Loremaster Telvlon
Villager
Below, you'll find my opinions/insights on several subjects I find particularly interesting in the D&D Community as of late. These ARE my opinions about things I've noticed; whether that be about myself, my friends, or others, this is simply a post about a thing I want to talk about.
Long topic, but hope you read.
Playing D&D
What makes D&D so special, to YOU?
Because to me, D&D has always been a place for me to fantasize; to escape and play in a world unlike our s***hole. Which seems odd to say, right? We all know the image D&D gives off to "normal people". But even past that, everyone knows it's a Fantasy RPG, of course we're fantasizing! But are we all doing that, really?
I've been DMing for a number of years, only about a year over on Roll20, which by the way is an amazing community. I love it and I love the friends I've made through it like family, honestly. But for those who don't know, physical and online DMing are vastly different and both present there own challenges, but we won't get into those right now. But ask any DM ever: one of the most difficult tasks, if not THE most difficult task, is getting your players to engage in "the game" (I'll get to why I quoted "the game" in the next section) without making it seem forced (i.e "the railroad"). But the honest to God truth is that you can't make a player do something they don't feel comfortable doing, ESPECIALLY with new players or players you don't know/don't know you/don't know each other... Roll20 and most online games tend to lend themselves to a combination of all of those in no particular order, usually.
And that kinda sucks, doesn't it? Because as a DM, you've built this world (most likely), and filled it with wonderful things (hopefully), and you WANT your players to engage so terribly badly, but they don't, OR you screw it up the whole way and botch the "cool NPC reveal" or whatever, it's all the same principle.
And as Players, we DO want to do all those things, right? Some of us do anyways, some of us don't. But it's difficult either way, for a number of reasons, some in our control and others not.
Both DM's and Players have these problems of "engagment" so let's talk about em'. At least the ones I've seen and done:
Players
1.) We're new to the game! That or we're hellbent on following the rules. Newbs, we don't KNOW what to expect, or WHAT to do. We're so worried about how many "Health...Hit... oh whatever, POINTS!" we have to work with, and how we attack, that maybe we don't sync up with the DM or the other Players. Or we're so overwhelmed by what the hell is going on that we shrink back and just don't do anything. OR, we're crazy about rules and want nothing to do with story if it means giving up on a rule or two. All of which I've done and DM'd for. But that's okay, we all had to learn, some of us are still learning. That doesn't mean we should break ourselves in the process, we're here to have FUN. And you can always ask the DM and other players to help, don't be embarrassed. And if you're a savage rule wizard, you gotta step back and take a breather. Think about that the next time you play, "Am I freaking out over the rules and my character sheet?" and just try to enjoy what's happening in the moment, I promise it will relieve a lot of that pressure, and even get you into character.
2.) We're INTROVERTS! Of course we are, how could we not be! We're ALL online or new in the store, we're ALL new people in a party (typically), with an ALL new DM. Hell yea we're gonna be introverts. For people unlike myself, who constantly get into character (more on this later) and want to talk to others, D&D is HARD. Which is crazy? I mean it IS a game, but it also IS a Role Playing Game. And to a lot of people, "role play" is quite literally, "roll (dice) as we play" Which is totally fine! But for people like myself, we play this game for the story, and for the emotion of the game, the "meat" of the game as I call it. And I know it's hard for people to get into character and role play, but you have to be willing to at least try, even a little bit. And good DMs know how to bring that out. BUT, you should still think about that the next time a crucial character/story moment presents itself, "what would my character do?" and then do it/say it. Give no s**** on how cool you look or sound, just go for it. I promise, it'll be pretty cool, to you and your DM if no one else.
3.) We are playing with other players who DON'T fall into our play style. This is sometimes out of our control, right? After all, most DMs here on Roll20 select their party from an application list, without consulting the players about their style. Though more and more I am seeing DM's interviewing applicants and using Session 0's to launch their campaigns from, which is great. Page 6 of the DMG outlines briefly the "types" of players D&D possesses, which is vague but more or less true. Matt Colville (a fantastic guy and DM) also has his idea of 7 types of players, highly recommend checking him and his channel on youtube out. Which kind of player are you? The most detrimental part of a Campaign is player synergy, or the lack thereof. We want to play with fun people like ourselves, but sometimes the creative mind gets stuck with the "min-maxer" or vice versa. That doesn't mean you can't make it work. It's also not the DM's job to make it work or make everyone happy, give N' take is crucial in a party of various play styles. Think about that the next time you want to tell that snobby "role player" to take it down a notch or that "min-maxer" to not be so meta. Have fun, and if it's not working out, you can ALWAYS leave gracefully, no need to start drama.
