>>22848975
Buy a mathematics exercise book for your maps.

Everything else can probably live on your laptop.

>>22849039
Isn't it a bit hard to go through several docs with info though?

By the way I don't need to have perfect measures for my maps, I've learned to play with approximates when needed for combat and my group is perfectly fine with that.

>>22848975
Are you me OP?
because I am also DMing that campaign with the exact same stuff.

>>22849164
I'm not you sadly, I'm DMing PF so there's a world of difference.

>>22849199
Motherfucker.
Anyway anyone got some good DM tips? I'm new to it.

>>22849213
OP here, I'd also love some advice too.

>>22849115
CTRL+F is your buddy.

>>22849245
Huh, so a doc is enough? What about organizing that stuff?

>>22849213
>>22849244
A much wiser anon once gave the following advice for running a sandbox game, but I feel it is extremely useful for all games.

>Remember three names: Chekhov, Schrodinger, and Samus.
>Schrodinger: Everything exists in a state of superposition, so that at least some specific details are not set in stone until the PCs observe and act upon it.
>Chekhov: Anything given meaningful detail should be significant.
>Samus: If the PCs can't possibly get there now, there should be some way of giving them the opportunity to later on.

>>22849513
That's actually a nice piece of advice, thank you!

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1. Backstories and Character Involvement
Get your players to do some of the work for you. If you have an idea of where the campaign is going, have your players submit some bits and pieces that work with the setting. Your players should give you information about why their characters are in a particular location; what motivates the characters; and (most importantly) if the character is in any sort of conflict or part of some greater quest.

Conversely, tailor parts of your campaign towards your players' characters. If you've got a paladin in the party, incorporate some aspects of social justice that the paladin can really dig on. Create opportunities for your players to actually roleplay, rather than fighting ceaselessly. Play to the alignments of the party, or work against them. You are there to create drama and present challenges.

2. Organization
Write ideas down constantly. Throughout the day, if you think of something cool to implement, write it down. Keep good notes; and they don't even have to be completely thought out. Bullet points can work just fine, as long as you remember what they mean.

3. Maps
Draw some maps nigga. Maps are fucking great. Everybody loves maps. Have a world map (it helps immensely), and town/dungeon maps are even better. A game based on spatial thinking works much better when represented visually.

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>>22849695
4. Use a DM Screen and don't let players bully you
You know what? Sometimes DMs have to cheat because it keeps the campaign fair. Players love it when they roll twenties; but they'll hate it when you do. Sometimes you'll have to fudge numbers in your favor, but you'll also have to learn how to cheat on behalf of the players. In the latter case, it's preferable that the players don't know when you're doing it. Once again, this is not to make the campaign easy; it's to make the campaign fair. The players should feel challenged, but you should also not be trying to kill them; nor should they be breezing through everything. If you're like me and can't roll well, then use a DM screen.

The second point is much more difficult, and will actually involve growing a backbone and telling a friend to step the fuck down. Sometimes a player will just know much more about the game than you do. It happens. Sometimes they'll make ridiculously broken characters that just invalidate everything you throw at them.

And sometimes it's okay to tell those players to stop. This is not as easy as it sounds. You WILL have to do this at some point, and hopefully your friend will be mature enough to handle it. I've dealt with people on both sides of that spectrum, and let me tell you: if a player can't handle changing their behavior for the sake of the game, then you probably don't want them in that game.

If you let the players bully you, the game is over. Nobody will be having fun; especially you, as the DM.

>>22849695
>>22849818
Keeping an eye on this!

>>22849818
>Sometimes DMs have to cheat because it keeps the campaign fair.

Nonsense.

I don't just mean that I disagree, I mean that this is logically absurd. If the referee cheats, then there is no fairness.

>>22849695
>>22849818

God fucking dammit, why can't my shitty DM read this.

Seriously, nigga can't DM to save his life.

