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The Shakespears have EYES
13 years ago
And this weeks adventure is......
So I just got back from D&D session (circa 4am) and feeling wired for what is basically no real reason. I guess because sleep is for lame people. I'll spare you the details other Greatswords are pretty friggin cool. Because I feel the need to talk about something, I'm going to babble on about 2 different things, one of the D&D-Story related, and the other more about real life. I'm not really sure which one to start with. I guess the story one.
Allright so theres this forest, its all mazey and shit, with some crazy power lions and stone statues because F--- Logic, this here's a fantasy adventure! Anyway it gets dark and we build ourselves a camp and assign watches. basic stuff.
The dude on watch never passes on his shift. in fact he left reality alltogether by means of ????????. and when we wake up theres the feeling of "not-quite-right". But yeah he's just gone and replaced with a mysterious aura. We go to town and find out said forest is
>called cursed
>once had a temple dedicated to purifying humanity
>Has a tree with flowers that can cure anything
>had the place spiritually sealed by an epic level character
>"The shadows spirit people away" (and night forest is a helluva place to encounter shadows.
Meanwhile the dude is in his own private universe being driven FRIGGIN INSANE by the universe and trees looking at him, and the sky developing eyes just to stare into his soul. things right out of stephen king. Then he goes Mute, Deaf and Blind just out of sheer terror.
This sort of thing, and the ones like silent-hill-esque plot where you start having your own little reality devoted to fucking your shit up, really honestly scares me. I'm used to having terms to fight on, as it were. You can't punch out the intangible, and especially not things that aren't clearly defined. Sort of like if gravity was variable and random: you might just start floating and crashing down with no pattern, no way to work around it. When reality turns against you....there's just literally nothing you can do. Its probably the purest form of powerlessness, and not something I want to ever deal with...because really how can you?
The second thing is he (the Dungeon Master; i.e. GOD of our little play universe) made this all up on the goddamn spot. or at least in a stupidly short time. I wish I could do that, I really do. I mean I'm a good DM, But because I love mathematical systems, and can express anything in terms of the math of D&D. I can keep combat play moving freely because i see the numbers and how they apply to reality (most people look at me like I'm some kind of savant when I tell them "yeah that'd just be a fortitude save of X cause because its attached to a basic attack, but it is a fairly decently high level") But the story telling aspect of DM'ing? Not so much.
I guess its because I have no stories of my own. I mean I have a past, a decently adventurous one at that actually (i regularly dodged poisonous animals as a child, jumped trees, kidnappings, etc.). But when I tell the actual story it sounds all lame and monotonous, while other people are throwing exaggerations and expletives around like candy, I just shrug it off as an college student shrugs off the metaphorical meaning of romeo and juliet. Yeah it's there, but how can you get excited about something in the past.
Methinks I'm over thinking things again.
Allright so theres this forest, its all mazey and shit, with some crazy power lions and stone statues because F--- Logic, this here's a fantasy adventure! Anyway it gets dark and we build ourselves a camp and assign watches. basic stuff.
The dude on watch never passes on his shift. in fact he left reality alltogether by means of ????????. and when we wake up theres the feeling of "not-quite-right". But yeah he's just gone and replaced with a mysterious aura. We go to town and find out said forest is
>called cursed
>once had a temple dedicated to purifying humanity
>Has a tree with flowers that can cure anything
>had the place spiritually sealed by an epic level character
>"The shadows spirit people away" (and night forest is a helluva place to encounter shadows.
Meanwhile the dude is in his own private universe being driven FRIGGIN INSANE by the universe and trees looking at him, and the sky developing eyes just to stare into his soul. things right out of stephen king. Then he goes Mute, Deaf and Blind just out of sheer terror.
This sort of thing, and the ones like silent-hill-esque plot where you start having your own little reality devoted to fucking your shit up, really honestly scares me. I'm used to having terms to fight on, as it were. You can't punch out the intangible, and especially not things that aren't clearly defined. Sort of like if gravity was variable and random: you might just start floating and crashing down with no pattern, no way to work around it. When reality turns against you....there's just literally nothing you can do. Its probably the purest form of powerlessness, and not something I want to ever deal with...because really how can you?
The second thing is he (the Dungeon Master; i.e. GOD of our little play universe) made this all up on the goddamn spot. or at least in a stupidly short time. I wish I could do that, I really do. I mean I'm a good DM, But because I love mathematical systems, and can express anything in terms of the math of D&D. I can keep combat play moving freely because i see the numbers and how they apply to reality (most people look at me like I'm some kind of savant when I tell them "yeah that'd just be a fortitude save of X cause because its attached to a basic attack, but it is a fairly decently high level") But the story telling aspect of DM'ing? Not so much.
I guess its because I have no stories of my own. I mean I have a past, a decently adventurous one at that actually (i regularly dodged poisonous animals as a child, jumped trees, kidnappings, etc.). But when I tell the actual story it sounds all lame and monotonous, while other people are throwing exaggerations and expletives around like candy, I just shrug it off as an college student shrugs off the metaphorical meaning of romeo and juliet. Yeah it's there, but how can you get excited about something in the past.
Methinks I'm over thinking things again.
I'd listen to your story :c
i know pretty much nothing of your past and shit
I used to think coming up with stuff off of the top of my head was hard. Then I realized that the key to being a successful DM is a willingness to throw away the dice and abandon the charts and never think things out. Ever. Come up with the weirdest, most out there shit you can. Anything that you'd find fun, crazy or interesting. Odds are your players will eat it up. They'll start reacting and you'll riff off of them.
It takes a little practice. STart em out with something simple. I once ran a Call of Cthulhu game. I started my players out in a very typical situation. Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The heart of Providence and good ol HP's stomping ground. I have a home team advantage-I was born and raised in RI and grew up playing on the streets of Providence. I know that place like the back of my hand.
Our group consisted of an antiques dealer named John Crawford and a professor of history from India named Professor Abubu Achoo. This set up a connection between the two and gave both of them a reason to meet up in the Brown U. Library. It appears that a student had found a hidden wing while helping catalogue the rare books collection. It was quite common in the 17 and 1800's for rich people to donate to libraries in order to get their own private wing. It meant they were able to have a place to retire to to read and host special parties and what not and gave them a place in posterity.
It also meant that I had the perfect setup for my players. It turns out that the dude who bought the wing was into collecting books of power. Part of his wing was a portal to a different dimension. The library on the other side was impossibly vast and contained many ancient and terrible texts.
This was all stuff I came up with off the top of my head. Sure, it's all pretty standard stuff but they didnt care. If you tell it as if you'd witnessed it yourself, they'll willingly suspend their disbelief. As long as you do your best to remain consistent with your crazy logic, you'll be fine.
I'd love to hear your stories!