Home For DMs DM Profiles: Sweeney Todd and Duncan

DM Profiles: Sweeney Todd and Duncan

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk, 12 Feb 2003

You played the Official Campaign, you've downloaded modules, you've even played multiplayer with your buddies…what's next? It's time to rule the world as a Dungeon Master. BioWare's Jay Watamaniuk talks with two of the Top DM's around Sweeney Todd and Duncan.

1. Do you have any experience with PnP D&D as a player or a DM?

Sweeney Todd: As a kid, I spent more time poring over RPG manuals than I ever did playing them. I suppose all that planning of campaigns prepared me well for the NWN Toolset. :) But I've been somewhat active in DMing in the past, less so as a player. I was usually friends with DMs in college and so I'd spend time talking about their campaigns, helping them come up with new ideas. It's nice to fully be in the driver's seat now. Duncan: I began playing D&D in the late 70s. I guess I kept at it for about 5 years, got into DMing in the end.

2. Can you explain about how the DM ranking system works over at NW Connections. I understand they even have DM school and titles for levels of experience- can you explain that a bit?

Sweeney Todd: Sure. There are two things involved, really, the ranking system and Neverwinter University.

Neverwinter Connections has a scoring system built into its scheduler, so after a game is over you pull up the game page and click "Rate this Player". Players and DMs get rated on various elements such as roleplay skill and impartiality. You also are given the chance to mark a DM or Player as a "Top 5", and those scores are used to calculate the overall and monthly ranking. There's been some controversy with the system, but overall it's served us well. People get top ranking by running a lot of games, but they have to be good games, and the system rewards playing with a large mix of people. We at Fleet Street have been ranked highly because we have tried to run only the best games, and to reach a large portion of the player base. In fact, ironically enough, the top two players on the list are the only ones I can think of that we haven't run at least one game for - I suppose because they're in such high demand!

Neverwinter University is a really interesting topic, and Omni and Duncan deserve a lot of credit for shaping it into what it is today. DM 101 is our most popular class, where we teach prospective DMs the ins and outs of the DM Client. It's a lecture-based module, with Q&A and a brief hands-on lab at the end. Almost every graduate comes out feeling the DM Client is much easier to use than they had thought. In addition, to get your DM 101 Certification (a GIF attached to your profile on the site), you have to run an open game on Neverwinter Connections. This means for every DM we graduate, a full party of players have gotten an evening of enjoyment out of it! And a lot of these one-shot games end up turning into campaigns.

Duncans: Rizzen and crew started up the DM101 back in the summer, we picked up the ball and ran with it a few months ago. I would say we have had at least 75 NWC members in our DM 101 class. We hope to be doing the advanced DM course before the first of the year. It was Omni who really kept prodding me on and I finally sat down and figured out what we needed to convey and tried to figure out the best manner in which to present it. The class is anywhere from 60-90 minutes depending on the questions the students have.

3. What interested you in trying your hand at DMing using NWN?

Sweeney Todd: Like so many Toolset aficionados, I started off by making an inn with automated conversations, a scripted barmaid - the works. Then once I had a simple 'slay the goblins' adventure ready, I went onto GameSpy and tested it out on unsuspecting players. One night the Neverwinter Connections site was hosting an "Open House", and a bunch of us logged in as players just to chat. Well, the official meeting was over very quickly, and there were a bunch of prospective players sitting around, so I said, "Hey, I'll DM my little module". The group of players I got were fantastic, spending a lot of time just talking to each other and roleplaying being tavern goers, and so I jumped into NPCs and interacted with them. From that point, I was hooked.

I really got into the "low scripting, high DM involvement" school of thought after one night of play. A group of us wanted to play "Spires of Ravenloft", which had just come out (I think this was in July). My fellow DM Trastus and I hopped in and started improvising, and as the game went on we found ourselves telling a completely different story than the module maker had envisioned. (For instance, we decided the Strahd Zombies should only be killed by fire, so we marked them Plot until someone had the idea to pull out their torch and attack.) Little elements like the stooped old lady cheering them on with "Burn them! That's the only way!" and Strahd taunting Irenna via shout through the entire adventure changed the whole game. That was when I realized that the DM client, and a suitable sound stage, were the way we wanted to go.