>>22849930
Although a DM is a referee, DMing is far more than refereeing. If the numbers are somehow going to fuck up the story you're better out fudging them.

>>22849930
I've been double 20'd WITHIN THE FIRST 5 MINUTES OF SITTING DOWN TO PLAY.

Course, it was funny, because my characters always die like that.

>>22849930
Afraid I have to disagree when it comes to dice rolls. When it comes to other stuff, like how spells work or other game mechanics that the players expect, then you're correct.

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>>22849818
>5. Let the players take the wheel once in a while
People on /tg/ will often complain about railroading, and most of them don't know what they're talking about. It's pretty impossible to play a campaign without following the suggestions of the GM; because if that's the case, why even bother having a GM? You're playing pretend at that point.

True railroading is like being on a World of Warcraft quest. Collect X bear asses; go pick Y flowers; run into that dungeon and murder everything in there. Don't get me wrong, this type of play actually has a purpose, and I'd recommend STARTING a campaign with some hack-and-slash adventure, but after that, it's time to put on your GM hat and start weaving a tapestry.

RPGs should be more than moving your players from point A to point B while throwing goblins at them, and while you may have a grand design which follows from the first dead bugbear to the all-powerful reborn god the players will fight 20 levels later, take a brief moment to listen to your players.

Listen to what they want to do; see where they want to go, and try your best to maintain the verisimilitude of your campaign world with the wishes of the players. You just might find that the best moments of the campaign are when the players are directing the action, and you just tell them what happens. It's the highest point of immersion, and when all of your goals align, that's when you know that everyone is having the most fun. As a DM, I enjoy myself the most when my players are enjoying their characters, the setting, and the story. Letting them direct the action is a natural way to achieve this, just try to keep them from doing overly stupid things.

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>>22849695
>>22849818
>>22850096
I've got my notepad out. Go on, good sir.

>>22849930
>>22849930
A DM isn't just a referee, he's a storyteller. Storytiem isn't endorsing blatant cheating everywhere to ensure the DM's glorious visions come true, he's just saying to slightly raise or lower a number every once in a while when it would utterly ruin the campaign. Because no one wants to die on their way to storm the Big Damn Castle to random goblin number 5.

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>>22850096
>dean25.jpg
>25

>>22850144
Ya, that had me wondering too.

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>>22850144
>he doesn't catalog all his reactions.

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>>22850096
>>22849818
>>22849695
What in the nine hells is this? This is solid DMing advice right here. Who are you? What did you do with the normal stupidity that goes on around here?

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>>22850137
I'll expand on this man's point. Consider, as a DM, your PCs wander into encounter X, which has CR Y. However, because of some mechanical bullshit you didn't work out in advance, the party only effectively has CR Y-5. Dear god, the horror. Wat do? Those enemies are going to be rolling pretty shitty, or your party is going to lose some people. One creates a fun, tense atmosphere, recovering from the brink of disaster on your end. The other results disappoint / straight up angry PCs. As a player and a DM, I'll take fudge over fuck.

>>22850144
Storytiem used to tell us about his campaigns in glorious dean-o-vision. To do this he needs a fuckhueg dean folder.

>>22850230
Get on sup/tg/ and do a tag search for STORYTIEM. He dmed some really awesome campaigns and then told us about them. Advice from STORYTIEM is something of a masterclass.

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>>22850240
I wish I had seen this.

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>>22850137
>>22850092

Think about it this way:

It's boss fight time, and I come out swinging with my big bad creature. There are two ends to the spectrum if I play by the dice:

>HIGH: Holy shit stop the game we're going to the casino now
The party just gets wasted, may even be a total wipe. If we're midway through the campaign, it's likely that this campaign is now over. I just BFG900'd a bunch of characters that the players enjoyed, and ruined the game as a result.

>LOW: Oh wow I can't fucking roll above a 5
The players go apeshit on my awesome creature which was supposed to give them a good fight. Suddenly they're not interested anymore because it's boring. It was too easy, and they didn't enjoy it.

