Take a huge bag of pixie sticks and dissolve them in a 32oz glass of Mountain Dew. Chug that concoction. Come up with something as trippy as Rothgar was in the dragonlance campaign.
No I won't explain further because you literally had to be there at the time.
Seems to me by rule bending you told the story you wanted to tell, rather than the story the dice revealed. Where is the tension of the combat if your group is just going to make up a compromise to keep the two sides fair?
To be more exact I avoided the story I didn't want to hear. As a GM I really don't have a plan, I might have general direction and focus, but what drives my games should be bunch of caracters with goals who clash to each other.
Loosing the tenson from fight would have been no problem to me, because fighting (against the enemy) was never important for the games focus.
The campaigns I run are generally short, around 5 sessions. In a timed campaign like that pacing is important GM responsibility. Actually pacing is always important GM responsibility. Character getting cripled would be awesome if there were time to explore it, getting crppled in second to last session, less cool. Also remember the player of the character approved rules bending, if he would have wanted to play heavily penalized crpple he could have.
Also, avoiding the story you didn't want to hear isn't how good RPGs work. If you just want to completely control the story and have it be the story you want, then don't play an RPG. What's the point? You already know the story you want, so just write it and tell it.
The point of attaching a game to the story writing process is to mediate conflict in a collaboratively told story. When different players want different things to happen in the story, they roll dice to find out what actually happens. Nobody can overrule the dice. In a game like Inspectres, the story will always go in a direction that at least one of the players wants. In Burning Wheel the best awesomeness happens when it forces you to take the story in a direction that nobody wanted, or thought of, but is awesome!
See how we just pointed out to you how the story the dice revealed was an amazing awesome story that nobody at your table thought of or wanted. If you had just went with it, you would have experienced that awesomeness. If you are going to fight against that, then the game isn't helping you make your story more awesome, so you might as well not even play it.
Seriously, three super important DM skills - Improv(Der), note-taking(so you keep a rough continuity, very few people have perfect memories) and being able to vamp, preferably while doing something else at the same time. Never underestimate the usefulness of being able to talk about something while making a quick note or looking something up.
Somewhere at the cross between information gathering and recording and improvisation is the ability to see all the possibilities of the trackless steppe and choose the shortest path.
Memory is also a very important skill. Even if you know all the rules, you have to remember to use them. It's one thing to know that in a particular situation a particular rule comes into effect. It's another thing to remember to enact that rule when that situation happens in game.
Try running a game involving time travel and butterfly effect scenarios. It's a fantastic exercise in seeing just how good you are at adapting. Sadly that campaign never finished, but it was mind-blowingly awesome sometimes.
Slow moblienet and occasionally unresponsive Intrnet client. I write long-ass post push Post and nothing happens, I wait still nothing, I push Post again, double post.
Also, avoiding the story you didn't want to hear isn't how good RPGs work. If you just want to completely control the story and have it be the story you want, then don't play an RPG. What's the point? You already know the story you want, so just write it and tell it.
I admit that I do want to take control, but isn't that expected. You yourself said that rules alone can't crate art, so if I want to take part in storytelling prosess I have to take controll in a same way that I except players to take control of things that are in their domain. I want to be in control, but not in complte cotroll.
Also I had told the story I wanted to tell. It was in the campaign pitch "Emperor raises a great army to take back a city that was lost to the enemy some 100 years ago."
The point of attaching a game to the story writing process is to mediate conflict in a collaboratively told story. When different players want different things to happen in the story, they roll dice to find out what actually happens. Nobody can overrule the dice. In a game like Inspectres, the story will always go in a direction that at least one of the players wants. In Burning Wheel the best awesomeness happens when it forces you to take the story in a direction that nobody wanted, or thought of, but is awesome!
No matter how you prsent it as such there is no single truth on why rules are used in rpgs. It changes from group to group and game to game. Sometimes rules are used to handle conflicts between players, sometimes they are used to handle conflicts between characters, sometimes rules are used to find consequences of characters actions, soetimes rules are there to bring randomness, sometimes they are used to have tactical miniatyre fights for fun and many other reasons.
The most important thing is whether or not you violated the existing agreement and expectation of the players. If even one of your players expected a "no punches will be pulled" game, and you did not deliver, that is a failure of a sort. Either in communication, or in action.
Apreche is right that if you choose to take an action other than one that follows the rules, you are playing a different game (or non-game). His particular definition of RPG aside, if everyone at the table had more fun and will have more fun, you are absolutely fine to do what you did and you have no reason to feel bad. At the end of the day, you and your group are entitled to do whatever works for you.
The most important thing is whether or not you violated the existing agreement and expectation of the players. If even one of your players expected a "no punches will be pulled" game, and you did not deliver, that is a failure of a sort. Either in communication, or in action.
Apreche is right that if you choose to take an action other than one that follows the rules, you are playing a different game (or non-game). His particular definition of RPG aside, if everyone at the table had more fun and will have more fun, you are absolutely fine to do what you did and you have no reason to feel bad. At the end of the day, you and your group are entitled to do whatever works for you.
