Players want to do things, not experience things

Railroading becomes an occupational hazard when DMing or playing in a large published campaign. If you’re lucky, the campaign will offer choices– which quest to complete first, which faction to ally with. But these choices still eventually lead to the same conclusion. They have to, or else the campaign book wouldn’t be able to have any conclusion at all.

The result, however, is that the players are essentially acting out a choose-your-own-adventure book without much ability to forge their own path. How can the campaign remain fun and engaging when the conclusion is already written?

This gets to my larger point of why I’m generally not a fan of big published campaigns: players want to do things, not experience things. They don’t want to just experience someone else’s pre-written story. 

Here are a few ways you can put this into practice:

• The plot shouldn’t happen at the PCs or around them. The characters and their choices should be the ones driving the direction of the story.
• In lieu of a large published campaign plot, consider steering the story towards the random things the players latch onto. There’s an excellent blog article explaining this process in more detail, and I believe it’s one of the best ways we can make our sessions fun for our players.
• Victory in combat encounters shouldn’t be a given. Again, we want to avoid predetermined outcomes. Make sure combat encounters advance the story in interesting ways regardless of who wins.
• Locations and dungeon rooms should have fun and interesting things for the characters to interact with (things to do!). Flowery descriptions and deep lore should be in service to the characters, not an end to themselves.

Let me know of any other ways you put this idea into practice!

Plan for failure to allow for actual stakes

If the campaign story requires that the party win every fight, it can be tempting to hold back punches to ensure the party survives. But what’s the point of playing the game if you already know what will happen?

In order to allow for the possibility of failure, we need combats that are not fights to the death. Introducing different stakes to combat encounters helps keep them exciting and memorable.

For example:

• The players are trying to stop cultists from completing a ritual which progresses each turn they maintain concentration.
• Members of a Thieves’ Guild are trying to escape with an artifact they stole.

In these scenarios, the enemies have other objectives other than just killing the party, so it’s not the end of the world if the enemies succeed. It takes the story in a different and interesting direction. As a DM, you can give both sides a legitimate chance and see how it turns out. Success is only meaningful if there is chance of failure.

What other encounters or stakes have you used to great effect?

Finding VTT Maps

Maps are a great way to build immersion and help a location feel memorable. Thankfully, there are tons of free resources out there for battlemaps. 

Lost atlas: https://lostatlas.co/

This site has an index of over 5,000 battle maps and is incredibly useful for searching for a specific type of map. You can search for keywords, filter by environment, etc. Generally I’ve found the results to be a lot better than Google images.

Other useful map collection sites:

• https://dnd-maps.com/
• https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/battle-maps
• https://dicegrimorium.com/free-rpg-map-library

Map making communities:

There are many awesome map making programs such as Dungeondraft, Wonderdraft, and Inkarnate. Equally awesome are the communities surrounding the software. People who love making maps will post their creations for others to enjoy. Although the map quality can vary, there are always new maps being posted and the backlog is enormous. 

There are a few subreddits and Discord servers where people post their creations:

• Dungeondraft subreddit
• Wonderdraft subreddit
• Inkarnate subreddit
• Mapmaking subreddit
• Dungeondraft & Wonderdraft Discord server
• Inkarnate Discord server

Patreon previews:

Many map makers on Patreon will post some free maps so that people can see what kind of work they do.

• Czepeku
• Tehox Maps
• The MAD Cartographer
• Dice Grimorium
• Tavern Tales
• Afternoon Maps
• FantastiskDoD

Let me know if there are other places you go to for maps!

Treating low-CR creatures as traps

As your party advances in level, certain monsters no longer pose much of a threat. If a combat encounter would be so lopsided that the enemies have no chance of winning, should you roll initiative and run a full battle?