DMs
Now, things are a bit different for us DM's, particularly new ones. DMs tend to fall into one of the two categories: Mostly rules with loose RP, or Mostly Narrative(RP) with loose rules. The Vet's try to find the middle ground, and those of us who are left point and aim, and hope for the best. Though those main two I've seen, and done plenty of times. Which kind are you? All of em' have their benefits, but it's all about what kind of players compose your "adventuring party" Rule of thumb, don't stick a bunch of "combat enthusiast" in a political bout, they'll kill everyone. But let's talk about us, and our players, and their agency, which is VERY important.
Matt Colville (once again, a fantastic guy and DM) discusses player agency. We as DM's, strive to craft cool narratives, right? But sometimes we have everything planned from start to finish, all ready to go. So cool, and we want our players to think it's cool, so we nudge them along. But that's not how they see it. Because while we were having fun nudging them through our story, we forgot one important thing, perhaps the MOST important rule of D&D: We are NOTHING without our players. When we "railroad" them through OUR story, it's not about them, we take away THEIR agency. This is how plenty of games fall apart. Because while we, the DMs, are having one hell of a time, our player's aren't. That or our story really sucks
Give power to your players, let them dictate the story. Craft a general narrative, but let them have the reigns, it's OKAY. New DM's I swear to all the Gods New and Old, have mental breakdowns and panic to High Hell when their story is unhinged even by a fraction, I've been there, believe me., it's NOT fun. But the one thing I've learned over the years, is that it's OKAY. Because the players should dictate the story, it's THEIR story as much as it is yours, right? Keep that in mind the next time you come to a plot point that "needs" to be hit, and just sit back, and see how it unfolds, whether or not your players hit it, is up to them not you, and then move on from there.
New DM's constantly fall into that trap, "if I do this, this, and this, everything will go smoothly." Which is never true, by the way. I'll wrap this up cause' I really want to move into Rolplay. As a DM, you HAVE to be willing to let your story go for the sake of the players, bottom line. AND, you have to make your world believable, give it life, emotion, allow your players to have empathetic moments with the worldspace and the things in it.
SUMMARY of ABOVE: New DMs need to be patient with themselves and their players, Old DMs need to be patient with new players, old players with new DMs, Old players with new players, new players with themselves, players of varying play styles, DM's with varying play styles... And so on.
Look, it's a new game, you need to be patient, and you need to get into the game and not worry about "the game"
Roleplay and the "Critical Role" Standard
Above, I briefly touched on "the game" and I quote "the game" for one reason, because it shouldn't be seen as "the game" when we're in "the game" Holy high hell, what is he talking about? Let me explain.
Critical Role, yes that magnificent giant dastardly mess that's broadcast every Thursday night at 7:00 PM Pacific over on Geek&Sundry Twitch, that Critical role. You know it, probably. You also know that EVERYONE who watches, more or less WANTS to be in a game like that. Best example, has I know it happens:
X watches Critical Role, it was a really good episode. Vox Machina was AWESOME today. Jacked up on the high of D&D, X hops on over to Roll20 and browses the games, and finds one X likes. It fits X's ideal game; perfect world, and perfect because it said "Heavy Roleplay" in the description, so X goes and makes an app, crafting a character all night. AND X gets accepted into the game, super awesome! X is READY to work X's chops; X has an accent, a cool backstory, X knows what X wants to do, how X wants to say it and so on. X plans for weeks! Then, X gets in the game... And a lot of the players don't seem to share X's mindset, or do but are too new or too shy to participate like X does. But that's fine, because the DM starts the game off really well, and X is SO into this right now. So X goes about X's character, doing things "Y" would do, but some of the party are sort of "min-maxers" or "meta-gamers" and as noticed before, the other half are new and shy. They might want to roleplay, but the combat enthusiasts are convincing, and they agree with those folks, leaving X to X's own devices of Roleplay. And the DM is new or inexperienced or is better at combat scenarios, and it's starting to show, and of course DM is busy keeping track of a million other things. And X sighs but is happy to play, because the combat is still fun. So a few sessions go by, no real change in the game, but it's still fun. But then one night, DM has hit the party with a cool story moment, someone from X's backstory is introduced into the game, HOLY HELL. X is freaking out because it's so cool, but the rest of the party seems to be, "ehh". DM, who's sensed X was not feeling so good about the game, gave X this moment to reel X back in, maybe to even ignite something in the other players. But the other players aren't interested and the moment is squandered. X is miserable and doesn't talk much the rest of the game. After the game, X decides to contact DM and tell DM that X wants to leave the game. DM understands and X parts ways with group. X is left feeling cheated, the game said "rolplay heavy" after all, didn't it? But the players weren't interested in RP, DM wasn't really interested either or at least too busy or anxious, and that left X feeling sad. That fleeting moment of perhaps a place to be like Critical Role now long gone leaving X wondering...
