calculuschild

I might not be using the right terms exactly, but hopefully this makes sense.

This is only my second time DMing and this is with a group of newish players. I'm running an adventure out of a book which is fairly linear, since during our session 0, the players communicated that they would prefer following a set story rather than freely roaming around. I'm totally ok with that and am trying to accomodate.

The problem I struggle with, is I am utterly failing at presenting the plot points in an interesting way without it feeling lame and forced. For example:

"As you make your way down the path, you see two figures ahead. You recognize them as the odd couple from the tavern. What do you do?"

The answer is sometimes "uh... We ignore them and continue down the trail" which is frustrating when they are major characters for the story. The players sometimes get so focused on advancing the plot that they just skip past it all.

However it's almost worse then their answer is "well I guess we're supposed to talk to them. So... I do that." I feel that awkwardness, because if I were in their shoes, it would feel just as forced to me.

But... It's in the adventure book! They need to meet these guys or the next section kind of doesnt make sense. I have tried having the NPCs directly approach the player characters, but even that tends to feel like the players are just going through the motions. They know this must be important so they play along but I feel like it just turns into me giving info dump after info dump as each NPC appears, and it feels so contrived.

So, yes, I have talked to the players, and they are trying their best to engage. This is now me asking how I can be a better DM and present plot points in a natural, interesting way that doesn't just feel like a queue of NPCs lining up for their turn to "stare menacingly at the PCs" so they can stumble through another stilted conversation.

This is particularly difficult for "random encounters" that are meant to flesh out the world and give the players a chance to roleplay. "You come across a goblin next to an elaborate painting on the side of a large oak tree. 'my brushes! My brushes are missing!'" If I were a player, I would have no reason to engage with this. It might be a fun little interaction but would our group of adventurers really stop and talk to every random person they see? Help every cat out of a tree? I want to make the world feel full and exciting and fun to play inside but instesd I feel like I'm just presenting my players a series of chores.

We all know combat can sometimes be a bit of a slog when done poorly. I'm trying to get better and introduce more tactical nuance (interesting terrain, varied enemies, etc.) but things still tend to devolve into roll, hit, roll, miss, roll, hit, you win!

I know there are a few blog posts around that encourage alternative win conditions (no fights to the death, grab the MacGuffin, etc.) but a lot of that still feels handwavy to me ("Just be creative! It's easy!") and more or less still "feels" like the same old combat.

As an example of what I'm thinking, I've been playing Warhammer Vermintide. 95% of the game is just mindless fighting. But every so often, they throw in a simple puzzle to keep you on your toes. Everyone has to stand ground on a specific spot while something powers up. We have to find and break open all the eggs in the area. Bring the explosives to the target site without accidentally exploding. Protect one player while they fire the cannon/push the cart/read the map. All while an endless horde chases you. It's minimal, but is just enough of a shift in priorities that it "feels" exciting.

I'm not sure how well any of these would really translate over into D&D anyway, but perhaps some of you experienced folks have some tried and true examples? It would be especially handy to have a resource to quickly spice up an encounter on the fly using some kind of flowchart or tables. Is there anything like that? I'm hoping for enough variety that every fight can feel a little different beyond just different enemies.

I like todo lists, and I like time blocking so I can schedule out specific hours to work on each task. However I have yet to find an app that combines these cleanly.

Features I am looking for:

• Todo list that allows nested lists, and adding details to each item (due date, more detailed instructions, etc.)
• Seamless integration with a calendar, so I can assign a given todo item to a date and time
• Adjustable time durations. Not every task is exactly 1 hour.
• Accessible and syncable across PC and Android,
• Freeee....?

Nice to have:

• Sync with Google Calendar/Tasks
• Color-coding tasks

Windows Live Gallery had a great Photo Fuse feature that allowed you to select multiple similar photos and be able to select which faces from each photo would be used in the final composite image. This was great for group photos where in every photo someone isn’t looking at the camera or blinking etc, as you can combine them all and select all the faces that are looking in the right direction. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Zy4mLkEL4

Unfortunately, Windows Live Gallery is now unsupported and unavailable for download. Is there any software that has similar functionality (offline/online)? Preferably on Android so I can directly clean up my picture collection as I take the photos.

