Other (Also a bit of experience tag too) Just rolling with it.

BackSet · Nov 15, 2017

So, imagine this scenario: your gming a D&D game when a character does something completely unexpected that derails the whole plot. Now you have two options. You can a. Start railroading the players back on track or b. Just roll with it. Today we're talking about the latter and how it can be used in play by post roleplays. In play by post roleplays just rolling with it takes on a different meaning. This is when a GM doesn't really plan far ahead hoping that the players will take the roleplay in new and interesting directions. The GM has a plot to start but they don't plan much beyond that. Thus the GM is as surprised as everybody else when that enemy you were fighting turns out to be mind controlled and that random bystander was actually a spy.

Idea · Nov 16, 2017

Well, when I GM I do have a somewhat controlled environment. I try to set things up so that there is wiggle room (meaning I plan not just linearly but also on the margins) and usually those big plot twists just can't happen out of the blue. Players can inform me beforehand, which lets me adjust the plan and they can set it up IC and in the character sheets, but just coming up with a big plot twist on the spin will usually result in me saying I will not allow it to have happened and request they edit their post. Usually if it's that far off the plan odds are it's bringing the RP in a direction I just don't think can work, and as GM I consider it my responsability to keep players from harming themselves

TripTripleTimes · Nov 16, 2017

I haven't had much experience with table top role playing but for a player to control that much of scenery without the gm's permission/knowledge is frowned upon, in my opinion. While I understand that rp is a collective storytelling, for a game such as Dungeons and Dragon, there a few rules that makes D&D different from the regular Role Plays. The definition of a GM is defined in the 5e PHB as the "lead storyteller and referee". "The DM creates the adventure" and "determines the result of the character's action" (straight out from the introduction of the PHB). The player should respect that and know their limit, which is controlling just their character and leaving out how the environment reacts to the player's characters. It might be hard for a rper that is new to D&D to not write how they want the environment (npcs) to react to their character, but they should realise what D&D is. In the introduction, it says that the GM "narriates what they [the characters] experience" but I think in a post by post D&D that narriation can be left to the players so that they can write the reaction of their character.

Idk how the whole campaign ended up with the enemy being mind controlled and there is a spy without the GM's knowledge but that should be out of the player's control. Talk to your player and maybe tell them that you appreciate their creativity and enthusiasm to the rp but tell them that this is D&D and the GM should be doing the hard stuffs. If they understand great! If not, well, there will be more work to be done.

For things like railroading and how to be better GM, I think listening to people like Mathew Colville can give you a deeper understanding to be a GM.

This is one video from Colville talking about D&D. He has other such videos if you are intrested, like Sandboxing and Story vs Adventure.

Post by post D&D maybe different from what he is saying, but the core of the video we can apply them to our style of play.

BackSet · Jan 21, 2019

TripTripleTimes said:
I haven't had much experience with table top role playing but for a player to control that much of scenery without the gm's permission/knowledge is frowned upon, in my opinion. While I understand that rp is a collective storytelling, for a game such as Dungeons and Dragon, there a few rules that makes D&D different from the regular Role Plays. The definition of a GM is defined in the 5e PHB as the "lead storyteller and referee". "The DM creates the adventure" and "determines the result of the character's action" (straight out from the introduction of the PHB). The player should respect that and know their limit, which is controlling just their character and leaving out how the environment reacts to the player's characters. It might be hard for a rper that is new to D&D to not write how they want the environment (npcs) to react to their character, but they should realise what D&D is. In the introduction, it says that the GM "narriates what they [the characters] experience" but I think in a post by post D&D that narriation can be left to the players so that they can write the reaction of their character.

Idk how the whole campaign ended up with the enemy being mind controlled and there is a spy without the GM's knowledge but that should be out of the player's control. Talk to your player and maybe tell them that you appreciate their creativity and enthusiasm to the rp but tell them that this is D&D and the GM should be doing the hard stuffs. If they understand great! If not, well, there will be more work to be done.

For things like railroading and how to be better GM, I think listening to people like Mathew Colville can give you a deeper understanding to be a GM.

This is one video from Colville talking about D&D. He has other such videos if you are intrested, like Sandboxing and Story vs Adventure.

Post by post D&D maybe different from what he is saying, but the core of the video we can apply them to our style of play.

(How did I miss this post)

Er...

That was a hypothetical. None of that happened.

I feel like you didn't grasp what I was trying to say. Following the D&D analogy (which actually just involved the players taking a wildly different action (say, killing the benevolent king believeing he's a traitor) than expected) I quickly changed over to standard rp format on RPN to ask if you plan things out ahead of time when you make your roleplay or if you just wing it with the result that you make up plot twists on the fly or another player makes up a plot twist and you're like "yes, absolutely, that works."

I'm totally gonna get yelled at for nexroposting, aren't I.

Bone2pick · Jan 22, 2019

BackSet said:
So, imagine this scenario: your gming a D&D game when a character does something completely unexpected that derails the whole plot. Now you have two options. You can a. Start railroading the players back on track or b. Just roll with it.

In that scenario I feel it's the GM's responsibility to "roll with it." Player-characters should always be permitted to impact their world, even if that means them doing something you as the GM didn't prepare for. If this happens in a play by post roleplay the GM will at least have some time to think about how to keep the story moving forward before they post, as opposed to a live roleplay session, where the GM might be left utterly confused on how to proceed and the session is ruined.

With all that in mind, roleplay bombs like this should rarely detonate on prepared GMs. A good GM knows their player-characters and understands what they're capable of, which means they (the GMs) should be able to plan for nearly all of their possible actions.

yanastyboi · Jan 23, 2019

Funny enough I've never planned a play-by-post roleplay so every game in my 17 years has been "roll with it" since I never considered PBP-RPing a GM & the players type of dynamic. We're all players I just happened to come up with a plot and world people wanted to write with me in. So interesting concept if only for the fact that I didn't think people actually planned their PBP-RPs ahead that far.

But I do plan my D&D sessions, but constantly play the roll-with-it game with my players! >D They get to the key points one way or another even if it means about dozen sessions of shenanigans, a side quest, NPC I didn't expect to make, and some strange magical items later! >D Roll with it till it gets back on some kind of rail sort of DMing! >D

Other (Also a bit of experience tag too) Just rolling with it.

BackSet

Ray of Sunshine

Idea

The Pun Tyrant

TripTripleTimes

Tripping Time

BackSet

Ray of Sunshine

Bone2pick

Minority of One

yanastyboi

Member

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