mean by vary combat? I mean create the escort or protect someone combats. Create a combat where the players are overwhelmed and they need to get something and get out. Now, I lean towards combat where you beat the enemy more often than not. Whether that ends in knocking out the enemy or killing them or getting the fight to end through violence or spells, whatever that might be. But throw in other combats as well where players need to think through what they are doing.

So let’s talk about that “find treasure” scenario as an example.

Example – Find Treasure

This might seem like it doesn’t have that combat element to it. Or it might not be a set piece. But I think that it can be a very good set piece scenario. So let’s talk about building out that scenario and it might not all be known to the players at the start all of this, but I want to make it simple if I can for a new Dungeon Master, that’s the whole point.

The Objective: Get in and out as fast as you can with the treasure.
The Set-up/Description: You open the door to a hidden room in the crypt, unfortunately it’s guarded by undead. As you watch for a second, you see there are hallways and other crypts off to the side with more undead.
The Complication: There is no limit to the undead. Every round 1D4 undead are added into the mix. So even if they take them all out more will keep coming.

Now this is great because it can work well either as theater of the mid or in a set piece with a battle map. If you do a battle map create some terrain and bottle necks in there. The bottle necks can be where the undead come from off to the side. So players, theoretically could block one of them up by placing a tanky player character in front of it. But to win it is really get in and get out.

Enemy Actions

This is the second to last thing that I want to talk about before I wrap up combat. And this is where you really can develop, I think as a Dungeon Master. It is an area that I want to develop in more as a Dungeon Master as well. But give your enemies different flavors as you work.

Let’s use our undead as an example. And you might want to add this to your notes as the Dungeon Master as you think about the combat. But how does an undead fight? And are these undead mainly just reanimated corpses or zombies with an objective, or intelligent undead?

In my example, I see them as unintelligent undead. They are the corpses from the crypts who are awakened via magic. So I want them to attack whomever is closest to them. If players aren’t careful that means that one player might get surrounded which is bad at low levels. And I expect this to be an encounter for low level characters that they can’t win, again because there are always more undead. But that does mean that they aren’t going to target a healer or caster off the bat since they likely won’t be the closest.

Adding In Theme

Once we get past the differences between theater of the mind versus a battle map, the big thing that I’m trying to do by varying combat objectives and enemy actions or behaviors is to create fun thematic combat experiences. And I know I want to get better at this as well.

Why, I think that it makes combat more fun for both the players and the Dungeon Master. If I know something about how the enemies are going to act that the players need to figure out, that is fun for me. And for the players, it’s fun to have enemies that do varied things, to varied characters but are doing it for a reason. It isn’t fun when the enemies always ignore the tank and rush past to get to the healer and caster.

So, to wrap it up, come up with one element to add in theme to your combat. Whether that be hordes of undead who keep coming no matter what or an intelligent rogue who is always trying to drop into hiding and move their position around a crowded warehouse, give the players something to remember the combat by. And if you just happen to have group of street toughs who are just straight forward basic combat, that might standout too.

Final Thoughts on Combat

Combat is going to be a part of your game. I didn’t mention it yet, but I’ll say it here quickly and then again in the last topic, the meta game, but how much combat you have might vary a lot. I know in the Dungeon Master Guide and other D&D books they say 4-6 small combats a day. The idea is to use up player resources. That might work, or it might not, for your group. You need to figure that out, and we’ll talk about how in that meta game article coming out soon.

What I didn’t cover was encounter creation in terms of enemy power. The easiest way, I find is to use a tool like: https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/. It let’s you punch in details and see how hard your combat is going to be. Especially for combats where players need to beat the enemies by force.

So what is coming next for Dungeon Master Tools?

• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

Let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – World Building

Let’s first start off by saying, read what I wrote on story arcs. It is here. And that is going to be the framework for this world building discussion going forward. Why, because it breaks it down and keeps it simple.

So let’s keep going with our example from there and let’s just recap it a little bit:

• Find treasure
• Fight Mid-level boss
• Learn about Big Bad
• Search for way to stop Big Bad
• Get information from wizard
• Find artifact
• Confront big bad

We start with find the treasure. And I broke that down even more.

• Find Treasure
  • Get party together and get quest
  • Find where the dungeon is and travel there
  • Explore dungeon

So now we’re down to “Get the party together and get the quest.” That is the point where you start your world building.

What Elements You Build

So, previously to this I talked about Session 1, you can find that here. And that gives a bit more context to this plan. The group gets a quest, they meet with the quest giver, they fight someone trying to stop them from going on the quest and they get more information about the location of the quest from an NPC. That is my plan for Session 1. And this is where I am going to pull out what elements I need to build.

