Advice for a rookie DM

[Chewbacca]

Id ask player 4 what they'd play if he couldnt be evil, and explore the alignment charts. Expalin how the character would die the first session, because it would be at least 2 on 1 and then you would just have to roll up another one anway.

As for player 1, I'd look up a variey of optional skills/kits that will make any character better, and offer those as a way to become powerful. Be creative but frugal with special powers beyond the book. Often just one really cool ablity or power, will make up for having merely above average stats rather than high. If the player insists on having 3 or more stats above 18 that werent rolled using a fair system, explain that all advantages have disadvantages. Sometime in the the second or third session, make sure that character gets a cursed item that offers an equal diadvantage, or just a girdle of permanent gender change

[Daniel]

quote:

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Originally posted by WOLFGIR:
give them all the points system adjustment and let them all buy points to their characters instead of rolling them.

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Is this like the character generation in Planescape Torment where each stat starts on 9 and you then have 25 further points to distribute as you please?

P.S - to everyone else who has posted, once again thanks, I never expected to get quite so many posts. Its all helped me a lot.

P.P.S - player 4 is now chaotic neutral.

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]

[Micah Foehammer]

As for point buy systems, you can choose almost any method you want.

Here are just a couple of options:
(1) Your method: Start with all 9's and give players 25 to 30 points to distribute on 1 for 1 basis with no stat above 18 UNLESS racial modifications apply.
(2) All 9's, plus fixed number of points to spend except any stat over 16 costs 2 for 1 and exceptional strength costs an additional 2 points
(3) Give them a fixed number of points (say 85) to distribute anyway they want. No stat over 18 except for racial mods.

(4) Roll 4d6 for each stat - keep the highest 3
(5) Roll 3d6 and reroll all 1's and 2's
(The last two aren't point buy but they do work well)

BTW, I didn;t realize when you first posted that you had a ranger and a paladin in the group with the person wanting to play an evil character. In that case, absolutely forbid him to play that character - he'll be dead the first night.

[NobleNick]

I'd give a wink and a nod to players 2 and 3, then let player 4 play his character. When he is all of a sudden dead, because his fellow adventurers crucified him in the first 5 minutes of gameplay; maybe it would be easier to reason with him on the re-roll!

[WOLFGIR]

quote:

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Originally posted by Daniel:


Is this like the character generation in Planescape Torment where each stat starts on 9 and you then have 25 further points to distribute as you please?

P.S - to everyone else who has posted, once again thanks, I never expected to get quite so many posts. Its all helped me a lot.

P.P.S - player 4 is now chaotic neutral.

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]

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Yes, alot like it. It is described in DM guide under different methods of creating your character. It´s a good way to keep balanced characters and will be used in NWN as well.

[Pangur Ban]

quote:

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Originally posted by Daniel:


P.S any advice at all to a new DM would be appreciated not just advice on the problem stated above.

[ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]

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I DM'd for 11 years, and was president of the largest independent games club in our state ( The Wizards' Council ruled !! )

1. Provide a good mix of challenges - don't rely on monsters.

2. Give monsters tactics and non standard actions every now and again. A group of five kobolds armed with a large net took out a party of 6 5th level adventures !!

3. Why should people assume that every item they want to buy is available off the shelf? "Yes, sir, I can provide you with new chainmail - it will be ready in two weeks"

4. Try not to interfere in inter-party conflicts. If they want to bash each other silly, let them.

5. Make your world seem real, not cold. Give individuality to animals and things as well as people. Little things can be important and add realism. Example. A thief's left boot develops a squeak while halfway thru a dungeon adventure. What to do? Keep the boot, and risk alerting monsters? Go barefoot and tread in all sorts of nasty ikky dungeon stuff? Steal one from another character while resting?

6. Most important - keep magic items rare, unusual, and interesting.
A campaign flooded with magic soon becomes boring and stale ( the party moan "Oh, not another +5 blade of dragon slaying" )

Pang [img]graemlins/cat3.gif[/img]

[Legolas]

From the way you describe it, player 1 and 4 are both players who are so fixed on what they want to play that they'd not really consider playing anything else. They look like the classic case of wannabe-roleplayers who bail out the minute something bad happens to them, a permanent -1 to constitution for example (no disrespect intended). They will both have to discover if they really want to do the more serious roleplay, which involves being flexible, or if their ideas are all wrong.
Player 4 will discover for himself, as he's got an 'impossible' character for an unexperienced player. If you're lucky, he'll come to see that it's not only about your character, but about the whole group. In the mean time, you can still have fun as the evil/whimsical character disrupts the regular party and does stupid things (like failing to disarm that trap over there).
Player 1 will not really learn through experience, because if you're the 'best' character in the group then you'll only see how much more difficult a time the more basic characters are having, and he'll be rooted in the conviction that stats are everything. You can solve this in one of three ways. The first is 'not to make any rolls, like wiht the 9 + 25 points described earlier on, the second is to tell him what 'reasonable' stats are and that the strength of roleplaying is not that you waltz over monsters (which stats won't really help you do anyway, but still...) but to have fun and to be able to live a bit of your life as another character who is just as mortal as the player himself, guide him through the life he is living, and enjoy the varied adventures he encounters. This is probably what you should try first.
If that doesn't work, tell him to choose between playing with a reasonable character and not playing at all. Simple as that. If you don't want such a character, and I think the rest of the group isn't too happy about it either, then why should he play? He'd only make the game less fun. If you play, play by the rules. If you don't, the game is not for you.

Good luck DMming, and remember that fun is the number one rule