Do you want your players to ask you to describe every object in a room and then ask to loot every single one of them, one by one? Because this is where it begins.
A solid amount of annoying player habits are learned behavior from annoying DM habits.
"I have darkvision!" the player shouted because of that one time the DM narrated something happening that wouldn't have happened if the player's darkvision was accounted for.
Yeah, tbf as a rookie DM there is a LOT of little things like that you kind of have to think about and figure out how to deal with them. It's easy to get lost in minute details and technicalities.
If the group travels somewhere do I calculate how long it takes? Do I put in random encounters along the way? That's what it says in the book. Should I make them hunt? Buy supplies before leaving town? Do I make them take turns staying awake like I've seen in Critical Role?
I've never played before, how should I instinctively know what is fun and what isn't?
Using Critical Role is a bit unfair as they have players who are insanely good at improv and are professional actors so it's easier for them to slip into character and stay in character.
Even the Mighty Matthew Mercer would not be able to run a good game with a table that has disengaged players with the "I am the Main Character" mentality.
That aside, you should know what your players gravitate towards.
Some like a narrative driven type of game, others like a simulation based games.
If they like narrative games, only use planned encounters and they get to their destination at the travel time of your discretion.
If they prefer simulation, check the distance between the start and destination, compare against travel time (and consider their methods of travel), rolling encounters recommended by the source book.
And yes, some of us prefer simulation based play. We even keep track of encumbrance, rations and ammo. There are dozens of us. Dozens, I tell you.
I always find myself fluffing out my character with more random pocket items than anyone else. I love the old adventure stories when mundane items come in clutch in a pinch
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u/Win32error Jul 29 '24
Do you want your players to ask you to describe every object in a room and then ask to loot every single one of them, one by one? Because this is where it begins.