Plot is the Player's Job | D&D

Comments · 8

• AS

  @Astral_Drake · 6 months ago

  Creating characters with goals and motivations that are integrated into the setting is obviously good practice, but I think you&apos;re understating the GM&apos;s role when it comes to presenting conflicts within that setting to players that can motivate them so they&apos;re not just meandering. Nations at war, bad guys hatching evil plans, major societal shifts, environmental catastrophes, just things you can present that they can tie backstories to depending on what kind of shenanigans they wanna get involved with.<br><br>I&apos;m also a fan of when the GM takes a character&apos;s backstory and uses that to create conflicts specifically designed to hit that character where it hurts. Example: in my group&apos;s previous campaign, my wife&apos;s character had a backstory that included a best friend in the military unit she served in that was MIA after said unit got massacred. That best friend actually showed up as a side antagonist during the campaign, and the party had to fight him. It was dramatic, emotional, and epic as hell, and we all loved it. <br><br>It&apos;s the kind of thing I <i>certainly</i> plan on doing when I start DMing my first campaign in a month. My regular DM (who I&apos;m fairly confident isn&apos;t going to be reading my comments on YouTube) is going to be playing a tiefling noble that was born a tiefling because of a deal his great-great-great grandfather made with a devil for familial power and wealth. The details of said deal are unknown to both the character and the player himself, which gives me room to play around. At some point, Mizora is going to pop in and say, &quot;Hey, your soul belongs to Zariel unless you can get someone else to sign a contract to take your place.&quot; How will the party handle that problem? I don&apos;t know. Maybe they get some poor sap to sign on the dotted line, or maybe they actually go to Avernus to try and throw hands with Zariel herself (part of me hopes it&apos;s that one because there&apos;s some stuff in <i>Descent Into Avernus</i> that seems dope as hell, pun intended). Regardless, it&apos;s sure to light a fire under their asses. 😈<br><br>So yeah, I disagree that GMs should have <i>no</i> input on plot during a campaign. To me, that&apos;d just be taking away a huge part of the fun.

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• EL

  @ElfHunterRPG · 5 months ago

  I dig it.

  1

• AL

  @almosthadit5054 · 6 months ago

  Are you using a Lifepath style system like Cyberpunk or Traveller for your system?

  1