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Soliciting: DM Advice Questions! (Patreon)

Published:
2023-06-19 02:15:44
Imported:
2023-06

Content

Greetings naddpoles! 

This week's "Behind the Screens" episode will be DM advice!

Looking to try your hand at DMing? Seeking spicier combat or more interesting puzzles? Trying to figure out how much to prep ahead of time? Or how far in advance you need to know who the bbeg is?  In need of advice on rolling with unexpected nat 20's? Regretting giving out too many magic items? 

WHATEVER your burning queries be, the two crew will do our best to answer them and help you have more fun at the table! 

Please submit your questions below!

<3,

The Two Crew

Comments

Ben Wilcox

As a player, and also a basic dm tip, how do I get a good hook for my player. I feel like there's no motivation for my character and I want to work in something in my backstop to have some directive. Any tips on good ways to motivate players?

Anonymous

Do you have any advice on how to voice act male character well for women? I want to learn because I'd like to sound better playing male presenting characters an I like learning new things I can do with my vocals. Hope this wasn't too weird of a question, thanks for reading.

Anonymous

I gave my Druid an item that lets him concentrate on a second spell, with the cost that once the spell ends (either naturally or by breaking concentration), he takes a number of exhaustion levels equal to the spell level cast. The problem is he is very good at keeping concentration, and often summons 16 wolves using conjure animals and absolutely womps everything I can throw at them. What are some creative ways to get around his summons without cheapening the item or just directing every attack against him?

Anonymous

Do you have any tips for running 1-on-1 DnD? My wife bought us a one-shot for 2 players as a gift, but she's never played and I've never DMed. I really want her to get hooked on it, and I worry that my marriage depends on the session going well.

Anonymous

Hey Two Crew, I’m a relatively newish DM but only because my party struggles with a major issue… the issue of finding a time that works together that we can all sit down at our computers and play. We’ve been trying to start a new campaign but can’t get everyone together for the start. I’ve had a few players (the mostly available 1-2 of the 4) day let’s just do 3 and start but I feel like session one is a special occasion that should have everyone. How can I solve finding time to play and do I start without someone? Any advice is welcomed, even if it’s razzing or constructive criticism. Thanks y’all are amazing!

Anonymous

Murph, I love the way that you create stories/hooks around player backstories and their pasts. My PC group is larger (5) and I'm worried that if I do a backstory centric story around 1 players' motivation/focus the others may feel left out. How do make sure everyone feels involved, EVEN when the primary focus is on one player?

AmberDextrous!

Dear Masters of Dungeon: I DM over discord and I recently found out that my players have been googling the monsters I put in encounters and then strategizing in a private group message where I can't see. While I like that they're working together as a team, I hate that they're googling and I hate that the planning is being done in secret. I know the answer to keep them from googling is homebrewing, but I've never done it before and I'm worried about making things too weak or too OP, but I'm sure there's another homebrew question being asked by someone else. My concern is what would normally be table talk that would be in character and more fun and engaging is being done in secret. Is there anything I can do about these surreptitious scheming sessions, or should I just accept this way of gameplay?

Anonymous

Hello incredible 2 crew! I’ve been running a game for over a year now with some incredible players. Due to life circumstances several of the players have had to drop out/can only join from time to time. I have my core three that I play with weekly and we have a blast but I am trying to also make it make sense for the other characters to pop in and out as suits the players schedule. Do you have any advice to do this without disrupting or changing the weekly campaign?

Anonymous

Hello revered DMs and Joseph! My first DMing experience was kind of a wreck, but thankfully, a la Murph, I got new friends and my current DMing is fun and not weird and uncomfortable. My partner and I are in a GREAT D&amp;D group where we are both players. His work friend and HIS partner really wanted to learn how to play D&amp;D, and they knew my partner and I had been playing for about a year with another group of friends. I had never DM'd before but knew the game pretty well at this point and agreed to run a one-shot for the four of us. We had been hanging out with them a lot in the last 6 months and for along well so we had high hopes for this hang. I was nervous for my first time, but I was like, "hey, what's the worst that can happen?" It started out really fun (the gal is an English teacher so she had a wonderfully interesting backstory) but within about a half hour, the guy, let's call him Derek, and his partner, let's call her Jessie, were getting pretty toasted. Derek was playing a dragonborn fighter, and he reeaaallyyy started fixating on how big his dragon dick was. Now, I'm entertained by this kind of humor (I passed the dragon pussy test in C1E1, after all!!), but he then started like.. flirting/HARASSING Jessie's character about his giant dragon cock. And like... it very quickly turned into every time I was giving a description, answering a question, or roleplaying and NPC, Derek would somehow make it about his mad dragon hog. This was their very first D&amp;D experience, and I wanted them to love it, so at first I just lightly laughed and moved on when he did this, but it PERSISTED and ESCALATED. Eventually NPCs were not he helpful to him as a result, I was a real Ernie to him, and tried my best to scooch the session along, and my partner was trying HIS best to help me scoot the story along. Soon Jessie was rolling around on the floor with her dog (honestly jealous) and hysterically laughing at Derek's antics. My boyfriend and I just ended up sort of staring at each other like "literally wtf" every 15 seconds as Derek only talked about his character's dick the whole time. Not only did this make it hard to play the game, but I'm a chick, and I was getting pretty uncomfortable with him drunkenly yell at all my NPCs about his schlong, because it was turning into like thinly veiled details about his and Jessie actual sex life??(!)? Anyway WHAT WOULD YOU DO in the moment? How do you say "this is the WRONG VIBE" without totally being a fun-killer? It was a grueling evening. We never played with them again, and truth be told, we also never hung out with them again either. Derek was really trying to get us to go golfing together and then play another D&amp;D session the next weekend and we were just like.. nah. Yours truly, Doomed by Dragon Dicks

Anonymous

Two of the players in my current game are the friends that initially turned me on to NADDPOD. They just started Campaign 3, so I think it would be amazing if they heard my question in a few months a few months and realized it was about their campaign.

Anonymous

Oh great DMs on high, I beseech you how do you deal with a party without any healers. I have the rapid quaffing rules that allow potions as a bonus action but three of my party are very bonus action heavy (a rogue, ranger, and two weapon fighter) and the other is a fairy warlock who fights from at least 100ft away if they can. I don't want to seem like I'm making a dm pc by forcing a healer on them or hold back with my combats as I briefed them in the session 0 that it was a tough world and suggested a full caster healer but they made their choices anyway. I am especially worried as they are nearly at 5th level where they'll start to get some real battles and monsters. What would you do?

