Hi all,

I'm looking to run Honey Heist for some friends soon, and I was hoping to get some advice on preparing and running it. I've already done some reading on this subreddit and others, which has gotten me some good advice already, but before I get into all of that I thought I'd give you a better idea of my experience GMing.

I've been playing TTRPG for ~18 years, with my playing experience being spread across different versions of D&D and Pathfinder. I started DMing a few years ago, but my time DMing has been sporadic due to various things like people moving away, having children, et cetera. I've run a few dozen sessions as GM. Most of this is in Pathfinder 2E, but I started exploring other systems after a player had to move for work. Since then I've run some Call of Cthulhu, Mothership, and a single session of Dragonbane (which is going to turn into a short campaign). My main style as a GM is to reward player creativity, so when the players come up with a good idea I make sure it's worthwhile to pull off. Part of why I dropped Pathfinder 2E is I felt like it was so concerned with balance that I had to break the system to allow my players to be creative. So I do have some games under my belt, but I'd still describe myself as a beginner GM.

Enter Honey Heist. I recently stumbled across this 1 page RPG while looking for easy to learn systems that would be good for 1-shots, and I immediately knew I had to run it. The rules are simple, but it also gives the GM so little direction that it's a little intimidating. I know it's just meant to be a fun and silly little system, but I still want to make sure I'm properly prepared for it so my players have a good time.

As such, I come to you looking for any and all advice you have on how to make sure my players have a good time. I've never run such a silly RPG before, so it's definitely something new to me. A few things I already have in mind based on previous posts asking about this RPG are:

• Make the GM setup rolls beforehand.
  
• Make a rough map of the convention. Detailed enough that I have some idea what the convention looks like, but not so detailed that I can't easily adapt/react to the actions and ideas of my players during the sessions.
• I'll request players reroll their bear traits if there's any duplicates. I want each player to feel like their bear is unique.
  
• I want to make sure each player has a chance to make use of their bears unique traits. I won't force it, but I want to make sure they have the opportunity.
  
• The bears will be able to communicate with humans, but I don't want them to be able to communicate perfectly. I haven't figured out exactly what this looks like yet (advice welcome!), but I want them to be able communicate well enough that they can talk to people, but not so well that it won't lead to any miscommunication related hijinks.

So that's what I have so far. I'd love to hear any and all advice anyone has, and allow me to says thanks in advance for any and all advice people take the time to share. It'll all be greatly appreciated!

In my world, a lot of the races that exist came to be either due to being directly created by the gods or through many years of evolution and interbreeding. Except... dragonborn, if I go on with this idea.

I have a player whose family is closely tied to dragons. Specifically, his family herds one type of dragon which are only found in the forest where he is from. I've been trying to find a reason for why these dragons need herding, and he mentioned that maybe it would be cool for there to be a disease which is associated with these dragons. Awesome, I like it ! My world will already have a lot of body horror in it (players know already), so I think it's a cool concept to have a dragon borne disease.

I asked how much he would like to know about the disease, or if he would rather learn as the campaign goes on, only having heard of it through rumours. He chose the rumours route, so all he knows is that the disease is native to his forest and that it only affects fey humanoids (this forest is essentially the feywilds) who have had extended contact with this type of dragon.

Onto the actual concern....

Would it be shitty if the disease made the person slowly become more dragon-like, eventually making them become a dragonborn ? I'm willing to allow it to be curable with spells, but still. I think the concept is very cool, but I don't want to take his agency away nor do I want to spoil the disease by telling him my plan. Players know that there are permanent and temporary injuries and diseases they can gain in my world and they are all okay with it, but still, I would like other people's opinions on it.

If it helps to know his race, he is a fairy, but his family already has stranger than normal features, like horns which look like that of the dragons associated with them. If the player does become infected and does not wish to cure the disease, he would keep his features from his original race, such as aging and flight, but he would gain the "Draconic Ancestry" trait.

He travels with one of the drakes his family herds, as he is a drakewarden ranger, so it is possible that his time spent with his companion could affect him. The party is made up of 2 fey humanoids, so one of them could be at risk, as well. Would it be messed up if he slowly started becoming more... dragon like ? His feathered wings become more leathery, his pupils change from round to slits, he slowly grows some scales ? Due to his ties to his companion and a dragon scale he found, his eyes have already changed colours, according to his lore, so it doesn't feel like further changes would be too out there.

