Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[methylatedspirit]

Don't give me any spoilers, but is it possible to do the same kind of sequence-breaking in BoTW as you can do in Fallout 3? Like, you stumble upon some place, suddenly you're 75% of the way to beating Ganon? I'd hate to skip most of the story just by exploring.

No.

Good. I was worried about that. I'm always kinda scared that I'll end up skipping the plot by accident in open-world games. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing for speedruns, but terrible if you just wanna enjoy the world. Fallout 3 is a prime offender, as pointed out by Lord Shonus.

I thought once i killed Benny the main story was over

I'm reminded of this part of the Ghosts 'n Goblins AVGN episode, where the Nerd said that as a child, he thought that the game would end right after he killed the first demon. In fairness, he was used to Atari 2600 games. The idea of more than one screen a game longer than 5 minutes was new to child-Nerd.

[EuchreJack]

I guess it's time once again to promote my favorite RPG of all time, Kenshi. 
Story? Screw that. 
Exploration? I still haven't seen the entire world.
Building stuff? Hell yeah!
Wasting a weekend just to make the perfect suit of armor? You know it!
Awesome cryptic apocalyptic setting? Oh yeah!

...Totally not trying to pull people in just because I'm God a master modder (no graphics) in that universe.

[Frumple]

Wait I thought one of the selling points of the game was that you could technically walk straight to Mount Doom or whatever and win the game, it was just nearly impossible unless you had quested around first?

Yeah, but I don't count going to the place where literally everyone tells you the Final Boss is as being a 'stumble on some place' kind of gotcha. You can't short circuit the quest line. You can fight the final boss early, but you can walk around his lair as much as you like without interrupting the progression.

Actually, I think you can short circuit the quest line, but it's not something you're going to, like, stumble across. BotW's got some pretty impressive glitches, heh.

[Kagus]

Wait I thought one of the selling points of the game was that you could technically walk straight to Mount Doom or whatever and win the game, it was just nearly impossible unless you had quested around first?

Yeah, but I don't count going to the place where literally everyone tells you the Final Boss is as being a 'stumble on some place' kind of gotcha. You can't short circuit the quest line. You can fight the final boss early, but you can walk around his lair as much as you like without interrupting the progression.

Actually, I think you can short circuit the quest line, but it's not something you're going to, like, stumble across. BotW's got some pretty impressive glitches, heh.

Punch tree, achieve liftoff. Hyrulean space program.


My WTF (more of just a "huh?" though, really):

{Dude has indicated that he had a DnD session tonight}
Me: Did the dice roll?

Dude: ye

Me: What's your char?

Dude: Dm

Me: My condolences

Dude: Why

Me: Why not?

**silence**

...

(later)

Dude: I like dming its fun

[ArchimedesWojak]

{Dude has indicated that he had a DnD session tonight}
Me: Did the dice roll?

Dude: ye

Me: What's your char?

Dude: Dm

Me: My condolences

Dude: Why

Me: Why not?

**silence**

...

(later)

Dude: I like dming its fun

Can you explain this to the non-D&D players (Me)

[hector13]

I imagine it has a lot to do with something you spent a lot of time creating being torn to pieces by people who don’t do what you expected them to do, so the wtf is presumably this dude not having the illusion ruined for him yet.

[ArchimedesWojak]

I imagine it has a lot to do with something you spent a lot of time creating being torn to pieces by people who don’t do what you expected them to do, so the wtf is presumably this dude not having the illusion ruined for him yet.

Man, When i recreate my failed Slaves Of Torku forum game (which im creating an entire handbook and building an entire universe for) i really really hope these motherfuckers behave do you how many text docs are filling up my file explorer to create an entire fantasy universe from scratch

[methylatedspirit]

Now, I don't exactly play many forum games, but I thought rule #1 of forum games is that people will find ways to derail it. Maybe not on purpose (though I've observed that happening too), but it will happen, no? The moment you introduce an interesting side detail, they might just take that and run with it, instead of following your meticulously-crafted plot.

[hector13]

Yes.

My impression has been that you have the bare bones of what you want your players to do and trying to fit it into what they’re actually doing.

I have listened to a podcast called The Adventure Zone, in which three brothers play D&D with their dad, and the first major arc of that had a couple of bits when they went of the rails.

It is a good listen though, you should go find it. Unless you really like the rules of D&D.

[EuchreJack]

Being a good DM is like owning cats, the players being the cats of course. You give up all illusions of being in charge and just feed them every once in a while.

[Lord Shonus]

In a GURPS game I'm in, the GM gave us a vampire hunting mission. We made friends with it.

[wierd]

If the vampire is polite, jovial, and just misunderstood, why not? 

Given the often dark-age setting of such games, just get it a job at a local barber surgeon's establishment.  Let it "clean up" after the day's blood lettings.

Fresh blood, and nobody is the wiser.  No actual victims.  People actually PAY for the service!

[Kagus]

Sure, DMing is fun, but it's also a fuckload of work and is definitely a powerful example of herding cats in most cases... Players, by virtue of being players, will rarely do what you expect them to do and even more rarely do what you want them to do.

And even if the stars do somehow align in such a way that your group is super easy to handle and your DMing duties don't require a bunch of extra building and prep, you should at least be aware enough of the norm to be able to play along when someone starts a jape.


...but I've had the suspicion for a while now that this fellow possesses a personality not unlike wet cardboard, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he has little to offer when someone lacking in the mammary department tries to interact with him.

[Mathel]

I did some GMing for my family. Not D&D, but yeah, they definitely did things I did not expect.

In the first campaign, they did not do the main mission at all, even though they actually accepted it. Eventually, I rolled whether some other hero would solve it, or dragons (who happened to be convening on a nearby mountain) would destroy the mountain range to squash the undead threat.
And so it happened, that a goblin named Great Hero solved the undead threat and was married to the princess.

In the second campaign, they knew they had an in-game year to solve it. Instead they rushed into the bad guy's lair in the first month, prepared only with recruited bandits, some goblin friends and a golem.
They did not get any fire resistance items, even though the bad guys were clearly using fire spells.

They won, through giving the BBEG acute mercury poisoning, but one of them died. (as did one of the bandits)

And then their wizard managed to cause a cave-in, killing them all (except their golems, who do not need to breathe) while they were helping a fallen comrade in afterlife, before the comrade could come back to life. All because he failed to follow his own plan to teleport a giant spider into a campfire, and instead walled the party in, then started digging. At least the cave-in also killed the spider threat.

[birdy51]

GM here, running for a group in DnD 5e, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Why do I like GMing? Honestly, I like being surprised. It's because of the fact that I cannot anticipate every continuity and outcome that the game gets to be so entertaining and wild. A good analogy is something like this; some people like to watch the world burn. Some of the time, you're that person. And the world that's on fire is your world. And that's ok.

A GM's job is ultimately to start fires. Cause problems. Be a miscreant. When you're in the hotseat, you're the one who gets to go off the rails and when you do it right, nobody even realizes that you're just making things up as you go. There's a rush to that.

Occasionally, you get to actually be helpful and provide helpers. Allies. Friends. And that's good too. Because you know what? At the end of the day, you have to like the people you're playing with. When problems arrive, I on a very basic level want to see the players resolve it. Might take them a session. Might take them a year. But you know what? As long as people at the table are having fun, so be it.