Quote from SirTawmis >>

Have you, as a player, ever had any pets? Or as a DM, have you allowed any pets to your players? I am excluded horses (and mounts of the like) as well as familiars. I am talking cats, dogs, birds, mimics, you know - the usual. 

Aside from the Chimera with a thorn in his paw and his two constructs, the metal one and the straw one?  Yes, I have had a lot of pets in my game, and most weren't even my idea and happened against my will.

In screenwriting, i have been led to believe that there is a rule: "don't kill the dog". I am not a screenwriter, but it is a trope enough that I have heard of it.

As you may have gathered from assorted posts, I like movies. I use movies for errands, sidequests, even main plot lines. THey are familiar and if I change them just a little people may not get that they are in a movie right off the bat, lol. Took them three months to realize I had set up the maltese falcon as an entire story that played out in front of them in a dungeon among Goblins.

My older players occasionally have pets, but I suspect they wouldn't do it these days because they all know I love John Wick.

The younger players are constantly getting pets, and it is annoying.  I had to set up a few side rules for "normal pets" about how they behave and act (because they kept wanting their pet parakeet to attack). I am not fond of them, though -- the rules, that is. But...

About three years ago I came across a series of images on the internet that featured women with very different body types as adventurers. I loved them. All of them have the women with some kind of pet, usually a dog, and they are what really sold me on having pets in the game, even after all these years. one of my players has epilepsy and a guide dog, and he helped me figure a lot of odds and ends about the difference between pets and purpose animals, and then of course I have the whole study into the history of what a Working Dog is and all that.

So we have: Pets, Service Animals, Working Animals (guard dogs/cats/gerbils), Companions, and Familiars. Pets have a 20% chance of attacking to defend their partner as a general rule (lower for several occasions) but some animals get a higher score because they are just that way and with every encounter. Service animals are trained not to fight except in extremis, and so have only a 5% chance. Working Animals will do bidding 80% of the time. The rest of the time they are just pissy. 

"Tricks" are done (learned and taught) in game and involve an Int roll.

So, lol, yeah, I have pets. As I wrote this it occurred to me I have pets often enough that I needed rules for them, lol.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

In screenwriting, i have been led to believe that there is a rule: "don't kill the dog". I am not a screenwriter, but it is a trope enough that I have heard of it.

 

And that's why some of those people never got an insanely great movie and lots of money... ;)

I am personally certain that the adults in my campaign are waiting for me to have a band of goblins kill one of the characters' dogs, lol, just so I can do a whole John Wick thing.

I am *that* predictable, lol.

I would murder people who killed my dog, why shouldn’t my PC?

Quote from IamSposta >>

I would murder people who killed my dog, why shouldn’t my PC?

 Consequences.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

I would murder people who killed my dog, why shouldn’t my PC?

 Consequences.

 
There are consequences IRL too. I repeat, I would murder anyone who killed my dog, why should my PC?!?

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

I would murder people who killed my dog, why shouldn’t my PC?

 Consequences.

 
There are consequences IRL too. I repeat, I would murder anyone who killed my dog, why should my PC?!?

I am of the same boat.

Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

As a GM the hardest part is keeping the campaign flowing. I think all of us have come upon a time when we are at a loss for content.

As a player with a good team and good GM, the only thing I ask for is time to play.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

Death of a Character.

Hands down, this is the hardest part, because while there are reincarnations and resurrections and even blessings from on high, none of it changes the hurt that can ensue. 

There is a lot of development in a character for my folks. All those little things in the XGE are used, there is a whole effort around Values. There are things for astrology and all manner of odds and ends that ultimately feed into the coming to know the PC (and I am often asked to add more pathos and trauma to a backstory and so I do).

After a few games (usually 5 to 7), the Players know their people and adore them. We tend to encourage "acts of great heroism" and keeping in mind that "there are no living heroes" we are always facing death -- and the goal is to overcome it.

But sometimes, uhnf, I tell ya, it still happens, and that always stings (especially for me since I have really big issues around grief). I even try to have backup characters, just in case, and I create at least two characters myself in zero session who float alongside them liminally (so they can just hop in), but suddenly having to haul a body and survive the way out of a dungeon can be deeply difficult for the player who is dead, and I know that it is part of the game and all that but it doesn't make it feel any better. 

