How Do You Get Your Players To Stay On An Adventure Path?

[Maxperson]

A DM under no circumstance is allowed to improvise. They are not playing the game, they are running it. It is the players who choose where to go and what to do by telling the DM how to move their pieces around the hidden game board. And just as in any game anywhere a player cannot "ruin the plot", aka act against someone else's wishes, when playing a game. They are expressing their own desires sure, but really they are attempting to score points in a game.

Improv is probably the biggest and most important DM skill. Without it, the players don't have unlimited things they can try, they only have the small handful listed in the book.

 

[howandwhy99]

Improv is probably the biggest and most important DM skill. Without it, the players don't have unlimited things they can try, they only have the small handful listed in the book.

What's in the book are not the rules of D&D, they are suggestions for a secret code the DM is expressing behind a screen. This is default D&D. It's why the game is designed as it is.

And it is widely known the most common thing a DM does over and over again and must do well is math. Games are a part of math after all.

EDIT: You're talking about storygames and storytelling. The DM is not a player in the game. He's not there to decipher the pattern (he can actually see!) to achieve an objective in it.

 

[Maxperson]

What's in the book are not the rules of D&D, they are suggestions for a secret code the DM is expressing behind a screen. This is default D&D. It's why the game is designed as it is.

And it is widely known the most common thing a DM does over and over again and must do well is math. Games are a part of math after all.

EDIT: You're talking about storygames and storytelling. The DM is not a player in the game. He's not there to decipher the pattern to achieve an objective in it.

Math is minor. The story is the prime way the vast majority of people who play the game have fun and improv is key to that. Also, the game flat out says the DM is a player, so you can't be right about that claim.

 

[howandwhy99]

Math is minor. The story is the prime way the vast majority of people who play the game have fun and improv is key to that. Also, the game flat out says the DM is a player, so you can't be right about that claim.

You're just completely wrong. There is no such thing as a story. And D&D doesn't say any such thing.

 

[Maxperson]

You're just completely wrong. There is no such thing as a story. And D&D doesn't say any such thing.

You should try reading the PHB sometime. You'll learn some things.

 

[howandwhy99]

quote?

This is a game forum. You might have better luck at a forum for storytelling.

 

[Maxperson]

quote?

This is a game forum. You might have better luck at a forum for storytelling.

Page 5: "The Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game is about storytelling..."

Page 5: "One player, however, takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), the game’s lead storyteller and referee."

What say you now?

 

[howandwhy99]

Page 5: "The Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game is about storytelling..."

Page 5: "One player, however, takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), the game’s lead storyteller and referee."

What say you now?

You're in the wrong forum. This is "Older D&D Editions, D&D Variants, and OSR Gaming"
It's a forum about playing and running actual games. Not group storytelling.

 

[Maxperson]

You're in the wrong forum. This is "Older D&D Editions, D&D Variants, and OSR Gaming"
It's a forum about playing and running actual games. Not group storytelling.

My bad. It's on page 4 of the 3.5 PHB. "It's part acting, part storytelling, part social interaction, part war game, and part dice."

Also on that page. "One player is the Dungeon Master (DM)"

Note that acting, storytelling and social interaction come before war game and dice.

The older editions are the same. You have no leg to stand on. Your turn to start proving your baseless claims.

 

[Zak S]

whatever this conversation is about improvisation and storytelling and editions in general is, I don't see it leading to interesting answers to the OP.