Critical Role Story, rails, and running games

[GMforPowergamers]

My players are not water. You know the old wooden toy where you try to guide a ball through a labyrinth with holes in the paths? Well, my players are the ball.

my players are like that too... but it's a spike ball, and some of the walls are paper... and I can't tell what ones will or wont break until BOOM... the PCs are all like "lets use dimension blade to cut through the maze walls"

 

[iserith]

we don't ask our friends to go home to be replaced just cause they had a bad day

if you need to take a week off we wouldn't force someone to show up... but i cant imagines omeone having a badday would make them NOT want to relax with there friends often

It's up to the player to decide that in the context of knowing they most likely aren't going to cause a session cancellation with their absence. We've got one that can't make it tonight. No big deal. Someone else will take the seat.

 

[Lanefan]

It's up to the player to decide that in the context of knowing they most likely aren't going to cause a session cancellation with their absence. We've got one that can't make it tonight. No big deal. Someone else will take the seat.

What do you do with the missing player's PC(s), though?

Or are you running a West Marches style of game where each session is its own adventure with its own party whose lineup isn't set until the session begins?

 

[iserith]

What do you do with the missing player's PC(s), though?

Or are you running a West Marches style of game where each session is its own adventure with its own party whose lineup isn't set until the session begins?

They fade to the background and someone else's PC appears in the foreground. The missing player's PC is there in some sense, but not relevant to the story emerging that session.

 

[Charlaquin]

Finally watched the full video, and in context, yeah, I agree with what he’s saying much more than I initially thought.

 

[overgeeked]

Dungeon Coach has gotten a hold of this analogy and has labeled it the water slide, a third option between sandbox and railroad. Not sure I entirely agree, but it's an interesting take on the clip.


If I were to use this method, it would be based on player-generated goals. The player decides where they want to end up and the referee's job is to make that journey interesting and winding rather than boring and straightforward. I think I could get behind that. As it's not taking agency away from the player and it's reactive obstacle generation to keep the achievement of player-generated goals interesting.