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anxiousaalums · 5 years

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From a Writer to a DM

Dear DM’s (Dungeon Masters),

I haven’t played that much DND (Dungeons & Dragons) but I have already learned a lot. I only have experience with one DM so please bear with me.

Why are almost all campaigns in a similar setting. Almost always, they are in the stereotypical fantasy with little to no technology. Why not have a modern version with rogues being drug dealers, hitmen, them shoplifting from a gas station, ect. Rangers being vets or working at a zoo.

Have coffee shops that put potions in the customers beverages, such as

Confidence Boost: “I have an important meeting today with some employers we’re trying to make a major deal with so a couple shots of confidence in my coffee would be greatly appreciated.”

Love/Flirtation/Romance: “I’m trying to find a (spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend) so if you add the aroma of (love/flirtation/romance) in my latte, that would be great. *gives cashier their phone number* Call me. *wink*.”

Healing (can be any kind of healing: physical, mental, emotional, ect.): “I just got dumped by my (spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend) so if I could get some tea with a healing potion instead of (creamer/milk/sugar/whatever the character/player/npc likes in their beverage of choice) would be nice.”

Some potions could even illegal such as:

Trust: Can lead to sexual assault/rape, kidnapping, & even murder

Guilt: Can very easy be messed up if not handled properly, can also lead to suicide since it only gets worse after being exposed to it in some way shape or form (does wear off after a certain amount of time, but gradually, not all of a sudden)

Hopelessness: Many people think that if they give someone this, they will become that persons only hope. This is sadly not the case & can also lead to suicide if not counter acted with a potion of Hopefulness. This potion is also difficult to see how much hopelessness it will give the person since it impacts everyone differently (does have some kind of impact on everyone who ingest it), only the person taking the potion could really know how its going to impact them & even then that’s an if.

Have the players go to school, from..

Magic school

College

University

High school

Middle school

Elementary school

Military school

& anything else you can come up with (or even a combination of them (Magi Academy: School for the Magically Gifted))

Have the librarian be someone the players/characters can go to get information from.

Have counselors, have it to where players/characters can go to an npc to ask them to help an npc or a party member.

You could have it to where they work at fast food, or they might be a CEO of their own company.

Have it to where characters do get their feelings hurt, where they can go down the wrong path, betray the party, work for the bad guys. Make a point system to measure mental/emotional growth in the players characters. For good growth, tlg: tender loving growth. For bad growth, chg: callous hatred growth. Maybe have it to where in some circumstances, they can cancel the other out.

Have the players question if they are truly fighting for the good guys. Have the players actually be fighting for the bad guys all along. Make the party wonder if the bad guy(s) is/are actually bad or simply misguided.

Make the important npc’s very fleshed out, don’t just create one simply because you need to have one or else it would just be the party & some monsters. If you need to come up with one quickly, maybe use one of your characters you have played as in another session/game, or uses npcs you have previously used. If your creating an npc before hand, make sure you have their motives, behavior, vocabulary, & looks down. Maybe they have a nasty scar & that’s them realizing that they should do something about it, maybe fight back, run away & build an army, or where they just simply run away & hide.

Make sure your players characters are well thought out, from background, personality, behavior, motives, ect. Maybe have some personality traits on a strips of paper & make them draw from a hat. The one they draw they must include in their character. Make sure that your players characters have weaknesses other than, they aren’t immune to fire damage. But something that impacts them on a personal level, like them having ptsd, or simply they are a compulsive liar. Anything that can be considered a weakness should be an option for the player to incorporate in their characters (or your npcs). Sometimes, weaknesses can also be a strength. Like them having trust issues could make them wary of who they work for, but suspicious of the party members.

Setting is a very important thing, so you want to makes sure both you & the players have a clear image of what it looks like. If their is an item in the location they can later use in the story (even if not in that specific location) point it out, maybe a player will grab it, you don’t know. A good thing to do when writing about locations is to have a list of the locations the players will likely go to often or more than once. Bullet points are a good way to do this.

The Outlook (Pub/Restaurant/Cafe)

Props

(what is there, what is around them, what do the props look like)

(give detail if an item can come to use later in the game or is just a good item to have on them)

Conditions

(what are the conditions of the place: old or new? what does it smell like? what does it look like: dated, remodeled, or just constructed? ect.)

Patrons:

(what do they look like? what type of people are they? is there more than one type of person there (scholar to barbarian)

Employees/Employers

(how do they treat the party? how do they treat newcomers compared to regulars? ect.)

(what are their uniform(s) like? are they old? are they new? just washed? have they been in battle?)

Chekhov’s Gun is a great way to handle situations that are soon to come. Telling a player that there’s a gun on the wall, should be used later on, or go off. If you really want to make the chances higher of this working, have your players take notes of the things you describe & what’s going on around them.

Mood, this can be used to give players a sense of dread, hope, loss, ect. An easy way to do this is setting.

