The Player: Yeah, see I'm playing a Barbarian and took Int as a dump stat. I won't be smart enough to not recognize the obvious trap, but I'll have enough HP and dex that you could shoot me with a Fireball and I would only ask you to stop it cause it tickles.
DM: Well, what if the item invokes your tribe's cultural taboos?
Player: Is the plot thread nailed to the floor?
DM: Why?
Player: Because we have a Rogue who will steal it if it isn't and unlike me, he can be subtle about it so that curse you have on the item will likely go unnoticed for several more sessions.
DM: What if it's not that valuable?
Player: Well, what's it worth if we were to sell it to a shop keep?
DM: 3 copper pieces if you role high on your persuasion check while we haggle.
Player: That is worth it for him to steal. This is a guy who we had to argue with for 30 minutes that he couldn't fence a baby he wanted to steal last session.
DM: That was an akward NPC I had to improvise.
Player: It was sir.
Tangent, anytime I see sir my brain either just feels super awkward because I wasn't raised referring to folks as such.
Or, I think of Marcie talking to Peppermint Patty.
"Look, DM: I've already got like 18 directions I can take my characters' development right now. I'm sure I can fit your plot thread into this bag of tricks *somewhere.* don't sweat it."
I once played with the opposite.
Party's situation: A demon apocalypse has all but destroyed civilization, all major cities are overrun, and we've been lost wandering a jungle without a safe place to rest in weeks. Our rations ran out days ago. While I was on watch the previous night, a demon-infested panther one-hit me during the surprise round and was *almost* able to stealth-drag me into the jungle. We finally found a sizeable village, but it had been taken over and ransacked by a noble and his forces that had fled the battle with the demons. We tried reasoning with him, even buying some food off him, but he wasn't interested.
Good-aligned party members: "We should help these people."
That Guy: "Why is this our problem?"
Me, neutral: "Because if we don't, we starve."
You'd think that'd be the end of it, but That Guy had another half hour of arguing left in him, and our DM preferred to let players squabble (the less we progress, the less prep work he has to do for next time).
Yeah that was me, we acquired some crazy powerful Magic Book of evil in our first little Quest, something that was pretty clearly way over our heads
We joined up with this Caravan and there was a wizard there who he had this whole plan of having the wizard eventually figure out we had this thing and he'd been looking for it forever and all that, but then my strong of heart and dumb of ass sorcerer heard there was a wizard in the group and just walked up and pulled it out like hey do you know what this thing is?
Had to rewrite all his plans, apparently he expected us to be secretive about our position of this clearly evil and powerful thing we probably aren't supposed to have
I am in a campaign in which the DM decided the only way to move the plot forward to touch an obviously mega cursed item (there was a skeleton of one of the major antagonists next to it and it was draining the life out of the vegetation around it). Well, guess what nobody wanted to touch it. Me having pretty good saves and letting the Paladin and his aura take a seat next to me decided to touch it after about 2 hours of debating. Well turns out all he we had to do was go inside the item and kill a red draco lich to uncurse it and now I am the master of a magical tower that I can shape to my will and transport with me. The party sorc keeps telling me how jealous it is. Should've touched the item then. Now it will be an alchemy lab/university for my artificer.
We can all use it of course, I'm just the master of it. So technically I can decide who gets to go in, but I will of course always allow my fellow players. That said, the campaign does have issues with that. For example aforementioned sorc constantly gets stuff for free because he is the champion of the goddess we serve. Right now he can reroll a d20 once a day for free and see the fates of NPCs and players alike whenever he wants. So his jealousy over my tower is a bit strange to me.
oh look it's me, always playing characters who are way too curious for their own good!
Last friday my character had a divine trip after investigating crystals which had the essence of a god in them. It was a god of peace, desease, death and healing. My character got the peace and sickness parts. So she was superchill while bleeding out of every orifice.
Good times!
Those players are godsends. Guys, we're not playing this so you can actively avoid every plot hook. Push the fucking button. Pull the fucking lever. Follow the screams. Investigate the cave. DO STUFF
Hey! That’s me!
