Let the Game Begin!: Tips for Getting the Session Started

How the beginning of a session goes will frequently set the tone for the entire session, so it’s important to get off on the right footing. Here are a few simple suggestions for things to do right before you really get down to play and right after everyone in your group is ready to go.

Before The Dice Start Rolling:

Chatter: Sometimes the hardest part of getting a session started is actually getting started. Most people play D&D with their friends and a certain amount of chatter time at the beginning of the session about the latest episode of Heroes, so and so’s new girlfriend/boyfriend or how drunk you were at Ted’s birthday party last Friday is natural and to be expected. The trick is to simply plan for this to occur. The simple way is to start the 'game' roughly an hour earlier then you had planed to originally. If your the kind of person that like to start the game at 6pm, then simply move it to 5pm.

The Game Day:A simple trick to avoid chatter is to make it a game day. A typical game will 'start' at 5pm, or more like 7pm once everyone is done chatting away and shows up. A game day can fix this. Simply start the game, as early as you can wake up. Have people come over at noon, or even 10am. Then it's simple, from noon to 5pm, let everyone just hang out.

The Meet Up:This is yet another simple trick. Typically the people that show up for the game are friends that have not seen each other in at least a week or more. Naturally, everyone has stories to tell about their time apart, current events and gossip. This is what friends do, after all. The simple way around this is: don't make the game the only chance all the people have to get together. Have at least one or two meetings during the week with the group. Anything will do, a night out to get pizza, for example. And they don't need to be too long, three hours is plenty of time. All you need to is get the whole group together for a bit so they can socialize. Then when the game day comes along, they have nothing left to say to each other.

Food: Let’s face it; everyone eats when they play D&D. Having a bag of Doritos is almost as important as having dice to many a player and that’s perfectly fine. However, sometimes this gets out of hand and can delay the start of a session significantly. I have seen more than one session delayed hours as people order Pizza or Chinese, wait for it to be delivered, and then eat it before starting. Ask your players either to have their food with them when they arrive or plan for breaks to eat. If you are ordering a Pizza, ask the delivery place to bring it an hour or two into the session so that it will arrive at when you would normally take a little break anyway. That way, you can have your pizza and adventure too.

When the Game Actually Starts:

The Recap/Intro: At the beginning of each session it’s generally a good idea for there to be a quick recap of what happened in the last session or even last few sessions. If it’s the very first session ever, instead of recapping what happened in the last session, give a little of the backstory of how the party formed or if it hasn’t yet, how each of the characters got to the inn or wherever the opening scene takes place. If it’s a later session you can do the recap yourself or if you have an enthusiastic player let them handle it. It’s important to give the players a sense of continuity from the last session, remind them of things they might have forgotten over the week/month between sessions, and for the sneaky DM it provides a way to subtly prod the party in particular directions. If you want the party to go after the Vampire Lord this session rather than the Beholder, mention a few more details about the Vampire Lord in your recap. The players will frequently take the bait, intentionally or unintentionally.

Roll Initiative: I’m not saying start every session with an encounter, although sometimes it is good to do so, but to have the players roll initiative for whenever the first encounter is going to be later in the session and jot it down. If you are using index cards or post-its to keep track of initiative order and you have prerolled your monsters you can even slide the PC’s cards into their proper place in the stack. This may seem a bit unorthodox, but it really does improve the flow of the game as you can now go directly into PC actions the moment combat starts rather than having to pause, roll dice, and set up the order. After the first combat, when people are scribbling down the loot they acquired, have them roll for initiative the next one. Looting the bodies does not have any dramatic tension to break, seeing if the orc that just leapt from the bushes gets to stab you in the face does.

Homework: Preparing for the Game

Yes, sadly the DMs lot in life involves homework. Although some DMs can fly by the seat of their pants session after session most of us need to prepare. There are a few aspects of the game that if you handle them ahead of time will keep the game moving at a good pace.

Get your junk in order:

Have Papers to Hand. Either bookmark (post-its are good for this), photocopy, or jot notes on whatever NPCs/Monsters you plan to have in combat with the players in the upcoming session and put them someplace you will have ready access to them. Do the same with any annoying or obscure rules you expect to come into play.

Go over the adventure. If you are running a published module, read it over a few times so you know the sequence of events pretty well. If it’s your own creation, try to think about how the players could possibly throw a wrench in the works.

