TTRPG worldbuilding strategies: make something mysterious, but don't make up an explanation to the mystery yet. i can come up with something cool if the players decide to explore it, possibly even something relevant to the story so far
@Garrison Just as long as your players enjoy knowing that you’re doing it that way, you’re golden♥ I’ve heard it called the “draw maps, leave blank” style.
I have the absolute 100% 180° opposite philosophy to that♥ But it’s just different styles, depending on what you want to get out of roleplaying.
My take on mysteries specifically: https://idiomdrottning.org/clues
and on this stuff generally: https://idiomdrottning.org/blorb-principles
@Sandra for sure, every DM has their own style and that's totally valid. i'm very open with my players about what i'm planning on doing, which is basically create characters, situations, conflicts, etc., and seeing where the players want to go.
leaving blanks is partially due to the fact that i think it's a neat way to make the story both organic and relevant to the current situation, but also bc i just don't have time to make up everything, including things my players may not interact with
i’m very open with my players about what I’m planning on doing
This is what makes it valid, imho♥♥♥♥♥♥
@Sandra lol valid. i don't fudge dice or anything like that often, but i do sometimes.
that said, in less than two years DMing, i've "allowed" two of play players' characters to die... but they both did really dumb things and deserved it tbh. 😂
@Garrison We had a level five character die two days ago (Wednesday night) and it was so tragic. It felt really unfair too💔😢
It kind of was another player’s character behaving overconfidently that led to this character’s death.
It’s been really somber and heavy to deal with this over the past few days, I thought the character was cool and I wanted to see what would happen to him. A lot of play over the past twelve sessions or so has been around his quest to resurrect his sister (another former PC). A quest which, I guess, failed. He was also a village priest, with seven NPC students, and on the village council.
A lot of my playstyle is about not being in the position to decide or allow who lives or dies; it’s the system. So the system can introduce some really painful, miserable outcomes and grief that tear and claw at our insides.
It could also produce some glorious, well-deserved victories! Theoretically. I mean, that hasn’t happened yet… but we keep on reaching for that 🌈♥
This is different from MCDM who goes for more of a safe, controlled, curated experience. My style is more “holy shit. Why are we even playing this game…”
@Sandra i would probably enjoy playing a game like that, tbh, i've mostly played with DMs like me who aren't very chaos-tolerant
@Garrison Oh, man, there’s a lot of stuff I disagree with MCDM about… he fudges dice and stacks decks 🎠🎠🎠
I’m more of a pain & suffering kind of DM than a fun DM♥