>That one special touch that you spent a week planning and

File: right before you realize you're not arguing about anything.jpg (71KB, 609x605px) Image search: [Google]

71KB, 609x605px

>>52278062
>Run a Pokemon game
>focused on searching for and capturing legendary Pokemon
>Buy buy a big poster with each legend on it
>every session or so, cross out a picture with the name of the trainer who caught it
>Cynthia caught Latios
>Steven caught Cobalion
>Blaine caught Moltres
>Do this for a visual representation of their soft deadline
>but also because I really like the idea
>not a single person cares

>>52278062
>run a supernatural investigation game
>decide I'm going to go beyond the standard vampire and werewolf bullshit
>research mythological monsters and demons
>Babylonian, Aztec, Hindu, Medieval Demonology, the works
>come up with lists of information the players can use against them through research and investigation
>plot out cases based on the monsters and what they might want
>half the players quit after the first session, claiming its "too occult."
>thought it'd just be vampires and werewolves

Fuck the Bible Belt.

>>52278062
everytime i gm

>>52278062
I have a thing I'm doing in this campaign, but my players all seem to dig it, so I guess I'm the exception here? I'm tracking the calendar of the setting and the days and everything, just so we have a firm grasp on the timeline and when things are going to happen and that sorta jazz. All my players seem to like it, even if they're not as excited as I am by times and dates (I'm a terrible nerd), so that's nice.

>>52278175
>caring about meme legendaries

File: top man.jpg (589KB, 1280x1975px) Image search: [Google]

589KB, 1280x1975px

>>52278175
That image perfectly encompasses this thread

>No one likes the music you picked.
>No one eats the food you made for them.
>Cellphones come out every time a lore dump happens.
>No one uses their coasters.

Not even the DM, but still 10/10 mad.

>>52278902
not enough fire involved.

>spend hours in all systems making custom gear for the characters
>usually unique and have special abilities
>give them backstory
>party just stores them or tries to sell them
>keep their bland gear they learned about in the core rule books

This was a bigger insult when they did it in Edge of the Empire and ignored blasters with like 5 pierce and 4 hard points.

>>52278871
>not wanting to have an epic dragon sky battle against Lance while chasing Rayquaza through the grand canyon

>>52278919
>No one eats the food you made for them.
Now that's just rude. Someone took the time to prepare food which is basically edible love, and people actually refuse to eat it? I'd kick that fucker out the door. Unless they have allergies, but really, most people should at least try to eat some.

It's part of GMing- as is the stuff where a random improvised detail like a bored gardener NPC becomes the player's favorite thing ever and develops into a critical plot element or something.

What's been rough to me is cases where I thought they WERE loving a thing until their dissatisfaction hit a boiling point. Hazard of running a text game over skype- I thought an NPC had them hooked, when it was more like agitated silence. =/

>>52278062

> Playing a game on roll20
> Trying to come up with interesting ways for players to interact with roll20 other than rolling dice
> Get the idea to integrate the Traffic Jam game into roll20
> "Oh that'll be great, it'll challenge them in a different manner than they are used to. should be fun"
> Spend the day finding all the right pieces, resizing, copying puzzles, making it setting appropriate, permissions are set etc
> It took longer than expected but finished it on time for game night
> During the session when the players get to this puzzle I carefully explain the rules
> In my mind players would engage the puzzle and have fun solving it within the rules
> Players ignore the rules and move pieces willy nilly and "complete" the puzzle before I could stop them
> "Okay anon, we're done what's next."
> Pause
> Have an internal crisis as I realize my players are not only firmly, but willingly, entrenched in power fantasy

>>52279188
What is the Traffic Jam game?

>>52278954

I have been where you are before

My Brother

File: 41RT6mCn3OL.gif (19KB, 285x285px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 285x285px

>>52279213

Its got a ton of names, I guess I grew up knowing it as Traffic Jam

>>52279277
Ah, that. So you mean the players just moved the cars with no regard for what's actually allowed? That sounds shitty.

File: 1466188281505.jpg (26KB, 360x450px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 360x450px

>>52278954
My GM once wrote like 2 dozen homebrew spells.

I ignored them because they weren't very strong.

I felt like I just threw my girlfriend's home-baked cookies in the garbage and started munching on a bag of oreos instead.

>>52279303

Yeah I made 3 puzzles, one for each of them. They moved their pieces diagonally and over each other so they literally finished before I could say anything. As a DM I'm trying to find alternate ways of presenting puzzles outside of "I roll dice, do I win?" So I'm trying to add in stuff like Tangrams, logical riddles, tracing puzzles - stuff players can either use logic to solve or easily guess and test their way through. It may be a failing endeavor but if I was a player and a DM gave me something like this I'd at least be earnest about having a go at it.

>>52279450
A little off-topic but...

I dunno if it's a good idea to halt the gameflow like that to make the players solve puzzle games. At least not as a means to progress. Maybe for a side area, but I find that stuff like that tends to just stop the game dead in its tracks.

Puzzles I found did work okay were cryptographs (Even a simple Caesar cypher can be fun. Maybe hide a key somewhere?) and logical exclusion puzzles incoporated into a dungeon ("Bob lives in the house with a red roof and has no male neighbours" etc.)

But, of course, in the end, everything depends on your group.

>>52278062
>running a game for other college students

you have never known greater suffering

>>52279325
Honestly he should have made them more useful

>>52278642
>>players leave because it's 'too occult'

>not putting on your Capotain.
>not telling them that the game is designed to help you fight the demons.
>not having your players come to a deeper understanding of their faith by showing them the forces of the Adversary and their defeat.