Anonymous

Hey 2 crew, I'm a relatively new DM, and what I love about being the DM is all the cool scene-setting I get to do and NPCs I get embody. I've always found Murph's tendency to make his bad guys say stupid funny shit hilarious and genius😂 it makes what could be a boring combat, lively in a way that doesn't need complex mechanics. Any advice on how to engage the Players in a fun way without erasing the stakes and the tension of the combat? Thank you, I love you all♥️♥️♥️

Anonymous

What are some tips you have on setting up encounters specifically combat encounters and being able to navigate the fine line between too easy and TPK. I’m a relatively new DM and I am trying to get a better balance in my encounters so that I can make the stakes clear but not have to change the HP of the 5 knights that ambushed my 4 level 4 PCs (granted they have some home brew items so not necessarily only level 4)

Anonymous

Dear Dungeon Grand Masters: How do you manage prep burnout? I love the campaign I’ve built, my players and the story we’re telling together. The yet to be revealed lore and what the future holds excite me but for some reason when it comes to actually putting my thoughts down on paper, it feels like I’m trudging through a quagmire. Any advice to get me more motivated to do the boring behind the scenes part of dming?

Anonymous

How can you encourage players to be invested with the game? I am running my first game and I've have conversation with players about what they want for their characters and I incorporate back story stuff from time to time but I still have some players who don't seem to care as much. Is their some way to avoid an awkward conversation or do I just have to bite the bullet and actually talk to my friends about my feelings? Thanks for the help

Anonymous

(Intro free 2023) How do you plan how many sessions will you play in a campaing? Do you plan everything from the beginning including the amount of sessions? Do you set a limit and a minimum? O do you just go with the flow of the campaign and just take things one session at the time?

Anonymous

Oh wielders of dice and fate. I come to you with a simple problem. I have an issue of my players not noticing plot hooks left in front of them. They will, however, fabricate hooks from meaningless throw away comments I make, causing me to scramble to follow this new plot instead of one I have prepared. Should I stay on my toes and roll with it or try to have a heavier hand in plot hooks?

Anonymous

Dear Dearest DMs - do you have any advice on pacing? Both for long term and shorter campaigns. How many sessions should there be between each big story beat? How do you plan filler that still feels relevant and related to the campaign? I'm running two games right now: a long fantasy epic that will be around 100 sessions, and a murder mystery that will be much shorter and I'm trying to figure out some of the long term planning. Thanks so much, Two Crew!!

Anonymous

I am a new DM who listens to a lot of DND but hadn’t played much before now, and I’m really loving it. NADDPOD is my favorite DND podcast and so I have been playing theater of the mind style, but I just watched A Crown of Candy and the mini minis used in the war scenes really seemed fun. For my next session I was thinking of using these as the party attempts to navigate the trenches of a now finished war, but I’m concerned that switching from not using them at all to using them seems like it could be challenging. Any tips for getting into using minis and making battle maps for the first time? Thanks a ton!

Anonymous

What’s the best setting to start a new campaign? Big city with lots of options to avoid railroading, small microcosm like Moonstone, or small town with a few problems as a prologue to the main story? Some other sweet spot? Help.

Anonymous

Do you have any tips for balancing difficulty of encounters for a party that likes different challenge levels? I have players who like hard, punishing encounters, and some who want easy, low risk encounters, and some in the middle.

Anonymous

Trying to plan a one shot but have only ever run published campaigns. What info do you plan ahead of time for a one shot? How do you organize it for easy reference?

Anonymous

Hey sweeties. I have a bbeg in my sci fi campaign that the party knows personally and I want him to be menacing and a threat without starting the final fight early and whomping them. How can I flaunt my cool bad guy without starting a very one-sided fight with them? Thanks and love the show :)

Anonymous

I'm a new DM running a table for my girlfriend's family where one of the people is not able to make it close to half of the time. We have just been canceling whenever there isn't all four of us able to play but I'm considering running something separate with just two out of the three players instead on those times when they can't make it. Do you have advice whether to attempt something in the same world but in a separate locale / time period or to run some totally different small campaign or even game system? I don't want the third player to feel like they are at a disadvantage or something from not experiencing more of the lore from the world but I also think it would be fun to jump into the feywild with different characters

Anonymous

Dungeon Master, Duncle, and Daunt; How do you balance critters that you give your PCs? I am running Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and I gave my party Secret of Mana-esque little sprites, and I am at an impasse to balance them. Making them lil creatures that would assist was too strong, but I am worried that treating them like wonderous items with a passive buff might be too boring. Any assitance would be greatly appreciated. Cordially, Trev

Dicky Special

🐺I’ve just started DMing for the first time. The entire party are newbies too. Our first session went really well, bulky wigs were murdered and a plot was discovered. I’ve created the first few sessions as sort of prologues to the main campaign so that everyone has a chance to learn the rules and have quick fun before they go into full character creation for the main campaign. This weekend they’ll all be playing lvl 2 casters doing an apprenticeship initiation to an adventurers guild, like a college hazing for frat boys, I’m slowly building the world around them based on the characters they make each time we play and stuff they say and do. Which brings me to my question - Werewolves… I want em in the game and I’m trying to work out a good way of doing it. Assuming your PCs are up for some werewolf action, how would you implement it? A loving and thankful awooooooo, rickytickets x

Anonymous

Hi, I am DMing for the first time this week. Most of the players are new as well, and I only knew one of them before we had our session 0. We are playing a one shot, but plan to continue if we will like the game. When discussing characters, one player decided to play a wild magic sorcerer who was outcasted from his family and village for his magic (Fia vibes). This has made him hate people and a bit evil. I am worried this might ruin the game for other people involved, especially if the game turns into a full campaign. Do you have any advice to deal with such characters.

Brother Alder

Hey there centaurs! I’ve DMed 4 sessions for a group of 7 new players and I have yet to drop a single player. My players feel invincible and I am tired of being whomped - what can I do to ensure my encounters have stakes?

Colin Davis

Hi - I was wondering if you had advice on how to apply “classical” improv training to this format? I feel like a lot of the improv classes I’ve been too rely on a bit of structure or others “playing the game” but obviously in D&amp;D that’s not the case. So wondering how best to apply it? Or what skills are most applicable?

Anonymous

What are your best tips for DMing familiars?? Do you tend to take the lead on their level of involvement or is that something you leave up to the players?

