Weekly Tip/Trick for Friday, September 14, 2012:
- Keep it Simple – Another way to burn out players is by over complicating things. One thing that has frustrated me in the past is when DM’s create these huge elaborate mazes/puzzles that take the group FOREVER to solve. If the group is spending hours relying on the rouge to disarm traps and use magical device skills, that means the barbarian and/or the fighter is sitting there bored to tears. Elaborate puzzles or mazes can be a lot of fun, but they don’t have to be overly complicated. It’s a good idea to try and incorporate something for everyone. Even while the rouge is doing his/her trap disarming. Something as simple a pit full of lava can create a challenge that incorporates everyone’s abilities. For example, perhaps the group stumbles upon a lava pit in a dungeon and a trap is triggered. They hear roars coming from behind them. Do they face this mysterious monster; do they find a way to cross the pit, or perhaps both? This was just something off of the top of my head. With a bit of minor tweaking, you have just created about 45 minutes of game play.
Now let’s say you spent hours coming up with a puzzle where the group has to hit a series of buttons and pull on a series of chains in a particular order. I made the mistake of doing this, and eventually after about 45 minutes, I had to just say the door opened, because we had a lot of other things to get to in the session. Not to mention the rogue was doing most of the work. As I said earlier, this meant the fighter in the group was becoming impatient, both in character and out of character. Had I just had them pull a chain and whatever chain they pulled determined what creature they fought, then after the fight, the door opened. It would have been easier on everyone. This kind of relates to last week’s topic – Think Ahead.
One thing to remember as a DM who is hosting, people are taking time from there busy schedules to come to your game. If they spent 4 of the 6 hours doing nothing, then their time has been wasted. This isn’t always the DM’s fault, but when you have players who are sleeping on your couch (because they have been sitting there bored for hours) who are they going to blame? I’ve only seen this happen once, but it was 95% the DM’s fault. One the other hand, sometimes it is good to allow the puzzle to go on for a while, as long as everyone is having fun. The key is to not overdo it as a new DM. You don’t need to spend hours upon hours writing up each session. Present a challenge and the players will do the rest, well most of the rest anyways. Keep it simple and try to incorporate events that allow everyone to participate, if possible.
Next week, we explore a common misconception that scares away some players from becoming a DM.
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