You gotta know your audience, Anon.

>>52278642
Move to the North or just get less religious friends.

>>52279500
You're right it might not be a good idea but I'll keep at it until I'm convinced it is or isn't a good idea. I still hold out hope that a group more eager to engage the game would appreciate these puzzles. And in all honesty these aren't hard puzzles I'm presenting, I crib from a K-3rd grade level.

>>52279887
The issue with it is thus: once it happens you aren't playing as your character for the duration, you are playing as yourself.
At least in regard to this kind of puzzle, your 3rd+ level wizard can do this kind of thing in his head, whereas your players may get stuck with it. The reason it breaks game flow more than say, a riddle, is that the players will approach the riddle in character, and will discuss the answers. You can even have them make checks to give hints as to the answer of the riddle. A puzzle like this is literally saying to the players themselves "hey do this puzzle and you can get thing".

>>52278642
No amount of secularism will make people interested in a game if there is a disconnect between expectation and reality

Good communication with your playerbase (particularly during the player selection phase is the key to happiness).

>>52280080
Good post

>>52279984

I see what your saying but I still think I can make this work. It may take a lot more crafting and formulating as opposed to saying 'here, puzzle, solve, reward'. You present me a problem but its not an unpleasant one to think about.

Yeah alot of these sound like basic pitfall of not sounding the waters beforehand. You gotta talk premises out with players and see what they get hype for, ask them what ideas get them excited.

>>52279786
>Not realizing DND is the devil
Nobody is going to get fooled into joining the cult of Minerva. Everyone knows what happened to Blackleaf.

>>52278919
>GM keeps cooking his meme food

ugh, can you not?

>>52280179
What you need to to is make it so that in order to move a piece, the characters have to complete some task.

Bumping right now, I have a neat idea of how to implement it, drawing it now

>Print out the custom-commissioned worldmap on a 22x14 poster board
>Hang it on the wall in our game room
>Layer over it a clear glass dry erase board
>"Okay guys this map is going to be up all year, you can use it for keeping track of things that interest you in locations like monsters or rumors, keeping notes, or planning journeys!"
>3/4ths of the year later
>Nobody ever touched the thing
>People keep asking me to remind them what the name of everything is

I feel so empty whenever I look at it

>>52280746
I-i-i would use your world map senpai

File: 21531268731`2798.jpg (70KB, 700x393px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 700x393px

>One year anniversary of the campaign
>I commissioned my group a picture of their party together
>Fill it with little details and references to some of my favorite moments in the game
>Reveal the print at the end of last night's session
>"Oh hey anon that's cool but I never really pictured my character with X"
>"Yeah that's really nice of you, but now that he mentions it my weapon looks more like Y"

I was going to hang it up somewhere but now I don't even want to look at it

>>52280789
That stuff pisses me off to no end. We have a legit artist (and middle school art teacher) in our group and she loves to gift is with character art all the time. In my opinion, she pegs characters perfectly from their hairstyle to their shoes and everything in between. So when half of the other players correct her, she does redraft comissions, working really hard to give them what they want, only for it to still not be right for whatever reason.

Not only do they snub one-of-a-kind artwork made specifically for them, but they have no concept of character design.

You should hang that shit and be proud of it.

File: bg.jpg (34KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 500x500px

>>52280789
>>52280746
You guys didn't deserve it :(

File: Traffic Jam Dungeon Puzzle Concept.png (119KB, 1524x827px) Image search: [Google]

119KB, 1524x827px

>>52280179
>>52279984
>>52279887
>>52279500
>>52279450
>>52279277
>>52279213
>>52279188
This would make for a really neat dungeon.

>>52278062
>>52279653

this thread has made me feel sad

good thread

>>52280935

Is the grey lever a trap lever or something?

> tfw wanna gm but never have
> tfw all this shit seems cool as fuck
Maybe gms and players just value different things

>>52279450
I feel like I'm alone in hating riddles, most of the puzzles I've come across and stuff.
To me it feels like it falls back really heavily on the out of character, and just interrupts the flow.

File: 1488984320309.png (195KB, 331x418px) Image search: [Google]

195KB, 331x418px

>send the party to a run-down slum in a modern fantasy game
>they encounter a gang that's taken over the slum and their gimmick is they always tell lies
>their leader is a martial artist named Dadaluma who says that he's weak and doesn't want to fight, but nearly kicks their asses
>tfw only one player gets the reference

>>52281457
Unless all of your players are into Final Fantasy I wouldn't be angry at them for not getting the reference. I had to Google that shit to know what you were talking about. I'm sure if I played FF I'd catch the blatant reference, but otherwise? No chance.

File: IMG_0081.gif (15KB, 215x326px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 215x326px

>>52280789
Holy fuck, this is the worst

Last year I drew character portraits for all my friends as a way of trying to reward them for being such great players but all I got was a constant stream of "subtle" suggestions to fix this and that and then every other week someone would go "so anon when are you going to have the revised portraits done"

It made me want to strangle them all and it really soured me on a campaign I was really loving up until that point

>>52282025
Look, just, let me be mad about this

please

>>52281457
>Dadaluma
I played through ff6 5 times and the only reasons I even remember that shitty town were the rust remover, the love letters, and the music

Next time pick a more memorable bad guy to reference

File: browbeat_sorin_v_tibalt.jpg (111KB, 878x638px) Image search: [Google]

111KB, 878x638px

>>52282073
Are you even good at drawing?

