Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 2176722" data-attributes="member: 12037">A metaphorical sledgehammer. Basically, instead of looking at PC motivations, history, and crafting a plot that would engage the players through their PCs, the DM just made a supreme being come down upon them and demand they do something. At the very best that's a boring and railroady plot.The initial assumption is that the players will play along with mister uber-dude. The whole session/adventure probably revolves around them doing that. The DM is now in a bind; he has to get the PCs to agree to do this adventure or its time to close up the books and head home. This happened to me once, except under different circumstances. Since, I have cleaned up my act and always plan accordingly, that PCs will do their own thing. I'm a much better improver now, too, as its been years since that incident.My first campaign when I started college did in fact, have a powerful patron who was telling the PCs what to do, for the most part. I did, however, talk to my players before the game began, and I chose this because we had several players who were new to D&amp;D and might have been put off by the openness of what is allowed in the world. But, still, this example is very heavy handed and obviously didn't take the players into account when it was being devised, as they responded negatively to the quest.The moral? Don't put yourself in this situation! The scenario never should have happened in the first place, and that's the best way to fix it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ThirdWizard, post: 2176722, member: 12037"] A metaphorical sledgehammer. Basically, instead of looking at PC motivations, history, and crafting a plot that would engage the players through their PCs, the DM just made a supreme being come down upon them and demand they do something. At the very best that's a boring and railroady plot. The initial assumption is that the players will play along with mister uber-dude. The whole session/adventure probably revolves around them doing that. The DM is now in a bind; he has to get the PCs to agree to do this adventure or its time to close up the books and head home. This happened to me once, except under different circumstances. Since, I have cleaned up my act and always plan accordingly, that PCs will do their own thing. I'm a much better improver now, too, as its been years since that incident. My first campaign when I started college did in fact, have a powerful patron who was telling the PCs what to do, for the most part. I did, however, talk to my players before the game began, and I chose this because we had several players who were new to D&D and might have been put off by the openness of what is allowed in the world. But, still, this example is very heavy handed and obviously didn't take the players into account when it was being devised, as they responded negatively to the quest. The moral? Don't put yourself in this situation! The scenario never should have happened in the first place, and that's the best way to fix it. [/QUOTE]

Verification