The goal is to keep it somewhere in the middle. Your Big Bad should hit with most of his spells/attacks, but you know what? He should miss too. The players need that. It creates tension, because it shows that while the monster is big and powerful, it is still mortal and can miss. It makes the players feel good.

Consequently, the players need to know that if they don't play their cards right, their shit is rightfully fucked. But if the campaign is too hard, then nobody will want you to DM because you're just being a dick. Nobody spends upwards of an hour making a character to have that character die like a bitch. So you have to make things challenging to maintain tension, but not hopeless.

It just comes down to using your judgement.

>>22850279
Sums it up quite nicely, thanks STORYTIEM

>>22850279
fuck I love you

>>22850415
I LOVE HIM MORE.
GET OUT OF HERE, SKANK.

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>>22850341
No problem!

I guess I have one more thing to add:

6. Death and Consequence
This is probably the touchiest aspect of roleplaying in general. Unless your party cleric is rolling in diamonds, it is likely that death is still very much a thing to your group.

And sometimes characters need to die.

Actions have consequences, and you need to lay down the law every now and then. This is something I've really struggled to learn, and it can be upsetting to players at times. If your players start murdering townsfolk, it should come as no surprise that their actions will draw the attention of the police; or perhaps the military; or a good aligned bounty hunter, etc.

Your game should have boundaries as to what is acceptable and unacceptable character behavior; but these boundaries should not be impassible walls. By all means, your players can ignore them, it is their freedom and right to do so. But there will, and should, be consequences if they do.

Which brings me back to character death. Remember how I said nobody wastes their time making a character just to have it die like a bitch? Most of the time that's entirely within their control (the only time it's not, is when it's up to the dice). Did a player just smack-talk an evil demigod who was kind enough to give the players a chance to speak before murdering them?

Dead.

Did a player decide to face-check a trap or haphazardly wander into a room of thugs?

Dead.

Stupidity begets stupidity, and the more you allow, the more there will be.

(continued)

>>22850541
This. So much this. A lot of my newer players assume that its like a video game, where you can act as weird/psychotic/criminal/stupid as you want and the NPC's don't do anything because they're not programmed to.

Here's what I tell my players: You know in chess how if you take your hand off a piece, there are no take backs? Once you're no longer touching that rook, the move is made and its your opponent's turn. In my games, once I've started to describe the consequences of your action, there are no take backs. The move is made and here's what happens.

>>22850541
>unless your cleric is rolling in diamonds
There go my sides.

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>>22850541
So we also have the concept of a "Noble Death", or when a character goes out in a blaze of glory. A character death can really unite the party around a goal, especially if that character was really well-liked. There's a reason this is one of the oldest tropes in the book: it fucking works.

I mentioned before that your big bad monsters shouldn't just waste the party with a flurry of insanely good rolls, but when creating boss encounters, you should tune the encounter to cause the deaths of 1-2 players. This doesn't mean that players will die every time; remember, players are crafty animals! The only reason they play the game is to succeed against the challenges you put before them. Part of that challenge is accepting the fact that their character might die. And that's the way the game is meant to be played.

But what you need to try to avoid is the "Revolving Door" scenario, where players die so often that the main party is completely unrecognizable from the outset; or one player just keeps dying so often that his new characters really tax the storyline and legitimacy of the setting. I can tell you firsthand that nothing destroys immersion like a player's new character showing up every other week or so to fill the gap that their deceased character opened. It sucks.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way out of that situation, and you'll just have to talk to that player to make a concerted effort to stop dying.

But if there's a point to be made here is that Character Death is an inevitable and essential part of any game: just try not to overdo it.

>>22850714
1-2 players might die

Huh.
Man.
You're a genius.

>>22850714
What do I do if in the party there isn't a cleric (or anyone capable of reviving) and a character dies but in a noble way? How do I avoid making the player roll another sheet?

