ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww fourth edition is so horribly broken

it's not so bad since the last errata

I played 3.5

and don't take it too seriously unless they what that, our group the DM gets tired and makes off the wall things while we just screwed around and not took it seriously either LOL

it drives me nuts when people don't pay attention while playing T~T

Oh no, we did, just just we did stupid stuff

like stone a baby dragon
100ft retractable masterwork poll
werewolf in a bag
Clownbombs
a wishes for wand of infiniate machine gun fireball wan and +50 bluff
friend one manage to great cleave every goblin when one was suppose to survive and the DM made one jump out of his pants


stuff like that

lol I see, sounds ridiculous XD

I dabbled... :D I ran my own Buffy game for like, 3 years. D&D wasn't really my speed. Buuuuut that may be because the episodic tone and quirky, comedic banter was more suited to me. I do look forward to getting into a good D&D group someday, but as of yet, haven't really had the patience for it.

I'm just hoping Ill be a good DM XD

Every Monday night for the last 6 years We started in 3rd went to 3.5 and now are on 4th

As for tips and advice, expect the players to do what you least expect. No matter what I seem to plan they seem to do what I least expected. Had them meet the big villain they were suppose to fight later in the story the other week and one of them took a shot at him... no warning, the guy is giving some elaborate speech and an arrow goes flying at him... the thing missed and the guy retaliated with a flamestrike before teleporting away but didnt really expect anyone to take a pot shot.

A big one is... remember this is suppose to be fun for you too! A lot of DMs forget that they are suppose to enjoy themselves too. Which leads them to burn out.

The rules are just guidelines! But be consistent, if your going to throw out a rule or change it, make sure its the same for the players. If one of the players is rule lawyer make sure he knows what deviations your making from the base rules well in advance.

Track EVERYTHING. If you make up an NPC on the fly because the players went off to visit the butcher for some reason, write it down and make him seem just as important as the prince the players met. You never know what the players will think is important.


I can offer more advise if you need it. What system are you running in? Custom world or established?

it will be a custom world, though Ill be keeping the same deities (regular pantheon)

I may end up hitting you up for more advice eventually, so thankyou for the offer XD

Awesome! Custom worlds are the best imo. What playstyle are you going for? (Hack/Slash, Dungeon Crawl, Investigation, Epic?)

the PLAN is to actually make it a seafaring voyage. Opening up an entire world of continents for them to explore. It will most certainly be an epic campaign if I get get it off the ground, and running smoothly. The kind of game I want to run will be equal parts storyline and combat. But I also want to work in my own puzzles and riddles too. I find puzzles are something lacking in a lot of campaign,s and I want my players to have to use their brains as WELL as their skills XD

Ooh. I've not seen enough seafaring D&D, wish I could play :D send me your notes perhaps, I'm writing a campaign of my own. (slowly~)

Also. MAPS MAPS MAPS. Have lots of maps, especially ones that are just "generic" and don't really have anything attached to them, just stuff you can easily add plot coupons and such to. In case your players go "Oh hey, let's go here instead", and you haven't written that out, you're not forced to go "Oh hey, you can't go that way, sorry, no matter what you do it won't work, go this way instead."

haha my whole plan for if they say they want to go to place Y instead of where I was planning, place X, is to jsut tell them they're actually going the way they wanted, but give them place X anyways. I figure as long as I'm vague enough about whats ahead that this should work. Obviously I wont ALWAYS do this, nor will it alwyas work, but in a pinch its my kind of cheating XD.

I've been talking to my friends about recording it and maybe podcasting it for the broader world.

If you ever want to listen to a good Campaign that involves a fair bit of sea voyage check out the podcast "Icosahedrophilia"

its a big stupid name meaning the extreme love of D20's, but its an awesome podcast! :D

Ya, good puzzles are hard to write, hard to execute and even harder to judge for difficulty. One of my favorites was a room full of pits and a series of levers. Each lever opens or closes a pit. Catch is some are above pits themselves. The players had to pull them to figure out which level did what and one of them had to be the one they let across (risking falling into spikes if they pull the wrong one and he is standing on it). After 2 hours in the room, the players were glaring at me but when they finally made it across the cheers and high fives made it all worth it.

