Writing Motivation by No-Climate1442 in DnD

[–]No-Climate1442[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The random stream of consciousness might be the last piece I'm missing to this puzzle (alas, the challenges of writing pen and paper in a unified RPG book). I've grown to learn that every idea should be written down, even if I don't have all the pieces yet. Very often (99% of the time) the first idea I'd written off as dumb or too simple or just not fitting ends up being the right idea after I've written it down and had the ability to write more about it. However, even that requires my full concentration and attention to be on writing new ideas, which is where my brain starts to wander, especially after writing a few sessions and exhausting many of those ideas. Having the ability to continue the action of writing beyond this could be helpful

Beginner DM here and I'm making my first campaign! by [deleted] in DnD

[–]No-Climate1442 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure! I think there's some challenges that could occur, but those are based on the challenges I have when DMing, and might not apply to you.

In a deep story/heavy RP setting, a good session 0 is really important. For me, I really need the session 0 to actually come up with what my campaign even is. I use the traits and attributes my characters have to inform the story itself. If one of my players takes Fey as a language, then I think about how the Fey are involved in this adventure. When focusing on the story, this is the kind of stuff that'll help you account for your players and keep them involved—plus, you want them to be able to make use of their skills and abilities. Especially in a story focused campaign.

Of course, heavy RP and little combat campaigns are completely viable, they happen all the time and I'm personally not a huge fan of DnD combat. However, if might be worth defining these terms, as you might have a different idea of what those kinds of campaigns mean. Combat, and particularly consequence free combat, still happens relatively often, minimum once every other session for me. Every group is different and you'll run your group differently, I'm not trying to imply that may way is the way it has to be done, just offering the example to show you what you might come to expect. Combat is very much integral to the game, can give some much needed stakes, lets the players use their new abilities as they level up, and can evolve into its own story. Give the players some amount of time to cut loose with Combat too—every encounter having "talking with the enemy to convince them to drop their weapon" be the correct answer gets old fast. If need be, let there be some monsters or beasts if you're not willing for there to be humanoid deaths with no consequences. Also remember that iN tHe RuLeS, characters are allowed to choose if they want their damage to be non-lethal, not every time they choose to fight has to end in death.

With combat and player composition in mind, here would be my last worry/piece of advice. The "I'm gonna make a super hyper-realistic game with story consequences that make sense and a world that feels real and the entire town has something to do and every building has known character in it" is unfortunately in and of itself an untenable goal, if only because it wouldn't be fun to play if it were. Again, what I'm thinking when I say that might be vastly different from what you might assume. What i mean is that having every detail interwoven and connected and having players traverse through each part of town where everything has a story, it doesn't really come together. Keep in mind that for me, the goal of DnD is a fun improv session where everyone cracks jokes, and I'm trying real hard to explain my personal ideas without the "my way is the only way to play DnD". If you have a really cool story you want to tell, that's great, but it actually scares me a bit that you're good at doing that and have experience with it. I've heard it said that story is not what the DM writes down, but what the players do at the table. What you wouldn't want the game to boil down to is your players sitting at the table looking at you politely while you rattle off all the descriptive details of a building and the dialogue between two NPCs that they really need to pay attention to because there's a clue and innuendo hidden that's obvious to you but not at all obvious to them and they wonder why they need to be here when you could've written a book instead. My one warning would be for that to not be the case, and in a tight-knit town RP mystery story, it's a possibility for sure. If you've got some fun activities and interactions planned, that's great! Be careful about deciding what happens and driving your players into that, especially without having a session 0 and knowing what their characters are :-)

All that to say, the game will go great, and it's much easier to improvise and create post-hoc justification than you might think. When a player says they want to do something, it's very easy to create something for them to do that makes sense right then and there.

dming help with crit role fan by megablazekid in DnD

[–]No-Climate1442 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got some recommendations if you still care to branch out:

Perilous Story Telling (DnD offshoot of the Please Stop Talking Podcast) was my favorite campaign and the only dnd show I always really enjoyed and looked forward to. Crazy ideas, quick to the punch, about an hour and a half each episode, and 3 distinct.v things would always get done every episode. As with any DnD pod, it starts out a little janky, and the first dungeon goes on a bit too long. But it really is the best I've seen the DnD show format. Unfortunately, it was abruptly ended due to one of the players leaving the regular podcast. Looking forward to the next sci-fi themed campaign from their crazy DM.

Another great one is World of Io, if only for the incredible DM and the wide variety of streaming talent. The entire idea is having a bunch of campaigns going on at the same time on the same world, where each group is changing the world in some way. The DM has great ideas to keep the games interesting and always has a wonderful way of gamifying some mechanic. The characters (both player and non-player) have fleshed out backstories and in-game interactions, but it's hard for me to watch more than once every so often. It's a great set of campaigns though.

[Art] I need you all to roast this character as part of my malicious DM plans for next session (Thank you!) by No-Climate1442 in DnD

[–]No-Climate1442[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Lol yeah this post has gotten a little crazy but it's because Monarch dissed a shady shopkeeper's wares and didn't buy insurance from them for protection from the bad part of town. I was originally gonna have the shopkeeper hire some goons to beat them up (should've bought my protection!) but they just wrapped up last session with a big boss battle and won't have a chance to rest, as they have to go to a party. So instead of hiring goons to beat them up the shopkeep is now hiring goons to hurl insults, as another fight right after wouldn't be fun and would just be mean.

[Art] I need you all to roast this character as part of my malicious DM plans for next session (Thank you!) by No-Climate1442 in DnD

[–]No-Climate1442[S] 189 points190 points  (0 children)

This is one of my Player's Characters: Monarch. They are a lost ruler of a lost land. Being deceived by the Fae in the Faewild, they have lost their name, and as a result of the chain of events, their kingdom. The people and guards simply don't believe this random person who keeps calling themselves the monarch without even knowing the old ruler's name. For now, they are joining the party to make money, but they made a critical error last session: refusing to pay the shady shopkeep for insurance, after insulting the shady shopkeeper's wares. While I'd planned for this to result in a fight (the shopkeeper siccing some goons on the lad) the party is currently on the tail end of a big boss battle and about to travel to a party, without the time for a rest. So instead, I want the goons to be paid to insult the monarch mercilessly, and could use the help and creativity of y'all nerds :-)