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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Dungeons and Dragons Player Tools – Character Creation

One of the first things that you do when you start out as a player is come up with an idea for your character. I want to give you some help when coming up for a character because I think players often struggle with coming up with a character in two major ways. Plus then there are just practical things to think about as well. But let’s talk about the two big things to think about as you come up with your character idea.

The Struggle of a Character Idea

So, there is a struggle in two areas that I think players consistently run across. Both are around when you come up with the concept for the character. A player generally ends up on either of two extremes. They come up with a good starting character idea but don’t know where to build their character towards. Or they come up with a level twenty backstory and the character is level one.

So how do you combat that as a player? I think there are two things to think about. Because both starting at the right point and having an idea where you want to build to, that level twenty powerful character, are important. And it’s more than just what class do you want to take.

Coming Up With A Character Idea

So let’s come up with that character idea. And yes, you are starting the campaign at level one. But that means the world is your oyster. You get to come up with the answer to the question, why did I get into adventuring?

Let’s start there. This is a simple question that is meant to prompt the thought process of character creation. It is meant to also limit the scope of your character. It’s not a question of, what amazing things have I done? Or what great skills do I have? It’s a simple question of, why did I become an adventurer. And the reason for keeping it that simple is that the skills come from your class and background. And you will do amazing things in the campaign. But right now you are starting out. So what is the characters motivation.

Then I also want you to think about, where is the character going? And by this I mean, why do you keep being an adventurer in some ways. What is the end goal that would make you character feel satisfied as an adventurer? Because this is going to be the big thing that you roleplay towards. Again it’s not the skills or levels of a certain class, but what motivates your character to be an adventurer and go as far as they want.

Example – Character Idea

Let’s say I sit down and I want to create my character. I have some ideas for it especially around class and background. I know that I want to be a Monk who was an Urchin and then was brought into a monastery to learn martial arts and have a place to live. So I got that bit of a backstory, now I need to answer my two questions.

Why am I an adventurer? I head off adventuring because the monastery needs more money. There used to be a bunch of people who donated money but after the charismatic head monk passed away, people have slowly drifted away. But this is the place that saved me, so I want to venture out to find fortune or make money in any way that I can to keep the monastery going so it can help more kids like I was.

What is my end goal? It’s two part really. The first step is that I want to get the monastery back to the point where it is financially stable. And then eventually, once it is there and I feel like it won’t fall into a bad spot again, I want to return to the monastery and take over running it and bringing in more kids.

What About Race, Class, and Background?

So how do you plan those in as well? Well, you easily see that I tossed them into my backstory idea. I think that most people generally can come up with some idea of what they want to play in those areas. But I do want to toss out especially with background, think about how it ties into your character idea, and the same can be said for class. It wouldn’t make sense for me to have my backstory with the monastery and be a well trained Wizard.

While they are important to making a mechanically solid character, I don’t think that it’s the end of the world to focus more on what makes thematic sense. That is going to provide a more interesting gaming experience. And this is also where it’s great to collaborate in a session 0 with your Dungeon Master and the other players to create a balanced party, if you want, but to iron out any wrinkles between characters and players and their character builds.

Stats

Finally, let’s talk about stats. And I went over in the Character Creation article for Dungeon Masters some different options for rolling up stats. And there are more options as well that can be done. But the first step when getting stats is ask the Dungeon Master how they want you to get stats. Every Dungeon Master is going to have a preferred way. And even if they don’t, they are going to want it consistent across everyone. You get characters with unbalanced stats if someone does points buy and another player rolls.

But there is more to stats then just how you get stats, there is how you allocate them. And there are two things I want to talk about here. What is your best stat and what is your worst stat?

Best Stat

So the reason why you think about this is that your best stat is going to affect your best skills. And that is probably going to be what you are leaning into. If I character my monk, I might go with high dexterity as my top stat. The reason that I do that is two-fold. Firstly it helps with the character build and making it functional. But also, it stems from my background and idea for my character. I want to be light on my feet from being an urchin who stole some and didn’t want to get caught and then being trained in martial arts.