Another one I did was put a series of statues depicting certain scenes and the puzzle was a riddle which they had to pay each statue a toll with different colored coins but they had to figure out the story behind the statues. The riddle told them how many coins to put in each and the statues told the story.

I really like that second idea, one of my ideas is to give them a ciphered text at the beginning of the game, and then give them clues how to slowly translate it as they continue through the story, however the option will always be there for them to figure it out BEFORE I give them all the clues, giving them the edge on what lies ahead for them.

I also want to do a battle using portals. Placing the PC's in the center of a circular room surrounded my portal doors, and a monster in another dimension attacking them with long arms or tentacles or such from any and all sides, appearing and dissappearing through the portals. I would also give them the opportunity to lower the number of portals before they enter, and during, the big fight,

Love the portal idea one. That's a cool idea for a boss fight.

heheh that's the plan! I've just writtin part of the over arching back story now and Im already in LOVE with it XD I'm sooooooo excited to build this world!

here is a snippit:
THE MOON is slowly falling toward TERRA (the world)

EFFECTS:
Tides changing abnormally. High tides in some places, low in others.
Wildlife grows more erratic/irritable
Face on the moon changes
Love becomes cancerous (grows out of hand, happens in places where it would never happen normally, disintegrates where it has lasted for ages, infidelity thrives)
Civil-wars/city-wars become more common than world/race wars.


REASON:
Sehanine (goddess of the moon and love) has grown insane, and wishes to mate the Moon with the Terra. She calls this mating/event Perigee'lmor.
Tama has poisoned her mind in an attempt to overthrow her and take her place amongst the pantheon.


POSSIBLE RESOLUTIONS:
Defeat Sehanine and all 3 of her Vibrata.
Each of her 3 Vibrata has one piece of her soul, left within them from when they were created by her. These three fragments can be brought together to create a frequency which will bring her down to mortal status.
Defeat Tama and find some way of bringing Sehanine back to sanity.
Collect Tama's fragment, and appeal to her other two disciples to use their own powers to try and restore her.


SEHANINE:
The NOW Insane, Goddess of the moon. Overseer of concealment, trickery, and love
.
She has three disciples. Her Vibrata.
-Satt'va: Her 1st disciple, as well her lover. A master of enchantment and romantic cohersion. (He is very likely to stray from her, and sex anything that catches his eye)
-Raja: Her 2nd disciple, the master of concealment and espionage. Acts as her gatherer of information, and her tactical adviser in times of war.
-Tama: The 3rd and most unreliable of her disciples, the trickster. He is a layer of traps, a befuddler of minds, and a master of wit. (He is also the most greedy, and most likely to betray her.)

Okay that's sounding pretty awesome.

Let me share my story arc with you. To understand it, you need to know the back story...

MAJOR PLAYERS:
The Empire (of As'eyan)
Mage control empire, started as a tiny city state but quickly expanded using their domination in magic as a method to control or conquer their neighbors. Roughly 5000 years ago was the dominant force in the lands, controlling a massive kingdom and an army like never before seen. During the GodWar was decimated and forced to draw their borders back but in recent years has began to expand once again, though this time with much resistance.

The Eastern Kingdom of Telarie
Little is known about these people, it is said that magic does not exist in their land and instead all power stems from their god Jherus. Their kingdom is said to be the biggest in the land until they encountered the The Empire. Now they are sealed away behind a barrier (explained in back history).

BACK HISTORY:
As the Empire of As'eyan expanded, consuming their neighbors it looked as if no nation was strong enough to stand up to the mage's council of 9 until the Empire encountered the Eastern Kingdom. It wasn't long before war broke out between the two super powers. The Telarie having almost limitless armies while the Empire had the strongest mages in the land. The Telarie fought hard but their divine magic was nothing compared to the arcane power the council of 9 could wield and soon the Telarie began to lose ground. In desperation they prayed to their god, Jherus, to give them aid and Jherus answered. He left the gods home in the northern mountains, giving up his godhood to become a demigod, knowing full well he could never return. He marched south, cutting a path through the mountains till he reached Maghelm, the capital of the Empire where he proceeded to summon forth a rock from the sky, wiping the city from the map. The mages council responded in turn, decimating entire cities of the Telarie. Jherus responded by engaging the mages on the field of battle himself. He fought the 9 mages backed by his armies, and it looked at first that he would win. But Emperor Ganjis would not be defeated so easily. He summoned his closest friend and fellow mage Danin and set him a task. Cut off Jherus from his people. For if he could block the power of their belief in him, they could weaken the demigod to the point where the battle could be turned in the Empire's favor. So Danin did just that. He cast a spell tearing his soul from his body to form a magical wall between the Eastern Kingdom and the Empire, cutting the Telarie forces in half. This wall fed upon his life force and his power and he knew that he could hold it till the Empire was ready to once again move upon the crippled Eastern Kingdom. Cut off from the power of his people, the battle turned on Jherus. In the resulting battle he was defeated and 4 of the 9 mages were left alive. But you cannot truly kill a demigod, so they did the next best thing. They sealed him away with 3 of the remaining mages to act as guardians to his prison.