Ok, so I'm working on a murder mystery sort of campaign loosely based on the DISHONORED mission "Lady Boyle's last party". Here's the basic Idea, I have 6 PC's they will all get one of the following roles: 1) Marie Bolivesh, 2) Theresa Bolivesh, 3) Susan Bolivesh, 4) The Guard/detective, 5) The assassin, and 6) the conspirator.

The basic idea is as follows: the three Bolivesh sisters will all be wearing the same outfit just with different colors. The company Bolivesh oil is closing down after the death of their CEO Steven Bolivesh, so the family hosts a sort of going away party, where shares of the estate will be given out. The conspirator works for a different company and his goal is to gain a certain percentage of shares in the company (I was thinking >50% but it's subject to change for balancing) without being caught by the guard and getting thrown out to gain majority control of the company. The Guard's goal is to protect the sister's lives and identities and keep the conspirator from gaining shares (he knows that the conspirator is there just not who it is.) and that is sort of the end of what I have nailed down at the moment.

I'm not sure about these next things but here's a sort of rough idea. The assasin role and Bolivesh sisters roles are sort of undefined right now. What I have been thinking is the assasin has to kill the sisters in a specific order, and Marie Bolivesh is trying to be the only sister with any remaining shares, either through killing them or taking the shares.

I just want the fact that the sisters are all wearing near identical clothes to get people confused to be the main gimmick, I am also not sure how I want the "shares" system to work but I know that some shares should go out to the person who correctly identifies the sisters.

The Guard may or may not need to know who is who with the sisters depending on how I want it to work.

If you guys have any ideas or help that would be greatly appreciated, thanks for any help I get.

So for more context, we use a system that allows that allows for a combat style approach to non combat encounters (ex: a dance off is still ran like a combat with “hp” and “attacks” but the hp and attacks are representative of something different that would fit the scenario, in this case “hp” would be energy and “attacks” would be really cool dance moves). My players really want this next campaign to have little combat.

The concept was they are retired campus adventurers getting together to solve a new mystery and find new worlds while trying to stop an evil corporation from taking advantage of the new worlds while trying. Kind of generic but fun. I’m just really stuck trying to think of exciting non combats to run and reasons why combat wouldn’t break out. The vibe is pulp fiction/indiana jones/journey to the center of the earth/the mummy feel. Does anyone have good ideas or things they’ve done before that could help? I’d really appreciate any advice, and thanks in advance

Hey fellow DMs, I need some help. I have a party made up of mostly newer players. We are all friends outside of game, but the party has some troubles being unified. We had a session zero, and I gave them all the basic premise of the campaign. But a few have really just not been able to gel as a party.

What are some tips or things you’ve done to help unify a party?

The main issue is that I feel one of my players is overly critical of the campaign. I want to be clear about what I mean by "overly critical," because I don't think his feedback is inherently bad. In fact, I usually find it constructive. Whenever he brings up an issue, I take note of it and genuinely try to improve. The problem is that these conversations have become very repetitive. He often revisits the same points, and even when I agree with him and make changes, there always seems to be another criticism waiting. It's not that he fixates on one issue; it's that every conversation introduces a new one.

He still enjoys the campaign and continues to participate, so I don't think he's trying to be malicious. The problem is that I'm enjoying running the game less and less. It's not just him, either. I have another player that I also have some grievances with. Lately, I feel like I'm being graded instead of simply running a game with my friends.

I understand that I'll make mistakes, and I'm completely open to hearing about them. If someone wants to point something out, that's fine. But when nearly every conversation about the campaign turns into a critique, it becomes exhausting. This is supposed to be a game. It's a game that's very important to me, but it's starting to feel like an essay that I have to constantly revise and perfect.

Some of the criticisms have been that the party's individual plotlines aren't interconnected enough, the last encounter didn't give the players enough agency, one character keeps too many secrets, the party as a whole keeps too many secrets from each other, one player feels their character doesn't receive enough recognition for their accomplishments in battle, and that parts of the campaign feel somewhat railroaded.

Whenever these issues are brought up, I do my best to address them. For the bigger concerns, I've put a lot of effort into improving. But then another issue comes up, like a player not liking how an interaction with an NPC played out, or feeling that their personal storyline doesn't connect enough with the others.

The thing is, the party itself is very individualistic. The characters don't show much interest in each other's goals or stories. At a certain point, I'm left wondering what I'm actually supposed to do. I can create opportunities for the party to connect, but I can't force the characters to care about one another if the players choose not to engage with those relationships. It feels like I'm being held responsible for problems that are at least partly created by the group's own decisions.

