If you are setting out to be DungeonMaster/GameMaster of an original adventure for the first time, there are some basic "rules of thumb" you'll probably want to keep in mind as you start building. 1. Start with a map. All long running games have a WORLD in which they are set. If you draw a clear map (just for you -- your adventurers will have to discover for themselves as they go) of where the castles, cities, towns, villages, forests, mountains, deserts, swamps, ruins, lakes/rivers, seashores, caves, and other major landmarks are located, then you can make smaller "close up" maps of each major section and each detailed site. You may want to put your master map in the front of a notebook with each section labeled so that it points to the appropriate sub-map. This way, if your characters go off in a direction you aren't expecting, you know where they are headed. 2. For each sub-map, make a "wandering monsters" table. Number a piece of paper from 1-20 (so you can roll a d20 to determine the encounter) and give each number an encounter. If your sub-map is a mountain, #1 might be a bugbear (give yourself all the relevant info on the bugbear like AC and hp). #2 could be a pair of vultures, #3 could be a band of 4 thieves (give each thief an AC and hp so you will know if or when your PC adventuring party has defeated them if they fight....) #4-9 might be a single goat or something else interesting but not threatening, and so on..... You'll want there to be encounters of varrying difficulty and interest to the party. Make one of these tables for each sub-map -- with encounters specific to the terrain and population of the area. 3. Make a MASTER ADVENTURE list. Most "worlds" will have a single, very difficult, very challenging quest which is the background quest for all the adventures that take place in that world. It should be so difficult and so complex that it will take many games to unravel the clues, solve the riddles, find the necessary items, gain the necessary skills and experiences etc so that it is not assumed to be an automatic win. Once you have the central "Challenge" identified, you can build a series of preliminary adventures into the geography of the WORLD so that all these details are discovered and all the tools/skills acquired to meet that central challenge. A good model for this structure is J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. -- The central challenge is to get the ONE RING into the volcano where it was formed -- but dozens of foes, challenges, obstacles and adventures stand between the first realization of this quest and its actual achievement. Make a list of each of the adventures your PC party will face between the beginning of their gaming and the accomplishment of the central challenge. You should have your list "keyed" to your World Map, so that you know where each encounter/adventure can or must occur. With this key, you can let your adventuring party choose their path and you will be ready for them when they arrive at each of the preliminary adventures you have designed. If there is a particular order in which some or all your adventures must be gamed, you need to be sure only certain roads are made available to your PC party. An example of an adventure list might begin like this: ---------------------------- *Widow living on main road robbed of all posessions -- you must locate the band of thieves in the forest and retrieve her belongings. [all additional unclaimed treasure becomes property of the PC party]. Thieves: Leader Joe - 6th Level AC4 21hp; Thief Bonnie - 3rd Level AC7 15hp; thief Ned - 3rd Level AC 5 19hp; Thief Steve - 1st Level AC9 6hp. *Animal Trainer needs 2 bears. Go to mountains and bring them back. Bear 1 - AC4 37hp; Bear 2 - AC4 41hp; Bear 3 - AC8 17hp; Bear 4 - AC6 22hp. Pay: will teach slight of hand to bard, thief, or wizard. Will reward wizard with familiar weasel. *Golden goblet stolen from chapel. Footprints lead to dungeon level tunnels below city. Encounters: ______ _____ ______ ________ (fill in yourself) Reward: 2 vials of healing potion. -------------------------- FOR EACH ENCOUNTER be sure you have identified all the possible foes along with their AC and hp, all the details of what is being sought, and all the rewards your PC's may gain in this quest. REMEMBER that difficult tasks should carry a greater reward and greater experience points than simple ones. 4. Make a list of useful and colorful NPC's for your world. Each sub-map should be thought of as a distinct area with its own farmers, inns, shops, chapels, graveyards, docks, monastaries, villages, etc -- and therefore its own distinct population. Some of the characters you create to live in your main city may also turn out to be travelers in some of your adventures, but overall, you need to know who lives / works where. Your PC party should encounter the same bartender and barmaid in the Horseshoe Tavern every time they visit, and the same priest and acolyte every time they go to church. Give the NPC's personality, limits, affiliations, politics, beliefs, and all the quirks that will make them interesting and entertaining. A good DM/GM will have a whole bag of NPC tricks up his/her sleeve to make their world interesting. YOU ARE BASICALLY CONSTRUCTING THE SETTING AND CHARACTERS FOR A NOVEL, MOVIE OR STORY -- SO THINKS OF YOUR NPC's BUILDINGS, AND TERRITORY IN ENOUGH DETAIL TO MAKE A MOVIE OF IT IN YOUR HEAD. THEN JUST TURN YOUR PC PLAYERS LOOSE AND LET THEM DISCOVER YOUR FICTIONAL WORLD. 