I'm running a basic campaign (nameless, to avoid skewing the feedback), but I want to do more to ratchet up the emotional impact of the adventure. What general advice can you give about the best ways to put the emotional thumb screws on the PCs? Thx!
let them create personal bonds with NPC's make them really love/fear the NPC, such as this
I am currently playing a 3.5 game, my party of 6, me as a corrupt cleric of Pelor going into Tharusden (long story) and my "brother" a paladin of Pelor went to a small farm village and helped out him and his family. he had his daughter kidnapped by some bandits, so after that, he thanked us and invited us home to a dinner since he didn't have anything valuable to give us so we had dinner with his family. so we leave the village. after in-game 1 month, he started popping out in cities and bunch of stuff and gave us little missions on the side with his backstory involved. the backstory had a similar backstory to my paladin friend and so he empathized with him more. And so that farmer and our paladin become really good friends. When he got captured by a corrupt government, that we were fighting aganced, they used him as a deal for us to stop. so after the farmer told us to refuse the offer the council brought out his family and killed them in front of our/his eyes. this hurt our paladin. so the paladin tried so hard to fight to free him, but the council killed him brutally while the paladin couldn't do anything about it and made him into a wrath and he alone needed to kill them since they also had us magically imprisoned. he finally killed him, and his ghost appeared before him and his family was there and hugged the paladin before they made their way into the sky.
So what really helps to ratchet up the emotional impact of the adventure, and about the best ways to put the emotional thumbscrews on the PCs is:
Story
relatable music to match the scene, music is connected to emotions
Reoccurring characters that are similar to some PCs
create bonds
and remember that hopelessness is a powerful emotion.
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2nd Generation D&D nerd 10 years of experience
Currently DM: 3.5 Steampunk, Skyrim setting 3.5
Currently Playing: three 3.5e games and two 5e D&D games!
A twist and a moral quandry. The first is generally achieved by a deception of a NPC. The second could be a "the lesser of two evil situation", easy path against a righteous path and so on.
Present a situation where one of the group has to sacrifice themselves to save the team- maybe present it in a fashion whereby the final fate is a mystery (eg chopping a bridge behind the team, closing a door/gate/portcullis once the team is through) so you can reintroduce the character soon after.
On one of the episodes of GM tips(link below) they mention a couple of books and the Harmon story circle. It's been a tremendous help in diagramming stories in my groups as I'm trying to have smaller arcs following each of my character.
Work with each player on their characters backstory, motivations, and goals.
Then use those as plot hooks for everything you do. Almost every adventure should also be a moment to connect to a character story element. This will make it all feel super relevant and also interesting. It's not a random story that you, as the DM, made up. It's the story of the characters. Add in surprises and twists, and suddenly they will tell you that you are the most amazing DM ever when the truth of it is you rewarded them for their story seeds!
I'm running a basic campaign (nameless, to avoid skewing the feedback), but I want to do more to ratchet up the emotional impact of the adventure. What general advice can you give about the best ways to put the emotional thumb screws on the PCs? Thx!
Chandelierianism: Not just for interns anymore.
let them create personal bonds with NPC's make them really love/fear the NPC, such as this
I am currently playing a 3.5 game, my party of 6, me as a corrupt cleric of Pelor going into Tharusden (long story) and my "brother" a paladin of Pelor went to a small farm village and helped out him and his family. he had his daughter kidnapped by some bandits, so after that, he thanked us and invited us home to a dinner since he didn't have anything valuable to give us so we had dinner with his family. so we leave the village. after in-game 1 month, he started popping out in cities and bunch of stuff and gave us little missions on the side with his backstory involved. the backstory had a similar backstory to my paladin friend and so he empathized with him more. And so that farmer and our paladin become really good friends. When he got captured by a corrupt government, that we were fighting aganced, they used him as a deal for us to stop. so after the farmer told us to refuse the offer the council brought out his family and killed them in front of our/his eyes. this hurt our paladin. so the paladin tried so hard to fight to free him, but the council killed him brutally while the paladin couldn't do anything about it and made him into a wrath and he alone needed to kill them since they also had us magically imprisoned. he finally killed him, and his ghost appeared before him and his family was there and hugged the paladin before they made their way into the sky.
So what really helps to ratchet up the emotional impact of the adventure, and about the best ways to put the emotional thumbscrews on the PCs is:
Story
relatable music to match the scene, music is connected to emotions
Reoccurring characters that are similar to some PCs
create bonds
and remember that hopelessness is a powerful emotion.
2nd Generation D&D nerd 10 years of experience
Currently DM: 3.5 Steampunk, Skyrim setting 3.5
Currently Playing: three 3.5e games and two 5e D&D games!
A twist and a moral quandry. The first is generally achieved by a deception of a NPC. The second could be a "the lesser of two evil situation", easy path against a righteous path and so on.
Present a situation where one of the group has to sacrifice themselves to save the team- maybe present it in a fashion whereby the final fate is a mystery (eg chopping a bridge behind the team, closing a door/gate/portcullis once the team is through) so you can reintroduce the character soon after.
On one of the episodes of GM tips(link below) they mention a couple of books and the Harmon story circle. It's been a tremendous help in diagramming stories in my groups as I'm trying to have smaller arcs following each of my character.
https://youtu.be/zHFFFP6F0VY - GM tips w/ Satine Phoenix
Work with each player on their characters backstory, motivations, and goals.
Then use those as plot hooks for everything you do. Almost every adventure should also be a moment to connect to a character story element. This will make it all feel super relevant and also interesting. It's not a random story that you, as the DM, made up. It's the story of the characters. Add in surprises and twists, and suddenly they will tell you that you are the most amazing DM ever when the truth of it is you rewarded them for their story seeds!
View my StartPlaying.Games profile to see my games!
Awesome suggestions! Thanks so much!
Chandelierianism: Not just for interns anymore.