(Posted this in another sub got removed though sorry if your seeing this again)

I'm in the middle of putting together a Power Rangers-themed campaign, and I'd like to get some feedback on the overall plot and the main villain.

The first chapter is meant to feel like a classic Power Rangers opening. A group of kids with attitude meets a mysterious student (I have ideas for their backstory, but that's not the focus of this post) who gives them the ability to morph into armored superheroes. The chapter ends with them defeating their first "monster of the week."

After that, the campaign takes a different direction. In each chapter, the Rangers are mysteriously transported to a strange realm inspired by different legends and myths. I'm thinking settings based on stories like King Arthur, Beowulf, Atlantis, Van Helsing, and other classic folklore.

In the final chapter, the players discover who has been sending them to these realms and why.

The main villain is a former Power Ranger who was once celebrated as a hero. During a final battle that determined the fate of the world, the villains outsmarted the Rangers and killed every member of his team except him. Although the Rangers ultimately prevented the complete destruction of the world, the battle came at an unimaginable cost—half of the world's population was wiped out. He survived, but he lost everyone he cared about.

After the battle, the public blamed the Rangers for the devastation. Since his identity was exposed during that fight, he couldn't escape the hatred directed at him. Eventually, he abandoned the Ranger life altogether.

Using what was left of the destroyed Command Center's technology, he created a device that erased the world's memories of the Power Rangers. However, when he discovered that a new team of Rangers had appeared, he decided to intervene.

Rather than killing them immediately, he transports them into these different realms to prove that becoming a Power Ranger is a curse. Each realm is designed around a different consequence or sacrifice that comes with being a Ranger. For example, one realm's main antagonist could be a grieving mother who lost her children in an incident the previous Ranger team was blamed for. The players would eventually learn that these stories are all based on tragedies from the former Ranger's own life.

I also plan to connect the PCs to some of these events so the villain's arguments feel more personal and make the players question whether becoming Rangers is truly worth the cost.

Ultimately, the villain believes that no one should have to suffer the way he did, so he wants the new Rangers to give up their powers. When they refuse because they still believe they can make a difference, he decides the only way to save them is to stop them by force.

This is the basic premise I have so far. I'd really appreciate any constructive criticism. Does the villain's motivation make sense? Are there any plot holes or areas that feel weak? Is there anything you would change to make the story more engaging for the players?

Thanks in advance!

Would like to know how GMs/DMs are using AI to assist you in your games, e.g., maps, artwork, rules reference, IT support with VTTs, writing homebrew content, sound effects and background music, lore, optimizing PC builds, creating custom monsters, backstories, etc. Tell what you’re doing, what AI tools you’re employing, workflows, and how you’re using such tools. Tips, tricks, and hacks would be welcome. Thank you.

Hi! So my problem is related to the fact that my party decided to make a detour. I’m mildly stuck due to the fact that I need two shopkeepers, and also my usual method of battle map acquisition via lost atlas is failing me.

I am running Reign of Winter (pathfinder 1e adventure path) set in the land of Iressan the Land of Eternal winter. Things are going well, though they are in hostile territory but took a detour in order to covert loot into coins and stock up since they are low on supplies and need some gear. Managed to sneak into town since fortunately the local countess is off after rebellious druids and brought a decent chunk of the guards with her. The party though is being perused by a rather sizable group of bad guys which will gather what guards are still around.

So I’m looking to fill out the cast of the rather prosperous merchant town for the shopping. Here’s what I currently have so far.

The Golden Calf: An alchemist’s shop ran by a transmutation Wizard. Said to be from far off Varassia having plundered secrets from the ruins of the fallen domain of the Runelord of Greed after their defeat by the Heroes of Sandpoint. Plan on having them show up again when the party makes it to the capital with no explanation. With a sign of their skill being a many eyed homunculus that guards their shop and person. Mainly providing scrolls and potions plus formulae for the party alchemist.

The Burned Claw: A smith’s shop owned by a chimney troll (rare type of troll that heals from fire rather than being destroyed by it). Partly to show how this is a magical land if not already driven home by the fairy servants and troll guards the party fought before. Also to show how there are unexpected allies if you know where to look by making them a secret follower cleric of Shelyn the setting’s god of love, art, and beauty (also the goddess of the paladin). Mainly source of magic weapons and armor.

