First though, I need players. I already have at least one (1) person interested. I'd like to have as many as five total, depending on interest.
If you're intrested, mail me a character sheet and availability estimates at maradon(at)gmail.com (these boards ain't private anymore ya know)
A few details;
The game will probably take place on saturday and sunday, around 10:00pm EST (GMT -05:00) but I could go on weekdays after 9:00 as well.
Always always always plan ahead and you should be okay.
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So quoth Delphi Aegis:
Plan for everything while DMing.. You may not WANT your players to go off the path in the jungle after all the warnings your NPCs gave them, but they inevitably will...
I will plan for nothing. Only then, can you be prepared for everything.
A plan is just a list of things that don't happen. Maradon! fucked around with this message on 10-26-2004 at 03:03 AM.
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Demos impressed everyone with:
Would it be more story or combat oriented?
Yes.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java the thoughts aquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
If you're going to have combat frequently, prepare some combat maps. If you run combat only once every few sessions, you can prepare a combat map between sessions, or a small and simple combat map on the fly.
Are you starting the campaign at level one, or a higher level, or varying depending on scenario? Starting at level 1 is better for roleplay, because it gives them a chance to develop their characters' personalities before their talents really start to matter. With higher-level characters, you can start them out on that great and wondrous adventure into the unknown, without them having to constantly fear instant death around every corner. Higher starting levels give the characters more of a chance to stand out early on. If you offer a range (such as level 1-3, depending on how much you like the character concept), it allows the players some creative liberty, but you'll have to compensate for the differences in their abilities.
How much background information do you want submitted? Do you just want the character sheets? Do you want 1-2 paragraphs summarizing a character's past? Do you want a complete backstory? This is probably the most important question to answer.
With a schedule that rigorous, you might have trouble getting a reliable group of players. Everyone has schedules they need to work around. I suggest planning on one session per week. That's just a suggestion though, if you think you can handle 2+ sessions per week, it's your call.
Starting level is 5! Not 1!
And it's not a rigorous schedule 
I'm just listing possible times.
If you're starting at post-1, then you need to assign starting money so that they can build up their characters (and you would be surprised how much crap a person can accumulate in levels 1-5 in real-time adventuring).
Also, I think it's a mistake to let everyone come up with their own shit. As a DM, you need to establish complete control over the pantheon, landscape, rules, layouts, everything. You don't want your players to know more about your gaming environment than you do.
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We were all impressed when Bajah wrote:
If you're starting at post-1, then you need to assign starting money so that they can build up their characters (and you would be surprised how much crap a person can accumulate in levels 1-5 in real-time adventuring).
The last D&D game I played we started at level 9. I know what's involved in creating a <1 lvl character. Fact of the matter is that the campaign I have in mind simply wouldn't suit level 1 characters.
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Also, I think it's a mistake to let everyone come up with their own shit. As a DM, you need to establish complete control over the pantheon, landscape, rules, layouts, everything.
Oh I am. I'm just saying the characters in my campaign can choose to worship whatever gods they can imagine. They ramifications of their decision may not be all they expected is all.
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Maradon! had this to say about Tron:I'll work with you if you want to get creative, so long as it fits into a dragonlance-esque world
Blue girl cum will not be involved unless it is produced by the PC's at some point. If there are any suggestions you can make on how not to be a shitty GM or prep a good campaign, feel free to post them here.
1.I'm not very dragonlance-esque oriented, but im guessing "guy with big sword" would be ok.
2. I totaly fucking missed something there. All I can say is Dangerous vaults! NSFW
3. advice? http://www.roleplayingtips.com/index.php subscribe, read, follow. If you need the archives i have all of them in a zip file filled with 230+ txt documents.
I can tell you from experience that if you get too kooky, you'll run into experience problems. Genasi, for example, gain experience slower than some other races, and you have to use a totally different chart to total up their experience gain. Adam ran into that problem with my genasi wizard in his first and second High Seas games. So that's one thing to consider. For all the unusual races that you allow, you have to figure in penalties and bonuses like that, and you'll probably have to keep separate experience charts. You might find some players falling behind others and if they don't have something keeping that edge (my char was aasimar we found out, part of the story) then it may become not as fun for that person if they can't participate or at leat do much when you bring out higher CR monsters.
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`Doc impressed everyone with:
I have a few questions on spells.Are you using spells from both the 3.0 and 3.5 PHB? If not, which one are you using? If so, are there any spells you plan to leave out? What's your perspective on spell components? Some GMs don't like to bother with them, while others make a point of it. Do you plan to enforce their use strictly (everyone needs a spell component pouch that needs to be refilled after X castings of Y spell), loosely (you need to have the pouch to cast, but it's taken for granted that it contains all components without marked GP values), only on spells with high-cost components (like giving the Eschew Materials feat for free), or not at all (breaks game balance for some spells, I don't reccommend it)?
Maradon! fucked around with this message on 10-26-2004 at 04:06 PM.
The sort of folks who would help an innocent besieged town, but wouldn't refuse the help of the occasional evil cleric.
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Maradon! wrote this stupid crap:
Another thing I forgot; the party is mainly neutral/good.The sort of folks who would help an innocent besieged town, but wouldn't refuse the help of the occasional evil cleric.
Well, there goes half my character concepts. I tend to play in the lawful evil area, well, either that or the something-else-that-slowly-becomes-lawful-evil area.
Aaaactually... if this is still going on post-November (my entire November is Nanowrimo month D: ), lob a PM at me. I haven't played D&D in forever and might like to just observe/NPC something.
*ponder ponder*
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So quoth Maradon!:
If there are any suggestions you can make on how not to be a shitty GM or prep a good campaign, feel free to post them here.
