Hey-
So I've been DMing for a long time, but I've never been very good at running published adventures. They have a tendency to seem contrived and I have a tendency to pause during them and re-read descriptions and stuff. I'm used to being able to write down stats on a page, sketch out a basic map with some basic info on it, and do most of it from the noggin', as I see it. Players love that style, but frankly I just don't have the time to do it anymore. These styles also convert poorly. ;)
But that's where I need help; how can I make an adventure seem fluent, natural, home-brewed? What are good ways to remember all of the necessary information so I don't need to go reviewing room descriptions half-way through an adventure? How does one go about making a published adventure seem like it's ones own? Give me some help here. I worry that I won't be able to do the Age of Worms justice if I don't put some serious thought into how I'm going to run them successfully.
Thanks,
-Phil
I put all the statblocks on 4x6 or 3x5 cards prior to running the game. It gives me one less thing to focus on when flipping through the adventure while running the game. I can also reuse them for other campaigns or for random encounters.
I stick to the "spirit" of the adventure rather than the "letter." I make sure I'm familiar with the main encounters and key areas and then modify the rest of the adventure as I go, often skipping entire sections, or allowing players to quickly explore areas that aren't that critical by making a series of search/spot checks.
Basically, I reverse the process--I turn the adventure into an outline, focus on what "my campaign" goal for the adventure is rather than what may be published. I modify the hell out of published adventures.
I also pre-read many published adventures and use their settings/towns/NPC's to populate my campaign world. That way, the PC's may have already encountered them before the actual adventure or I can harvest the adventure's ideas even if I never run the adventure itself.
I've found two key steps to make a published adventure work.
1) Preparation - It sounds stupid, but reading through a mod a few times before you run it is key. Especially passages you'll need to read aloud, and of secondary importance the stat blocks of monsters and NPCs. Even in the finest quality pre-fab mods there are typoes or stylistic errors in passages that make them hard to read aloud. Familiarity and an editing pencil will help quite a lot, here. The secondary part of preparation is to focus on the stat blocks - do you know the effects of all special abilities and spells your opponents have? Make notations in the borders of the module.
So, do you think it's just a good idea in general to just take some external notes? Use notecards, make rule notes, familiarize yourself with everything you're going to need and have a good set of notes to run from? What's funny is that in some ways it sounds like more work than my other games. But it makes sense..
2) Know your audience - If your players will be bored to tears by a passage, or if something is inappropriate for your group (E.g. if you run games for your kids and they're young, you might want to remove really grisly or adult details from a description), modify the adventure. Nobody says you have to stick to the script. I've been running Age of Worms for a few months, and I took some liberties with the first module to make it fit my players more.
Actually, that worries me. I'm going to be running this on GhostOrb, so I have NO idea who I'm dealing with. I'm sure it's all well and good, 'cause they're all gaming enthusiasts like me (says he who hasn't played a D&D game in 3 years), but the fact is, part of being a good DM is feeling out the group. And if you don't know your players.. that's not so easy.
Both of the above sound elementary, but they're worth brushing up on. Green Ronin Games' "Advanced Gamemasters' Guide" gives lots of other great tips for adapting pre-fab adventures. (In full disclosure, I was a playtester for that book.)
They're both things I sort of figured, actually. I just asked in case anyone had any tricks of the trade they wanted to share. I definitely appreciate the input. Nice plug for Green Ronin by the way. ;)
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Here is the "three night" formula I use for preparing published adventures. It's a patchwork of what I learned in a study skills workshop during college (20+ years ago), what I've learned by being a classroom teacher, and what I've gleaned from hanging around with more experienced DM's (in particular, those from the RPGA/Living Greyhawk).
Night One: I read the adventure background, the adventure synopsis, and the boxed text. If there is no one around, I will read the boxed text out loud. I will also read anything in bold or italics. I purposely skip all the nuts and bolts of the adventure. This takes about thirty to forty minutes.
Night Two: I reread the adventure background and synopsis. I read the boxed text (out loud if no one is around) as I come to it. I highlight in yellow what I want the players to know when the encounter is over. I highlight in green any skill checks that need to be made. I skim the stat blocks and write down on a legal pad all of the unfamiliar spells, feats and abilities.
Night Three: I skim the entire adventure. I choose the four or five most important NPC's and write down three to five things each of them might say during the course of a conversation. I look up the unfamiliar feats, skills, and spells from my list and make short notes on the legal pad beside their name. (The pad goes to the game with me.)
Before the game: I make initiative cards (free from The Game Mechanics) for all the potential combats and then read out loud the things that I wrote down for the NPCs to say.
I have a lot of fun with this method -- especially writing down the things that NPCs might say. When players ask me why I enjoy DM'ing, I always say the same thing. "When I play, I play one night. When I DM, I play all week."