Anonymous

Hi guys - how do you handled mismatched energy at the table? Right now I'm running a game where I have a player who keeps telling me they want a fun plot for the character but simply won't invest any time in D&amp;D outside of the session day. As a result, they often forget about important details unless reminded by me or the party, even if it's something as special as a custom spell I designed just for them. To be honest, it's become a little disheartening. My other players are fantastic, and this player is great when I don't invest much time in their character, but then I feel like a jerk for prioritising the others who spend time planning with me in the off week. How do you balance being fair at the table when your players won't meet you halfway?

Anonymous

How do I make my NPCs feel more like individual people? Whenever I come up with NPCs on the spot that don't have big story relevancy or Some Bit that makes them memorable/funny they just end up being some guy. And in the end I have herds of just some guys in my world that even I get mixed up.

Anonymous

Hey DMs, and guest Ify, how do you deal with insecurities about stealing plots from other shows/media for inspiration?

Anonymous

Hi! I’m curious to follow up on something Ify mentioned in the last Dungeon Court Episode: that he plans the circumstances of the local, global, and universal moment for any given game. This has already changed how I’m looking at big-picture planning, so I am wondering: for all of you DMs here: how do you approach the broader goings-on of your overarching world planning for Bahumia, Evermourn, or Trinyvale? How do you personally tie in what is happening further afield of the players to the immediate circumstances of the sessions you run, and how much do you bring chance (dice rolls) into moments that are happening outside of the perspective of the characters? Thank you so much!

Anonymous

What's a good way to make combat more interesting than just roll vs roll? Murph uses a lot of really interesting environment mechanics and I'm curious as to the process of crafting the rule sets and balancing of something like that.

Anonymous
>>111033396

If it's not too serious a game, you can at least partially address this with a running gag of very similar related people who pop up everywhere, or even one guy who gets around a lot.

Anonymous

Like in Eldermourne, I have a homebrew campaign with only a few gods in the Pantheon. How do you make Clerics and Paladins fit into this while still keeping the subclass flavour alive?

Anonymous

Hi 2Crew, I've been using some of the sessions I run with a couple of friends to not only discover the world and the backstory of the characters. I've been adding in some life coaching as well (with their consent, of course). This means all of the PCs have some kind of experience or habit that they struggle with. These are taken directly from the players - it's something they'd like to learn more about, or deal with as well, such as wanting to be more assertive, feel more confident, or wanting to try out leadership skills. As the DM, I write encounters in which the PCs are either confronted with what they struggle with, or get to practice with new skills they want to learn. During those encounters we can at any time introduce a time-out and step out of the game, or stop with the encounter. Likewise, we can rewind time in-game a bit, so the players can retry the encounter. Listening to your episodes, I got the feeling all y'all aren't the biggest fan of life coaches, but I was interested in your thoughts. I feel like the fantasy setting creates an ideal safe environment for people to play around with new behavior. So, what do you all think?

Jack Mehoff

How do you go about convincing someone else they should DM? For my various friend groups I have been the forever DM. In one campaign we are playing a modified curse of strahd campaign. In between sessions one player will often message me with detailed notes and suggestions about how to expand the world and the lore. I think they might enjoy DM-ing a campaign of their own for this friend group. Selfishly, I really want to finally play as a PC, and managing two campaigns is hard. How can I go about convincing this player they would be a great DM?

Anonymous

Dear Advice Mice (or Dice, for the theme) TLDR: How do you handle a split party that INSISTS on staying split? I run a homebrew game for 4 friends of mine (we weren't all close before we started, but have created a really solid party so far). A few sessions ago the party split four ways, with three of them arrested by the military and one trying to recruit the local gang to help the rest escape. However, what this means is that for the past three sessions, I've been having to run individual vignettes for each player as they've ignored the others and attempted to escape on their own, pursuing the personal threads I've left to keep each player interested, even when I've given them several opportunities to come back together. It seems that they have been enjoying it so far (I get compliments after every session and other players seem engaged even when it's not their scene) and seem to have no interest in trying to return to a full party. It's great they're having fun, but for me this means 4 times the planning and 4 times the writing. So I ask: how do I keep making sure the party has a good time while also secretly bringing them back together so I don't have to keep over exerting myself? I await your advice!

masterofmerc .

Greetings oh wise and powerful Lore Lords and amazing guest. 3 years ago I got a crew of friends together to play a 5E home brew campaign which i was DM for. We had a blast with all of the crew telling me they were loving the game. After 2 years I finished up my story and one of the PCs says they want to DM next. At first I was excited to get to play a PC but that didn't last long. He insisted on staying in the world and story I created but 100 years into the future, taking the lore i had set up and drasticly changing it. NPCs have no voices, he never changes from his normal day to day voice and when encouraged to do voices just says yeah im working on it. Im having trouble getting into the campaign because he says things like "I'm an amazing story teller" while destroying the lore I spent 2 years building. The NPCs are one dimensional and obvious. No one but the current DM is a wrestling fan but we have spent litterly session fighting Hulk Hogan, Rey Mystero and Kevin Nash, not NPCs based off them LITTERLY THEM!! How can I encourage my new DM to do voices, tell a compelling story, or just plain stop throwing real life wrestlers into a high fantasy setting I spent years crafting?

Anonymous

Hello oh wise ones. My husband and I want to play but every time we get a group started it falls through. So we decided I will dm a game for him . Amy ideas how to make it fun and satisfying for both of us?

Mikkel Voigt

Ohh Wise Murph, I have found that my combat encounters quickly become quite dull, and it can be hard to make something that feels thrilling to my players. Because og some spirit guardians and ansestrial baberian stuff, my bad Guys cant do to much. What can i do to Spice things up without killing my players?

Maia Costea

Salutations, Poles of the Nadd! My party insists on giving a whole life make-over to any NPC who has the smallest of struggles, from fixing roofs to healing all possible ailments, painting fences, cooking and cleaning, mending their relationships etc. This is sometimes very cute and wholesome, other times it derails so much that it consumes the whole evening, it seems like they want to save the world one individual at a time. It all comes from a good place, but I find myself making indestructable well-balanced badasses just to progress the story and move on from dialogue without "opening the sidequest of fixing their problems". How would you deal with this situation? I like my friends and their PCs attitude of wanting to help, I just need a solution to streamline quest giving / information gathering.

Anonymous

I DM for my sister and brother-in-law who are both massive role players, meaning that sessions can go way off in new directions that I didn’t expect (e.g. they once performed Shakespeare for a bunch of Kobolds, and excelled on their performance checks). What is your advice for having to pivot on the fly, and react to these wacky roleplay sessions I couldn’t have possibly prepared for?

