Comments on: Going off the rails and loving it!

By: Kemonojin

Kemonojin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:21:22 +0000

I’m the outline sort. Kind of like Kirk mentioned… this is now, and this will be later if they do nothing. These are a few events along the way that I want to happen, and they can probably be bent to fit if necessary.

In one game, a constantly absent player ended up being the big bad. I got tired of them not showing up, or if they DID show up, mainly sleeping through the game.

By: Rauxis

Rauxis — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:17:32 +0000

At least for myself I have to disagree with your “there is always a script” – in many cases my games start with a setting – and an objective I want my players to meet. No plot or script whatsoever. For one reason – because I have NO idea in advance how to reach the objective myself. For instance there was the situation “how do you tell the Daimyo he is STUPID”.
And trust my players to destroy any plan I have been working on the last half year ……….

Rauxis, chosen of CAT

By: Maebius

Maebius — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:26:42 +0000

That comic remonded me soo much of one of my favorite sessions as a GM.
Similar setup, the party captured and facing “the mob boss in his office” and one character says, I’ll lunge at him with my secretly contained arm-blade (GURPS cyberpunk). Crit, max damage, and a spray of bullets everywhere, ending with one character also critting the skill-check to grab a belt of grenades on one of the thugs and pulling one pin off as he rolled past out the door later… Fun times!

By: Dylan

Dylan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:52:14 +0000

I don't know anyone that plays D&D, have you any advice on finding people that could teach me to play? .-= Dylan´s last blog ..How to install World of Warcraft addons =-.

By: Kyanr

Kyanr — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:42:58 +0000

I haven’t read through DM of the Rings, but I love Darths and Droids, which is pretty similar, just from the standpoint of starwars.

By: Kirk

Kirk — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:07:16 +0000

What Phelps said about the NPCs’ script. I found that what worked for me, eventually, was to turn the whole ‘the players are trying to ruin my story’ concept on its head. I wrote the “script” (vague general outline, key points, timing notes, that sort of thing) based on what would happen if the players DIDN’T “interfere”.

You wanna go play pirate, pick on some passing ships? ok, no problem. Down the road you learn what a lawful evil’s anti-piracy force looks like. After, of course, (maybe) noticing the changes in cargos to include refugees.
.-= Kirk´s last blog ..Coakley-Brown =-.

By: Fearful Bear

Fearful Bear — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:11:19 +0000

Awww now I’m missing my D&D days. I have a feeling my DM had those plans carefully laid out for me too, but being very much neutral chaotic when it came to that DM, he got more headaches than gameplay done from all the random input I churned to disrupt those said plans. Us as players had a lot of fun, the DM was reeling clutching his head.

50% of the players’ fun was derived from watching our DM spiral into a dark vortex of mind!@#$. :P

I’m sure there was a quiz out there somewhere that tested which kind of D&D player you were… fun tmes.

By: mythcreant

mythcreant — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:15:13 +0000

The best RPG story lines evolve from players doing the unexpected.One of my most memorable ones involved a long convoluted trek back and forth through time.It was intended so they could get a better understanding of how their actions affected their surroundings.What did they do? One of them ran over and gave their past-self a great big hug.The temporal paradox ended up nuking an entire city.One simple action and I ended up having to rewrite an entire history on the fly.Always said you can't trust the little buggers. And thanks for tipping me off to the comic series.All I can say is -Amazing .-= mythcreant´s last blog ..WoW Players =-.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:46:42 +0000

I love that comic series. :)

I’ve had a few discussions on the nature of games recently. I definitely think you have to be willing to “go with the flow”. If you want to craft a magnum opus, write a book or make a movie. Games are inherently unstable, and highly dependent on players and GM. That’s what makes them so interesting.
.-= Tesh´s last blog ..PSA: Haiti, RPGs and PDFs =-.

By: Phelps

Phelps — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:34:19 +0000

Oh, and they asked me afterwards how I would have handled it, and that was easy. “I would have had a dungeon creature come out, steal the Windlings two (yes, two) peg-legs and run into the dungeon with them.” (Bluebeard the Windling Pirate had two peg legs, two eye patches and a giant beard that he glued on his face after stealing a giant hunk of the elf’s blue hair while the elf slept.)