I look at my description of what I want to do, I see two NPC’s in there. First there is the “Quest Giver” then there is the “Information Giver”. So I need to come up with stuff for both of them. I said in the Session 1 article, let’s have it be a bar where they meet the second NPC. So when I decide that location, that’s another thing for world building, what is the name of the bar. And I get a third NPC with the “Bartender”.

Next I want to ask myself some questions. Where do they get the quest? Where do they meet the “Quest Giver”? And finally, who do they fight? If I answer them with adventurers guild, their estate, and street gang, I now know a few more things for my world building, and that’s about it I need to do to get started.

Building The Elements

I’m going to give a couple examples of how to build. But we start at the top level and work down. And every element that I build is going to follow a standard format.

I want everything I do to have a pretty similar format. It doesn’t matter if it’s a location, country, NPC, they all are going to be pretty standard to try and make my life simpler as the Dungeon Master. I want to have name, defining feature, brief description.

Example – Quest Giver

Name: John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt
Defining Feature(s): Snooty Aristocrat with too much time and money, also a triplet – all named the same.
Brief Description: He has a very fancy estate with lots of gaudy artwork, he himself is even more gaudy than his estate. And for a dwarf that looks out of place, but he doesn’t care and he is always talking about and showing off his wealth.

Example – Inn/Bar

Name: The Crooked Turnip
Defining Feature(s): Cheap as can be with a patronage that looks the same.
Brief Description: From the outside The Crooked Turnip looks like it shouldn’t be open and for a bar, it’s not that noisy. From the inside it looks like it’s just locals, people down on their luck, and the alcohol is the cheapest swill that you can get. If you order the pot roast, you’re pretty sure it’s just turnips.

And that is it. So let’s count, we have the quest giver, the information giver, the bar, the bartender, adventurers guild, estate, street gang, town, and country. I count nine total things that you need to come up with details on, and general details. I think a tenth might be the treasure’s location, but again, not in much detail. You don’t need to know what else is in town really. If you suspect your players will go shopping, as players do, then maybe a shop, and a shopkeeper.

Could you do more. Obviously, but the point is to do as little as possible. And to make it as easy for yourself as the Dungeon Master as possible. Plan what you need only and don’t overthink it.

Final Thoughts on World Building

You probably know the theme for these Dungeon Master Tools, keep it simple. And I want to keep on banging that drum. I love drawing out a good map, but is it needed for a town or country, not really. And if you want to draw a map, start the map with a shape of the country the town, and that’s it. As you add to the world each session build out more.

The final bit of advice for world building is let the player help. They decide to set-up their base of operations at an inn. They get to name the inn. Make your life simpler by only planning for what you know you will need. And everyone pitches in for those surprise elements of the game.

So what is coming next for Dungeon Master Tools?

• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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Dungeon Master Tools – Session 1

What Not To Do

Let’s start out with what you shouldn’t do as the Dungeon Master. And I know that some of these things that I’ll write about are much easier said than done.

Don’t stress about it. This is the one that is by far easier said than done. But your players are going to like your campaign because they are going to like playing Dungeons and Dragons, for example. So the opportunity to play the game is going to be the important part, not that the game is perfect. And I’ll talk more about what you should or maybe shouldn’t do to keep your stress lower.

Don’t over plan it. Now, I’m going to talk more about this in what to do or describe how I plan things. But don’t over plan the first session or really the campaign. You want to plan some for the session. That is going to help with stressing. But don’t build out your whole world. If you won’t go to a town this session, like the capitol of the land, don’t create the capitol and NPC’s who live there, unless they are key to some element that you know the players will get to.

What To Do

Let’s start by talking a bit about what you should plan for your first session of a campaign. My big thing is keep it simple. When I wrote about the campaign itself, I told you know your hook and have an idea of where you want to end. You can read that here.

So now it’s time to play out that hook. And you want to plan out a few things with that hook and for the first sessions.

• How the characters meet
• NPC Interactions
• A Combat

How The Characters Meet

Let’s start out with maybe the simplest but the hardest as well. How do the characters meet? The simplest way to do this is say, you are already in a party. If they are already a party, they come up with how they meet. If not, create some story hook for it.

Let’s say that they are going to get the quest from someone to kickoff the campaign. Like go deal with the goblins who are causing issues somewhere. Well, all the players grab the same notice off of the job board and then go meet at the house or location where the quest giver will give them some more details. That way you form the party.