Anonymous

Greetings! I'm fairly new to dm'ing - I've been running a homebrew campaign for some friends and want the party to start fighting some cooler bosses. I know that lair actions and legendary actions/resistances will be necessary, but I have no idea how to balance them in conjunction with the bosses' primary actions. How do you know if it's too much or not enough? Thanks!

Anonymous

Did you all participate in TTRPGs as players before trying your hand at DMing? Do you think, in an ideal situation, all DMs would be able to be players before being DMs? Or are the skillsets so wholly different that it really is up to the individuals' interests and passions?

Anonymous

How do you get your friends to be willing to try D&amp;D? I’d love to start DMing but I never know how to “sell” it to my friends and get them interested in playing.

Anonymous

Hello wise crew of 2. I am a somewhat new DM (off and on for 2 years) and I find my encounters are too easy or people come close or actually die in game. How to make the encounters memorable, fun, but difficult. Not all the time but for a bit of challenge

Anonymous

Hello to the 2/choo choo/blue? Crew Long time dm with a long time question. How do you incorporate spell component. I love what you guys do on the show and only use it for big spells, but my players are gluttons for punishment. They want to stop at stores and forrige in the woods for things like, spiderweb silk, and stop at every shop keep for a consumable pearl. I'm not used to it, and honestly have a hard time preparing and trying to keep track of everything. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Anonymous

Hello, to the sages of NADDPOD and their ring leader Murph. I am a relatively new DM and I am trying to provide experiences for my players' characters to grow, but I am worried about turning my players against me. The best (and most recent) example is that the party recently beat up an NPC because his stutter was fixed, and this NPC is supposed to be providing them with their rewards from a previous quest. My gut reaction is to tell them, this NPC doesn't trust them with these more powerful weapons, because what else are they gonna do to normal people doing nothing wrong? But yanking their new shiny toys away might be sending them off with a more than bitter warning. I lay my DM skills at your feet, so I may grow and get better. PS, I actually started playing D&amp;D and became a DM because of C1, and this is my first campaign, so y'all are amazing.

Anonymous

I've got a dragon's hoard of questions and I'm hoping you can answer at least one of them! (Listing in order of desire to get an answer) 1. How much of the world do you build before session 0 or 1? Is it easier for newer players to have a broader fleshed out world that they can create characters from, or does it make more sense to build communities around things that come up in their backstories? 2. How does the possession of magical items affect encounter building? (Example, if you have 3 level 15s with +2 weapons, how does that affect an encounter classified as Hard?) 3. What are some good resources for building puzzles and traps? 4. How much backstory should be incorporated into a campaign for each respective character? Are these choices based on conversations with the players about exploring backstories, or is it better to surprise them?

Tralan

How do you get in the mindset of RPing during or right out of combat? I find myself not inclined to speak at all when I'm running combat because Im helping players, calculating what the most reasonable move would be etc etc. When a player cracks a joke, it's hard to move myself out of Excell spreadsheet mode into joke mode.

Anonymous

Hi you omnificent DMs, and a wave to the absentee player jacques (whom I hope is having a great time in Fatherhood) I have found myself a few times in a situation where various players try to hog the spotlight, and have repeated character moments. While I am all for everyone getting their moments in the sun, I'm curious to recieve your thoughts on how to diffuse the spotlight when a player repeatedly pulls the light in their direction?

Anonymous

How do you balance different play styles in your group? I’m a first time DM with all first time players and we have a mix of people wanting to play serious fantasy and some who want to be really silly. Do we just need to split up into separate campaigns? 😂

Anonymous

How do you make sure you balance encounters? Also how do I get both myself and party more comfortable with role-playing the characters?

Anonymous

Hey Murph! I am DMing the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragonqueen module and am having some trouble. There is a section of the story where the players go out on missions but it really feels like go on mission, do combat, come back. Rinse and repeat. What is your best advice to spice up combat and encounters besides just including more monsters or higher CR monsters? Trying to make it a challenge and engaging but not accidentally wipe them on a side quest.

Anonymous

Murph: Do you have any advice for spicy combat mechanics to keep it interesting? Sometimes combat in 5e seems like swinging at bags of hit points, and I love the mechanics you put into your fights, so any suggestions for resources to look into or inspiration you use would be greatly appreciated!

Anonymous

How do you determine how long your adventures will take in terms of number of sessions? Im running a homebrew spelljammer campaign using the original D&amp;D rules and the first adventure had my party crash landing on an unknown planet, forced to find a way off. It was supposed to be a one shot but took twelve session, hoping for brevity in the next adventure.

Anonymous

Hey Murph, you always create really interesting and engaging non-combat encounters and I wondered if you had advice on this. I'm running Curse of Strahd and my players are about to have a session where they are being chased through a town by Vampire Spawn, but two of them are slower than the enemy. How could I make this fun and give them ways to escape without them just immediately catching them.

Anonymous

hello! I love D&amp;D but am also excited to explore other gaming systems. Do you have any advice for shifting between them or running multiple campaigns at once?

Anonymous

In your opinion(s), what is the "better" campaign structure for casual play: having a singularly focused end-goal with set-pieces that advance the story akin to NADDPOD, or an episodic monster-of-the-week story that you'll maybe ret-con an over-arching plot onto later?

Anonymous

Hello hullo, nervous not-yet dm here! I have a story that has been percolating in my brain for years now and I'm eager to explore it with my core dnd group. The trouble is that I have ideas for the big plot beats, but no clue about how to start the dang thing or run unassuming sessions without glaring "Look At This Plot Hook" moments. Do you have any advice on how to focus in to play rather than plot?

Anonymous

How do I get my players to take more initiative in the game? Lately I've been trying to design more open ended games for my players that emphasize their freedom over linear adventuring, but I've hit a snag in that they often need a lot more of a push then I thought they would. I offer them something like the classic dnd puzzle of a normal locked door and there will be a moment of pure silence followed by a wave of anxious waffling and proposing things that could happen without anyone ever stepping up and saying "I do the thing" or even agreeing that a thing needs to be done at all. This extends to other areas as well, from choosing travel destinations, what they want to do in town, what quest they want to take, I want them to take big swings but outside of exerting too much control over their actions I'm not sure how to do that, so from one of the more chaotic groups I've seen how do I encourage them to aim higher

BrethrenBlev

What’s a good way to come up with interesting friendly npcs? I’m good at the evil and grey morality characters but a flat out good characters always fall flat in my games

Anonymous

I'd like to have a more or less open world where players are free to pursue what they want, but I am cursed with diligent and receptive players that will leap headlong into the first story hook I throw at them. I love them for it, but it does lead to more linear play. How do I encourage more player decision points and agency at the table?

