This is the story of a DM who was trying to railroad a group into replaying a movie, one player REALLY wasn't having it. Follow me on Twitter! / crabcrit
@@kabhes9040 Most certainly! Just irks me that it has to be so uninspired. Believe, me I love A New Hope as much as the next nerd, but that's no excuse when it comes to creativity or rather the lack thereof imo. If it were something like a giant turtle onto which a structure was built, I'd be totally on board (pun intended). If it were a fricken meatball in the sky that's been hallowed out by flying beasts for their nest, I'd be like tf but this is D&D so you do you b. This concludes my rant. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk. Also have a nice day!
You have to give the DM credit, he seems to have matched the players to the characters perfectly. Han is the boisterous rebel who argues with authority, Chewy backs Han up, R2-3PO is irritated but goes along with things, and Luke is naive and not very forceful.
DMs are the literal Gods of their campaign. If they say the streets are paved in gold, then the streets are paved in gold. If they say an angry mob shows up out of nowhere, then that is exactly what happens. They have, even according to the rule book, the ability to re-write the physics of the universe on a whim. But what is a God to a non-believer...
Honestly, the fact that what they say goes isn't the problem so much as DM's who ignore one of the things said in the DMG which is that the DM shouldn't be against the players, but that the DM should have the fun of the players always in mind. This doesn't mean the DM can't have fun, just that they should communicate with and get to know their players so they can all have fun. Remember, a DM can make the players fight 100 tarrasques at lvl 1, but it doesn't mean they should. Kind of a Jeff Goldblum in Jurasic Park philosophy.
@@shanerooney7288 GM´s have limits. They cant outright murder your PC just for the sake of it and they cant control your Actions unless something mindcontrols or forcefully influences you but that should be specific to the events happening and not a general thing. Of course they can mess with the world however they want, they need to be able to do that to make a good story. But imo they should keep in mind to not tear the system apart and care about what the players enjoy and what not. I could write pages about this without saying anything. The groups Preferences are a big factor in what the DM gets away with but for example having a Railroading DM with lots of homebrew stuff doesnt make sence when his Players hate railroading and want to play by the book. Its a social game after all. You play together not against each other. And since written messages lack emotion, i want to clarify that i am simply and calmly stating my opinion here.
@@noxserpentis It should be noted that what they "can't" do and what they "shouldn't" do aren't quite the same. You are right that they _shouldn't_ outright murder your PC
The DM God mentality can be quite toxic. It's the DMs job to play out a story the players. He's there to be a judge, entertainer, storyteller. If the players are unhappy with their DM, that's the DMs fault and they need to reevaluate how they run their games
I hear railroading stories and ask "Why didn't the DM just write a book?" I can't ask that question for this one; the DM didn't write the story. What an awful activity.
Tbh, lot of books out there that rip off major beats from Star Wars (which let's be honest is not 100% original in and of itself) so DM theoretically might have changed enough about it to avoid copyright infringement if he was a little savvy.
He changed enough that people don’t immediately realize it, so it’s not like he was trying to publish a Star Wars fanfic for money or make the claim that he was an official writer for the franchise, but man would the reader quickly drop that book…
I do find it a little funny the one based off of Han rejected the 'save the princess' plot hook given Han did the same thing in the movie. It's even funnier they have no reason to drop everything and save the princess because the DM didn't copy the movie hard enough XD He didn't give 'Luke' a message from her or anything. Loved the ending too. Wasn't quite nuclear, but it was explosive!
Yeah, Han really got into character, and even though they were ripping off star wars it still could have been really cool and fun. I believe there's a podcast about redoing movies in D&D too.
"But I was going into Tosche Tosche Station?! Uncle Owen? I was going into Tosche Tosche Station..." *Suddenly 2 Death Stars* th-cam.com/video/DhkgohG9lTM/w-d-xo.html
There is a podcast called "Film Reroll" that does this exact thing; they roleplay different movies, sometimes using dnd, sometimes using custom rules. When the DM wanted to do a game based on Friday the 13th, he instead told the players they were playing based on an obscure teenage romance movie in order to get the players into the right mindset, since the characters in a horror movie don't know they're in a horror movie
I'm actually doing exactly that in my campaign right now. The story is supposed to be Star Wars, but instead of Luke and Leia being born, the PCs take their place with their own characters instead.
Imagine trying to force a star wars adventure in d&d instead of picking up & learning to play *Edge of the Empire,* LITERALLY THE *_OFFICIAL_** STAR WARS TTRPG.* Or heck, if you wanted something without a big brand name, you could play Starfinder, the go-to TTRPG for sci-fi.
Funny how that works, isn't it? I think it's because D&D has the most exposure, being the firs thing people think of when they say "Tabletop roleplaying game" or "tabletop game" if they're not into Warhammer. But there's actually a lot more of those things than people think; I've even seen one for Pokemon!
@@hotshotstevennonofyourbiz7200 Imperium did partly make me think of Star Wars, but not because of the movies. It also kind of made me think of the Imperium of Man. It would make sense in the latter's setting that they're all criminals for obvious reasons to whoever knows a bit about the Imperium of Man.
Honestly, a campaign should never be set in stone like this. Sure, there can be a general plot, but the players are free to do whatever they wish. They're not bound by the plot, no matter how much it involves their characters.
Truth. Our dm had a general plan and story. He has told us he had to to rework that plan due to our unpredictable nature. And occasional in character in fighting. Its worked out pretty well so far. He also adds elements from our backstory into the game and its pretty great.
There is an art to railroading...when you do it right, players don't even know its happening. Being a DM is all about adapting on the fly. Players have their own ideas and will surprise you often.
Poor railroading comes from poor imagination. As an example: let's say you have a mighty necromancer who you're setting up to be the end boss/big bad of a campaign, but the players kill him during the first encounter. The solution? The necromancer was the servant of an even more powerful necromancer/evil being/dark god and they're pissed the players are meddling in their affairs and killing their minions. You've suddenly got a new big bad, the story you've prepared can continue, and best of all the players don't even have to know that this wasn't your plan from the start.
@@damoclesecoe7184 Modularization. Allows you to railroad without railroading. The players went where they wanted, without knowing that they never had a choice.
@@damoclesecoe7184 theres no tangible difference between that, and just having the necromancer teleport off, as a normal railroader would do. Your solution is arguably worse, because it's more contrived and stupid.
Liam Williams So you're saying that a Deus Ex Machina allowing the bad guy to escape is better than allowing the players to have victory and taking the campaign to even grander scales? Have you ever been a game master?
