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Rosekitten · **08-25-2017, 04:57 PM**

So I've found myself with leadership of my FC and the sudden large realization of trying to mold everything together and give some purpose of why certain characters would join forces so to speak or why my own would bother to gather these misfits together in the first place.Â

But I came here to seek out some advice for keeping things interesting for my Fc members. The Fc story is a bit of a work in progress and after things settle in a bit I do plan some small festival events just because it would fit to the theme the company has going.

I'm just not sure how to host or dm events in this game. I've been to a fair amount of events in the past but I never really sat there and took in how the event was run or how things played out with x amount of people being present. I've dm'ed before for tabletops and forums but I was more of just curious on how others tackle things.

Thank you for your time~!

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **08-25-2017, 05:19 PM**

For the most part, I'd say it's pretty similar to DMing tabletop. I've found that if the scene starts going combat-oriented, it may help to either have the involved players determine a turn order or roll for one using /random, just ot make sure everyone gets a chance to say something. I've done the same even in regular RP itself, when one doesn't sorta naturally form. (And if someone doesn't have much to say, or anything, they can at least make an emote noting as much.)

If you're moving into FC Event planning, I'd check to see if there's a calendar (Enjin site, google, RPC's, etc) that you can get the event on, especially if public. For private RP, keeping one may still help for coordinating with members if you all aren't online around the same times consistently. Enjin site's signups work great for this, if you have access to one. Otherwise, simple planning calendars like Doodle also work really well! (I've also seen people add reactions to a discord post as well, but that'd require a siftable amount of chat scrolling and management anyways.)

My last piece is that if you're running an event, make sure you have people helping in the backend too. If your FC is say, sponsoring a public event, use the FC chat or a Linkshell to coordinate. Even for something "simple," having some fellow members spread out the tasks will make things easier if you've got a large group of people. This applies to most events, from bar nights to the Grindstone, and more. When running a public event, it may feel more like a job or that you're managing staff members than just RPing with friends. It can get a little daunting based on size.

Maia · **08-25-2017, 05:28 PM**

The main advice I have to give? Keep the event or story about the players!

What I mean by this is, when developing an event, be careful not to just run a giant cutscene. Make it interactive! Create situations where the players will have moments to shine, and be flexible if they introduce new ideas that may take your story in a different direction than planned.

Take into consideration the skills and backstories of your players, and throw in a few situations that would possibly appeal to them in particular. Especially if not everyone is a combat character - it can be nice to let them have some fanfare by flexing what they ARE good at.

For example, maybe someone is good with machines. While the combat characters have a foe to fight, you may introduce another facet to the encounter where one or more players have to diffuse a bomb.

I'd advise against making the FC plot revolve around your own character, as that tends to turn some people off to participating. It's perfectly fine to run some side stuff that's your-character-centric, but themes that are more broad seem to be more approachable by others, from what I've seen.

If you're DMing for a large group, you may want to recruit a co-DM and figure out a way to split them up into smaller groups. This lets everyone get a little more spotlight, and will also be much less stressful to manage.

When it comes to combat, I tend to use /random if their foe would not be easily defeated. I designate a turn order and keep posting that order OoCly to keep everyone on track. On their turn, a player will describe what they intend to do, then they'll roll, and the number they get will determine my "DM response" as to how successful they impact the foe. A particularly low roll would result in them getting injured, a middling roll will have a slight impact, and a high roll would have a very effective impact.

Again, I typically only use /random when the foe (or general conflict) is a match versus the player/s. Even a master swordsman who has trained all of his/her life could potentially slip up when faced with a fantastical beast that's two stories tall and breathes raw lightning.

If it's five people versus one villain NPC, though? I'm okay with letting them freeform type what they do, as they would likely succeed with those odds.

Hope some of these tips help out! Feel free to take or discard whatever advice you wish. ^^

PSDuckie · **08-31-2017, 02:53 PM**

(08-25-2017, 05:28 PM)Maia Wrote: The main advice I have to give? Keep the event or story about the players!