Anonymous

How do you help your player make choices in combat? I have a player, good at rollplay, vibes with the party, all good. Except he never knows what to do during combat. I've considered like making a flow chart for him even but I thought that might come across as rude and also seems like a ton of work to make something comprehensive

Anonymous

Our DM (my daughter) is moving to Canada to pursue her PhD, so she will be a bit busy for the coming years. She got us hooked on DND while in lockdown, and I am intimidated by the DM role. Any tips for beginning DMs? Web research is one thing, but I would love your advice since your approaches to DMing are the models I would like to follow. Thanks for any advice you may have.

Anonymous

Where do you start when creating a campaign?

Anonymous

Do you have tips on avoiding main characters? I have a player that has contributed a lot of ideas for their home and backstory that has influenced the world (similar to Emily and the crick). One of my players, who plays an orphan with no knowledge of their early life, expressed that they feel the other player’s PC is the main character. Do you have any tips on how to balance characters feeling like the main character when some players have given you more inspiration/collaborate more than other party members? I have told my players that the more they give me, the more I can work with, but some players engage with that more than others. Thank you!!

Anonymous

What are some good prompts to give players when they are creating PCs to help them create richer characters that can interact in interesting ways.

Anonymous

What do you decide to write out during prep, in terms of dialogue, exposition, etc? How much is improv? I find myself having trouble doing more than jotting down short notes about what characters know, or a general idea of a location.

Anonymous

How do you deal with power gaming players without limiting their options, I don’t have a huge issue with players wanting to feel strong but when they are impossible to hit and can all dish out high damage it’s hard to balance things

Anonymous

Question about interesting encounters and combat. I am a big fan of the encounters where the typical rules of combat are a little different, such as the Eldermourne fight with the big worm in front of Lord Scythe. The worm could attack an entire quadrant and movement was from one quadrant to the other. However whenever I try to run something similar, where something like what individual space you are standing on isn't that important, my players immediately try and break it or argue that the encounter shouldn't work that way. Sometimes they have creative ways to deal with the situation and gain unforseen bonuses and advantages but other times the game comes to a standstill as my players try to find ways to completely negate the encounter as I set it up. If they are escaping a rock slide (similar to the one beneath iron deep in campaign 3) they might argue by holding a shield over their head they shouldn't take damage from falling rocks. Overall they are great players but they are constantly looking for ways to completely negate any damage or negative effect from encounters and me giving them small bonuses like disadvantage to hit them or resistance to the damage isn't seen as enough. I love the creativity they show, but I think there are some situations they can't completely negate, or solutions that don't really work as well as they think they should, and it can be a bit frustrating to have every new encounter I set up come to a stop because the players look for the exact way to break it. How can I get my players to adapt and engage with new encounters without them feeling like I'm taking away their creativity or them completely trying to negate the encounter I've set up?

Fearne Pérez

Hail and well met, fellow adventurers! I'm dming my first campaign after all my players from a one shot voted to play longterm (which is a high I don't think I'll ever stop riding), but now I'm starting to come up against all the mistakes I made in my first round of enthusiasm when I planned the one shot. The biggest issue I'm having is I basically generated an open-world city with dozens of plot-hooks, pages and pages of npcs, hidden locations, grudges, and gossip, and drama, etc, and then I, an ADHD dm, set my three ADHD players loose. The good news is they keep asking to play more often and really seem to enjoy exploring theatre-of-the-mind-Skyrim, so they're definitely not bored or annoyed (yet). To try and narrow the focus, I introduced a bullshit countdown to force them to go finish the one shot and give me time to figure out what I'm doing with the rest of everything else, but even then, I ultimately had to break character and ask them to finish the one-shot before trying to overthrow the city's power structures for fun. So, given that I already fucked up by throwing way too much at them at once, how can I start to narrow down the field and start creating space for emotional depth and not just fantasy fun time overload? Also, how make plot out of shiny details? Thanks so much, I love having y'all in my week &lt;3

Anonymous

Hoe do you balance encounters around the player's various classes? I am unsure if I should be just making an encounter based off of their level or thinking about what they're able to do specifically. Mostly I want to avoid not allowing them to whomp me with class abilities and have the fight to just be "you hit the enemy with your weapon/cantrip and deal x amount of damage" and then move on to next in initiative but in the same vein i don't want to have a combat negated entirely because i didn't account for something like a monk's stunning strike. I love the way Murph designs his combat encounters because of their variation and aim to match that style.

Anonymous

Hello wise tribunal. I'm a new DM (also first time playing D&amp;D - yikes) running the 5e starter set for a group of friends. We're keeping it casual, but everyone created really cool characters so I'm attempting to weave in pieces of each character's chosen backstories to improve connection to the campaign (and to satisfy my own desire for worldbuilding). Everything's going pretty well, but one thing I could use some advice on is - how can I make my players less horny for every NPC without making the NPCs dumb or terrible? So far they've all got the hots for the aging knight, the cleric of Tymora, even the less important of 2 shopkeepers in town who now is going to meet them for a drink at a tavern where I'm planning ambushing them with some baddies. It's very fun and funny but I also have to play some of the NPCs as realistically offput by my party's very obvious and awkward flirting, resulting in some NPCs are getting too skeeved out to share crucial information before peacing out of the convo. What should I do? Pull up uglier drawings of each NPC on the screen when introducing them? Make every NPC too nice to shut my party down (making them bad with boundaries and self-esteem)? Just keep treating my party realistically until they learn some manners? I await your wisdom.

Holton Hester

I am in the process of DMing a campaign for a podcast called Reality Check (not released yet). I’ve been DMing for about 5 or 6 years now, but I’m sure DMing for something meant for consumption by an audience is different. Do you have any advice for running a campaign meant to be listened to by others?

Anonymous

Hello! How do you create intro scenes, or the very beginning sequences when the players are interacting as their characters for the first time? Or for the start of a new 'arc'? I keep running mini-campaigns and I have struggled every time.

Anonymous

What's your advice or preferred methods for handling a party that likes to split up? I DM for a party of 3, and they split up all the time! I don't want to discourage them from doing their own thing, because it's often a very fun way for the players to develop their characters. But I don't know how to best keep everyone engaged. Do I give each person a certain amount of time and rotate between them? Go all the way through one person's mini-story before moving on? I don't have time to do one-on-one mini-sessions with each player so they can have my entire focus, but I'm not sure what else to try.

