Some Hosting Guidelines
0. Rule 0: You control everything in this game. There is no blade of grass, no stone, no dog or god who exists without your say so. If a player does something, or a rule says something and your gut feeling is "That's stupid. You're stupid." then you have the power to make it so that doesn't happen. Try not to call your players stupid tho.
1. Be aware that the sacred right of Rule 0 bestowed upon the Host is not only meant to restrict play, but meant to enable greater freedom than a rule system ever could. The rules might say you can't do something, but that doesn't really matter if you decide otherwise. Free others with your power.
2. Don't be too good for fun. Some people will want to play dogs with human intelligence, and that doesn't make them wrong, that just makes them weird. If after having considered it, and deciding that's too weird for the tone of the game you're trying to run then don't allow it, but don't shame others for having different ideas of fun.
3. Don't worry about telling stories that have never been told before, because a thousand dragons have kidnapped a thousand princesses, but if your players have never rescued a princess, or slain a dragon, then its new to them, and even if its not, they probably haven't rescued this princess from this dragon with these characters. Today, the greatest narrative subversion is not subverting anything at all (I hope this sentence ages like cheese).
4. Go nuts. There are too many goblins in grassy fields, and not enough lava narwhal chase sequences.
5. Don't stress it. The players are making everything up on the fly, its fine if you do too sometimes.
6. Make whatever you want, make sure your players are comfortable enough to tell you when they don't like it, if you ever have a problem with your game ask yourself "Have I talked to my player(s) about this?", and if you want better advice than I can give, check out Matthew Colville, there are very few ideas he discusses which are exclusive to D&D, he's a cool dude, and a river to his people.
1. Be aware that the sacred right of Rule 0 bestowed upon the Host is not only meant to restrict play, but meant to enable greater freedom than a rule system ever could. The rules might say you can't do something, but that doesn't really matter if you decide otherwise. Free others with your power.
2. Don't be too good for fun. Some people will want to play dogs with human intelligence, and that doesn't make them wrong, that just makes them weird. If after having considered it, and deciding that's too weird for the tone of the game you're trying to run then don't allow it, but don't shame others for having different ideas of fun.
3. Don't worry about telling stories that have never been told before, because a thousand dragons have kidnapped a thousand princesses, but if your players have never rescued a princess, or slain a dragon, then its new to them, and even if its not, they probably haven't rescued this princess from this dragon with these characters. Today, the greatest narrative subversion is not subverting anything at all (I hope this sentence ages like cheese).
4. Go nuts. There are too many goblins in grassy fields, and not enough lava narwhal chase sequences.
5. Don't stress it. The players are making everything up on the fly, its fine if you do too sometimes.
6. Make whatever you want, make sure your players are comfortable enough to tell you when they don't like it, if you ever have a problem with your game ask yourself "Have I talked to my player(s) about this?", and if you want better advice than I can give, check out Matthew Colville, there are very few ideas he discusses which are exclusive to D&D, he's a cool dude, and a river to his people.
What You Need
-You need Player(s), and something for them to do. Give them a monster to kill, someone to talk to, a moral dilemma, frogs to pet, places to explore, a door to open, etc. It can be simple, or complex, but neither is better. It is your job to interest and entertain your players, and to allow them to interest and entertain themselves.
-You need to know your rules (but not the rules). You don't have to have all of the rules of this game memorized, or the rules of any other game memorized, but you will need to decide how a rule is going to be handled, and be consistent about your rulings. If you change your mind about a rule every other time it comes up, no one will understand your game, including you.
-You need to know your rules (but not the rules). You don't have to have all of the rules of this game memorized, or the rules of any other game memorized, but you will need to decide how a rule is going to be handled, and be consistent about your rulings. If you change your mind about a rule every other time it comes up, no one will understand your game, including you.