>>52280746
You're too good for this sinful world, anon.

>>52281150
Ooh, that's a great idea actually. Originally I was going to have them turn it to open the door after completing the puzzle, but then I realized it was pretty unnecessary.
If you were really evil you could play on the players assumptions and make the puzzle completely irrelevant. The gray crank just opens the door. No tricks.

File: [bombs internally].jpg (28KB, 260x260px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 260x260px

>>52278062
>make players fight a pyromaniac goblin village worshipping a three-headed fire-breathing hydra
>nobody comments
I even had them chanting gee-do-ra you fuckers

>>52282301
>>52281150
Imagine a dungeon designer that's really bad at making traps and puzzles, and gets really sad when he finds out the party just walked through his dungeon because they easily solved his puzzles in ways he overlooked. I'm stealing this.

>>52281377
The key is to make riddles and puzzles be manipulated in game or with in-game knowledge, and not just on paper or in the players heads. Stuff like this >>52280935 , or like this:
https://youtu.be/Mn6B56Z59fo?t=2977

After reading this thread I'm terrified to see just how far a group, any group of players really, would go before realizing the world I would have put them in.

A world where the king requests that you find and save his daughter. The very same king who keeps getting turned into an animal by 7 rogue nobles of his kingdom.

A world where said nobles have allied with a tarrasque for power at the expense of their physical apperances.

A tarrasque with no real interest in fighting you directly, and so employs an endless army of myceloids and mutant bipedal turtles to stymie your progress.

File: GvKG11.jpg (430KB, 1200x900px) Image search: [Google]

430KB, 1200x900px

>>52282302
probably because Ghidorah shoots lightning.

>>52282595
Ghidorah also hasn't appeared in a movie for 16 years.

>>52282565
Are you referencing an anime or some dumb shit? I didn't come here to listen to you drone on about your weebshit homebrew, I came here to eat your snacks and to kill your NPCs.

>>52278062
>goblins are stealing from trading convoys for a month
>usually no casualties but on the last raid a goblin is killed and a trader is injured
>local mayor decides to hire adventures to stop the goblin raids because it's a logging village with no true militia
>party comes upon goblins while they are drinking to fallen comrade and are packed up to head home
>they don't observe the goblins enough to garner their state and go into an attack
>goblins try to flee but all but one were killed quickly
>sole survivor is the one I rolled to have a child back at the goblin lair who he whittled a wood figurine for
>party interrogates him and a handful of them comment on how bad they felt about murdering them straight out
I had so many options set up for that encounter. They ended up getting kinda a tough moral dilemma

>play an assassim to the crown
>Not admitting im an assassin
>Official documents cite me as a mailguard
>Noone thinks this is strange, because noone else in the paty built a stealth character from a stealth background in our stealth based game
>I go around murderig people with no remorse, do a handful of high value target kills for the group easily, explicitly never roleplay as if this is unusual
>Everyone just assumes im a shit roleplayer and starts calling me a murderhobo
>Im the only player actively engaged in the world in every session

How do i deal with this?

>>52282721
he's referencing Super Mario Brothers you philistine!

>>52278062
>first boss battle ever run as a GM
>It's a brain/plant thing that controls corpses, like zombies, with its root system that has taken root in a massacred town
>Came up with all sorts of interesting bits to the fight, zombie hordes drawing ever nearer to add an artificial timer to the battle, unique attacks and spells

>It takes the players about five turns to figure out that the bigass brain plant who's roots are in the skulls of every zombie they've downed, that has been hurling psychic blasts at them every turn, and that I have repeatedly describing as important with the subtlty of a sledgehammer, is the thing they need to kill
>Next turn every single player magically rolls a crit on the brain plant every round after this revelation, they refuse my requests confirm their crits, and try to peer pressure me into letting shit go when I ask to see their rolls

Cheating fuckers. Don't play with them anymore.

>Painstakingly create a high speed chase, with my own rules from the ground up
>Make sure that every player can take part. Those with good skills, those with heavy armor, anyone could help in the chase
>When the time comes nobody even attempts to chase the target on the rooftops, they just take it at face value that they ran away, twirling their mustache evilly.
>Tell them that they have plenty of time, the person is still in view
>"Naaaaaah we'll get em eventually."

>NPC challenges a player, who is not optimized for social interaction, to a drinking game. The players were under the effect of a psychic link and could work together to think of one liners and quips, and if they thought of a better one than the NPC, the npc would drink. Otherwise the player would. Whoever gets drunken under the table must complete a request for the other.
>Player panics, refuses to do it on the grounds that they would fail any charisma based roll (though I told him that rolling is irrelevant)
>Party face steps in and does it for him. They ignore the mental link they had so the party face carries the whole plot point
>Player complains that they don't get any limelight in the story.

>>52278642
>come up with demon hunting game based on what some people actually believed
>do a bunch of research to make it accurate
>some players get worried I actually believe it

>>52283579
Explain your gripe to the GM.
Then ask them to have one of the nosier PCs catch you receiving an assignment.

File: 1448787696766.png (345KB, 498x568px) Image search: [Google]

345KB, 498x568px

I made and bought some block constructed MTG decks balanced for each other for RTR, actually taking time and effort to incorporate the keywords, no matter how shitty like Orzhov with their fucking overpriced lifedrain mechanic and nobody wanted to play with them ever.