@@damoclesecoe7184 I'm saying that a necromancer that's supposed to be really strong using magic to escape makes a lot more sense than him dying, and then suddenly oh wait now theres an even bigger one.
Here's a thing though. I DID THIS. Accidentally on purpose. I ran a homebrew, allowed a LOT of leeway and concessions when it came to character creation. I also asked, as I always do, that the players consult ONLY with me, and never the other players (To avoid min-max and toolbox groups.) Over a fortnight, 5 characters are made, light backstories established. I let everyone know I will be tinkering and altering their BS as details of everyone else emerges. Session Zero, we all meet, stats rolled and assigned. The players still have no idea what the others are playing. > Human Rogue, Criminal Background (Smuggler) > Minotaur Barbarian, Sailor Background (Pirate) > Rock Gnome Tinkerer, Alchemist's Apprentice Background > High Elf Bard, Sage Background (Librarian) > Teenage Human Divine Soul Sorcerer, Urchin Background Dear Lord, these people. So I pair off my "Han" and "Chewie," they met while smuggling pirated goods under the nose of an increasingly draconian Empire. My "3PO" and "ARTOO" met as scholars while in service to the former royal family, "3PO" was often assigned as a translator assisting diplomats, yada yada. "ARTOO" was entrusted a talisman from the princess and told to get out of former capital city, ends up on the same boat as "3PO" blah blah blah, attacked yada yada, runs aground near Halfling caravan, who allow them to accompany them down the road. My "Luke" was living turning rutabagas on his uncles farm blah blah. Halfling caravan stops in, "3PO" and "ARTOO" stay for the night. "Luke" agrees to escort them to the nearby port. Emperors soldiers sweep through and burn the farm, looking for "ARTOO" and his trinket. They rush back. To tie them together, I had an Elderly Eldritch Knight who was a member of the Royal Guard and close friend of the royal family living as a hermit in the woods nearby, watches over "Luke" blah blah. Is revealed and offers assistance. Is recognised by "ARTOO." Help the princess, the Emperor's fortress has only one weakness all that jazz. Go to the port, looking for passage to the island where the Royals may be hiding. Meet "Han" and "Chewie" and agree to hire them. It took 5 sessions, in which I never once tried to railroad them, they just kinda... made the same choices. With little extra's here and there. > "Han" smuggles them out while guards shot at them. > "Obi-Wan" reveals he knew "Luke's" Father, who was a Sorcerer, and he would have the same Divine Soul. > They reach where the island should be, reefs and whirlpools and jagged rocks. > Magically tractor beamed toward another, uncharted island. > "That's no island." > "Han" the smuggler has secret compartments, false walls and floors. > Emperor's new fortress is a massive, sprawling, floating complex. That can seemingly destroy islands. > "Obi-Wan" knows how to disrupt the crystals holding their ship in place. > Sneak aboard, recon. The Princess is on board! > Must Rescue. > Prison Break. > Mad dash back to ship. "Across a large gaping expanse between two hulls of the complex, you can see "Obi-Wan" duelling a tall, dark, sinister Knight. His armour is a form of lamellar made from black, shiny plates over red cloth and his Kabuto helmet features a full face mask, from which you can hear his laboured, ragged breathing. His sword looks to be a longer, broader Katana with an edge that glows an evil red, which hisses and spits spitefully whenever it moves through the air. "Obi-Wan" moves with the grace of a much younger man, adeptly parrying "Vader's" heavy strikes with a curious Estoc which glows an incandescent blue and thrums with power in a low note that undercuts the hissing of his opponent's blade." "Luke:" "Wait." "What?" "Luke:" "This is Star Wars. We're playing Medieval D&D Star Wars." "Yeah." "Luke:" "What?" "When you all handed over your characters, it was too perfect, so I just started telling the story. I figured we'd do a session, maybe get halfway through the second - and you'd figure it out. Then we'd just continue with the story I've had kicking around in my head... But you didn't stop. You kept going, and actually didn't deviate that much." "Han:" "It's actually really obvious now." "3PO:" "So now what? I actually really liked this." "Keep playing. You've show when faced with similar situations, you made the same decisions as the OT characters, or close enough." "3PO:" "But we could have, at any time done something different?" "You could have, at any time, done anything." "3PO:" "... Like "Vicious Mockery" against "Vader?" 4th level Party proceeds to get involved in a fight between two level 13 Eldritch Knights. Don't kill "Vader" but save "Obi-Wan" and rescue the Princess. Embrace it. Continue fighting as Rebels against the Evil Empire. >"3PO" gilds everything so that he's golden, learns every language. Becomes the "Face Man" and incites rebellion wherever they travel. >"ARTOO" clockworks himself a "movement powered suit" of R2-D2 themed armour, with dozens of gadgets and gizmos. > "Han" takes five levels of Battle Master Fighter, fighting style "Archery," "Crossbow Expert" feat and has "ARTOO" make him a Spring and Cog hand crossbow. > "Chewie" remains the same. He already bellows incoherently and beats stuff. > "Luke" becomes a Divine Soul 14/6 Way of the Kensei Monk. Forges his own Estoc as his Kensei weapon, (which glows green). 5/7. Top campaign, would do again.
Now see, THAT''S what the DM in this story should've done. Not try to railroad everyone into following the plot and instead letting them just go with it and change the story. Your game actually sounds amazing.
Nothing wrong with borrowing inspiration from movies and other media :) I'm personally not a fan of keeping the PC's from talking to each other about their characters, but it seemed like it worked wonderfully here so gj on that :)
I never dmed a serious game before, but if youre gonna reenact a movie, don't force the characters to reenact exact scènes. instead, you should see how the characters would react to the situation, and how they change the outcome, even if It completely derails the movie. Hell, derailing the story is half the fun tbh.
The best reenactment is a story that isn't the same. When the entire story is derailed and goes a different direction, then it becomes more interesting. A story is defined by the attitudes and daringness to do the impossible, for better or worse, to make the story deliberately different than it was trying to head. The heroes should often not be generic god-slayers. There's a party member who's the only one capable of replacing God, and saving the world- But what if that hero decided he wasn't going to become god? Was absolutely adamant that the world needed to end? He'd become god... but not save the world. Instead, he'd make a new world with rules that would prevent the new world from ever getting to the point of collapsing. A hero saves the world. A better hero lets the world collapse, so a better world can exist WITHOUT GOD, and without a need for a god to sustain it. A world where people can become God, and even pantheons... a world where aptitude matters, and to shape the world, you need power. A world where "God" no longer makes rules, and someone even above "God" decides the rules.
