Dungeons and Dragons and Table Top Gaming

[baxus]

Yesterday evening my old group got together to continue our campaign that we last played in January 2021, if roll20 is to be trusted. Funny thing was, as we were trying to remember what we were doing so long ago, one of my friends was looking through his notes and found a list of things to do when his wife gives birth and a list of potential names for their son. The kid was born in March 2021. Talk about a blast from the past. 

Speaking of blasts, we've had a classic "yeah, but that's not a diameter, that's a radius" mistake that resulted in the whole party (except the caster, of course) eating a fireball. Good thing we're all level 7 or 8, so no casualties but still.

[TrackerNeil]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

There's some good ideas there. One of my groups outsourced worldbuilding to the group back in the 1990s, so as the resident dwarf I designed the dwarven home kingdom, which was pretty cool.

Yup. When everyone at the table helps build the world, it means everyone at the table has a connection to that world. That makes for great gaming.

My group plays in a world we have jointly created, and we've played so many campaigns there, in so many different time periods, that each campaign informs the others. We'll be in some situation, looking for a solution, and someone will say, "Wait...wouldn't the dragon-king still be on the throne in this time period? Maybe we can make a deal with him to do such-and-such." 

I'll admit that my style of DMing isn't for everyone, but it works really well for me. When things are really moving, I am the least active person at the table...and that's the way I like it.

(Heh, I guess I am saying the DM who DMs best, DMs least.)

[Maithanet]

I'm sure it works for you, and frankly that sounds pretty great, but I think it's a pretty rare group that can basically DM themselves to the extent you describe.  Given that the group I'm playing with has exactly 0 hours of D&D experience between them, I think they are fairly overwhelmed just with figuring out what is going on and how you play this game.  I'm not looking to put anything more on them at the moment. 

[Relic]

20 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

Hey, good luck!

I'm DMing a campaign right now, but I almost never plan things. Seriously. Unless I know there will be a fight, I don't bother, for two reasons:

1) I find that the more I try to control things at the table, the worse things get. In gaming as in life, when you most feel the need to clamp down is exactly when you should let go.

2) I have great players who possess a wealth of creativity and experience. So when we meet an NPC, I'll often ask a player to make up something about them. When the PCs spy out terrain, I'll ask for a skill check (say, Survival) and let whoever makes the roll tell us what is seen--the better the roll, the more control the player gets in determining the lay of the land.

When it comes to combat, sometimes I'll turn things over to a player. For example, the PCs were surveying land for a settlement, and along comes a pack of worg-riding goblins, intent on mayhem. This happened at the end of the session, so I asked, "Who wants to DM the fight next session?" One player, who had never before DMed, stepped right up, because it was a way she could be introduced to running a session without the stress of taking on an entire campaign. She did a bang-up job, BTW, and I played her character for that session. (I did a less bang-up job at running the character,  oh well.)

This won't work for everyone, admittedly--my group is terrific--but it sure takes the stress out of DMing.

Honestly, all of this sounds like great DMing to me. It requires a group that is familiar with your style, to be sure, but adds soooo much to the shared story/illusion/fantasy.

[TrackerNeil]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

I'm sure it works for you, and frankly that sounds pretty great, but I think it's a pretty rare group that can basically DM themselves to the extent you describe.  Given that the group I'm playing with has exactly 0 hours of D&D experience between them, I think they are fairly overwhelmed just with figuring out what is going on and how you play this game.  I'm not looking to put anything more on them at the moment. 

I wouldn't DM this way for newbies, and yet...I find that, most of the time, it's not a matter of making people contribute so much as letting them do so.

I was once DMing a big swordfight in a banquet hall, and one of the players was a big fan of Robin Hood movies and such, and she immediately says, "Is there a hanging chandelier?" Naturally, I said, "Yes!", because of course! That started a whole chain of "Are there barrels of beer?" or "Can I grab a torch from the wall?" and so forth. They came up with all sort of crazy shit to throw at their enemies, making the fight way more fun for us all.

I think, for me, it was a matter of not feeling as though I was performing for the players. The DM is a player, too! By letting go of my demands for myself, I was able to make space for the players to put themselves into the game. 

[Gertrude]

8 hours ago, Relic said:

Honestly, all of this sounds like great DMing to me. It requires a group that is familiar with your style, to be sure, but adds soooo much to the shared story/illusion/fantasy.

Are you getting ideas?

[Relic]

7 hours ago, Gertrude said:

Are you getting ideas?

hahah, ive been thinking about it...