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My GM style is high schooler desperately winging his book report.
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Nov 18, 2021 02:51
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my gm style is the best one
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Nov 18, 2021 03:15
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me too
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Nov 18, 2021 04:02
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Halloween Jack posted:I used to work in a law library and a great deal of my job was throwing away old reference books that have been made obsolete by Westlaw and LexisNexis. Tons of that stuff. Literal tons. I can't imagine using a physical case reporter in this day and age, for example. S.W.3d is only like 20 years old and it already has 600-some volumes.
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Nov 18, 2021 05:07
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PerniciousKnid posted:My GM style is high schooler desperately winging his book report.
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Nov 18, 2021 06:39
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mine is bad
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Nov 18, 2021 07:42
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I wanna point out this particular time it came up wasn't someone being pompous. I asked the GM what the theme and goal of the game was and whether I should lean more into the wackiness the pitch could go for or if we should play it straight. I then got deja vu when I realized everyone who has ever ran D&D for me has said pretty much the exact same thing.
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Nov 18, 2021 07:48
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Decisions, in real life and RPGs: a) they matter, b) they aren't constrained, c) their consequences are predictable. You get to pick two.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:16
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Hostile V posted:If only Jesus Built My Hotrod inspired White Wolf. Spend two Vitae to ding-a-ding dang your ding-a-long-ling-long.
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Nov 18, 2021 19:11
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Hostile V posted:If only Jesus Built My Hotrod inspired White Wolf. Isn't that just the weirder Mage supplements?
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Nov 18, 2021 19:23
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For real I'm dying to get another group. I'm gonna run a D&D game next year and the one I'm in is going to explode because of a clash of two personalities. I'd really like to get something going but I can't find a group in Denver that's playing anything fun. CoC group flaked out. Shadowrun group flaked out. Can't find anything other than D&D. Is there anywhere I can look other than the SA thread, local gaming reddit, and Meetup? I'd really like to play something other than D&D, but even just a D&D group that's chill and fun would be acceptable at this point.
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Nov 18, 2021 20:58
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Nehru the Damaja posted:For real I'm dying to get another group. I'm gonna run a D&D game next year and the one I'm in is going to explode because of a clash of two personalities. I'd really like to get something going but I can't find a group in Denver that's playing anything fun. CoC group flaked out. Shadowrun group flaked out. Can't find anything other than D&D. Check the official discord for a game that's fun for you?
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Nov 18, 2021 21:03
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Picturing early 90s weird bands inspiring White Wolf and loving the idea a of a clan with a detachable penis. ST now referred to exclusively as the MC 900 Foot Jesus.
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Nov 18, 2021 21:41
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Speaking of weird 90s, the playtest packet for the new Tribe 8 edition is live now.
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Nov 18, 2021 22:50
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hyphz posted:Decisions, in real life and RPGs: a) they matter, b) they aren't constrained, c) their consequences are predictable. You get to pick two. Decisions and RPGs
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Nov 19, 2021 03:16
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hyphz posted:Decisions, in real life and RPGs: a) they matter, b) they aren't constrained, c) their consequences are predictable. You get to pick two. i have decided to pick all 3 choices because i believe my decisions arent constrained 
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Nov 19, 2021 04:11
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pog boyfriend posted:i have decided to pick all 3 choices because i believe my decisions arent constrained one weird trick, dieties and GMs hate him!
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Nov 19, 2021 04:29
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What I mean is that if the consequences are predictable and it matters, then the choice is usually a no brainer and not interesting to make. “If you break this crystal then demons will be released and destroy everyone you love, but if you disenchant it then you’ll be hailed as heroes” isn’t really an interesting decision.
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Nov 19, 2021 05:40
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Depends where you are in the game.
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Nov 19, 2021 05:56
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hyphz posted:What I mean is that if the consequences are predictable and it matters, then the choice is usually a no brainer and not interesting to make. play pathologic 2 real quick and come report back op. cheers
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Nov 19, 2021 06:31
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pog boyfriend posted:play pathologic 2 real quick and come report back op. cheers Computer games where you can replay to take both decisions don’t count. Play Bioshock Infinite 
hyphz fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 07:15
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hyphz posted:What I mean is that if the consequences are predictable and it matters, then the choice is usually a no brainer and not interesting to make. The lack of constraint could be letting the players ask "what if I..." or "Hey, this is pretty powerful right? Could we use it as a battery? That way demons don't get out but it still powers a super artifact to help with our foes?" Coolness Averted fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 08:39
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The crystal holds a mortal soul, breaking will release it while disenchanting will annihilate it, and the soul is *checks backstory notes* Gimli McBeardface's long lost second cousin's
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Nov 19, 2021 09:09
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hyphz posted:Computer games where you can replay to take both decisions don’t count. Play Bioshock Infinite
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Nov 19, 2021 09:37
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Thirding the Pathologic 2 recommendation, tbh Apropos of anything else to do with the discussion, it's a hell of a game.
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Nov 19, 2021 10:06
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hyphz posted:Computer games where you can replay to take both decisions don’t count. Play Bioshock Infinite aside from me recommending pathologic 2 because i always do that going so far as to probate people to make sure the lepers colony sees it, i recommended the game because it has very complex decisions with no clear best answer. there is actually nothing at all preventing you from writing similar problems in ttrpgs
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Nov 19, 2021 14:23
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pog boyfriend posted:aside from me recommending pathologic 2 because i always do that going so far as to probate people to make sure the lepers colony sees it, i recommended the game because it has very complex decisions with no clear best answer. there is actually nothing at all preventing you from writing similar problems in ttrpgs I did look it up and it does look pretty awesome, so thanks for the recommendation The trick is that when you can replay, you experience decisions in a whole different way, in that you can actively see what difference they make by playing both sides and treat it as an experiment. Whereas in an RPG, a "very complex decision with no clear best answer" can just feel like inevitable failure when bad stuff happens later on.
