tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251496424644654781.post4289272700783452607..comments2023-09-12T10:29:30.353-07:00Comments on Tales From Midlands: DEEPER GAME OF AD&DBrooser Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251496424644654781.post-75777086614783183822016-02-11T19:12:57.931-08:002016-02-11T19:12:57.931-08:00I am not talking over-writing at all. Mostly conce...I am not talking over-writing at all. Mostly conceptual framework, that gradually develops into people places and dungeons as the players get involved with it. It's a stepwise process. Players might hear about Forest A, Tournament B, and Boat Escort C while running whatever it is they are doing now. If they make noises about the Forest at the end of the session, by the beginning of the next session, I will have the required maps and encounter tables for them to travel there, plus a few fleshed out NPCs for them to find and talk to to get their bearings and a possible quest. I have the Barony they are based at fleshed out. All the hamlets, towers, villages, roads and travel distances between them, stuff accumulated from previous games. They can go anywhere within the bounds, I can play no problem. Say, they want to travel to a Monastery a couple of days away. I will break the session at that point. <br /><br />I play with non-D&D players and do all of the game running. If they think that I just throw the monsters at them, I show them my notes after the game. I had one guy, who mistaked me having him to roll to confirm a crit hit for me asking him to roll again, so that he would miss. This was the guy who did not want to hear about the rules of the game to begin with. So, after he brought it up, I sat him down and explained the combat mechanics to him.<br /><br />It's a good thing to have - a personal system of notes that can convey a lot of information in in a few jottings. I prep the stauff in Word on my computer.<br /><br />I handle the battles a little differently. My players are not generals or field commanders. They get a grunt's view of the battle. Battlefield is like any other piece of terrain - a map, dispositions of forces, a timeline of events, with a beginning and an end, whch players may or may not impact with their actions, and then the biggest piece are events and encounter tables that convey the feel and sights (and the combat encounters) of the battle. They may have a mission or business on the battlefield, but it is more like a a group of player characters crossing the field of battle, as opposed to player characters leading armies.Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251496424644654781.post-57860649518975037022016-02-11T16:46:09.355-08:002016-02-11T16:46:09.355-08:00I guess that I do do this, in a sense. But I make ...I guess that I do do this, in a sense. But I make it a point never to over-write. If the battle goes the way that I believe that it will, then I'll have three or four different ideas, but with my players, this rarely happens. If I start getting bored, I can always resort to a random event just to spice things up. Typically, I can't always share my work because my notes are for me, and me alone, the ideas are just reminders, kind of written in a personal code that I've developed through the years. It looks like gibberish, but to me it is enough to recall entire ideas I've got locked away in my noggin. I will write what the creatures normally do, but once you pit the parties combined minds together, it is there job to not let these terrible things happen. If they do, they are dead. Is that what you are talking about? Proving to the characters that they died from their own errors in judgement?RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251496424644654781.post-33485480262622786242016-02-11T15:28:31.623-08:002016-02-11T15:28:31.623-08:00That's the whole point of putting stuff down o...That's the whole point of putting stuff down on paper - to limit the DM's omnipotence and to set a fantasy world in motion outside the DM, The Players, or the story that they create. That is how you can run highly complex creatures and situations without meta-gaming. Keep in mind, that we are not writing plot or story - merely setting and the background conditions, through which the players actions may or may not ripple with various consequences.Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251496424644654781.post-64275116908302833542016-02-11T14:26:38.671-08:002016-02-11T14:26:38.671-08:00STOP THE GAME?!?! What blasphemy is this? I do my ...STOP THE GAME?!?! What blasphemy is this? I do my best to avoid that from happening. I have noticed that when I error, it is typically in the players favor. I'll know that I did it right away, and file it away. Once the game is over, I'll ask myself how to correct the problem next time. Even when I don't error I still critique the game, there are no masters of Dungeons & Dragons, if that ever happened, then the master would put the books on the shelf and move to something different to challenge himself with. <br /><br />As to BS gaming, this is my style. We are dealing in fiction, but at its heart we are dealing with cause and effect. If the players allow me to set the battle field, I will have it in my favor. I'll have jumpspots on my key because that is why the monsters live there. If the players some how trick the monsters into letting them pick the battle ground, then the odds are in the players favor. The battle ground is a character, but I believe that battle and combat is a thinking mans game. Cause and effect are my rules. If you write something down, then it only limits your potential to provide a challenge. Do I cheat by doing this, using my omnipotent powers as a DM? No. I'm role playing, my characters can only know what they know, not what I know. If the creature is more intelligent than anybody at the table, I'll use more and more player babble against them, that is how high intelligent creatures have always been ran, but even then there has to be a fatal flaw, a chink in the armor, else the entire scenario is pointless. I'm not sure if you can even have a game with a high intelligent monster without meta-gaming. RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.com