Creating suspense in a game session is a matter of creating risk for the players.  There are several kinds of risk that are valuable to different players.  The most common is danger to the characters, but other kinds of risk can also be important.  Loss of riches.  Potential gain can also create suspense.

Once you have decided on a type of risk, then the level of risk needs to be set correctly.  An overwhelming risk – such as a Red Dragon at level one is overwhelming and feels more like insanity than suspense.  If the risk is too low again it doesn’t feel like risk.  Typically the risk should feel slightly beyond the capabilities of the party.  Something that will cause a stretch for them, but which will be worth it in the end.

Presenting the risk in a meaningful way is also very important.  The presentation must be geared to the players as well as the characters.  Different players value different aspects of the game.  Some appreciate the excitement of combat – others like mysteries and role playing.  Present the risk in a way that appeals to the various players in the group.

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Ok, here’s a tough one for more experienced players. So many times you get set to start a new campaign, and it turns out to be the most boring session ever.

DM: Your all in a tavern in a village in the hills, and you hear a rumor about a treasure in a dungeon.

It’s the cliché of all clichés. And as a player, I got bored of it pretty quick. One of the first things I learned to do (as a player) was to ignore whatever background glop the DM tried to feed me and proceed with my own antics in the inn and/or village, thence forcing the DM to come up with all sorts of nonsense on the fly. Now would be a good time to mention that many DM’s don’t like me as a player.

The point is I got bored. Bored players are dangerous players. They are dangerous to themselves, each other, and the DM, and they can wreck a session fast. Worse, they can wreck an entire campaign.

So, start things off with something original.

I generally run a weekly game, and when starting with a new party, or even with just a new character, I give my players a deadline, usually a few days before their first session to provide me a bit of background for the character they will play.

Guess what, 99% of the time they do absolutely nothing.

Which is why I proceed to give them a background. This is usually only a paragraph or two of information, and I try to keep the character specific stuff to a minimum.

Now, if you happen to have oodles of time, you can do a little pre-role-playing with your players. This is generally done individually, and is something I like to handle through instant messenger or email. It allows the player to ask some generic questions about the opening setting, and gets rid of much of that boring opening monologue.

Now, when you actually start the session, remember it is ok to start the party separately. If one character is in the town guard and some of them are just passing adventurers, then one or the other won’t have much to do for the first bit, that’s ok. Tell them to sit tight and you’ll get to them. A word of caution. DO NOT do this with a new player (either new to the game or new to you). Get them involved immediately. But if your group has played together before, you know who you can put on hold and who you can’t ignore.

Here are some alternatives to starting at the inn and overloading with monologue.

• Start them in the dungeon. (Was the party captured? Are they in the king’s fortress that is being assaulted?) There is nothing like a captive audience.
• Start them out in combat. No, they don’t necessarily have to be on the same team. Keep on the Shadowfell calls for an opening kobold ambush. What happens if that ambush is the start of the game, and the party is approaching the ambush from different sides and the players don’t know each other to begin with? Nothing grabs your players’ attention faster than opening the first session with the two simple words “roll initiative.” Then place their minis for them and off you go.
• If you don’t want to be so forceful, you can try grouping the party together in a way that makes sense. Two of them are town guards, one of them is the village priestess, another runs an apothecary, and the last was just attacked by orcs on the way to town. Together they join up to help this poor soul out.

The point is to be as imaginative as possible. Do your best to avoid that slow time during the first session where nobody really has anything to do.

And as always, have fun!

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Have you ever heard someone talk about a past gaming session and say “that was an awesome monologue the DM gave about his character in dnd”?

Um, neither have I.

I have already written an article about spicing up the initial session. Today I’m talking about the rest of the sessions.

As a player there are several things I don’t really remember very well, or that I remember as bad things.

* Monologues
* Pointless Puzzles
* Minions
* Room Descriptions
* Other player’s characters (most of them anyway).
* Names of useless NPC’s
* Things my character didn’t do.

Today I’m dealing with that time during the session where you want to share your new creative writing attempt with the party.  You’ve spent weeks (months? years? decades?) developing your cool campaign. You eschew all pre-made material. You have a child born of your thought and you finally have a chance to deliver it.

And all those stupid players can think about is phat lootz.

One of the hard parts about being a DM is that most of what you do nobody will ever see, hear, or care about. So try not to get frustrated when nobody wants to hear you tell a story.

The players aren’t there to hear a story. They are there to DO things. To act and be acted upon. The memorable moments come when they get to kill a particularly nasty foe or make a daring escape. When the party is being stalked through a dark forest and they manage to lure the enemy out and finally crush it, that is memorable. Hearing the DM’s history of that haunted forest and how it was once controlled by an irrelevant long dead noble who now has nothing to do with the campaign is not usually as much fun.

As a player I really don’t care, not unless it really does have to do with the campaign. If that noble is now a lich controlling a cabal of evil druids then yes, I want to know. However, I think I would rather find out in a meaningful way. A scrap of a history book rescued from a fire and handed to me as a nifty handout, or a bit of poem recited once.

If the players want more, they will ask for it. If they don’t ask, they probably don’t feel it is relevant, and that should be a pretty big hint about how you as a DM are doing. If they aren’t interested in what you think they should be interested in, then may it isn’t interesting after all.

Try shifting gears a bit. Don’t be afraid to sit quietly and let them decide where they want to go and drop the relevant hints along the way.

Above all, enjoy yourself!

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