Go over the encounters you expect to have. Just having the stats ready isn't always enough to have a challenging and interesting encounter. Think about how the NPC/Monster would act in combat. Some monsters have a high CR because of particular abilities and if you don't think to use those they will be much easier than they ought to be and consequentally will be a let down for the players.

Find any other stuff you need. If you use dice (I use a diceroller on my computer) then make sure you have all the dice you are going to need ready to hand. If the party has minis they leave in your care, be sure the cat hasn’t stolen them and set aside any other minis (or coins or army men or stuffed animals…) that you plan to have represent NPCs/Monsters.

Genesis of an Adventuring Party

So, you have a bunch of players and they all have the coolest concept ever for a character. What now?

First, sit everyone down before the first session and have a discussion and cover the following topics, not in any particular order:

Make everyone agree that whatever happens in the game, stays in the game. D&D is supposed to be fun for all involved and in character disputes or problems should never spill out and ruin real friendships. Whatever happens in game both you and the players should be having a good time and not getting angry with eachother. If you think your players can’t handle that, don’t play. There are more important things in life.

Have each player explain their character concept to the rest of the group. Seems like a waste of time but it’s not. First, it helps avoid later player conflict. If one player wants to be a dwarf whose family was slaughtered by drow and attacks them on sight and another wants to play a drow, you are going to have a problem. Having everyone discuss it off the bat lets you and the players come up with a way to work around it before the game gets rolling and there is bloodshed. Also, you would be surprised what sort of interesting shared backstory players will come up with in collaboration if you give them the chance.

Demand regular and updated copies of character sheets. Seem anal? Well it is, but for good reason. If you are going to craft interesting and challenging encounters then you will need to know each characters mechanical strengths and weaknesses. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to tell your players to keep an online ‘master’ copy of their sheet. This way, if their sheet ever gets lost you can just print it out again or if they forget to bring their sheet you can just print them out a new copy on the spot. Personally, I prefer http://pifro.com/pro/ for this but there is no lack of sites that provide a free place to store your sheets online.

Make a party contract. Just a little agreement between characters about basic ways the party is going to split treasure and generally behave. You’d be shocked how many problems this can avoid.

Explain any houserules you plan to employ. If you are banning Divine Metamagic, tell your players before they build a character around it.

Also, talk to each player individually before the first session.

Find out if there are any bits of backstory or other details your players don’t want to share with the rest of the party yet. You need to know about it, even if it’s going to be a surprise for the rest of the group. You don’t want this to happen.

Ask about their preferred playstyle. If you don't already know it, find out what makes them tick as a player. What are the apects of the game they really look forward to? Some players like hack and slash others like heavy RP. Getting a sense of what each player likes will give you a pretty good idea of how to balance adventures such that everyone, including you, has a good time.

Find out where they want to go with the character, RP wise. What are the character's overall goals in life? Do they have a backstory or any background characters they think are important (not everyone will, if they don't, don't press them)? Is there any particular bit of plot regarding the character that they would really like to see happen? This information will help you craft many a plothook.

Find out where they want to go with the character, mechanically.
Are they already thinking about PRC's? If so, find out which ones so that you can work the existence of the fluff aspects into the game world, so you can willfully ignore the fluff aspects or so that you can tweak them as you desire. Feel free to ask if there is some stinky stinky cheese they'd really like to be able to pull of, just make sure that they know that you are just asking about it, not promising to give it to them.

The three types of GMs

I see three types of GMs:

1.The Master This type of GM is in absolute unilateral control of the game. The players, by virtue of sitting down to play the game, are agreeing to the GM's control of the game. What the GM says is both law and reality of the game. Neither the players views nor the game rules matter, only what the GM says matters. The published game rules here are just a vague guideline to help the GM decide things. This type of game never has any type of 'power' problems. Should something happen, the Gm can simply say 'no' or 'this is what happens'. Should a player attempt to 'break' any rule, the GM can simply say that it does not happen.

2.The Buddy GM This type of GM is just one of the people playing the game. Everyone who sits down to play the game is equal. In this game, a player can pull out a book and say 'page 33 says this' and the GM will simply nod and say: "yup, that is what the page says''. This type of GM follows the rules as if they are required to play the game. Even to the point of typos, mistakes and just plain crazy stuff. In this game, should something happen to disrupt the game, the Gm just sits back and watches.

