What do you do when a player asks this? Personally, I'm fine with telling someone out of game what I added to the campaign, but when someone asks this right in the middle of the session, how do you handle it?
I am usually pretty open regarding pulling back the curtain and tell what was going on behind the screen, especially if the situation we are gonna talk about is unbalanced or something like this.
But I, also, always am pretty open on session 0 saying that I never play modules by the book, because I enjoy tweaking things to my DM style and some published stuff is just outright dumb.
That said, it also will depend on how the player is bringing that up, if it's on a combative/negative way, I generally try to pull this off-session - it's important to remember that respect is a two way street.
Matthew Colville made a very good video about this subject (here) - where he even talks about a conflict he had with one of his players regarding this.
What do you do when a player asks this? Personally, I'm fine with telling someone out of game what I added to the campaign, but when someone asks this right in the middle of the session, how do you handle it?
"It's in my version of the module"? I assume every module is going to be customized by the DM.
I'd answer a player if something was or wasn't in a published module i'm running. I also usually put it upfront when i did modifications or run it as is.
At session zero I might tell the players I am basing this campaign on this module, but I also make clear that it is my campaign, that I will be tweaking and changing things and putting my own spin on it. I have run out of the abyss twice and that as a campaign has lots of holes and gaps in parts of it that need DM home brewing. I have also run COS and changed that around, partly because I knew another player owned the campaign book but had never run it.
The one time I remember a player asking me something along the lines of "was that in the module" was about some descriptive text I was reading them about an object. It didnt even register to me how strange it was.
Avoiding spoilers, I was running Curse of Strahd and the players couldnt believe their ears when I described a Large object weighing "thousands of tons." Not 'thousands of pounds' or 'several tons' Thousands. Of. Tons.
When I revealed that that was how it was written in the module and not something I made up or misspoke on, the whole session was derailed for several minutes while we considered the physical implications of such weight on such a (relatively) small object.
It was really funny and we still joke about it to this day
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Sure was. (If they call you on it, they were metagaming. If they don't, it doesn't matter, cause it's in there now either way.)
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I run modules about never, but when I get this sort of question, I usually reply with something like "I'll never tell." And if they get upset about me being coy, I explain I may still use it in the future, so I don't want to tip my hand. Most of the time they get that and let it go.
Though the question could be a sign of a player who's read the module, and thinks they know what to expect. Then you go off-script and it ruins their plans. In that case, that's what they get for reading the module.
The one time I remember a player asking me something along the lines of "was that in the module" was about some descriptive text I was reading them about an object. It didnt even register to me how strange it was.
Avoiding spoilers, I was running Curse of Strahd and the players couldnt believe their ears when I described a Large object weighing "thousands of tons." Not 'thousands of pounds' or 'several tons' Thousands. Of. Tons.
When I revealed that that was how it was written in the module and not something I made up or misspoke on, the whole session was derailed for several minutes while we considered the physical implications of such weight on such a (relatively) small object.
It was really funny and we still joke about it to this day
Must have been made of neutron star matter.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
What do you do when a player asks this? Personally, I'm fine with telling someone out of game what I added to the campaign, but when someone asks this right in the middle of the session, how do you handle it?
I say “you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out,” and then I just keep right on moving.
In general I don’t mind sitting around after a session and discussing such, but don’t ask me during a session.
I hope people are asking for the right reasons. If it's because they're curious about your creative process as a DM, I'd say wait until after the session and show the man behind the curtain just to that player.
If they are asking because they are suggesting that that fight was too difficult or a ruling was unfair, that's adversarial play and it should be discouraged unless everyone at your table enjoys that sort of play. Don't let one adversarial player monopolize the play style.
I hated that question. If I say yes, it came back to bite me later with a rules lawyer and if I said no, that same lawyer complained it wasn't this or that. After running a campaign for years, we all got to know our specialties fairly well, we also got to know each other's books as well.
I eventually had to explain at the start of every session that I've adapted the campaign and some parts might seem familiar and some parts might feel different and that ultimately what I choose to change becomes our cannon.
The real hard part is remembering the changes months later when a PC decides to bring up the change and you forgot to write that change down because "I'll remember doing this.".