THE HOOK:
So the players got a dream of the destruction of this town in the middle of no where and a woman in white with the scales of a gold dragon asking for help. They attempt to get to the town to discovered the road is blocked by an avalanche. Thankfully a guide is there to show them another way to town! So they get lead to this gave, fight their way past some goblins and enter into this ancient temple. They discovered the way through is locked and requires 3 keys to open it.

THE CATCH:
So the players find all 3 keys and pass through this ancient crypt to go save town. In the end it was because they unlocked the doors from inside the temple (which cannot be done with anyone who has the intent of opening it to release whats inside) they allow the survivors of the Telarie army that was trapped on this side of the barrier (now known as the Cult of the Scorpion) to resurrect Jherus by sacrificing the entire town.

WHERE TO FROM HERE?:
- Jherus takes down the barrier to reunite himself with his people to find his people worshiping a snake god (Yuan-Ti)
- The Yuan-Ti have replaced 7 of the mages on the (now) council of 15 with dopplegangers and have been pushing the Empire to wage brutal bloody wars on their neighbors to soften the empire up from when the Yuan-Ti take the barrier down and invade.
- a 3 way conflict develops (Empire vs Yuan-Ti vs Jherus) with the players stuck in the middle

that sounds super awesome! I already feel sorry for your PC's lol

How long has this campaign gone on?

Just pushing the year mark now. PC's are lvl 6

That's awesome, I hope my players (and my interest) can hold out that long lol

Well write an engaging story and it will keep the players and consider letting a player write a side adventure to your main story that way when you need a break from DMing they can run the side adventure, you can play and you can keep the same characters and overall story. I've done that twice now and its refreshing to take a break once and awhile and play and at the same time it helps keep the adventure going.

this is the BEST idea I've heard so far. I hear so many stories of Gm's burning out do to over work/preparation, so this could be an excellent break without detracting from the campaign! :D

We called it "guest DMs". What I do is give them a start point and where I need the party to end up. I give them my maps and my lore that I wrote for the game and give them a rough idea of how far to take it (what level they can bring the players up to, how many magic items and of what levels so that they don't take the game beyond where I need it to be). Out comes Valendir my Longtooth Shfiter Warden with the multiclass druid feat to save the day!

Our first side track took them out into the deserts of the magical dead zone to investigate some child abductions (which turned out to be cult of the scorpion members with an evil plan). The second break was a errand to deliver a top secret message to one of the mage's council in her own little private kingdom where we got waylayed by Yuan-Ti assassins who were trying to stop the message from reaching its destination. Both detours fit in perfectly and my guest DM ended the side arc off exactly where I needed him to. Each break lasted about 4-5 sessions (so a good month) and was just what I needed to get the drive to go back to writing once again.

I will definitely be doing this when I get a bit frayed at the edges XD

And the player who runs the guest DM spots has another ready to go for when I need another break, this one is a dimensional sidetrack he tells me so he can fit it in anywhere I need it. Nice thing is, this guy has a very good idea of where the story is going and still rps and doesn't use the metadata to his advantage.

I have used D&D and GURPS rules, and I have to say that GURPS is better in all manner of things other than combat. Again, opinion. However, when it comes to the point of actually running a game, the best thing you can do is let the players play around as their characters. Unless they want a hack and slash campaign, in which case shower them in as many monsters they can stand while still keeping some plot around them.

I've never used GURPS, but the style of play is the first thing I've asked the people who are going to be playing. Will they want a combat heavy game, or a story heavy one.