In fact, that’ll also influence how I solve problems too, I might just try and fadeaway in the shadows. So that’d again make sense for dexterity to be my best stat because it means that my stealth will be solid.

Dump Stat

So the worst stat is also called the dump stat. And every character should have a dump stat of some sort. That means a stat that is below 10 so you get a negative to your rolls on it. Because as much as your good stat helps determine how you roleplay, your dump stat is going to be as well.

Let’s look at my monk urchin. They came the monastery when they were a little bit older, probably a teenager, so they don’t have the formal schooling that you’d expect. The monks did what they could, but while the character is street smart from living on the streets, they aren’t book smart. So intelligence would make a great dump stat.

Especially because thinking about the backstory, how poor intelligence could work in. The character is focused on doing well themselves. They learned as a kid how to rely only on themselves. And while they love their monastery, they think it’s only on them to save it. So even though they maybe know they aren’t the brightest, they aren’t going to consult others for it. They are going to try and do those things themself.

Don’t Be Batman

Final thing about stats is don’t be Batman. What do I mean about that? Batman is generally good at everything in DC. He can take on almost any villain and with enough time and his tons of resources, he’ll beat them. But when you play you don’t want to be Batman. Batman isn’t fun for everyone at the table.

So let’s talk about it a bit more. First off, give yourself a dump stat. Even if everything rolled high, give yourself an 7 or 8 in some area and roleplay into it. Also don’t pick all the good skills. If you are a rogue who is proficient or have expertise with stealth, persuasion, deception, intimidation, perception, and insight, you are just going to do everything. Don’t be good at everything, and this part of character creation to make sure that every player at the table has some area where they will shine.

Final Thoughts

We’re going to have a few more articles in this series for players in Dungeons and Dragons, or really any RPG system. So as a player what topics do you want covered? I am going to toss out a few, but let me know if there are more you want to learn about?

• Flaws, Bonds, Ideals, and Personality Traits
• Roleplaying your character
• Character Arcs

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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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What is Homebrew?

The question that some people might have is what is Homebrew? I know it in two contexts, the first is beer, the second is content for Dungeons and Dragons that isn’t official. So this is something that a person has created for their own character. It can be a whole new class, and you can find some of those on the DM’s Guild or Drive Thru RPG. Or it could be as simple as changing Fireball into Lightning Ball and doing lightning damage versus fire damage. So, it is simple as something that isn’t official from Wizards of the Coast or one of their partners.

For Dungeon Masters Should You Allow It?

Let’s start with this from the Dungeon Master side of things as that is in the title. And I am going to say, maybe. There are two reasons why players want to use homebrew. One is that they wan it to be thematic. Maybe they want to theme their whole character around lightning, but there aren’t enough lightning spells. The other is to power game. Maybe they know that lightning is less common for monsters to be resistant to.

The first I’d consider letting someone use homebrew content for. It is for a gaming and thematic reasons. Theoretically it won’t break everything and if something is flat out immune to lightning damage, I can always bring that in if need be. The second way, I am going to say no, or if I think that it might break the campaign even if it’s not intentional I’ll say no.

The same goes for bigger things like a custom class. I have a whole bunch of different rune magic classes that I got from Drive Thru RPG and DM’s Guild. I’d like to present them as an option for my players, but to do that, I need to spend time going through them myself. I need to know that they won’t be broken, either being too strong, or too weak. Because neither are fun for players.

For Players Should You Want It?

Honestly, I’m going to go with no. Unless you have a hyper specific build that makes 100% sense for the campaign, I don’t think you need it. Dungeons and Dragons gives the players a ton of options out there. And that is great and gives you plenty to play around with already. And there are more that are coming. I have five or so official books that give different class options. Now it might not give exactly what you want, and that is okay, you can tweak what you want slightly.