>>22850714
> to make a concerted effort to stop dying.
It worked with Rasputin. To a certain extent, but it worked.

>>22850751
Obviously righteous indignation. It's the most powerful force in the universe.

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>>22850751
Uh... You don't. The player sobs a bit, and makes a new character.

You can, however, depending on your setting, make the player fight for his ressurrection

>>22850813
Oh! That's actually a good idea! The player goes to another plane and somehow fights for revival! Maybe to the plane corresponding to his or her alignment or with some divine intervention!

>>22850751
Undead, ghost, revenant, plot hook, etc.

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>>22850813
I forgot one detail. If the player is totally gibbed, then he is pretty much over.

>>22850854
So, could I make a character named Creedence Clearwater?

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>>22850854
One good one is the Sims way: make the character win Death on a challenge.

Fighting for revival is a good idea, but don't overdo it: the gods don't like this bullshit. At all.

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>>22850714
>7. The Hardest Lesson You Will Ever Learn as a GM

You probably won't finish your campaign.

From firsthand experience, this is one of the most difficult pills to swallow. It's easy to get carried away in the design phase of a campaign: to plan out literally months of game-time content, flesh out a custom setting, and try your best to provide your players with the best you can offer.

And sometimes it just won't be enough.

Real life happens. Players lose interest. Hell, you might even lose interest yourself. Campaigns survive as long as they continue to provide entertainment and hold the interest of the players, and eventually, things do become tedious. It varies from group to group, but you should try to gauge your group's attention span so that your grasp does not exceed your reach.

Every GM who has ever run a long-term game is well acquainted with this "Player Fatigue", and it is the entropy which consumes even the best of us. The only way to deal with this situation is to take it in stride, save what you've created for another time, and swap out for something else.

But I cannot stress this enough, even if you have to shelf your campaign, SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER TIME. Run it for another group, or perhaps revisit it later.

At any rate, that's all I can think of right now, I hope my advice has been helpful. Thank you all for the kind words, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Best of luck.

(Also, I guess I'll just repeat it here, because folks have been asking about it in previous threads: the swashbuckling campaign I was running has ended for the very reasons I mentioned in this last post. Player fatigue, aside from a bunch of real world problems. However, I am currently working on a complete setting and module for the campaign, which I will be uploading to /tg/ sequentially, if anyone is interested in running this campaign themselves).

>>22850982
*Salutes*

>>22850982
Christ, yes. You're like a PnP wizard, STORYTIEM.

>>22848975
A notebook and some study cards.

never resurrect a character that died in a heroic sacrifice

>>22850982
This is like your dad telling you that a girl is gonna break your heart one day.
And you think it'll never happen, and you think you're prepared... and you never are.
I know that feel bro.

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>>22850982
Been thinking of trying my hand at DMing pathfinder, this oughta help a lot. At the very least, I can kinda brace myself for how much I'll likely fuck it up.

Thanks anon

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>>22848975
>organized

The 5-book system:

1 Master Notebook
Front: PCs/ current interaction status
Back: Setting/ current interaction data
Appendix: Dramatis P notes/ the ref charts

+4 Sub-notebook/ folders:
WHO/ NPCs/ char pics
WHAT/ Items/ treasure
WHERE/ Places/ maps
& WHY/ Encounters/ hand-outs

HTH

>>22851421
FUCKING AWESOME, THANKS!

>>22851417
Expect the best.
But know that it will be bittersweet. Game on, my friend.

Goddamn it, just make three more posts so I can screencap this as STORYTIEM's 10 Commandments

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>>22851704

>8. Excise

>9. Eat your greens

>10. Never use JPEG

>>22851876
good enough.

>>22851876
I wanted to go sleep but then the divine descended and this time around had humor to back up his tales

>>22848975
I keep most of my shit on Google docs, and have my laptop handy at sessions. You can set it up so you can access the documents without an internet connection, so no concern there as long as you write your notes beforehand.

