Search results

That is a good question. If the PCs have positioned themselves to know that dragons are coming and going, then the DM should tell them. Something like this happened in my last Burning Empires game (which is an indie game). The PCs were hunting down the "lieutenant" of a violent revolutionary...

I don't think that's the best example. The party can't mess things up because they have no information that would allow them to make a choice. Things can get messed up, sure, but it doesn't have anything to do with the choices the players are making. It's something that just happens. If the...

What tends to happen in indie games - typically in response to the reward system - is that the characters change based on the actions they take during scenes. What's more, the DM in indie games doesn't have an endpoint in mind. So what generally happens is that the PCs engage in conflict...

Yup. I could not figure out a way to give that information to PCs. Since we're playing a game, I don't think it matters that much.

I think that's fair. I put my 3E campaign on hold because I wanted to play Burning Empires again. BE is kind of a "fail forward" game, where you can succeed at your task but fail at your intent. One of the most important duties for the DM in BE is to make sure that failure is interesting...

I may have. In my last 3E game (Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil) I set up a timeline. The PCs managed their time well. They reached the "key location" (where the leaders of the cult were) well before they needed to engage with said location. That doesn't mean they couldn't have...

I have been talking about "DMing principles" for a while now; I'd be interested in hearing which ones you go with. (Even if you don't think about DMing that way.)

I laughed. Can someone XP Mr. BearCat for me?

My current theory is that the "forcing" side is working with additional/other "DM principles". I'm guessing that "Make sure everyone has a good time" and "Make sure that the PCs are challenged appropriately" are in there, or something like that, but I don't know. I'm just guessing (and that's...

Was this in response to what I said over here? I was thinking something more along the lines of this: "In this world, the king refusing the accept visitors is strange, since kings need to see visitors. So something strange is going on." I think that information is helpful - to the game; I...

I'll come back to this. If I'm reading you correctly, you find it frustrating when rulings are made to keep the players "on script." I'm still not sure I know what "on script" entails. Way back, Ahnehnois and I had a brief exchange about the DM's duties & responsibilities. If I said that...

I'm not sure I understand you here. Do you find NPCs who have justifiable in-game reasons to block your PCs frustrating? Or is it only that you find them frustrating when the DM is using the NPCs to force the PCs back "on script"? If the latter, what do you consider "on script"? I think...

Assuming Lanefan is saying that, what does "earn it" mean, who decides that, and how is it decided? My style would be to handle the reclusive king in one of two ways: 1) Write it up before the king comes into play. He's terrified of the hag in hex 01.09 who put a curse on him, saying that the...

This post vexes me. "Just because the players (I can only assume in character) decide they want to speak with the king does not and should not automatically mean they will be able to, now or ever." That is the only bit that I really understand. Is it player entitlement to expect the DM to...

A little from column A, a little from column B? I'll describe what I've done recently and let you decide. I randomly rolled up a bunch of major magic items. Then I rolled a die to set the EL for the dungeon where they'd be found. I then picked the monsters I wanted to use to build a theme...

:) Normally, before presenting the dragon, I'd say something like "Hang on guys, I forgot to mention: [blah blah blah]. Do you still want to go through with your action?" If I really screwed up I'd ret-con things, though that's a last resort. Still, you do what you gotta do to maintain...

That's interesting. I always pick (ii), because I let the players choose the combat encounters, which is nice because I don't have this massive responsibility to make sure everything runs smoothly. What I can screw up is the amount of information the players have - either through poor...

I guess I'm running a player-driven campaign now. We started off running the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, but I added a timeline and changed the XP system to give the players options - more ways to reach their goal (which was set by the module). Eventually, the PC's actions gave...

Good post. I think that goal #2 is the big determinant. For instance, I try to "stay true" to the NPCs I create, who may or may not be antagonists (depending on how the players choose to interact with them), and I try to remain an impartial arbiter of the game world (by making lots of random...

I don't think that every DM plays this way, nor do I think that you've described a conflict of interest. (I think you're close, but not quite there. You've left out something very important.) I think the fact that you think this must be a conflict of interest is telling, especially in light...