3.The Ego Fuel GM This type of GM is just there to make the players feel good. Even worse then the Buddy GM, this the Ego Fuel is just there to praise the players. This GM sits back while the players do whatever they want, and then they describe what happens in the game. Then the players just sit happily and let the GM tell them how great and cool their characters are in the game.



I've watched hundreds of games over the years, and GMs fall into these three types. Most GMs, if asked what type they are of the three would say 'none'. But if you watch them in the game, 'none' is type '2'. Type two is by far the most common type. The evidence of this easy to see. A good example is to simply look at any D&D boards. You will see post after post from GM's who have problems with their game, what to know how or why a rule works or post a 'fix' for broken things.

It's most striking to ask any Old School player(who has not been corrupted my modern gamers) about any of the GMs posts. The player will have the simple question: "Why does the GM not just say what is what?'' For example:You can easily find a ''Help My players are abusing Gate to get wishes'' post. The Old School gamer would just say ''that does not work''.


I'm a type 1 GM myself, and I never, ever, have any problems in my games. People agree to have fun together and play the game. It's much more fun to sit down and have a game where the GM is Master. Should a player even attempt to do anything to upset or disrupt the game, the GM can simply say it does not happen.

So for example, if in my game, a player said ''my character casts the spell gate and calls a Epic Elemental''; I simply say ''the gate fails to form'' and we just keep on playing and having fun.


It's important to be clear, the master is not a tyrant. The Master GM is not there to somehow make the players slaves to their wishes and go off on a power trip. It's just about control and fun for everyone.


The event that inspired this post happened last weekend. I watched a group of gamers playing 3E Oriental Adventures. In the first printing of that book, the ninja-to has a critical threat range of 19-29, an obvious typo. Yet I watched the GM look this up in the book and say 'Ok, then any hit of 19 to 29 is a critical threat for a ninja-to'. As you might have guessed, the players then scrambled to get and use ninja-tos. And this poor Gm just sat there as time after time when a player would roll a 22, 23, or 24 and do crit damage time after time after time. We wondered why he did not simply say 'that does not work, the crit range is 19-20'.

Dungeons and Logic

Dungeons are definitely the fun part of the game for everyone. The DM usually enjoys it because it makes prep work a cinch! Players love it because the action is more fluid and they make for lots of opportunities for decisions to be made.

With mapping software available for free all over the web, constructing maps is much easier today then it was back when I first started. We did have some tricks to doing it, besides the good ol’ fashioned graph paper. Namely this was stealing maps from published modules and re-keying the things. You could make them new or old, wealthy or deserted for eons, the possibilities are near infinite!

Today, people kind of tend to go crazy. You can, literally drive yourself cross-eyed considering all of the dungeon logic. Many Dungeon Masters keep a set pull-list of monsters for different areas, while others ponder the very deep workings of the dungeon world itself. Me personally could give a rats tail about it. The most important thing that I consider is always what works fast and easy. I do have my own tricks though.

DUNGEON LIFE

The first question that I ask myself when starting is what lives here? If I have an idea, or I already told the players what they are supposed to be looking for, then I don’t have a problem, but if I’m in a saucy mood and want to keep things random, then I’ll roll a monster at random from my notes. This is easier for me since I play in the World of Greyhawk, and the random encounter lists are complete. If this isn’t the case for you, the Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 has a complete listing of Random Encounters for a veriety of settings.

The monster that I roll is the dominate monster in this dungeon. It has conquered this place and lives in it, at least for the time being. Its laws are the way, naturally with wild animals also living in the place, some areas will be too dangerous for the humanoids to live (if it is a humanoid), these areas will probably be avoided, and may incorporate a trap of some kind as it is considered a natural hazard. A simple lure to trick others who aren’t so savvy as them, to wander into the hazard and get themselves killed.

DUNGEON SIZE

We also have to figure out how big we want the thing to be. Many random dungeon generators, such as the one which I sometimes use from the first edition DMG, will go on for days with no end in sight. We have to figure out how deep we want to go with this, and how big of an area that we want to take up. This is best figured out before we even put the digital pencil to paper. A large dungeon will support more life then a small one, and there may be more dominate creatures down there fighting it out about who is in control. If you want to make a rivalry, then simply roll another random encounter check and find out what the second most dangerous thing down there is.