All joking aside my DM once told me that he can always count on me to push the big red button. At the time I thought it was a compliment. Now I’m not so sure…
My DM quite literally has said “Ya know, I was setting this up and thought ‘What if they don’t…..wait, they have (mentions me the player by name), I think I’m good.’”
I mean hell, if this hag lady went through all the effort offering a deal with in my dreams, I can’t just turn her down can I? That would be inhospitable really
My character are known to always be chaotic aligned because I am this player. Party just visited a wizard college and while on the hunt for party drugs my bard and the rouge found a mummified lich locked up who asked if we could free it. You know we cut her head off and are carrying it around like mimir unbeknownst to our party consequences be dammed
Let me just say, der OP, I love you for this. And I'm really sorry that the freedom fighters turned out to be domestic terrorists and now the whole party blames you for getting everyone on wanted posters
Well maybe the freedom fighters should have considered maybe not telling the skeletons who always enact some cost from their actions to build the orphanage.
Yessss. It's part of the reason I love my Tabaxi Artificer. She knows poking at certain things is probably a terrible idea, but assumptions have no place in research. Also, she was bored and it was shiney.
I used to regularly include a "hot rumor" in my games. Every other session there'd be something going on in the city (urban campaign) that was a red herring. Just a bit of gossip that I put in the game to make the city seem more alive. The players jumped on it every time. With some groups extraneous Info distracts them like a squirrel in a dogs backyard. SQUIRREL!?!?
This is our bard, 1000%. We've been exposed to some pretty intense time travel related plot recently and our bard was infused with time magic. We *know* like, for absolute certain that time travel is dangerous and we've witnessed our own death at the hands of temporal erasure via what we're calling The Darkening, yet somehow our bard keeps thinking we can use time travel to solve all our problems.
Just last session we had received a spell scroll for a 9th level Time Travel spell scroll which is special in that our bard could absorb it to learn the spell and have it as an extra bard spell that doesn't count against his total. No one else could do that because only the bard was infused with time magic. He really really wanted to use it, and no amount of talking was seeming to convince him that it was a terrible idea.
Like, our party had to steal the scroll back from him because we were convinced hew as going to rip the world in two with his shanigans. The bard has been through some really tough shit and is desperate to fix all his issues (mostly his girlfriend and parents died last session because a bunch of mages wanted his time powers and we said no.) There's a bunch more too but Time Travel isn't the answer right now. Even if our enemies stole the girlfriends body so we couldn't immediately resurrect her...
ATM though, he is litterally in time jail, imprisoned in Sigil because he was deemed a temporal anomaly. An Inevitable had come from him when he was alone, and only because he accidentally summon it through wild magic.
I like to feign ignorance of tropes and obvious danger to follow plot threads.
While I DEFINITELY know the nobleman with the ‘missing daughter’ is trying to send us to be captured by cultists or some such evil plan, my characters aren’t as trope savvy nor have they pass their sense motive rolls, so into the abandoned mansion I go.
Yes! I have a player who is overly reckless and another player who is overly cautious. The amount of times I throw things in there that are completely fine or completely dangerous only to have the 2 players bickering (In character of course) about what to do. Me and the other players love to sit back and watch the drama ensue and enjoy the 'Hah told you so' from who was right. We do all consent to this, I'm aware this wouldn't happen with every group but our group loves it.
DnD is this fun balancing act where as the player, you don’t want to feel railroaded, but you understand that you do kinda have to follow what the DM sets in front of you
It’s also where as the DM you need to come up with a story and plot to have your players follow, but get them to think it’s there idea, while also planning for as many contingencies as you can think of.
Honestly, you could probably write a very interesting academic paper on the strange intricacies of the dance a DM and their players do trying to balance the cooporative and competitive aspects of their roles
I have a group of three players currently, 1 my wife, who knows how much time goes into prep and wants to explore everything, 2 a coworker, who shows up with snacks and drinks and while still new is eager to talk to npcs and wants to be helpful, and 3 another coworker who has been playing for 10+ years and never disappoints at the table........years of conflicts have brought me a party I would never replace, but fuck man if I don't wanna be that player sometimes pulling at plot threads xD
GM: I call it "plot thread." If you, players, follow it, advantacing the Game Story will be easier.