@@enigmaodell6806 You... and anyone wise. If a game was ruled by good rolls alone, and bad rolls have negative effect, then the game sucks. But with the power of my hand. I summon Die-Dice, and I roll a 1. When this monster rolls a number below 3, I get to Special Summon 3 Kuriboh from my hand face-down, as well, I am able to banish each kuriboh I now control, and summon a monster whose level equal the combined levels of all my Kuriboh. You rolled a 17. You had the chance to win with your newly-summoned Photon Dragon, but because of my monster's additional effect, "Underdog," The worst luck becomes my strongest strength! Low-Roll will beat the kingdom of High-Roll.
I just don't get these DMs. I haven't had a chance to sit down and play in person yet, but I watch a lot of DnD, and these DMs really should never DM with their attitudes. A DM is a worldbuilder and storyteller, not God. You aren't there to control the players, you're there to provide a fun experience and create a world that lives, breathes, and reacts to THEIR decisions.
I agree, but wish to quibble on what might seem like a minor point. A DM is _not_ a "storyteller". It is precisely the idea that it's the DM's job to tell a story that leads to the sort of railroading nonsense in the video. The story in an RPG is not told by the DM (or anyone else at the table). Rather, it _emerges_ out of play organically as the players make decisions and the DM describes the consequences. Trying to _force_ a "good story" in an RPG* is one of the most reliable ways to ensure the story that _actually_ emerges will suck balls. Absolutely agree with the general sentiment of your post though. * Players can be guilty of this as well. Making decisions in order to "make things more interesting" or worse, "Wouldn't it be funny if..."
@@nickwilliams8302 Well I consider a story to largely be well developed characters interacting with their world, and the plot emerges from that. So the idea works a bit better if you think of storytellers as character designers (npc designers) but yeah, good point.
DMs are Gods, but they must have limits. When it comes to world building, everything the DM says goes, so if the DM says the streets are made of gold, and the houses made of silver, then that is exactly what the streets and houses are made of. Story telling is where the limits of a DM's power must be put into place. Everyone at the table is there to provide their perspective on the story, with just as much agency as everyone else at the table. Story telling for a TTRPG is a group effort. If the players decide to take the time to tear down the houses, and dig up the streets, and melt down the precious metals, then there must be consequences for their action; unless for some reason the whole area has been abandoned, as such no one there with which to provide those consequences. It's the DM's job to describe the action, and how far they get before the consequences come smashing down on them, in which they must also describe HOW those consequences come down (if consequences are possible [again if no one is there to provide consequences, there should be no consequences]).
I hope you arent just still watching & are getting a chance to play. When you dm & play then you will understand where these dms went wrong. They fell in love with their story & did want to work with the players. Easy mistake when youve sunk hrs of prep into a quest & the players decide they want to break into & steal supplies from the local merchant instead.
Using a movie or video game as inspiration for a DnD game is not inherently bad, but you need up understand 3 things. 1) if you change nothing, you’ll get caught and nay piss people off 2) if your players do things differently than the source, you’ll have to improvise. But you should be prepared to do so. 3) never tell people they have to do things a certain way.
Or better yet, take the world or universe of said movie or video game and do something original with it. The Legend of Zelda is a perfect setting for DnD, but I’d get bored pretty quickly if we were just doing a straight retelling of Ocarina of Time.
I think it can be a great concept to build a campaign on when it's done right. You can have players island-hopping while being chased by "The Empire" - each island being its own mini-setting with unique history, climate, culture, weirdness; then add various encounters at sea, and on top of that there is this base building thing going on with maintaining & upgrading the ship. So basically One Piece. One Piece is Star Wars with pirates and that manga has been running for decades.
Railroading is the reason Luke committed suicide. If the DM was competent, he could've fixed a few of the issues he had. REENACTMENT does not mean LITERAL COPY, and I'd have appreciated "Splitting up" to be a perfectly fine option for the story, so long as the premise of the story remained the same. Plot points remained the same. The story remaining mostly the same. Han went to the other end of the ship to wreck stuff? Chewie wants to blow up the engine room? Well that doesn't mean they don't all find each other at the end of that arc, escaping. Luke blew up because nobody wanted to be controlled. Everyone agreed to that decision because the DM was not creative or intelligent enough to make the previous independent ideas work. DM makes the final call, not the ONLY call. The point of a group campaign in any game is for options. Only the player using the character should know their character-- only the character's user should know what to do for the character. A DM is not connected or directly in control of the character's thoughts or options. The user themself often has better items in mind, to keep in-character. We do not want a DM making every player's character generic, and similar to one another. We do not want a DM to decide an evil character does a good thing for once... the character's owner should be able to decide an evil character should create the most powerful thrall in the entire kingdom. Kill the most evil monarch bastard in the campaign? How about the player who happens to be a necromancer not take over the kingdom, having to earn the trust and respect of all the people in the kingdom... when you control the current monarch, and therefore the entire monarchy? Or in other words, a campaign ending with the kingdom being saved, but the antagonist being forced to represent the party's intentions. Nothing needs to be generic. No story needs to end with the execution of a bad person, but the converting of evil into good. Not redemption, either. Good people doing the immoral act of controlling people and manipulating people. Doing bad things for a good cause. The best story is not decided at the beginning. The ending is not decided at the end. The best story ends with that one player destroying the INTENDED ending, and subverting expectations in an original fashion. The villain is not the villain. The heroes are the real villains. The Sceptor of Lord Fredderick? The relic used to cure any ailment, and form the entire universe? The Sceptor is actually out of power. The world is ending, and the only way to save the universe is to extract the soul of the bravest and most powerful hero in the party to recharge the relic... but it turns out the strongest person in the party is the weakest state-wise, but had adopted an extra soul, therefore making the character the strongest, having the combined strength of the minotaurus, but otherwise not physically or spiritually impressive. The story shouldn't be decided by a movie, but the reinterpretation of the movie. Luke doesn't commit suicide. Vader is actually a spirit, and not actually alive. No, luv, that weapon is not the strongest in the world, the strongest would be the power of revival, which is actually the weakest. The weakest power is capable of resurrecting the final hero required to obtain seemingly infinite power. The most powerful weapon is amalgamation, which fuses all the heroes together to become stronger than them all combined twice, but this falls into forbidden revival magic, making the weakest and least useful magic actually the most powerful when conditions were met.
The most important thing in D&D: Communication. If you don't have a 'session zero' where you all sit down and talk this out, the chances for trouble go up exponentially.
