Yep, a D&D game I am following on on Twitch happened to some time ago go through an event where a demon demi-god corrupted an Aasimar and basically caused an eclipse and terrorized the capital city the group was in.
Some time after the events, during a chat stream, the DM mentioned that the events the players went through were about the second to worst scenario she planned for within the world they inhabited, based on their actions, the people involved, consequences, reactions and much much more.
I *love* watching skilled DMs just let the world keep going.
I remember the first time I had a group and they laughed because they killed my BBEG early.
Power vacuum, tons of characters working in the background. Killed one of the PC’s SO and child because of the transition.
The next session, they were blown away by what had happened because they didn’t think about their actions. They played that campaign for years, and while they were flakey before that, they almost never missed as session after that.
In similiar news, I recently had to re-install windows 10, wiping my backups and after about 10-20 minutes of having my external plugged in it stopped working.
I have lost all my stuff for all the games I run and the ones I take part in.
I am absolutely livid
I could never do that, mostly because I run pretty sandbox most of the time. I build my worlds with the most important people in them, and I let my players ruin them as they go.
Suprisingly enough, the world doesn’t always revolve around the player’s actions. Sure, they can have significant effects in places where they are present. But unless your players are plane shattering reality benders, chances are there one or two tiny things that will happen regardless of their whims.
I dont think its that bad, if you have inspiration for a really good story arc, go with it. NPCs, locations, and other details can be changed as necessary to flow with the larger plot, always nice to have some basic structure ahead of time.
They may be used to a more… linear… sort of gamemastering. They are assuming that having seven adventures means that the overarching metaplot will be too stringent to allow player choice of action to affect the narrative.
I’m running a campaign that’s structured as a road trip. I have the main adventure of each stop planned out ahead of time, but there’s still an immense amount of room for player agency in how each goes down. Just because people know where they’re going doesn’t mean they’re powerless.
I’m not angry, and I love world-building. Carlos and I probably have a similar number/size of binders. I wouldn’t have dissed Carlos irl, and if that’s inaccurate, I would have at least apologized and tried to explain I was just joking.
I did once have a GM who had everything so planned out that character actions were essentially meaningless, the campaign revolving around “Sholion’s Tomb”. It was such a … memorable experience that next time I made a list of “things that are likely to happen / loose ends” in one of my campaigns, I labeled it “Sholion’s Tomb” just to remind myself of the edge I was walking.
My current GM is always complaining about having to throw away pages and pages of material because of overpowered or lucky characters, so that’s another way I know having the material isn’t the same as forcing it down your player’s throats.
This is the best thing ever, I love it. I myself took upon the effort of doing an intensive world-build for my dnd group last summer (still a bit of a work in progress, as they always are) and I know exactly how carlos is thinking. You know you’re in there when you’re working out the exchange rate between Dwarven and Gnomish currencies.
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!SPITTAKECOUNT – 15 Spit-Takes
16, ughhh don’t do a spot take with Pepsi, it hurts
It only hurts if it comes out the nose…not that I’d know…
Don’t try it with vodka either.
OW! My fingers already sting when I’m handling vodka, I don’t want to imagine how painful that would be.
not as bad as up the nose
Gin out the nose burns so bad!
Oh gods. I don’t know why, but the idea of him prepping eight adventures is making me laugh uncontrollably.
Awesome job, Brian!
Out GM’ing the licensed GMs. Niiiiice.
I am both of their faces.
Can I hire Carlos as my personal DM?
GAME ON!
I am hugely jealous of Carlos’ ability to be so prepared. I’ve never been able to be so organised.
how is there no -crunch- next to that can?
Sam is too weak to crush a can lol.
I mean, thats awesome, unless the players decide to nuke the castle, and ruin all that prep work…
Then you’re a bad DM.
A Good DM would have a world built well enough that the reactions *to* nuking a castle can be the rest of the adventure.
Don’t write storylines: Build worlds. Your players will thank you.
Same goes for writing good worlds in novels and games, for that matter.
Yep, a D&D game I am following on on Twitch happened to some time ago go through an event where a demon demi-god corrupted an Aasimar and basically caused an eclipse and terrorized the capital city the group was in.
Some time after the events, during a chat stream, the DM mentioned that the events the players went through were about the second to worst scenario she planned for within the world they inhabited, based on their actions, the people involved, consequences, reactions and much much more.
