TTRPGs & D&D
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altcunningham
Mr. Ana de Armas
I'll check it out, thanks.
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I am pathologically driven to dislike the people that everyone claims are important 'authorities' on something, or integral to something. But Gygax legitimately was a fucking twat. Everything I ever read by him sounded in my brain like it was echoing through his own colon. I can't stand him. And it's nice that other people are fully on board with what a twat he was.
docsilence
Dungeon Daddy
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Gary falls into that category of "I'm okay with enjoying something he did cos he's gone" category of awful people for me. Never heard a story that made me think the other stories weren't true.
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Unlike a lot of other people - most other people - I barely even identify D&D with Gary. He didn't create the entire game single-handedly, and the game he created barely has anything to do with the game we play today. In fact, Gary seemed to fucking hate modern D&D (mostly because he was an arrogant piece of shit that couldn't fathom that his version wasn't the greatest version to ever be made).
docsilence
Dungeon Daddy
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I'll be honest, Gary's not even a consideration. When I think of modern D&D from a design perspective I think more of Perkins, Crawford, Meals, newer designers like Dan Dillon or McKenzie D'armis... The game is barely recognizable from when Gary made it and I'm okay with that. Hell the best WOTC book on my shelf was headed up by Kate Welch who doesn't even work in TTRPGs anymore, I think.
I forget which creator it was, but someone with a gender-neutral name was working with a D&D project and Gary didn't know she was a woman. Apparently the first time they talked Gary was so shocked she wasn't a man he just said 'But you're a woman" four times on the line, then hung up. She still got paid but what a weird, weird dude.
Speaking of Dan Dillon, I highly recommend Critical Lit - four game designers breaking down old modules and talking about problems and good parts of each. They did Tomb of Horrors already and are looking at Strahd right now and it's become my "this show does not stress me out at ALL" podcast to listen to on my run.
I'm a huge critic of the great man theory. I believe D&D is one of those things, like the lightbulb and most everything else, that would've been invented by someone else had Gygax not come along. Given the game's evolution, someone else might've even done it better. I don't know that much about Gygax, but his quotes about women were more than enough for me.
I haven't fully DMed in almost six months, which led to some extreme early-game jitters. It didn't help that I was DMing for my wife, whom I was trying to impress, in a game system I'd never run before. Worse, as an anxious person, I try to avoid parties at all costs. Well, today's one-shot was a murder at a Halloween party. I realized while prepping that I backed myself into a corner. I'd be making small talk as eight different NPCs. I can't make small talk as me, in real life. Thankfully, once the murder happened, the small talk ended and my DM muscle took control. It was a choppy start, though.
It was my first experience with a Powered by the Apocalypse game system. I liked it more than I expected, though I can't imagine running a long-term campaign (20+ sessions) in the system. I would try Masks in an abbreviated campaign (maybe 5 or 10 sessions). Same for Blades in the Dark, which isn't a PbtA game, but similar.
In any case, my players liked it enough to request a second session. Miraculously, Brindlewood Bay has a Christmas-themed mystery, so I'm going to run my first (and maybe last) Christmas special later this year.
I ran my Halloween one-shot in Brindlewood Bay today. From what I gleaned, my players loved it. It was low stakes and a little silly. I ran it with four people: two of my usual crew, one of their girlfriends, and my wife. It was my wife's first experience with a TTRPG. I think she enjoyed it, though I doubt she'll become a regular. I might get her for a few games a year, but RP isn't her thing. Fantasy settings aren't, either.
I haven't fully DMed in almost six months, which led to some extreme early-game jitters. It didn't help that I was DMing for my wife, whom I was trying to impress, in a game system I'd never run before. Worse, as an anxious person, I try to avoid parties at all costs. Well, today's one-shot was a murder at a Halloween party. I realized while prepping that I backed myself into a corner. I'd be making small talk as eight different NPCs. I can't make small talk as me, in real life. Thankfully, once the murder happened, the small talk ended and my DM muscle took control. It was a choppy start, though.
It was my first experience with a Powered by the Apocalypse game system. I liked it more than I expected, though I can't imagine running a long-term campaign (20+ sessions) in the system. I would try Masks in an abbreviated campaign (maybe 5 or 10 sessions). Same for Blades in the Dark, which isn't a PbtA game, but similar.
In any case, my players liked it enough to request a second session. Miraculously, Brindlewood Bay has a Christmas-themed mystery, so I'm going to run my first (and maybe last) Christmas special later this year.
I ran my Traveller game about two weeks ago. This is the group with the poorly behaved player.
I couldn't believe how well it went.