I know I could do this manually in something like photoshop, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Windows Live Gallery had a great Photo Fuse feature that allowed you to select multiple similar photos and be able to select which faces from each photo would be used in the final composite image. This was great for group photos where in every photo someone isn't looking at the camera or blinking etc, as you can combine them all and select all the faces that are looking in the right direction. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Zy4mLkEL4

Unfortunately, Windows Live Gallery is now unsupported and unavailable for download. Is there any FOSS software that has similar functionality (offline/online)? Preferably on Android so I can directly clean up my picture collection as I take the photos.

I started up a new campaign with some friends who have an 8 year old kid (let's say AJ). I've played with the parents before, but not him, and he's been dying to play, so I said why not. After the first session, he was hooked, and told his little friend (let's call him Ollie), also 8, who he knows has been wanting to play too. So now after a few more sessions, AJ asked me if Ollie could join. We all agreed, and now have myself (DM), three adults, and two 8 year olds. Ollie's parents are not playing.

Ollie is having the time of his life. And typical kid silliness aside, he's mostly a good player. The one thing I'm struggling with, is he keeps asking for specific items and magic powers. "Can I do a roll to see if I find something that lets me fly? Or breathe underwater forever? Oh! Are there any bears? Can I roll to find a bear and tame it?"

Most of the time, I just tell him something like: "no, your character wouldn't know where to find something like that. You can always ask around, it's not likely to be something these bandits would know about." And he's gotten a bit better realizing you can't expect the DM to just give you overpowered items in the middle of a fight, or just "decide" that his character remembered a spell that insta-kills any creature.

But now he's started trying to get "free" stuff in more clever ways. "I want to get some sticks and make them into javelins." Sure. Next time you rest you can make some improvised weapons. "Can I forage for food?" Sure. "Can I try to find any healing herbs?" Uh... Sure... but it will only heal one hit point.

Now it's gotten to the point where every time the party tries to move to the next location, he tries to jump in and grab some small free item. Even in the middle of social interactions with the king, last night: "hey, are there any sticks around the castle? Or pieces of leather? Do you think that frog guy would trade me his clothes if I went out and caught him a bunch of flies? Can I get some rocks to throw at people?"

I'm not so worried about him getting little freebie items, but more that his constant interruptions are heavily slowing down the game and distracting everyone. The adults have approached me out of game about this, as the game is "no longer fun", and Ollie's behavior is becoming especially bothersome to AJ who was really enjoying the story and now is getting vocally annoyed that it takes 10 minutes to do anything now.

I don't want to discourage Ollie from being creative or sour his experience with DnD, but I also don't know how to explain to this happy little kid that he can't keep interrupting every 3 minutes to see if he can find some rocks. Any tips on how to handle this type of player, especially being a kid?

Edit: added clarification that I am posting this due to complaints from the adults and the other kid. Everyone is helping where they can, but as the DM everyone is kind of looking to me for some solution.

I am married and have a couple young kids. Recently late diagnosed at 31 years.

Surprise! Turns out the loud noises and random chaos that comes with kids sometimes leads me to a meltdown.

Usually, I can feel it coming on and go "hide" for 5 minutes in a dark room to reset myself and go back to being a helpful parent. Wife is very understanding and supportive.

The problem comes when we are out in public. I'm not always with my wife. Last week I took the kids on an outing, and wife was taking the opportunity to shop (fortunately nearby, but out of sight or earshot) while I played with the kids. One thing led to another and I pretty quickly found myself melting down with no way to stop it, and became basically paralyzed and barely able to keep the kids from getting lost, much less destroying everything in the store.

Luckily my wife answered her phone and was close enough to come help (about 15 minutes because she was in line to buy things), but with my kids I couldn't just abandon them and go "hide". But it took me a good hour to come back to reality without any good hiding place to reset myself.

I know this is a potentially dangerous situation for my kids, and quite unfair for my wife to have to come save me all the time, but unavoidable sometimes. Any tips to prevent/delay a meltdown in critical situations like this? I can't use earbuds in this case like I usually would because I need to be able to hear my kids.

Edit: I had no idea I might be on the spectrum until after having kids. I suspect growing up in a very mellow family and then living mostly alone afterward isolated me enough from triggering situations and social interactions in general I just didn't connect the dots.