Style of play is a biggie. It tells you what you need to prepare for, and it tells you how you're going to be able to give players incentives to do what you want. Also, agreed with what other people say. NO matter how well you plan, you're never going to be able to anticipate everything that the players do. Always look like you're ready with a plan, even when you're adlibbing, which you'll probably be doing fifty percent of the time.

Ill have to train my brain to be creative on the fly, It's usually like swimming through molasses in a thick fog xD

It comes easier than you might think, but yeah, could take you a little bit.

rofl, step one, is dont smoke weed while planning my campaign XD

It wouldn't hurt. I've been running a steampunk campaign for my GURPS group. You'd be amazed the stuff they come up with that you can't anticipate, particularly in a world you make up.

I def. want to add some steampunk elements in my campaign. I was thinking of completely breaking dwarf history, and putting them on air ships and floating cities, and saying fuck you to mountain dwelling XD

Always fun when someone tosses something new into the mix. If you'd like to chat more about ideas - probably tomorrow, hitting the sack soon - send me a PM. I'm still learning DMing myself, and even if we use different systems, we can probably exchange ideas.

indeed! I'm especially open to any ideas for puzzles I can throw into my campaign! :D

Yeah, puzzles are the hard part, particularly since 90% of the time, people will just look at it and ask "What skill do I roll against?" In this case, the answer would be, "You don't roll, you figure it out."

I think for this sort of thing Im going to have prepared sheets of paper, or even props for them to use whil figuring out my puzzles/riddles/etc...

Good idea.

How big's your world? I put mine down at four continents, each one with a fair few cities and towns and other things.

having the open sea as my main setting, Im going to have an earth clone for them to roam and discover. so 6 or 7 continents. Though my MAIN story will probably only take place on 2-4 of them. I just want to have lots of room for them to choose their own path and explore.

Always good to give that freedom, though that'll mean a lot of work for you.

Im planning to have a bunch of maps, and sidequests ready ahead of time, for them to stumble upon if they go off on a tangent XD

I am GMing a game! ... actually right now, they are rolling to find the latch for a secret door and failing XD

rofl, I love skill checks :D

they found it! then 8 skellys attacked! they tried to close the secret door but lost the initative roll XD

also, what system are you playing? im using pathfinder system, its fantastic. Its like dnd 3.75 (aka what 4th ed should have been XD )

haha I play straight 4, its what I learned on, so its what I know and am comfortable with XD

4th ed? good system but they really did lose a lot of the feel of classic DnD with it :3

I have played a campaign of it though and enjoyed it =D

I've really enjoyed 4e so far, and I find that its similarity to the other versions, really goes down to how the GM wants to play it

Don't listen to what anyone says about 4th ed. I have played every edition and DMed 2nd ed and up. 4th while it isn't the classic D&D, the play is much more fun in terms of combat. Spell casters don't feel so limited to running out of spells, melee classes get something more to do then "I swing my big sword" and with healing surges and second wind, players survive much better and you can throw bigger challenges at them without fear of killing them. And minions add that epic dynamic where you can cut down an bandit troupe but still feel threatened.

COMPLETELY AGREED! I'm kinda tired of defending it, I think most peoples naysaying for 4e is based upon how used to 3/3.5 they are, or perhaps their DM ran a shitty campaign using 4e rules improperly or poorly.

I've dm'd before hun and I've gamed a lot. Any questions for me please feel free to note me!

willll do! :D

remember, the best laid plans for a campaign go straight out the window once the players show up. be flexable but be ready to pull out a cool description for a random place, find little ways to direct them towards where they need to go.

lol as a player I relished in diverting the story from my DM's path just to piss him off and make him improvise, he will probably seek his vengeance XD

exactly, expect the crazy

*expects as hard as he can, and pops a brain muscle*

As an all powerful omniscient being, remember you control the probability of fate. Their maybe a time as DM you have to Nerf a roll least your pawns perish to soon. Be humble and lie with a smile. Theirs a reason you get that "shield" for more a cheat sheet so others can't see your rolls. After all its about the fun. Here are some videos to help give you some other ideas.

these 2 are my favorite YouTube vids hehe good times.
youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBEka-RIy1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM7YhMfN0v4

extra fun
http://www.newgrounds.com/collectio.....ittheater.html
http://www.nuklearpower.com/8-bit-theater/

haha when in doubt CHEAT! Always good advice, I know my old DM did it all the time XD

And thanks for the links

I wish i could play with ya in a game :( dont have books and sutff but I used to play when I was a kid.

my friend has lent me his account on the D&D website, and all the books are on there :D

are you talking about the MMO? If not link me so I can see what you talking about.