Or maybe you want to do the classic, “you are all at a tavern when…”. That’s going to be your hook where you bring the quest giver to them, or whatever that jumping off point might be. Even if it’s the fight in the tavern and the players band together to stop the fight.

The big thing is keep this simple and let this hit the plot quickly. So this is an area where you can reduce your stress by not overthinking it. Go with the simple and/or classic option to get the game moving. Or, better yet, in session 0, let the players create a group that is already a party. Now you just need them to show up and get given a plot hook.

Social Interactions

Let’s talk about social interactions then as well. I think you want some social interactions in the first session. There is an obvious one that we already talked about. You talk with the quest giver to give them that first plot hook. But that might be a more one sided conversation. You talk with Tom Bombadil and he gives you the quest. When you do that, though, Tom tells them to go talk to another NPC to get more information.

Now with this second NPC, and you can even hint at it, they aren’t as talkative. You decide, do they just not want to share the information. Or are they traumatized because, in my previous example, the goblins took over their home or killed a party member or something like that? Give them a single simple reason for not being that talkative. Now the players get to use some rolls to try and get that player to talk more.

The big reason for this is to get the players talking more. And when the players do get the NPC to talk more, now they get a bunch of information, including information about maybe a small boss monster or something like that. And maybe some challenges that the players might face.

The reason for those little extra things, you want to players to talk about it. And they players are going to ask questions, to each other, about if they need to prepare, what their plan should be, and maybe if the person who gave the quest was lying or didn’t know there was a bigger monster out there.

Combat

Next up let’s talk about combat. I think that you want some combat. So you want to move the NPC interaction along pretty quickly. But your quest should be, here is what you need to know, here is where you need to go, and it is a quest where you need to fight something. Keep that moving.

And because you know you need to fight something, you can prepare. Now, I recommend that you keep combat to start pretty simple. I suspect what intimated some people about combat is watching Critical Role where there is always a big set piece combat that happens, or nearly always. You don’t need to do that. If you want to do a combat with minis, buy a few cheap minis or use tokens or something to represent the players and monsters and grid paper. Don’t spend a ton of money, this first combat is meant to be simple.

I personally use theater of the mind most of the time. Why, because that is even simpler. We all just need to imagine what the battlefield looks like. Now that is a bit to keep in your head. But it might be a simpler and lower barrier of entry than trying to map out a combat. If it feels like a lot, take notes of where everyone is, generally, in combat. The fighter went up next to the group of two goblins, that is all the note needs to say. But, let’s get to the next point.

Keep Planning Simple

Mainly I want to get to this next and last point of keep it simple. This is on a lot of levels. I’ve really drilled in that you want to keep it simple with the NPC interactions. You want to keep it simple with combat. But there is even more. Keep it simple, still with your world building.

Example

Let’s use the example again of the goblins taking over a dungeon and a previous group having gone in there and gotten beaten. If that’s the case what do I need for the first session as the Dungeon Master?

• Quest Giver NPC
• NPC who was with the adventuring party
• Name of dungeon
• First room for combat in the dungeon
• Goblin stat block

That is about all that you need. It is really a keep it simple. What is missing from my list? There is no world built yet. I think you might add in the name of the town and the name of the bar where you find the NPC who was part of the adventuring party. That is all that you need to kick off this campaign, it is that simple.

Avoid the temptation to build out a ton more. So don’t build out the kingdom, don’t set-up rulers, and other towns, make it only about what you absolutely need for that session. And if someone asks the name of the kingdom, crowdsource, ask the players what they think it should be called. You go with that, and you work it all together, you don’t need to build it alone.

But if that seems like too little for it. There is very little else that I’d add to your plate. At most, a shop, a shop keeper and what they have. Your adventurers should be about broke, so that makes it simpler. But that’s it, nothing more.

Final Thoughts

The whole point of this Dungeon Master Tools series is to keep things as simple as possible for you. And it’s a reminder for me to keep it as simple as possible as well. Because I know the desire to create more than I need or to plan more than I need. And the more you Dungeon Master and play your campaign the easier things will become to not over plan. Why, because you already know all of it, you build a town, the players come back to it. You don’t need to build it again.

But the temptation is that you need it all to be ready at the start. And let’s say that you are with a group of mean players. Those players go the wrong way, they leave town and don’t head in the direction of the dungeon, in your head or that was given to them. Well, make the drunk adventurer be wrong. Yes, it is okay to railroad them into what you’ve planned by just moving the dungeon, in this case. You don’t do that all the time, but always keep it simple for you because when you don’t feel stressed and overworked as the Dungeon Master, the game is more fun for everyone.

