#dm tactics

I find I have more fun DMing when I don't prep solutions, only problems.

This lets me get surprised and find out how the PCs will overcome a challenge, instead of deciding ahead of time and just waiting for it to happen.

Example under the cut :)

If your players have some murderous tendencies, the first step is always to talk with them about what kind of game you're running vs what kind they want to play, and make sure expectations are aligned.

If the party all want to play a rambling gang of thugs, and you're down to run such a game, then murderhoboing can be fun! But if you prepped a game for heroes who want to do good, or the murderhobo is ruining fun for other players, it's time for a talk.

That said, here are some houserules I use to clearly signal that my game is not set up to accommodate murder hobo-ing.

Innocents Yield Negative XP

If you're using the XP system, this one stops the temptation to murder realquick. My loose definition of innocent is "someone who did not pose a threat."

Some players don't mind if their character is in trouble or disliked in the world. Negative XP gives a meta-level consequence that they might be more deterred by.

In-World Consequences

Speaking of being in trouble, your world has law enforcement, does it not? Characters who murder, rob, intimidate, harass, or otherwise engage in criminal behaviour should have wanted posters out. Wanted posters mean bounty hunters.

Being wanted also means that there's suddenly no vacancies at any Inn you visit, and the places that will serve you charge double, because they know no one else will.

Beefier Guards

It's easy to laugh off the law enforcement if you know that a guard is only CR 1/4. So homebrew yourself up some guards. Give them better armour, more hit points, spells, and extra abilities. Runesmith has a great video for this.

At the very least, guards should be able to inflict the restrained condition (nets and grappling abilities are easy ways to do this) and call for reinforcements (give them a reaction that does this). Give them spells, too. Hold Person is such a classic guard spell. Same with Calm Emotions.

Most Things Run Away

Few creatures are actually motivated to fight to the death. The exceptions are mindless things like oozes, cultists and the like who think they'll be killed anyway if they flee, and... I can't think of a lot else, tbh. Most stuff wants to live to fight another day.

Dungeon modules may include instructions like

"Every 10 minutes, roll for a random encounter”

or

"characters who spend more than 5 minutes in this room must make a DC 10 constitution save against poison."

To clarify, these refer to time in the game world. There's no need to start a stopwatch for your players. It is useful to measure time outside of combat, though.  Especially in a dungeon where it's dangerous to linger.

It also makes it easy easier to answer questions like "how long until it's dark out?" or "how long have they been gone now?"

Tracking Time

Get a piece of graph paper or open Excel/Google Sheets.

Make a table with 12 hours that you can fill in and room for notes below.

Make notes of events like when torches were lit, when spells wear out, monster movements, when the party will need a long rest next, etc.

On paper, I do an X for 10 minutes and a single line for 5. I add a horizontal line to make an asterisk if there was a combat. Three X’s = half an hour. I also use vertical lines to track events so they don’t clutter up the time marks.

Example:

You don't need to record exact times or activities - it's fine if things are fuzzy. The goal is not to provide a log of what happened, it's just to estimate how much time has passed.

I try to abstract most actions into 5 or 10 minute intervals.

5 Minutes: A quick or simple task, or one that is aided by specialized tools or expertise. Most combats (1 round of combat is around 1 minute)

10 Minutes: A task that takes care or attention, or a task with complex steps. Examples:

Casually check a 20 x 20 area (1st edition)

Thoroughly search a 10 x 10 area (1st edition)

Move a distance equal to movement speed while mapping or checking for traps (1st edition)

Cast a ritual spell (5th edition)

1 Hour: A short rest.

But Why Add More Bookkeeping?

While it may be a little awkward at first, this soon becomes an unobtrusive part of play. It's actually easier than trying to track time by memory.

But more than that, time brings the dungeon to life. When time is part of play, you get events like torches sputtering out and mage armor wearing off that force players to strategize.

Monster movements become much easier to manage, as well. I like to write a rough schedule of when monsters will move barring interference. You could use it to move patrols or track progress in a fell ritual, for example.

For a simple 5-room delve, not necessary. But for a crawl? Indispensable.

How you finish that sentence will decide whether the players give enough of a shit to take risks just to stop it from happening. It is crucial that they do.

In a great world, this would mean the BBEG should threaten something the characters care about. But we don't live in a great world, we live in this one, so it works better if we threaten something the players care about.

Consider:

If the BBEG wins, magic won't work anymore.

Players who have spells love having spells. Threatening assets that the players get regular, satisfying use out of works every time.

Want the players to stay on plot? Want them to take the story seriously? Threaten something they, the players, care about. Want them to care about the lore? Make the lore necessary to keep the bad guy from winning.

Which is just silly.

Clerics shouldn't have to roll to recall information about religion in general, their own religion, or religions their deity is affiliated with. They should just know that shit, just like druids and rangers should just know about the flora and fauna in their favoured terrains. They shouldn't have to roll to know what monster they're facing or whether that flower is edible or not.

I struggle with dungeon stocking, but I think I may have stumbled upon the (as-usual) embarrassingly simple solution to my writers’ block.

instead of getting bogged down in dungeon dressing and other specifics, just jot down what there is to do here. Secret doors to find, hazards to navigate, monsters to fight, locks to pick, puzzles to solve, and traps to disarm are easy go-to’s, but consider also:

A spy-hole into another room or passage

An idol that can offer a blessing if the forgotten deity’s name is invoked

Other adventurers exploring the dungeon

Monster tracks

Unusual ways up/down (chasms, wells, portals)

a partial map scrawled on the wall

Petrified or time-stopped monsters that the players must avoid “activating”

It’s best if each room has at least two things to interact with. Make at least one of them something the players don’t have to search for.