I *love* watching skilled DMs just let the world keep going.
I remember the first time I had a group and they laughed because they killed my BBEG early.
Power vacuum, tons of characters working in the background. Killed one of the PC’s SO and child because of the transition.
The next session, they were blown away by what had happened because they didn’t think about their actions. They played that campaign for years, and while they were flakey before that, they almost never missed as session after that.
I haven’t done any PnP in years, but it sounds like you’d make it a lot more fun for a player than I have ever experienced.
Carlos is a beast. Also the best. Goddamn.
I think that eventually Carlos needs to write and/or draw a comics series of his own. 😉
Or, you know, publish his game world.
In similiar news, I recently had to re-install windows 10, wiping my backups and after about 10-20 minutes of having my external plugged in it stopped working.
I have lost all my stuff for all the games I run and the ones I take part in.
I am absolutely livid
Yeeeeaaahhh…. Carlos needs to publish if he has that much written.
Carlos is now my new favorite character.
I could never do that, mostly because I run pretty sandbox most of the time. I build my worlds with the most important people in them, and I let my players ruin them as they go.
I mean destroy them as they go.
Explore!
That’s the word. Explore.
I let my players explode them as they go.
I’d say all of these are correct for my players.
Oddly there are no trains in them, despite each volume being labeled “railroading”.
note, he said “seven more” and in fact didn’t say “the next seven”
that’s an important detail.
Suprisingly enough, the world doesn’t always revolve around the player’s actions. Sure, they can have significant effects in places where they are present. But unless your players are plane shattering reality benders, chances are there one or two tiny things that will happen regardless of their whims.
I dont think its that bad, if you have inspiration for a really good story arc, go with it. NPCs, locations, and other details can be changed as necessary to flow with the larger plot, always nice to have some basic structure ahead of time.
You seem angry. I’m sorry Carlos having a lot of world-building and adventure ideas sets that off.
They may be used to a more… linear… sort of gamemastering. They are assuming that having seven adventures means that the overarching metaplot will be too stringent to allow player choice of action to affect the narrative.
I’m running a campaign that’s structured as a road trip. I have the main adventure of each stop planned out ahead of time, but there’s still an immense amount of room for player agency in how each goes down. Just because people know where they’re going doesn’t mean they’re powerless.
I’m not angry, and I love world-building. Carlos and I probably have a similar number/size of binders. I wouldn’t have dissed Carlos irl, and if that’s inaccurate, I would have at least apologized and tried to explain I was just joking.
I did once have a GM who had everything so planned out that character actions were essentially meaningless, the campaign revolving around “Sholion’s Tomb”. It was such a … memorable experience that next time I made a list of “things that are likely to happen / loose ends” in one of my campaigns, I labeled it “Sholion’s Tomb” just to remind myself of the edge I was walking.
My current GM is always complaining about having to throw away pages and pages of material because of overpowered or lucky characters, so that’s another way I know having the material isn’t the same as forcing it down your player’s throats.
This is the best thing ever, I love it. I myself took upon the effort of doing an intensive world-build for my dnd group last summer (still a bit of a work in progress, as they always are) and I know exactly how carlos is thinking. You know you’re in there when you’re working out the exchange rate between Dwarven and Gnomish currencies.
I cobbled together a race package for a Star Trek game. It was twenty five pages long. Most of it was cultural.
so he just doesn’t sleep than
A dozen game companies just read this cartoon and are trying to find Carlos on LinkedIn.
Sam’s spit-take is good, but seeing Jeanie completely stopped in her tracks is what really sells this for me.
Carlos, you’re making the rest of the GMs in the world look like slackers!
You said it!
Way to knock this one out of the park, Brian! 🙂
(Not that it’s unusual for you to knock all of them outta the park…)
Yeah, RedBull hits me like that, too.
Found this comic last week, got to this strip and experienced a sudden confusion on why the next button wasn’t working…
To quote the last strip: NOOOOOOoooooooooooo!
“There’s a new GM in town, folks, and ‘e ain’t got no time for pussyfootin’ ’round wit’ none ‘o this ‘half done’ nonsense.” 😀
The 2 formal dm’s in the group just had there minds blown
Jeanie and Sam are both thinking, ” Dayum! I need to up my game.” 🙂