I think as a player, sometimes it can be tempting to create this precise vision of a character. But most of the times that won’t match up precisely with what you can do in Dungeons and Dragons. And really, that is fine. You can get close enough. I think like how a Dungeon Master needs to hold onto the story loosely and just guide it, the same is true with how you develop and build your character.

If there is a new class that someone has created that you really want, it probably is broken. If you need more lightning spells, maybe look for more support spells. There are ways to build your character still while being focused on a specific element. It just takes more work than changing how Dungeons and Dragons is set-up to work.

So Homebrew is Bad?

No, it isn’t. It can be a blast in some campaigns. Like I said, I have a whole stack of rune casters that I need to go through because the concept to me is really cool. I would love to play one some day. Why, because I think the concept of them is cool, not because I want to create an overpowered and broken combo. I want people to have fun around the table, and me creating a broken combo isn’t fun.

So there is a balance. It is something that, especially for new players and Dungeon Masters, I don’t recommend doing. I think that there is a lot of temptation to do that because you don’t know how to make Dungeons and Dragons work for you. The best advice I can give when you feel like you can’t do exactly what you want is to hold on loosely. It is a cooperative story telling game when it comes down to it, so don’t hold on too tightly to your perfect vision.

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Unknown To The Players

Introduce the big bad guy to the players not as the big bad guy. The saying goes something like, the villain is the hero of their own story or in their own mind. So rarely do you get a moustache twirling villain who just exudes evil. The bad guy thinks they are doing something good, not something bad. And what they do might look like it is good, especially early on in the story. Create this go getter character who is forward thinking and out to do great things to the players. Give them some quests from that player, and then start to drop hints slowly over time that this person isn’t as good as they seem. But introduce someone to the players who ends up being the bad guy.

Looking Down On The Players

Another way to do it is to introduce the characters to the bad guy just to show them how far they have to go. The bad guy can come in being known as the bad guy and not even bother fighting the players. They are just seeing who is being tasked to be a pest to them. And because the players aren’t a high enough level, the bad guy can just leave, probably leaving a henchmen behind. It shouldn’t be until the players are at a higher level when they will actually be a concern to the bad guy. If your players are a quite low level, have the bad guy one hit knock out one of them and leave. It’ll create that impact and push the players towards the end goal of stopping the villain.

Through Their Henchmen

If your bad guy is part of a crime ring, or controls some sort of gang, runs a cult, anything like that, you have other characters that can introduce them. In this way bombard the players with villains, low level and then up the food chain of the group. Make it obvious they are all part of the same group. The players will know that there has to be someone at the top that they’ll deal with eventually. You can even build up the legend of the person over time for the players. Talk about how cruel or crazy the person is, or how sneaky and cunning they are. Build up the mystique around the big bad guy for even if the players don’t meet them right away, they know them.

At The Early Stages

The early stages is going to be different than the unknown to the players, though it will cross over. When the players don’t know that the big bad guy is going to be the big bad guy. In this case, the big bad guy doesn’t even know that they are the big bad guy either. They are some small level bad guy who is down on their luck and sells the players a sob story of some sort. Ideally, you do this in town where killing someone would get you in trouble with the town guard. But give this person a down on their luck, stealing because they need the food, try and get the players to feel sympathy for the bad guy. Then, in the background have the bad guy slowly become a big bad guy for a big reveal at the end. Almost think Count of Monte Cristo style where the Count is actually known as someone else as well. It’ll make for a fun reveal when this bad guy who goes by some odd name turns out to be the bad guy they helped at the beginning.

Final Thoughts

Now, with that said, you can not introduce the big bad as long as you want. If your ultimate big bad guy is going to be a beholder, that makes sense that you wouldn’t just stumble across a beholder. But, it can be fun to try and introduce the big bad guy early, give the players some target or some surprise later on. It is a twist on a lot of stories where the big bad guy is revealed towards the end. But it can be just as good to introduce them early and make them sympathetic or untouchable so that the world develops more.