Aiden

am i (Male 19) the asshole for threatening to kill myself whenever my party isnt paying attention. (p.s. it does work)

David Silva

Hey gang! I've been DMing for a few years now and really started to hit my stride thanks to this show in particular. You guys showed me how important and satisfying it is when the players take the reigns and how to build a world that reacts to that. Since Murph has been doing a great job with combat encounters, especially this season, I was wondering if you had advice for how much information you should give to your players when building complex encounters. How much can happen behind the scenes and how much should be explicitly stated? Like if there's a big boss monster who spawns little guys that can escape the battlefield to harm NPCs, how much of that mechanic is overtly stated? I find things like time limits, multiple part traps and threatened allies outside of combat are hard to nail down in terms of what is fun to know and what is fun to find out after. Any advice is appreciated. Love you guys and everything you do, dipspit included.

Anonymous

I’m starting my first campaign soon! I have an overview on how I want the first session to go, but i’m nervous about being too restrictive on the players- how can i balance making players have plenty of agency while not getting thrown off by curveballs?

Clemming

Murph is fantastic at running familiars and companion NPC's, how do you juggle having multiple NPC's in a scene to have them feel engaged with what is happening without stealing the PC's spotlight?

Anonymous

How do you map out and track overlapping quests/goals especially at the start. In C1 the intro was so packed, barbarians, bullywogs, kobolds. In your prep are these nodes on a mental map? Does each faction have lots of detail or just rough outlines. To me that density is one of the things that makes your world feel really alive, and I’m eager but intimidated to emulate it.

Anonymous

I was a first time DM and homebrewed a monster to be the final boss of the one shot I was running. Since I’ve never done that before the encounter ended up being much less dramatic/intense than I was planning. The payers still enjoyed it, but I feel like I could have done better. What are some good ways to make monsters stronger on the fly that isn’t just giving them extra hp?

Anonymous

Hey gang! First time DM here, just wondering how to make cool and badass npc’s without overshadowing the PC’s!

Anonymous

Hello Gang -1 Jake, When you are entering a new room or setting is there a framework you use to set the scene / describe the space (e.g., always describe visual space, sounds, smells, then characters)?

Shakespearmint

Howdy, to some of my favorite souls on the planet! Got to see y'all in Nashville last December and it was the highlight of my year(except for the birth of my niece).

Anonymous

I’m prepping a high level one shot heavily inspired by the Whimsydale area in Diablo 3. I’m hoping for a casual, goofy, chaotic energy. Any advice on how to bring that energy to the table?

Anonymous

Hey guys, I'm DMing for my partner and two other couples and I want the world to feel really open like they can do whatever they want to get them to play creatively, but sometimes this leads to extremely long discussions about the best way to sneak into a building and I can see some players getting bored. What's the best way to keep everyone engaged and reel in these conversations without making the players feel rushed or like they haven't had time to consider all possibilities?

Anonymous

Almighty DMs, I am trying to write a five-shot for some friends to get my DM feet wet. In addition to combat, I want to make some fun non-combat or game style encounters like Murph does. For example a jousting tournament where you have to hit the opponents AC to hit them, then they have to make a dex save to stay on their horse. I'm worried about setting those ACs and DCs. How do you balance non-combat encounters?

Anonymous

Hey 2 Crew. I’m a reasonably new DM for a table of reasonably new Players. I am trying to help them create memorable characters by making them the forefront of the story. My main issue is I am unsure how much give and take there is when it comes to character arcs (like Moonshine and the family stuff in the Crick) I want to keep things a mystery and throw them into it for some RP and off the cuff choice making but I also don’t want to take too much liberties with a character that isn’t mine. I humbly await your advice.

Anonymous

Hiya gang, I've been DM'ing for about 6 years, and BBEG's are a huge problem for me. I try to avoid deciding that sort of thing before we start the campaign, because who knows where they story can go. I have a general idea, and as the story goes I flesh it out more, but when I finally "figured it out" in this campaign, it felt...shallow and random. How do you balance not overcommitting to your BBEG too early so they aren't out of touch with the story, with having them establish enough of a presence that they seem grounded and justified in the world? I feel creatively unsatisfied, as the more I flesh this villain out the less I like them. I feel like I have this problem in every campaign. I have a problem making satisfying bad guys. Not everyone can be a mustache twirling evil type, you know?

Anonymous

Hi guys, all my campaigns so far have been centered around an idea such as an inescapable tower or a forgotten prison and growing the campaign naturally from there based on PC interactions with the world with a little bit of extra planning in the background. Lately I’ve been writing a sort of timeline for a world with different character interactions along the way leaving things open for major events if they were to happen. The plan would be to drop PCs somewhere in the world at the beginning of the timeline and letting them explore and interact as they want while still having a general plot move the world forward only revealing to them things their characters would interact with. The hesitation I have is the potential dreaded “railroading” accusation that could happen if they’re not focusing on the plot. I don’t think the players I play with would think that way but it’s such a change of pace. What are your thoughts on something writing plot like this and how do you feel when playing in a campaign where the DM moves important behind the scenes plot forward without you knowing. Or is this just normal and I’m way overthinking it…. Thank you for your time and love listening to the show.

bibibirdy

I’m a new DM running a game of Strixhaven with a group of 9 players who have either never played or only played once before. Character creation was a little confusing with the special rules in Strixhaven, so at 1st Level, most of my players are overpowered, especially the spellcasters. Is there anything I can do to mitigate this or should I just accept that my players are going to womp me in every session.

Anonymous

I’m new to playing D&amp;D and ended up being the DM in our group bc the only reason they’re playing is bc I begged them to play with me 😅 My group is comprised of my husband, my brother and his wife, and my sister. I actually have really enjoyed scheming up some plot points to go with the characters they came up with. I’m excited to play more, but we’ve only played twice and now it’s been 3 months and everyone has been busy in spite of me asking for availability and trying to set dates. I’m concerned they don’t actually want to play because I accidentally rushed some of the story/pushed an NPC into a situation to solve a problem (broke them out of jail in the first 10 minutes🤦🏻‍♀️) because I was so anxious they’d get bored and not want to play anymore. :( I know for sure that was the wrong move, but what’s done is done. How do you keep from rushing through stuff? And how do you find confidence in the story you’re collectively telling if it seems like the interest isn’t 100% there from everyone else at the table?

Anonymous

Greeting masterful and experienced DMs, also Jake. I was wondering how often you use the given stats of creatures either as the specific creature or reflavored into something similar to match your idea. How often do you change the hp, damage, or traits to match your vision better for a creature, npc’s as well?

Orla brown

Hey Murph! Was wondering how do I keep my players engaged with the content I’m describing?