You May Want
-Dice (if you don't have dice, you could use an online dice roller, use the average result of a dice roll (half of the maximum), or have a random player shout a number between the minimum and the maximum possible results. This is the most fun option, but unfortunately it does require shouting, and your players may figure out that higher numbers are better, but if they do, just invert the numbers at random, if they say "19" for 1d20 roll, one from the top, make it 2 instead, one from the bottom.) Some people would call me a heretic for saying dice are optional, but they're hoarding dice gremblins who have been beguiled by the shiny number rocks, and their scorn fuels me.
-You may want to use something called a module which comes with tasks, ideas, and monsters pre-packed in. Plenty are free online, but unfortunately none of them are for this game. I'm working on that, but many of the ideas translate over anyway. There's also this method, which is 1: super chill, and b: super good. You could give it fewer steps, like skipping the bowl thing, and that's pretty good too.
-Music is good to set the mood, or just to have some background noise so that its never silent while you listen to your thoughts. Everybody likes music, but not everybody likes the same music.
-You may want to use something called a module which comes with tasks, ideas, and monsters pre-packed in. Plenty are free online, but unfortunately none of them are for this game. I'm working on that, but many of the ideas translate over anyway. There's also this method, which is 1: super chill, and b: super good. You could give it fewer steps, like skipping the bowl thing, and that's pretty good too.
-Music is good to set the mood, or just to have some background noise so that its never silent while you listen to your thoughts. Everybody likes music, but not everybody likes the same music.
Ease of Play Guidelines
Skim the Core Rules page, then reference it when you need to while you play. You'll learn the game naturally and gradually over time. If you didn't use a rule which you didn't realize existed that's fine, I'm sure I'll personally almost never use the Weather Rules even if I really like them.
When making guestimates without knowing the numbers/rules typically err in the player's favor. Its almost definitely more important to them that their character wins the arm wrestling contest than it is important to you that your NPC wins or that the player loses.
If you don't know the stats for an NPC who's getting into a contested check with the player, reference the below table.
When making guestimates without knowing the numbers/rules typically err in the player's favor. Its almost definitely more important to them that their character wins the arm wrestling contest than it is important to you that your NPC wins or that the player loses.
If you don't know the stats for an NPC who's getting into a contested check with the player, reference the below table.
Contender's Competence | What must the Contender roll on a d20 to defeat the Player? |
---|---|
Much Worse | Impossible. |
Worse | At least 10 higher than the player. |
Equal | At least 5 higher than the player. |
Greater |
At least equal to the player. |
Much Greater | At least as high as 5 lower than the player. |
Ease of Play Stats
Feel free to basically never make your NPCs follow the same rules as the player in so far as things like character progression (Maximum HP, Skill Points, etc.) for several reasons.
1. It is often indescribably difficult to convey the NPC stats that you actually imagined in your mind. Its more important that you know what the result of the NPC's hypothetical stats should be rather that what their stats should be to attain that result.
2. If you tried to make a character sheet for every possible NPC that might show up in your game then you wouldn't able to run your game because the heat death of the universe would have already shimmied by twice. You won't always have stats for a dude, but that's fine.
Its fine if you don't have the Move Speeds of an NPC, just make something up that's around a speed of 5 because almost all creatures have at least one Move Speed at 5. Give people a walk speed of 5, birds a walk and fly speed of 5, moles a burrow speed of 5, or a cheetah a Walk Speed of 8. For more detail on combat stats for random creatures, see the Enemy Design page.
1. It is often indescribably difficult to convey the NPC stats that you actually imagined in your mind. Its more important that you know what the result of the NPC's hypothetical stats should be rather that what their stats should be to attain that result.
2. If you tried to make a character sheet for every possible NPC that might show up in your game then you wouldn't able to run your game because the heat death of the universe would have already shimmied by twice. You won't always have stats for a dude, but that's fine.
Its fine if you don't have the Move Speeds of an NPC, just make something up that's around a speed of 5 because almost all creatures have at least one Move Speed at 5. Give people a walk speed of 5, birds a walk and fly speed of 5, moles a burrow speed of 5, or a cheetah a Walk Speed of 8. For more detail on combat stats for random creatures, see the Enemy Design page.