I played a pretty simple system RPG (recommended on here, I remember nothing other than the fact that it used 'cliches' to do most stats). It was most of the groups first time so I tried to make all the puzzles or riddles kind of obvious, and gave copious hints and setups. We eventually got to a part where a choice had to be made between shooting an ally and an alien disguised as an ally. Despite having set up the fact that the aliens had very obvious physical characteristics (yellow eyes, elongated feet, etc.) it took the party a near half hour of debating before someone thought to have both characters take off their sunglasses.

File: i_hug_that_feel (1).png (31KB, 500x461px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 500x461px

>>52278954
Gave one of the characters an Heirloom locket from his adopted family that was gonna carry a lot of story threads with a decent magic ability. That very same Session asks how much is the locket worth so he can purchase a mithril Breastplate.

>>52279325
I feel bad because my GM made a bunch of prestige classes for various types of practices of focusing a 'twisted light' that permeates the world and is a pure antithesis to the Phantom Lord, the Big Bad Evil Diety who is bringing darkness and chaos to the world.

The reason I feel guilty is that none of the prestige classes let me keep my manifester level or are in any way advance my psionics so I'm not taking any of them. Especially since I'm planning on going hybrid the psion/incarnate Soul Manifester.

>>52284697
Well for the first part you have to make it clear they have a chance to catch up. Since unless they have a clear edge to catch up whoever got a head start is gonna get away especially if the pcs are not built for chasing. And will just assume they will fail so they'd rather just not bother.

And as for the second ive had this problem as well odds are the player wants to be in spotlight. But what you presented was nothing he felt comfortable with or wanted to interact with. Honestly simply having a cute barmaid flirt with him or have him trigger whatever plot thing you have in mind would probably be a safer option.

That lich-king I made. I really liked him. Fucking players, man.

>>52286010
>muh comfy zone
ZZZZZZzzzz..zz.z

>>52283703
It took an hour for one anon on /tg/, so i think that equates to half a for a full group

File: 200percentmad.jpg (69KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

69KB, 1280x720px

So this was as a player not a GM but it still counts:

>playing Qin, it's a Wuxia Romance of the Three Kingdoms game
>playing a charming thief type who uses a staff
>spend ages trying to think up a name
>come up with the idea of calling him "Tea Leaf" and translating it to chinese. I thought this was a pretty neat name since tea leaf is cockney rhyming slang for thief and the whole chinese tea culture thing
>looking forward to playing the game and seeing what everyone else has come up with and sharing my pretty cool name.
>no one but the GM cares
>hey ho different strokes for different folks I guess, what are your characters called?
>literally no one has thought of a name for their characters citing not knowing anything about chinese names as an excuse
>try to point out that I don't know anything about chinese names and my character name is a pun and that they could have at least tried
>game descends into everyone just being referred to as "*players name* character"
>I am 200% mad

>>52286978
First off, that's a clever name, well done anon

Secondly, I hate it when players or GMs say "Okay so Anon what do you do" instead of "okay so what does Character do?"

File: 1360297547068.jpg (15KB, 500x349px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 500x349px

>run a Star Wars game starting with the EotE campaign
>players make their own characters
>rocky start as I have to adapt the story to fit them in
>between this and players just being players, they go off on a tangent
>manage to lead them into the junk shop
>player gets all story info through successful conversation, then "do you have a ship?"
>"I uh, have a Skyhopper out the back..."
>player convinces him to let them take it for a test drive, but junk shop trader comes with
>they take it for a flight and in the middle of the desert kick the trader out and stun bolt him in the back of the head

>I then proceed to maneuver narrative progress to allow him enough time for shenanigans
>the next they meet him he's running an arena show in a sandpeople village
>he's so horribly burned and covered in rags none of the party recognise him
>and none of the players thought he was still alive
>he manages to lead them into an ambush with a salvaged droideka and bunch of "roger" bots
>whilst he escapes

>game continues on, work gets busy as I plan to involve the dude again
>session he was to make a comeback I have to hand off to one of the players
>tell him my plans for a salvaged assassin droid team whilst witholding some info as to how/why
>nevertheless he just doesn't include it in the session
>"villain" I spent a lot of time planning for and all proceeds to get completely forgotten about by the party

File: Solaire of Antstora.jpg (258KB, 714x700px) Image search: [Google]

258KB, 714x700px

>>52278062
>Realize my party needs help figuring out where the villains lair is in the dense jungle they're in.
>Party loves Dark Souls, talk about it all the time.
>Decide to place an old overgrown temple in their path, with a kindled bonfire and not!Solaire sitting crosslegged at the center
>Introduce him as Astor, a knight out to find his very own Dawn.
>Even gives them a bloody soapstone that they can use to summon him one-time only.
>Nobody bats a fucking eye.

I'm done.

File: smug.jpg (20KB, 250x250px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 250x250px

>>52280449
>implying

>>52279277
>literally says Rush Hour in the pic

In which third world country was it called "Traffic Jam" instead of Rush Hour?

File: contempt 2.jpg (120KB, 1205x721px) Image search: [Google]

120KB, 1205x721px

>>52282721
nigga...

>>52288707
Maybe a little too straight forward on that one?

>>52279062
>Dagda !hTbo821v7U
I thought you died.

>>52281457
I got it, but only because Zozo is my favorite location in the only FF game I've ever finished.

>>52289469
I fucking hated the gigas in Zozo.
Fucking magnitude 8, and of course I had no casters with float.