BTW I just FOUND this awesome youtube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8aq.....eature=related

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/tools.aspx

you have to pay to be a member of the D&D insider, but it saves on the cost of most of the books, and has everything on it you need to run a game :D

Not since the days of AD&D2. There are two things that I noticed, though:
(1) Some players think all paladins need to be Lawful Stupid like Miko Miyazaki. They're wrong.
(2) A sufficently clever DM can twist around ANY overpowered wish, even if it was written by a team of lawyers.

my big plan, for if anyone tries to break the game, is force them to do skill checks on any outrageous thing they may be trying to do, I will never say NO to any request, but if they're going to pull it off Im going to make them roll AND work for it XD

I can't stand 4E. it feels really sterile and impersonal. I tried playing a cleric, and their healing.... "ATTACK TO HEAL HERP DERP." hate it.

well the good thing I find about the 4e abilities is that a LOT of classes have healing abilities, meaning people dont have to limit their class choice if they want the ability. I always hated in ANY game when I would HAVE to be the "healer" class just so everyone else can be what they want to be XD

I love being healing classes; and in 3.5, you can build your cleric to do some pretty sick damage output if you decide you only want to heal when it's necessary. Especially at epic levels, if you multiclass into Heirophant.

hahaha I was always mroe for rogues, theives and assassins XD

I played a 3.5 game for a little while.
Dark elf sorcerer named F'tish.
I made him a creepy pan sexual bondage freak who damn near wanted to rape everything.
he was mostly for comic value, and then we switched to pathfinder and I got some better spells.
(had the equivalent of an adimantium shotgun in my palm. Blew a dwarf's face off with it and it was AWESOME.)

As far as DMing, my advice? try not to railroad too much. Create a world and a story, but let your players explore and adventure into your world rather than just stringing them along.
I had a great DM, then we tried another guy, and he just had us fighting all the time with very little plot development.

And I have DM'd once for a Shadowrun game (cyberpunk retro 80's blade runner type setting) but it was really simple and more me just making shit up as I went along.

Ind I was gonna DM a superhero DnD over the summer, but it is just such a pain in the ass to assemble people sometimes.

getting everyone's schedules to align is often the hardest part of playing these types of games XD

Story is waaaaaay to important to me, so I would never just do a hack&slash jobby. I'm actually really excited to create my world from the ground up, and make a story for them they they would even enjoy just reading about XD

Hmmm...Be as random as possible? My first campaign was so fun because it was so random and hilarious. Two level ones, an elf and a bard, blowing up a giant merchant ship and kidnapping a retarded midget and tying him to a staff. *strokes imaginary beard* Yuuuupppp Doesn't get much better.

hahah it certainly sounds memorable! XD *pats your midget staff*

Oh yeah. Specially when you have no "use rope" points, and end up tying someone in a dungeon with a dead cobra. xD

lol a moment of "whatever works" XD

Absolutely xD Too bad that was my only campaign...I wanna do it again xD

nothin stopping ya! :D

interesting! but toon wouldn't be for me XD

Do you normal DM the games?

any advice, tips/tricks, puzzles, etc. you can give me?

in this journal I gave a quick overview of the MAJOR story arc. It's the BIG post I made, about a 1/3 into the journal, while talking to GolaWaya.

ooo I like the idea of a mirror puzzle, I know that would drive one of my friends nuts! :D

Thats the first suggestion of soundtrack that's been mentioned so far, also an excellent idea!

Do you have any standby ideas, if you ever need to improvise something on the fly? Or do you just wing it when the time class for it?

