Thread replies: 7
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1
File: aid193582-v4-728px-Cope-With-Depression-Without-Seeking-Professional-Help-Step-1-Version-2.jpg (49KB, 728x546px) Image search:
[Google]
49KB, 728x546px
> Homebrew setting
> It's not Tolkien but it's mine and I've been building it through weekly D&D sessions for the last 7 years
> Write up a 1 page synopsis of each session and post it online for players to read after the game
> Connects narrative points, fleshes out in-character moments, explains things that I noticed seemed unclear during the game
> Is even written in universe, so the entire campaign reads like a journal that some divine entities are keeping that catalogues their story
> Also has XP totals (with level), listed rewards, in-jokes, treasure and in-universe time at the bottom, to incentivize reading
> D&D date rolls around
> "Have you guys all leveled up to 12?"
> Blank looks from players
> Player 1 says "I thought we were at 10"
> "That was 5 weeks ago."
> Player 1: "That's what I have on my character sheet."
> "... Have you not been reading the synopses? That's where I've been posting them."
> Player 2, who drove 3 hours to play, is sitting nearby
> Grab his character sheet to look at what he has written down
> Lists his attacks, AC, HP and saves, and almost everything else is just blank
> He doesn't even have a background, so he's been playing with only half his skills
> "So no one reads the synopsis?"
> Player 3, who has been to 10 of the last 40 sessions, raises his hand, everyone else doesn't
> Player 4, who is my girlfriend, tells me defensively she doesn't have time to read that shit, then adds in a much sweeter voice that she thinks it's nice I do it
> Have to pause for a minute, then start helping players level up their characters to avoid murdering them all with a butcher knife
I put so much of myself into this game, and I get fucking nothing for it.
GM feels thread.
>>
This is why knowing your audience is important and establishing this stuff ahead of time is key. Sure, it's easy to get angry about unappreciative players, but that does nobody any good. The real lesson here is to not make assumptions that will lead to you getting hurt in future, as clearly what you expected and what your players expected from your game were completely different.
>>
>>55003462
Play to your audience, dude. Your effort sounds tight but it sounds like your group is more interested in a light game of smashing monsters and looting chests.
>>
I do the same thing, man. I'm lucky enough my group actually reads it. If they don't, sucks for them because I don't remind anyone of what level they should be or what treasure they have, so if they forget they have it then it sucks to be them. I'm balancing the game to the level they should be at, and if they don't remember to level up and get smashed then they brought it on themselves.
>>
>>55003462
The background information you come up with for your campaign setting should really be used for you and revealed to the players as needed or desired. It is basically there so you have a framework to develop ideas for scenarios and responses to questions about the world.
If everyone who came had only a 10th level character then I would have just run with it and adjusted things to that level instead or boosting them.
>>
>>55003752
I don't put lore dumps in the campaign notes. It's entirely designed around recapping what happened to the PCs themselves, rather than the history of the country of Bumfuckia, throne-kingdom of the Assholian Empire.
>>55003507
My basic assumption is that if people show up, they want to play the game.
I have two players who don't bother to even learn the rules. They're not interested in doing anything other than following the railroad tracks I lay down, and any time I let them do a lighthearted sandbox loot-and-shoot kind of game they just sit there.
It's the lack of interest that pisses me off. I invest effort, and what I get in return is people basically asking me to entertain them for two hours. I'm a DM, not a jukebox. This is Dungeons & Dragons. It's a roleplaying game. They're players. They're supposed to, you know, play.
>>
>>55003462
>playing D&D
lol
Thread posts: 7
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1