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Post by mao on Aug 6, 2021 1:29:33 GMT -5
Nothing , you are in the majority here and I am trying to change my railroady ways, Sandbox is the way to go. I spent 30 years railroading and was always unhappy w the results. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
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Post by hengest on Aug 8, 2021 21:05:34 GMT -5
See this blog post here, the first of a series. From the The Disoriented Ranger.I am curious as to how much of this resonates with the DMs on the forum. Bitd with my first group that I played every week during the school year for four years, I did not encounter any of what is the this essay. Of course there were no published settings, no personal computer and a lot of the other things mentioned in the article so the environment was different. Some parts do resonate currently and I may comment later on some of those things. Right now I am looking for your thoughts. (I will say that I don't use plots and a player action can not destroy the reason for my game, if the story is created through play instead of being in place and the players need to cooperate with a story it solves a lot of problems IMO.) Edit: Fixed the link! From the link Mistake number one, paying $150 for new 5e books, if you don't have the original game there are close approximations available for free. Mistake number two, spending months preparing a setting, instead of getting your players together and game on, build it as you play. Life is too short for months of prep, unless you are independently wealthy and prep is your passion. Mistake number three, builds a campaign around a fragile princess that needs protection. Where is your imagination? Mistake number four, imitating The Neverending Story, unless of course you are five. Mistake number five, did the players say they wanted to learn new rules? Did they have a choice? Mistake number six, "testing them on the side" and "working problems through the forums," what exactly did you pay $150 for? For $150, the rules had better have been tested and problems resolved before it was sold. On the other hand with free rules, you just take care of those things on the fly yourself, no sweat! Mistake number seven, months of preparation and transition, wow, just wow! Should I look at the rest of the article? I really hear you on all these. But. As in another aspect of life, I feel a need to be over-prepared in order to be able to ignore my prep and improvise. Of course, it's moot now, since all my prep is just exploration, grist for the mill, maybe-use-it-someday stuff, since I don't have or know how to get a group together. I think of my prep as mostly practice and lubrication for my mind. Who knows how good an idea that is. |
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Post by Morose on Aug 15, 2021 22:32:56 GMT -5
From the link Mistake number one, paying $150 for new 5e books, if you don't have the original game there are close approximations available for free. Mistake number two, spending months preparing a setting, instead of getting your players together and game on, build it as you play. Life is too short for months of prep, unless you are independently wealthy and prep is your passion. Mistake number three, builds a campaign around a fragile princess that needs protection. Where is your imagination? Mistake number four, imitating The Neverending Story, unless of course you are five. Mistake number five, did the players say they wanted to learn new rules? Did they have a choice? Mistake number six, "testing them on the side" and "working problems through the forums," what exactly did you pay $150 for? For $150, the rules had better have been tested and problems resolved before it was sold. On the other hand with free rules, you just take care of those things on the fly yourself, no sweat! Mistake number seven, months of preparation and transition, wow, just wow! Should I look at the rest of the article? I really hear you on all these. But. As in another aspect of life, I feel a need to be over-prepared in order to be able to ignore my prep and improvise. Of course, it's moot now, since all my prep is just exploration, grist for the mill, maybe-use-it-someday stuff, since I don't have or know how to get a group together. I think of my prep as mostly practice and lubrication for my mind. Who knows how good an idea that is. All of the prep work is good stuff when you have no way to play. The more you work on anything the better you get. Sold writing does help your improvising too IMO. Prep is keeping your oar in the water. Improvising in game is having both oars in the water, with a back up engine. |
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Post by hengest on Aug 16, 2021 8:44:49 GMT -5
I really hear you on all these. But. As in another aspect of life, I feel a need to be over-prepared in order to be able to ignore my prep and improvise. Of course, it's moot now, since all my prep is just exploration, grist for the mill, maybe-use-it-someday stuff, since I don't have or know how to get a group together. I think of my prep as mostly practice and lubrication for my mind. Who knows how good an idea that is. All of the prep work is good stuff when you have no way to play. The more you work on anything the better you get. Sold writing does help your improvising too IMO. Prep is keeping your oar in the water. Improvising in game is having both oars in the water, with a back up engine. Appreciate hearing this. It's funny how in one aspect of life, you can have stage confidence, and not at all in another. Also funny how you just don't know how prepared you are til you're in the thick of it. |
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Post by Morose on Sept 6, 2021 12:34:03 GMT -5
