Well, its done! I DMed for my group of friends - which includes Steve, the dude who has been DMing for us for the last... 10 years or so...

I had not DM for adults in a loooong while. I had may reasons to be nervous and nervous I was.

Forget sharing narrative control, forget... in fact - just plain about forget anything I had planned!

For the last few weeks I have been carefully retooling "Kobold's Keep" to run as a prequel to "Scepter Tower of Spellgard".

I had NPCs prepared, hooks for the adventure, hooks for side quests, fights traps, etc. I was near over prepared.

Once I got with my buddies, I eventually nervously plunged forward in the narrative.

Overall, I'd say the day (and night!) was a success - I planned on playing a few rooms of the Kobold keep before we call it a day... we ended up playing nearly 8 hours straight! I must've been doing something right!

I'll go on ahead and tell you of the plot and my mistakes and what I learned. But let me tell you first of my only real big mistake of the night:

 I kept on telling my players about my mistakes.

I can blame it on my nervousness or lack of assurance for this particular task. In retrospect, seeing how they liked the game, I guess I can cool back down and roll with the punches silently. I don't need to have the special feature "director's comment" track turned on all the time, don't I?

All the players (all 6 of them) had - for their own reasons - been hired to protect a merchant caravan, going from Waterdeep to Athkatla and stopping in just about every village or city that could be a good spot to sell or trade wares.

Somewhere along the road, during a stop in a rather small village called Albercott, the caravan leader is informed by the town chief that some of his citizens have been kidnapped on the road up ahead over the last few days. The caravan leader sends for this hired adventurers to make sure the road is secured. The chief also seizes the opportunity to try and convince the adventurers to look into the disappearance of his citizens.

This sounds good here. But I actually had to... uhm... do a flashback and "readjust the matrix", so to speak.

The game started strong with Steve playing a dark human spellblade... who happens to be a devout follower of the Raven Queen - the goddess of death. His character started with a strong personality and positioned him as the de-facto leader of the group.

This placed me in the situation of not being able to rely on the good-natured intentions of the players. Luckily, Steve allowed his character to "follow the railroad", provided there is a good reward at the end for his troubles.

I didn't feel like the players were hooked in the story at this point, but they played along. Our ranger, Rolen quickly found some kobold tracks and traces of a kidnapping and rapidly led the group near the entrance of the Kobold Keep.

They were getting ready for Area 1 from Kobold Hall, which I left pretty much unchanged from the original (added a critter for the larger group).

Tomorrow: Area 1

Talking with some buddies - and realizing that I'm starting to stress myself out with that stuff for no good reasons - I've come to the conclusion that I need to start a bit simpler.

I like ideas, concepts and game design and I must absolutely be careful not to drown the game in them. And since I have never DMed for my group before - and haven't DMed for adults in a while - I need to take things a bit slower.

I've decided to revamp the scenario I ran my group of kids through on their first game - which, itself, is a revamping of the scenario found at the end of the DMG.

I've made my players aware that I want to help them come up with compelling reasons to go see an Oracle - which would be one of the big rewards of the next adventure.

I told them I would ask them what they would ask the Oracle once they reach level 2 - by which point, we'll probably be going for the Scepter Tower of Spellgard.

In the spirit of trying to prevent railroading, I have to say that maybe we'll go for the Oracle and maybe we won't. I might change the reward at the end of the tower... I might even remove the Oracle entirely. Anything can happen, really.

For now, I'll start with this simple scenario, which I will spice up and tailor for my group. Sharing narrative control will happen in this scenario in the form of not-so-subtly probing for PC's motivations. These motivations will shape how I'll tweak the tower later on (provided I don't get the boot and revert to player before then :P).

I've taken a hint from one of the previously mentioned buddies, ChattyDM, and decided to relax, remind myself its a frienldy game between friends.

To which I add: I'll try to choke the game by forcefully cramming in concepts (such as sharing narrative control ...)

In the vein of one of the things what makes ChattyDM's game super cool, I'll also try to find interactive and non-combat elements to add to the scenario.

If I come up with anything worthwhile, I'll share it here :)

I'm still working on prequelling "Scepter Tower of Spellgard" and I'm figuring out that I'll have to mostly improvise through the scenario.

My objective is mainly to help my players develop their characters story-wise and find a motivation to go to the Oracle.

I used to be good at improvising as a DM, but I haven't done so in a while and have been thinking about methods to help me there.

An idea started to form when we were playing Munchkin Quest.

I liked how the dungeon was built randomly, how events and monsters where arriving randomly... My mind wondered a bit about how this could be applied to an improvised DnD game.