Imagine a level 10 party facing the following monsters: 

• A skeleton lying near a treasure chest
• A dust mephit springing out of a desk
• A violet fungus lashing out at anyone who enters a cave

These types of encounters make sense for the situation, and shouldn’t go away just because the party leveled up. With these types of low-risk encounters, instead of running a full combat, you can treat the monster like a trap. Tell the player what their character would see or hear, let them narrate how they would handle the situation, and then have them make the appropriate roll. 

For example:

• If the character would try to jump out of the way or raise their shield, have them make a Dex save. 
• If the character would try to kill the creature before it attacks them, have the character make an attack roll.

If the character makes their roll, they are able to avoid any damage. Otherwise, the monster lands an attack before being destroyed by the high level party. 

This has several advantages:

• You can include creatures that make sense for the environment and situation without slowing the game down.
• The players feel powerful when they can swiftly handle threats that previously required a full combat.
• There is still a chance the character suffers minor damage from the “trap,” encouraging the party to proceed cautiously and thoughtfully.

The Different Types of Player Choices

I’ve written about how you shouldn’t know everything that will happen in your game. An important aspect of that is presenting your players with interesting decisions to make. The story can then unfold naturally from those choices. 

There are several kinds of choices players can make:

1. Tactical decisions
• Which enemy should we focus on first?
• What’s the best way we can position ourselves in this battle?
• Should I use my spell slots now or save them for later?
2. Moral dilemmas
• Do we let a bad guy go if there’s a reward for us?
• Should we keep this magic item or return it to its rightful owner?
• How far do we go to protect those we care about?
3. Assessing risk vs. reward
• Should we take the safer path or the more dangerous shortcut?
• How much stock should we put in this informant’s information?
• Should we try to sneak past the guards?
• Is it worth trying to rest here?
4. Personal choices
• Which faction do we help / side with?
• Which quests interest me?

Interesting choices should have the following aspects:

1. Genuine impact. The player’s decision should shape the story in a unique and interesting way.
2. Shades of gray. With each decision, each option has its merits. There should not be an overwhelmingly “right” or “optimal” choice the players must make.
3. Clarity. The players should understand the potential outcomes of their decision, especially any information their characters would know. When in doubt, it’s better to overshare and clarify.

Let me know what interesting choices you gave your players!

Alternate Death Saves

I came across this alternate method for handling death saves and wanted to pass it along. It looks like a fun system that allows characters to be involved in combat while still giving meaning to the death saves. Does this seem like a good system? Let me know what you think! (Original source)

 

Don’t punish players for exploring a dungeon

Although it’s important for dungeons to feel challenging, they should also be fun for the players to explore. When every room is filled with traps, mimics, and hostile creatures, the players won’t want to explore (until the Plot™️ forces them to). We want our players to interact with our content, therefore we should ensure the players feel encouraged to do so.

Here are my thoughts on how to keep dungeons fun:

1. Not every room needs to have dangerous traps or hostile creatures. Certain areas might even help the players (a healing fountain, for example) or provide the players with useful information.
2. Clever and careful play should keep the characters safer. One example of this is adding visual indicators for traps to reward observant players. You can also include environmental challenges in lieu of traps to facilitate create problem solving.
3. When the party does encounter a setback, make sure they are rewarded. After all, why have a trap if there’s no valuable treasure it’s protecting?
4. Random combat encounters should not turn into slogs. Save your deadly encounters for the boss flight.
5. Don’t throw in setbacks for the hell of it. They should serve a purpose.
6. Keep in mind the party’s motivation for entering the dungeon. Overcoming obstacles should move them closer towards their goal (or at least provide some cool information or loot for their troubles). 

(This is something I noticed as a player, not a DM. Being a player and watching other DMs can give you valuable insights and perspectives as to what’s fun and what’s not!)