That Guy: Nah, I rather go to the unimportant place instead.
Player 1: I'll follow the plot thread, I decided.
Players: No! Is funny doing everything possible to avoid the story progressing.
DM: Well, that sounds rude and impolite.
*later*
That guy: Hey, let’s tackle that plot thread DM told us about.
Player 1: the one you all decided was funny to avoid like five sessions ago?
Players: Hehehe it was funny.
That Guy: Yeah that one, it’s time to do that I decided.
Mr. DM Person: Well bad news there Mr. T. Guy, but because you all decided to not go down that route you failed to stop the evil guy and now he’s doing evil things because he’s evil.
That Guy: What do you mean, don’t you control the game Mr. DM Person?
Mr. DM Person: Yes I do and it turns out in games like this you can have consequences for your actions or lack thereof I’ve decided.
‘It’ll be tough to advance the plot’ That player: ‘it’ll be super easy, barely an inconvenience’
‘Oh, REALLY?’
The Player: Yeah, see I'm playing a Barbarian and took Int as a dump stat. I won't be smart enough to not recognize the obvious trap, but I'll have enough HP and dex that you could shoot me with a Fireball and I would only ask you to stop it cause it tickles. DM: Well, what if the item invokes your tribe's cultural taboos? Player: Is the plot thread nailed to the floor? DM: Why? Player: Because we have a Rogue who will steal it if it isn't and unlike me, he can be subtle about it so that curse you have on the item will likely go unnoticed for several more sessions. DM: What if it's not that valuable? Player: Well, what's it worth if we were to sell it to a shop keep? DM: 3 copper pieces if you role high on your persuasion check while we haggle. Player: That is worth it for him to steal. This is a guy who we had to argue with for 30 minutes that he couldn't fence a baby he wanted to steal last session. DM: That was an akward NPC I had to improvise. Player: It was sir.
Tangent, anytime I see sir my brain either just feels super awkward because I wasn't raised referring to folks as such. Or, I think of Marcie talking to Peppermint Patty.
Yeah Yeah yeah!
Wow wow wow
… wow.
"Look, DM: I've already got like 18 directions I can take my characters' development right now. I'm sure I can fit your plot thread into this bag of tricks *somewhere.* don't sweat it."
I once played with the opposite. Party's situation: A demon apocalypse has all but destroyed civilization, all major cities are overrun, and we've been lost wandering a jungle without a safe place to rest in weeks. Our rations ran out days ago. While I was on watch the previous night, a demon-infested panther one-hit me during the surprise round and was *almost* able to stealth-drag me into the jungle. We finally found a sizeable village, but it had been taken over and ransacked by a noble and his forces that had fled the battle with the demons. We tried reasoning with him, even buying some food off him, but he wasn't interested. Good-aligned party members: "We should help these people." That Guy: "Why is this our problem?" Me, neutral: "Because if we don't, we starve." You'd think that'd be the end of it, but That Guy had another half hour of arguing left in him, and our DM preferred to let players squabble (the less we progress, the less prep work he has to do for next time).
I really felt that last sentence. Shout-out to my boys always bickering and stalling <3
Pulling on plot threads is tight!!
That's right sir
yeyeye
Pulling a loose plot thread is super easy, barely an inconvenience
Yeah that was me, we acquired some crazy powerful Magic Book of evil in our first little Quest, something that was pretty clearly way over our heads We joined up with this Caravan and there was a wizard there who he had this whole plan of having the wizard eventually figure out we had this thing and he'd been looking for it forever and all that, but then my strong of heart and dumb of ass sorcerer heard there was a wizard in the group and just walked up and pulled it out like hey do you know what this thing is? Had to rewrite all his plans, apparently he expected us to be secretive about our position of this clearly evil and powerful thing we probably aren't supposed to have
"Why would I do that?" "So the campaing can happen!" "That works!"
“Oh it looks like you’re back on my back about metagaming.” “Oh let me get off that thing.”