Read the DMG. Cover-to-cover. If that's too much reading, then read chapters 1-5 at LEAST. I'm not trying to be condescending. I'm being serious. When I started DMing, I never had the time to just sit down and read the DMG. I only used it to reference things when needed. This last week when I visited my grandparents, I took the DMG with me and decided to read it from the beginning in my spare time. Entire WORLDS opened to me. I got tons of new inspiration, as well as learned rules I had no idea even existed.
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There was much rejoicing when Nicole said this:
Well, there goes half my character concepts. I tend to play in the lawful evil area, well, either that or the something-else-that-slowly-becomes-lawful-evil area.
Moderately evil people are welcome.
If you'd delight in ripping up a whole crowd of innocent people, no dice, but if you're just quick and remorseless about sticking a knife in an innocent man who stands in your way, that's fine.
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Maradon!'s account was hax0red to write:
Moderately evil people are welcome.If you'd delight in ripping up a whole crowd of innocent people, no dice, but if you're just quick and remorseless about sticking a knife in an innocent man who stands in your way, that's fine.
Reasons im chaotic neutral.
heh, knife... silly melee weapons..
download the players handbook.
Read 
oh well. doc needs to get around to finishing his work with the mm2.. or 3, i forget which.
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When they turned on the Infinite Improbability Drive, Ares stammered,
I'd like to play....
quote:See what ECP said.
But I have no idea how.. ._.
quote:Sit in on someone else's gaming sessions. Several people here run IRC games, and each group has its own style.
Or even where to begin.
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A sleep deprived Maradon! stammered:
Moderately evil people are welcome.If you'd delight in ripping up a whole crowd of innocent people, no dice, but if you're just quick and remorseless about sticking a knife in an innocent man who stands in your way, that's fine.
Thinking more tactically evil person who cadjoles her way up governments on empty promises and exploited dreams only to turn around and opress like a mothafacka.
But, as said, November = Nicole is deaded.
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`Doc had this to say about pies:
Sit in on someone else's gaming sessions. Several people here run IRC games, and each group has its own style.
If you decide to do that, Ares, send me a PM. I can tell you how you can be an audience to Deth's Sunday IRC games over on magic.
It's the Sorc.ery Net network, Ares, and if you don't know how to get there I can give you servers, our channel, etc.
What is your policy on ability scores? (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA)
Roll your own, honor system. If you're unreasonably high I'll nerf your ass anyway. I may also decide that you're too weak and up your stats.
I'm of the school of thought that adventurers should be a cut above your average joe schmoe so I'd like it if everyone had at least one 16+ stat.
If you DON'T use the altered XP rates, then the people who DO play standard races are getting gypped, and all your protestations of "oh well half-dragon gnolls won't be well thought of in The City" will mean exactly DICK because the creature who has a CR of 4 naturally will gain levels like eeeeeveryone else and be much sturdier to boot.
Don't make that mistake. I did, and it was a living hell to calculate XP and I ended up fudging it for the sake of my sanity. Don't fuck up where I did.
New GM Error #2: Lack of attention to detail
Status: Confirmed
Comments and Solutions:
Now you may have a ten page preparatory paper set up for folks fixing to play your game. I don't know. But this is where all those civics and history classes you slept through in high school come into play. Why? City-states have an economic balance with other City-states. Factions within the government give and take and form the tapestry of the city. Where does the home base city's wealth originate? New York, for instance, doesn't actually PRODUCE much. It's a hub of information, immigration, and processing. And it STILL has internal politics.
You don't have to roleplay that stuff out, but if you don't know it well enough to rattle off a cunning explanation on the fly, your home base city will be two dimensional. You can get around it by either moving the party around enough that short explanations will do, or you'll need one extremely well explained location that you can relate all other places to. Do NOT skimp on this. If I say "Hey Indianapolis" to you, you likely have only a vague idea of what it's like to live here. If I give you a pamphlet of pertinent information, you're much better prepared.
For the love of god, do something with the gods. There's only one city in the core D&D universe that is equally welcoming (or perhaps unwelcoming) to ALL deities, and that's the City of Doors, Sigil, which is like NOT a prime material plane, which DOES in fact sit at the top of the spire at the center of all creation and is ruled by the biggest enigma on the planes. It's full of planars, primes, petitioners, demons, devils, celestials of all sorts, and members of far weirder races, not to mention the embodied spirits of dead people. If you don't plan on your city running like that, get to work. You need explanations why a city could support followers of Siva and followers of the Morrigan right up the street from one another.
I advise getting your hands on Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett, for a view of a city (Ankh-Morpork) that deals with the typical ill-explained fantasy cliches in a fantastically realistic sort of way. It has a police force with dwarves and trolls on it. Trust me, it'll help.
That's it to start. If I come off as obnoxious or overbearing, sorry. Them's the breaks.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
2) I don't know how you know I don't have a lot of detail in mind, since I haven't said anything about the world yet. I thank you for the advice, though. Maradon! fucked around with this message on 10-28-2004 at 12:40 PM.
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Maradon! had this to say about Knight Rider:
1) I'm not letting the players go hog wild with everything. I'm allowing a lot of leeway on what they're allowed to choose from, but I'm very strict on the cheese. I am going to base this off 3.5, I'm only going to make small adjustments to certain things I disagree with - the nature (not mechanics) of certain spells, reagents, etc.2) I don't know how you know I don't have a lot of detail in mind, since I haven't said anything about the world yet. I thank you for the advice, though.
Oh. That's okay then
Rule number 1 of "Experienced GM's" is to make an ass of ourselves offering obnoxious advice. Ask Doc.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