Duncan: Well when I got the game the server and DM abilities were key for me (although I really enjoyed the Official Campaign). I stumbled upon NWC early and got in the first DM101 with Omni and the rest snowballed from there. I was at the Open House Sweeney was at and played in what was to be the first of three sessions in Menhir Plains. By the time the fourth game came around and he was looking for some players, I piped up letting him know that I would love to be in the game but had played in it three times, "how about I join you and Trastus as DM?" And the rest as they say is history. I have a recording studio and some spare CPU power lying about so I made four of them available as NWN servers and setup an internet server vault that we all use. All Fleet members with static IPs have their nwn.ini files configured so that they point to my main server for the purpose of storing characters in the server vault. In this way we can have a player's character available for 'travel' throughout the lands of our custom world (across various linked servers), and not have to worry about having updated versions. We portal between servers like area transitions. We currently have 11 servers in our cluster sharing the same vault.

4. How would your player describe your DMing style?

Sweeney Todd: I'd say "High DM involvement, high roleplay". My ability to think up fun things to do in a game rapidly outstripped the time I had to script them, so I had to improvise a lot. Now I have a basic bag of tricks we use, but I still prefer improvisation. We have multiple DMs in every game, so we possess every NPC that the players interact with, and talk through them. When it comes to getting a PC to really love or hate a given NPC, it's the only way to go.

We also like to play out PC actions on the fly with the DM client. I've had PCs listen at doors, reprogram golems, and disable complex magical traps, all by using spoken text and DM replies. I'm infamous for having one solution to puzzles - "Try something that might work, and make it convincing." We also spawn in most creatures manually - we have a custom palette of enemies that the PCs might face in a given area, which makes that easier.

The first three games in the Menhir campaign are somewhat linear, but now we have nearly twenty returning players, merged into a free-form campaign. We're staying one step ahead of them, and letting them try to set the course of events, just as you'd do in PNP. For instance, several sessions back the group won ownership of an abandoned keep, and they're now planning to relocate the villagers in their home town there, and plan defenses against a coming siege. Fortunately, because the keep wasn't heavily scripted, it wasn't that much work to "spruce it up" in the Toolset.

Duncan: We don't sweat the little stuff. This whole thing has grown from a simple 4 area mod with a missing child and a lone Druid into a vibrant setting of plots, intrigue and what Stephan Gagne calls "fatalistic doom" with heavy player directed plots (whether they know it or not).

5. What, if any, community-made utilities do you use to help your job as DM? What utilities would you like to see created?

Sweeney Todd: We have a number of tools we find invaluable. Obviously www.neverwinterconnections.com is our scheduling and planning tool, and it makes organizing games a snap. But I imagine you're asking about in-game tools.

Our modules use a base set of rules and items to make our job easier. I've implemented the experience rules from TTV, the Table Top Variant, because they allow additional flexibility (and, in my opinion, better handle mixed-level parties). Our death scripts are taken from Teiwaz's Parthenon games, which is a great campaign in its own right. We don't have respawning, and so players have to heal the fallen using healing kits. We like the dynamic of players frantically rushing to help each other up in the heat of battle, and it allows us to really push the challenge level in combat without making people save up money to get resurrected.

We also couldn't run our games without the DM, Emote, and FX wands. The DM Wand lets us work with player inventories and adjust faction and alignment on the fly. The Emote Wand is a player favorite - it lets them dance, read, and pray, among other things - but it also allows us to better play our possessed NPCs. The FX wand provides sound and visual effects, and most of our "special effects" sequences are done using it rather than scripting anything. (My players have learned to walk up to a mysterious portal or relic and emote doing various things, then watching for a reaction.)

