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How much control do DMs need?
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8996757" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I think people can be as creative as the DM in some ways, but otherwise I agree. Except that "benevolent DM" sounds a bit ... patriarchal? </p><p></p><p>I will say that if someone wants to play, say, an elf in my campaign I'd guide them through a series of questions. What kind of elf, first and foremost. Based on that I have a few general options, now which origin location makes the most sense? Based on that here's my outline (which may either have a high amount of detailed history or just an outline note or two) of how you can fill in your backstory. If people want to come up with something complex we'll chat back and forth ahead of time offline and come up with something.</p><p></p><p>But honestly? Most people seem to just want to play an orphan that knows no one and has no connection. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> </p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="Meanwhile my PC"]</p><p>I made a PC (with the blessing of the DM) who's pretending to be a sailor who emigrated to the mountains because he's trying to escape his father. The father who actually was a sailor that he idolized that ended up wanting to sacrifice my PC in a dark ritual. As far as I know he <em>did</em> sacrifice my younger sister. Did he? No clue. BTW I took keen mind for the sole purpose of not being able to forget the words of the ritual book I glanced through. He's using an accent I associate with a series of islands to the west but he's really from the far north and the only time he was on a ship was when he stowed away to escape. </p><p></p><p>I'm not going to make it a novel, I'm not going to have grand exploits as a 1st level PC, but he does have a history to justify his "Haunted" background.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Putting the lich story on hold is likely one of the biggest differences here. I might, I might not. Partly depends on how far I had advanced that particular plot hook and what I think the impact and future potential hooks it could lead to. I will also add that I do give people options what they want to pursue, and they can always pitch campaign arcs based on something else going on or even just some personal goal.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8996757, member: 6801845"] I think people can be as creative as the DM in some ways, but otherwise I agree. Except that "benevolent DM" sounds a bit ... patriarchal? I will say that if someone wants to play, say, an elf in my campaign I'd guide them through a series of questions. What kind of elf, first and foremost. Based on that I have a few general options, now which origin location makes the most sense? Based on that here's my outline (which may either have a high amount of detailed history or just an outline note or two) of how you can fill in your backstory. If people want to come up with something complex we'll chat back and forth ahead of time offline and come up with something. But honestly? Most people seem to just want to play an orphan that knows no one and has no connection. :( [SPOILER="Meanwhile my PC"] I made a PC (with the blessing of the DM) who's pretending to be a sailor who emigrated to the mountains because he's trying to escape his father. The father who actually was a sailor that he idolized that ended up wanting to sacrifice my PC in a dark ritual. As far as I know he [I]did[/I] sacrifice my younger sister. Did he? No clue. BTW I took keen mind for the sole purpose of not being able to forget the words of the ritual book I glanced through. He's using an accent I associate with a series of islands to the west but he's really from the far north and the only time he was on a ship was when he stowed away to escape. I'm not going to make it a novel, I'm not going to have grand exploits as a 1st level PC, but he does have a history to justify his "Haunted" background. [/SPOILER] Putting the lich story on hold is likely one of the biggest differences here. I might, I might not. Partly depends on how far I had advanced that particular plot hook and what I think the impact and future potential hooks it could lead to. I will also add that I do give people options what they want to pursue, and they can always pitch campaign arcs based on something else going on or even just some personal goal. [/QUOTE]
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