Forays & Forums

Per usual, this last weekend was spent playing Dungeonmor, prepping those final tweaks for the free release. A small group of players got to test out the intro to The Cold Silence Within Shadows, a free adventure to be released this fall. This group had not played the current version of Dungeonmor, so we spent some time making up characters, getting introduced to the Nymbrilus setting, and playing out some rules basics. The session itself was really just a short introduction for the players, but they did wind up exploring a place called Stone Hills Gulch in search of goblins. And this is where one of the most memorable experiences I've had running Dungeonmor occurred. Leona (Fhaenyr Fighter), Lyddia (Ork Barbarian), and Lorenzo (Human Wizard) followed a road to the gulch, noting a series of pillars to their left along the way. They came to several stone hills of an old quarry which surround the gulch where was found a strange, ancient stone structure. The place was large, 120' long, 50' deep, 20' high, with only one back wall, the rest standing open. It seemed to be a massive storage shed and the delvers decided to spend time studying the place. While investigating, a group of goblins approached from behind a stone hill further into the gulch and shot Lyddia with a bone arrow. The two groups, delvers and goblins, were about a couple hundred feet apart and thus a distance combat ensued. That's when it happened. In Dungeonmor, magic-users craft magical effects. Players get to describe how a named spell manifests and what they attempt for it to do. Per my usual intro games, I allowed players to fill in character details, like abilities, equipment, and languages, while we played the game, so as they needed something for a situation they added it. Lorenzo looked over his spells for something with a real kick, but wasn't satisfied with the list of options. As I frequently do, I let him suggest his own spell creation. Spells for Dungeonmor are just names, indicating what the spell does. After a short discussion about magic, how it works, and tossing around ideas, its boundaries where explored in a plethora of over-the-top ideas. With much laughter in an otherwise desperate delver situation, "Hallucinarrow" was born. Mimicking the draw and release of an invisible bow, the player, Matt, described his spell's effect being "belief that they were mortally wounded by an arrow." The die was cast for the spell, getting an 18 (success), and thus Lorenzo unleashed Hallucinarrow on one of the half dozen goblin adversaries. The goblin victim screamed in agony, shouting to its companions that he was struck through the chest by some magically conjured arrow, spastically writhing about grasping at "the arrow." An otherwise dominant goblin assault suddenly turned to chaos. As only the target was described as affected, the other goblins saw "nothing." Just a human in wizard robes pretending to fire a bow and then their cohort devolving into a crazed mania, wailing about its death from some non-existent arrow in its chest. Distracted, dumbfounded, and now afraid of the wizard's seemingly powerful death magic, the goblins drag their "dying" companion away from the dangerous interlopers come to their hills.

This arose in a Reddit post I was reading, and I thought I'd write a little about it here. One member posted about their growing dislike of 5e, and they happened to be a 34 year-long enthusiast. They wondered if others had similar experiences/feelings, trying to figure out their own dissatisfaction. So of course I chimed in! Having played D&D even longer, I felt like I knew where this RPGer was coming from. I've played every edition extensively, and more 5e than perhaps any other edition, and I've enjoyed it. But I know what it does, thoroughly, and I know what it doesn't. As Adam Koebel once said (paraphrased), "Burning Wheel is the RPG I would want if stranded on a desert island, because it does what it says." What he points out is that RPGs are notorious for suggesting you incorporate elements that make them work as you desire rather than explicitly including such in their designs (specifically roleplaying). A more harsh way to say this is "if you don't want 5e to feel like a board game, pretend it does what you want it to do." The bottom line is that sometimes we feel "Something's Missing." 5e's rules focus on being a skirmish board game, and it seems WOTC is doubling down on this approach. As I said, I've played A LOT of 5e and have enjoyed it, and many MANY others STILL enjoy it and are loving the latest iteration. And I think most of them enjoy it for what it does. I, however, enjoyed 5e for what it did not do, for what my groups brought to the gaming table that was not found in the rules. For us it was a frame work to settle things we did because it was easy, accessible, provided a diversity of player options within its scope, and presented a wealth of lore spanning 5 decades, all fun and useful stuff. But some of us eventually find that the rules begin getting in the way of WHY and HOW we are playing, and we begin house ruling and homebrewing more and more, or abandoning it all together to play other RPGs. There are other RPGs out there giving you options to really get into those WHYs and HOWs we pursue this hobby. Any of you have particular WHYs and HOWs you play a specific RPG?

It's always disappointing as a GM when our carefully crafted adventure doesn't seem to work. Or worse, creates frustration or even conflict at the table. Our friends are consoling, reassuring us that the players weren't being cooperative, weren't playing the game correctly, where being overly dramatic. But consider this--we play RPGs to have fun. Obviously, if a session doesn't go well, someone's not getting it. While it's easy to single out negative voices from the experience, a GM should never discount their own role and its execution. It's our job to facilitate fun. We can get easily caught up in our own ideas about how to do things, but the litmus test is always how a session plays. One of the most powerful GM tools is your players. Look for what they respond to, what catches their interest, those situations they find exciting. Likewise, pay attention to what you're doing when things are less successful. Doing so lends a strong insight to improving your sessions.