5. Make some "gimme's" for your PC players. Throughout your game world, you should have clues, bits of gossip, whole maps or pieces of torn map, coded messages, tickets to events happening in your world, invitations, scraps or a menu, unopened letters from one NPC to another, and other findings that you can actually had over to your PC's as they are discovered or acquired. It may be that some NPC is leaving a trail for your PC party to follow in the form of riddles scratched on clay tablets -- so you have the riddles on 3X5 index cards and turn them over to the player as the PC discovers them. This will give your PC party something to work on together and to keep track of as they discover your world and head toward solving the central challenge. If you create coded messages, make sure you keep a copy of the decoded message for yourself, and always keep track of what maps your PC party has or doesn't have. It may be that some maps are exact duplicates of your sub-maps, and some are of New Jersey and so totally useless in this campaign. (there's no rule that says you can't let them find red herrings along their path....) Either way, you need to know what they've got. 6. Keep a good, clear tally of how many experience points your PC party is earning. Keep it up to date as you go through your night's adventure. If the party kills a bugbear -- write down the total points the party gains for defeating that monster -- those are shared points. Also keep a total for each individual. Individual points should be awarded to players who were especially creative, brave, skillful, or just intelligent or true to their PC's character. When the gaming session is done, take the total shared points and divide them evenly between all players, then add each individual player's points to their shared total and this is the number of experience points that player's PC has earned during this session. There are break points (different for each character class) where a first level PC becomes a second level PC and then a third level PC and so on. As each milestone is achieved, the PC will acquire new hit points, new spells or skills percetage points, hobbies, options, and general toughness. Some DM/GM's also give one experience point for each gold piece value in treasure, and each magic item. This is optional, but can inflate experience point totals if there is too much treasure/magic in the game. This is how beginner players without appropriate background turn up with high-level PC's to play -- never a good idea. Players and their PC's should grow up together. 7. Other good advice: * Be consistent. * Be fair. * If the dice rolls too many bad results (or too many good) -- then just make up a dice roll that won't devestate your PC party! * Remember that variety is the spice of adventuring. Variety in challenges, NPC's, terrain, weather, time of day, layout of villages and walled cities, monsters and animal foes, kinds of treasure, emotional levels, voices, foliage, ages of people encountered, EVERYTHING. Variety change options choices diversions distractions intentions goals missions possibilities probabilities necessities EVERYTHING Variety. * If a player is getting "out of hand" -- let a rabid rat bite his PC during the night while the PC is asleep in the inn or under the stars -- and take him out of the game for a while. A definition of "out of hand" could be a player who takes off on his own too often and doesn't support the party; a player to challenges your authority as DM/GM; a player to over and over again acts before thinking things through; players who are reckless with the lives or others; players who try to take control of all party decisions..... all these can be a terrible strain on the PC party AND on the DM/GM. Take the "out of hand" player out of the game and only let them back in when all the party has recovered and is acting as a team. If the trouble-player continues to disrupt -- take him/her out again for longer. Part of the definition of a good DM/GM is to keep players from going off the deep end while still letting them play freely in the water -- a lot like a parent at the swimming pool. Too many strict rules and nobody has fun -- but too few that allow for "out of hand" behaviour and nobody has fun. Since the point is to have fun -- try to keep everybody acting as a team! * Keep play moving. If things slow down too much or people are off task for too long at a time talking or eating pizza, throw in an ogre or a roving band of mountain trolls to clear their head. Make them react quickly and with clarity. If a break is needed to let everybody visit or talk about the latest video game, then break and come back ready to play! * Always have written down what monsters, what treasure, what gold, what NPCs ect... are out there in your world. Don't try to "wing it" -- or come up with surprises or special treats on the spot -- it will create confusion and waste time. DO YOUR HOMEWORK in advance and BE PREPARED. ********************************************* REACH US BY EMAIL AT purcifuls@yahoo.com OR BY PHONE AT (806) 239 2927 during business hours. IF YOU DON'T GET A LIVE PERSON -- JUST KEEP TRYING! THIS TIME OF YEAR WE TAKE LOTS OF CALLS!! ********************************************************* BE SURE TO CLICK THE GLOBE ICON AND GO TO OUR FRONT PAGE FOR CURRENT SPECIAL OFFERS AND COUPONS!!! ********************************************************* FOR COMPLETE SHIPPING DETAILS (what kinds are offered, how long it takes, how to choose etc....) 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