The problem I have with rail roading is that 1). If the dice don’t agree with the “intended” outcome, somebody is going to get REAL pissed. 2). BSing said rolls to progress with the story takes away a players sense of individuality and thoughts of “I wonder what could happen next”
There's something ironic about how the DM wants to railroad players into playing a story about "rebellion" and won't tolerate any rebellion from the players themselves.
Railroading is sometimes needed when DM'ing but it can be done in subtle ways. You got to be the illusionist on stage telling people to watch the right hand, when you are messing with the trick with the left hand. So when the party starts to go off track you can move things around on the fly, never set things into stone. "That large castle you placed in the mountains, and the players ignore it." Simple move that castle to the swamps where the players are right now, and then give them an incentive to investigate. Such as an attack on the local village from undead or demons. Then have the npcs tell the players it happens regular on certain nights due to some evil in yonder castle.
A great tip for making a campaign based on a movie/tv show is to *party poppers and streamers come out of nowhere* tell the players and make it a fun re-enactment rather than a forced rip-off
"Excuses himself to go scream in the other room for a few minutes." Lmao I laughed so fucking hard at that. I picture it like a stereotypical nerd rage scene in a parody, except its real. And I just picture everyone else at the table just blinking and looking at each other in silence while the DM has an episode in the other room.
While I do run movie scenarios as games...I LOVE it when they break canon and break the film story. Two examples; A SW New Hope based game where the players intercepted R2-D2 BEFORE he was captured by the Jawas... did not find the hidden recording and then opting to take the droid to the empire to cash in on the bounty.... this was session two. The next was a RE inspired story with pre-mades based on the film characters. In this one I did not tell them it was RE and was running it in the White Wolf system using Pentex in place of Umbrella... about 3/4 of the way through ONE player caught on to the narrative and handed be a note about it instead of blurting it out. In the end, the player that was in the role of memory wiped corporate espionage player succeeded in actually talking the rest of the players into securing themselves in a locked room while he sneak out solo to 'get help'...which he managed to do, then locking them in the facility and leaving with the stolen virus samples to be sold to the highest bidders on the black market.... Both were simply glorious and to varying degrees ran roughshod over the canonical sources.
I figured out right away but I had the help of star wars listed in the comments. I give you back your nerd cards. D&d is a nerd game with pride. I know people who have no clue what star wars or star trek is who still have their need cards for being willing to dress up cosplay as characters and go to a convention with me.
This happened to me too a few months ago !! It was a one-shot game at a monthly RPG meetup in a library I occasionally go to and where multiple GM's are always present and offer multiple kinds of games to the people who come, from classic DnD/Pathfinder to more experimental things. Usually an awesome experience. Lots of different games and GMing styles. That evening one GM was running a kind of parodic homebrew space opera game which looked fun at first, so I joined his table. And then the horror started. Our party had to retrieve two droids on a desert planet... We quickly got railroaded into meeting some alien droid traders, going to a small farm, then a cantina, getting ambushed in the desert and saved by a weird space wizard... The players kept dropping hints about the fact that they saw the movie and knew where all this was headed. The GM did not listen. After we took a break, we all politely passed on playing the second half of the "scenario". The worst and most boring game I ever played.
I tend to play D&D with players who don't tell me their expectations of what they want from a game. They just want to play a game and whatever happens, happens. To this end, I've had to "adapt" fairly well. The current session I'm running, has been going on for two years, off and on (my players all have children and other obligations, so scheduling game nights is a pain in the butt). I decided that I'd simply control the setting. I don't know what the players want. So... let's start simple. Recently, an island that has been embroiled in conflict for the last 200 years has been "opened to the public". The military have finally secured much of the island from the natives and have discovered that the place is teeming with magic and resources. It is called simply, "The Island of Foothold". It has exactly one city on it. Foothold. There is a strange occurrence that happens once a week, the locals call "Curse Day". Things just seem to go wrong on this day (it's every Friday). Tides to the island get wonky. Rivers flow backwards. Ships have trouble making port as even the currents all change and are never the same from one Curse Day to the next. The locals are sometimes more irritable on this day. Sometimes crime runs rampant on this day. Sometimes, everyone is just apathetic. It's a strange disturbance. There's political infighting on the island over who should rule it as king (it has only recently secured its independence), and adventurers and merchants alike are flocking to the land in droves. The players were simply tasked with two things at the beginning of "session 0" of this campaign. You need only to bring a reason why you're coming to this island and a reason you're looking for party members so that you all end up together. The only stipulation for the campaign is that players are not allowed to screw each other over on purpose. That includes, if they are going to be "Evil", that they not screw over their party or actively do anything to hurt their own party. Be evil on their own time, in a place it doesn't hurt their allies. I gave all the players a short 3-page hand-out on the setting and the island. A list of every possible thing the island was boasting and that they would've heard about from where-ever they hailed (I don't care if they made up places or backstories. The place doesn't traditionally exist in any of the D&D settings. It was completely made up by me and very little of the Lore of the books translated, which let players be whatever they wanted). Lots of political opportunities. Lots of opportunities for mercenary work. Merchanting opportunities. Strange magic to discover and study. Weird ruins on the island. Figure out the mystery of Curse Day. Lots of reasons to come for fame, fortune, power, or just work. I then gave everyone a month after the setting was established to think about their character and why they were coming. I used that month to build the world. I wrote six reams of content in that month (a ream that I put into a folder is roughly 300 pages). Possible quests to take. What everyone was doing. Important NPC schedules for the first two weeks of in-game time (which could all be altered by players if they chose to interact with it). I created shops with supplies. Places to eat with rotating menus. The social hierarchy. The governing rules once they arrived. The personalities of all the major players. Random charts for things, one of which, was the "random effect" that would happen every single "Curse Day". I used inspiration from the "Wild Magic" mechanic of... the Sorcerer? I forget which class uses it. A D100 table of random effects. Some beneficial, some detrimental, some just outright weird. I put "rumors" everywhere. On the street that could be overheard. In Taverns. At the Inns. From guards. I then created "backup" rumors that would fill in the places of ones that were already used. Some of these were Quest Hooks. Some were just random tidbits. Some were outright lies. Some were half-truths. I filled the world with Plot Hooks everywhere. Gave those Quests "timelines". If the players didn't take them or stumble on them within a certain time limit, other adventurers in the world would take the quests and complete them. I also created some guilds and a "Passport System" for the island. Players started "Dockside", which is where everyone ended up... The poorest and most crime-ridden part of town. They couldn't move into other areas until