Monster Hunt: The Smoke-Tailed Fox 

Tableskills: The Proactive DM Voice

One of the most fundamental lesions I learned over the course of becoming a great DM was that it was my job to push the story forward, not my players.  When I was younger I was terrified of taking any agency upon myself for fear of railroading my group, thinking that my job was merely to read out prepared text and design a playground for my players to explore as they saw fit. Needless to say, no matter how much planning i did or how big I made my campaign world it never made my party any more energized, instead bleeding out their attention until they became listless and the group/campaign dissolved. 

Once I made the change to DM driven play, things changed almost instantly. My once distracted players became excited collaborators, looking to steer the runaway engine that was my narrative. Where as before they were directionless, having infinite shallow options, they were now focused on the road ahead of them, trying to dodge upcoming hurdles while reacting to the unexpected ones.  

This change took some getting used to, but became most evident in how I narrated my games, cutting down on extraneous calls for rolls,  chaining together scenes until a big finale at the end of the session, using my infinite power as narrator to push receptive players into interesting situations that progressed both the story and their character arc. Over time I began to think of these changes and a bunch of others as “proactive DM voice”, a skill that I think players and dungeonmaters alike could benefit from learning. 

Lets look at an example, lifted from one of the very first modules I ever ran: The party stands at the edge of a tremendously large fissure, and has to lower themselves a hundred or more feet down to a ledge where they’ll be ambushed by direrats.  You could run this in a rules literal sense: reading out the prepared text then waiting for the party to come up with a solution, likely dallying as they ask questions. Have them make athletics checks to descend the ropes, risk the possibility of one of them dying before the adventure ever begins. Then you do it two or three more times as they leapfrog down the side of the canyon, wasting what was perhaps half an hour of session time before you even got to any of the fun stuff. 

Or you could get proactive about it: 

Securing your ropes as best you can, you belay over the side of the fissure, descending down in a measured, careful pace aiming for the most stable looking outcrop of rock, still a hundred or so feet above the canyon’s base. A few minutes and about two thirds of the way through your decent [least athletic PC] looks like they’re struggling, their hands are coated in sweat and they can feel unfamiliar muscles burning in complaint.  I need [PC] to make me an athletics check

Rather than waiting for the players and the dice to make a story for me, I took the extra step in my prep time to think of something interesting that might happen while they’re venturing through this section of the map. I specifically designed things so that happenstance wouldn’t kill off one of my heroes, but they might end up damaged and in a perilous situation should the fates not favour them that particular moment. 

Likewise, this planning has let me prepare a number of different angles that I could use to prepare the next scene: with an injured player ambushed by multiple rats while their allies dangle a few rounds away or with the party saving their friend and descending together, too much of a threat for the rats to tackle all at once, leading them to stalk the party through future encounters.

This is already getting a bit long, but for those interested in more ways you can adopt a proactive DM voice, I’ll give more examples under the cut

Keep reading

OP: When demonstrating dance moves, it's crucial to execute the actions precisely. (cr 爵士舞柳柳老师)

i think reframing 'writing a campaign' or 'writing a plot' as writing beats has dramatically changed the quality of my dming. for me personally, i work best when i have a world with pieces that would be moving (regardless of whether the players would be there but obviously, you put the players in the crosshairs to effect change) and plan each 2-4 sessions as its own small story and i've developed a method that really works for me that i use for oneshots, mini campaigns, and in arcs for longer games.

[ID: a screenshot of a bullet point list with template headers: Location, Framing Plot (subheaders Social, Exploration, and Combat), Key NPCS, World Plot Progression, Player Hooks (subheaders repeating Player to be replaced with a PC's name)]

to further explain:

Location(s) — where the sessions will likely take place, so I have a manageable list of places to develop further in terms of worldbuilding.

Framing Plot — What is happening, what is the inciting the incident and what are the things the players cannot control. Then the subheaders are the three tiers of play. I think it's important to have an idea to tap into all of them or lean heavier into what your party is interested in but consider all of them for fun and exciting Mechanical gameplay as well as story and roleplay.

Key NPCS — Who are the NPCS that are going to be important to the framing and to the players. This is usually just a handful.