When I do a big campaign, there is always a point where the PCs all face a form of death -- sometimes literal -- because that's the nature of the story, be it within a fairy tale or a heroic cycle or whatever the structure is. And I do plan for those -- but it is very rare that I leave a rod of resurrection just lying around, lol. And if I do, it always belongs to someone named Chekov.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

 
As a DM, I think the most difficult thing is making sure all players are comfortable with the themes of the story.  Lots of things that might make sense within the socio-political landscape of a D&D world (i.e. slave societies, particularly things like Drow and Yuan-ti; inquisitions; children dying; etc.) can make some folks uncomfortable.

For most of my DMing career, this has not been a problem. Most of the folks I have historically DMed for have been actors or lawyers—folks professionally trained to compartmentalise and not let their personal opinions influence the character they are playing or their representation of a client.  My recent online group is very different - and things that would be perfectly fine to throw into my home game can’t quite occur in my online game.  It hasn’t caused any real issues yet, but being aware of those potential issues is something I find a bit alien given my own ability to segregate the game from myself and the ability of my players historically.

As a player, it has been seven years since I played with both a good DM and party, so I honestly cannot remember!

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

 As a DM, keeping my lore/hook information consistent. I DM best when I improv, and sometimes I shift where the bread crumbs will lead based on new ideas I have or conspiracy theories my players come up with that I think are cool. I run intrigue and mystery campaigns (with super invested, note-taking players!), so the info PCs uncover needs to make sense retroactively. That can be a challenge to maintain with all the fluidity and ephemera of an improvisational narrative. 

As a player, losing a character. I get deeply invested in my own characters and those of my fellow players, and saying goodbye is tough.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

 Making sure all of my players feel involved in the game and plot. My plots focus on character backstories, resolving their particular conflicts. because of that, at any given time the story focuses largely on one PC. It's important that I sprinkle in bits of info, hints and slow burn hooks for the other characters to keep everyone involved until the plot moves on.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)?

Session prep. I map out too many locations and NPCs before every time I run D&D, and it takes way too much time. Especially when my players avoid so many of the locations and content I prepared.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

Before Keys From the Golden Vault came out, we were trying to attempt a casino heist with a build I had spent agonizing hours making. I overplanned and fretted a ton, since the heist was ridiculously impossible for our level.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Question: What is the most difficult part of being a Dungeon Master (assuming you have a good table of people)? What has been some of the most difficult things as a player (assuming you have a good table of people and a good DM)?

 Scheduling. Finding the time to do it is so hard.

As we've been talking about different characters we've played, I realized I have a bit of a pattern when it comes to backstories and general concepts -- a lot of my PCs are built around the idea of "freedom"

• My dwarven cleric was unjustly imprisoned and escaped with the help of the Lady of the Winds, and now wanders the land preaching that everyone should be as free as the wind
• My vedalken zealot barb/rogue is an escaped neogi slave who believes everyone should be free... to the point of slipping his thieves tools to a couple assassins the party had captured and turned over to the city guards, so they could get out of prison after giving their confession
• My halfling sorcerer/fighter was held by a cult when he was a kid, and is trying to make sure they don't get their clutches on him again -- or anyone else, for that matter
• My dragonborn druid is trying to escape his "cursed" past by heading out west to a new frontier

Does anyone else find that many of their characters end up being variations on a theme, despite all their other differences?

Lol, yeah. All my characters are healers, or wannabe healers. Even my fighter turned into a healer. I can't help myself. 

Quote from theologyofbagels >>

Lol, yeah. All my characters are healers, or wannabe healers. Even my fighter turned into a healer. I can't help myself. 

 Most of my characters have healing capabilities because nobody else in the party is willing to play a healer. My monk, my druid, my bards, my sorcerer, they all are healers. I really want to play something like a barbarian or a rogue who does something other than just support the party and doesn't use magic. Still, my current bard uses every action of his to buff his team or debuff the enemy and it is really fun.

I went through a stretch where all my characters were from obscenely rich families who started adventuring because they were bored. Then I realized I was doing that, and haven’t done it again since.

Quote from theologyofbagels >>

Lol, yeah. All my characters are healers, or wannabe healers. Even my fighter turned into a healer. I can't help myself. 

I feel this.  There is a reason I can count the number of times I have played a character in a game as a player on two hands over 40 years.