Nothing , you are in the majority here and I am trying to change my railroady ways, Sandbox is the way to go. I spent 30 years railroading and was always unhappy w the results. You can teach an old dog new tricks. Railroads are made to be destroyed and the tracks torn up. If I were to play in a railroaded game, it would be my prime mission.  |
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Post by Traveroark on Sept 8, 2021 20:17:50 GMT -5
Mistake number one, paying $150 for new 5e books, if you don't have the original game there are close approximations available for free. Mistake number two, spending months preparing a setting, instead of getting your players together and game on, build it as you play. Life is too short for months of prep, unless you are independently wealthy and prep is your passion. Mistake number three, builds a campaign around a fragile princess that needs protection. Where is your imagination? Mistake number four, imitating The Neverending Story, unless of course you are five. Mistake number five, did the players say they wanted to learn new rules? Did they have a choice? Mistake number six, "testing them on the side" and "working problems through the forums," what exactly did you pay $150 for? For $150, the rules had better have been tested and problems resolved before it was sold. On the other hand with free rules, you just take care of those things on the fly yourself, no sweat! Mistake number seven, months of preparation and transition, wow, just wow! Should I look at the rest of the article? Please! |
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Post by Morose on Oct 2, 2021 18:55:32 GMT -5
Mistake number one, paying $150 for new 5e books, if you don't have the original game there are close approximations available for free. Mistake number two, spending months preparing a setting, instead of getting your players together and game on, build it as you play. Life is too short for months of prep, unless you are independently wealthy and prep is your passion. Mistake number three, builds a campaign around a fragile princess that needs protection. Where is your imagination? Mistake number four, imitating The Neverending Story, unless of course you are five. Mistake number five, did the players say they wanted to learn new rules? Did they have a choice? Mistake number six, "testing them on the side" and "working problems through the forums," what exactly did you pay $150 for? For $150, the rules had better have been tested and problems resolved before it was sold. On the other hand with free rules, you just take care of those things on the fly yourself, no sweat! Mistake number seven, months of preparation and transition, wow, just wow! Should I look at the rest of the article? Please! I will try to get back to this sometime in October. |
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Post by Traveroark on Dec 27, 2021 22:01:09 GMT -5
I will try to get back to this sometime in October. Like me Morose you are a little tiny bit behind!  |
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Post by Morose on Jan 31, 2022 15:38:33 GMT -5
I will try to get back to this sometime in October. Like me Morose you are a little tiny bit behind!   Yeah, I am a lot behind. I just checked all three blog posts have been deleted and only the first post is preserved in the Internet Archive. I see that when we find interesting blog posts we should immediately go to the Internet archive and save it there ourselves so that people deleting posts or whole blogs are foiled in that dastardly practice. |
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Post by Morose on Jan 31, 2022 15:51:15 GMT -5
Like me Morose you are a little tiny bit behind! Yeah, I am a lot behind. I just checked all three blog posts have been deleted and only the first post is preserved in the Internet Archive. I see that when we find interesting blog posts we should immediately go to the Internet archive and save it there ourselves so that people deleting posts or whole blogs are foiled in that dastardly practice. Hmm, that is really weird, I started looking through his blog and I went back to the months where those posts appeared and they were back. Also the links are working now. OK, so I have saved the blog posts and I will work on them at my leisure and then post further. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 31, 2022 18:18:45 GMT -5
Like me Morose you are a little tiny bit behind! Yeah, I am a lot behind. I just checked all three blog posts have been deleted and only the first post is preserved in the Internet Archive. I see that when we find interesting blog posts we should immediately go to the Internet archive and save it there ourselves so that people deleting posts or whole blogs are foiled in that dastardly practice.Exalted! |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 31, 2022 18:51:35 GMT -5
Yeah, I am a lot behind. I just checked all three blog posts have been deleted and only the first post is preserved in the Internet Archive. I see that when we find interesting blog posts we should immediately go to the Internet archive and save it there ourselves so that people deleting posts or whole blogs are foiled in that dastardly practice.Exalted! Even though the posts are now showing, this is still a really good idea. There are thousands of posts I saw in the 90s all the way to now that I wish I had archived. I also wish I had archived every blog I ran across seeing as how so many have been deleted. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 31, 2022 21:50:46 GMT -5
Even though the posts are now showing, this is still a really good idea. There are thousands of posts I saw in the 90s all the way to now that I wish I had archived. I also wish I had archived every blog I ran across seeing as how so many have been deleted. I agree. I know I used to have the documents Gary Gygax posted for Lejendary AsteRogues but I can't seem to find them anymore. The last time I tried to find those documents online I had no luck. |
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