What I mainly need are some potential sources for wands and other magical odds and ends. Also specifically a Druidic seed pouch for the party Drui. Which probably means contact with said rebel Druids which are a cell of the Heralds of Summer’s return the local resistance to the witch’s rule.

Also, if has any good recommendations for battle maps for a town for the party getting caught up to in the middle of town or trying to break through checkpoints setup when the bad guys try their best to lock the town down. Would be great. Thanks!

I'm wanting to give my current DM a break while still continuing our current campaign. My basic premise ive come up with is that due to some reason, havnt figured it out, the players are set to a younger age and wake up at a summer camp for aspiring adventurers or some such. Im thinking there could be classes they could take in addition to some common games like canoeing and archery and such but I cant seem to come up with an actual plot. Like whats happening at the camp that the players can really get into what mystery could they solve, what enemies could they beat. I must be really uncreative cause ive been thinking about this for a while and cant come up with anything so any help is appreciated

Hey everyone, new DM here. I plan on introducing my BBEG and I was thinking maybe I should reveal quite alot of his motivation so the players wont get confused or should I be really vague with the potential that they just wouldn't understand the story and the main quest.

I am GMing for my family (wife, kids 16/14). Somehow my story lines are not in sync with the players:

I built a post apo world. The PCs are heroes trying to solve problems in this world. The group is travelljng and runs into a problem triangle. Three factions fight eachother: A steals from B, B raids C to repair what’s stolen, C robs A and thus A needs to go get stuff from B. They go through the adventures in each factions to find this out. So they know that stalemate but in the end they just drive away. “Can’t be helped”

In a one shot they break their car but find a small plane crash site. Plane broken, pilot wounded, three guys sitting around. The guys promise the group ( a healer, a repair man and a conman):” if you fix the plane and the pilot we will take you anywhere. Two perception rolls confirm that there are only four seats in the plane. But nope, the group just keeps repairing and healing. They notice the problem but just ask the guys:” Hey, what about the number of seats?” Causing an immediate escalation because the plane guys know the lie is over.

Am i suffering from foresight too much thinking the storyline and possibilities are obvious?
I am fully aware that my point of view is different from the players but they just don’t pick up on the story they could tell amongst themselves.

EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions. I may have understated the goals of the group to keep my post a bit brief. The party is a group of Gifted people in the world that is populated by is populated by the Remnants of society, the normal people. They have specials gifts and can use them to help solve problems. And they are trying to make their way on s long journey towards Stronghold of other Gifted to join forces. So yeah, the goal is not so much getting more good or bigger swords. Perhaps too altruistic.

I am creating a challenging teleportation failure encounter for my PCs. My thought is to have the teleportation succeed taking my PCs to their destination by fail in the sense it tears a rift into the astral sea where entities start to come through that the players have to deal with while trying to close the tear and protecting near by NPCs. They can to do various activities to close the rift. My question is on a failure of said activity being a failed check, failed attack, can the rift immediately react dealing damage to the character? would i be able to give the rift legendary reactions if it cannot take an action immediately after a failed attempt to close it. Along these same lines can i have spatial effects occur around the rift for ever round the rift remains open? E.G. round 2 - gravity distorts and players with in a given distance get pulled closer to it. round 3 - Spellcasting warps. The first spell of 6th level or higher cast within 120 feet triggers a wild planar backlash. The caster takes damage. Each round more entities come through the rift Just FYI the PCs need 6 successes before 3 failures to close the rift.

A noble family in my world has fallen on hard times the last couple centuries, since the dwarves closed their borders and trade and travel dried up. They collect their taxes from the peasants, pay the crown it's fair share, and overall barely get by. The castle has fallen into disrepair, and there's no room for luxuries, but they keep up appearances as best they can.

They're also part of a cult. Not, like, a super evil cult, just one dedicated to order over light. They want to bring a modron march across the material plain, which would of course have devastating consequences, but they don't like, kill people for fun or anything.

This cult has recently made a new friend. One of the player characters, a member of this family, has been questioning their faith and loyalty, but recently, somewhat accidentally, sent a wizard with similar order-oriented goals towards this family.

The wizard has been making some financial contributions to the family. The castle is in visibly better shape. The party visited town, noticed, and is very suspicious.

One member broke into the office and took a look at the ledger. I want some entries that could be considered slightly suspicious, but not damning evidence. The first thing I came up with was "we sold some heirlooms from the basement and got a slight discount on building materials." Maybe some fake investments that will pay off over time. There's less oversight in a fantasy world than a modern one, but the crown still might take a look at your books, and you can't have obvious fabrications.

