Are we playing a campaign or renacting the Lord of the Rings?
Live for the chaos and mayhem. Expect it. Thrive from it. And tell the players that if their precious avatar dies, it’s on them, exclusively.
A campaign should be built around goals, capable of being moved around, delayed or put ahead of schedule as needed.
The players are walking in the campaign blind. It’s not their concern if a random action - that may be completely in line with their character - ampers, deviates or collapses the entire campaign.
Of course nothing should be inflexible, but I’m just saying there’s no reason for every campaign to be derailed completely. If your players are actively going against the scenario something’s gone wrong. And yeah, if you give them the opportunity to do something, be prepared for it to happen and roll with the consequences.
Unless you play low level John Does every time, characters should know stuff about the world they’ve lived in their whole lives. And if none of that ties into the scenario are you playing a campaign or in a sandbox?
Congratulations. Having high level characters and well rounded players does make everything smoother. If you’ve had those, I envy you. But not much.
I’ve managed a couple of games but I always made my plots to willfully accomodate chaos. I like to reward stupidity and recklessness. After a couple of disastrous events, the table tends to settle down and the mood tends to loosen up.
I’m fairly comfortable saying we have different approaches to playing and play directing. Which is good.
That is scripting.
Are we playing a campaign or renacting the Lord of the Rings?
Live for the chaos and mayhem. Expect it. Thrive from it. And tell the players that if their precious avatar dies, it’s on them, exclusively.
A campaign should be built around goals, capable of being moved around, delayed or put ahead of schedule as needed.
The players are walking in the campaign blind. It’s not their concern if a random action - that may be completely in line with their character - ampers, deviates or collapses the entire campaign.
Of course nothing should be inflexible, but I’m just saying there’s no reason for every campaign to be derailed completely. If your players are actively going against the scenario something’s gone wrong. And yeah, if you give them the opportunity to do something, be prepared for it to happen and roll with the consequences.
Unless you play low level John Does every time, characters should know stuff about the world they’ve lived in their whole lives. And if none of that ties into the scenario are you playing a campaign or in a sandbox?
Congratulations. Having high level characters and well rounded players does make everything smoother. If you’ve had those, I envy you. But not much.
I’ve managed a couple of games but I always made my plots to willfully accomodate chaos. I like to reward stupidity and recklessness. After a couple of disastrous events, the table tends to settle down and the mood tends to loosen up.
I’m fairly comfortable saying we have different approaches to playing and play directing. Which is good.