Imperor

Imperor, 7 months ago

You said in another comment that you enjoy DMing a game that has unpredictable results for the DM as well. A lot of good advice has already been given, but might I suggest giving your players more agency that you’d most likely see falling into the realm of the DM usually, so they create unexpected events for you as well?

Say you have the character of your friend destroy said Annis Hag, but blast! she had a curse prepared to fall upon anyone who would dare defy her to the point of death. Now instead of throwing your idea of a punishing burden on the player, you could instead go: “You can feel an evil magic engulfing your very being. It muddles your senses and try as you might, you are incapable of escaping its grasp. As it burns itself into your very bones and soul, you feel one of your abilities weaken. Which ability is affected?”

That way the player retains agency, can pick the least punishing option (in their opinion), have consequences but it doesn’t feel like they just got punished for doing well or making a choice just as much as you simply deciding “That’s how it is now. Enjoy!”. Could also add an element of chance and put it down to a roll of the dice, but that might again feel too arbitrarily punishing to that character.

The curse then mightn’t just have that main effect, mind you. But at least the worst one is more down to what the character feels and fears rather than what the DM wants to dish out. It will also give you something to ponder and think about in how to work with whatever the player chose or came up with. You could let them describe how the curse alters their appearance, do they suddenly have a mark on their skin? If so where, what size, shape and color? Now you have a PC with an odd mark of their own imagination and you can build on that. Or the player might come up with horns sprouting from their head, etc. Using this, you can have NPCs react to these changes and really play into them.

Player Agency might help alleviate the feeling of it being a punishing campaign, by giving them some room to breathe in all the pressure and stress.

Imperor, 7 months ago

Yeah, alright. Can you provide an example of how you present the choice during a session? Maybe it’s really as simple as being far more on the nose with how you say it?

I’ve found my players often really do not grasp implied information and it just leads nowhere. But I get the feeling you’re already really clear with how you approach it.

Imperor, 8 months ago

Little One Shots sound like a good idea as well, yeah. I like to take a step back during those sessions and really allow the players to bring out their own ideas and let the main dreamer basically Co-DM the session. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the results!

Did it turn out to be a good session in your case?

Imperor, 8 months ago

Yes, it is. Here’s an upscaled version of it.

Imperor, 8 months ago

Heya!

You seem well prepared!

Something that is talked about a lot but rarely accompanied by practical advice on how to is the very crucial point of remembering:

The story you are co-creating as a DM is the story of the characters.

Want to lore dump? Tie it to one or more of your characters backgrounds. Maybe they are from the bloodline of that ancient king you want them to know about.

Not sure how to fill in the details like what does the place smell like? Ask a player “You smell something odd, describe the smell”

I am currently in the process of making some guide like posts and videos on certain topics aimed at both players and videos. Some are meant to be shared with players that are new, like the basics of tactical combat to help reduce your workload, especially with new players.

Don’t try and do everything great all at once.

You will be just fine!

Imperor, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago)

I appreciate the feedback.

I’m having fun fiddling with concepts of how to convey my thoughts on my hobby in a format that I find enjoyable. Given the age of my channel and the amount of subscribers or viewers, I am well aware that what I enjoy doing/watching just isn’t for everyone, or even a lot of people.

As for the blog posts, I am actually working on that, but it’ll take some more time since this isn’t my job. It still takes time, money and effort to do. Some of which I cannot expand on this particular bit of my hobby at all times.

EDIT: Here’s the relevant blog post :) impheim.com/…/magic-items-in-ttrpgs-embrace-encha…

Imperor, 8 months ago

If you got ads, I do apologize. My channel isn’t even capable of monetization as far as YouTube is concerned. I make no money off of my videos at all on any platform at the moment (or the past three years).

Imperor, 8 months ago

Thanks so much! I appreciate it greatly <3

Imperor, 8 months ago

Hey! Thanks for saying that. One thing about my stuff so far is that I barely get any feedback from beyond my friend and extended friend circles. And that tends to be positive, so it’s good to hear different perspectives. I already had the blog posts and all planned, but procrastinated on them. Your comment gave me the push to sit down with it again and get it going.

I’ll keep on iterating over how I present my ideas. And you’re absolutely right, especially in this hobby, there’s plenty of people who would rather read than watch yet another video (especially in the chosen style - I had hoped the CRPG style of quest dialogue might be a good enough bridge there). Honestly, I am pretty psyched about anyone who engages with what I make. I find it utterly mind blowing that people care enough to do so.

I think the system could work! Maybe even in conjunction with a little crafting thing I put together a few months ago for my own campaigns, if your player absolutely wants to go the route of crafting the item. You can see that over here mastodon.social/ - just off your description you could join both systems. Let them gather the materials and go through the crafting process and then throw in some extra positive results tied into the story with maybe some god of Smithing seeing their sincere wish to create the shield but blundering through the process. So for their persistence and dedication to their craft, the god imbues the shield with yet another effect on top of what they might get out of the crafting process.

Imperor, 10 months ago

I have noticed the same and have come to the conclusion that, yes. The subscriber and follower counts are instance specific.