What I mean by this is, when developing an event, be careful not to just run a giant cutscene. Make it interactive! Create situations where the players will have moments to shine, and be flexible if they introduce new ideas that may take your story in a different direction than planned.

Take into consideration the skills and backstories of your players, and throw in a few situations that would possibly appeal to them in particular. Especially if not everyone is a combat character - it can be nice to let them have some fanfare by flexing what they ARE good at.

For example, maybe someone is good with machines. While the combat characters have a foe to fight, you may introduce another facet to the encounter where one or more players have to diffuse a bomb.

I'd advise against making the FC plot revolve around your own character, as that tends to turn some people off to participating. It's perfectly fine to run some side stuff that's your-character-centric, but themes that are more broad seem to be more approachable by others, from what I've seen.

If you're DMing for a large group, you may want to recruit a co-DM and figure out a way to split them up into smaller groups. This lets everyone get a little more spotlight, and will also be much less stressful to manage.

When it comes to combat, I tend to use /random if their foe would not be easily defeated. I designate a turn order and keep posting that order OoCly to keep everyone on track. On their turn, a player will describe what they intend to do, then they'll roll, and the number they get will determine my "DM response" as to how successful they impact the foe. A particularly low roll would result in them getting injured, a middling roll will have a slight impact, and a high roll would have a very effective impact.

Again, I typically only use /random when the foe (or general conflict) is a match versus the player/s. Even a master swordsman who has trained all of his/her life could potentially slip up when faced with a fantastical beast that's two stories tall and breathes raw lightning.

If it's five people versus one villain NPC, though? I'm okay with letting them freeform type what they do, as they would likely succeed with those odds.

Hope some of these tips help out! Feel free to take or discard whatever advice you wish. ^^

100% agreed with all of this.Â Also, the best way to learn to DM is to practice.Â Run a side storyline to get the feel of it before you do a main storyline.

Rosekitten · **08-31-2017, 03:53 PM**

Given the Fc is still building up so to speak I on't have a main story in mind to be honest. So most of the events will be side stories or just some events as things to do. Wasn't really planning on being thrust into a leadership spot and for the leader and his wife to switch mmo's with no plans on return..Originally it was going to be 4 or 5 of us planning events so it wouldn't be nearly as bad then.

Thorbought · **09-26-2017, 01:03 PM**

I have a few pointers for you.Â

Work on time management. This is something you learn through experience but most people DMing for the first time will create this elaborate events with multiple parts but they find that they are only able to get through maybe half of what they planned and they either have to run the event for a LONG time or they have to cut if off. You don't want to have to do either of those. I'd say plan your event for 3 hours max as that's where people may start to burn out. A simple idea can usually last you a long time. I remember when I first started dming, I had an elaborate idea and it took 3 hours to get out of the starting point and get through the first battle because people were talking so much. So try to have a simple idea first.Â
Try to focus on keeping things simple and maximize RP interactions. What I mean is that a lot of the time I see people do is they plan out very elaborate story sequences with a lot of text and a lot of npcs but what ends up happening is people get lost in the all the dialogue, lose track of the npcs, or just lose interest because it's not fun being in a cutscene and doing nothing while the DM just posts walls of texts. Your events should ideally allow your players to make the choices and lead where it goes and it should be about them. People will lose interest if they are kind of just spectators to your story rather than participants.
Focus more on the RP rather than the combat/rolls system. This is a mistake I see a LOT of people make. They will create this elaborate system with rolls and stats and such but everyone is here to just RP and interact with the world you make and other characters. If I wanted to play D&D I would do just that. Say you have a boss with x amount of hp. Your rpers might get terrible rolls and the boss might end up taking an eternity. It might get to the point where it feels like a drag where they are just rolling turn after turn to take him down. Don't do this. Just have the boss die when you feel it is appropriate rather than just looking at his hp bar. Also allow people to be creative with their attacks and characters. It's not fun to create a restrictive system where people can't be flexible.
For the story, I would suggest you start with something simple as well. This is because not all your members can be there all the time so you don't want them to be completely lost when they miss an event. Also, it lets your players be able to influence the story and be the main drivers in it.

