The Nerd Fitness DM's Guild

[JessOfAllTrades]

23 hours ago, A Grue said:

Is there anyone here who regularly runs something other than D&D/Pathfinder?  I'm about to start my first real campaign.  We're doing a Dresden Files RPG campaign, set in Madison.  Does anyone have tips for starting out the campaign?  Do random-ish adventures until the players are familiar with their characters, and then kick start the plot?  That feels like what I wanna do, but I'm not sure if it's really doable.

 

I've only worked with the Dresden RPG once, and I was so sorry the campaign never actually got off the ground. I absolutely adored character creation and setting up our city (we used Houston). Have fun with it!

 

As for starting campaigns, I have always found it easier to have a reason for my group to know each other and/or to be connected in some way before we begin. I generally do pre-sessions that are between myself and one or two other players to get us all to the starting point, and go from there. It also helps to gradually work more players into the pre-sessions so they have time to figure out what characters mesh well and which characters may have some conflicts of interest. My past two campaigns have made it easy for me since the players are all from the same "class" of students in my dystopian fantasy homebrew. They all got to be unique, but if nothing else they had to attend this class until they were 18. We time-lapsed from age 12 to 18, filling in holes and events with forum posts. My partner actually did something really fun when he made us all play holy-based classes from 4th ed., and we all had to worship the same god (again, homebrew) but we all designed our own orders so despite that we were all very different characters. As for Dresden, my group specifically all had to be involved with the University of Houston somehow (some of us were students, another was a professor, and I think another member was a security officer. It's been awhile). 

 

Sorry, that was a lot of rambling. Find connections between your player characters as well before you begin. Again, using my Dresden example, my character and another character both happened to be young women who were college-aged, so our GM had us start as roommates. And in my experience most players enjoy having these connects, and will go along with them (though I always make them suggestions). One of my college campaigns had a runaway prince, a runaway younger sister of his betrothed, and an assassin trying to kill the runaway prince, and none of them knew in character for most of the campaign. But you can bet they all loved it out of character.

 

But yeah, feel free to take time before you completely dive into the main plot to get your players more established and connected. Feel free to ask them for suggestions and ideas about how characters may have crossed paths before the campaign, and do smaller sessions to role play it out. And if your players are like mine, they love to watch these sessions even when they are not involved. If you have newer players you may have to remind them about meta-gaming and in character versus out of character knowledge, but they will catch on.

 

Whew. Sorry. Starting campaigns is my favorite thing to puzzle out when DMing/GMing. Hope that helps!

[Oramac]

On 6/2/2017 at 11:14 AM, Laghail said:

This isn't the question you're asking, but google maps are your friend for modern campaigns set in real cities.. You can create a custom map layer and actually mark up Madison with "Wizard Joe's house", "werewolf den", "Dirty Sal's hut" ect, and in a format you can share with the players.

 

I did not know this!  That is awesome.  I might just use it for D&D, and borrow city maps for places like Rio or Tokyo that I know my players have never been.  

[Moros]

Late to the party - but I'm an old school gamer - Basic Edition, 1st Edition advanced through 3.5. I also played Hero system, Paranoia, and Star Trek the Roleplaying game (FASA)

I was a Forgotten Realms nut for a long time (which you may think is good or bad).  My job for the last few years has slowed my jump to Pathfinder, but I'm slowly getting into it, as well as 7th sea, which I think is a lot of fun.  Headed to GenCon this year for the 50th!

 

I haven't done a lot of netGMing, so I'm happily reading up on what others are doing.

[cn3wton]

I am in the process of ressurecting our pathfinder game here on NF. If you are interested in joining come stop by the OOC thread and introduce yourself. Read up on our adventure and write up a character! 

 

Please feel free to send me a private message with any questions as well!

[Anim07734]

On 6/2/2017 at 8:56 AM, A Grue said:

Is there anyone here who regularly runs something other than D&D/Pathfinder?  I'm about to start my first real campaign.  We're doing a Dresden Files RPG campaign, set in Madison.  Does anyone have tips for starting out the campaign?  Do random-ish adventures until the players are familiar with their characters, and then kick start the plot?  That feels like what I wanna do, but I'm not sure if it's really doable.