they'd paid a "fee" to get access to those locations. To move into the regular business district (also known as Lowside), required the players accumulate 50 Gold Pieces and pay for the stamp on their Passport. Once they got the stamp, they could move freely into and out of that location. There were various stamps they could pay for. To get access into the Rich area (the name always escapes me), they could either find a way to sneak in (as it was only separated by a massive cliff over 200 yards high, but was patrolled by guards) or pay 200 Gold Pieces for a stamp to get in. If they wanted access to the Castle, they had to do something special enough to warrant "frequent business at the castle" to get the stamp. If they wanted to "leave the city", they needed 75 Gold Pieces for the stamp. If they did special work, they could also get another Stamp that exempted them from taxes when they came back into the city (Taxes were 50 GP per entry, or 10% of everything in their carts/rucksacks. Whichever was more valuable). There was a final stamp that allowed them access into the "Military District" where all the guards and soldiers were stationed. One could get this simply by enlisting in the local military... or by the same avenue of the Castle Stamp. The only way to Exit the City was through "Lowside". The only place to dock a ship was Dockside (the island is surrounded by massive cliffs that are so dangerous to climb that nobody ever bothers trying. The only place to even make landfall is at Foothold, as there are no Cliffs there, and it has a proper beach). Finally, I did one last thing. Vignette's. The players needed a proper introduction to the world and the island. So, the game would start aboard a ship they were all on. There were 12 events, one for each week of travel. Players would roll a D12 a grand total of 3 times. I had four players. The only events they could interact with, were those they had rolled for. They got to fill in the weeks they didn't get to play with whatever story they wanted (within reason). There was quite a bit of overlap, and as a result, only 4 events didn't get seen by the players (which they never got to hear about). The little stories could be interacted with, or taken as they were. They offered Quest Hooks and information to the players about where they were going to. They were introduced to several other travelers that they might be able to interact with later on the island as well. If they chose to. The players docked, went through the issue of getting Passports signed over to them, with an initial stamp and a "very rehearsed" speech. They also got a little insulted by the Dwarf taking their information down, because he was sick of admitting "Mercenaries" to the island, since that's basically all that ever came (few people who had jobs ever showed up on the shore, and none of the players claimed to have ever worked a job before other than random work they picked up). I then turned them loose on the world. A brief description of the surrounding area, with what was immediately going on, and that's all they got. Since then, they've paved their own way. They've ignored the "big main plot". Instead, they do odd jobs. Some good, some bad, some weird. Most of them are simply personal stakes. They've worked for the local mob boss, the local Dwarves Guild (yep, it's a guild specifically for Dwarves... this setting has some racism in it), a city official, the local guards, and the local ruling merchant. They've done a little bit of work for almost everyone. All I did was give them every option for how to play. "This is the setting and the game. Figure out what you want to do." They did. Without much effort. Even turning some of my random events to spice up travel across the world and town (rolling for encounters) into their own Quest lines when there were none originally. Players, left to their own devices, will often surprise you as a DM and create some pretty amazing stories. All you gotta do is set some ground rules to cut down on shenanigans and try to keep the game grounded in its reality. The players will do amazing things then.
Really amazing! Tbh I never played a D&D in my entire life and barely know how it works; but things like this really get me excited. You should even write a book about your adventures.
@@madlad7837 Two of the players were wives of the guys who were going to be my players. So, it was their first time playing as well. This is one of the reasons I created such a vast world. I didn't know what sort of players they would be, or what sort of stories they'd want to be involved in. They have a lot of stories so far. One of the favorite ones I like to tell relates to their adventure in tracking down "The Great Mizzar". This character was initially just an event to see on the streets. A "noob trap". In essence, he sold very cheap magical items. However, they were flawed. If they were bathed in too much blood, they grew unstable and... well... exploded. The guy was just an example of the sort of people you run into on "Dockside". He had a crowd gathered as he demonstrated his merchandise, and a bunch of children pickpockets would wander through the crowd and fleece people who didn't look like they were going to buy from The Great Mizzar. My players didn't fall for the trap. They didn't get pickpocketed, nor did they buy anything. But, they decided to report him to the guards. Well, word gets around a little fast when you say you're looking for the guards outloud in such a crowd, so the guy shut up shop while they wandered into the part of town where the guard stations were. The head guard got word they were trying to shut down "The Great Mizzar" and immediately took interest in the unemployed and unaffiliated party. He'd pay them 5 Gold Pieces each if they could do some scouting for him and try to find the guy. He'd been trying to shut down The Great Mizzar" for quite a while, and could never manage to catch him. So, this quest arose out of nothing. A small trap with nothing planned, was suddenly a Quest. The players got what information they could get from the Guard, which included that The Great Mizzar was probably a master of disguise as reports of his appearance varied wildly from victim to victim. They also got the information that the magical items explode and have killed and maimed people, but the method used to explode the items was unknown. They were even given a couple leads on where they'd found some of these injured and killed people as "possible hotspots". Anyway, so this became their main driving force. Looking for this guy. Trying to stop him. The guy was so dangerous and hard to find, that even the local Crime Lord did not want him operating in the city. He even offered payment to the Players for any information they had on him, and something extra for turning over any of his associates to him. The players opted to give information, but not turn over people, as they thought the people would be treated poorly and it was morally wrong. So, the story that is my favorite takes place a bit further along. They discover that outside of the city is "The Dragonborn Cult". What these people are, essentially, are people who use Illusion Magic to look like Dragonborn (the island natives are all Dragonborn, so it's an attempt to frame the natives) and throw dangerous potions at travelers and merchants and everyone outside of the city. After killing several of these cultists in an ambush (that they cultists set up), they took their potions. They actually had a scare here as well. In every "bandolier" of potions, I included two potions that were nothing but colored water. Because the unknown is scarier than the known. During the fight, one of the Players was hit with a Green Potion of Water. I give them the effect, "It doesn't have a smell, but it splashes green all over your armor and body. It doesn't seem to have any immediate effect on you". Cue player trying to wipe it off. It was obviously some kind of poison! Anyway, with that over with, they take the remaining potions to the local apothecary to get them identified. Several of them turn out to be "colored water", so that puts the other player at ease, realizing what probably happened. A couple are things like acid and alchemist fire. There's one that is Dragon Urine. Another that is a bottle of foul smelling ink... And the final one... A Grey Ooze. The Cultists had somehow managed to get a Grey ooze into a glass flask and it not eat the flask. The apothecary was stunned that this was even possible. The players were a little horrified