I'm also not convinced that OP isn't trolling, since their account was made today and this is the only thread they've ever interacted with.
If run as a series of Gotcha! events, yes, that will fail. I was just saying there are ways to to that so that it does work.
The party are sent off after promise of really powerful magic items. That turns out to be false. They come back home to confront the quest giver only to find their home town either in trouble (their real 1st adventure) or worse, taken over by some force or entity too powerful for them to handle. Hint, OOC through narration or through some character's successful insight check that perhaps the mission they were given was meant to get them out of town (Version 1, if they are meant to deal with it now : So it could happen; Version 2, if a longer term goal: To get them to safety). Why them in either case? That is another long term mystery.
Yeah, sure, but that's literally not what OP was describing. The only thing that has in common with what they said was that it involves questing for magic items and not getting them.
Firstly, the golden rule of DMing is to write what happened, not what will happen - the players write the next part of the story. Here's how I expect your game will go:
Players: "Right, we've spend over an hour making characters which we're really excited to play!"
DM: "You have these powerful magic items, and now this guy who thinks he's really powerful is asking you to hand them over or die!"
Players: "We attack!"
DM: "No, if you attack, you'll die."
Players: "Well, we said we attack, so we're attacking"
DM: "That's not how this is supposed to go, you're supposed to hand them over"
Players, "we don't care, we're attacking anyway"
DM: "Ok, make new characters everyone, you just got disintegrated"
Players: "huh, that sucked. Bye!"
Writing "The players hand over their cool stuff because they are scared of the BBEG" is never going to go to plan. Ever. You'd be far better off saying that each of them needs to have the BBEG in their backstory, having taken a powerful magic item which they loved, and leaving them alive. That way the story is already written - you've written what has happened, not what will happen.
The subsequent sequence of "You might get the item back... but you don't, but you might... but you don't, but maybe this time, but no" is going to get old before it even starts. The players will immediately stop trying to get the magic items, however much you tell them that their character is thinking about them. They might go out to find others, or try desperately to direct you back to an actual game and not a DM railroad power trip, telling you "no, we don't care about our lost items, we want to raid dungeons and be heroes and slay monsters", and you may reply "ok but you really miss that sword that was destroyed and there's a barbarian tribe in the utmost north which is rumoured to be able t orepair it", and they say "yeah, not bothered, what else is there".
You've tried to write the story before they got involved. This alone is enough to make your concept fail, without all the mind games.
I’d like to salute all the people who (desperately) tried to help. Unfortunately your arguments fell on deaf ears. Which can only mean 1 of 2 things
1) he really does have this totally idiotic idea on how to run a game. If so simple put down a comment on how to fix it, then after he refuses to listen, move on.
2) he’s a troll. This one is WAY more likely (mainly because I hope no one is this horrible a DM) and if so he has wasted your time, so I apologize. I would ask that you keep being helpful because VERY few DMs on this forum are as bad as this one, and they might actually need your help.
continue being so helpful to all people on the forum.
Thank you.
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I'm also not convinced that OP isn't trolling, since their account was made today and this is the only thread they've ever interacted with.
Yeah, sure, but that's literally not what OP was describing. The only thing that has in common with what they said was that it involves questing for magic items and not getting them.
Got to say I find this whole premise very bad.
Firstly, the golden rule of DMing is to write what happened, not what will happen - the players write the next part of the story. Here's how I expect your game will go:
Players: "Right, we've spend over an hour making characters which we're really excited to play!"
DM: "You have these powerful magic items, and now this guy who thinks he's really powerful is asking you to hand them over or die!"
Players: "We attack!"
DM: "No, if you attack, you'll die."
Players: "Well, we said we attack, so we're attacking"
DM: "That's not how this is supposed to go, you're supposed to hand them over"
Players, "we don't care, we're attacking anyway"
DM: "Ok, make new characters everyone, you just got disintegrated"
Players: "huh, that sucked. Bye!"
Writing "The players hand over their cool stuff because they are scared of the BBEG" is never going to go to plan. Ever. You'd be far better off saying that each of them needs to have the BBEG in their backstory, having taken a powerful magic item which they loved, and leaving them alive. That way the story is already written - you've written what has happened, not what will happen.
The subsequent sequence of "You might get the item back... but you don't, but you might... but you don't, but maybe this time, but no" is going to get old before it even starts. The players will immediately stop trying to get the magic items, however much you tell them that their character is thinking about them. They might go out to find others, or try desperately to direct you back to an actual game and not a DM railroad power trip, telling you "no, we don't care about our lost items, we want to raid dungeons and be heroes and slay monsters", and you may reply "ok but you really miss that sword that was destroyed and there's a barbarian tribe in the utmost north which is rumoured to be able t orepair it", and they say "yeah, not bothered, what else is there".
You've tried to write the story before they got involved. This alone is enough to make your concept fail, without all the mind games.
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100% Troll post of a troll campaign meant entirely to troll players.
It is a testament to how helpful folks here try to be that it got to 3 pages. At this point though the troll is well fed. Move along.
I’d like to salute all the people who (desperately) tried to help. Unfortunately your arguments fell on deaf ears. Which can only mean 1 of 2 things
1) he really does have this totally idiotic idea on how to run a game. If so simple put down a comment on how to fix it, then after he refuses to listen, move on.
2) he’s a troll. This one is WAY more likely (mainly because I hope no one is this horrible a DM) and if so he has wasted your time, so I apologize. I would ask that you keep being helpful because VERY few DMs on this forum are as bad as this one, and they might actually need your help.
continue being so helpful to all people on the forum.
Thank you.