I agree that it should be a session 0 thing. At the same time I don't think I've ever been playing (or running) a module where the DM didn't change at least something.
I don't run modules, but the answer to that question would be "Why do you want to know?" or if you're feeling flippant, "Is your character in the module?"
"Puny character who are you to question the desires of a god." actually spoken by my DM many years ago when someone asked a similar question.
The happenings of the game are guided by the module, not written in stone. Anything and everything can change.
Currently I am running the Age of Worms campaign over my own game world. The characters will never know what is there from the module and what I put in. But it really shouldn't matter. I should have them focused on having fun and solving in game problems to notice any of that.
If after the game the topic comes up about the monster or trap/puzzle I might share more information if i feel so inclined.
Of course if we where playing paranoia then simply asking the question, or claiming even to know the rules, would instantly shine a spotlight on a player for being far to informed and potentially a member of a secret organisation, or a traitorous commie trying to upset the balance of Alpha Complex and question the abilities of Friend Computer. Such behaviour may well be treasonous, and treason, is of course met with summary execution (I once had a player have 3 characters executed over 15 mins real time before he understood you don't question Friend Computer ever about the rules in paranoia :) )
Given that "Yes." is an easy answer and closed conversation I just go with that when it's the case.
When the answer is "No" I either answer "It's not, and I can't explain why yet because it'll spoil other things in the game. Let's talk after it's spoiler free - but yes it's something I added." or "No, it's not in the module - here's what it is and why I added it. I thought it was fun!"
If asked in the middle of a game session I will usually defer to the end of the session so we can keep the pace. If it's a major sticking point I just handle it immediately as it's not conflict, it's just curiosity.
Like others I tend to tell people up front that the adventure changes based on what the characters do. I'll add, subtract, and modify like a mad DM to make sure the story is trying to celebrate the characters and give them fun challenges.
My players know I run modules, but change them. Sometimes I take out stuff that just seems weird (a orc cursed to be a talking pearl springs to mind), sometimes I tweak a location (moved a whole module from Phlan to the Moonshaes), sometimes I add pieces to it to further storylines, and sometimes I just tweak NPC or monster stats, magical items found, etc. Pretty standard. I also write outlines for one shots and run them. I asked my players what they thought of a few of those, and they could not tell what was module and what was my invention, so I was happy.
I would wonder why someone wanted to know. Are they reading the module themselves? If I though that was so, it would change radically if I suspected they were trying to metagame. But if they were interested in DMing, I would assume it as curiosity about Module Versus DMing.
What do you do when a player asks this? Personally, I'm fine with telling someone out of game what I added to the campaign, but when someone asks this right in the middle of the session, how do you handle it?
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I am usually pretty open regarding pulling back the curtain and tell what was going on behind the screen, especially if the situation we are gonna talk about is unbalanced or something like this.
But I, also, always am pretty open on session 0 saying that I never play modules by the book, because I enjoy tweaking things to my DM style and some published stuff is just outright dumb.
That said, it also will depend on how the player is bringing that up, if it's on a combative/negative way, I generally try to pull this off-session - it's important to remember that respect is a two way street.
Matthew Colville made a very good video about this subject (here) - where he even talks about a conflict he had with one of his players regarding this.
"It's in my version of the module"? I assume every module is going to be customized by the DM.
I'd answer a player if something was or wasn't in a published module i'm running. I also usually put it upfront when i did modifications or run it as is.
At session zero I might tell the players I am basing this campaign on this module, but I also make clear that it is my campaign, that I will be tweaking and changing things and putting my own spin on it. I have run out of the abyss twice and that as a campaign has lots of holes and gaps in parts of it that need DM home brewing. I have also run COS and changed that around, partly because I knew another player owned the campaign book but had never run it.
The one time I remember a player asking me something along the lines of "was that in the module" was about some descriptive text I was reading them about an object. It didnt even register to me how strange it was.
Avoiding spoilers, I was running Curse of Strahd and the players couldnt believe their ears when I described a Large object weighing "thousands of tons." Not 'thousands of pounds' or 'several tons' Thousands. Of. Tons.
When I revealed that that was how it was written in the module and not something I made up or misspoke on, the whole session was derailed for several minutes while we considered the physical implications of such weight on such a (relatively) small object.