Duncan has done an amazing job of modifying the Rod of Effects to include narration. It spawns an invisible object called "Narrator" which says a line of text, then vanishes. We use it to help add flavor to areas and to simplify PC-DM interaction. For instance, if a player says "*listens at door*" we could click the wand and they would hear "Two men appear to be in a heated argument." Finally, we use Talmud's Shaper Tool extensively in our free-form Cabaret games. I keep a few totally empty areas around, and then I can drop in anything from a forest campsite to a dungeon room with a few clicks. I put together a module with these tools, and nothing else (no premade areas), and we played a three-hour game, totally improvised.

As far as future tools we'd like to have, we're pretty content. Custom content is something we've just recently started integrating into our games, so anything in that department is welcomed.

Duncan: Yes we are very pleased with the resources available. At the moment we are refining a scribe tool. It is built upon the model of an invisible NPC avatar, and auto-follows the PCs around, recording all text for export in the gamelog. In this way we can reread player chat and draw adventure ideas to custom fit the game to the players.

6. What sort of planning do you do before a game? What specific things, if any, do you prepare in advance?

Sweeney Todd: The Fleet Streeters do a lot of advance preparation before we run a game. On nights before the game, we'll discuss what elements we've added to the base module, and brainstorm plot ideas. The night of the game, we'll hop onto TeamSpeak (we use voice comms extensively) and walk through the module in the DM Client, reviewing what will happen in each area. Because we don't pre-place monsters, we often use this time to lay out encounters and ambushes, then save the game.

If we're running a game with new players, I like to exchange email with them discussing briefly their character concept, and coming up with a reason as to why they'd be in town. This allows us to throw in character-specific plot hooks or sidequests to make everyone feel involved. (If you're a player, have a handle on your motivations - it helps the DMs out a great deal.)

Duncan: Yes the voice communication is a must, I am a terrible typist. If I had to convey all we talk about in text via the game, I would never get anything done. In addition we use the NWC mIRC client to discuss changes and developments between all of us during any hour of the week. We bounce ideas off of each other there, and link our ideas so as to make each campaign area fit in with each other seamlessly. This helps create a feeling that our shared world is a vibrant, living land.

7. What advice do you have for someone who wants to give DMing a try but does not know where to start?

Sweeney Todd: It's really not all that hard! You only need one module you're comfortable with, and a rudimentary knowledge of the DM client. There's two important differences about DMed games - the players will always take time to talk to each other and to NPCs, and they won't cover as much ground as you expect. As a result, there's much less danger of the PCs "getting ahead of you" than you'd think.

If you're just starting out, the easiest thing to do is to use a module that is pre-scripted, so that you don't have to intervene to make it run. If you're doing that, I suggest you use a light touch as a DM to start. Possess a few townsfolk to talk to the PCs, adjust the difficulty slider to keep the fights challenging - that sort of thing. As you get your comfort level up, you can take a more active role in the game. It's just like pen and paper in that respect - novice DMs can pick a well-written paper module, playing it "by the book", while more experienced DMs can improvise at will.

Duncan: For any new DM, I suggest you embrace improvisation; you will need to learn to react on the fly. Players will never respond exactly as you imagine they will, and if you learn to respond accordingly, it goes a long way towards creating the immersion factor one strives for in a game. Try to think in terms of "as a player, what would I enjoy doing here?" and you will find that your DMing becomes more player-friendly, adding immensely to the health of the session and overall campaign.

8. How do you become a great DM?

Sweeney Todd: Practice, and friends! My first games were extremely simple, and the Fleet Street team has done so much to improve things. I've even recruited my girlfriend (hi, Fuji!) to help out with character artwork and fiendish puzzles to throw at the PCs. Even having one other person to bounce ideas off makes everything go so much quicker.

I highly recommend getting as familiar with the DM Client as you can. There are so many useful features just waiting to be used. I have spent hours running around in an empty module, spawning in creatures versus NPC henchman to test out combat (I don't consider a monster 'done' until he can defeat an evenly matched Daelan Red Tiger.)

Finally, remember that the real reason to play any role-playing game is to tell a story. Even the simplest module can be used to tell a compelling story. I like to include hints of activities going on elsewhere in the campaign world, and to provide foreshadowing of things to come. And make your NPCs memorable! It doesn't take much, just a few character traits (there's not time to bring more to light in an average game). Make sure you have a few 'throwaway' NPCs that aren't essential to the plot, because then you can have more room to embellish things.

