I don't care about any form of election, just let me watch my Minecraft.
Sorry, some election advertisment interupted the video that I was watching. Anyway, so I thought I should talk about a few things. The first thing is an article I just read on the interwebs. 5 Ways a Dungeon Master Can Ruin A Session. First way, not knowing the rules, standard. I may not know all the rules, but I try my best. I do go on the internet to search certain things up, but I know the basics. Not owning the table is one way. Now, being the Dungeon Master for a game means more than you think. Yes being the DM means you run the game, you control all the NPCs (Non Player Character), you control all the enemies in a fight, and you help your players when they need it. But, that is not all. Owning the table, for example, is not something a lot of people think about. Their are some players that are not interested in the game at certain times, or they are drunk, high, or any other word for a someone wasting their time doing something stupid, such as smoke weed. Anyway, there are those types of players that crack jokes, tell random stories, or talk. They take time away from the game and to something not relevant to the current situation. For example: Your in a really intense fight. One of your friends are currently making Death Saving Throws (they are holding onto life with the tips of their fingers) and they other three people are trying not to die. Your at the end of the story, fighting the final boss. Major story elements have gone to play, and you are waiting for the troll to end their turn so you can go break a crystal that will allow your team to harm the boss. And the person next to you, during the Trolls turn, starts talking something stupid, starts to tell a dumb story, starts cracking unrelevant jokes and really not funny, offensive, and racist jokes. And the DM doesn't do something, they just let this happen, and it then forces your turn to happen 30 minutes later. And this is the 50th time this session alone. If the DM doesn't say anything to bring attention back to the game, then that is the DM ruining the session. only becasue he didn't own the table. Now if the DM says something to force that person to stop talking, such as "If you don't shut up I will instatnly kill your character and you will forever be banned from my sessions." That is an example of something the DM could say. Now I'm sure their are a lot of better things to say, but that was just the first thing that came to mind. That is an example of owning the table.
The third thing is the lack of preperation. I prepare for each and every session I do. I prepare the possble fights, the routes, and every other thing for preparing for a session. Now a while back I was writing something for the story of the Cult of Hatoath, James made a comment on how I "Over prepare" for a single session. He's never been a DM and I'm a new one, but only after...6 or 7 sessions I know that I need to be prepared for nearly everything. I need to set possible side quests, and the results of the players actions to the world. I have to prepare those sort of things. Well, some things you have to think on a whim, but if you are a new DM or an old one, you need to prepare. I know most DMs know this, but others don't. They don't care about that sort of thing, or they put it off to the last minute, and never do it in the end. You might not have time, you might not be good at it, or some other excuse. What I have to tell you, make time, your scedule
does not need that random thing your doing Friday night, what was it agian? Take a three hour nap. You don't need a nap if you sleep for 8 to 9 hours a night. Use that nap time to, not nap for 1, but use it to prepare for your next session. And if you're not good at it, then do it anyway, the more you do it, the better you do it. It's basic. Everyone gets better the more they do something, just practice. You'll always need it.
Another way to prepare for a session is to prepare the next sessions story. Let's say you are DMing a game and your group did something you didn't expect and shortened the session you made and they want to play more for that day. That then means that you have to make stuff up for this world. One way you can prepare for something like that, just make a basic little story that would follow this thing that you did. For example: You are DMing this sort of one-shot story. Your group is only going through this large dungeon that you spent hours making. It's a tower filled with many puzzles, many monsters, and mind racking riddles. The goal of this tower is to get to the top and kill the witch. But, instead of going through the tower, your group climbs up the side of the tower and kills the witch quickly. That then took less than 30 minutes, and if they went through the tower it would have taken them 4 hours. Thus making you think up something else for the rest of this session. Now sure, you didn't expect that, but then again a dungeon can take a random amount of time. It could have taken them and hour, or 4 to get through this tower. Just of insurence you could have made a little story to take place after you kill the witch at the tower which would then take the rest of the session time. That's a way to prepare for something you ddin't expect. So world building, even a little is good for preperation.
The fourth thing was not knowing your group. There are a few ways this can be taken. You never meet the people you are playing with and you don't know how they will play, or you know them, but you don't know their characters. Some games don't start until the players tell the DM what their characters would do, but most start with the DM not knowing what their players are going to do. Now, DnD is a social game. If you don't know your fellow players ona socail level, this game is perfect for learning who they are. So that would be how you would get to know your players on the social level. Now the more often thing is that you won't know what your player's characters will do. So let's say your DMind a new campaign. You have three players, so then that three characters, they could range from Honest Do-Gooder that only ever want to save the random person on the street and would give every Plantum piece they have to the homeless to a Murder Hobo that kills every thing that moves, and every thing in between and around. The likelyness that these three players will all make Murder Hobos is really slim. Their is an endless amount of characters to make. Ecpescially with Homebrew as an option. That makes it endless. Now, the three characters are as follows: Elain: A Rouge that would rather talk their way out of any situation. They have high Deception, Persuassion, Performance, and Insight. They have pisspoor Strength and Dexterity, they have high Consitution and Charisma, and relitivly good Intelligence and Wisdom. They prefere social iteractions rather than combat. You also have Bran: A Barbarian who loves to kill. They love to be the center of attention. They have high Strength and Constitution while everything else is lackluster. They love combat and would rather skip the dailouge and get to the point where he is slaying Goblins and saving the princess. Then you have Tiben: A Wizard taht would rather learn about the world around her than fighting. She has high Intelligence and Wisdom along with Charisma. Her History and Religion checks have Expertiese. She doesn't really like combat, but knows that it must happen if she is to learn more about the world. She is smart and loves puzzles and riddles. Those are your three characters that you will learn about as the game goes on. But, it is best to learn about them in the first session rather than the first few sessions. So learn your group, both ways if need be.
