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I was wondering how people thought I was doing as a DM on my Rps. I have two, and they are moving somewhat at a slow speed. I was wondering if I was doing anything wrong, or not. Any advice would be more than amazing. Be brutal! But honest.

Be brutally honest, please.

I'm not in any of your RP's, but I can say that slow is usually better than fast. When things go fast, people fall behind and characters tend to drop out or lose depth. But if you're going slow, try to keep finishing in mind. I hate it when an RP goes slow, then doesn't finish. Unless it's a freedom RP. In that case, go right ahead and go slow

From my time spent in STD I found the speed nice, in an RP like that (freeform in which we weren't railroaded once for those unfamiliar with it) the DM can't really set the speed themselves it's up to the characters.

Question: Since I'm not a DM am I even allowed to post here ?

Yeah, for future reference, use the General Roleplay Discussion thread for questions about current RPs. This is more of a "Tips for DMs from DMs" thread.

I always feel like a bit of an ass denying sheets and telling people to change them. Even more so when I do it to the same person more than once. Still it must be done.

I have only done that once, and it was recent. I'm generally laid back when it comes to other people's characters. Unless their story breaks my story I'm okay with it.

It has to be done sometimes, unfortunately. D:

Whenever I'm unhappy with someone's submission, I tell them why and try to help them improve it. If they have the will to be good, then they will grow into it. Otherwise you're gettin' the boot, son.

Generally, I will make some concessions to allow people to play who they want to play, but only up to a point.

My first roleplay is starting Friday. Huzzah! Any last minute advice from our established and experienced DMs is welcome!

Uhh... The disjointed tidbit that is coming to my head right now is:

Something that I find makes DMing a lot of fun is to pay close attention to how PC interactions are developing, and how you anticipate they will develop. It makes it so that you can tailor small parts of the story in order to facilitate further character development, one way or another.

Oh, and whatever you do, either be well known or share every single process, or it will likely die quickly because no one cares or everyone leaves because they can't be bothered to invest themselves.

Expect to have 3/4 of your players drop out in the first two months.

Or expect more players to jump in and make it much more chaotic.

Or expect both of these to happen, possibly straight after one another.

Or expect a ship to fall from the sky that looks like the titani... waaaait a second..

I was talking about this in the Future RP thread but I thought it might be better suited here.



In story I'm not going to be having them do 'rigorous' background checks. In fact it is a 3rd party that hires the PCs for the CEO of the company in the first place and not the CEO himself. However it does raise a good point and one I prefer my players to think about in making a character. What are you doing there and what do you want? Basically what does your character want out of what they are doing. They might just be there for fun, adventure and riches. They may be seeking to make the world a better place in the long run, save civilisation as we know it, to open up a bar, to meet that special someone or to try and avenge their brother's death. I don't so much restrict characters as much as I just want characters who'll be doing the things they'll be doing. I think giving a character motivation makes them more interesting and while I won't enforce it in the sheet players should think about it. I think it makes characters more interesting. That isn't to say you have no choice your actions. I like to let players have choices in how they handle things and prefer to let them make up their own minds about what is the right course of action rather than holding them by the hand. None of this is to say I have a problem with unlikely heroes. I don't, in fact they are often some of the best. Personally I've made a few characters who are specifically bad at fighting and don't like fighting at all.

I agree with you completely. There's no challenge in it at all if one never sets them. A shame it's never well-received when the DM limits character creations in even a little degree.

I don't want to restrict your character creation. It is just that you don't want to end up in the situation where the character has no reason to be there at all or do anything what so ever. If that is the case I'm fine with you leaving that character and making a new one instead. It isn't a rule to enforce as much as it is something to remind players about when they make a character. I'm not saying you have to play nice with the rest of the characters, just make a character with some sense of agency.

What do you think of child PCs? Obviously it wouldn't work for all RPs but I'm sure it could in some cases. It is harder to pull of that an adult or older teenager, that's for sure.

Deandra did ok as a little girl in SIAR.

Tedrin in Ring of Fire worked okay.. I think.

Child PCs would be restricted in every way. They would be at a disadvantage to other RPers, something that the DM would have to take into account.

Unless they became Daemons.

I personally have no problem with people creating underpowered characters. I treat them as underpowered.

I don't know about you guys but I like leaving quests open to a no kill solution. The main questline anyway, not all quests. There are plenty of side quests that require killing but those are optional. Players have the choice to just not do those side quests. I'm not saying it is easy, it fact it is often really hard. But if a player wants to play a pacifist I like to leave that approach open to them. They could try talking, sneaking, stealing, lockpicking, hacking and knocking people out instead of killing. Just because the choice isn't obvious doesn't mean it isn't there. At the same time if they are perfectly welcome to just kill everything that causes a problem for them. Both have repercussions, good and bad.