3x5 cards are your best friend ever. I use them for monster stat blocks, treasure details, initiative tracking, tracking enemy and NPC hit points, etc. I pick up color coded ones to keep everything clear.

One thing that helps, if you can manage it, is to recruit a willing and dependable player as a lieutenant of sorts to keep track of things, such as status effects in combat, where they came from and when/how they end. Try to enlist your players as note takers and such if possible, though obviously this requires fairly diligent and invested folks, and if they don't want to or aren't any good that's fine.

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submitted for your approval

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>>22850975
It is probably something you can ever pull off once with a given group, but I kinda like the idea of a PC dying, but then a little side adventure occurs just between the DM and player for that PC to fight his way back to life. Then when the other PCs are surprised to see their friend alive once more, he'll say, "Boy, do I have a story to tell...."

>>22852157
Saved; gonna use this to help myself improve my upcoming Dark Heresy campaign.

>>22852103
>3x5 cards are your best friend ever. I use them for monster stat blocks, treasure details, initiative tracking, tracking enemy and NPC hit points, etc. I pick up color coded ones to keep everything clear.
Yes. This. So many times this. 3x5 cards for monster stats are the best.
They can be kind of time-consuming to make if you have a lot of different monsters and/or are making custom tweaks to their stats.

>>22852508

I actually made custom playing card sized things for keeping track of character hitpoints in Runequest. Fucking insanely convenient.

>>22852103

Yeah, 3x5 notecards are the easiest way to keep track of initiative order and NPC status and HP, I find. You just have to roll for initiative, sort them into a stack, and you can just flip to the next card when someone's done with their turn.

I put the most relevant stats for NPCs on their card and leave plenty of room for status changes and hit point totals. Never needed a player to help with that, though.

Also, another thing I recommend, if you play Traveller: I created my own special spreadsheet in Excel to keep track of changes in my group's ships. That's probably the most work I've ever done as a GM outside of a session but it ultimately saved me an ungodly amount of math.

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>>22852571
I used MSE to make cards for my maneuvers and stances the one time I played a warblade in 3.5. Cards make tracking preparation and recovery and the like so much easier, and I wasn't too impressed with the ones Wizards has up so I made my own.

Someday when I have the time I might make one for all the stuff in ToB and put the set up on MF for other people to use.

>>22852706

That seems pretty cool for a system like DnD/Pathfinder. But it would be absoloutely useless in Runequest.

The main reason the cards were needed in RQ was that it used a limb based hitpoint system.

>>22852849
Well yeah, like I said, it was just for that specific subsystem used for the Tome of Battle classes. Just continuing with the theme of "using cards to track things".

Keep a laptop open at all times, but don't rely on it for all of your information.

If it's 3.5/PF, then you should have the SRD page open for a quick reference.

Notecards? All of them, use them all the fucking time. If it's stat blocks, treasure list, or just what the fuck is in the next town, then you can use them. You won't even need dedicated maps half the time, just a list of "Don't forget, there's an inn with this and this hobo says this when the PCs walk by"

Also, keep a notepad document open on your laptop so you can keep initiative orders organized.

>>22852946

I also suggest using dice to track things. If you've got a bunch of spare percentile dice and d12s/d20s and such they make great counters for stuff like hit points and power points and countdowns. That's usually more useful for players than GMs though.

A while back, there was a pdf that i downloaded that a good anon recommended. It had a whole lot of good tips like speaking from your diaphragm to get the attention of your players. I know this is a long shot, but does anyone know the name of it? i lost it when my laptop fried

>>22853091
I'll bump this

>>22851388
>>22850982
>You probably won't finish your campaign.

Oh god I think this is going to happen to me. We've been running the game for like a year now too.

Tell me it's not going to happen. How am I supposed to do another campaign with the group without getting assmad.

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What you're going to need to do, OP, is figure out a way to travel back in time to say, 1988. Then you're going to need to stop by K-Mart and pick up one of these sweet bad boys.