This is just one example of what it is like, to firstly have Critical Role as a standard for D&D gaming, but also what it's like to be a heavy Role-player, in a game of non-Role-players. I have plenty of friends with stories like this. And I even asked some of them to be players in a game that I wanted to DM, and we've been playing since August, and it's amazing. They love it, I love it, it's wonderful. But not everybody GETS to that final stage., the one that My players and I am at. A lot of us are left feeling cheated and we have this thirst for rich roleplay and we can't seem to find it anywhere but in places we're not invited (Critical Role). And that's aggravating, right? Because there are plenty of people who play the game for "the game" But us Roleplayers don't play the game for "the game".... We play the game to find the emotion, to find the story, to find the empathy and the things of the sort that make Critical Role so special to thousands of people across the WORLD. And I know there are plenty of us who have the thirst for that sort of game, and the chops to go with it, so how could it be so difficult to find that, right here right now on any Roll20 LFG?!
Well, we gotta remember, getting to Critical Role, is not easy. People forget they were a group of loose friends, who didn't really know the game, that sat down and played for 3 YEARS before streaming, becoming good friends, becoming engaged players. It helped that they all had acting backgrounds, but you don't need an acting background to make believe.
If there is one thing, ONE THING, to take away from my lengthy ramble. It's that YOU, the player, the DM, whoever, have to WILLINGLY suspend your disbelief of everything, otherwise you will never get past the paper, you will never get past the dice, past the rules, past "the game" And you will never get to that "Critical Role" standard. You just won't. And if it's any indication how far I've come, I was X once. Now, I don't play as a player anymore, because a good friend once told me "if you want to do something right you gotta do it yourself" But no matter what, players come first, their voice matters, their RP matters, their choices matter, and their agency matters, it all matter to me. And I think you'll find, whether your a new DM or struggling Player, that if you care about those things and apply them, you will find great success in your games.
Anyways I've said my 2 cents, thanks for reading! Be sure to leave your thoughts on any of the matters or questions I've brought up down below. Seriously, I'm curious as to what others think about these topics!
Cheers n_n
Long topic, but hope you read.
Playing D&D
What makes D&D so special, to YOU?
Because to me, D&D has always been a place for me to fantasize; to escape and play in a world unlike our s***hole. Which seems odd to say, right? We all know the image D&D gives off to "normal people". But even past that, everyone knows it's a Fantasy RPG, of course we're fantasizing! But are we all doing that, really?
I've been DMing for a number of years, only about a year over on Roll20, which by the way is an amazing community. I love it and I love the friends I've made through it like family, honestly. But for those who don't know, physical and online DMing are vastly different and both present there own challenges, but we won't get into those right now. But ask any DM ever: one of the most difficult tasks, if not THE most difficult task, is getting your players to engage in "the game" (I'll get to why I quoted "the game" in the next section) without making it seem forced (i.e "the railroad"). But the honest to God truth is that you can't make a player do something they don't feel comfortable doing, ESPECIALLY with new players or players you don't know/don't know you/don't know each other... Roll20 and most online games tend to lend themselves to a combination of all of those in no particular order, usually.
And that kinda sucks, doesn't it? Because as a DM, you've built this world (most likely), and filled it with wonderful things (hopefully), and you WANT your players to engage so terribly badly, but they don't, OR you screw it up the whole way and botch the "cool NPC reveal" or whatever, it's all the same principle.
And as Players, we DO want to do all those things, right? Some of us do anyways, some of us don't. But it's difficult either way, for a number of reasons, some in our control and others not.
Both DM's and Players have these problems of "engagment" so let's talk about em'. At least the ones I've seen and done:
Players
1.) We're new to the game! That or we're hellbent on following the rules. Newbs, we don't KNOW what to expect, or WHAT to do. We're so worried about how many "Health...Hit... oh whatever, POINTS!" we have to work with, and how we attack, that maybe we don't sync up with the DM or the other Players. Or we're so overwhelmed by what the hell is going on that we shrink back and just don't do anything. OR, we're crazy about rules and want nothing to do with story if it means giving up on a rule or two. All of which I've done and DM'd for. But that's okay, we all had to learn, some of us are still learning. That doesn't mean we should break ourselves in the process, we're here to have FUN. And you can always ask the DM and other players to help, don't be embarrassed. And if you're a savage rule wizard, you gotta step back and take a breather. Think about that the next time you play, "Am I freaking out over the rules and my character sheet?" and just try to enjoy what's happening in the moment, I promise it will relieve a lot of that pressure, and even get you into character.