Any other ideas? I don't want the party to catch this cult doing any major treason any time soon, they're just getting interesting.

In my time as a pretty new GM, I've run a number of one-shots and only the start of a longer-form campaign. I found the one-shots very fun to run and I could spend ages coming up with interesting characters, set pieces, and encounters to jam in there. Each of these 1-shots were set in the same world that I had been designing the broad strokes of for some time now, and I felt like it was time to finally run a longer form story with some of my 1-shot players so that I could introduce some of the more intricate and deeper parts of the world into the games.

Starting off, I felt compelled to create a new town to softly lead players into the world and story. What I created ended up feeling quite half-baked to me, with not enough fleshed out points of interest and the places I did have struggled to hold the player's attention.

After getting through the start with only a little bit of trouble, the players made their way to the next town. This was a place already fleshed out with its own section in my world-building notes.

However, once they got there, I struggled again to get them hooked on any of the things already there, and they ended up following a lead I just wasn't prepared for. I improvised a scene for this but didn't come up with anything really engaging or interesting in the moment, kind of just giving the players the info they were looking for.

All this culminated in the set piece I was excited to show off to the players, that required them to prepare for a boss fight. However, I was really struggling to connect the plan they came up with in the session with the central story. Prepping the sessions had become increasingly stressful to the point where I decided to cancel the campaign.

Since then I have just been sitting on my world and wondering. I still want to be able to tell dramatic and epic stories and I want to be able to show off this world building project to my friends. However, this previous GM experience makes me feel apprehensive to try something on that scale again.

Based on this experience, I don't feel like I struggle because I have no ideas. I struggle when the players take the campaign somewhere I didn't anticipate, and I lose confidence that I can turn what they're doing into an interesting story (or at least do so without extensive planning). So I ask, how did you become comfortable running sessions you couldn't fully prepare for? What changed in how you prep or think about running a game?

TL;DR: I enjoy running one-shots, but I lose confidence once a campaign becomes player-driven and I can't predict what the players will do because what I come up with in the moment never feels good enough.

Hello everyone.

Two of our players in a group of four (excluding me) recently broke up. Let's call them Kim and Alex. I'm unsure as to how to move forward with the situation.

If I had the impression that it was a friendly breakup where they remained on good terms, I'd be less concerned. However, Alex doesn't even acknowledge it as a breakup while Kim does, and they have blocked each other on Discord. During a conflict with Alex, Kim insulted the group and nearly left it at one point. There's more I could say, but I'm not sure how much the specifics matter here. The main point is that the entire dynamic is... rather questionable to me.

What's difficult about it is that I shouldn't even know of these things (except for the blocking on Discord), but other players passed them along to me. We haven't played since their breakup, they haven't even communicated that they did break up, but before then they weren't actively hostile towards each other during the actual sessions, only outside of our group. While I didn't sense animosity between them, I have to say that both of them often seemed fairly... restrained and perhaps cautious during play. Of course, I can't say why.

One of the core tenets of TTRPGs, I believe, is that the players need to trust each other. I feel that this trust was already lost some time ago, perhaps as soon as their relationship troubles escaped "containment". Right now I don't trust them to trust each other, or that they'll be on good terms again. Even if they were, how long would that last? From a healthy couple I'd hope that they support and enable each other to play the game well and have fun together, but what I've heard is more toxic than anything else.

I also don't feel like they can really trust me or the others, since while I didn't spread any of that information myself (excluding this post, I guess), Kim doesn't know Alex tells these things to other players, and Alex doesn't know other players share them further. This secret-mongering is tiring, and not the kind of make-believe I want from a TTRPG.

However, how do I even resolve this situation? I'm not particularly keen on airing all of this, or on throwing other players under the bus. Perhaps I'm overreacting? I'm genuinely unsure whether this table is salvageable, or if I should step back from it.

TLDR: Two of my four players broke up messily (blocked each other, one insulted the group in private with their ex), but they haven't told me. I only know through other players passing secrets around. Trust at the table feels broken and I don't know if it's salvageable.

• Would you keep running this table, pause it, or stop?
• If you'd stop. how would you frame that without stirring things up even more?