>>52278062
This is why you half-ass everything and don't plan anything more than a vague outline for your session.

>>52282302
>>52282595
It's a gravity beam, you pissants.

>>52286978
>GM not enforcing names before session 1

What the actual fuck. Our group at least makes people whip out the namegens and get something, anything specifically to avoid stuff like "[players name] character".

>>52289556
I just load Edgar up with Haste relics and have him one-shot Gigas with the Drill before the big fucker can break out the magic or the superpunch.

>>52286978
>literally no one has thought of a name for their characters
I'm dying inside.

>>52288707
That's such a horrendous copy+paste job it's not funny, no wonder anyone was amused. If they were I'd be worried since that's just blatant pandering.

Jesus christ Sunfaggots were a mistake.

>>52289709
The drill wasn't always a sure bet tho.
If it went for damage instead of the ohko, then they would definitely counterattack with Mag 8 since their health was so low, and even 1 of those would put you at 1/3 to 1/2 health.
On top of it all, Zozo was good for grinding xp, but awful for gil, items, so it was a catch 22.

>>52278954
That's why I get to know my players' interests before I make cool things for them.
Gotta identify the shiny-trinkets-fans before giving them fun magic items, the roleplayers before giving them complex NPC friends, the killers before giving them +50 Daggers of Fuck Shit Up, the vanity collectors before giving them deeds to land, the explorers before giving them mysterious maps, etc.
Get an idea of what they like during session 0 and then throw a bunch of everything at them whenever they deserve major loot. Then see who fights over what, and you're set.

>Game session ends in a bad spot.
>My PC is a low level sorcerer, and, while separated from the party in town, I get accosted by the setting's "arcane magic is heresy!" clergy.
>"Repent or die!" They threaten, and then the session ends.
>Get filled in on the "evil" anti-mage church by the GM while cleaning up post-game. They aren't evil, just antagonistic to arcane casters. They seem otherwise fairly chill from a theological standpoint.
>I have a week to come up with a response.
>Decide I'll join them, maybe become a sanctioned sorcerer or something.
>I haven't had any spotlight time yet this campaign, might as well make it memorable.
>Write a short speech where I convert and accept their god as my liege and savior.
>Next session cancelled.
>Rehearse my speech. Punch it up a little, and make it more interesting.
>Next session also cancelled.
>It's the Holliday's. Totally cool.
>Rehearse & re-write speech a couple of times. Now know it like the back of my hand.
>Next session happens, Start reciting my speech.
>Two sentences in: meatbread wants to know who I'm quoting.
>Ignore him, continue speech. It's short and I just want to get to the point.
>He won't shut up. Demands to know who I'm quoting.
"Your character isn't there. Let me finish."
>MB: "Is this from Sword Art? It sounds like Sword Art."
"It's not Sword Art."
>"You can't fool me, Lennie google that. What was the part you were saying about redeeming the soul? Say that again."
>"... Fuck you, GM, I'm repeating and joining the church."
"It was totally sword art online."
>"I've never watched that horrible anime and no, no it wasn't."
>GM didn't have any idea what to do if someone decided to repent.
>Antagonistic church's enforcers just kinda escort me to a home where the rest of the PCs "rescue" me.

>>52289803
I really hate when a GM, or maybe the other players, have no idea what to do with your character.

I encourage players trying to decide their characters goals from the get-go now, to avoid just bumbling around with nothing you actually want to do when a GM thinks setting up a sandbox is fun, but sometimes they refuse to play with interesting ideas like yours, because either they don't care or are afraid to rock the boat, or just have their own ideas for how things should be.

Sorry that your speech wasn't appreciated - not everything is a quote from somewhere, but maybe you should take it as an accidental compliment that they assumed it must have been something official.

>>52279848
>>52279786
>>52278642
I just don't get this at all
I live in the bible belt, and literally this has never happened to me. Heck, I'm the one person in my group who RPs the most, and I'm the only one who regularly goes to church.

Where the hell in the bible belt do you people find these normies? Do you live in the middle of buttfuck nowhere in the forests of Alabama or something? Because I never have any of these stereotypical bible belt problems

Then again, in my experiecne Texas tends to be considered Schrodinger's Bible Belt state, so I guess I could be just not in a place that counts
And no I don't live in Austin. Fuck Austin

File: YZlaT0H[1].png (161KB, 940x630px) Image search: [Google]

161KB, 940x630px

>>52279011
Sorry but after hearing about image related and how people will buy sugar free gummy bears just to watch their guests shit their pants I won't touch anything unless it was in a package beforehand or the "chief" himself eat at least twice the amount I'm planning to eat. Such pranks aren't even funny, they are just annoying.

>>52289792
This guy knows what's up.

>>52290113
That's pretty heavy paranoia, Anon.

>>52290268
Some people are assholes. I will eat stuff made by a group of friends but a random group shouldn't be trusted just because they share the same hobby as me.

File: 1475381274622.gif (36KB, 176x88px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 176x88px

>One player will be headed to university at summer's end; bake into their backstory that they stole the precious thing which allows them a good reason for their character to scram when their pursuers draw near again
>Summer's end, they do so
>Have the party hired to track them down so that they should coincide meeting the character with winter break, so the player can show up again
>Party takes way long and gets sidetracked; lines up with spring break instead
>Set up so they can easily turn in the PC, set them up with dubious allies who would give pay and protection for the thing, or warn them and put their heads back down
>Instead of these, regroup with runaway party member and go on the lam

>This was a detective campaign
>All my prep for ideas in the metropolis they live in are toast, player who is out of town is now a key party member
>Have to put the game on hiatus until summer

>>52290475
Ouch.

