Re: What difficultly level do you play one?

On 7/24/2024 6:25 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 24 Jul 2024 08:52:24 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

On 7/17/2024 8:14 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

 

But they're slowly getting better. I mean, I don't expect the computer
games will get anywhere close to the flexibility of a real GM anytime
soon, but it's SO much better than what we had in the early 80s.

 

I find there's very very few DMs that actually have that flexibility either.

 A lot of players, too. Some practically freeze at the idea of picking
their own path, especially when it goes beyond the usual "kill" or
"talk" options. Just the idea that they DON'T have to follow the quest
is alien to them.
 But that's okay too; all sorts of players can enjoy the game. It works
best when you have players whose style matches the expectations of the
DM.
 Some game-masters just want to drop their players in an open sandbox
and let the players make their own story. ("If ther evil sorcerer gets
a certain magic ring, he will become an unstoppable force and take
over the world. You have the ring. What do you do?"). But, like I've
said, a lot of players just can't deal with that. I've seen campaigns
grind to a halt as they just wait for something to happen to them,
able only to react rather than act.
 Other DMs want to provide a more involved story, with interesting
characters and twists and increasing tension as the pace quickens.
Players going off and just abandoning the quest or moving in an
unexpected direction ("What do you mean, you're going west? Questgiver
told you that your next contact was in a town to the east!") can be
incredibly frustrating to DMs like that.
 Personally, I fall somewhere in between. I tend to write overly
developed adventures, well-paced and with lots of options to get
players back on track because I think (and I'd wager my players
generally agree) that I write interesting stories for them to play
around with. But I /love/ when the players come up with an idea I
haven't thought of.
     (Well, I say I love it. There's always that moment of terror
     when I go, "Oh God, what do I do know? Why couldn't those
     idiots just follow the obvious breadcrumb trail I left them!
     Now I gotta make something up on the fly!" It's as much
     aggravating as it is exciting)
 And I'll be the first to admit my off-the-cuff responses aren't as
good as my pre-planned adventures (especially when it comes to
creating new names for characters and locations. Names are hard). But
it's those bits that are some of the most fun too, because it's when
our entire group is involved in the world-building and story-making;
it's not just me but all of us! It's an awesome experience.
 Not that I was always like that. The first time this happened
--decades upon decades in the past-- I literally threw up my hands and
cursed out the players. "The campaign's ruined; you guys fucked
everything up."
     [Probably not those exact words. I was less coarse and foul-
     mouthed in those days ;-]
 It took me days to forgive them (and longer to agree to DM again). But
I've mellowed a bit over the years.
 

It is kind of funny, I just finished reading the 'Dream Park' series of sci-fi books.  'Dream Park' is a future super-park for live action role-playing with super-tech holograms and such.  BIG money involved, huge industry, yada yada.  All four of the books involve adventuring parties who go "off script" but because of the massive amounts of money involved (the games are live broadcast around the world) the Game Masters have to improvise on the fly.  And trust me, the "off-script" is MASSIVELY beyond any "off-script" some nerds sitting around a table do.  :D
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.