TL;DR: I've been a GM for the last 18 years. My wife GM's occasionally too. We play with a couple of different groups and one issue that we both struggle with is creating engaging combat/action encounters for our groups' variety of play styles. Half are experienced/min-max players and the other half are newbie/casual players. Does anyone have any advice? Different groups for different campaigns or scheduling reasons.

If I create an encounter that's (enjoyably) challenging/engaging for my experience players, my casual players struggle and that impacts their fun. By engaging encounters I mean using varied terrain, timers, unique enemy abilities, resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, etc.

When I created an encounter tailored towards my casual players, the experienced players steamroll it, carrying the casual players. This also creates a feedback loop where my casual players just expect the experience players to handle the majority of an encounter.

Our groups are still having fun at the end with role-play, but as GM's we're not having as much fun when it comes to the combat. We've talked to our players about this a few times. My experience players are okay with stepping back, but when they do, the casual players often freeze up, and my experience players are forced to step in just to keep the game rolling.

When we the simplify the encounter, critical campaign moments lose their impact. As Gm's we also struggle with the role-playing during the encounter because we'de balancing all the enemies, turns, stats, etc.

We mainly play Pathfinder2e, DND 5E, and other dnd adjacents. We've offered more RP focused games, but I'm sure many of you are familiar with the difficulty of getting people to try something that is not DND-like lol.

If there's something that works well for your groups that we should change or incorporate into our games I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

I'm about to start doing a dnd campaign with my friends, and I want to know if lazy DMing is a good approach. Also, does it make sense to lazy dm but also make your own map for your campaign world?

Hey all, 7 years DM here looking for some advice on making a campaign finale special.

TLDR: I had a really good finale for our last campaign and don't have ideas for a way to make the current one special.

I've been playing with my current group for a bit under 3 years now, and we are in the middle of our second campaign. We run a campaign for about a year and a half each, we're looking to finish this one around November before one of our players goes away for several months. Our campaigns are very character centred and player agency focused. I really want to do the occasional thing to make our sessions extra special, I've done dress up sessions because the party was infiltrating a ball and plenty of holiday themed sessions.

At the end of our last campaign, I did two things I feel made it very special. Firstly, our party does a dinner roster each session where one of us cook and I had early in the campaign asked everyone what their characters favourite meal was. So, for the last session, I had cooked everyone an equivalent of the dish to eat, it was very sweet one of them cried.

Secondly, here is the part I'm really struggling to top or even compete with; the last session was a battle against an evil mage who had stolen the power from a God of death and was going to kill and steal power from every other God. The second last session ended with the players marching upon the evil altar and an army of thousands of undead. The beginning of the session was the party fighting waves of the undead and making little progress. Until allies they had made from all throughout the campaign began to show up to help them. For each major npc, I had a friend or family member of the player closest to them and send in a voice recording as the character. This landed so well and is genuinely one of my favourite moments ever as a dm it really allowed the players to feel the impact of everything they had done throughout the campaign.

So the issue I'm having is I have no idea how to top or compete with this as a campaign finale and would love some ideas.

Info on the current campaign: (spoilers included, but I'm sure my players won't read this)

- The campaign follows a very post-apocalyptic. Government control plot, think divergent, maze runner, hunger games, etc. They live in massive bubble in a solar punk utopia, except the government has very specific rules about science and population control.

- The players are currently toppling said government and are aware that a powerful creature from beyond the bubble is the reason they can not leave or grow too populated.

- When the players pop the bubble which they will they'll find out about what caused the apocalypse. Namely, a sentient wish spell (basically a super AI) who decided that what people truly wished for was death.

- themes: government, environmentalism, AI, artificial life, etc.

- my players are not opposed to their own war crimes and have a small army of recently sentient child robot soldiers who call two of the players' mother and father.

Bonus, other info:

- We play a modified version of Fate Core to have a much larger focus on storytelling than game mechanics.

- My table consists of mostly reader types and less gamers, but there is plenty of diversity in the types of stories they all like.

- We keep a lighter tone with plenty of serious moments sprinkled in.

Thanks for any suggestions, and I'd love to hear other things DMs have done to make their sessions special.

Hi there, im a brand new GM with a homebrew campaign using the DnD 5.5e rules. Recently we had our first session of the campaign which went great, except for one little thing: two of the five players couldn't make it due to personal circumstances. Now I was well aware of one player being unable to attend the first session, and had planned his introduction in the second session.

My issue is that the intro I planned effectively doesn't work with introducing two players at the same time. I had planned to introduce the one player as a captive of a group the party is investigating, and then him having some key information on the group. This doesn't really work with two people imo.