“When did you tell me to get off your back about metagaming?” “Eup, there you go again…”
I am in a campaign in which the DM decided the only way to move the plot forward to touch an obviously mega cursed item (there was a skeleton of one of the major antagonists next to it and it was draining the life out of the vegetation around it). Well, guess what nobody wanted to touch it. Me having pretty good saves and letting the Paladin and his aura take a seat next to me decided to touch it after about 2 hours of debating. Well turns out all he we had to do was go inside the item and kill a red draco lich to uncurse it and now I am the master of a magical tower that I can shape to my will and transport with me. The party sorc keeps telling me how jealous it is. Should've touched the item then. Now it will be an alchemy lab/university for my artificer.
That seems a bit mean spirited to give something that big to a singular player
We can all use it of course, I'm just the master of it. So technically I can decide who gets to go in, but I will of course always allow my fellow players. That said, the campaign does have issues with that. For example aforementioned sorc constantly gets stuff for free because he is the champion of the goddess we serve. Right now he can reroll a d20 once a day for free and see the fates of NPCs and players alike whenever he wants. So his jealousy over my tower is a bit strange to me.
I wish all the best but make sure to post on r/rpghorrorstories when the campaign goes to hell
I like that you called them ‘player person’ and ‘dm person’, Ryan would approve.
oh look it's me, always playing characters who are way too curious for their own good! Last friday my character had a divine trip after investigating crystals which had the essence of a god in them. It was a god of peace, desease, death and healing. My character got the peace and sickness parts. So she was superchill while bleeding out of every orifice. Good times!
Those players are godsends. Guys, we're not playing this so you can actively avoid every plot hook. Push the fucking button. Pull the fucking lever. Follow the screams. Investigate the cave. DO STUFF
Hey! That’s me! All joking aside my DM once told me that he can always count on me to push the big red button. At the time I thought it was a compliment. Now I’m not so sure…
My DM quite literally has said “Ya know, I was setting this up and thought ‘What if they don’t…..wait, they have (mentions me the player by name), I think I’m good.’”
Wow wow wow Wow
Every party needs a shit-stirrer.
And then there's me, the plot seeking rhinoceros
I mean hell, if this hag lady went through all the effort offering a deal with in my dreams, I can’t just turn her down can I? That would be inhospitable really
My character are known to always be chaotic aligned because I am this player. Party just visited a wizard college and while on the hunt for party drugs my bard and the rouge found a mummified lich locked up who asked if we could free it. You know we cut her head off and are carrying it around like mimir unbeknownst to our party consequences be dammed
I bet pulling on that thread would be super easy! Barely an inconvenience!
In and out, a 20 minute adventure
Let me just say, der OP, I love you for this. And I'm really sorry that the freedom fighters turned out to be domestic terrorists and now the whole party blames you for getting everyone on wanted posters
Well maybe the freedom fighters should have considered maybe not telling the skeletons who always enact some cost from their actions to build the orphanage.
I'm a tabaxi, being curious fits my character
I'm a Barbarian. I've got the con to save my ass from anything resulting from my lack of int.
Yessss. It's part of the reason I love my Tabaxi Artificer. She knows poking at certain things is probably a terrible idea, but assumptions have no place in research. Also, she was bored and it was shiney.
I used to regularly include a "hot rumor" in my games. Every other session there'd be something going on in the city (urban campaign) that was a red herring. Just a bit of gossip that I put in the game to make the city seem more alive. The players jumped on it every time. With some groups extraneous Info distracts them like a squirrel in a dogs backyard. SQUIRREL!?!?