>>22853414

Its... gonna be tough. This your first campaign?

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>>22853425
Fuck yeah. I'm pretty sure mine is still somewhere in my parent's place with all the drawings and comics I did when I was six.

>>22853414

You've run a campaign for an entire year? That's not a case of 'you won't finish because people drop out' or something, that's 'you're well beyond the point where you need to wrap up the story.'

Don't you want to run a different campaign or system or play instead of GM for a change?

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>>22853414
I didn't mean to get all depressing with that notion, it's just an observation. Just realize that it's not your fault, it just happens. If you really want a game to run long, it's best to space out the time between sessions, and clear your schedules for when you do play.

A game you play for 8 hours every 1-2 months will probably run longer than a weekly game for 2-3 hours. Plus, it gives everyone (most of all, yourself) time to prepare.

At least, that's my experience. However, don't let that dissuade you, we are made of better stuff than that. If your group gets bored of your current campaign, blow their minds with the next one; or let someone else take a turn at DMing while you rejuvenate your creative juices.

The greatest disservice is letting something you worked so hard on go to utter ruin. You'll be doing yourself a favor by ending it with dignity, if that's any consolation.

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Docs work for me.

>>22853496
Yeah.

>>22853568
Well, we tend to meet in spurts, when everybody is available, then have to wait a few months again before we can do things.

I use Masterplan for my 4e games.

how do i get my players to listen to me?
They never pay attention even when crucial stuff is on the line. They also start conversations when it's not their turn.

>>22850096
This. So much this. I'm always seeing people complain on /tg/ about their players ruining their story.

The DM writes the plot, they create the world, they tell the story.

But it is not their story. It's the players' story. If you're only DMing to make one person (yourself) happy, you're doing it wrong.

I think one of my favorite moments DMing is at the end of a very very long campaign that lasted a few years realtime. Just before one of the final boss fights the players gained a bunch of ultimate godlike power and then they went off to fight a massive god dragon. My entire set of notes for that battle just said "The players do something awesome."

I handed them the reins and basically they just told me how they used their newfound amazing powers. One player threw another one through the dragon's eye, another one hit it with a tidal wave, one summoned a storm inside it's mouth. It was pretty great and they loved it. They spent the whole campaign rolling and scraping by on the skin of their teeth (I tend to make very difficult bosses), when they gained ultimate power they really FELT like they had ultimate power.

It helps that I had a great group of players, but greatness comes from trust and you need to trust your players enough to help tell their story.

>>22854582

Ban distractions from the table and be a little more proactive about keeping things on track. It comes naturally to me because I was a substitute teacher for a long time, but if someone interrupts someone else's turn I'll stop them right away (just say 'hey, it's X's turn' right when they start talking) and if important stuff is happening that they all need to pay attention to, stand up and act dramatic about it.

You will lose people's attention if you're doing something that drags on for a while or you're getting your notes in order. If I've got to pull up monster stats or something I say 'give me a minute, you can talk amongst yourselves' but when the game is on, it's like, the game is on. Doing other stuff and not paying attention is disrespectful to everyone else there, so don't be afraid to call someone out on that. It's your job as the GM to keep people focused.

>>22854582
I agree with everything >>22854816 said.

I also have the policy of putting a timelimit on turns so things move at a quick pace. If they run out of time they used their turn for full defense.

>>22850982
Do you keep this as part of a copy-paste laying around? I'm having dejavu seeing this stuff with the same pictures.

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>>22855095
I never copy paste something I've previously said. Especially when it comes to rap battles.

>>22855147
How do you deal with campaign burning out. Especially if it's your first and you are going to play with the same group. How do you stop hard feelings. I know if it was me I would be like "What's the point of running another campaign, you guys will just quit it anyway."

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>>22855254
Ask your players what they want to do in the campaign, and find out what their goals are. Start making storylines based around their characters. If that doesn't get them invested in the game, then nothing will.