The fifth and final way is not setting a regular time. Now, DnD is the type of game where it would be best to play with each player, but it is up to the DM to adapt to each player's schedule to set the date and times for a session to take place. Now you can set a time once a week, or even twice a week. But if you are setting the time at randoms times, such as you do one today, then you have the next one in three weeks, then the next session is the day after that, then a week later, that is not a regular time for a session. Now having one session a week or every two weeks, now that is good. You can skip a week if you so need to, but at least try to have a session every week or so. That would keep your players looking forward to the next session and able to go to it. But if you make a session at random times, not all the players can be there. Like I said, it is best if you had all your players in a single session. Now, this is hard in itself, escpeaicially when your players all have jobs. That can be hard to work around, unless your players all have their day offs on the same day. That is a bonus. But as the DM you need to be flexible with your schedule. So being an author is a good job to be a DM you really work on your own schedule. It flexs with your mood. It molds to what you do. Like me, I really write whenever I want to. For example, I wrote for 2 hours yesterday, and 30 minutes today. My writing schedule doesn't exist. Authors get their inspiration from the random things that happen in a single day, and the things that happen over time. Being a YouTuber is another job that sort of flexs to what you do on the side. Well, being a YouTuber is good if you play DnD. Just record your session, edit the footage, give it some form of music, give it the audio, and you got a video. Those two are the only jobs that come to mind for being a DM *cough cough* the things I plan to do *cough cough*. But I'm sure their are other jobs. As long as you can flex your schedule to the schedule of your players, your okay. But if you can't, well, I suppose you need to
get rid of some things. But that is up to you, not me.
That took 1921 words, and that was the first thing I wanted to talk about. Wow. Anyway, the second thing I wanted to talk about is Update #281: October 23rd 2017 3:28 am Why Must Every Word Be Capitalized?. It came to my attention the other day, and so I tried to read it. Focus on tried. I've tried to read that Update three times now. First time, I could hardly get past the first paragraph, mainly because I know what it has. I bursted into tears within a 30 seconds of opening the Update. The second time it took at most a minute before I bursted into tears, this time, only 30 - 45 seconds. I can't read it. I don't know how you can. If you have read it before. If you haven't, I personaly adivse you to look the other way, but read it if you wish. I can't read it, something inside me does not want me to read it so I will listen to that thing. It's not a voice, more of a feeling in your gut. I will not take it down, nor will I ever take it down. I don't like taking things down, I only really do that if I look back at it and it doesn't sound like me. Sure, there are sitll those Updates that don't sound like me, but they fit perfectly into the puzzle that is me. I took down a Update I made the other day, mainly because I hated it. It didn't sound like me, to me. Not to mention it was stupid, and looked like something completly different. I will not take down Update #281 ever. It has been a big part of my life, and to take it down would be a form of suicide. I'm sorry, but it would be. Taking it down would be, in a way, wishing I was a different person, and trying to force taht change onto myself. Which, in a way, would then kill the me that I am, and force me to be someone else. Honestly, part of me wants to copy and paste said Update then print it and frame it. It would not be a thing that I would keep on my desk at all times, but I would hang it in my office or put in on a shelf in my office, along with other things. Now, I know that sounds insensitive, but it's the honest truth. I wouldn't show it in a vidoe, and I would try to avoid it, like I do now. But, it being their would then tell me that it is there, and it will not go away. Same as every other thing you and I do. It sticks with us even if we forget it. Other people may not forget it, thus having it always there. Now framing that Update is a large step in a random direction, but it would then keep me true to myself, and to who I will be. That Update is not going anywhere. Most of me would rather die than take it down, to be honest. It's a large part of who I am, and it will always be. From now on I will tell you if I take down and Update, or plan on taking one down.
The third thing I wanted to talk about is my current publishing schedule. Not these Updates. These Updates are sporatic and random. I'm talking about my books publishing schedule. Currently the books that I am working on is PE (Pure Energy) books 1: The Beginnings of War, and 2: Faint Destiny, and ASH (Ashenfere) book 1: The Cult of Hatoath. I'm also working on multiple other projects as well. Such as the Time Line of events for the Pure Energy universe, and random little stories for PE. Now, I have a schedule here. Let me look at it. Ah, here we are. Here, this is my current plan for my books.