FOOD & PROPERTY

Now we start moving into some headache area here. This is where some DMs like to give themselves trouble, but they are on the right track! Food is a basic need that our monsters can’t live without! Depending on the monster, and their ability to adapt their environments around them, offers us different questions and problems. The simplest answer is looking at the definition in the Monster Manual, the MM will tell you their basic life strategies. Most monsters steal for a living, they find weaker beings who are good at raising their own food, and they take it.

It is rare to find monsters who keep their own stock of underground meat, they just don’t know how to feed and maintain animals like that. Hell, they don’t wash themselves and rely on inhuman constitution to survive. The dungeon world is one filled with disease and rotten icky things because of our next consideration.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

What does the monster do with its waste? The answer is usually that this is somebody else’s problem. A monster will move in and use up every available resource that it can, and then it will move on to a new hovel. Of course, this sets the scene for a new monster to take over the dungeon, and brand new dangers. A fun dungeon can be one that has been abandoned. Not only will they leave their mess behind, which will cause the place to be a haven for new nastiness that lives off of stuff like that, but they will also leave their sick, injured, and weak behind as well. These things will be extremely dangerous, as they are starving and terrified, perhaps even mad from loneliness and confinement.

WATER

Part of my Quick & Easy mentality dictates that, for the most part, monsters are like pirates. They are typically as drunk and as lazy as possible, of course I mix it up so that nobody can tell what I’m doing. I’ll give some monsters a need or an industry of some kind, this way it is harder to tell what I’m doing behind the screen.

Water is a basic necessity for us, and for lots of creatures, however for the most part, a bunch of stinky monsters would turn their nose up at it. They would rather have booze and only bathe by happenstance. If there is a water supply, some monsters would love to just sit there and throw stuff in it for entertainment, same thing with really deep holes. If a monster is really destructive, such as the Troll, then after the creature leaves the water will be no good, and this could effect the upper world if we want it to.

A monster who depends on water would treat a water-source like gold, and defend it to the death unless another source was known. Water is a good place for natural hazards, the monsters who depend upon it will keep the ones who don’t out of that area, and use them to keep intruders out. Most humanoids will leave aquatic nightmares completely alone! This logic keeps our water supplies untainted unless it serves us to do otherwise.

WHY AIN’T THIS HOLE INFESTED WITH DWARFS?

Another thing to consider, before putting the pen to paper and drawing out your map, is to figure out what this hole is for. Who built it? Is it natural or was it constructed by someone or something?

The word Dungeon, as we use it, is a very confusing thing if you think about it. Rarely do we ever create dungeons that are really dungeons! For the most part, we could care less who made it, but sometimes it can be fun to figure it out. Was it an ancient culture? Even this question can bring some different answers, what with all of the demi-humans running around. Why did they move out, or abandon it? It could be a mystery as we all have similar problems here on this planet. This also can be used to figure out what the holes original purpose was. Was it a mine? A basement to some long forgotten and quite absent castle? Was it a secret church? A tomb? Perhaps remnants of ancient astronauts; with fantasy, anything is possible. A look into our own history gives us many of factual reasons why a large underground superstructure would be made.

While we must know who is the current holders of the dungeon, it can also be beneficial to know who, or what held it before they did; and how long ago had it been sitting. Has it been looted? If it’s got monsters, then the answer is probably yes. The questions are endless, but there is just something about building our own dungeon that lends to these creative decisions.

We can create mystery with open-ended scenarios and rooms which don’t belong, so just because something doesn’t make sense on the outside, we can hint at things which may or may not be. We must try to do our best NOT to over think the fun out of these things. We don’t want to know everything, but we should know just enough to make it look like we do.

A good game

What are the things every good game should have? My thoughts:

1.Interesting characters.
2.Events propelled by the characters' specific actions and reactions.
3.Multi-level conflicts(physical/emotional/mental/spiritual/symbolic, etc).
4.Character revealed by decisive actions and tough decisions.
5.Character development/growth/progression
6.Visual, action-oriented stories.
7.Sense of wonder
8.Resolutions with a sense of hope
9.Insight into some aspect of the human condition
10.Some unique element.