Like I said I was open about what I did and there were no objections.
Also I'm well aware that I played Almost but n Burning Wheel Gold
Try running a game involving time travel and butterfly effect scenarios. It's a fantastic exercise in seeing just how good you are at adapting. Sadly that campaign never finished, but it was mind-blowingly awesome sometimes.
I've done that before. Keeping the tenses straight did my head in something severe.
Do you guys have any opinion on the Warhammer 40k/Dark Heresy RPG? I think it's based off an already existing system (Not sure if D10 is the right term) but I really love how it plays out.
I think because it's set up in the much more fluid, understanding system of rolling FIRST to roleplay/act out the situation. And making successful non-combat related stunts is more difficult, but feels a lot more rewarding because of the degrees of success system. With the normal setup, a lot of good roleplay can feel wasted on a shitty role.
One other thing that I thought was interesting is that in our last RP session, my character died. But I wasn't beaten up, I was smiling and all like "No! You mofos better avenge me! " And 40k is set up in a world where you are expected to die. It raises up the unpredictability factor of it all, but makes it very fair. You understand the power of chance on both sides of the DM and the Players.
Even rolling up a new character is extremely fun, and I can't wait to do it again.
Do you guys have any opinion on the Warhammer 40k/Dark Heresy RPG?
I mainly play Rogue Trader (Pirate-Capitalist-Robber-Barons IN SPAAAAACCEEE!!!). The system does its job, but the main draw for me is the setting of 40k.
I've never played a game before in which I willingly wrote and submitted a business plan to explain to the game master exactly how I was going to wring money out of a world of provincial savages.
Comments
Take a huge bag of pixie sticks and dissolve them in a 32oz glass of Mountain Dew. Chug that concoction. Come up with something as trippy as Rothgar was in the dragonlance campaign.
No I won't explain further because you literally had to be there at the time.
Loosing the tenson from fight would have been no problem to me, because fighting (against the enemy) was never important for the games focus.
The campaigns I run are generally short, around 5 sessions. In a timed campaign like that pacing is important GM responsibility. Actually pacing is always important GM responsibility. Character getting cripled would be awesome if there were time to explore it, getting crppled in second to last session, less cool. Also remember the player of the character approved rules bending, if he would have wanted to play heavily penalized crpple he could have.
Also, avoiding the story you didn't want to hear isn't how good RPGs work. If you just want to completely control the story and have it be the story you want, then don't play an RPG. What's the point? You already know the story you want, so just write it and tell it.
The point of attaching a game to the story writing process is to mediate conflict in a collaboratively told story. When different players want different things to happen in the story, they roll dice to find out what actually happens. Nobody can overrule the dice. In a game like Inspectres, the story will always go in a direction that at least one of the players wants. In Burning Wheel the best awesomeness happens when it forces you to take the story in a direction that nobody wanted, or thought of, but is awesome!
See how we just pointed out to you how the story the dice revealed was an amazing awesome story that nobody at your table thought of or wanted. If you had just went with it, you would have experienced that awesomeness. If you are going to fight against that, then the game isn't helping you make your story more awesome, so you might as well not even play it.
Also I had told the story I wanted to tell. It was in the campaign pitch "Emperor raises a great army to take back a city that was lost to the enemy some 100 years ago."
No matter how you prsent it as such there is no single truth on why rules are used in rpgs. It changes from group to group and game to game. Sometimes rules are used to handle conflicts between players, sometimes they are used to handle conflicts between characters, sometimes rules are used to find consequences of characters actions, soetimes rules are there to bring randomness, sometimes they are used to have tactical miniatyre fights for fun and many other reasons.
Apreche is right that if you choose to take an action other than one that follows the rules, you are playing a different game (or non-game). His particular definition of RPG aside, if everyone at the table had more fun and will have more fun, you are absolutely fine to do what you did and you have no reason to feel bad. At the end of the day, you and your group are entitled to do whatever works for you.
Also I'm well aware that I played Almost but n Burning Wheel Gold
I think because it's set up in the much more fluid, understanding system of rolling FIRST to roleplay/act out the situation. And making successful non-combat related stunts is more difficult, but feels a lot more rewarding because of the degrees of success system. With the normal setup, a lot of good roleplay can feel wasted on a shitty role.
One other thing that I thought was interesting is that in our last RP session, my character died. But I wasn't beaten up, I was smiling and all like "No! You mofos better avenge me!
Even rolling up a new character is extremely fun, and I can't wait to do it again.
I am not sure whether or not this is a good thing but games featured on Tabletop will be placed on Target shelves.
I wouldn't bother reusing their exact setup. Use the playset to make your own; it's really fun.
I've never played a game before in which I willingly wrote and submitted a business plan to explain to the game master exactly how I was going to wring money out of a world of provincial savages.