one, show up, please, on time please, but not like 3 hours early…
two, if you want food, bring food you want. if my snack supplies don’t suit your palette… that’s not my problem to solve.
three, for gygax’s sake remember, it’s a game, a game, it’s got chutes and ladders yo, it’s not the instant gratification machine some think it is.
Give us a crash course in the history of your world
me, trying to make a world history up on the fly, whilst not contradicting stuff I made up on the fly 6 sessions ago
My favorite move there when someone points out thing that contradict is to say, “Yes. That’s what you were told.” Imply there’s something mysterious to uncover about why those facts don’t gel.
Alternatively: “I’m giving you the real history. That’s not what your character knows to be true!”
My favorite move there when someone points out thing that contradict is to say, “Yes. That’s what you were told.” Imply there’s something mysterious to uncover about why those facts don’t gel.
Ðis is how a lot of Elder Scrolls lore works
… Nice try. Make a history check.
It’s pretty much a thankless job 80% of the time - which is why I have to take my joy from the act of creating something and NOT from the approval and appreciation of my players. It’s sad that it has to be like this, but it’s always been this way - at least in my experience.
After some of my sessions, a couple of players will say “thanks! That was fun!” It’s always the same ones.
I’m not sure if they’re being polite or if they’re legit enjoying it. I try to believe the latter.
I mean, they do keep coming back.
Though in my case, I run a game for a few family members. They have to come back!
I am one of those players. It’s not easy to keep my attention on the game, especially when playing online, but I do enjoy it a lot and am genuinely thankful for the game master making this possible.
If your players are not having fun, you’ll notice soon enough: it’s not easy to reserve a 3-hour timeslot regularly.
I like my friend’s approach, which is to be a sadistic mfer and finding new ways to torture his players every time.
As a DM, this wouldn’t necessarily get me excited. It might even make me a little frustrated that you haven’t been paying attention. I get the sentiment though, I’m not saying don’t do this.
For me, what would get me excited is players wanting to take an active role in developing the world with me. To me, D&D and any TTRPG is about collaborative story telling. Heavy in the collaborative part. Telling me you want to sort of “take over” making some lore for an area would get me very excited. Telling me you and another player worked together to make your backstories intertwined and woven into a location will get me very excited.
I discovered a couple years ago that some players hate being given any creative control over the setting. They’re extremely passive and want to be told a story. that’s a valid way to play, but very alien to me.
When I had a wizard character mention his wizard school I let him color in a lot of details. I’d intervene if it was badly breaking established canon (eg: we said it’s in a remote desert and now you want it to be in a coastal city), but generally it’s great.
I mean, everything is a valid way to play so long as everyone is consenting and enjoying themselves. But I want effort from players. It’s shocking to me that as a player other players are often hesitant to want to create backstories with me. It seems most people want their own little unique thing and don’t want much interaction.
My playgroup (I am a player, no a DM at the moment) has been better about this in our most recent campaign. Three of the characters are siblings (two bird-like creatures and an adopted dragon born with fake wings to fit in). A couple of other players agreed to have little run-ins with my character from before so we knew each other before the start.
While an adoring audience is better than a bored one for storytelling, it doesn’t help as much as one that participates.
Oh, I personally agree. I want my players engaged and adding flavor to the world. If I didn’t, I’d be better off writing a book.
But I used to be more of a “you’re having fun wrong” jerk in my youth, so I make extra effort now to be clear that something might not be for me, it’s okay if you’re all having harmless fun with it. ( I still struggle when people tell me about their game of modern day vampires doing political intrigue run in D&D 5e instead of Vampire, but we all have our foibles. )
Yeah…
What’s fun is getting two or more forever DMs to be players.
Because then the game becomes gloriously collaborative.
This is part of my biggest problem with my current project. I desperately need someone to talk about the history and gods of this world (both for personal validation and for brainstorming) but it will still be a while until I can bring it to the table and talking to my players now would spoil some major plot points.
I think there are some World Building communities around. If none of your players use Lemmy, could be worth a look?
Do kinda wish there was a DM/GM Workshop comm, though. Place to talk world building, creature and NPC design, all the fun bits that happen behind the screen.
At least one of my players is on Lemmy and even somewhat active in this community (say hi if you read this).
You know what, maybe I’ll open just a DM workshop community on here and put in the effort to post what I have so far. Currently, my notes are fully in German and structured in a way that’s not easy to put in a linear thread but I’ll try.
Maybe ask them to block your account? That would keep them from seeing anything you talk about, though it’d also block any other communication here if that’s a problem.
Could also just call their character out in whatever post you create, if they can be trusted to stay out then.
Alright, I opened a new community at [email protected] and posted at least a rough outline with more to come. Come on over.
Subscribed! :D
Is there an equivalent community for r/DMAcademy anywhere? I feel like that would be the perfect place for these kinds of discussions!
Ironically, the most active rpg community here is the meme one, but you could definitely use the main [email protected] to discuss World building and GM techniques
Posting it here again so you get a notification: I opened one at [email protected]
So Stamets, give us a crash course in the history of your world
Then there is the Vampire player,
If you ask them about their character backstory, they’ll be ultra-happy and tell you about your character until dawn
What happens after dawn?
I’m at the point where I just use Faerûn. Maybe 10% of modern players know anything about it outside of 2 cities in a small region.