What is your most memorable bad guy you’ve encountered or ran in a Dungeons and Dragons game? How do you make them stand out from other bad guys?

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Player Involvement Benefits

There are some good reasons to have your players involved in the story telling process. The most obvious is that it keeps the Dungeon Master from having to come up with everything. Now, it doesn’t need to be large amounts of involvement. Naming places and NPC’s can be enough to help lighten the load.

Lightening the GM’s Load

But why do you want even that much help? Firstly, it keeps the players more involved in the game. Also, the character that they name, those are probably going to be more important characters to them as players. It helps create that instant connection with an NPC, because they named it. So if you have an NPC that you think will be important, have the players name that one. The same goes for locations, or even backstory for the NPC’s. It’ll make your job easier, and give the players more buy into everything that is happening.

Directing the Story

To go along with that, it also is often important because the players can help direct the general direction of the story. This piece is a kind of scary benefit in the process. It seems like it should be a very safe one to have, but what makes it scary is that the players, you won’t know what direction that they will go. I said above that the named PC’s will probably be the most interesting ones to them, and it can help you lead the players along, but the players will also pick random NPC’s, plot threads, and more that they will want to explore deeper.

You don’t need to make these things tie into the main plot, but it can certainly tell you what direction the players are interested in taking the story. If you can weave the main plot into what they are interested in, that is going to be even better. Weaving it all together will really create a more interesting set-up for your players and give you a whole lot more buy in on what is happening in the game. It might mean that you need to switch up some of your big ideas for the game, but will also give you more ideas and a more fun game.

Develop Future DM’s

Now, this is less about the current game that you’re in, but there are a lot of DM’s who get stuck in that role for for a long time. This isn’t a bad thing, I love telling stories, and playing Dungeons and Dragons gives me a chance to tell a lot of stories. But having more player direction gives them a chance to flex that story telling muscle and learn the skills to become Dungeon Masters for themselves.

But How Much Is Too Much?

Dungeons Masters are sometimes accused of railroading their players. Railroading is a term where the story is on tracks and it can’t deviate to either that left or the right from what the Dungeon Master has in mind. Players can also railroad their own characters, but that’s a different thing for another time. To the other extreme is the sandbox, where players can do anything, go anywhere, and often times have to find their own story in that.

I personally believe that a good game is going to be a little bit of A and a little bit of B. Players need to have freedom to explore, and stuff like naming NPC’s, directing what they are most interested in, those are important things for long term buy-in in a game. On the flip side, if it’s too open, there are too many options and it’s overwhelming. They can go explore the swamps of despairs, the pits of agony, or the mountains of sorrow, that’s great, but why are they going there? Maybe they’d go set-up a flower shop in the Town of Happiness instead, it seems like a nicer place there. And sandbox, true sandbox, can lead to less of a focused storyline that is going to keep the players engaged.

So, it’s a balancing act between the two. You want player input because that’ll keep them invested, but hand over the reins too much, you end up with too many choices and the players lose interest because there is no focus. For the Dungeon Master, to become a really good one, I think finding that balance for your group is important. Some groups will want more structure, others will want less, but yes, it is a collaborative journey in story telling at all times.

The Takeaways

To me one thing stands out as being the most important, and that is Dungeons and Dragons being a collaborative process for story telling. Players need input to stay involved, but the Dungeon Master needs to provide story to guide the time. Like I said above, the ratio changes depending on the group, but it’ll always be that way. Even with a convention one shot game, a scenario might be serious one time for one group and light hearted the next time. So even in those cases where the story is heavily planned, the Dungeon Master still needs to be able to adjust tone and other elements as you go along for the group you have. The Dungeon Master needs to take cues from the players on how much collaboration there is, and the players need to take cues from the other players and Dungeon Master as well in this process.

What amount of player collaboration do you have in story telling in your Dungeons and Dragons games? Do you want more?

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