I've got 4 already with a maybe on a 5th. Really it would all come down to whether I liked you as a person, and if you lived in ottawa XD

I'm sorry :C

I might be interested in starting an online group. :)

if you do make one and want some help advertising to get some players, I can advertise for you! I clearly have some interested watchers XD

Oh sweet. Thanks man! :D

my pleasure! I'm just glad to help start some TRUE RPing XD

Ikr? xD

I hope they get enough to start a game so you can play! :D

Same. Plus, if I think its memorable enough, I'll do art of our campaigns. x3

I've thought about offering D&D character commissions before, I didnt think there would be a large enough market here. I might have been wrong XD

That's actually a great idea!

haha we shall see, if I ever execute the plan XD

dont be a DM bent on the destruction of your adventurers xD

hahaha NEVER! then I wouldn't get to tell any more of my story! XD That being said Im not above killing off a PC every now and again XD

My 20th level Sorcerer walks across the room... he *rolls d20* Greets you in a friendly maner. =3

*you roll a nat 1, and greet the houseplant to my left*

Somebody's rigged my dice

roll a perception check to try and figure out who.

*Rolls a different D20*

you roll a 12. You have a strange feeling that it was someone on this page who messed with your die, but you don't quite know who.

I check for secret traps

You see a large sign on the wall saying "there are no traps in this room"

I SWAER I DIDN'T DO IT.

roll a bluff check

*rolls a d20*

I check forinvisible walls :p

You encounter no invisible walls, but you do hear a strange sound coming from behind the north wall when you walk past it.

I study the north wall curiously for a moment then search for a door out of this spooky sign filled room.

there is no door.

Oh Raptor Jesus No!.. I"m trapped in here..... These walls will be my crypt *runs around in circles and panics*

the noise behind the wall grows louder.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

your mom bursts through the wall.

she surprise attacks you with a frying pan.

No Mommey Nooooooo!

she crits on your face.

you roll a 4, you are clearly lying about your innocence

im a pathfinder person now :D

awesome! how long have you been playing?

well i started with a game called hackmaster 6 years back >3

Is it a d&d clone?

One of our original founders used to play/DM it before it got too horrible to play... back in the Advanced day and age. He told us that once they dropped the word "Advanced" from the game, he chose to move on to better games. Otherwise, there isn't much we can tell you, since he was the expert in the field since '82.

They should get back into it! just because things change, doesn't mean they're worse XD, Or they could always just start a new campaign with the old system, many people still play their favs :D

He asks what it is you want to know. He mentions that he can still give advice since the younger generation could benefit from what he knows.

Im just looking for any and all advice people have to give. This is my first campaign, and attempt at DMing. Im also looking for good ideas for thing to throw into my story, or types of encounters that work well and are cool or interesting. Types of PUZZLES would also be appreciated XD

