As you start your new 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons campaign, you call your good old friends you used to play with. You've played with them many times, some of them even being Dungeon Masters themselves. These guys understand the game all too well. They know a Goblin's armor class and overall health by heart. They know which creatures are dangerous and their weaknesses and, though they pretend not to know to avoid meta-gaming, that affects the way they play.
How do you make sure that people who are way too used to D&D can still have a good time while still cꦯatching them by surprise even though they know most creatures, scenarios, and clichés already?
5 Diversi🅷fy Content
Assuming you already know what they usually see in their games (you can ask them beforehand in case you don't), you can intentionally add different things.
If they're used to solving everything with combat, give them options where social interactions may fix things, like politics being a part of the plot. Or you can add puzzle and criminal investigations, among other options where combat will not be the sole solution.
Still, the key part here is that you give them the option to do those things. If your players' favorite part of D&D is combat, then you can't just remove it, even if you put other options. Show them the possibilities and see what they'll bite. If they want to keep solving things through fighting, you can focus on that in future sessions. If they show interest in the other things you've added, you can focus on those.
All that said, regardless of the focus, it is important to vary. If your sessions are just one fight after another, it may make your players anxious because there's no point where they can just take a breather.
4 Ad꧙d Layers 💞
If your party enjoys combat, it doesn't mean simply taking turns hitting one another.
You can add something else in the combat that makes things more intense. Perhaps a weak hostage NPC can be easily killed, demanding the players to be careful. There might be a special Ma🅘cGuffin (an item that moves the plot forward) being tossed around, with one of the enemies trying to escape with it. Or you can simply have enemies taunt them and ju♓st talk during the fight. They can get emotional, or threaten downed players to raise the stakes.
Puzzles can also have multiple layers, requiring multiple actions to solve them (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:and you can find a lot of those onlinꦺe). Do whatever it takes to prevent the solution from being too straightforward. Just make sure it doesn't get overcomplicated as well, so your players won't get stuck on the puzzle (you can give hints if they do well on Intelligence rolls).
3 🌼 ꦰ Re-Skin Things
Well, your players may have already fought a mighty Beholder, but have they ever fought a duck who "coincidental๊ly" has the same stats as a Beholder? Jokes aside, you can "hide" monsters from the manual by just giving them a different look.
Not only will that disguise your creature, but it's a fun way to catch everyone off guard. You can put what seems to be a regular man who just so happens to have the same stats as a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Death Knight for instance, and you ಞhave a powerful enemy rea꧂dy to shock your group.
If the creature's type doesn't match, for example, the aforementioned duck with the same stats of a floating head with multiple eyes, you can adapt the sheet to fit its new form. You can make them constantly flying too, or just give them regular and swimming movement for instance. And all of that is just the tip of what you can actually pull off...
2 Homebrew
You know what your players have never fought against? All the weird monsters you can make up. By using official content with slight alterations, you're pretty much doing your homebrew already. And with that, you can take it one step further by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:creating something from scratch.
Whether it's a monster, a dungeon, a city, or a whole species, you can make something unique that your players won't find in any other scenario. Use as many references as you can and take your time. Designing your creatures is not easy, after all. But creating your monsters will give your world something that is entirely yours.
You can also do the same with stories for your campaign. Even if they're a mix and match of books, movies, or series you like, you can add details you find fun and add your spin to it. It can go from a small city dealing with people's issues, to adventures in space and time. Not even the sky is the limit here.
1 💫 Get Them Involved In The Story
People often say the DMs are the storytellers, but that is inaccurate. You alone don't tell the story, otherwise your story would just be a book. The story told is shared by both you and the players, and they should create as much impact as possible.
Give them as much control of the situation as you can. Even if they use such control to do odd or evil things, let it all happen and simply create proper consequences. Let them attack the Captain of the guard if they want to, and you can start a nice on-the-run story arc with that. The more they see they're influencing the events, the more immersed they tend to get.
If they wrote backstories with multiple characters and issues as well, make sure these things come up in the story. Saving a loved one, receiving help from an old friend, people seeking revenge for what the player did in the past. You can always involve these details in the plot. And who knows, maybe two or three players have the same baddiel involved in their business, and they just don't know it yet. Just don't make everything arbitrarily connected to avoid weird conveniences, and you should be good to go. Approach each of their stories and see if and how they could be intertwined. If joining them is not an option, then you have multiple quests stored, which is also nice.
Plus, if you can't put their stories together at first, remember the consequences aspect mentioned. For example, imagine your group has a Wizard and a Druid. Perhaps the Wizard's enemy failed to kill him because of the party, but this enemy realizes the Druid also has her own enemy. These enemies can meet one another because of the party and join forces. It'll connect the dots, make your players more involved, and show them their consequences affected their enemies' approach as well, all in one choice.