>>52286010
Well, the problem was nobody in the party was very dextrous, even though I designed it with that in mind. I assured them that they could make it, but they said that their characters wouldn't attempt it.

And for the second part, the face character was the one doing 90% of the meaningful dialogue the entire game mostly because they had the stats for it. I wanted the other players to know that if they tried to do things through talking, they wouldn't just fall flat on their faces.
The player would talk in normal situations, but as soon as there was a chance of "failure" they let the party face do the whole thing.

>>52290113
I love that screen cap: because it is I who asked for the recipe.

>>52285768
It's the simplest riddles that sometimes are the most complicated. In one of the last rounds we played we had to solve the following riddle:

1
11
21
1211
111221

Add the next line.

It took about half an hour for us to solve. The solution is actually very simple and in hindsight it should not have taken that long to solve. It was fun nonetheless.

>>52291031
So, did you get the recipe?

>>52284993

I guess the trick is to become more active about my assasinations, I don't want to just let them catch me, but doing it more actively instead of as opportunistic shit would help.

>>52291076
312211. How did your GM fit it into the game?

>>52291221
No. I still consider it a great loss.

>>52291337
Oh, I get it.

>>52291363
Such an amazing historical Invention now lost in time

>>52291337
Correct. It was a passcode that had to be painted in blood on a wall to unlock a magician's secret vault containing quest relevant stuff. Wrong answers triggered vicious lightning bolts. It was one of three riddles to be solved but I don't remember the other two.

File: Dank_c81bfc_5841714.jpg (80KB, 463x684px) Image search: [Google]

80KB, 463x684px

>>52290043
As someone who lives is bumfuck/greenbo alabama i gotta say that you may not meet anyone more religious than creasters who are really agnostic and dont really understand their own religion, but what scares them is the distinct lack of agnostic nature in your story. See by calling into those myths of evil, you also casually buy into those Religions, whih scares and confuses the shit out of people. They hate actually having to believe shit you tell them.

Noooooow as for monsters of mythology games, i gotta say that having players that have read paradise lost and/or watched supernatural, are way easier to get to explain. In fact in order to keep my group going i had to play scenes from supernatural and essentially assimilate that universe. The players run into other hunters who shared information, and (rumored) to have met the Winchester brothers.

In fact the game had a great sort of running gag due to that kind of style and world, and was really fun to play in a campy "scoobydoo and the gang meets lucifer and the mystery is the davincii code" kind of way.

>>52278062
>Set of items for puzzle solving in a dungeon
>Winged Rod which boosted the user's jump score and left behind a trail in the air that others could grab and ride as well
>Sword of Fire and Frost which could melt and thaw pools of water and ice, used for some puzzles and secrets
>Miniaturization Bottle which shrunk the caster down to the size of a mouse but left the bottle at their feet, and returned them to normal with the bottle in their hands if they operated it again. Had a whole area of a dungeon where the party would have to shrink themselves down and crawl around through the walls, letting them eavesdrop on what was happening and letting them have some encounters with "Giant" vermin.

All of these were immediately picked up, pocketed and never used. Instead they preferred to just blast everything down and kill it if it moved, ignoring what was happening, any of the story that was going on in the area, and missed out on a lot of clues of what to do next. Then they decided that after selling the stuff they wanted to go play world of warcraft instead.

I do not associate with these people anymore.

>>52290381
Why are you playing a game with people who aren't your friends?

>>52292991
I have no friends.

File: 1488601143471.jpg (49KB, 692x969px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 692x969px

>>52278062
>create an interesting story that connects multiple player backgrounds but also will bring them into disagreement
>everything they've done has altered the future in some way
>one session before things start getting crazy
>"We kind of want to start with a new party"
>mfw

It's okay though. The story will continue whether or not they're playing their characters, and they're happier this way.

>>52280789
Fucking hell that hurts to read. But at the same time, I've done something similar to your group.

We had this player (online game) who kept going on about how poor he was, but he apparently drove a Jaguar to work in the Laundromat. He also had two husbands, one of whom was either Gaelic or a Fairy, I forget. And this guy was a dickhead, but he did art. A deviantart full of anime that, even as someone not a fan of anime or manga, could tell was bad. Everything looked flat, it lacked definition and had no sense of proportion, long fingers as thick as sausages, right-angle knees that tapered to a point, that sorta thing.

Our GM commissioned a group portrait from this guy, and I feared the worst. We were playing Dark Heresy, and our group was a pretty messed up group. One guy was more scar tissue than anything, the other was a Tech Priest who weighed about two tonnes from all the cybernetics he had, I was a 120 year old Psyker who called himself 'The Rat King'. We also had a feudal knight in the party, a sort of urban myth type thing. Anyway, the artist player was a stealthy bowman who never contributed but did extensive downtime with the GM to make up for not doing anything with the rest of the party when we were actually playing.

So, we each chatted with the player and described our characters in a bit more detail, he said it'd be a post-action pose, we're looking at something off in the distance, confident we can take it.