2.) We're INTROVERTS! Of course we are, how could we not be! We're ALL online or new in the store, we're ALL new people in a party (typically), with an ALL new DM. Hell yea we're gonna be introverts. For people unlike myself, who constantly get into character (more on this later) and want to talk to others, D&D is HARD. Which is crazy? I mean it IS a game, but it also IS a Role Playing Game. And to a lot of people, "role play" is quite literally, "roll (dice) as we play" Which is totally fine! But for people like myself, we play this game for the story, and for the emotion of the game, the "meat" of the game as I call it. And I know it's hard for people to get into character and role play, but you have to be willing to at least try, even a little bit. And good DMs know how to bring that out. BUT, you should still think about that the next time a crucial character/story moment presents itself, "what would my character do?" and then do it/say it. Give no s**** on how cool you look or sound, just go for it. I promise, it'll be pretty cool, to you and your DM if no one else.
3.) We are playing with other players who DON'T fall into our play style. This is sometimes out of our control, right? After all, most DMs here on Roll20 select their party from an application list, without consulting the players about their style. Though more and more I am seeing DM's interviewing applicants and using Session 0's to launch their campaigns from, which is great. Page 6 of the DMG outlines briefly the "types" of players D&D possesses, which is vague but more or less true. Matt Colville (a fantastic guy and DM) also has his idea of 7 types of players, highly recommend checking him and his channel on youtube out. Which kind of player are you? The most detrimental part of a Campaign is player synergy, or the lack thereof. We want to play with fun people like ourselves, but sometimes the creative mind gets stuck with the "min-maxer" or vice versa. That doesn't mean you can't make it work. It's also not the DM's job to make it work or make everyone happy, give N' take is crucial in a party of various play styles. Think about that the next time you want to tell that snobby "role player" to take it down a notch or that "min-maxer" to not be so meta. Have fun, and if it's not working out, you can ALWAYS leave gracefully, no need to start drama.
DMs
Now, things are a bit different for us DM's, particularly new ones. DMs tend to fall into one of the two categories: Mostly rules with loose RP, or Mostly Narrative(RP) with loose rules. The Vet's try to find the middle ground, and those of us who are left point and aim, and hope for the best. Though those main two I've seen, and done plenty of times. Which kind are you? All of em' have their benefits, but it's all about what kind of players compose your "adventuring party" Rule of thumb, don't stick a bunch of "combat enthusiast" in a political bout, they'll kill everyone. But let's talk about us, and our players, and their agency, which is VERY important.
Matt Colville (once again, a fantastic guy and DM) discusses player agency. We as DM's, strive to craft cool narratives, right? But sometimes we have everything planned from start to finish, all ready to go. So cool, and we want our players to think it's cool, so we nudge them along. But that's not how they see it. Because while we were having fun nudging them through our story, we forgot one important thing, perhaps the MOST important rule of D&D: We are NOTHING without our players. When we "railroad" them through OUR story, it's not about them, we take away THEIR agency. This is how plenty of games fall apart. Because while we, the DMs, are having one hell of a time, our player's aren't. That or our story really sucks
Give power to your players, let them dictate the story. Craft a general narrative, but let them have the reigns, it's OKAY. New DM's I swear to all the Gods New and Old, have mental breakdowns and panic to High Hell when their story is unhinged even by a fraction, I've been there, believe me., it's NOT fun. But the one thing I've learned over the years, is that it's OKAY. Because the players should dictate the story, it's THEIR story as much as it is yours, right? Keep that in mind the next time you come to a plot point that "needs" to be hit, and just sit back, and see how it unfolds, whether or not your players hit it, is up to them not you, and then move on from there.
New DM's constantly fall into that trap, "if I do this, this, and this, everything will go smoothly." Which is never true, by the way. I'll wrap this up cause' I really want to move into Rolplay. As a DM, you HAVE to be willing to let your story go for the sake of the players, bottom line. AND, you have to make your world believable, give it life, emotion, allow your players to have empathetic moments with the worldspace and the things in it.
SUMMARY of ABOVE: New DMs need to be patient with themselves and their players, Old DMs need to be patient with new players, old players with new DMs, Old players with new players, new players with themselves, players of varying play styles, DM's with varying play styles... And so on.