Gegenji · **09-26-2017, 01:40 PM**

(09-26-2017, 01:03 PM)Thorbought Wrote:
Work on time management. This is something you learn through experience but most people DMing for the first time will create this elaborate events with multiple parts but they find that they are only able to get through maybe half of what they planned and they either have to run the event for a LONG time or they have to cut if off. You don't want to have to do either of those. I'd say plan your event for 3 hours max as that's where people may start to burn out. A simple idea can usually last you a long time. I remember when I first started dming, I had an elaborate idea and it took 3 hours to get out of the starting point and get through the first battle because people were talking so much. So try to have a simple idea first.Â

For the story, I would suggest you start with something simple as well. This is because not all your members can be there all the time so you don't want them to be completely lost when they miss an event. Also, it lets your players be able to influence the story and be the main drivers in it.

I'll second these two points in particular.

The first one actually reminds me of a hint regarding scheduling for meetings. You may think a meeting will take half an hour, but you'll still schedule the meeting to be an hour or an hour and a half. Because things tend to always come up that will cause things to take longer - people arriving late, folks asking questions, technical issues. That can all cross over to RP as well, especially if you're an experienced DM.

I'm sure there's plenty who have a story of having a puzzle they thought would be "easy" that the players end up taking an entire session to figure out. Or get distracted by a throw-away bit of fluff you added and spend a lot of time delving into that instead of the intended plot hook.

Which leads into the other quoted bullet point for a whole other reason. You'll want to keep your event plot simple for all the things mentioned, and just so it's loose enough to adapt to whatever curve balls your participants throw at you. I've had a few DnD sessions that I felt terrible about afterward because I had a very strict sequence of events that I wanted to have happen that I ended up putting more importance on the story I wanted to tell than on the player participation. Which makes the situation very railroad-y.

I find it helps that, if there are things you LIKE to have happen... it's not bad form to keep them in mind. But also be willing to allow it not to happen if the participants take a different tack with it. For example: "the caravan is waylaid by bandits" might - in your mind - involve them successfully stealing some item of value that is important to the plot. But, don't just railroad it into being an inevitability - if the heroes look like they're going to successfully fend them off, just make a point of highlighting the item. Or, if one of the robbers gets captured or swayed to their side... have them mention that they were told that item was Very Important.

Like any form of DMing/event running... I think it ultimately boils down to just getting the practice and the experience under your belt. You will make mistakes, and that's okay. Hopefully the participants will roll with it and you come out of it all the wiser. Plus it'll give you stories to regale others with later.

And, of course, as with any RP thing. Communication is paramount. Talk with your participants, see what they want to do. See what they don't want to do. Maybe they have an idea for something to happen that could catch your fancy, or maybe they want to run their own little scene that could add some additional flavor and offload some of the pressures on you to lead everything. In one of my events, I wanted to do a three-prong assault on three different facilities, so I had "mini-DMs" in the groups that did their own scenes while I helped from a more managerial position.

Thorbought · **09-26-2017, 04:18 PM**

(09-26-2017, 01:40 PM)undefined Wrote: In one of my events, I wanted to do a three-prong assault on three different facilities, so I had "mini-DMs" in the groups that did their own scenes while I helped from a more managerial position.

This is an important point as well. Anything above 5 people I HIGHLY suggest a separate party. Having 8 people in one party is actually a really bad idea. Your turns will TAKE forever and some people may begin to lose interest. It's also a lot easier to get some good rp going between a smaller amount of people without some people just sitting there and doing nothing. If you have a round 10 people on average, I suggest you run two groups and maybe even three if you have the dms for it.

FC / Dm'ing events and tips ?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes