D&D 5E Don't make the game too weird

[Vaalingrade]

All autognomes and giant space hamsters for the first session.

Then everything after that won't look so weird.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

It's easier to get add weirdness into your game as it progresses and remove some. So I'd say, start with a more conservative scenario and simply poll them after each session to make sure the level of weirdness is good.

 

[MarkB]

My tolerance for weirdness is high, but I'd say "too weird" for me is when a setting lacks enough context and internal consistency for me to make informed decisions in-character.

So basically, introduce whatever weirdness you like, but do it in such a way that your players can keep up and feel like they're part of this strange universe, rather than hopelessly lost in it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah. It's literally a defining feature of the setting.

"Not too weird" is akin to saying "not too Spelljammer".

Either you want Spelljammer or you don't. Weird comes with as part of the package.

People are gonna use a setting for whatever they want. I know my group isn’t into the farcical when RPing, but silly and weird are great for us, so we likely won’t use space clowns or things so heavy on puns that it’s impossible to meaningfully engage in character with them, but plasmoids are a source of excitement.

 

[LordEntrails]

Nothing is too weird. And, since your the DM and DMs are in such short supply, you run what you feel like and if the players don't like it, they can find a new DM (which you've already established that they can't...).

To have a conversation with people and come to an agreement and then to disregard that agreement is, to me, just completely disrespectful. It's not how I would treat other people.

If one were to start off saying, "Hey I'm going to run a game and it is going to be X", then fine. (It's how I usually start my campaigns.) But that's not what happened here. Though if the DM decides what the players want is not what they are willing to run, then fine. But be honest and respectful of each other.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

The players are all younger then me, so there is a huge culture gap with our ages.
I tried to ask what was "too weird", but just go a bunch of confusing non answers. I did e-mail everyone to get what they thought was too weird....no answers yet.

So.......what do you think is "too weird"?

Too weird?

 

[Umbran]

So.......what do you think is "too weird"?

When the narrative becomes incoherent, and there's no solid relation between cause and effect, you've gotten too weird.

But, really, what is too weird for us is hardly relevant, as we aren't in the game.

 

[jgsugden]

.... So.......what do you think is "too weird"?

The line is different for everyone.

And that means you should be talking to your players to find their lines and then making sure you draw within those lines. What we think, as a forum, is irrelevant. I've played in games that strove to be Sin City. I've also played in games that strove to incorporate every element of wokeness we could find. Both were fun experiences, but they had extremely different lines for what was too weird.

 

[Tonguez]

Guardians of the Galaxy is Spelljammer-esque and probably known to the younger players - so ask them, would they consider GotG which features a talking tree and a colony inside the severed head of a dead celestial to be weird.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Nothing is too weird. And, since your the DM and DMs are in such short supply, you run what you feel like and if the players don't like it, they can find a new DM (which you've already established that they can't...).

No D&D is better than a DM that doesn't care what you want.