As the game neared, I wanted nothing to do with it. You DMs will know that this is the worst spot you can be in. If you can't sell the game, no one will buy it. My first thought was to run a pre-written adventure. The great thing about running a 50-year-old game is that there's an abundance of quality material. When I began reviewing my notes from session zero, I remembered that I had prepped a mini-adventure for the end of the night. Session zero went on way too long, so I shelved it. Rather than half-assing a pre-written module, I decided to pad out what I had originally written to fill three hours.
I took massive inspiration from @docsilence. Instead of yada yadaing the small details (or skipping them altogether), I luxuriated in them. In Traveller character creation, the players simulate their careers to the point that they want to begin adventuring. Part of that is connecting themselves to their fellow players through life events so they join the crew organically.
I kicked things off in a bar where they met up for the first time (while they had some prior relationships, they didn't know every traveler on the ship). From there, I sent them to a bank to 1) explain how they came across the ship (ostensibly, they stole it, so I knew this would make for good RP), 2) name their ship, and 3) sign the mortgage paperwork. I shamelessly stole my in-universe bank from Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. My bank is the banking house of Valint & Balk by another name. Expressing—as a nasally bureaucrat—that the bank was not to be trifled with was some of the most fun I've had RPing.
To my utter shock, the players responded with the single best RP I've ever seen. The two party "leaders" had a sidebar just out of earshot of my nasally bank teller, while two others made small talk with me. The face of the group, a self-obsessed celebrity, fretted over how they'd pay the ship's mortgage while the other leader, a morally compromised shoot-first corporate agent (the bad player), talked him down. I was crying laughing. Incredibly meta to watch a player argue against adventuring in an adventure game.
I finished it off with a bounty. The bank asked the players to hunt down a ship that had forgone its mortgage payments.
I took a couple of big lessons from the session:
1) Group dynamics matter. While the bad player never fit in with two different groups of do-gooders, he's perfectly suited for a group of morally ambiguous space outlaws. In a group like this, being a rogue or a wildcard isn't out of place, or even a bad thing. The big question is whether his good behavior can continue. Is he going to say some shit that sends me off the deep end? Almost definitely yes.
2) Changing the game cadence changes the game entirely. If I wanted to run the game, I would've run my standard fare. I would've started them on the ship with an adventure hook. We would've gone from A to B to C without taking a breath. Like alt's group, if I don't keep my players in line, either we'll get nothing done or they'll yap for three hours. I'm undecided about smaller, more focused sessions, but running one was eye-opening.
Do we have a name for doc's style? I don't know that it's fair to call them smaller. We did a lot in today's session, but it took place in three or four longer scenes instead of my usual eight or 10 shorter ones. It's less ADHD.
In any case, the good news about the Traveller game is that I found a second wind. If the players are going to take it seriously, I will too.
I couldn't believe how well it went.
As the game neared, I wanted nothing to do with it. You DMs will know that this is the worst spot you can be in. If you can't sell the game, no one will buy it. My first thought was to run a pre-written adventure. The great thing about running a 50-year-old game is that there's an abundance of quality material. When I began reviewing my notes from session zero, I remembered that I had prepped a mini-adventure for the end of the night. Session zero went on way too long, so I shelved it. Rather than half-assing a pre-written module, I decided to pad out what I had originally written to fill three hours.
I took massive inspiration from @docsilence. Instead of yada yadaing the small details (or skipping them altogether), I luxuriated in them. In Traveller character creation, the players simulate their careers to the point that they want to begin adventuring. Part of that is connecting themselves to their fellow players through life events so they join the crew organically.
I kicked things off in a bar where they met up for the first time (while they had some prior relationships, they didn't know every traveler on the ship). From there, I sent them to a bank to 1) explain how they came across the ship (ostensibly, they stole it, so I knew this would make for good RP), 2) name their ship, and 3) sign the mortgage paperwork. I shamelessly stole my in-universe bank from Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. My bank is the banking house of Valint & Balk by another name. Expressing—as a nasally bureaucrat—that the bank was not to be trifled with was some of the most fun I've had RPing.
To my utter shock, the players responded with the single best RP I've ever seen. The two party "leaders" had a sidebar just out of earshot of my nasally bank teller, while two others made small talk with me. The face of the group, a self-obsessed celebrity, fretted over how they'd pay the ship's mortgage while the other leader, a morally compromised shoot-first corporate agent (the bad player), talked him down. I was crying laughing. Incredibly meta to watch a player argue against adventuring in an adventure game.
I finished it off with a bounty. The bank asked the players to hunt down a ship that had forgone its mortgage payments.
I took a couple of big lessons from the session:
1) Group dynamics matter. While the bad player never fit in with two different groups of do-gooders, he's perfectly suited for a group of morally ambiguous space outlaws. In a group like this, being a rogue or a wildcard isn't out of place, or even a bad thing. The big question is whether his good behavior can continue. Is he going to say some shit that sends me off the deep end? Almost definitely yes.