I tend to run either D&D (last game was 3.5, but next will be 5E) or Star Wars (currently Saga Edition), but I've played plenty of others.

 

I'm a big fan of "prologue adventures" to start off a campaign.  Start with a rough idea of why the group is together (anything from they've grown up together to they met recently to they're all in the same place when the action starts), then work with your players to flesh out details based on their character concepts.  Then have the shenanigans begin: goblins attack the tavern, the village elders are hiring adventurers to track down the local bandit chief, a rumor starts that your professor is practicing black magic.  It should be something small (EG appropriate for a starting character) and may or may not be related to your main plot.  The goal is to give your players 3-4 sessions to toy around with their characters and figure out the group dynamic.  The prologue should end with the introduction of the main plot in such a way that the characters are now invested in it.  Maybe the goblins are just the scouts for a larger army, or they find a note in the bandit lair hinting at a criminal network, or the professor was actually trying to stop a demonic invasion and needs their help.  Just keep in mind that this method only works for long running games (my last D&D game ran for 3years).

 

For shorter games, you don't want to spend your groups entire attention span on the prologue, so it's better to have a pre-game session where everyone can talk over their character concepts together and decide how they know each other and why they're working together.  You also get a chance to work their ideas and desires into your world and make minor tweaks to your planned story.

[A Grue]

On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 11:36 AM, cn3wton said:

 

Is that using the fate core system? I just bought the dresden files rpg using that system (and all of the books that go along with it) because I love everything dresden files.

 

It does use the Fate Core system.  I think the system is going to lead to some pretty amazing moments; my players are some seriously nerdy and creative folks.  Officially, the main Dreseden RPG book is set before Turn Coat.  The third book, whose title I can't remember at the moment, is set immediately post-Changes.  However, our game will be running somewhere earlier, with no set point in the canon, besides pre-Changes.

[A Grue]

On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 11:14 AM, Laghail said:

This isn't the question you're asking, but google maps are your friend for modern campaigns set in real cities.. You can create a custom map layer and actually mark up Madison with "Wizard Joe's house", "werewolf den", "Dirty Sal's hut" ect, and in a format you can share with the players.

 

Ooooooh.  That is so cool.  Thank you!

[cn3wton]

Hey everybody our PBP game here is looking to start back up again. If you are willing to join come on over to the Pathfinder OOC thread. We have not yet decided if we will be sticking with pathfinder or not.

 

If you are willing to run the game let me know. I would prefer to be a player but if I have to run it I will!

[Laghail]

11 minutes ago, cn3wton said:

Hey everybody our PBP game here is looking to start back up again. If you are willing to join come on over to the Pathfinder OOC thread. We have not yet decided if we will be sticking with pathfinder or not.

 

If you are willing to run the game let me know. I would prefer to be a player but if I have to run it I will!

I'd be down to play. I tried running one in Feb and March and I couldn't keep up.

[cn3wton]

4 minutes ago, Laghail said:

I'd be down to play. I tried running one in Feb and March and I couldn't keep up.

 

Cool. When I run it I keep a very relaxed schedule of 1 DM post per week. It means certain expediting of rules and encounters and things like that, but also allows the players to interact with eachother if they have the time.

 

[Terinatum]

I will be DM'ing the next adventure and I have player openings.

The system is Pathfinder.

Please post your interest and your D&D experience.

More later.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Terinatum]

On 6/12/2017 at 3:33 PM, Laghail said:

I'd be down to play. I tried running one in Feb and March and I couldn't keep up.

 

I have room for one more, you are next on the list. Let me know by Wednesday evening (before 9pm EST) if you want in. If you do, roll up your character at first level and PM it to me. I will be adjusting levels once I get everyone's. We are playing the Pathfinder system. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

All basic classes are open, no prestige classes.

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, Terinatum said:

 

I have room for one more, you are next on the list. Let me know by Wednesday evening (before 9pm EST) if you want in. If you do, roll up your character at first level and PM it to me. I will be adjusting levels once I get everyone's. We are playing the Pathfinder system. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

All basic classes are open, no prestige classes.

Yup, I'm in! Do you coordinate char creation via fb, pm, or just on the thread?