Look, it's a new game, you need to be patient, and you need to get into the game and not worry about "the game"
Roleplay and the "Critical Role" Standard
Above, I briefly touched on "the game" and I quote "the game" for one reason, because it shouldn't be seen as "the game" when we're in "the game" Holy high hell, what is he talking about? Let me explain.
Critical Role, yes that magnificent giant dastardly mess that's broadcast every Thursday night at 7:00 PM Pacific over on Geek&Sundry Twitch, that Critical role. You know it, probably. You also know that EVERYONE who watches, more or less WANTS to be in a game like that. Best example, has I know it happens:
X watches Critical Role, it was a really good episode. Vox Machina was AWESOME today. Jacked up on the high of D&D, X hops on over to Roll20 and browses the games, and finds one X likes. It fits X's ideal game; perfect world, and perfect because it said "Heavy Roleplay" in the description, so X goes and makes an app, crafting a character all night. AND X gets accepted into the game, super awesome! X is READY to work X's chops; X has an accent, a cool backstory, X knows what X wants to do, how X wants to say it and so on. X plans for weeks! Then, X gets in the game... And a lot of the players don't seem to share X's mindset, or do but are too new or too shy to participate like X does. But that's fine, because the DM starts the game off really well, and X is SO into this right now. So X goes about X's character, doing things "Y" would do, but some of the party are sort of "min-maxers" or "meta-gamers" and as noticed before, the other half are new and shy. They might want to roleplay, but the combat enthusiasts are convincing, and they agree with those folks, leaving X to X's own devices of Roleplay. And the DM is new or inexperienced or is better at combat scenarios, and it's starting to show, and of course DM is busy keeping track of a million other things. And X sighs but is happy to play, because the combat is still fun. So a few sessions go by, no real change in the game, but it's still fun. But then one night, DM has hit the party with a cool story moment, someone from X's backstory is introduced into the game, HOLY HELL. X is freaking out because it's so cool, but the rest of the party seems to be, "ehh". DM, who's sensed X was not feeling so good about the game, gave X this moment to reel X back in, maybe to even ignite something in the other players. But the other players aren't interested and the moment is squandered. X is miserable and doesn't talk much the rest of the game. After the game, X decides to contact DM and tell DM that X wants to leave the game. DM understands and X parts ways with group. X is left feeling cheated, the game said "rolplay heavy" after all, didn't it? But the players weren't interested in RP, DM wasn't really interested either or at least too busy or anxious, and that left X feeling sad. That fleeting moment of perhaps a place to be like Critical Role now long gone leaving X wondering...
This is just one example of what it is like, to firstly have Critical Role as a standard for D&D gaming, but also what it's like to be a heavy Role-player, in a game of non-Role-players. I have plenty of friends with stories like this. And I even asked some of them to be players in a game that I wanted to DM, and we've been playing since August, and it's amazing. They love it, I love it, it's wonderful. But not everybody GETS to that final stage., the one that My players and I am at. A lot of us are left feeling cheated and we have this thirst for rich roleplay and we can't seem to find it anywhere but in places we're not invited (Critical Role). And that's aggravating, right? Because there are plenty of people who play the game for "the game" But us Roleplayers don't play the game for "the game".... We play the game to find the emotion, to find the story, to find the empathy and the things of the sort that make Critical Role so special to thousands of people across the WORLD. And I know there are plenty of us who have the thirst for that sort of game, and the chops to go with it, so how could it be so difficult to find that, right here right now on any Roll20 LFG?!
Well, we gotta remember, getting to Critical Role, is not easy. People forget they were a group of loose friends, who didn't really know the game, that sat down and played for 3 YEARS before streaming, becoming good friends, becoming engaged players. It helped that they all had acting backgrounds, but you don't need an acting background to make believe.
If there is one thing, ONE THING, to take away from my lengthy ramble. It's that YOU, the player, the DM, whoever, have to WILLINGLY suspend your disbelief of everything, otherwise you will never get past the paper, you will never get past the dice, past the rules, past "the game" And you will never get to that "Critical Role" standard. You just won't. And if it's any indication how far I've come, I was X once. Now, I don't play as a player anymore, because a good friend once told me "if you want to do something right you gotta do it yourself" But no matter what, players come first, their voice matters, their RP matters, their choices matter, and their agency matters, it all matter to me. And I think you'll find, whether your a new DM or struggling Player, that if you care about those things and apply them, you will find great success in your games.
Anyways I've said my 2 cents, thanks for reading! Be sure to leave your thoughts on any of the matters or questions I've brought up down below. Seriously, I'm curious as to what others think about these topics!
Cheers n_n
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