Tabletop Role-Playing tips

I hope this helped in some way. 

Just think of random things that happen everyday when you are out and about. I’m sure you have picked something up for another person, held a door for someone, or complimented a piece of jewelry or a tattoo that someone had. Take those experiences and go a step or 2 further. 

Roll20 is basically a virtual tabletop simulator. It gives you the ability to join groups or form a group and play. I would look up some tutorials if you plan on using this. It is free and i believe you can buy more things for it but most of it is free. 

I would just show them a sample or two of how the combat works. You control, everyone and just have them watch and explain what you are doing and why. If they still don’t understand that a tactical approach is the best option for combat, then i am not sure what to do. They may just not be the kind of people that enjoy that type of combat. 

I’m not sure if you will be able to find what you are looking for on there but it’s worth a shot. 

1. Easy access to rules and stats: make a reference sheet for the session with all of the monster stats so you don't have to flip through the book. I would also make a sheet of rules that you may have to refer to during the game.2. Player ability cards: have the players write down their abilities ( name and effect) so they do not have to reference the book as much. 3. Initiative tracker: have a piece of paper off to the side with 2 columns of boxes (enough for all the players and about as many monsters as you think you will have them fight every battle. Make sure both columns have the same amount of boxes. Write all player names down on slips of paper that will fit in boxes. Do the same with monster by writing m1, m2, m3, etc. put these in the first column. The second one is for tracking conditions. I would say make about 4 or so of every condition. Move the papers around in order of who goes first every battle.4. Quick reference for character names: if using a screen, put slips of paper that go over both sides of the screen with player name and character name on them.5. Combat: there might be a way to speed combat up a bit by rounding down monster health. If a monsters health is 17, make it 15. If it is 23, make it 20. This will make combat a little quicker. Also add some weak monsters. Ones that might not need more than a hit or 2 to die. Also, if all players are comfortable with it, make a chart of the playera stats, like AC and HP so out can reference it faster and know for sure if you hit or not.6. Ready the players: give them a heads up when their turn is next so they have a couple minutes to think about what they are going to do. 7. Store charts: when the players go to an area where there are stores, hand them a copy of a store reference chart with all the types of stores and what they sell so all the players can shop at once. And can even browse through it while doing other things in the area.8. Only what you need: only make charts and reference material based on what you need. You should try playing a game or 2 and pay attention to the problems you run into and try to solve them for the next game. 9. Helping hand: find a 2nd DM if you feel you may have to much to keep track of. This is all I can think of at the moment. Just try and set yourself up with time and efficiency in mind. talk to your players about what they can do or not do to help move the game along quicker.

Feel free to message me if you need any help. I can’t guarantee that I will be able to get back to you right away but, I will try and message you within a day.

I just finished watching a play through of the game Misspent Youth on The Geek and Sundry YouTube channel. The players and the GM set up the plot and the world together. The game is also set up in chapters and this same format might translate well for other tabletop games. Obviously, Misspent Youth was made to work this way but I don’t see why it couldn’t work for other games.

Hey everyone! I have been having a hard 10 days. I work in a grocery store as an assistant department manager and my department manager went on vacation 10 days ago. Typically it takes 2 people about 5 hours to work a truck and before my department manager went on vacation, someone quit. So, I am out 2 people. The whole 10 days I have worked the trucks by myself or with the help from people that have no idea what they are doing. I have also not had anyone to close the department most days. When I get to work in the morning, there is cardboard and garbage everywhere in the back room and the department is almost completely empty. The store and assistant store managers keep expecting me to be able to get all of the work done with about 70 less hours in the department this week. They are doing a really shit job of getting me help (like they said they would) and they keep telling me to make time to do everything. I'm not allowed to work over 40 hours because they don't want to give me overtime and I'm just really tired and stressed out. I just needed to vent about that guys. I will try and answer more questions and post more tips soon.

I would have a meeting and talk about if the group actually enjoys playing the game. I have played with a lot of my friends and some that joke around a lot or don't pay attention are usually not that interested in being there. You could also try switching who is Game Master every week.

i would give the players more access to places to spend money. I would also maybe find a way for the money to be more important to them. you could even ask them what types of things they would prefer to spend money on. Looting is a good way to get weapons, armor, and items without spending money. You can cut back on lootable weapons, armor, and items. Maybe there are tolls they need to pay for going to certain areas. You can also make travel time and transportation more important and force them to spend it on horses or boat rides. You can make a game where an NPC is important to a quest and they need to help the group in some way and they want to be paid for it. Just try and force them to pay for things and hopefully they will start spending money on their own.

You need to let them know that you don’t have as much experience as them and that you will come to them if you have any questions but for now you are the DM and you want to make mistakes and learn from them. The person might think they are being helpful and doing a good deed and obviously that is not the case. Don’t be too harsh with them but let them know that you are trying your best and maybe to give you some advice at the end of each game rather than trying to control everything during it. 

I've seen the last few posts people submitted, about how some select players are ruining the dun for everyone else. While I understand that, by the very nature that they play here games, RPG players are very social, and GM's often feel like players are a limited resource to be protectively cultivate, I have to remind those responsible for people's fun that it's not fair to spend all your time in the one squeaky wheel. I had a playing group where we rotated though every player being a GM, doing different campaigns and systems for 3 to 9 month stretches. And while he was a great GM, one of the players made things utterly miserable when he was running a character. He would research the system online, searching though forums for the best exploits and combos. He would never break rules as written, but he'd know which class was the most powerful, how to stack XP, and what abilities created something like then Pleasent rail gun or wizard nuke. He had to always be able to kill the rest of the party to feel safe, and would twist any story elements into something that benefited himself. It was hard, but as the rest of the group leaned more and more into story telling role playing, and away from dice focused roll playing, we had to let him know that such actions just weren't going to be accepted, and he was no longer welcomed. His happens after two and a half years of talking with him, and trying to make things work. (Because he always stuck to rules as written, we could never tell him he -couldn't- do something, because he always had the rules to back him up, and would rant about how if there were no rules it wasn't fair because anyone could just do anything) Anyways, TLDR: don't be afraid to boot someone who makes the game a drag for everyone else.

I'm trying to sell a couple of D&D-related shirts over on Redbubble. I don't have much of a following on Tumblr, so I was hoping you could signal boost this for me. I would really appreciate reblogs!  If not, thanks for reading anyway!

This is the most interesting problem i have ever encountered. This is going to be really similar to answers i have been giving. Just talk to them. Say it is becoming a hassle for you to keep track of everything. Let them know that you don’t want to restrict their fun but it’s getting to be a bit ridiculous. Ask them if you can meet them half way. Maybe you allow them to have a certain number of whatever they adopt and when they try and go over that number, one of them gets killed off somehow. Maybe they want to adopt a idk...baby that can fly and they do. That night at camp they accidentally eat their chicken.

You could also try something fun in game. Maybe a curse of some sort where all the players have to stay within a set amount of distance to each other at all times or something bad happens. I know that is kind of plotting against them but it will affect everyone equally and not just the 2 players.