that they could've been hit by such a flask. Anyway, several adventures later, they find the lair (one of them, anyway) of the Dragonborn Cultists. The Cultists are using Dragon Blood to make these items, but beyond that, the method is unknown for how they are created. The players climb into the cliffs at the edge of the island, and through a hole in the ceiling within the dungeon to find a dead dragon (when the Cultists heard they were coming, they slew the Dragon to keep it from telling them what they were doing) and immediately ran out to the edge of the cliff (the room they climbed into had a door that opened out onto a cliff that was on the interior of the island) to prepare for combat. The Players spent a good amount of time trying to figure out the makeshift lab in the room and taking a Dragon's Tooth. When they stepped out onto the cliff, they came face to face with 3 Cultists. This wasn't going to be much of a fight. But, they had the advantage. You see, all the players had to come through the same door. Easy targets for flasks. The Cultists had very few of these on hand, but the few they had deterred immediate action from the players as they tried to file out safely. When the flasks were out, two of the cultists took up their weapons and charged into melee. The third Cultist... was the problem. Earlier in the adventures, the players had discovered that these Cultists sometimes had the power to "control animals". Specifically, large groups of ravens. On this cliff edge, is where they would gather a great many of these ravens. The Cultist did his chanting and had his eyes go pure blood red as he controlled 3 groups of ravens. The players were now out-numbered. And, without a lot of magic, those ravens would be hard to put down. So, our Half-Orc Barbarian decided the best course of action, without informing anyone, was to throw a flask at the guy controlling the Ravens. Because, by now, the players were absolutely sick of trying to kill the Ravens as they were difficult to put down and caused a lot of problems... but they knew if you killed the Cultist controlling them, the Ravens either dropped dead immediately or became docile (they didn't yet know why either one happened). The flask filled with the Grey Ooze missed the Cultist. But, he rolled just a single number under what he needed to land a hit (the Half-Orc Barbarian had almost no points into Dexterity, so him throwing things was always a really long shot). So, I gave him the information of: "It smashes on the ground at the feet of the Cultist, just a little to his right". I added the Grey Ooze to the battlefield as an enemy. So, my Half Orc was irritated that his amazing plan had amounted to nothing and began to wade into combat against the Ravens, protecting the Gnome Druid and the Dragonborn Paladin. On the turn of the Grey Ooze... it attacked the nearest target. The Cultist. It climbed up his leg and immediately began melting him to consume him. The turn in battle was punctuated with a loud and blood-curdling scream. The players were immediately horrified all over again, except the Half-Orc who was happy his plan had sort of worked. I believe his words were, "Good! F*ck that guy!" Combat went on for another 5 turns as they dispatched what was left of the ravens (who were all suffering penalties for accuracy due to their cultist being consumed alive.) and had their attention split between the players and trying to kill the Grey Ooze (and several ravens also being caught by it and consumed). The players didn't want to go anywhere near this ooze, so avoided combat with that Cultist specifically and gave him a wide berth while they finished up the battle. Experience points were earned, tattered equipment from the Cultists divvied up, and they went looking at the area, while forgetting about the Grey Ooze and the last gurgling cry of the Cultist. When they finished their investigation, they went looking for the Grey Ooze, thinking it would be dangerous to let it live, or maybe they could get it back into another Flask or something. But, it was gone. With a noticeable trail of blood leading back into the room with the dead dragon. The players decided to shut the door and leave it there. As they scaled down the cliff from the makeshift and quite rickety "elevator" that required they hold the ropes themselves and lower themselves down... The Druid hoped outloud that they'd never see that Ooze again, and hope that the meal it would make of the Dragon didn't make it grow even larger in size. The Paladin hoped the same. The other two players said nothing. The Half-Orc, at the bottom of the ride finally said, "I sort of feel bad for that guy now. That's a horrible way to die." The other player, who was a Dwarf... I forget her combat class off-hand. She said, "Just remember, they were going to throw that flask at us at one point. These guys deserve what they get from their own weapons." Everyone agreed, but nobody has thrown a Flask since. Not even at the Cultists.
@@wackpool1491 It probably could be a module, but it does require quite a bit of improvisation, or the DM knowing a lot about the setting. Though, to be honest, any DM that likes any of the content of the setting I've already shared could probably adapt it into their own "homebrew" version of the thing. Well, unless they wanted the maps I was using. That would likely be a problem as I don't really have a scanner ^_^
@@TheEmperorHyperion Kathleen and Rian are the people interested in DMing but get harassed out of the room for trying to be unique or different, JJ Abrams is the little brother of the original neckbeared DM that wants to DM his own thing and refuses to admit he just directly copied the plot of his campaign from his older brother's.
This actually makes me interested in running, playing, or watching a session(s) that is just a movie. Only this time actually allowing the players to change what happens instead of sticking to the original plot.
I called the references from just the list of character roles. By the time you got to pirate, I was confident enough to say so to the group I'm watching this with.
I know this is a while ago, but I do have a somewhat wholesome story about a Star wars campaign I was in, all Ill say, is we had a robot we found a way to put a ai we found in it. We were entering a fight and he proceeds to say in a monotone voice, Let's get this Breeeeeaad!! 1 of my best DND moments
Honestly, I think it'd be kinda fun taking a plot of a movie and seeing how players would react when they're put in the situation. It lets creative thinking going.
I completely agree on telling the party what to expect from the start. There was a campaign I joined from launch that was GURPS and the idea was all the popular scifi and fantasy movies and tv shows rolled into one for a futuristic setting, so you would have space battles with magic and demons and the like. So I made my character someone that commanded a frigate spaceship and spent the majority of my point on being a captain and having a crew, which I kept the GM fully aware of everything that I was doing and what my end goals were. First session and we are planet side, everything is going just fine, then boom we are sucked into a rift spitting us into a fantasy only world set in Roman times. Needless to say, my character had zero capability to doing anything for the next four sessions. And when we made it back to our world, we learn that we had gone back in time, changed the time line to making the future a utopia, and my characters long term plans were then ruined due to "people having out grown war".
Ran a one player campaign-ish(not done). Said a portal appears thinking he won't go threw just ment to be a later plot...nope a necromancer which is clumsy and his characters soul is connected falls in and his character getts sligshoted in so yep that happened.
This made me laugh so hard because all the players actually acted like the characters. So it actually played out like if the characters read the scrip. I can see Han saying "Fuck this", Chewy and the droids are just along for the ride, and Luke going "I could go and knowing let this take years with millions of lives lost...or I can end this now!" It came off as a little ironic but in a beautiful way.
Party: So, basically we're playing Star Wars... DM: No! It's not Star Wars! Party: Ok, we want to do this then. DM: You can't do that, because that's not how the story goes! Party: How what story goes? DM:... Party: Was it a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? DM: REEEEEE!