Okay, we are going to let him reply to this...

~~~

Hey intrepid adventurer, Hawzarr the Barbarian Donkey Lord here. My buds tell me that you want to know how to have some fun with the DM shield. Thus I am going to share some ancient knowledge with you. So listen up...

1. Dice: I am going to assume you know what all the slang are with the dice, but there are some fun sub-standards that I always used in my games that could make you more popular (or more despised...)
a) Natural 20's aka The Critical Hit: In combat, there is nothing more blood pumping and excitement inducing than when someone rolls a natural 20 on the old D20 die. However, to liven up the experience even more, instate the following rule: When a natural twenty without modifiers is rolled, allow the player to roll again to determine how much extra damage they have done with their perfect hit. 1 to 20 more points doesn't seem like much to some, but it could make all the difference to the players. Just remember this: modified 20s are never called critical hits despite their scoring over a 20 on the "to-hit" chart. Also, a natural 20 never misses it's intended target, so be warned.
b) Natural 1's aka The Fumble or OOPS!: Most people don't look forward to this one, but there is a way to make it more interesting. Create a critical fumble chart on the side that you have access to that the others won't see. A chart like this can range from absurd butterfingered results to striking yourself or one of your own teammates by accident. Or if the fumble is really bad, then it induces the monsters/opponents to laugh so hard that they lose the initiative during the next round. (aka Gelding oneself with a vorpal sword, for example...) An example chart I used follows:

1. The miss is so bad that the weapon slips out of your fingers and flies back over your head toward your own party members. Roll to hit (-4 for a blind shot) versus your own party members. Let's hope you don't score a natural 20 now when you don't need it.
2-7. You miss your target so badly that you lose your balance and fall smack down on your ass, doing your own defense rating in damage to yourself and are temporarily stunned from the fall for one round. Let's hope your teammates can be trusted to shield you while you're down.
8-13. You not only miss your target, but your weapon becomes entangled with their weapon and you are pulled point blank into the monster's (party) range. Instant captive or new bed toy... you decide.
14-17. You simply miss. You hope nothing embarrassing occurred. But why is everyone laughing? Random event.
18-19. You miss your intended target but the momentum of the swing pulls you beyond the fight where your weapon becomes lodged within an object (you choose what.)
20. Best possible and hoped for effect! You completely missed your intended target but you critically hit a target next to him/her. Roll for critical damage as normal. Okay, not what you were aiming at, but hey! You hit, gosh darn it!

2. Races: It may have occurred to many players and DMs that the game is lacking on good playable races that would be more popular among your friends.

Back in the 80s, I had never heard of "furries" but I had an AD&D race called the "Animax." The Animax were, simply put, anthropomorphic animal races done up for AD&D. Their stat modifiers were similar to humans, but their race abilities borrowed details from both the elves and the dwarves.

On the character sheet, it was written as Animax - (Animal type) (examples: Animax - Fox; Animax - Wolf; Animax - Lion; etc.)

For the stats, the Animax got species bonuses for whatever class they chose to be, +1 for the species (examples are... Fighters: +4 (+1 for species) STR, +1 (+1 for species) CON; Magic-Users: +4 (+1 for species) INT, +1 (+1 for species) DEX; Priests: +4 (+1 for species) WIS, +1 (+1 for species) CHA; Thieves: +4 (+1 for species) DEX, +1 (+1 for species) INT.)

The Animax also had a natural armor class rating equal to leather armor due to their naturally furred bodies. Otherwise, their social lives were like humans.

3. Exact Wording & Wishes: Now we're up to my most favorite section of all time! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
a) Exact Words: Everyone knows what a player means when they say they are going to have their character do a certain action, but NPCs, especially unlearned peasants and hirelings, should not always know what the player means. Therefore, they should always assume the character meant exactly what it sounded like they said. No, village NPCs are not very bright, save for the mayor, the merchants, the sheriff, and the local bartender who is a retired adventurer who can kick your sorry little asses all over kingdom come and to the Nine Hells and back, which he has done. "In your face, Asmodeus!" he says with a proud snort.
b) Wishes: Nothing can throw a game out of whack than when someone gets a hold of a wish, or ring of wishes, or even a genie. Here is what YOU, the DM, can do about these freeloaders. (evil laughter; all you weak people better run and hide.)

In game, it is not YOU, the DM, who grants these wishes... it is whoever is listening from either on high or down below, or in the case of genies, at the whim of their boredom to make their lives more interesting. (Hey, if the character is a good master, then he might be safe from this. Otherwise, watch out!) Here are the rules for granting a wish:

-- 1. Determine which "power" is listening at the time. What this means for characters is the following... if the character worships a certain deity, then the powers in question are that deity, their arch rival either in their own plane or the opposing plane, or a random imp, demon, devil, horny hell hound, randy unicorn, etc.
-- 2. Decide if the character has upheld the values of his deity in game, in character. If the character has no deity, then they are at the whim of whoever is listening who is bored or horny (see above.)