>>52295522
It was vague, but whatever. I recall saying my character might look confident, in control, but not at the front of the group, somewhere off to the side, like he knows that's his place. I described his outfit too, tattered in a word. A rubbish suit meant for someone else and about 50 years out of date. It was a high level game and I had a Power Sword also, but it wasn't a big deal, I said it'd probably be held to one side. I also had said a few times that it had a slightly greenish hue, typically they're meant to have a blue light but I thought green matched the scummy sort of character I was playing. Anyway, I said I was also slightly hunched over, not necessarily out of old age but more predatory I suppose, Rat-king and all that, I imagined him always looking like he was about to lurch forward onto someone or something with grasping hands. Patchy hair on his head, knotted and greasy, a face that looked like it was used to grime and filth but had been forcibly cleaned recently. It's not the best description I know, I was 16 or so at the time and it was a long time ago. Point is, the picture was absolute shit. Everybody turned out as pretty-boy caricatures with chest facing and arms either held at either side of straight crossing the body. We're looking right across the picture at nothing, and in the background a pixelated and stretched image of a burning city. We're not looking at that though.

Pic related is my Rat King Psyker, a 120 year old with a...green lightsabre scimitar.

>>52291337
Elite get

File: it hurts to live.jpg (33KB, 300x384px) Image search: [Google]

33KB, 300x384px

>>52295727
Picture would help

>>52295744
Eh, not the worst thing I've ever seen, especially not if he was only a teen as well. Not all that great either though don't get me wrong

File: Can't wake up.jpg (267KB, 1594x896px) Image search: [Google]

267KB, 1594x896px

>>52295833
He was not a teen, I was the youngest in the group. Looking back, I can say with certainty that I was trying a bit too hard to not be that guy and inadvertently being that guy. This guy was in his late twenties and still (so his deviantart says) fancies himself as a professional artist, and this was over 5 years ago so he'd be mid thirties by now and none of his art has improved (though he seems to have stopped colouring in now, not even greyscaling). I think part of my outrage was that, even if it was misguided, I really liked that Character. I liked the party, it had cool characters and a good dynamic between most of us, the GM tried hard and we all had a good time. It hurts me to think that this is the only remnant of our two years of campaigning beyond some memories of MSN. This project that took three months to do allegedly and the GM paid $150 for.

>>52296028
Oh, oops. I thought he was a teen. I take it back, it's bad, and didn't even remotely stick to the character styles. They look like generic femboys. The shading is bad and everyone looks stiff and disproportionate to each other. Also he shaded in black? Literally what. This was 150 bucks, that's what is cheesing me off. I do better shit in the draw threads for free. I couldn't imagine charging my own party for a picture. Goddamn.

>>52296125
ALSO WHAT IS WITH THE FACE IN THE TOP CORNER, BY THE GODS

File: 1485361076668.jpg (59KB, 395x401px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 395x401px

>>52278642
>>half the players quit after the first session, claiming its "too occult."
holy fuck, 'merica

>>52296150
That was an Assassin who was also the lesbian lover of our Inquisitor, she wasn't about too much but was pretty fun and managed to do the "doesn't play well with others" thing well, unlike the Artists bowman character.

File: 1442893334643.jpg (55KB, 530x800px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 530x800px

>>52280789

I've had something similar to this.
When a campaign ends I'll pay this decent artist to do art. For the end of my longest campaign I got this large colored group shot of the party done.

A few acted grateful and enthusiastic. Others just acted like they didn't care.

One person basically said they didn't like it because of some minor details.

I don't really understand how people can act so cold to something like that. It's rare in life that you'll even meet someone willing to GM a fucking game for you.

But they bother to pay out of their pocket for art? And your reaction is "Don't like it" or "Meh"?

What the fuck man.

>>52278062
>Had an NPC that seemed like a minor sidecharacter
>Was constantly giving the PCs dubiously 'correct' information that got them into more trouble
>Was actually a mid-tier bossfight, everyone trusted them wholeheartedly for some reason
>The session before the reveal, the powergamer looked at my notes while I was in the restroom and spoiled the whole party who confronted me when I returned
>I played it off and acted like it was just 'a possibility'
>had to write up some generic shit the next night
>it still hurts so badly
>I loved that NPC

>>52289803
"No, I wrote this. I was pretty stoked for it so how about you shut the fuck up."

>>52296875
I would have raped him And his family. And his pets.

>>52281457
>pissed off that only one guy saw through your shitty rip-off and realized what a hack DM you are

I don't understand why you'd be upset by this.

>>52282547
I know it's a meme game but this happens in undertale and it's done pretty well

>>52286978
I had the exact opposite problem once, I started a game with a group of fresh players and because I only referred to their characters I didn't know any of their names after the session
Fortunately it was at a uni society so I'd had them write their names down on a sign-up sheet

>>52280746
The guy who runs the shop I play/work at did the same thing, put a map up next to the main gaming table, and we use it all the time, to keep track of where we are and where we're going. I cant imagine why your group wouldn't use such a good resource

>>52296875
I had a player once go through all of my dungeon notes when I passed out during a movie marathon. The dungeon had tonnes and tonnes of little secrets and optional treasures/rooms and such, so much and some so well hidden there was no way they'd get all of them without spending at least three sessions combing and solving hidden puzzles.

Session rolls around a few days later, and the guys character immediately beelines the first few hidden things and solves all the puzzles on the first second try.
>hmm, thats odd but okay.
This shit continued in the next two rooms, which really started to tip me off, so I started shuffling things around/getting rid of things entirely. There was one secret room that had a sword I had specifically designed for that guys character.