So what is next?

• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Character Creation

Know What Books You Are Going to Use

Firstly, know what books you are going to use. If you are a new Dungeon Master, I think I would go with the Players Handbook and the Revised Ranger which you can find online. I wouldn’t add in anything else, because that is going to mean a few things. Firstly that you or someone owns those other books. And if you don’t own them, you need to know what’s in them pretty well. The other reason is that it keeps what you need to know focused and the character races and classes easier to keep track of.

As you play more and feel more comfortable, I think it’s totally valid to add in more books. In fact, I expect that most Dungeon Masters are going to add in more books over time. Though, if you are playing the revised 5E with the new books, you get to keep it limited, for now.

Is Anything Banned?

Next, know if you don’t want anything in your campaign. Is your setting one where all magic comes from the divine or demonic sources, maybe you don’t go with all the casting classes. Or if magic is banned or doesn’t exist for some reason, that’s good to know. Another example would be creatures with flying speeds that the PC’s (player characters) can play. Do you want to deal with a 3D battle scenario or not?

I think that banning is a last resort. In fact, I recommend that Dungeon Masters don’t do it. But there are thematic reasons why you may ban some class or class feature so be aware of that. Especially if this is your first campaign, and you want to run something that is maybe easier to understand, don’t ban anything, go with a setting that more closely resembles Faerun as it’s going to make your life easier as you and your players don’t need to remember anything.

How Do You Get Stats?

One of the final things here is how you get the stats. And I want to talk about a number of ways that you can get them. Because there are a lot of fun ways. But know how you want to do it. Why, because a player might like one better than another, so they can min/max or manipulate things more. So know which way you want to go so there isn’t a discussion. You run this game as the Dungeon Master, listen to reasons, but at the end, everyone does it the same way, however you land.

Point Buy

Firstly there is point buy system. In this players get a certain number of points, and all stats start at 8. Then you spend points to increase those stats. Before the bonus you get from being an elf or half-orc, whatever it might be, you can go as high as fifteen. Each number increase costs a point and you start with 27 total points. This is going to give the players complete control over how they handout their stats.

Rolling

Rolling For Stats is another way that you can go, and this can be done in a few different ways. The most common way is roll 4D6 (four six sided dice) and drop the lowest of the dice. For example, if you roll a six, two, five, and two, you drop one of the twos, and get a 13. Now, you complete that six times, one for each stat, and players assign them in the direction that they want. That is going to let some numbers possible be higher, but there isn’t a floor like you get with the point buy system.

You can also just go with rolling 3D6 and keeping that, it’s going to create a wider range of what you can roll, though. So it is possible that a player is going to roll very low. A three in a stat is too low to really even play with, and while it’s possible in the previous version, it’s less possible.

Finally, you can use either method and do a down the line approach to the stats. What I mean by that is you start with strength and go down. So if I decide I’m a wizard, I hope I roll well on roll four for intelligence. This is going to create a greater level of variance in characters and how good they are and it can be fun. Just let your players know ahead of time.

Standard Array

The final way is the simplest. This is the standard array. The standard array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 for your stats. Every player is going to start out basically the same. Now that order is going to change, but no one is going to have a very high stat by magically rolling three sixes. And no player is going to have a low stat. This is good, I think for a starting campaign. The more new people you have, the easier this is to use. Mainly, because, you don’t want someone to be in a position to dominate everything because of good rolls.

Is Anything Custom Allowed?

This is the final thing and generally my answer is going to be no for this. Again, if you feel comfortable with it, sure. But know that what is custom might not be balanced. And this could be from a custom class that a player found on the internet that they want to try. Or it might be customizing a spell so it does a different type of damage. Generally I saw go with rules as written. Unless you want that extra challenge in something, keep it simple. And if this is your first game or early on in your dungeon mastering career, definitely don’t do it.

Final Thoughts

This, I think, is a good bonus topic to add into the mix. I don’t think it’s as much of a tool that I would recommend specifically to make your life easier. It is just some good things to think of before you session zero. Especially when it comes to how you want to get your stats and anything custom. That way you know what you are comfortable with.

For me, personally, I like the roll 4D6 and drop the lowest. Though, with that, it is not too hard for a player to get some really good stats. So even with my preferred system, I generally look through and make sure everyone is balanced. If someone rolls everything over 12, for example, I change one. I want you always to have a bad stat, and some good stats, no Batmans (someone who is good at everything) on the team. Use your discretion with that and keep it fair.

So what is coming up next?

• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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