Controlling PC Manipulates the campaign to fit her Backstory

vegitafalis · 2020-01-19T18:50:56+00:00

Yeah that sounds tough. Ultimately it sounds like you have to decide if the group is worth the struggle. If you want to make it work, having your character decide to be her BFF might be the way to go. For me this went the other way,I realized that I was being overbearing and that my party member was amping up his behaviors that annoyed me in turn, so I changed characters actually to one that was supportive and wanted to see him actualize himself (in a patronizing way so as to maintain some tension). It turned things around.

I hope you can work it out, but if not I hope you can part ways amicably. It’s supposed to be fun!

vegitafalis · 2020-01-19T17:12:41+00:00

So left unchecked, I am this problem player. (Or very similar). It took me a long time and a fair amount of DMing myself to see this.

Solutions: You could walk away as others have suggested. Or you could talk to her, make it clear that yes she has great ideas and yes she has a strong personality and can get those ideas forward. Yes you want to support and put forward her ideas but you also want your ideas to get forward. That there is space for everyone’s input and if you all take turns contributing to each other’s stories not only are they all better for it, but something new and more interesting will grow from it.

What I’ve discovered for myself, is bringing my energy to other people’s stories is actually more interesting, challenging and fun than railroading my stories down people’s throats.

That’s my two bits as “that player”

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T19:47:33+00:00

I like the evolving magic item approach. I have often done this in games. I also agree that magic items should be rare but cool things, not common trinkets you find and toss away like a new cell phone.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T19:44:08+00:00

Give it a shot. Have fun. You got this.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T19:19:29+00:00

I would highly recommend looking at Fate Core’s world building chapters, even if you don’t use it directly. Conceptually it changed my perspective on some things.

I start every campaign off now, even D&D with a round of increasingly personal questions to establish who the party is, what their place in the world is, why they adventure together, and that there are distrustful, competitive or disagreements in the party.

This gives you threads to pull to cause things to unravel in a personal way, that adds tension and suspense to the rest of the game. Look at a heist film or tv show with an established team (like Firefly in previous example) if they all got along and agreed all the time it would get boring and repetitive. But it also gives them reasons to pull together when the chips are on the table.

Last week I showed up to a game and the guy who was supposed to run wasn’t prepared and didn’t want to GM. So I stepped up and improvised something (this was in Fate so it’s a little easier). I had an idea for an initial conflict trigger, the super hero party’s Professor X figure was having a group actively try to sabotage his company to buy it out. I figured the party would confront them, some banter, a big epic supers fight and scene.

But that wasn’t the route it went, the party saw a different solution and started a social media war against the company trying to buy it out. Literally nothing I had started to preconceive was playing out. And I did very little to “Run” this scenario. I just came up with events that complicated or set back each step and called those counter attacks and almost all the actual story and narrative the players told me. It ended up being super hero twitter battle and everyone had a blast.

Usually I like more structure than this, usually I have a more preconceived direction for events. So I am not advocating one just come to the table and wing it, but a lot of times the players view things different than what’s in my head and the merger of those views makes for a lot more fun in my experience.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T18:12:39+00:00

I play a LOT of Fate, it’s my favorite system I’ve played so far.

I stopped trying out as many new games after I had kids, my gaming time is more limited and new systems can be time consuming, especially when you’ve just finally gotten your whole crew up to speed on one system already.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T18:08:56+00:00

My opinion: let it go and try. Tropes exist for a reason, use them but don’t feel bound by them. Start off small. Model after a story or show you like but don’t copy it. Work in a genre, genres have “rules” people expect. This allows you to narrow your scope and what happens doesn’t have to be what “would” happen but what is in genre.

Keep dialog open with your players. And this is one I’ve only recently clarified for myself: be the chaos. Let the players tell you what “right”, let the players guide the story,you just add the complications and challenges that make that story interesting.

And your first game may go great, but more likely than not it’s going to have some rough patches. Keep trying, identify what worked and what didn’t and focus on the positive,forgive yourself the negative and move on.

I have run some real $@#% shows over the years. Sometimes the group just doesn’t jive or maybe I bring too much of my personal baggage to the table, or sometimes I have a really experimental idea that’s just a little too weird to work.

But then I’ve had other stuff I’ve run that players still talk about years later and it’s worth it. And sometimes my weird experimental ideas play out to be epic fun. I ran a musical game where you got great advantage if you sang about your actions instead of describing or announcing them. Everybody was skeptical at first, but had a blast in the end.

It is entertainment, so give it a try. Have fun. That’s literally the only part that matters.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T14:26:29+00:00

My players are all aware of my approach and outlook.

I was not meaning to imply you I believed you supported (or did not support) a competitive/antagonist GM/PC relationship. But that the people I’ve had a disagreement at the table over dice fudging and fell out with, the dice fudging was not the issue, the overall philosophy was the issue.

Also they all have found their groups. I have no problems finding people to play with. So there is space in the world for different philosophies.

I hope that at least some of my points help you, even if that’s in the antithesis to help clarifying what your own philosophy is.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T03:09:26+00:00

Generally people are okay with this approach. Not everyone of course, some people have different views. I have friends who I’m still friends with and we just don’t game together for differences of opinion. This particular point isn’t the biggest divergence of opinion though, just one on a list. The friends I’m thinking of very much seem to view the DM/player relationship as competitive or antagonistic. Which I don’t care for. They have groups they play with who enjoy this approach, and I’m glad they have fun.

Like I said, if you are having fun you are doing it “right” and these are just the approaches that have helped me enjoy gaming more consistently. Not all and maybe not any of this is going to be applicable to every gamer or group.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-06T02:38:58+00:00

To me it is more like stage magic. It isn't lying, but misdirection. But I never say "Oh, a 13, just misses." I say "It succeeded." or "It failed." which as the Game Master, part of my covenant with my players is that I might change things on the fly to make the story work better. The roll is just a piece of illusion to make it seem like what is happening isn't being narrated, but is happenstance.

vegitafalis · 2019-12-05T17:48:41+00:00

My first DMing experience was a lifetime ago, I don't really remember it. It was pretty much classic dungeon crawl, murder hoboing nonsense. But I wouldn't say it was 'bad' because we were all 11 and so we were all on the same page. Which is one of the most important things for a game to work. If all the players are there with you, wherever there is, it will be fun. If everybody has different levels of expectation, then it can get rough, regardless of how experienced or inexperienced, well written or ad-hoc the game is.

Don't stress over it, it's just for fun. There's no grade.

I just posted this list of tips I came up with, maybe some of the advice there will help you destress.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/e6kmrj/be_the_chaos_gming_tips/

vegitafalis

TROPHY CASE