DM Guidelines

This page details the guidelines for Dungeon Masters in the Questing Quaff. Please reference this material thoroughly before applying to become a DM.

~~When you feel confident in these rules and want to give running a session a shot, you can go to this DM Application Form and fill out the application to apply!~~

## Rules for the Dungeon Master

1. Activity in sessions must respect the Questing Quaff Code of Conduct and other rules.
2. Encounters should be balanced around the party level. Do not throw Ancient Red Dragons at a level 3 party and expect them to defeat it, and don't grant the party excessive benefits so that they can overcome obstacles that would otherwise be too difficult.
3. The tiers are in place to ensure balance and keep the games fun for all involved. Sometimes easing the level *bracket* to account for a higher or lower level character might be necessary, but please exercise caution. A game should never have a character above its tier (copper, silver, gold, or platinum).
4. Do not give players something that will break the game or the world, such as allowing a player to draw from a Deck of Many Things, or other potentially permanent effects that don't fall inside our lore or loot guidelines.
5. Follow this page's instructions for rewarding players. This is so the rewards don’t vary too much between different DMs, and the players don’t feel left out if they missed one session.
6. Write a recruitment post in #quaff-call following the rules in the section "Recruitment and Session Logs". include content warnings for sensitive topics you may include in the adventure.
7. Write a session log in #session-logs after your session. Ping (@mention) the players who played in the session, their character names, and their rewards gained: experience, consumables, gold, magic items with descriptions, and Cups. Also include the level range of the session.
8. If you want to add a custom magic item to the server's possible rewards, send a private message to an active Rules Team Member.
9. If you want to start a campaign or play-by-post, tell a moderator, and a campaign or play-by-post channel will be set up for you.
10. If you start a campaign, and do not warn your players that you cannot play, we remove your DM role. If you see your campaign ending, warn a moderator, so we can sort out the appropriate rewards and clean up the chat. Player characters will be able to create a character above 3rd level for the Questing Quaff but the character will need to be reviewed by a staff member and potentially revised from the campaign's lore before joining the guild.
11. Know the Game Types and what is expected of a DM for each one.

## Preparing a Session

When designing a session, remember to balance the difficulty of traps, environmental hazards, and encounters to the level range for the characters. Sessions can be as easy as you want - but single encounters should be within the capabilities of characters for the level range of your adventure. If a combat encounter would be too difficult, use fewer enemies or enemies that have a lower CR. As an example, the Dungeon Master's Guide recommends for levels under 10, no single creature in a combat should be above the average CR of the party (and even then, there are exceptions due to abilities).

## Running a Game and House Rules

Games can be run either as "theater of the mind", or using a table top service such as Roll20. The only requirement the Questing Quaff has on the service used is that it should be free so that any player can join, and it should not require any custom software to be installed (please, no custom made table top software that only runs on an iPad).

While running a game, DMs are allowed to have house rules. Generally, house rules can be anything the DM calls for, however we do ask that they not break fundamental aspects of the game (sorry, no reverting to THAC0). It is considered standard practice for these rules to be available to a player up front to review, and failing to communicate important house rules to your players could result in warnings from moderators.

Remember, as a DM in a session you have the final say for most rulings. If you believe a player is unduly speaking out of turn or questioning you to the point of impacting game flow and gameplay, please tell a mod. DMs deserve to be respected just as much as everyone else.

## Rewarding Players

Each player earns 3 CUPS for each hour played in an adventure. The DM earns twice this amount. In play-by-post games over a long amount of time you will need to judge how many hours the game would have taken as a regular session through the amount of encounters.

To calculate experience points, total up the combat experience (non adjusted) and any roleplay experience (for social and exploration encounters) that you have awarded your players. Divide that number by the total number of players to get the amount of experience each character earns.

To calculate the gold budget, divide the *total* experience awarded by the appropriate number on the table below. The gold budget start as the same amount, but are counted separately when calculating treasure rewards.