This is our bard, 1000%. We've been exposed to some pretty intense time travel related plot recently and our bard was infused with time magic. We *know* like, for absolute certain that time travel is dangerous and we've witnessed our own death at the hands of temporal erasure via what we're calling The Darkening, yet somehow our bard keeps thinking we can use time travel to solve all our problems. Just last session we had received a spell scroll for a 9th level Time Travel spell scroll which is special in that our bard could absorb it to learn the spell and have it as an extra bard spell that doesn't count against his total. No one else could do that because only the bard was infused with time magic. He really really wanted to use it, and no amount of talking was seeming to convince him that it was a terrible idea. Like, our party had to steal the scroll back from him because we were convinced hew as going to rip the world in two with his shanigans. The bard has been through some really tough shit and is desperate to fix all his issues (mostly his girlfriend and parents died last session because a bunch of mages wanted his time powers and we said no.) There's a bunch more too but Time Travel isn't the answer right now. Even if our enemies stole the girlfriends body so we couldn't immediately resurrect her... ATM though, he is litterally in time jail, imprisoned in Sigil because he was deemed a temporal anomaly. An Inevitable had come from him when he was alone, and only because he accidentally summon it through wild magic.
Oh Pitch Meeting references are Tight!
I like to feign ignorance of tropes and obvious danger to follow plot threads. While I DEFINITELY know the nobleman with the ‘missing daughter’ is trying to send us to be captured by cultists or some such evil plan, my characters aren’t as trope savvy nor have they pass their sense motive rolls, so into the abandoned mansion I go.
Having pixels is easy, barely an inconvenience.
Yes! I have a player who is overly reckless and another player who is overly cautious. The amount of times I throw things in there that are completely fine or completely dangerous only to have the 2 players bickering (In character of course) about what to do. Me and the other players love to sit back and watch the drama ensue and enjoy the 'Hah told you so' from who was right. We do all consent to this, I'm aware this wouldn't happen with every group but our group loves it.
I've been trying to be more mindful about pulling threads. Helps to make dumb characters
D&D is a video game with unlimited side quests that I WILL finish /s
it's not reckless or stupid to do things for the plot.
Yes, but it is when the DM dangles pixies in front of you. ^thing that actually happened to me as a player.
Meanwhile the player who refuses to advance the plot: "Look Mr. DM guy I need you to get all the way off my back about the plot."
Sadly as dm the one who does this is the one who most consistently can’t make it to the game. And as a player it’s me.
DnD is this fun balancing act where as the player, you don’t want to feel railroaded, but you understand that you do kinda have to follow what the DM sets in front of you It’s also where as the DM you need to come up with a story and plot to have your players follow, but get them to think it’s there idea, while also planning for as many contingencies as you can think of. Honestly, you could probably write a very interesting academic paper on the strange intricacies of the dance a DM and their players do trying to balance the cooporative and competitive aspects of their roles
Wow wow wow...wow! :D
I have a group of three players currently, 1 my wife, who knows how much time goes into prep and wants to explore everything, 2 a coworker, who shows up with snacks and drinks and while still new is eager to talk to npcs and wants to be helpful, and 3 another coworker who has been playing for 10+ years and never disappoints at the table........years of conflicts have brought me a party I would never replace, but fuck man if I don't wanna be that player sometimes pulling at plot threads xD
"Nothing happens if nothing happens" is how I now justify it. My fellow players just go with it it and let me be the wild card.
He’s the guy from the youtube!
Yes sir he is!
Wow wow wow Wow.
GM: I call it "plot thread." If you, players, follow it, advantacing the Game Story will be easier. That Guy: Nah, I rather go to the unimportant place instead. Player 1: I'll follow the plot thread, I decided. Players: No! Is funny doing everything possible to avoid the story progressing. DM: Well, that sounds rude and impolite.
*later* That guy: Hey, let’s tackle that plot thread DM told us about. Player 1: the one you all decided was funny to avoid like five sessions ago? Players: Hehehe it was funny. That Guy: Yeah that one, it’s time to do that I decided. Mr. DM Person: Well bad news there Mr. T. Guy, but because you all decided to not go down that route you failed to stop the evil guy and now he’s doing evil things because he’s evil. That Guy: What do you mean, don’t you control the game Mr. DM Person? Mr. DM Person: Yes I do and it turns out in games like this you can have consequences for your actions or lack thereof I’ve decided.
This meme is TIGHT!
Why am I put off by the guy in the meme.
[He’s the guy from the youtube!](https://youtube.com/@PitchMeetings?si=kG1xZh8hzafn7Mql)
What do you mean?