[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 10 points 3 days ago

I understand, but also, please don't. As bad as it is right now, the world is still a better place with you in it. Call or text 988 if you're feeling suicidal, there are people there ready to listen and help.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 27 points 1 month ago

What's his deal?

56
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by sirblastalot@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

I recently started a new campaign. Two players (one who has played in my games before and their SO, who has been begging me for a spot for years) unexpectedly dropped out, moments before our first session. Their reason was somewhat baffling; they said they didn't want to spend "all day" on this, despite the game only going from noon to 3PM. They seemed to think this was a totally unreasonable expectation on my part, despite them previously having stated they were available during that time. This puzzled me.

I've been musing on this, and the strange paradox of people that say they want to play D&D but don't actually want to play D&D, and I've had an epiphany.

A lot of people blame Critical Role or other popular D&D shows for giving prospective players misplaced perceptions, often related to things like your DM's voice acting ability or prop budget, but I don't think that's what's going on here. My realization is that, encoded in the medium of podcasts and play videos, is another expectation: New players unconsciously expect to receive D&D the way they receive D&D shows: on-demand, at their house, able to be paused and restarted at their whim, and possibly on a second-screen while they focus on something else!

I don't know as this suggests anything we as DMs could do differently to set expectations, but it did go a long ways to helping me understand my friends, and I thought it might help someone here to share.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 40 points 4 months ago

Starbucks is a real coffee chain that exists in the real world. Moondeer and sunfawn follow the same naming scheme, but the players didn't realize that was what the DM was building to until the big reveal. It's...pun-adjacent.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 29 points 6 months ago

Queercoding villains to make them seem dangerous and deviant to the people of the time (and those that are still stuck in that time). Admittedly, the people making that decision probably weren't conscious of that being why they thought eyeliner made him look villainous.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 42 points 8 months ago

Peckromancer

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 19 points 8 months ago

What DM would deliberately sabotage their own game like that? No one actually wants to spend a session waiting for someone to examine an endless supply of rocks.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 44 points 8 months ago

You select the level of abstraction for different things based on what is and isn't the most fun to delve into. If your group enjoys poking every surface with a 10 foot pole, it's not wrong to play with that level of granularity. It's just that all the interesting things you can do with a 10 foot pole are pretty mined-out after 50 years so we tend to direct our attention elsewhere.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 16 points 9 months ago

She's a sex pest though, worse than Barclay.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 30 points 10 months ago

In 3.5 at least, if you're in a space that isn't big enough for you to change size, RAW you just...don't.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 57 points 10 months ago

I just feel bad for the loincloth mimic.

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 18 points 10 months ago

Not with that attitude

[-] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 17 points 1 year ago

Wait, you guys' pacts end in death?

1

I've got an unholy-water fountain, a human chessboard, and an evil hedge maze. I need 1 more thing to put in the last corner of the square courtyard/garden thing. Any suggestions?

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sirblastalot

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