For context: the party saved a small market town from an attack by an unknown group of individuals and are now tasked with finding out who they are and why they attacked, in an attempt to prevent a war from breaking out between two major powers. They are about to be tracking a lead they have along the road and that's where the session ended. Any ideas on how to introduce two new players in this scenario?

Hiya! I’m a new DM, and I’ve got the beginnings of a plot I’d like to turn into a dnd campaign. Unfortunately, I don’t really know where to start on things like dungeon maps, actual story dialogue, and most importantly, HOW TO MAKE ENEMIES. I’m super into starting a game with some pals but I genuinely have no clue where to start. Any advice is appreciated

So I’ve been planning on running a No I’m Not A Human themed one shot (Like Dungeons and Dragons or Call of Cthulhu) but I’ve hit a mental road block and I’m looking for ideas to make it happen! It will most likely have 3-5 players (which Ik isn’t super game accurate) and only a couple of players know the game so I want to make it simple but still something interesting.

Things I still need:
1. NPC ideas, I could use the ones from the game but idk which ones would work in this format
2. Stats ideas (like the ones in D&D, Strength, Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence Dexterity) I would use the D&D ones but I don’t think they fit super well and I would prefer more game based ones
3. Setting, I’ve been thinking about it being based at a hospital because of the amount of players but any other ideas would be great!

Thanks for reading, and if you can help me plz do!

I am running a Domain of Dread campaign inspired by one of the ones provided, but expanded to make it a whole closed sandbox world to explore. My regular DM who never gets to play is excited they say to join, but there have been some issues.

(Thing to note, this is a world where the Darklord has removed history of the world and made it their own false version. There is no real mention of races/species being in the world. Most stuff I have had to do myself to get it to be a world players can learn about since the material provided doesn't do any of that. It just provides a settingwith no real substance on how to actually run it.)

First is they didn't vibe with any of the races I provided for the world, a list of over 12 races each with different Lore to build off of. They said they couldn't connect with any of them not because of the lore provided, but because it wasn't the DnD lore they knew. I explained that this is part of the Domain's appeal to players, that you as the player will be rediscovering this history of your race/species' true origins. I then reminded them they could make a character from outside the domain if it was an issue of lore not matching what they know, but they said they wanted to do a character from that world.

Second is they don't understand why certain races/species don't know of their true origins, such as those originating with the fey, demons/devils, celestials, and others of different planes. I pointed out that the history of this world was erased and that due to this each race has a new origin they believe to be true as ordained by the Darklord. This history I pointed out isn't real, and their real origins will be discovered throughout the campaign. There is no reason for the fey creatures to know they are originally from the feywild, because that history is gone to them due to the Darklord. It is to the point they read over the materials for that Domain from the source books and tried to argue that their is no information on races, and that the Darklord has simply removed known history, as if that would explain why a race would know their original history. A tiefling isn't going to know of their demonic ties as being demonic ties if there are no known demons in that world's lore, and it makes more sense for them to believe they are simply cursed in some way.

I don't know how to address this. I have offered to change lore while still having it fit the already established guidelines, said I am open to critiques, criticism, and open to suggestions, and tried to make it clear that their real origins have not actually changed, and that those origins will be discovered in the campaign. I've tried to be firm that this aspect of the campaign is not changing, but if they can make suggestions on lore that would explain why they know of their original racial ties then I am not against implementing it.

There is another player who also tends to be a DM, and they have not been having this issue. In fact they have told me they like the way I have handled the erased and changed history. They have been having a blast coming up with a character, fully embracing the world's context and creating a character they want to play. There is also two other players who have enjoyed the stuff provided, and are excited to get their characters in the setting to explore and go on epic adventures.

What can I do at this point to get the Forever DM to understand that this is not a world where races/species actively know their true origins, and that although I accept their thoughts on it I am not going to change a whole major draw to the campaign simply because it isn't what they know. Or am I actually in the wrong and they have a point?

Update 1: The Forever Dm has at least chosen a lineage, but not a race. I might try to work backwards to a degree on character creation for them, figuring out their class, alignment, background, motivations, personality, etc. I also plan to talk to them about making sure they know that if the lore at this point is still an issue that maybe this isn't the campaign for them unfortunately. I will still offer the explanation of the why for the lore being how it is by further explaining the lore of the Darklord's reasoning for erasing history and rewriting it.