World Plot Progression — How does / how will the events of this scenario push forward what your players are working towards?

Player Hooks — Specific thoughts for how to connect the framing plot to each player character and make each player feel invested and like their choices matter.

and that's what I do to plot out my games. It's never "this is how things will resolve" it is, "this is what the situation is and this is how i want to connect my players to it and see what they do"

COLLEGE OF THE OCEAN’S CALL — heard y’all liked sea shanties… in all seriousness, this is the first official homebrew i’ve put out in a long time and it’s probably going to be a divisive one because of that 14th level 😂. like i said in my author’s note, i’m not super interested in debating the mechanics on this post. instead, i’m more interested in the flavor of an ocean themed bard that takes on aspects of the supporting their crew with a strong voice and hearty songs, with the entrancing powers of a deep sea siren. 

The Pantheon Domain - A 5E Cleric Subclass Homebrew. For the cleric whose faith is as fickle as the gods themselves. Great for roguelite lovers. You’ll have to figure out what you can do with the tools at your disposal every day. Links in reblog!

why are yt to mp3 websites always the shadiest fuckin sites I feel like I’m going down a dark alleyway risking the chance of getting drugged and/or stabbed just bc its the only place where I can find a guy to deal me some decent fart with extra reverb dot mp3s

Ally: Dru’ugo the Shoalworm

An adventurer’s desire to explore isn’t the sole province of those born to the land, as the seas contain just as many if not more secrets waiting to be explored.

A naturally curious creature, Dru’ugo has always been fascinated with artifacts left behind by ‘bovers, those mysterious folk who live beyond the scintillating surface of his watery world, and has spent his youthful decades exploring wrecks, salvaging from ruins, and collecting whatever ( often erroneous) gossip the merfolk see fit to trade him. Fittingly, this makes him one of the best contacts the party can ally with when trying to explore the sea, as the shoalworm is happy to share his findings and provide water-taxi services if the party will explain to him things like agriculture or share the stories of the places they explore together.

Adventure Hooks:

A sea beast has been menacing ships throughout a high-trafic trade channel, forcing them to veer widely off course in order to avoid a confrontation. Tired of profits lost after shipments are delayed by days, the local commerce commission offers an open bounty on the beast’s head after a reputable crew of leviathan hunters very publicly turned the job down. As it turns out this “beast” is just Dru’ugo, excited at having found a reliable place to try and make contact with ‘bovers and ask them questions, rearing up before their ship and trying to mime out what he needs with fins and tail.

Due to a tragedy of anatomy and never having attended a non-fish based school, Dru’ugo is incapable of speaking the common tongue, and his chances to learn to understand it are sparse. This has forced him to be reliant on a friendly mermaid by the name of “Opportunity-bubbles-up-from-below” ( or Ublup for short) to serve has his translator. For her part, Ublup gets figity when her friend makes her play mouthpiece for too long, as she’d much rather be out manta racing with the other deepsea layabouts.  If the party could somehow find some means of breaching the language barrier, whether by using telepathy or devising some enchantment, they’ll earn themselves a friend for all time, provided they can handle the ensuing barrage of the shoalworm’s questions.

Some time after their first excursion with the shoalworm, Dru’ugo gets word to the party that he’s found another ruin, and would love to explore it together in order to hang out with them once again. Drawn in by the prospect of looting a sunken city in good company, the group and their sea-noodle ally don’t notice that the place they’ve exploring are occupied by a cult of marrow dedicated to a terrible goddess of the deep ocean. Angered above all at Dru’ugo for helping these land-dwellers to trespass into the goddess’s domain, the high priest of this cult calls down a curse that transforms the mostly harmless shoalworm into a rampaging leviathan. While Dru’ugo struggles in vain against the curse in order to give them time to escape, the party must break for land and devise some means of subverting the goddess’s wrath, before they’re forced to slay their transmogrified buddy as he mindlessly rampages along the coast.

A woman demonstrating use of a guandao, also formally known as a yanyuedao (偃月刀; reclining moon blade).

Cursed Jewelry! Remember, canonically Identify doesn’t pick up curses, so have fun tricking your players into getting cursed. <3

It's all just

head turn

dialogue

leans forward

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eyes narrow

dialogue