In their defence, Blades in the Dark, set a trend of having a formal downtime phase which is about upgrading team, healing physical and mental wound, and advancing your side project, and I heard player telling me that they've spend 2 (short) sessions on it.
Even on more classic games, having the player looking what to buy in the books, then finding a shop having it, negotiation with the shopkeeper and so on, can take a lot of time.
s a DM, I’ve always found it boring as hell.
👍Maximum Derek👍
English4•
I don’t really like running them, but my players enjoy it from time to time and it always seems to take half a session.
Indeed, for C/W oD you can easily have some "standard stats" in mind to build NPC quickly ? Something like 3/5/7 dices depending whether it's beginner/intermediate/master (I haven't GM-it for a while so the formula may-be different) works very well at turning a one sentence description in NPC skill
So, here is my approach, in the context of a campaign. On my campaign, I tend to have a short list of NPC/Faction/Place and enjoy keeping the campaign on a shorter space rather than a whole multiverse.
So my technique would involve.
Ask the players to give me a summary of latest session, that I'll crosscheck with my notes.
Ask the player what they want to do, following these events. having reccuring NPC/Places/factions mean that I can improvise how these person react to the event (if they do). This will easily burn a hour.
While all of that happen, I have time to think about how to relaunch the story, either there is an event which absolutely makes sense in the context The local mafia isn't happy that you dismounted their drug production lab, when you come home you find a miniature coffin with a bullet inside in front of your door or, even though it's a bad practice, I throw a "randomish encounter" A big etheral cloud forms over the magic equipement store, and you can see some ethereal creature leaving that cloud and ear screams of bypasser being attacked The latter adds a combat buying me an extra hour to find-out why this shop exploded.
Then, I can let the player investigate these events, it may-not be the most complicated investigation I ran, and kinda linear, However, it's enough to keep going to the end of the session, and have new elements to develop for next time
For a one shot ?
In general, I organize them when they're ready, and I have a lot of one-shot scenario ready on my computer, alternative would be pulling a zero prep game.
Indeed, when PvP is well done, it can lead to pretty amazing memories, the stakes aren't the same as the player aren't trying to let you win. So even though many people would call it a "red flag" it can also be a huge "green flag" and looks like that table was ready for it.
But you're right, having a short discussion about PvP and betrayal in session zero is worth it. Remember that even something as small as the cliché elves and dwarves teasing each other is a form of PvPcan end-up in a nightmare with the wrong player, while a full traitor within the PC but playing in a "play to lift" Mood can lead to some of the greatest experience.
Thanks for the comment, now I want to discuss the PvP option before my next campaign session zero.
The space between us this has been published during covid as a "larp through webcam" and it was super intense emotionally speaking, I am not going to give any spoiler, but the fact that it started slowly with workshop, and not much happening really helped when the tension started to rise, and the ending was just Waw, don't forget some tissues, because ninja will be cutting onion
In the same category, with a lot of bleed, the famous Alice is missing which is somehow a hybrid betqween boargaming and TTRPG. The theme isn't easy (A kid has gone missing), but it's the theme which trigger a lot of bleed, add the playlist which will put me back in the ambiance if I listen to it again. and again, expect some Ninja to cut onions in the background
I don't think that an english translation is available but anyway, let me say a couple of word about Shadow island a parlour larp in a lovecratian ambiance, about a disfunctional family making a yearly silent dinner, to commemorate the death of "patriarch". Expect long character sheet (mine was around 40 pages, only background as there is almost no rules), an afternoon of workshop before the game starts, and the whole "silent dinner" concept creates a feeling of weirdness long before the "supernatural" kicks in. Do not read it if you don't intend to play it and if it's run near you, just join.
I don’t want game night to be a second job or a mental investment. I just want to show up and play something
It's interesting, because actually this part is one of the reason why I don't play D&D. Everytime I try a D&D game, It's quickly think about how to spend your XP wisely because you're impacting a whole progression tree, and if you choose the right feats you'd get a combo or whatever and then the whole combat looks quite intimidating when you start thinking how the party should work to be the most efficient at overcoming an challenge.
While tons of other RPG are more like sit down at the table, have a laid back chat with NPC, and sometimes roll a couple of dice.
I don't say that your point of view or way to play is wrong, but find interesting that your premise to play D&D is my premise to not to play D&D
The press release is quite short,
Would be interesting to compare RPG with other hobbies/wellbeing activity.
Is playing RPG better than going out for a hike with your friends ?
It has a huge market share, is one of the few RPG generating money. Sure, there is some work for a CEO, but seems more about finding a way to generate more money, than about finding a way to not loose money like 99.9% of RPG out there
Totally depending on the game/setting/campaign genre. I see the classic you're in a tavern as a bad practice and try to avoid-it (OSR may be an exception). In general, I would address the group consistency/relationship/and why they want to work together as part of character creation, but sometimes I'll start in media res by breaking the PC relax life with a dramatic event
It's interesting seeing "random encounter" coming back in grace, I have the impression that they were universally considered as a "bad practice" for at least 2 decades, and now i see people defending them again. Is it an effect of both the OSR and Rule-light zero-prep ? Or is it that I spend more time on english speaking communities dominated by more "classical D&D perspective"
My issue, and why I (quickly in my GM career) stopped putting "random combat" is that, as a "low combat GM" random combats end-up interrupting the game for no reasons, and end-up being either "clay shooting practice" (So a few easy ennemies to roll some dices without bringing anything to the story) or a "catastrophic event" throwing all the PC plan away as they walked injured out of that fight and will need a lot of in game time to recover which basically breaks the game. If there is a combat, the PC called for it, either by their action or their non action, but not just by "simply existing in the game world"
However, I can totally see how for games with more focus on combat, it can still be interesting, just "not my cup of tea"