This was SO cathartic to hear. I wish I'd done the same with a DM once. I had a DM who loved putting me in paladin-traps (I wasn't a paladin, but that didn't stop him), and in hindsight I realise he didn't want me to fall and become non-functional as a character, he just wanted me to jump through tiresome hoops forever. In hindsight, I really wish my character just started stabbing NPCs in the face just to horrify him and go hardcore down the evil route.
Huh....I'm currently running a Kingdom Hearts inspired campaign where the players chose characters from different sources (one of them is Han Solo btw) and they're exploring different universes trying to help people out and keep the heartless/darkness at bay. We use Cypher, not DnD, as Cypher is more suitable for crazy ideas like this My plan was to make a fun a goofy campaign with a serious undertone (so basically Kingdom Hearts but more mature). So far they've gone through two movies: Hocus Pocus and Moana. Today they'll face a corrupted version of Te Ka. I guess the campaign so far has been kind of railroady, as they're part of a resistance that gives them these specific missions and they don't have much say in where they go (so far), but I'm making sure to add different elements to the movies and allowing them to find their own solutions. Hocus Pocus turned into an investigation and a race against time, as a precog npc (Sapphire from Steven Universe) told them they had until 3am to find what was going to happen with that world, before it succumbed to the heartless (that was when the witches would eat the children and the despair caused would bring the heartless, but they didn't know that). The plot was essentially the same as the movie's plot, with some extra combat in the form of zombies that the witches had raised. Moana was more of a classic adventure, as the village's elder (who's actually Moana, as our game is set 60 years after the movie) asked the resistance for help. They had to protect the village against an attack, rescue Moana's grandson, travel to the Lalotai (realm of the monsters), rescue Maui and are now about to face Te Ka (a gigantic being of rock and magma). They're all making their own decisions and as much as there's a movie plot to "follow" they get to say how they do that. When they faced a giant ship full of coconut monsters, they decided to kill them all and steal their ship, which goes very much against the plot of the movie, but of course I allowed to happen and rewarded them with a sturdier vessel for their trip. The battle was insanely fun, especially when Ben 10 decided to transform into a flying alien to help and instead turned into an alien with the power to control metal, of which there was none as everything was made of wood. He was smart enough to control the metal in Han's gun and rescue him from drowning though, when Steven Universe used a magical staff he had looted from the witches and accidentally blew one of their boats up. PS: the other PCs are Dante (Devil May Cry) and Nico (from the Percy Jackson books). PPS: I have a feeling there's gonna be a romance plot between Ben 10 and Steven Universe, especially cus the players are IRL boyfriends
This DM is definitely not even close to the worst we have heard from CritCrab. I actually didn’t pick up initially that this was a Star Wars 4 clone, because I thought a giant naval ship in DND sounded like a cool and interesting idea. I had an idea for a huge flotilla of ships that functioned as something similar.
Fun fact, I actually started a D&D campaign as a player and was told to make a "sci-fi character from a war-torn society" that would be transported into a traditional magic world; we weren't going to pick a race, and we didn't have access to all the classes. I wound up with the rogue and thought it would be interesting to be a forger. Then we got in the game. And then when he started describing things I realized the DM had made a Transformers game. The "Warforged" that I made in that campaign is now one of my hallmark 5E characters. Moral of the story: You *can* leave out aspects of what you want your players to do, as long as you don't take away their ability to be their own character at the end of the day.
The thing that would've made this really cool? Have the same exact premise, characters, and so on ripped right from the movie, but instead of railroading into doing the exact thing that happens in said movie, let the players decide how to go about the mission in a different way. THAT could've been really fun.
In my Star Wars campaign (FFG), I played a human Smuggler with a Wookiee companion. We had a YT-1300 ship. Basically Han and Chewie. The DM used this to great comedic effect. Obi-Wan mistakes the Wookiee for Chewie, leading to the Wookiee calling his a dick for not being able to tell Wookiees apart. Jabba and the bounty hunters show up at my ship looking for Han ("No, Solo's in Docking Bay 94. This is 49".) There were several things like this, and the characters took to wearing name tags that said "I am not Han Solo/ Chewbacca". It was fun.
Honestly, if I was being railroaded into playing Star Wars I would embrace it, pull up a script and only talk in exact quotes of the character I’m playing (yes that includes only roaring for Chewbacca), in an attempt to annoy the DM
Damn bro. That'd be a huge fucking plot twist if Luke tried to spam Thermal Detonators at Vader before leaving. And with Vader's tunnel vision of revenge against Obi Wan, I actually think that the idea by Luke/The Player would have a genuine chance at crippling Vader severely (although not killing him) and even if Vader has the forethought to knock away the detonators using the force, then it would still deal significant damage to that docking station, which at the very least would limit the amount of Tie Fighters being deployed at once during the big battle above Yavin
I know right? It could have been a really interesting way to explore an alternate Star Wars universe from the comfort of their own table. That actually sounds like something I would want to do at home.
@@CritCrab More DMs should allow exploration of universes like this. Just have set events here and there that happen unless drastic changes are made. Such as the Death Star will attack the main base on X/X date every time unless the Death Star is crippled/destroyed before hand, if the players arent movie characters then it could be something like "Leia and friends will visit Cloud City on X/X date to try and get help" but it doesnt mean the players have to even mess wirh the events there, they could fuck a Twi'lek on Tatooine while that goes down
it took me 3 seconds after the "if you've figured it out by now, congratulations" bit for me to get what was going on because i was only sort of paying attention up until then and i haven't watched e4 in years lmao
It sounds like a cool way to start the campaign; "Hey guys, I've got a great idea for a campaign, but you'll have to do pre-created characters." "Ok sure... wait, this is Starwars!" "Hah, gotcha! Ok now let's just go off the rails." If only he had actually gone off the rails once the joke was realized.
We borrowed someone's Homebrew modern D&D to play a Sci Fi game I made up. I pretty much grabbed inspiration from every Sci Fi Fi game I could think of from the Outer Worlds to just usual Star Wars. I told them they could be whatever race they liked and all that. We had 5 Humans (I was almost upset) and an Awakened Cat. I slowly dipped into trippy Scooby Doo inspiration after that Session 0 and a half.
We played a one-shot based on star wars, but it was in the astral sea with Githyanki as the empire and Githzerai as the rebels. We played as regular DnD characters and actually killed the knock-off "Darth Vader" before destroying the knock-off "death star". It was fun, but everyone knew what we were getting ourselves into.
Running a campaign that is Literally The Plot Of Star Wars would actually be kinda cool if he gave the players freedom to come up with their own solutions. See how their course through the story differs from the one Luke, Han, etc took.