-- 3. Have the player write out the wish on a strip of paper, not showing it to the other players, then hand it over to you so you can read it quietly to yourself. Pay attention to the exact wording of the wish. We had one player write out, by accident, "I wish I was back in the dung on." The situation was this: he had caused some trouble at the local bar and was thrown in jail to cool off. His adventuring party left town without him to return to a dungeon that they were trying to clean out. He then remembered that he had a ring of three wishes with one wish left on the ring. You can guess what he thought he was going to do. Escape from jail via wish. When I read what he wrote, I almost had to leave the table laughing. I had an imp grant his wish sending the character without his equipment to the local sewers directly in the middle of a pool of "dung on". Of course the local Wererats and other sewer denizens had a good laugh when they saw the naked human fighter arrive. But aside from infection and a lot of laughter, there was no harm done. He was out of jail, at least, and he did get the infection removed and he did rejoin his party members.

Hey, I made this a little long, but if you want to know anything else, send Faces another heads up. It's fun to talk about the past like this. I'm the Sanctuary member in charge of donkeys, obviously. Until then, keep your nose clean and your sword at the ready.

haha thanks so much for this! I love the wish concept a lot! and I'm still loling about the dung on XD

I'll let you know if I need any more insight/ideas! :D

My old DM was shit.. but since I don't have one now I wish I could keep complaining about him. >:

if you scroll up, Puppytoast is thinking of starting an online game! maybe ask if you could join in? :D

sorry, I dont play that :P but if you play Team Fortress 2 or maybe battlefield 2142, I be happy to play with you ^w^

p.s Team Fortress 2 is free to download on steam and free to play :3

Lol as fun as videogames are, abs as much as I love them, there is just something different and rewarding about D&D. You should try playing a game; if you can find anyone playing.

I think one of my friends play it ... but of course it's money that's the problem, completely broke :P

The only person who has to spend any money on it REALLY, is the DM/GM, and even then there are ways around that! So basically its free (I'm not sure if you realize that its a table top game though... just to clarify! XD)

I thought you were talking about the online game D&D.

haha no I mean REAL D&D lol

my favorite past time dnding...we were in a dungeon and got to a room, and the door closed behind us and the walls started closing in on us...on the other end, was another door (our exit). There was a button by the door that we came through, a button on the exit door, and a button on each wall that was closing on us. We found out that as long as you pressed the button on the exit door, the walls would go back to their original position and start closing again...

Finally, after about an hour of trying every possible combination for pressing the buttons, and always pressing the exit door one when the walls got too close, with no success on getting either of the doors open to get out of the room...we all said...okay, fuck it, let it crush us...

The walls got to each edge of the door...stopped...and the door opened...


Stupid buttons didn't do ANYTHING but play with our minds...

That is fantastically evil! Loooool

My friends would probably kill me for doing that lol

I've actually begun writing my overarching story for the campaign, I've actually posted a bit of it higher up in this journal :D

I love mtg though too, always fun and much less work lol

Ahhhh I love D&D! I played 1st edition in highschool, dabbled in 2nd, and am playing an AWESOME 3.5 campaign right now.... Our DM is amazing~ He writes for a living, so his stories are superb. My group just liberated a town from a tyrant in a gladiator-style showdown. It was epic. I haven't had a chance to play 4th though. I hear it's fun, buuuuuuut I'm slow to adapt.

the fight system is EXCELLENT for 4e in my opinion, but because of that a lot of people tend to only play it as a hack and slash, and neglect the story aspect. I think you should give 4e a try! Just make sure you have a good storyteller for a GM XD

What kind of things has your DM done that has made you go "WOW, that was awesome"?

I will definitely give it a try sometime! :D

Well, my past DMs have always had really bland stories such as "you meet to go slay a monster" or "find this kidnapped wife." Those groups tend to only last a few sessions because it gets boring when you feel like you're doing a bunch of side missions.

My most recent DM has a story arc that he's written out that is just really original and flexible. Super long story short, our group has to travel through nine different "doors" which teleport us to different environments, etc. At each door/plane our DM has a story, but doesn't make us stick to it at all. In fact, last time we played, our group decided to explore something that our DM hadn't written anything for so he just made it up as we went along. It ended up being one of the most enjoyable sessions I've played! I think that quick, creative thinking is what makes an awesome DM. In previous games, I would have a DM that wouldn't let us explore/do certain things because they didn't want to stray from what they had already made up or whatever. I've always played D&D with pretty relaxed rules... it's more fun if you focus on the "what ifs" rather than the "what I can not dos."

this definitely seems to be a general consensus for enjoyment. Having a solid overlying plan/arc, but not having to stick to it all the time.

My plan is to lay out all of the events that are happening in the world as it pertains to the MAJOR event, whilst also having a whole bunch of sidequests and mini adventures for them to discover along the way :D

I read what you had further up in the comments, and what you have so far seems really awesome! Y'all are going to have fun. In all honesty, a lot depends on the people you play with. :P Hopefully they'll have fun with it too.

Having fun is going to be my number one concern, for me and my players. I can only hope they'll like the world Im creating XD

I've played a few good campaigns before but never DM'ed. I'm still too noobish to even try that lol
I guess my advice would be to make a good theme, write a thick plot and keep the suprises coming. Not to mention try your best to give life to the characters your players interact with, 4.0 gets stale if its all battle and no rp.