Well, I decided to move the room somewhere else in the dungeon on the fly, and he completely flipped out when the sword wasn't where it was supposed to be. I asked him how he knew it would be there and said
>Uh, clues?
It turns out he'd photographed and studied all of my notes (not just for the dungeon, everything I had written in advance.

>>52298289

That's the kind of guy who goes immediately to gamefaqs (is that still a thing?) before even opening game and then complains it was too easy.

>>52298441
Yeah, he also ended up spoiling both new starwars movies for me.

>>52298457
Why do you hang out with him?

>>52298289
>>52298457
This >>52298501

Why is he still in the group? Is this that nerd fallacy that you owe people friendship or whatever?

>>52280746
Your group is clown shoes. I would love something like that in my games, as a player or as DM.

>Design cool encounter with a Green dragon offering friendship.
>PC group leader has a rules boner and assumed it was always lying.
>Dragon begs mercy and makes offer in an attempt to keep other PCs from joining the fight.
>PC "Group leader" convinces them whole heartedly to fight the dragon.
>planned on making their attacks meaningless with arbitrary dm "It flys out of reach"
>Get dissheartened by their hate for it.
>Decide it's a lost cause and let them kill the dragon I worked on.
>Transfer all stats and back story to a Dragonborn that comes in claiming he was on his way to fight the dragon
>Party thinks he was a worshipper of the dragon or someshit and tries to fight him too.
>fuckit.jpeg
>they get to town and complete the trigger quest I made that they weren't supposed to complete.
>Transfer the story stuff AGAIN to a shady looking character because I want there to be a level of mistrust.
>Under estimate mistrust as they turn shady guy in to the guards when he steals a bottle of wine to establish "This is a thief"

Why the fuck are you turning in a guy whos helping you when you're all neutral mercineries?

>Say fuck it and cause them all to be put in a magical trance and they're forced to wake up in shady guy's home with quest points

PC: "What spell did he cast on us?"
me: "What?"
PC: "That spell is busted. Why are you having level 4s face this kind of magic?"
me: "Just trust me!"

>They did not trust me
>PCs formally complain that I'm not respecting the rules of DnD
>Refuse to play if I'm going to arbitraily do these things.
>Everyone leaves

Found a new party of less shit people.

>>52301628
>cause them all to be put in a magical trance and they're forced to wake up in shady guy's home
To be fair that's pretty railroady, you should've just given up on the idea. I would have been salty and left as well.

>>52301667
Normally I would have, but they had previously dodged several plot points in favor of the first one. Which was them getting hired by a mercenary company.
It was supposed to be a start so I could segway into an actual story instead of "you check the jobs board to see what's open" but they would not take the plot bait on the grounds "we're mercenaries that's not our problem"
Which at first I thought that was fair, but they just never wanted to progress and I don't know why!

>>52301628
>Level 4
>Not fearing a dragon
>Decide to kill him
>Actually kill a dragon at lvl 4

You should just slaughter them like dogs, dude... It's a dragon, they need to fear it at low levels, It's called common sense

>>52301735
>segway

Also, I still side with them, their logic is pretty sound. You should have woven in an ongoing story rather than expecting them to do something they most likely wouldn't (ie. turn around and befriend a dragon they've been sent to kill). Admittedly killing the dragonborn is weird too, but I still feel as though whatever plot you were trying to do could've been integrated much better so as to not be so jarring for a group of mercenaries, and as soon as a GM hit me with something I had no chance of avoiding I'd be seriously considering staying too.

>>52301778
I made it weak because it was supposed to be a young dragon. This was in its story that it was to young to have an imbedded hate for anything other than its self

>>52301800
Well, then, now that I stand corrected; your players are dicks

>>52301780
This was a while back. I might have missed details as this is pretty one sided. I feel like I tried subtle things at first but they didn't catch it. So I tried a 180 shift approach and they were playing logically. It was a tough hand I was dealt of rule whores and not very adventurous role players.

I'm still open to the idea I could be a bad DM

>>52301827
They were tasked with killing it so its pretty much my fault

>>52291367
I don't. Explain.

>>52302183
One.
One one.
Two ones.
One two, one one.
One one, one two, two ones.
>>52291337
Three ones, two twos, one one.

Wake the fuck up.

File: 1438257871039.png (15KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 500x500px

>>52288707
I know it's a rip-off, but still.
>A knight out on the road, looking for his very own dawn.
I found that sentence beautiful. Good job!

>>52296740
I would react indifferent too. Fuckin fight me.

>>52298289
Well, at LEAST he shows dedication and unmolested interest.

File: 1404210734398.jpg (91KB, 640x637px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 640x637px

>>52302271
I used to consider myself smart.
Thanks for bursting that bubble /tg/-anon.
I was REALLY bent on it being a mathematical construction.
>INT vs WIS

File: Our Heroes.png (636KB, 1152x940px) Image search: [Google]

636KB, 1152x940px

>>52280789
>>52280910
Seconded. You hang that up where they can see it. Let it remind them that you went out of your way to have something so heartfelt done for them. They'll come to accept that their little criticisms ultimately don't matter, or reveal themselves as entitled cunts.

This is our group towards the end of our recently finished campaign. Some little differences between how we thought our characters would look and how they were depicted here didn't matter next to the time, effort and consideration that nobody paid for, asked for, or even expected to be spent preserving the memory of great time spent with good friends.

You have memories relating to that campaign happy enough to have had them preserved as art. They are more valuable than the little nit-pickings of players who have yet to realize it.