I honestly wouldn't take it personally, especially if this is your first game. It may take a while for a group to really hit a good dynamic, but try to play to your strengths. Some people make better players than GMs; others are exactly the opposite.

As to preventing any vitriol if the game sputters out, just take a step back and try to identify the reasons the game went awry. If a player was being problematic, then talk to them about it. I mean, if these guys are your friends, I don't think an RPG is going to tear your group apart.

Just remember that this may be your first game, but it's definitely not going to be the last. If all else fails, jump ship and find a better group.

>>22850541

> Most of the time that's entirely within their control (the only time it's not, is when it's up to the dice).

That is why you should not fudge rolls.

>>22855644
This is why players shouldn't fudge rolls.

>>22855644
That is WHEN you shouldn't fudge rolls.

And even then, Rule 0 is still in effect.

>>22855683
> dying like a bitch
> because of dice

Why is that bad to fudge again.

>>22855749
For the cinematic nature of the game.
If a player asks to use their successful ref save to shove another player out of the way of a dragon's flames, would it be thematically better to
a) That's not how Ref Saves work
b) Okay, [Rolls Damage]. You're a charred pile of dead.
c) "You valiantly shove Avoorn out of the way, just as the fire immolates you [Rolls damage dramatically]. [Bullshit number to put you in negatives but not dead]

>>22855829
Cinematic game sounds like it would be good to fudge though to smooth out anti climatic and lame stuff.

>>22855863
Not saying player death should never happen, just that not all stupid actions deserve punishment.

Man i just started DMing for the first time, (shadowrun for those of you who are curious) and shits already complicated. I've run 2 sessions and so far i have the Bounty hunter and the decker hunting down 2 of the other party members, while one of the 2 party members being hunted is busy stealing socks for an assassination mission (long story). Meanwhile a the 5th party member is about to engage in a coup de grace to earn the trust of an ambitious yakuza boss, which will eventually lead her into conflict with the 2 party members from before who are being hunted. As they have inadvertently shown up on the radar of a number of large crime syndicates and PMC's. The 6th party member is busy literally fighting his way into the ranks of the yakuza group about to be violently murdered, just because he can.

All this because my PCs all have completely desperate backgrounds and lifestyles that would never have them meeting in a normal setting, and i still have 2 more players to introduce to the plot. The things i do for a god damn plot hook.

>>22855959

Why did you let them start from such different backgrounds? If you haven't DMed much you really want the PCs to be a team rather than dealing with all that backstabbing nonsense. You should have them make their characters together and give them connections to each other so they're not heavily armed strangers trying to kill each other from the word go.

If you're going to introduce any other characters, make sure they show up as team members.

I've played in a number of games where the DM has done the 'you all meet in a tavern' opener and one or more players has simply refused to join the group on its quest (or worse, swords were drawn in the tavern, PC against PC). And we wound up trying to hash out the problem for literally hours of real time.

You need to have some kind of match between the characters and their mission. Ideally you should have your players create their characters together and get lots of info about them and THEN make them some plot hooks. If you make plot hooks ahead of time and everybody brings characters they made separately with no guidance or coordination, your game is not going to go anywhere.

>>22856140
Well, this was really supposed to be a oneshot campaign to make up for a lack of players one night, so i let them do what ever they wanted without even having an actual plot in mind besides "YOUR ALL SHADOWRUNNERS!" and formed the story based on their actions. It turns out they really liked the game i ran and role playing their characters. In the end i was stuck trying to get a bunch of characters with no affiliation and for the most part disparate motivations which had pushed them all in different directions, to all jump on the same band wagon. Rather than just railroad the plot I've set up a chain of events to get them working towards a common goal that i know they will likely set in motion with a little guidance from strategically placed NPC interaction.

I'm hoping player number 6 doesnt fuck it up though. He has little motivation besides "fight dudes, be the samurai."