Anonymous

Hi duncle, direct messenger, dungeon docent and also jake... I am always a little unsure how much I should plan for any sesh so as not to overplan (and lean to railroading) and also not underplan and have to improvise to much (which will lead to illogical choices...) So my question is how much have you planned out?

Anonymous

Hey Two Crew! I seek advice as a player and occasional one-shot DM. I play in a campaign with my closest friends over discord and it’s going really well. We typically play pre-written adventures that end up including dungeon crawls and generally more wargame-like gameplay. This works well with our group, however, I also enjoy roleplaying and end up initiating it most of the time. I think, generally, the other players are not as naturally outgoing or maybe I’m just way too into character building and improv. There aren’t any problems with our group and I don’t think my friends get annoyed, but I sometimes I can’t help but fear that I come off as having main character syndrome. Do you have any advice for allowing for more organic roleplay with players who like to play video games more than improv?

Anonymous

Greetings two crew and the city pigeon. I’m want to run a one shot with my family and I want to make a cool world for them. But I’m not that experienced with dming so I was wondering if you have any advice on how to start off

Anonymous

My party consists of mostly casters with our Ranger having the highest hit dice in our party of six. I don't mind being a little unbalanced but do you have any advice on making interesting encounters for a mostly caster focused party? Thanks!

Anonymous

Hi NAdDPOD Team and occasional guest star Jake. I am a first time DM for a group of close friends. We recently started a magical university themed campaign with the players part assigned to Greek god themed houses. A lot of our sessions involve role playing parties, courting NPCs and getting up to various campus related shenanigans. My players love this, but I sometimes feel left out of their fun as I have to manage the chaos of their flirting and relationships without a character of my own. Any recommendations on how to make a DM feel more involved in these role playing heavy sessions? Thanks as always for all you guys do!

Katie P.

Hello and greetings! This is question about too many dungeons and bad naming habits. I'm a fairly new DM and I've DMed during a very busy time in my life (just finished Grad School) I started my campaign with a loose idea of where to go, but because of school I lost my thread and just kept putting dungeons under established cities in my game. There are now 5 big cities with 5 big dungeons directly underneath them. This is not including the monsters I've made that are also dungeons (Vah Medoh style). I'm not quite sure what to do with all these dungeons or how to stop putting dungeons under my cities. As an aside, whenever I flounder in naming things or people, I keep defaulting to villains in the Silmarillion and my party is a group of Tolkien nerds. I keep spamming the name Annatar. I need help.

Michael Beck

So this is a definite first world problem but how do people deal with too many people wanting to play? I DM for 3 groups already of my friends and my dad is in one of them and he keeps inviting more people/family. Two of these groups are also 6 people and it's a nightmare to handle that many, when it comes to game balance and making sure everyone is available at all times. I'm just trying to play with all my friends but I'm getting burnt out as DM

Anonymous

Not a question but a plea. Murphy, please write a book and or manual on how you like to set up fights. The CR method never really works for me and my players almost always end up womping me. I know you've talked about it in the past but it would be nice to have something physical to reference.

Anonymous

I have a hard time coming up with motives for my villains, especially BBEGs, because I want them to have valid reasons behind their evil decisions. Do you have any advice on how to make a villain feel corrupt but still make sense why they believe their actions are justified?

Max!

Hi there Murphs and Murphettes, just a simple easy one. How do you give players downtime that feels sufficient while still keeping the stakes high? Especially with the addition of artificer downtime in many games i’ve played + watched always seems to go overlooked in favor of fast paced story telling and plot points. Surely that is part of podcasting and actual plays but what about at home? Thanks for your help!

Anonymous

Do you have advice on balancing letting your players do what’s fun, and giving them a meaningful challenge with tense stakes? A game where it’s impossible to convince a king to change his mind because “in real life it takes a long time for people to change” isn’t very fun, but also a game where it’s possible to roll up to a king and convince him to give you all his money with a silly dance isn’t very fun either. Do you have tips for finding that middle ground?

Anonymous

Hi (insert snazzy group name here of your choice), I've been running a feywild campaign for about 10 sessions or so now with a group found online (but we meet in person), and there is a serious lack of party trust. Everyone's characters are keeping several secrets that's making it hard to advance the plot in a way that makes sense. How do you recommend trying to increase party cohesion/unity and move the plot along in a way that keeps true to the PC's agency of keeping their secrets?

Anonymous

My fiance and I have been hosting a new campaign with some friends (running Waterdeep). We've cooked food for the first couple of sessions, and got pizza for the last one. However, the costs of feeding everyone is starting to add up. How should I push for my friends to start bringing snacks and drinks, without jeopordizing a new campaign? I was thinking of just making worse/cheaper food every week until they break, but my partner thinks we should just swallow the costs.

Anonymous

Hello! I recently started a new campaign set in the world of Calorum. The party consists of nobles and peasants but they’ve all met on a caravan heading to Comida. My problem is that I’m unsure how to give them all a shared goal. I think they’ll travel together no matter what because they know you don’t split the party but how do you usually come up with reasons for a party to stick together?

Anonymous

Greetings Daddy, Duncle, and Docent! Also hi to Tucker and congrats on the baby. As I’ve gained more experience DM’ing, I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the mechanics of the game and making on-the-fly decisions. However, one thing that keeps bogging down the pace of my sessions, and somewhat spoiling the energy, is that spellcaster PCs take a really long time when it comes to their turn. It’s not for a lack of trying, I just find that people get choice paralysis when playing casters, and they spend a long time deliberating over the most optimal decisions. I don’t want to say “hey, you’ve got 60 seconds to make a decision” and be rude and rush them, but I also don’t want my fighter player to wait 30 minutes between taking attacks. Help?

Melissa Shilale

Do y’all ever panic mid-session while DMing?

kerokaze
>>111131469

This is funny, I had a dream about Murph DMing for a lucky "select few fans" that turned into a party of 28. I was along for the ride but cautiously optimistic as that would be at least a 4 hr session with everyone just introducing their character

Anonymous

Dear Magnificent and Wise counsels Murph Emily and Caldwell, I've done some DMing of modules, specifically Candlekeep and Descent into Avernus, but would like to start creating my own campaign. What would you consider the most important ideas to keep in mind while doing this to create a fun and engaging world? I must admit I'll write down an idea for industry or a character or a quest line in the one town I thought of, but the big picture stuff eludes me. How much and what should I have prepared before pitching it to my party? Thank you for the help

Anonymous

Hi Two Crew! I'm a baby DM (just did my third session) and I'm having trouble with balancing encounters. So far even against fairly high level baddies they aren't taking many hits and I don't want them to get bored or worse...try to take over the world. Thank you for everything you do and all the inspiration over the years!