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Nov 19, 2021 15:01
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If bad poo poo happens no matter what you do, it's really just the GM roping people into playing his own misery porn. This is fine, if it's the game (i.e. Call of Cthulhu, Heart), but loads of people play TTRPGs as a form of escapism. Even if you're used to playing with veteran groups who've done all of that before, there's still a huge draw in getting new loot, going up levels, and being hailed as a hero.
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Nov 19, 2021 15:23
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nobody is saying you arent allowed to play shallow but gratifying games where the choices are "kill ten thousand people OR dont" where you technically have the choice but choose not to do that. i am just saying you can make more complex narrative choices available and have a satisfying experience. you can even do both in the same campaign, or even the same session
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Nov 19, 2021 15:47
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A key thing is that choices and options should make things more interesting. If they're not, what's the point? And don't be afraid to make up curveballs on the fly.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:01
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pog boyfriend posted:nobody is saying you arent allowed to play shallow but gratifying games where the choices are "kill ten thousand people OR dont" where you technically have the choice but choose not to do that. i am just saying you can make more complex narrative choices available and have a satisfying experience. you can even do both in the same campaign, or even the same session You can, but it seems very difficult to do. I mean, the example I always think of is when I was a player in Curse of Strahd (I haven't actually read the module so I don't know how this is managed) Situation: we have visited a town where the Mayor is trying to "keep the people happy" by constantly throwing festivals. Unfortunately, they still hate them, so he's made them mandatory and started punishing people for "malicious unhappiness". He's obviously a terrible mayor, but the second most qualified mayor is a lady who's an open ally of Strahd. Is it better to have a terrible Mayor who's trying to help in a misguided way, or a better mayor who's working with the bad guy? How it actually landed at the table: whatever we do is wrong, either the town suffers or the whole area suffers and it's our fault, so we can't really care.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:13
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Or you could try to think of a third option? Or to ameliorate how bad one of those two choices is? You're setting this up to be a tautological choice of "if there are no interesting options, then there are no interesting options" which actively requires everyone involved to be working on making this a problem.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:17
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Just like, talk to the Mayor and maybe smack him around a bit til he realises he's not making things better, or at least that making happiness mandatory means adventurers will come to smack him around. Or promote a third party candidate. (insert contemporary politics jokes here)
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Nov 19, 2021 16:20
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You're also not really sticking to this:hyphz posted:Decisions, in real life and RPGs: a) they matter, b) they aren't constrained, c) their consequences are predictable. You get to pick two. You're bringing up a situation where b) is false (the choices are constrained) but you still can't get both of the other two to be true. Did you mean "pick one"?
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Nov 19, 2021 16:22
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hyphz posted:You can, but it seems very difficult to do. I mean, the example I always think of is when I was a player in Curse of Strahd (I haven't actually read the module so I don't know how this is managed) This feels like yet another case of you extrapolating problems at your table into being problems endemic to the medium. By your own admission you don't know how the problem is actually presented in the module, so from your perspective it's just as likely it was a case of your GM poorly setting up the situation.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:33
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hyphz posted:You can, but it seems very difficult to do. I mean, the example I always think of is when I was a player in Curse of Strahd (I haven't actually read the module so I don't know how this is managed) in your strahd example the dm may have played it wrong because the baron is a genuinely effective force against strahd and fully willing to help the party if they stay on his good side, and wachter genuinely cares for the people because she believes strahd is a benevolent dictator. so, peep game: have you tried convincing the baron there are better ways to promote happiness? have you tried defeating both the baron and the wachter? have you tried convincing wachter she is wrong about strahd? have you tried getting the baron and wachter to work together? have you tried deposing the baron and selecting another person as the burgomeister? have you tried going around vallaki making people genuinely happy so the baron does not have to resort to tyranny? in ttrpgs you do not have dialogue trees where you pick one of two options out of a menu
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Nov 19, 2021 16:38
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Have all of the towns folk really hate the PCs for interloping, and make them deal with why the town is so bummed out all of the time (a cult of an evil god has taken route, and they've been extorting all of the townsfolk for their money and worship).
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Nov 19, 2021 16:40
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ninjoatse.cx posted:Have all of the towns folk really hate the PCs for interloping, and make them deal with why the town is so bummed out all of the time (a cult of an evil god has taken route, and they've been extorting all of the townsfolk for their money and worship). Well since they said this was in Curse of Strahd the likely root of everyone's unhappiness is "we live in shithole Barovia," so it might be kind of an arduous journey to fixing that.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:50
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Asterite34 posted:Well since they said this was in Curse of Strahd the likely root of everyone's unhappiness is "we live in shithole Barovia," so it might be kind of an arduous journey to fixing that. Yea, I'm not sure we could have much leverage over someone who thought that Barovia as-is was fine. But as you say, I hadn't read the adventure, so I don't know if they were pulling some daft resolution thing like the FFG Star Wars adventure where the PCs are asked to basically resolve the Israeli/Palestine conflict by suggesting that everyone be nice to each other and rolling high.
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Nov 20, 2021 17:35
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hyphz posted:Yea, I'm not sure we could have much leverage over someone who thought that Barovia as-is was fine. But as you say, I hadn't read the adventure, so I don't know if they were pulling some daft resolution thing like the FFG Star Wars adventure where the PCs are asked to basically resolve the Israeli/Palestine conflict by suggesting that everyone be nice to each other and rolling high. I need to hear more about this. 
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Nov 20, 2021 21:19
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