overview for sirblastalot

Enter the Pirate Castle! in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 4 days ago

Looking good! Those pirates have a pretty sweet setup!

Guilty As Charged in c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 7 points 2 weeks ago

That's kind of important to the story though.

spoiler

V starts off thinking she's dying and her mind is changing and she doesn't know how long she's got, and by the end she's learned that everyone is dying and everyone is changing all the time and no one knows how long they've got. The only real choice is whether you use the time you've got to live, or don't.

Your Ideal RPG Series or Campaign in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 2 points 2 weeks ago

Mhhh....I believe in the right tool for the right job. So there isn't really an ideal system, for instance, just the best system for what I'm trying to accomplish in a given game.

Which are (some of) your favourites GM-tips/technique ? And how do you use-them in your games ? in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sometimes that can be fun, but only if everyone at the table is onboard for a wild tangent. If the other players are bored as shit while the special snowflake starts a unicorn breeding operation, it's time to use that No. And you, the DM, are included in that too; if your players want to drag you off to write every book in the library and that's not fun for you, you have the right to say "hey maybe you should play the game I made for you instead."

Which are (some of) your favourites GM-tips/technique ? And how do you use-them in your games ? in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You decide that if an when the players make it a priority with their choices.

Which are (some of) your favourites GM-tips/technique ? And how do you use-them in your games ? in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 month ago

Addendum to the "Are you sure you want to do that" bullet: if a player ever does something that seems nonsensical to you, ask them what they expect to achieve by doing that. Understanding their motivation is often what resolves the miscommunication and/or allows you to steer them towards a better way to do what they're trying to do.

No touchy in c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 9 points 1 month ago

I read once that the earliest edition(s?) didn't have Rogue as a separate class, that everyone would be searching for traps and such. And when Rogue was added with the explicit ability to detect traps, it caused a crises because suddenly that implied that no one else had that ability.

That's barely a threat in c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 7 points 1 month ago

It's the cats you gotta worry about.

[LegalKimchi] You're Missing the Point of Dungeons in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 month ago

There are a couple ways to get auto-generated transcripts from youtube (eg https://www.howtogeek.com/793947/how-to-get-the-transcript-of-a-youtube-video/ ), but there are enough errors and bad UI that I find reading them to be more miserable than just watching the video.

So... how's everyone else's session prep going? in c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 5 points 1 month ago

Main quest? Weird tangent? They're the same picture!

So... how's everyone else's session prep going? in c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 11 points 1 month ago

God you just described my prep in a nutshell. This is how they ended up fighting an orchestra

44

A small logistics tweak that's worked well for me (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 month ago by sirblastalot@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

3 comments fedilink

Perhaps obvious to everyone else, but I've hit upon a little trick for better coordinating game time. Instead of announcing "Game will be at 1 o'clock" I've been doing something like "Doors open at Noon, Game starts at 1." This way, the people that want to hang out, level their characters, decide what they like on their pizza, etc all show up at noon, and the people that are running late or decide to come at 1 arrive with the expectation that they're going to walk in the door and immediately start playing. It also provides a natural transition point from the arriving/hanging out mode to game time, which otherwise makes me feel kind of uncomfortably teacher-y, calling the whole class together and whatnot. Try it out, maybe it will help you too.

What is your favorite one-shot? in c/rpg@ttrpg.network

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 3 points 2 months ago

I like to fully improvise games in Digital Shades

56

It's not Critical Role, it's Podcasting Itself (ttrpg.network)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by sirblastalot@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

16 comments fedilink

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.