Divide the gold budget by number of players and *distribute* *evenly* in the form of consumable magic items, poisons, and coin.

Our magic items can be found on ~~this sheet~~, or in our homebrew Items collection. (When giving out homebrew items, do not reward Artifacts without prior approval from staff.) Additionally, make sure to deduct the cost of armor from the session's gold budget when you award common magical armors. For example, rewarding a Smoldering Breastplate deducts 400 from the gold budget.

**For one shots**, the reward tiers are as follows. ~~Rewards are based off of the *lowest level party member*:~~

**For multishots**, multiply your gold rewards by 1.2. ~~Multishots also *ignore* the Max Magic Item Price limit.~~

**For plothooks**, multiply your gold rewards by 1.5, or by 1.7 if it is also a multishot. ~~Plothooks also *ignore* the Max Magic Item Price limit.~~

## RP Experience

The DMG provides helpful tools for rewarding combat encounters, but has fewer tools for rewarding exploration and social encounters. By definition, an encounter must have different outcomes for success, partial success, and failure, each of which must be realistically attainable by the party. As you progress through the session, the DM should keep track of any encounters overcome through roleplay, skill checks, and resource expenditure outside of combat. The DM will then be able to check the Roleplay Experience table below and award bonus XP as they see fit.

### Easy Roleplay Encounter

RP between party members or with NPCs that helps the party better understand the adventure, but doesn't really get a better result in the mission.

* Ex. You endear yourselves with the local tavern owner, brightening their day, and they offhandedly mention a few creatures rumored to be on the path ahead of you.
* Ex. You exchange information on an investigation with your fellow players in-character, relaying the information in your on way and not word for word how the DM told you.
* Ex. You make comments and reply to other player’s roleplaying with your own to reveal bits of both your personalities. You riff and banter with each other on matters relevant to the quest.

### Medium Roleplay Encounter

Finding ways to use RP to further the adventure's progress, possibly by expending minor resources.

* Ex. You befriend a member of the town guard since both of your mother’s names are Martha. You then press them to get info on a currently wrapped under investigation.
* Ex. You cast Feather Fall to let your party enter a cavern through an otherwise dangerous drop.
* Ex. Using Thieves’ Cant to get information on a dangerous individual in town relevant to your mission, getting a word in with the local thieves guild.

### Hard Roleplay Encounter

Planning out a non-combat solution to a problem, spending resources normal for a combat encounter, and/or requiring multiple steps to get to a solution.

* Ex. A noble lord is refusing to send their army to aid your allies. You’ve talked to his maids and cooks, a few disgruntled insiders, and you think he may have been replaced with a doppelganger. You need to convince the guard captain to give you a shot to prove the lord is an impostor, and for that you’ll need to prove you’re trustworthy.

### Deadly Roleplay Encounter

Very very rare, solving a problem that shouldn't be able to solve in a way that surprises the DM, spending major resources, putting themselves in harms way (deadly, as in combat encounters, shouldn't really happen all that often, as failure should have terrible consequences).

* Ex. Through quick wits and faster words your party has agreed to cover up a necromancer’s wrongdoings in this town in exchange for him stopping outright. You’ll need to hide the bodies, silence the witnesses, and ensure the ghosts of the slain are put to rest. Something will need to be done about the rumors as well. Failure could result in your party being falsely implicated with necromancy and facing the consequences from the local law or the Guild itself.

### RP Experience Guidelines Table

This table can be used as a basic guideline for determining the amount of RP experience to award players based on the estimated difficulty per RP encounter (see examples above). The table provides XP *per player*, so make sure to multiply by the number of players in the encounter before adding to the adventure's *total* XP. DM discretion is permitted in raising or lowering RP Experience rewards.

## Recruitment and Session Logs

To recruit for a session you are running, post the following information in #quaff-call channel on discord.

