Author: Daniel Fowler

So you found a ring of invisibility and 111 years later your still alive and healthy? …maybe your wizard friend should take another look at it.  

Something interesting:  This ring was stolen from Gollum and he will hunt for it for the rest of his life.

Something useful:  You vanish from sight when you put on the ring.

…

Something interesting: elven letters appear along the inside of the band when the ring is heated in fire.

something useful: the ring preserves and extends your life

…

something interesting: This is the one ring and the key to Sauron’s plot to take over middle earth

something useful: the ring can only be destroyed in the fires of mount doom

…

It’s kind of funny to realize that most magic items get one spout lore roll and the players (including me) assume they know everything important.  If it is a weapon or potion a desperate player might use it without knowing its effects.  If he/she is lucky they find that they have a flaming sword and will probably never bother to show it to the wizard or investigate its past/purpose/importance.

This thing was probably made by an ancient elven wizards thousands of years ago.  why was it made? What was it called? How was it used? how did it get here? What is it meant to do? what could it be made to do?  what does using it cost you? Is it in any way dangerous? Is the creator still alive?  who owns it? who would want it? Who would recognize it?

As a DM you don’t have to have all of these answers written down before you drop the item into the world.  But these are all valid questions and they should be asked.  The players can also generate their own answers.  Maybe they recognize the inscription or have heard legends about this item.  Maybe they just rationalize a connection you had not planned on.  “I found this sword in the tomb of the vampire king.  is there any chance that those ghouls recognize it or that it exerts some influence over them?” 

The +1 sword came out of a vending machine and sparkles.  The Bone Glave is fashioned from the spines and bones of ancient kings and learning about it might generate its own adventure.

Anything is possible… but you should probably run…

I was recently ranting about some of the encounters I have run into in various RPG games where I or the whole party got killed and learned later from the DM that we had no hope of winning.  Apparently the “correct answer” was to run away or avoided the encounter.  My immediate reaction is often, “why would you give us that encounter?”  But in retrospect those sort of encounters probably should happen occasionally.  In a magical fantasy universe there will be the occasional big baddy that you just are not equipped to deal with.  Running like a little girl is probably a good response.

D&D has levels and encounter ratings to give some guidance, but again nothing prevents the level 1 players from accidentally walking into the dragon’s lair.  Alternatively, DW characters don’t change as much between level 1 and 10 and a lucky party might even slay the beast.  Also different games have different tones.  In one game you might narrate your character single handedly battling one thousand orcs.  Another game might see you hiding from a couple guardsmen.  I have occasionally played in games where a player stumbled or turned to fight the hopeless situation and then gets dealt a d6 damage.  suddenly my cowering armored fighter looks up and says “oh is that it?  I can take that.”

Unfortunately it’s not always easy to communicate certain ideas between players and DMs.  Is this thing out of our league?  Should we know that beating it requires certain prep?  Is it bad DMing to allow a party to get up that particular creek without a paddle?  How much warning should the DM give.  what if the players just are not understanding the situation?  Should the DM ever say “out of character, this thing is going to slaughter you and your characters would know this!”  How much responsibility does the player have for gauging the situation or knowing the relative strength or requirements of various fantasy encounters?

Stop asking for permission and start pitching awesome ideas!

A common issue I have seen or heard about in RPGs is players asking for permission.  sometimes, especially in a new party, differences in strategy or ethics can emerge.  The barbarian wants to charge in screaming but the player doesn’t want to ruin the thief’s chance of sneaking up on the big bad.  The paladin can not allow the evil dragon to live but he and the rest of his party are really beat up and scared of dying. The thief wants to torture the prisoner for the secret password but the priest can’t tolerate it.  Players can spend a lot of time trying to avoid these situations and repeatedly asking “is it ok with everyone if…” or “I kill him, unless you guys don’t want to…”  This can lead to long stretches of non-action that end with no one doing what they want.

Its far better in my opinion to have your character act as they would want and then work out the consequences or party drama later.  The barbarian gives the war cry of his people and attacks, the thief is suddenly on the spot and crazy action ensues.  maybe later the barbarian learns his lesson or the thief gets even by stealing his share of the loot.  The Paladin picks a fight with the dragon and dies pathetically while his friends run for it.  maybe his next character is more flexible and later they take on a quest to get revenge.  The thief sends the priest off on an errand and gets the info.  maybe the priest refuses to call divine aid for him until he atones for his crime.  It can suck when characters start attacking each other and this should generally be avoided outside of games that are built for PVP.  It should be possible for the players to work out an interesting compromise where the characters have drama and or work out their differences.

A similar issue occurs when the player wants to do something that they don’t know will be allowed by the game, story or the DM.  Maybe there is no obvious move or mechanic to represent what you want to happen.  A lot of people look at the moves on their sheet or the action list in the rule book and assume that they do not have permission to do anything not on that list.  A good DM should be able to work with the player to figure out a reasonable way to resolve the action.

Sometimes the player wants to do something cool but needs something from the environment.  They will ask the DM if there is a chandelier, doorway, or catapult laying around and  a good DM will generally allow it.  sometimes the player might even ask to retcon the story a little.  Maybe they picked up one of those ceremonial axes in the previous room.  depending on what they ask for this might seem like cheating and the DM may or may not allow it.  

As a player it’s often better to just state what you want and assume the DM will ok it.  “I leap up onto the chandelier and swing over their heads”  the worst that should happen is that the DM informs you that there is no chandelier and you will have to try another way.  If you pitch your idea well enough and make it interesting a good DM should be willing to give you the chandelier.  Its not like they made a map of their entire fictional world and marked off every location that definitely doesn’t have a chandelier.  They should be more open to a fun or interesting proposed outcome then to a player asking for random furniture arrangements or to rewind the story.   Make the DM want to see what happens and he will probably give you more freedom to act.