Update 2: They have picked a race! We ended up working backwards to making their character, the player even helping to create some lore for the world to fit the concept they were wanting to go for that didn't involve relying on the existing lore of D&D that they were used to. After that was all said and done we together looked at the races that would best fit the backstory they were wanting for their player and they picked one based off that. They have been doing a good job so far about respecting the boundary of what the character knows versus the player, and seem to be having fun using that hidden knowledge from the character to give me plenty of knives to play with. Thank you everyone for your advice on how to go about this and what I can do as a DM to better run my table.

Hi everyone!

In a few weeks I'll be running my very first D&D campaign as a DM. I've spent months building the world, writing the main story, and creating personal questlines for each of my players.

The part I'm struggling with is one particular character. I know his backstory and his motivation, but I'm having trouble figuring out where I want his personal story to go.

I'd like his quest to be divided into three acts, with each act revealing more of the truth and eventually leading to a meaningful moral dilemma.

Would anyone want to try and expand this story into 3 acts?

Here's the backstory (this is what player submitted):

Khal

Ever since I was a child, I was rebellious and could never stand injustice. Whenever the strong preyed upon the weak, I simply couldn't stand by and do nothing. More often than not, this led me into fights, much to my father's despair.

My father, Alder , was a high-ranking imperial official responsible for inspecting the safety of mines throughout the Empire. He believed that discipline and responsibility were the highest virtues. When my behavior became impossible to control, he made a decision that would change my life forever—he sent me to study at the Temple of Tyr.

At first, I hated him for it.

But over time, I realized that it was there I found my true calling. The priests of Tyr taught me what justice truly meant. I swore my oath to Tyr and became a paladin.

For the next several years, I carried out missions on behalf of the temple. Between my duties and relentless training, I visited my family less and less often.

Everything changed one day.

News reached the temple of a terrible disaster at the Branwick Mine. Flooded tunnels had claimed the lives of dozens of miners. The official reports stated that the mine had previously been declared safe by Alder —my father.

Shortly after the catastrophe, my father disappeared without a trace.

The Temple of Tyr declared him the prime suspect and assigned me, along with several other paladins, to track him down and bring him to trial. If found guilty of willful negligence resulting in the deaths of so many innocent people, he could face the death penalty.

I don't know whether my father is guilty.

I only know that I have to uncover the truth.

Why does he travel?

He seeks the truth behind the Branwick disaster, protects ordinary people from the abuse of power, and is determined never to become the kind of man who justifies evil for the sake of convenience.

Why did he accept the mining contract?

The events surrounding the mine strike directly at his own past. He cannot ignore another situation in which innocent workers may lose their lives.

He also hopes to uncover documents or other evidence that will reveal what truly happened at Branwick—and what role, if any, his father played in the tragedy.

Greatest Fear

That one day he will begin to justify terrible decisions with words like "procedure," "orders," or "the greater good."

Flaw

He is stubborn, impulsive, and deeply distrustful of authority—especially when he believes someone is lying or trying to bury the truth.

I was playing 3.5e as a kid in my parent's basement and it was with a couple of friends and we just loved building characters. We would rarely play more than a dungeon and it was a ton of fun. I took about a 10 year break then COVID lockdowns and Critical Role meshed into my life and brought the obsession with the game back. Since 2020, I've been running 5e games for my friends and introducing it to 10 newbies. Throughout this, I've been struggling and adapting to different scheduling styles. I went from just a dungeon to wanting a long spanning campaign with amazing backgrounds and narratives with fun mechanics, puzzles and encounters. I usually blend modules and homebrew.

The last 6 years have led me to trying a bunch of different scheduling styles. It has been a major frustration trying to get campaigns going. Only over the past probably 9 months, have I finally felt like I hit my stride in scheduling successfully and getting the narrative the players and me as a DM want.

The more people I've talked to about scheduling online and in person have been split. On one side, there's the Casual Drop-In Default: Same day, same time, and we march on with whoever is sitting in the chairs. On the other side, there's the High-Commitment Contract: We only play if the whole party (or a strict quorum) can make it, treating game night as a sacred, high-priority commitment.

There is some interesting behavior psychology around "weak-link" principle and FOMO and how it influences group cohesion and long term success of playing these type of games out. My feeling is we, game master and dungeon masters, are having to water down our sessions or default to barebones adventures without mixing in backgrounds or momentum because of these scheduling decisions.

Which camp does your current group fall into, and is it actually working for your campaign long term?