D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Umbran]

Talk about a lack of imagination on part of the DM.

I'm pointing out the artificiality of the examples (or the hollowness of your games I guess).

Mod Note:
Both of you are making this personal and insulting.
So, both of you are done in this thread.

 

[Aldarc]

I don't think we disagree about game-level stuff.

I'd be inclined to say that in the majority of fiction, regardless of genre or medium, something is being exaggerated in some way.

Agreed, and I would take this one step further and say that these must be exaggerated for the sake of the game or genre.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Last paragraph. Languages don't work in most D&D settings the way they do in the real world.

Ah, sorry. I have access to and use several more detailed language systems from 3pp (there's a great one in Gate Pass Gazette for Level Up) that I feel do a better job of modeling this area.

 

[Bae'zel]

*Seriously, am I the only one who does this in my campaign? I didn't think it was that far out that at some point you're going to find yourself in an area cut off from the PC's origin locale.

OOh okay that got me thinking about my most recent campaigns (in reverse order from latest to oldest from memory):

• PCs from Faerun end up in Falkovnia, a Domain of Dread
• PCs start off as prisoners in Avernus, escape and end up in an unfamiliar region of the Sword Coast
• PCs have travelled to a frontier village near a mega dungeon (ie, far away from their homes)
• PCs are ancient greeks who get shipwrecked and end up on Monster Island with no immediate way back

...okay you're not the only one

 

[prabe]

Ah, sorry. I have access to and use several more detailed language systems from 3pp (there's a great one in Gate Pass Gazette for Level Up) that I feel do a better job of modeling this area.

No worries. I have access to ways to model this area, too, I just figured it was easier to write the setting to fit 5e's rules than to rewrite the rules.

 

[prabe]

OOh okay that got me thinking about my most recent campaigns (in reverse order from latest to oldest from memory):

• PCs from Faerun end up in Falkovnia, a Domain of Dread
• PCs start off as prisoners in Avernus, escape and end up in an unfamiliar region of the Sword Coast
• PCs have travelled to a frontier village near a mega dungeon (ie, far away from their homes)
• PCs are ancient greeks who get shipwrecked and end up on Monster Island with no immediate way back

...okay you're not the only one

The three campaigns I've run for 5e, in my homebrewed setting ...

(First campaign, 1-20) The PCs started in a city that was promptly menaced by various undead. The party took eight or so sessions to resolve that, then started looking at things they were interested in outside that city--but they kept coming back to that city as kinda a homebase, and the eventual high-level nemesis turned out to be at least indirectly connected to that city.

(Second campaign, ongoing, level 19) The PCs started in a caravanserai/carriage inn that was promptly menaced by a contagious cult of a Great Old One. The party took eight or so sessions to back-trail them and/or chase them down (it was actually some of both) then they started wandering around the setting, kinda stumbling into things, eventually finding a couple of nemeses, which turned out to be threatening a couple of cities to which the PCs have become attached, and which they have kinda alternated between as far as treating them as their home bases.

(Third campaign, ongoing, level 6) The PCs started as long-time locals in a conurbation that is the largest city on the main setting-world, which was promptly menaced by rats, various sorts of people turned rattish, wererats, and rattish fiends. Twenty-nine sessions in, they're getting close to resolving that. They have a lot of connections to and in the starting city, but they also have things they are interested in that if they pursue them will take them elsewhere.

Apparently I don't do those sorts of "twists" in my campaigns.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No worries. I have access to ways to model this area, too, I just figured it was easier to write the setting to fit 5e's rules than to rewrite the rules.

The setting is more important to me than the ruleset, so I make sure the rules can model the setting as closely as I can practically manage.

 

[Bae'zel]

Apparently I don't do those sorts of "twists" in my campaigns.

Oh mine weren't twists, they were in the campaign pitches. But each time I had new players so I had to be vigilant about their background choices and such to make sure that they weren't wasting their time, right?

 

[prabe]

The setting is more important to me than the ruleset, so I make sure the rules can model the setting as closely as I can practically manage.

Different priorities, of course. I generally am happy to write a setting that works with the expectations of the game (ruleset) I want to run.

 

[prabe]

Oh mine weren't twists, they were in the campaign pitches. But each time I had new players so I had to be vigilant about their background choices and such to make sure that they weren't wasting their time, right?

Yeah, if you're going to do that sort of thing, you need to get some player buy-in. Less than a twist-centric campaign, I think, but some; and making sure no one picked a background that'd just get nuked seems like a way to make that easier.

EDIT: But see my comment upthread containing my feelings about "fish out of water" in TRPGs. (spoiler: I don't like it)