Dungeon building can be handled easily with DnD tiles - or just plain stealing already crafted dungeons. Internet seems full of perfectly good dungeons to steal from.

What I figure would be interesting is to have a pile of "event cards" the DM can draft from randomly when the pace slows down to spice up things.

I figure such events should not necessarily enormous, but be potentially engaging enough that the players might want to explore them.

Provided we take for granted that these events can happen in a dungeon. Perhaps these cards might clues of what to put in a room?

Here are a few idea templates I had:

• Characters. NPCs that come and meet the party. They might be friend or foe. The description could give a few role playing tips (a quirk, a distinctive physical feature). They might have a little story - potentially driving towards a small quest. Or maybe just people to interact with.
• Items. They can be found or just mentioned. Perhaps they are required for something to happen in this room?
• Traps. Pretty much self explanatory. A trap might require an item from another room (hopefully both described in the same card).

I feel the idea has some merit and might help on those times when the DM didn't have enough time to prep something up... or just needs some spice to add to a dungeon.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this - and I'd love even more to hear your suggestions on what random tidbits you'd like to put in a dungeon...

I'm currently working on making Scepter tower of Spellgard mine and getting it ready to run my players through it.

One of the core issued I always find myself confronted with is actually motivating the players to actually go for the prize.

In case you didn't know - no huge spoiler here - the prize at the end of Spellgard is to have a question answered by a rather accurate Oracle. The adventure suggests that you talk to your players at the beginning of the adventure to find what question they would ask, serving the dual purpose of motivating players and giving you time enough to come up with satisfying answers.

I find that it is hard for most players to have a good enough feel for their new character to actually have motivating questions to ask.

Since the module starts with players level 2, I figured I could come out with a small free-form adventure to bring them to level 2. A good opportunity to practice sharing narrative control, while we're at it...

The prequel's main goal would be to help develop the characters and find some rewards they would like to gain. Of course, a visit to your friendly undead neighborhood Oracle would put the players on the path to the reward.

Since I'm planning to go at it mostly free-form (random dungeon, prepared encounters), I need to build a list of potential rewards that can be suggested to players... including hooks into the tower adventure.

Rewards could be:

• A powerful magic weapon
• A powerful mystical spell or ritual
• A holy artifact
• A famous, hidden treasure
• An answer to a family secret long forgotten
• etc.

Introducing these element through NPC discussion or even through treasure can be an interesting way to gauge player reactions and plan further development.

I am also working on a team of competing NPC that will go for the Oracle for their own needs. Perhaps my players will hear of them through the initial scenario.

So, what do you think about these ideas? What other type of rewards do you think your players would go for? What other ideas do you have that could have them rushing to the nearest Oracle? Help me build up that list :)

Sharing narrative control requires a set of skills that are not too different from the skills used in theatrical improvisation (a.k.a. improv).

I've done a bit of improv in my younger days and I wonder if and how the "rules" of improv can be applied to DMing.

Improv is an interesting beast. It is cooperative as much as it is competition. You cannot beat your opponent without working with him.

And even while you are striving to win the competition, you are still both striving to provide a good show for the audience.

You need to collaborate with your "opponent". Its the friendliest and most collaborative type of competition I've ever participated in.

No wonder most improv games end up at a pub over a beer!

Rule 1 - Always say "yes"

When sharing, accepting is always better than refusing. This is not a fight, its a collaborative effort.

Rule 2- "Yes, and..."

You want to build atop other participant's ideas... so add your own.

Rule 3 - Don't block

In improv, the flow must always go. The most common mean of blocking is saying "no" - outright refusing or ignoring what the other participants are bringing in is downright rude.

Rule 4 - Provide details

Establishing location, delve into the motivations of characters, add subtle "useless" information. This will give fuel to the other's creativity.

In improv, the winner is not always the one saying the punchline. Anyone who ever wrote comedy knows that the setup is the actual hard part.

Furthermore, as a DM, you should pride yourself at a great setup and allowing your players the joy of the "punchline"...

Rule 5 - Change

Change is what makes a story interesing. Without change, nothing happens. Change makes things go forward. You must not be afraid of it...

Rule 6 - Letting go

By far the hardest part of the game for me. I often came in with a plan, an idea - a plot. And when I did that, I always ended up with a supbar improv.

My plans actually prevented me from actually observing and building upon what the other players were doing. With experience, I learned to use my plan as a guideline only - it no longer prevented me from listening to others, as I had no qualms about changing it or downright letting it go... which I ended up doing almost all the time.