“You see a gazebo in the grassy field to the right. It is alrge, and round, and seems to look very sturdy and strong.” “I attack the gazebo.” “You what?”

I remember reading about that incident years ago, and the very mention of it still brings a smile to my face. There’s gotta be a link to this story somewhere.

Sad thing is, that little story was probably more relevant to my group than most, as one of our members who occasionally GM’d games often confused the words “Cavern”, and “Caravan”. It eventually reached the point where the phrase “You find yourselves in a large cavern.” was immediately followed by the question, “You mean the kind with the wagons, or is it actually a big hole in the ground this time?” (Regardless of whatever contextual information preceded the original statement.)

Imagine, if you will, the confusion and hilarity that resulted from a session that involved the players escorting a trade caravan through the Underdark.

I’m just bad with names. The fact that I can’t think up a name for an NPC does not show he has no importance. I tend to refer to any character as “the barkeep” or “the priest”. Even if the priest in question is the head of a secret conspiracy to plunge the world into a magical ice age.

My whole group is this way; while we have actual names on our character sheets, even PCs are almost always refered to by their class or the player’s name.

“And one last thing. I ain’t monty hall, I don’t godmode, my NPCs, no matter how powerful, never take center stage over the players’ characters (at least not for long),”

Thank you! I’ve been in several RP campaigns where the NPCs were the center stage, and we the players were the backup singers. In one D&D Forgotten Realms campaign, the DM decided that in every adventure, we would somehow get captured, or be put into a situation where only D’rizzt (or how ever you spell his name) and Elminster (again, don’t think thats spelled right) could save us by crashing in through a window, or some such nonsense. Needless to say, the campaign didn’t last long.

When I do a campaign, the only NPCs that are more powerful than the PCs are the enemies. Sure, certain key figures, like a high priest, or possibly a warrior king may have them out leveled, but they never “dirty their hands” with the grunt work the PCs need to take care of.

Again, thank you for spreading the concept that the players are the heroes of the story, not phil the uber ninja.

~Chopz