tips for a DM

[Qray]

Bubba the Brainsmasher to the party's theif : "I'm a level 15 Barbarian! If you're holding out on us, it would take like two hits with my axe to do ya."
DM to the player running Bubba : "He's a theif."
Bubba the Brainsmasher : "SO?"
DM : "Theives backstab for quadruple damage. One strike and he'd kill you."
Bubba the Brainsmasher : "WHAT!?!?!?!"

way later the paladin player found out that there had been three bags of gold in the wardrobe and then a big debate broke out, because he found out, his character did not yet he brought it in to play and wanted to hang the thief.

That's where the DM needs to let the player know that a player and a character are not the same. Just because a player knows something, doesn't mean his/her character knows it.

It's difficult. The player can get mad when you tell them that. Even though they wanted to spend attribute points on strength and dexterity instead of intelligence or wisdom to get a bad a$$ fighter.

"Sorry, Bubba, but you failed your perception role. You didn't see anything."

"But I know they did it!"

"Yeah, you know, but Bubba the Brainsmasher doesn't know."

A good player won't let it go any farther than that. He/she will let it drop. A bad player will get angry and the gaming experience of all will suffer as either they'll be p.o. the rest of the night, or the other player will "break character" and (in your example of the bags of gold) fess up to the bags of gold.

That's another thing the DM must determine before game play. How the gamers want to go about their gaming experience. I once had a group in which I would often write things down on pieces of paper and hand them to different gamers for what their characters would see, hear, or detect that the rest of the party couldn't (like a character with night vision seeing a trap in the dark) The player would then decide whether or not to tell the rest of the party. This group of gamers had no problem with this and understood the reason why. I had another group of gamers in which one of the gamers got very angry over this. Thinking I and other some of the other players were conspiring against his characters, so I didn't do the note thing. Even though it made the gaming experience more realistic, everyone decided it was better that everyone was having a good time.

[who me]

I put my answer in rpg characters (is more a story than a advice )

[Dr_Love]

My opinion is that a DM shouldn't be to easy on characters, but also not to hard...right in the middle if possible. And I think that DM's should try to provide for the characters needs, but as for their wants....that's a different story. One last thing, the DM shouldn't hold back on the magic items...I mean even minor items could help in the worse of situations.(Hint Hint, Don't Take Offense...lol)

[Talon Sinnah]

Damn you Dr Love! (joking Bmat)

[Qray]

My opinion is that a DM shouldn't be to easy on characters, but also not to hard...right in the middle if possible. And I think that DM's should try to provide for the characters needs, but as for their wants....that's a different story. One last thing, the DM shouldn't hold back on the magic items...I mean even minor items could help in the worse of situations.(Hint Hint, Don't Take Offense...lol)

I guess it would depend on the enviornment your characters are in. Usually I've never had an over abundance of magical items when I DMed. With the possible exception of potions and powders. In my way of thinking (which is often skewed,) findingt a lot of magical items is akin to pickin up a gernade launcher or .50 cal around every corner whipe gaming a modern RPG.

That makes me think of money. I've played a lot of games where gold and gems were in quite a bit of abundance even though a weeks wages for a normal occupation may be less than a single gold peice. Whipping out a pouch with just a handful of gold peices should impress the smeg out of the locals and IMO, should be DMed as such. Thoughts?

[aldan]

My thoughts are this: permanent magic items should be rare (with more powerful ones having stories, and even minor ones should have some sort of a history behind 'em. I mean, it's a bard's world, too, you know, so if you use the Lore stat, that'd be perfect for it, and even if you don't, then (like in 1st Ed AD&D) you should use some items with stories to add subplots. Even non-perm items shouldn't be common, but simply more common than rare. The creation of magical items in D&D has always been said to be expensive, time consuming, and often dangerous to the mage or other creator, be it due to potential problems in collection of the necessary ingredients, the difficult spells needed for the creation, or else the potential for an interruption during creation creating a disaster!

I think that people who started by playing vidgames won't quite "get" the idea when they start, but really roleplaying games aren't about building the uber-character or "min/maxing", but instead it's about building a character that is fun to roleplay and is interesting for others to play with.

That's my opinion, and if you don't like it or disagree with it, that's your prerogative!

[Dr_Love]

I like how Aldan put it, I really like to look at the characters like that instead of thats one's the strongest, that ones the fastest, that one's the smartes, this one can do that and this one can do this. Either way they are there and they will help the best way possible...reguardless of who is around or not.

[Talon Sinnah]

I just think that magic items make some things less challenging. In one of mine and the Docs campaigns we have like level 15 characters so passing out magic items would make an already easy job extremely easy. There is nothing in the monster manuals that is able to take us, except the Tarrasque(spelling), so I make things that has a good chance of killing us. The only magic items I hand out helps a character in everyday life or battle if the player is clever enough. As for stories behind items, love the idea of it.

[Dr_Love]

Maybe give the items a charge that when it runs out it can't be used anymore, or a level based system for magical items....kind limits it ALOT that way.

[aldan]

Still, though, some creatures may only be beaten with magical weapons, so if you have none, or only one in a group, they will die. Take a vampire, for instance. You need pretty hefty weaponry and spells to take a powerful one on, and even then it can be close at lower levels (5-7, for instance). Those characters would be fishbait if they only had a few magic arrows among them and that's it. Characters of that level wouldn't stand a chance against an old vampire that would have all the knowledge and experience to use against them without even counting all of his power, especially if it's a mage vamp or a cleric vamp. Bye, guys! Nice knowing you, but you are now going to all be dead or undead, and I'm sure if he kills some of you, he'll make you into zombies or something. Won't it be great to lose your soul??

[aldan]

Still, though, some creatures may only be beaten with magical weapons, so if you have none, or only one in a group, they will die. Take a vampire, for instance. You need pretty hefty weaponry and spells to take a powerful one on, and even then it can be close at lower levels (5-7, for instance). Those characters would be fishbait if they only had a few magic arrows among them and that's it. Characters of that level wouldn't stand a chance against an old vampire that would have all the knowledge and experience to use against them without even counting all of his power, especially if it's a mage vamp or a cleric vamp. Bye, guys! Nice knowing you, but you are now going to all be dead or undead, and I'm sure if he kills some of you, he'll make you into zombies or something. Won't it be great to lose your soul??

[Dr_Love]

I see it as this....in life all you have to do is live, die, and pay taxes....if your undead you've already lived and die, and i'm pretty sure that a undead won't pay taxes....so life goals are complete.