Anonymous

Hey, Ya'll, I recently started a new campaign with my long time player group. The setting is within the same world as the previous campaign, but set on a different continent. What would be some helpful tips for making things to feel connected on a global scale while having the smaller scale setting feel different enough? I worry that there'll be too much overlap in the two settings tonally.

Anonymous

Hola Two Crew! I solicit your advice on timing with my players in our Groundhogs Day style campaign. This party takes a really long time to decide what to do, they do anything for the goof, and often forget the larger threads of the arc. We always have fun but it is hard for me to figure out when to nudge, tell them they have to decide now or let them goof and join a roller derby. Thanks for your podcast! Looking forward to the Denver show!

Anonymous

Hey Two Crew! I'm the DM of a long running game (3 years) that is just coming back from a break where my friend ran his own game for a bit (1.5 years). The five PCs are at level 10 and they just got and airship which they've spent the first few session rennovating and getting a crew together for! The issue is there are a lot of NPCs that my players are having to re-remember since it's been so long since we've played. Between all of the NPC allies helping them and running the new airship crew everything's gotten really bogged down during our sessions and it seems like I'm losing interest with some of my players! What can I do to simplify things or otherwise to make my game exciting again for all of my players? I humbly await your DM and player insights!

Anonymous
>>111132271

I would 100% buy this book!!! Would also love to see the magic items and maybe some encounters or battle maps if you’re feeling extra crazy generous! Some of the creatures/opponents/machines you’ve adapted and changed from other sources? Different puzzles? How to create and run non-combat encounters (or not-fight-to-the-death). All gold! I would pay like, $60+ for that book. I already try to keep notes when I listen to the podcast (especially the short rests), but this would be incredible!!!!

Anonymous

Hello two crew! I'd like to ask of your opinion on a home brew mechanic for Critical successes on attacks. We double the dice rolles for a crit with the exception being one of the Die is automatically set to MAX value of the die. The rest of the die all rolled like normal, and then we add any additional modifiers after the fact. We've been using this in our group campaign a it has been well received so far. Let me know what y'all think! Thx.

Brian Jones

I'm looking for a great way to introduce puzzle mechanics into my game. Overall, I've seen some puzzles just get blanks stared and some solved instantly. It feels like another type of combat and was looking for some advice on how to effectively add in a puzzle or two into a dungeon but not go all tomb of horrors. Thanks Two Crew!

Victoria Beck

How as a DM do you solve pacing problems when they come up? (Seen home games grind to a hlt with this, usually bogged down with a lot of little "well this needs to happen first..." and everyone feeling a bit stifled, and the shakeup to improve pacing isn't obvious)

Anonymous

I'm currently running a homebrew with a group of friends. They've all kept their backstories fairly vague so I can incorporate a character arc within the overall story for each player. Everyone loves to roleplay...except one gnomish artificer who looks as if he'd rather peel his own skin off than roleplay with the rest of the group. My question is how do I give this gnomish fellow a satisfying storyline without making him roleplay extensively? Is it possible or am I doomed to just watch his character remain stagnant and never progress outside of stats?

Anonymous

Good day band of boobs! I am DMing my first campaign and my players made two mistakes, I informed them about one and let them ret-con a long rest before a fight. they had forgotten they lost a lot of spell slots and hp before fighting because our sessions were weeks apart. the second mistake was weeks ago they fought and won a battle to stop the bad guys from taking a magic item they need to protect. however, they promptly left it exposed and moved to find the next item they needed to protect in THIS WEEKS session. should i let the BBEG take advantage of their forgetfulness? about 9 hours have passed in game since they left this item unattended. thank you! awaiting your flawless advice.

Anonymous

I am starting a home brew campaign next week for a few of my coworkers and it is my first time ever DMing. I’m a little worried that I don’t have a solid enough plot to make a whole campaign - I have a lot of world lore but I’ve left a lot of the story open to see what makes sense for the characters and their personal arcs. I don’t want to railroad too much but they are all brand new players so I want to give them enough structure to get started and so the campaign doesn’t fall apart story-wise. How do I make a campaign with a consistent and engaging story without railroading my players too much, especially for a whole group of first timers?

Anonymous

Hey Ryan Turphy, I have been DM’ing for a couple of years and I get stressed whenever session time comes around. Do you have any tips for breaking the pre-session butt-clenching, anxiety to prevent the grey hairs from growing in faster?

Anonymous

Dear DM’s Extraordinaire, Last fall I started a campaign for my son (12) and a few of his friends. Long time player, it was my first time DMing. The English teacher at the school caught wind, and asked if I would be willing to start an after school DnD club for about 10 kids, staring next school year. I suggested instead of me DMing such a large group, I would coach several of the kids while they DM for smaller groups of their peers. I’ve settled on using a “mercenary guild” scenario, which offers a lot of flexibility, and I can have the kids help come up with some of the ideas, but from there I’m concerned I’ve gone a little wild. The potential is to have a new “episode” every couple sessions with the opportunity for players to swap out characters (essentially playing other members of the same guild), rotate the players between the two or three dms to change up the groups, but have each group playing through the same scenario. This seems like a lot to ask of new DM’s, but sounds like a lot of fun and I’m not sure which part to reign in. Help! I’m still kind of a beginner dm myself, am I crazy to even attempt this? What would you do?

Anonymous

Dear Dungeon Master, Docent, Dunkle, and Jack who will maybe give it a shot one day, I often have the problem where my players only adore NPCs that don't matter to the story, are clearly villains, or are made up on the spot, which is fine and can lead to some really fun roleplaying, but when I introduce an NPC that is plot relevant or explicitly wants to help them, my players become extremely suspicious, lead them carelessly to their death, or are outright rude to the NPCs. For example: last campaign they pursued a cult of escaping warforged after the warforged performed a public execution. Not to bring them to justice of course, but to help them escape and join their murderous cause against living beings. But when the Druid NPC who's helped them twice before is trying to protect her people from a massive sentient ooze while they escape from being trapped in the underdark, 4/5 of my players agreed they "wanted to push their way through the crowd of people so that they can escape first, Costanza style." The kind Druid who had came to their aid was then left behind to die underground, even though two PCs had healing magic and could have easily saved her. So I ask, how do you design plot-relevant NPCs that the party will actually like and want to keep around? Or on the opposite end, villains that the party hates and strive to defeat?