 

GM Cross-training

In previous articles I’ve talked about the importance of practice as well as my favorite podcasts & blogs for GMs. But there are still countless other ways we can improve as GMs:

1. Read adventures & sourcebooks. Even if you don’t plan on running a certain adventure, there are tons of ideas you can lift from it. If you’re running a homebrew campaign, it’s particularly useful to see how experienced designers create an adventure.
2. Design homebrew. Through the process of creating homebrew materials (magic items, monsters, spells, etc.) you will better understand how those things work mechanically.
3. Watch / listen to actual plays. Each GM has their own techniques they bring to the game. Leverage their experience and ideas to make your game even better.
4. Play in games as a character. As a player, you can pick up on what makes a game fun and what might not.
5. Check out different TTRPG systems. Each system has its own way of doing things, and a lot of those cool ideas can be adapted for whatever system you’re running.
6. Consume fiction. TV shows, movies, and fantasy novels are all great sources of inspiration for plot points, cool locations, NPCs, etc. “We’re only as good as the obscurity of the references we steal from.” –Matt Colville

Let me know other ways you work to improve!

Puzzles as Extra Credit

It’s easy to present a situation where the party must solve a puzzle to advance the plot. This creates a clear issue, however: what happens if they can’t solve it?

Instead, it’s fun to use puzzles to give the party extra bonuses. For example, solving a puzzle may:

• Unlock a treasure chest
• Free an ally or activate a construct that will fight alongside the party (like in Fallout)
• Set off a trap to hurt the enemies in the next room
• Open a secret passage, allowing the characters to bypass certain dangers or escape a dungeon unharmed
• Provide some useful information about an enemy or their plans
• Reveal secret information about the world

By clearly telegraphing the reward (e.g. describing the puzzle as right on the treasure chest), the players become excited about the potential reward and can make an informed decision on how much time to spend on the puzzle. After all, a puzzle is a lot more fun when the players are choosing to engage with it rather than having it forced on them.

Let us know any other fun ways you've used puzzles!

The Trap of Nested Plot Hooks

Especially with homebrew campaigns, I’ve noticed a tendency to have nested plot hooks. For example: The party is tasked with rescuing a princess. They visit a local wizard to gather information. In return the wizard wants them to retrieve a lost artifact. Finding the artifact requires a map which bandits currently have. Defeating the bandits requires recruiting allies. Each ally has a quest for the party. And so on. 

Six sessions into their campaign, the group has no idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They barely even remember what their original goal is. It’s too complicated. Moreover, as the party completes each step, the rug is pulled out from under them as another obstacle is presented. 

What takeaways can we glean from this example?

1. A complicated plot is not the same as an interesting plot. You shouldn’t add content for the heck of it. Make sure each aspect of your campaign is adding value.
2. Plots shouldn’t be so complicated that your players can’t remember what’s going on. The players are not living in the world all the time like their characters are.
3. Players like making progress toward their goal. It’s fine if the goal takes a while to achieve, but the players should have an idea of the scope and the steps required up front. Otherwise delays and complications can feel deflating.
4. The reward for completing a task should not just be another task to complete. Each success should take the players closer to their goal so that they are incentivized and excited to continue.

Combining ideas to create something even cooler

Recently I’ve been writing down potential ideas for a new campaign to run. The difficult part is deciding which idea I like the most. But why do we have to pick only one idea? We can combine different ideas to make something even more interesting.

Let’s take dungeons as an example. It’s easy to rattle off some typical dungeon locations: mines, caves, temples, crypts, a bandit stronghold, etc. On their own, each of those locations could be interesting, but what happens when we combine them together?

What if we have a temple built into a mountain with a hidden cave system for those brave enough to search? What if an abandoned library has been taken over by bandits and made into a stronghold? What if a foul monster has recently dug its lair in an old mine?

Now these locations have lots of history and hooks to draw on. Because they are multi-faceted they seem more real and dynamic. All together we have a much more memorable and unique location for our party to explore. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This technique doesn’t only apply to dungeons. Ideas for campaigns, NPCs, cities, magic items, etc. can all be combined to create unique content.

Let me know what you think and what other ways you create interesting ideas!