Overlord Tips and Tricks
Hello my name is Neal from TableTopTotality!
Today I want to Talk about a couple Overlord tips. Sometimes it takes a couple ideas to bring your game to the next level. Playing and being the Overlord during sessions over the years have taught me a few things, one of these things is to use the idea of combat in regular play. This starts off with having your players roll initiative so there is an order to activities. Once you have this initiative in place you run it just like a regular player turn in combat with a couple of variations. Could involve having a conversation with a NPC or maybe investigating a room. These events are possible what a turn for a play can consist of. This allows you to make sure that each character has a chance to play a part in the story they are forming. So it's not just one more experienced player taking all of the role playing time and allows a less experienced a shot at learning the game in more depth. As you and your players get a grasp of this idea it becomes second nature because each player realizes how much time they should take on their own turn and not monopolize the session. Also can allow the development and immersion for your players to really get into character with each interaction. Another good tip is figuring out how close you want to play to the rules. This is usually figured out by how experienced of a group is. The rules that are usually the easiest to bend are weight, food, water, and temperature. All of these are crucial to the game but can bend to make sure your players are enjoying the campaign. Some players really enjoy these rules and want to follow them to the letter, other players may enjoy it for sometime but after a while may loss its charm. This can happen sometimes in maybe difficult terrain.
Lets say you are the Overlord a group of players that are travelling through a desert. This could cause players to maybe rest more or drink more water then travelling in a less harsh environment. Some players might think this could be a very fresh change of pace if it is a couple days of travel but if it's a large travel through a desert it can be a little dragging to beginning players but exactly what experienced players want. If you are doing a hard terrain campaign somethings you can do is change how much the temperature effects the party, or require less water consumption for the party then regularly needed. These are just some rules that you can change to allow your group to enjoy the session as much as possible. One of the last points I will mention is a tip for pre-made campaigns is to make sure to add your own personal touch. Many pre-made campaign leave room for an Overlord to make it their own. Most of the time it is in the low points or in the actions of NPC's that the characters would have. This could be a small battle that you may want to tie in more to the main story arch. Maybe you do not like a way an NPC acts so you change how they act to impact a player's story or draw the party in more instead of forcing it on the group. Practicing these tips and learning what you like and adding your own spins to them are some of the best ways to expand your Overlord style to create an amazing session that your players will never forget. This has been Neal with TableTopTotality and hopefully you enjoy these tips!