It was really funny and we still joke about it to this day
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Sure was. (If they call you on it, they were metagaming. If they don't, it doesn't matter, cause it's in there now either way.)
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I run modules about never, but when I get this sort of question, I usually reply with something like "I'll never tell." And if they get upset about me being coy, I explain I may still use it in the future, so I don't want to tip my hand. Most of the time they get that and let it go.
Though the question could be a sign of a player who's read the module, and thinks they know what to expect. Then you go off-script and it ruins their plans. In that case, that's what they get for reading the module.
Must have been made of neutron star matter.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I say “you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out,” and then I just keep right on moving.
In general I don’t mind sitting around after a session and discussing such, but don’t ask me during a session.
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I hope people are asking for the right reasons. If it's because they're curious about your creative process as a DM, I'd say wait until after the session and show the man behind the curtain just to that player.
If they are asking because they are suggesting that that fight was too difficult or a ruling was unfair, that's adversarial play and it should be discouraged unless everyone at your table enjoys that sort of play. Don't let one adversarial player monopolize the play style.
I hated that question. If I say yes, it came back to bite me later with a rules lawyer and if I said no, that same lawyer complained it wasn't this or that. After running a campaign for years, we all got to know our specialties fairly well, we also got to know each other's books as well.
I eventually had to explain at the start of every session that I've adapted the campaign and some parts might seem familiar and some parts might feel different and that ultimately what I choose to change becomes our cannon.
The real hard part is remembering the changes months later when a PC decides to bring up the change and you forgot to write that change down because "I'll remember doing this.".
I agree that it should be a session 0 thing. At the same time I don't think I've ever been playing (or running) a module where the DM didn't change at least something.
I don't run modules, but the answer to that question would be "Why do you want to know?" or if you're feeling flippant, "Is your character in the module?"
"What Module?!"
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"Puny character who are you to question the desires of a god." actually spoken by my DM many years ago when someone asked a similar question.
The happenings of the game are guided by the module, not written in stone. Anything and everything can change.
Currently I am running the Age of Worms campaign over my own game world. The characters will never know what is there from the module and what I put in. But it really shouldn't matter. I should have them focused on having fun and solving in game problems to notice any of that.
If after the game the topic comes up about the monster or trap/puzzle I might share more information if i feel so inclined.
Of course if we where playing paranoia then simply asking the question, or claiming even to know the rules, would instantly shine a spotlight on a player for being far to informed and potentially a member of a secret organisation, or a traitorous commie trying to upset the balance of Alpha Complex and question the abilities of Friend Computer. Such behaviour may well be treasonous, and treason, is of course met with summary execution (I once had a player have 3 characters executed over 15 mins real time before he understood you don't question Friend Computer ever about the rules in paranoia :) )
Given that "Yes." is an easy answer and closed conversation I just go with that when it's the case.
When the answer is "No" I either answer "It's not, and I can't explain why yet because it'll spoil other things in the game. Let's talk after it's spoiler free - but yes it's something I added." or "No, it's not in the module - here's what it is and why I added it. I thought it was fun!"
If asked in the middle of a game session I will usually defer to the end of the session so we can keep the pace. If it's a major sticking point I just handle it immediately as it's not conflict, it's just curiosity.
Like others I tend to tell people up front that the adventure changes based on what the characters do. I'll add, subtract, and modify like a mad DM to make sure the story is trying to celebrate the characters and give them fun challenges.
My players know I run modules, but change them. Sometimes I take out stuff that just seems weird (a orc cursed to be a talking pearl springs to mind), sometimes I tweak a location (moved a whole module from Phlan to the Moonshaes), sometimes I add pieces to it to further storylines, and sometimes I just tweak NPC or monster stats, magical items found, etc. Pretty standard. I also write outlines for one shots and run them. I asked my players what they thought of a few of those, and they could not tell what was module and what was my invention, so I was happy.
I would wonder why someone wanted to know. Are they reading the module themselves? If I though that was so, it would change radically if I suspected they were trying to metagame. But if they were interested in DMing, I would assume it as curiosity about Module Versus DMing.
Sometimes I will explain why something is stunningly stupid by saying it's from the module and I didn't consider changing it, but...