DMing Feedback

[muhaha8]

Alright, the first two events of my Silverpine Forest storyline have occurred. I am looking for feedback from participants! That is all.

[Loxmardin]

I only participated during the first event, and there were a few things that I noted along with another.

Order - It's good to have a set order of actions and turns. However, there's one thing you could keep in mind. Firstly, keep a good list of all the participants so the turn order is never something to get messed up. :3 Chances of skipping someone's turn will lessen remarkably if you, yourself, have the turn order clearly set down before you where you can see it. You might want to consider doing turns in pairs, as well, unless under certain circumstances. For one, it makes the flow of battle and other events much smoother, and it's easier for you and everyone else to keep track of couples in the turn order.

Oh, and another note regarding turns. When the group is moving and they stumble upon something, anything, and they are informed of the existence of something, it's better to let them react to it than sticking vehemently to the set turn order and have someone else act when there's little for them to act upon, and they might not be in range to pick up on whatever clue the previous player did out of their turn. Thus, forcing the turn order in such situations might stall the event or make it awkward for people in the turn order. Since, well, some may experience it as a waste of a turn when there's really nothing for them to do. It's better to let people react out of turn. Just a thought.

YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO FOLLOW ORDERS - Avoid this in the future. Half the fun of some events is finding the way on your own and sidetracking for a moment with an interactive surrounding. Instead of telling people not to go a certain direction, maintain the IC flow and feel by putting up a picture of why going in that particular direction might be a bad idea. And, allow the players to fail their mission. Failure is fun as well and, no doubt, it will teach the survivors some hard lessons for the future.

Keep a plan B. Look over the mission and the area in which it plays out and consider what kinds of things your players might do. Improvisation is a valuable skill, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Try to cover up the "What if?"s before the event starts so you're always prepared to answer the question "Why not?" when someone asks why something's a decidedly bad idea for the sake of the event.

Rolls and counters - Keep in mind the position of your NPCs and how they can realistically react to actions. There was a specific incident during the Alliance event last night that was a little iffy, and that was a Forsaken countering a ranged gunshot when it was a melee fighter. The rolls might fall in importance when the current situation doesn't allow a certain action. The rolls don't decide the ultimate outcome - YOU do, as the DM. Remember that! Numbers are just tools.

And that's all I can think of at the moment.

[muhaha8]

I shall keep that in mind, O' Great Swede. <3 Thank you for the feedback. I did, however, try and correct most of these for the second event. Whilst the first was slightly more rocky, I do believe the Horde event went slightly better.