Duncan: Yes, the story telling is the key. Not only do the DMs need to be storytellers, but the players do as well. We perceive our actions as that of stage producers and directors, while the players area an improv company of actors.

9. What is the best moment you have had as DM so far?

Sweeney Todd: This one is easy. Most of our games take place in and around Hearthsend, based out of an inn called "The Belching Toad". Bert, the owner, always has a few old fogies sitting around drinking beer and generally raising a ruckus. One night I decided it'd be interesting to explore those old fellows' backstory.

I added a few new areas to my base module, and put the call out on IRC for some players. Using the framing story of a "tavern tale" where the old men were reminiscing, we played out a flashback of their military days in the 14th Legion. The players really got a kick out of seeing the old-timers back in their prime, but most importantly, I was finally able to tell a story I'd always wanted to - about why Bert never talked about his first wife.

The PCs cleared out cultists from a small village, learning that they were attempting to wake an ancient evil from The City of Graves. They explored the dark barrows underneath the city (a dungeon I'd whipped up in a few minutes by taking existing areas and changing the lighting), and discovered a foul ritual. Bert's wife, Sarah, was a powerful cleric serving with the Legion, and at the climax of the adventure, she gives her life to carry out a last-ditch ritual to undo the damage the cultists had done.

Now the players really got into the story line. They had the feeling that Sarah would die, because she's not found in any of the present day adventures, but that only served to heighten the tension as to how it would happen. When it became clear that she was doomed, the PCs urged her to reconsider. Even though their players knew full well that there was no other way out, the characters struggled mightily to prevent the tragedy. After her death, and the frantic flight from the crumbling barrow, they stopped for a moment of silence.

This by itself was a moving session, one that the DMs and players alike became emotionally invested in. But weeks later, while playing our main campaign, one of our PCs brought in a replacement character. The party was in the midst of preparing for an attack on the town, so there was much commotion, and in comes a man in blood-stained armor, bringing news of the impending goblin horde. But he stopped for a moment, and handed Bert (who I was possessing) an item, saying "I believe this is yours - I found it in the City of Graves."

We let our PCs come in with a limited number of custom items, but I thought nothing of it, until I noticed it was called "Sarah's Necklace". On it was an inscription that Bert had written on it when he gave it to her, a love poem. In the midst of all these preparation for battle, I stopped, and took Bert in the back of the inn to compose himself. I had to - I was floored. This player had absolutely blown my mind. By my thinking, when the campaign's backstory is interesting enough that players take the time to add to it, you've got a winner.

Duncan: In one of the Menhir games, the PCs were all in the Belching Toad planning their next course of action. The prospects of survival looked bare, so I possessed one of the cranky elderly patrons, Old Frederick. I left the inn and returned with a rusty shortsword in his feeble hand, as if he were ready to lend a hand in the dire events to come. The players responded with some unforgettable comments, and it added a bit of humor and character that always sticks in my mind.

10. Any last comments to add about the life of a DM?

Sweeney Todd: Odd as it sounds, I suggest laziness as a virtue for the aspiring builder-DM. I've spent hours on intricately-scripted game elements that players blew through in five minutes - only to see them fiddle with a rock with magic sparks on it for an hour. I finally realized that the "sound stage" school of module design would go a long way towards avoiding burnout, and giving me more time to actually DM. When I write Java code at work, I follow the tenants of Extreme Programming, and one of their catchphrases is YAGNI - You Ain't Gonna Need It. Decide how you'll play things out with the DM Client, but don't bother writing a lot of code unless you're positive something is going to be a recurring element.

It's a time-consuming hobby, but it's immensely rewarding. I get to be a coder, an architect, a writer, and an actor (some might say ham) all at once. I never before thought about giving up writing Java code for a living to work on games, but after seeing what's possible with Neverwinter Nights, I'd be sorely tempted to find some way to do this for a living.

Duncan:

<grins>