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Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art
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<blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 6306852" data-attributes="member: 6776133"><p>Yes, you're going to force your players to create characters that belong in the world. That's the game. People don't show up, fully formed & geared to go out of nowhere. Characters, with classes, ages, races, backgrounds, etc., should also have families, friends, rivals, romances, and all that. </p><p></p><p>Sometimes, players what to use "Chaotic Neutral" or "practical" as an excuse to avoid RP altogether. Whatever you think of alignment, if the players aren't interested in RP, then they're not interested in setting or pursuing goals (for the most part). </p><p></p><p>So the fine art of DM-ing starts in character creation. It starts with interviewing the player about the character and rejecting characters that don't fit into the world. "He comes from nowhere, has no family, and cares about nothing." That's not a playable character. It has no motivations nor ties to the setting. You have to lead the player into creating those ties. Because role playing a character is one of this game's biggest features and strengths. </p><p></p><p>As a DM, you create a rich fictional world with adventure and intrigue. Your players must at least come up with a character with motivations, goals, desires, and some kind of history. </p><p></p><p>A common pitfall is to have a player create a loner badass who lacks reasons to cooperate. But even the classic loner badasses have teams and support systems. Rooster Cogburn, Batman, Wolverine. Even alone Wolf and Cub has Cub (and a moving personal story). </p><p></p><p>So if this is an art, part of that means drawing out what makes any PC a person and not merely a collection of stats on paper. </p><p></p><p>(Unless your game is endless kick-in-the-door action, which is fine, but even that tends to have some dimension to it).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bawylie, post: 6306852, member: 6776133"] Yes, you're going to force your players to create characters that belong in the world. That's the game. People don't show up, fully formed & geared to go out of nowhere. Characters, with classes, ages, races, backgrounds, etc., should also have families, friends, rivals, romances, and all that. Sometimes, players what to use "Chaotic Neutral" or "practical" as an excuse to avoid RP altogether. Whatever you think of alignment, if the players aren't interested in RP, then they're not interested in setting or pursuing goals (for the most part). So the fine art of DM-ing starts in character creation. It starts with interviewing the player about the character and rejecting characters that don't fit into the world. "He comes from nowhere, has no family, and cares about nothing." That's not a playable character. It has no motivations nor ties to the setting. You have to lead the player into creating those ties. Because role playing a character is one of this game's biggest features and strengths. As a DM, you create a rich fictional world with adventure and intrigue. Your players must at least come up with a character with motivations, goals, desires, and some kind of history. A common pitfall is to have a player create a loner badass who lacks reasons to cooperate. But even the classic loner badasses have teams and support systems. Rooster Cogburn, Batman, Wolverine. Even alone Wolf and Cub has Cub (and a moving personal story). So if this is an art, part of that means drawing out what makes any PC a person and not merely a collection of stats on paper. (Unless your game is endless kick-in-the-door action, which is fine, but even that tends to have some dimension to it). [/QUOTE]
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