This kind of game prep seems really familiar to me, especially the three-night reading routine with highlight marker. Let me add a couple of things I also do, provided I have the time.
I use handouts (downloads provided by Dungeon on this website have been a lifesaver, I can tell you), usually art images printed on 3x5 cards. Mostly, these are images of key NPCs. I am becoming a big fan of Eva Widerman's portraits.
For combat situations that I think will require tactics and minis, I will print out or (more often) draw with crayon a map on paper with 1-inch squares. I find these disposable maps more useful than wipe-off grids, for some reason. They're certainly more colorful, and using greens and browns, give a better sense of terrain.
These npc portrait cards often correspond to an initiative card, also printed out on a 3x5. (these are like the ones from Game Mechanics, only I tweaked them a little). Initiative cards have really transformed our games by speeding up combat.
Lastly, and this is only if there is time, I jot down ideas for what minis I'll bring to the game. I have a fairly large collection, so it's rare I don't have something that can stand in in combat situations. When I don't, I glue a picture of the monster onto a quarter-sized washer for a stand-in.
For myself, using published adventures gives me the opportunity to come up with these extras, such as handouts and minis that I wouldn't have time to produce otherwise.
I reserve my creative urges for making side treks and mini adventures that link the published ones together.
Hey-
So I've been DMing for a long time, but I've never been very good at running published adventures. They have a tendency to seem contrived and I have a tendency to pause during them and re-read descriptions and stuff. I'm used to being able to write down stats on a page, sketch out a basic map with some basic info on it, and do most of it from the noggin', as I see it. Players love that style, but frankly I just don't have the time to do it anymore. These styles also convert poorly. ;)
But that's where I need help; how can I make an adventure seem fluent, natural, home-brewed? What are good ways to remember all of the necessary information so I don't need to go reviewing room descriptions half-way through an adventure? How does one go about making a published adventure seem like it's ones own? Give me some help here. I worry that I won't be able to do the Age of Worms justice if I don't put some serious thought into how I'm going to run them successfully.
Thanks,
-Phil
This won't help - but I have found if yoy rewrite the module it does wonders for your retention of the material. Of course its pure madness to go through the effort unless your converting something from 1st or 2nd edition into 3.5.
A couple of things I do that helps me cope with the module is I like to make a photocopy of the maps and then write on the photocopy which monsters and how many are in each of the rooms. This gives you a quick outline of what lives where and helps trigger your memory if the PCs are heading for an important room.
I also tend to gather all the monsters up and create an alphabeticized index of them. This helps with insuring that if nothing else your familier with the monsters and what they can do.
working out round by round tactics for important enemies is a good idea as well. Not only will it speed up your play but you'll be able to fully consider the enemies abilities meaning that they get played better and are more likely to use their abilities to their fullest - it also really insures that you know your stuff about what the abilities do. Make sure that spell DC levels etc. are recorded for these tacticals.
Another idea for room descriptions is to make them your own - rephrase the descriptions of the rooms by putting this material in your own words. It'll help wether or not you write the material down and use it - though writing something down is always somewhat better in terms of commiting it to memory.
The idea that published modules take less time and effort than home-brewed is a bit of a falacy, IMO. The fact is, the more time and effort (especially prep-time) you invest in a published module, the smoother and better the whole adventure runs. If you are rushed (even unintentionally) or sloppy in your preparation of the module it will be jerky, chaotic and not nearly as much fun (for you or for the players). With a home-brew the DM is obviously completely familiar with the plotline, intended pace,background, monsters & NPCs, treasure and maybe most importantly - the mood and flavor. When some issue comes up unexpectedly, it's no big deal for the DM to "wing it". With a published module a DM is often nervous about winging anything for fear of disrupting the plot, pace, or whatever - overlooking something important or wasting valuable time on something of no consequence. Learning all the details about a published module (aforementioned plot,background, NPCs, etc) requires a lot of time and effort. So why use a published adventure if not to save time? I think they're useful because they introduce whole new storylines, NPCs and monsters, treasure, feats, etc that are often completely different than a DM's usual fare. This keeps things fresh and exciting and also allows both the DM and the players to stretch their neurons while adjusting to new original themes and plots.
Those are good suggestions, Jeremy, especially keying a photocopied map with monsters. I may have to borrow that one.
As for figuring out a monster's tactics beforehand, I've noticed that for climactic battles, several Dungeon adventures have taken that approach. We just ran Box of Flumph, for example, and the round-by-round description of npc actions and ship's movement in the current was in the module. Since it was a mass combat, those suggested tactics were very helpful.
Wow! Thanks for the great responses everybody! I've finally read and re-read them all and I've got a good idea of how I'm going to handle this. Hopefully they'll go more smoothly in the future. All of the advice you guys threw out there was excellent. Thanks again!
Cheers!
-Phil