A dark & gloomy mansion full of life

A bright & colorful mansion without a wink of life

A village, covered in shadows. But the townsmen gossip, so full of life & beauty. they walk around, saying hello to their fellow people

A village covered in light, beauty. But no one is out & about, no a whisper of the wind, not a peep of a mouse, no life all around

Contradiction is a very good way to do this as well. It leaves the players wondering what is going on (especially for the ones that seem to have no problems until given (an) extra piece(s) of information that changes all of that (2nd & 4th)). It’s a very nice way to let them know that something is wrong. Have them do investigation checks to see if they notice anything off in the area (this would work best for the 2nd & 4th example).

Notice the little things, such as how the characters treat their party members or npc’s. Or how the players character reacts in certain situations. Sense players tend to be memey & never take things seriously, use that against them. It will make you stand out against other DM’s, & probably make them want to do another campaign with you. Allowing players to form close bonds with npc’s or other characters is an amazing way of doing this. Especially when you either have it to where they almost lost that npc or party member or lose them entirely. Maybe have them in a battle & not mention that an npc died during it until the end where they find the body or hear their final words, breathe, scream, ect. (Make sure you do this after they have formed a close, emotional bond with this npc or character (or at least that their character has)). You also want to kill them off properly & not just for the sack of killing someone off.

If forming a ship for the sack of it sailing, make sure that it’s realistic. If they two (or more) characters don’t get along, it won’t be a healthy relationship. You have to show that. Don’t just allow two character (players characters getting together, npc & players character, or two npcs) for the sack of a ship. It’s not realistic, it’s fanfiction (really trashy fanfiction that doesn’t make any sense), a crack ship. If the relationship won’t work out, show that, do that. You want real relationships. Your players may be happy that they got together, but it won’t be real. People don’t suddenly change their ways cause their dating someone. People don’t forgive & forget easily. It takes time, healing takes time. If a character was/is bullied by another character, it's not gonna change just because their all of a sudden dating. Abusive relationships are real, they do happen. if you know that the relationship will be abusive or it already is, it’s not gonna change with a snap of a finger (much to Thanos’ disappointment). People aren’t going to just accept an apology from an abuser & move on. They are going to be weary, they may start a relationship, but the way the relationship works doesn’t change with a single kiss or confession.

Relationships are important, if someone (player or npc) did something to someone else (player or npc). The trust isn’t going to come back with a single apology (though this could be possible, its difficult to pull off if you don’t know how the relationship works). The relationship needs to be real, not a fantasy.

Plot, simple enough. But you need to have it roughly planned out. Even then, it needs to be open to change since you can’t exactly predict how the players are going to act or react in certain situations. So it needs to be open, able to change. A good way to do this is too have the things down that won’t change. Like who the antagonist or villain (they are two different things) is, their motives, plans (even then it might change due to the players actions so be wary of that), setting, & npc’s.

I have a character that I play as who could possibly be in the category of the antagonist but not villain. Yet he could also be considered an ally at the same time.

An antagonist: a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

A villain: a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

An ally: a person or organization that cooperates with or helps another in a particular activity.

Allies don’t always agree with the protagonist, thought they may still help them out, it may not be in the way the protagonist wants them too.

My character, Aku Morninstar (a rogue tiefling), thinks of the villian, Sam, as a friend more than a foe due to Sam being a decent person to him when they first met at a bar. Aku doesn’t want Sam to get hurt & refuses to fight him even after Sam tried to burn him alive. He actively opposes the rest of the party so that he doesn’t have to fight Sam & will even try to get the others to stop fighting Sam as well.

Aku also understands the pain Sam is going through, having just lost his ghost wife due to the party. He understands what it’s like to lose the love of your life. He understands that this isn’t the real Sam their dealing with, but a grieving Sam. He knows what its like not to have someone there to help you through the grieving process & he wants to make sure that Sam has someone there for him. Even if would end up getting killed in the end. He knows that everyone needs someone while their grieving, he understands that you will always be grieving once the process starts. He knows the process will never end, it just gets easier to manage over time.

As you can see, Aku is not only an ally but an antagonist as well to the party. But he is not a villain. He knows that what Sam is doing is harmful to everyone around him, but he knows that Sam is only acting this way due to grieving the loss of his ghost wife.

A DM needs to know how to improvise on the spot, which is why I stated not to plan the plot out to much. This is not writing a book, this is creating a story. Stories change, books do not. Creating is not writing. You are not writing a campaign, you are creating one. I can not stress this enough. The only time you are writing a campaign is when a session is happening, & you are only writing what happens in the session (as in taking notes). If you want to prepare for the next session. Write down the VERY FIRST THING that will happen. I do this as a player, after a session is over, I plan out what my character is going to do next. THE VERY FIRST THING MY CHARACTER WILL DO IN THE NEXT SESSION! I don’t go & write out an entire action plan, even a loss one. If you do this, the more difficult it will be to improves.

If you do all of this (I know its a lot but bare with me). I can promise you that the experience not only for you but the players as well, will not only be more immersive, but enjoyable as well. I know that writing & being a DM are too different things. But I know that there are some things that over lap as well. Everyone wants to have a fun time. The DM I’m currently playing with is yes, enjoyable. But there are so many things that she could do that, even with the same story line, would make this campaign 10x better than it already is. I know this is a lot of work, I know its even more than a writers work. But remember, YOU ARE NOT A GOD OF THE CAMPAIGN! You are the narrator! Now go have some fun.

Sincerely,

A Very Triggered Writer

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