2) Changing the game cadence changes the game entirely. If I wanted to run the game, I would've run my standard fare. I would've started them on the ship with an adventure hook. We would've gone from A to B to C without taking a breath. Like alt's group, if I don't keep my players in line, either we'll get nothing done or they'll yap for three hours. I'm undecided about smaller, more focused sessions, but running one was eye-opening.
Do we have a name for doc's style? I don't know that it's fair to call them smaller. We did a lot in today's session, but it took place in three or four longer scenes instead of my usual eight or 10 shorter ones. It's less ADHD.
In any case, the good news about the Traveller game is that I found a second wind. If the players are going to take it seriously, I will too.
docsilence
Dungeon Daddy
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There's gotta be a name for it, but I don't know. I couldn't even tell you exactly where I picked it up - I just love letting players tell the story and building on what pulls THEM in, and I know a lot of improv-leaning DMs think the same way. My best sessions are when a player eats a hallucinogenic mushroom and sees god or the group becomes obsessed with a drug-dealing pixie. I delight in the little things that players are keyed in on. (My hope with our game earlier was that the hag poking and prodding at your individual fears would give you all a chance to chew on that a bit and inform the story by your worries.)
Luxuriating in small moments - man, if a player says "I want to do this little thing" and the other players lean in and are invested, that's where the magic happens. Whatever story I want to tell is secondary to letting players interact with the world. (I do always try to read the room - I think you can tell when the non-focus players are leaning in like "yes let's see what happens" vs. not interested or bored by it. Sort of like how I mentioned earlier about trying to read the room for when a group is horny for combat and needs to fireball something before they fireball themselves.)
Luxuriating in small moments - man, if a player says "I want to do this little thing" and the other players lean in and are invested, that's where the magic happens. Whatever story I want to tell is secondary to letting players interact with the world. (I do always try to read the room - I think you can tell when the non-focus players are leaning in like "yes let's see what happens" vs. not interested or bored by it. Sort of like how I mentioned earlier about trying to read the room for when a group is horny for combat and needs to fireball something before they fireball themselves.)
docsilence
Dungeon Daddy
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Got two players out potentially til the end of the year in my weekly Endless Imperium game (set in a necropolis/city of the dead). One of my favorite "push the red button" players pitched a guest character to fill in for a bit, a bard from a clan of elves who write histories on their skins and when they die, preserve the skin of their ancestors like ancient scrolls. I'm dragging ass when I get logged in and I'm underprepared, but it's going well, I tell them the skin is probably in the possession of the Deathless Philosophers, a cadre of mummies. And one of the players, who is playing a cursed puppet, says "I know a mummy."
Me: You do?
Him: From my backstory, yup! I know a down on his luck mummy.
I flip through his notes. Yep, he knows a down on his luck mummy. I end up riffing the second half of the session as they all grill this mummy and find out he gave his heart, literally, to the love of his un-life, and if they can get it back he can get them in with the Deathless Philosophers. I was slinging pure, unadulterated bullshit. But it somehow WORKED and everyone had fun, tattoo bard will come back next week.
Also I had them being surveilled by vampire bats and one of the wizards sends her bat familiar, who is canonically like a little Disney bat not a scary one, to scare off the vampire bats. I ask for an attack roll on a whim (I'm not going to kill her bat.)
She fucking crits. Bats do 1d1 damage. Bats have 1 hp. Her familiar MURKED ANOTHER BAT. I have never had a wizard's familiar get a kill shot in like 35 years of running this game. So anyway her bat is now a legend in the bat community...
Me: You do?
Him: From my backstory, yup! I know a down on his luck mummy.
I flip through his notes. Yep, he knows a down on his luck mummy. I end up riffing the second half of the session as they all grill this mummy and find out he gave his heart, literally, to the love of his un-life, and if they can get it back he can get them in with the Deathless Philosophers. I was slinging pure, unadulterated bullshit. But it somehow WORKED and everyone had fun, tattoo bard will come back next week.
Also I had them being surveilled by vampire bats and one of the wizards sends her bat familiar, who is canonically like a little Disney bat not a scary one, to scare off the vampire bats. I ask for an attack roll on a whim (I'm not going to kill her bat.)
She fucking crits. Bats do 1d1 damage. Bats have 1 hp. Her familiar MURKED ANOTHER BAT. I have never had a wizard's familiar get a kill shot in like 35 years of running this game. So anyway her bat is now a legend in the bat community...
That tattoo character is gnarly. Your players do a good job of leaning into the setting.
docsilence
Dungeon Daddy
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That player is one I call "my ringer" because whenever he jumps in on a one shot he's just pure DM enabler, always pushes the red button if I put one in front of him. Good fun, great guy.