It was also strawman as no one was saying just dump a troll on them, but certain things are going to happen as part of the over arching plot regardless of how you get there, it might have a slightly different flavour to it. With out that overarching plot you are just dicking around which is fine if that is what you want to run but the OP was asking for ideas of how not to need to improvise but also not plan a full world.
The point we are making is not that your opinion is wrong or that it’s not backed up. What myself and others do agree on is that we don’t think your answer is the right one for this situation.
The OP is a new DM, telling them the only way to properly DM a good game is to plan 15 encounters for every one you have is just bad advice. They want a way to make the game more fun for both them and their group and you advice no matter what experts you quote on the subject was one with lots of pitfalls for failure.
Do you know when players start to think they are railroaded? When they get bored.
so I think planning one kick ass encounter with multiple points of entry and paths to success that they end up doing no matter which road they pick out the village is a better tactic than planning fifteen different encounters to use one. And yeah there is an argument you can make that you could reuse the 14 you don’t use, but pretty sure your point rested on the idea that making players end up at encounters they didn’t choose initially was a BS and bad? No? Throw those 14 encounters in the fire I guess.
Whatever y'all continue to force your players into the situations you want and fake them out with choices. Don't let them have any agency in how things occur because you only want to have to plan 1 thing per session. That is not a create way to DM (as explained by both linked videos) Stories can have a beginning, middle, and end. But to take players out of creating those intermediate sentences and points ruins the game imo. Fooling your players into thinking they have a choice when in reality they are on a train barreling towards the BBEG is just as bad imo.
Y'all are so hung up on me throwing out the random high number of choices and pretended that the unused ones were burned in a trash fire after the session when they weren't brought up. Want to know how to be a better DM? Go with the flow of your players and not take their ability to make choices and throw it out the window because that is "more work"
Y'all sat there saying I'm strawmaning and taking your opinions out of context yet - right there you took my words and instead of being reasonable you blew them into a "be all, end all" situation.
Matt Colville is saying exactly what most of the people here suggest, while the guys from Web DM talk about handling player decisions with improv DMing. They are never talking a bit about over preparing several options. They even talk about all the pieces they know have to happen for the story to continue and think about consequences and ways to include everything into the things the players do.
Again, like sardonicmonkey wrote, it is all about saying "yes, but.." or "yes, and..." and just let the players have free reign how they approach a situation.
So, both videos actually say the same as most of the recommendations here. No one said, you should force players into singular solutions to encounters.
Yeah so I try and make levelling up a little narrative heavy, prophetic dreams, conversations with patrons, formative interactions that lead to sub classes etc. Last night in one of my games my players hit level 3 and I had prepared 4 narratives. Literally 30 secs before I started the bard messaged me to say rather than pick a college he was taking a level of wild magic sorcerer (first time he told me). Literally had to improvise an entire scenario where that happened on the spot with no prep for it.
So I am not going to be told by someone that hasn’t even watched the videos they are linking that I am denying my players agency because I plan encounters ahead of time.
Hello i am trying to make a home brew campaign but i cant publish my classes it keeps giving me the response of "
This home brew Subclass does not have the necessary class features with the correct required levels." And i require help do you have a way for this to stop im very much confused.
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"argument from authority"
It was also strawman as no one was saying just dump a troll on them, but certain things are going to happen as part of the over arching plot regardless of how you get there, it might have a slightly different flavour to it. With out that overarching plot you are just dicking around which is fine if that is what you want to run but the OP was asking for ideas of how not to need to improvise but also not plan a full world.
All posts come with the caveat that I don't know what I'm talking about.
The point we are making is not that your opinion is wrong or that it’s not backed up. What myself and others do agree on is that we don’t think your answer is the right one for this situation.
The OP is a new DM, telling them the only way to properly DM a good game is to plan 15 encounters for every one you have is just bad advice. They want a way to make the game more fun for both them and their group and you advice no matter what experts you quote on the subject was one with lots of pitfalls for failure.
Do you know when players start to think they are railroaded? When they get bored.
so I think planning one kick ass encounter with multiple points of entry and paths to success that they end up doing no matter which road they pick out the village is a better tactic than planning fifteen different encounters to use one. And yeah there is an argument you can make that you could reuse the 14 you don’t use, but pretty sure your point rested on the idea that making players end up at encounters they didn’t choose initially was a BS and bad? No? Throw those 14 encounters in the fire I guess.
Whatever y'all continue to force your players into the situations you want and fake them out with choices. Don't let them have any agency in how things occur because you only want to have to plan 1 thing per session. That is not a create way to DM (as explained by both linked videos) Stories can have a beginning, middle, and end. But to take players out of creating those intermediate sentences and points ruins the game imo. Fooling your players into thinking they have a choice when in reality they are on a train barreling towards the BBEG is just as bad imo.
Y'all are so hung up on me throwing out the random high number of choices and pretended that the unused ones were burned in a trash fire after the session when they weren't brought up. Want to know how to be a better DM? Go with the flow of your players and not take their ability to make choices and throw it out the window because that is "more work"
Y'all sat there saying I'm strawmaning and taking your opinions out of context yet - right there you took my words and instead of being reasonable you blew them into a "be all, end all" situation.
Good luck OP - I'm out
I think you have player agency and Skyrim mixed up.
Also I watched the Matt Coville Video you linked and here is a direct quote
“ having a plot, knowing what’s going to happen, having set piece encounters laid out is NOT railroading, it’s just being ready”
”when I talk about choices I don’t mean branching paths...I mean how the players solve problems”
even the sources you are using to back up your point think what you are saying is bad advice
Watched both videos.
Matt Colville is saying exactly what most of the people here suggest, while the guys from Web DM talk about handling player decisions with improv DMing. They are never talking a bit about over preparing several options. They even talk about all the pieces they know have to happen for the story to continue and think about consequences and ways to include everything into the things the players do.
Again, like sardonicmonkey wrote, it is all about saying "yes, but.." or "yes, and..." and just let the players have free reign how they approach a situation.
So, both videos actually say the same as most of the recommendations here. No one said, you should force players into singular solutions to encounters.
Yeah so I try and make levelling up a little narrative heavy, prophetic dreams, conversations with patrons, formative interactions that lead to sub classes etc. Last night in one of my games my players hit level 3 and I had prepared 4 narratives. Literally 30 secs before I started the bard messaged me to say rather than pick a college he was taking a level of wild magic sorcerer (first time he told me). Literally had to improvise an entire scenario where that happened on the spot with no prep for it.
So I am not going to be told by someone that hasn’t even watched the videos they are linking that I am denying my players agency because I plan encounters ahead of time.
Hello i am trying to make a home brew campaign but i cant publish my classes it keeps giving me the response of "