Friday, March 29, 2019

Dungeon Mastering 101: Listen More


I've written recently about some of the challenges I've been facing as a DM. I'm glad to say that I'm overcoming them and moving forward with a campaign I was pretty close to scrapping.

A key moment in our first session back to the DnD 5th Edition game was when the players decided to use guile and stealth instead of violence to overcome some sleeping chimera. I had this epiphany that these wonderful players at my table had enough creativity and drive to move the game along and all I had to do was shut up. I didn't have to bear this world on my back, the players were propping it up with boundless ideas and shenanigans.

It was very freeing for me. And it's allowed my to focus on the players instead of plots, which is something that has really helped me get back into enjoying being a DM.

Understand, every table is different, even every session. But if the player are keyed up and ready to move things along, its okay to let your ideas take a back seat to theirs. I've found when I do this, often I can still insert ideas I've had and their strengthened because their tied into the players goals and actions.

As an example, I came up with a plot line that looked like it wouldn't work with the current goals of the characters, but after a few sessions, I'll be able to return to it and the players laid the ground work for its appearance. How cool is that?

1 comment:

Icarus Anne Riley said...

Very cool! Collaborative storytelling at its finest :-)

Monster Monday: Ork City's Chupacabra for Shadowdark

Welcome to Ork City! In the middle of Ork City's Hatt Island is the Park, a wild and dangerous forest filled with all manner of nightmar...