* @here (this pings everyone who has permission to view the channel)
* Quest Name:
* Level Range: (remember to keep games within the same rank)
* Players: (the amount of players you will ultimately be choosing)
* Estimated Start Time: (please use Server Time (UTC), a Unix timestamp, or another universal time measurement)
* Estimated Run Length: (if the session is a multishot, you must say so in the recruitment post)
* Difficulty: (this is to ensure that players know what they're getting into. make an estimate based on the risk of failure and the severity of the consequences, as encounter difficulty is not always accurate. know your monsters, and know your sessions.)
* Description: (what information does the Adventurer's Guild provide for this mission? **include content warnings for sensitive topics you may include in the adventure.**)
* To Apply: (let your players know what information you need from them in their application.)
* Finally, link the Adventuring Channel you wish to use for your session. This effectively claims the channel for the duration of your game.

When your game is finished, post the following information in the #session-logs channel.

* The players and their characters. Follow this format: (@PlayerTag as CharacterName)
* The level bracket the quest was in.
* A short description of the quest
* The overall player rewards, including player downtime
* Any specific rewards individual characters received
* DMXP and DM downtime rewards

If your session is a multishot, note that the characters have been locked into the mission. Only reward treasure for the last session in the multishot, and note that the characters are unlocked from the mission when it is finished.

In the event that your session resulted in a character's death, please note in the session log how they died, and whether or not their body was recovered and in what condition. The deceased character still receives experience and treasure, and the player still receives Cups for playing. Another player may cast a resurrection spell or similar feature to restore the deceased character to life.

## DM Rewards

For one-shots and multi-shots, DMs gain an account-wide resource called DMXP, which is split to oneshot and multishot DMXP. DMXP is measured in hours. DMs can spend DMXP to give one of their characters XP and Gold based on the level of their own character as seen in the table below.

A DM also receives double the amount of Cups given to the players (6 Cups per hour of DMing).

For campaigns we offer two options for DM rewards:

1. You create a PC at the same level as the other PCs in your campaign at the campaign’s conclusion, using the character creation rules. Then submit the character to the moderators following the rules for Campaigns and get your character approved by a moderator. Moderators will determine what gear and equipment the character is given as rewards and notify the DM of the final approved character.
2. You calculate your rewards as normal after each session, counting the session as a multishot when doing your DM reward calculations.

## Submitting Magic Items

If you wish to add a homebrew magic item to the Questing Quaff, send a private message to an active rules team member. The submitted item should be balanced for play and worded in a clear way. If you need help with designing an item, you can use the DMG and other items for guidance, as well as share your drafts with a DM.

The Rules Team will make a judgement, and you'll be contacted if the item is approved or rejected. Sometimes we propose a tweak to the item to balance it, and you'll be contacted for that as well.

The following are the prompts you'll need to fill in:

* Item's Name
* Item's type (If it's a weapon or armor, specify here what type of weapons or armor the item can be)
* Item's Rarity (from Common to Legendary, based on power level, ~~or if it's one of a kind and never craftable: Artifact~~ Artifacts are not available at this time)
* Attunement (No or Yes, you can specify who can attune)
* Item's description (how it looks, or how the enchantment alters the look of the item it's applied to)
* Item's abilities (a mechanical description of the item's properties and abilities. please don't submit a non-functional description, such as a property that doesn't mention an action cost to activate.)
* Plans on giving out (when you're going to run a session when this item is rewarded. We'll refrain from announcing your item publicly until then. If you wish for the non-artifact item to be visible to all DMs from the get-go, specify here)
* Nearest official magic items (an item with a power level or function similar to the submission's.)
* Item's price (Reasonable gold price. Is it a permanent magic item, a consumable magic item or a poison?)
* Is it craftable? (No if it's an artifact, yes in any other scenario. If you're submitting a Wondrous item, or the item is made from unusual materials that'd warrant the use of a different tool, mention it here. Can have multiple tools)