What is up with this common trend of DMs thinking this is "THEIR" game, or that "what the DM says goes" with regard to PC choices? This isn't (and never has been) what the DM role is for...
A young human peasant who turned out to have potential as a psychic warrior, a warforged bard who had been a diplomat and spy in the setting's backstory, a human pirate swashbuckler, and his first mate, a half-orc ranger. Oh, I see where this is going.
This could have been a really good idea and game if the DM wasn't railroading. To all the people saying why not just play a SW ttrpg that would defeat half the point (if the DM wasn't railroading) because then the players would immediately know it was Star Wars and so in any given situation either do what they did in the movie cause they know it will work or deliberately do something different for the sake of doing something different instead of coming to their own decisions organically. It would be hard to keep the players from figuring it out (unless they really went in a different direction) even with the setting swap but it would still be interesting.
This would be so cool if the players were actually allowed to make their own choices. Could you imagine finishing the campaign,getting a very different ending from the movie, and then the DM reveals you were playing Star Wars? That'd be pretty neat I think.
Oh god, I was starting to feel dumb because I thought to myself, this couldn't be a star wars game. I was in soo much denial that I legit was confused about the island. Then the names were dropped and mind was blown.
I think it's cool how the different players react to this Star Wars railroad in the same way their characters would have reacted. Han would definitely be having none of it, Chewie would have agreed with him, and Luke would have disliked the situation, but tried to make the best of things. This campaign could have been cool, if the players had had the option of making the plot go off in different directions. Lukes decision to kill Vader in a suicide-bombing is a perfect example.
This reminds me the time we did a honest and good Star Wars dnd game. The story goes that our ship was shot down scouting a Imperial planet before a massive rebel invasion was to come. We learn the planet was a trap and the rebel fleet was going to attack and be massacred in less then a month. We had to survive, avoid imperial forces, sabotage enemy forces, and our primary goal. Destroying the naming station preventing us and any other rebels on the planet from warning the rebel fleet.
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"That's no island. That's a naval base."
"That's way too big to be a space sta- naval base"
it is actually a cool idea to make a giant floating human made structure in a dnd story.
@@kabhes9040 Most certainly! Just irks me that it has to be so uninspired. Believe, me I love A New Hope as much as the next nerd, but that's no excuse when it comes to creativity or rather the lack thereof imo. If it were something like a giant turtle onto which a structure was built, I'd be totally on board (pun intended). If it were a fricken meatball in the sky that's been hallowed out by flying beasts for their nest, I'd be like tf but this is D&D so you do you b. This concludes my rant. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk. Also have a nice day!
well it does not have to do anything with star wars or even be a naval base.
it could be city with floating houses with bridges connecting everything.
SHADOW MOSES?
BLACKIESBOY I wish but it’s skycaptian movie stuff
*hears the character descriptions*
Oh no... they didn’t...
Yea my mind clicked when I heard the posters character.
Oh yes, they did.
Ur better than me
I didnt get it until “thats no island”
I litterally watched sw ep 4 before the cid lol
And it STILL took me that long
It only clicked for me when I heard the "two ships in the middle of the ocean and we decide to chase them down to keep them from reporting us".
Funny thing is, I knew exactly what this was going to be as soon as he said "a movie." No idea why, but Star Wars popped into my head immediately.
You have to give the DM credit, he seems to have matched the players to the characters perfectly. Han is the boisterous rebel who argues with authority, Chewy backs Han up, R2-3PO is irritated but goes along with things, and Luke is naive and not very forceful.
Until he suicide bombs Darth Vader and blows up the whole ship, that is.
Omicron9999 Sounds just like Luke to me!
@@aidenparker7106 a very Luke move
R2-3PO lol
Luke was bidding his time lol 😁
"After a minute or so of this, Roger excuses himself and goes to scream in the other room for a few minutes."
Why are you even there?
Rodger was the dm...
@@d4arken3ds0ul that is what Eugene was questioning.
Ikr? Kylo Ren much?
Roger, Roger
"He is the DM so what he says, goes."
DM´s who live by that rule make the best face when the entire group just leaves the table.
DMs are the literal Gods of their campaign.
If they say the streets are paved in gold, then the streets are paved in gold.
If they say an angry mob shows up out of nowhere, then that is exactly what happens.
They have, even according to the rule book, the ability to re-write the physics of the universe on a whim.
But what is a God to a non-believer...
Honestly, the fact that what they say goes isn't the problem so much as DM's who ignore one of the things said in the DMG which is that the DM shouldn't be against the players, but that the DM should have the fun of the players always in mind. This doesn't mean the DM can't have fun, just that they should communicate with and get to know their players so they can all have fun. Remember, a DM can make the players fight 100 tarrasques at lvl 1, but it doesn't mean they should. Kind of a Jeff Goldblum in Jurasic Park philosophy.
@@shanerooney7288
GM´s have limits.
They cant outright murder your PC just for the sake of it and they cant control your Actions unless something mindcontrols or forcefully influences you but that should be specific to the events happening and not a general thing.
Of course they can mess with the world however they want, they need to be able to do that to make a good story.
But imo they should keep in mind to not tear the system apart and care about what the players enjoy and what not.
I could write pages about this without saying anything. The groups Preferences are a big factor in what the DM gets away with but for example having a Railroading DM with lots of homebrew stuff doesnt make sence when his Players hate railroading and want to play by the book.
Its a social game after all.
You play together not against each other.
And since written messages lack emotion, i want to clarify that i am simply and calmly stating my opinion here.
@@noxserpentis
It should be noted that what they "can't" do and what they "shouldn't" do aren't quite the same.
You are right that they _shouldn't_ outright murder your PC
The DM God mentality can be quite toxic. It's the DMs job to play out a story the players. He's there to be a judge, entertainer, storyteller. If the players are unhappy with their DM, that's the DMs fault and they need to reevaluate how they run their games
Why though? there are so many star wars RPGs out there and they choose to play (NOT) star wars?
I dunno man, I guess some DMs still have a lot to learn ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
technically, Rodger chose to play not-star wars, the others just got railroaded into it.
@@leecoffill8425 eyyy eyyy
The idea of it was bad but the problem was he took away the players choice from the beginning
This is NOT roleplaying. It is actually writing a fanfic and staging it to LOOK like roleplay.
I hear railroading stories and ask "Why didn't the DM just write a book?"
I can't ask that question for this one; the DM didn't write the story.
What an awful activity.
Tbh, lot of books out there that rip off major beats from Star Wars (which let's be honest is not 100% original in and of itself) so DM theoretically might have changed enough about it to avoid copyright infringement if he was a little savvy.
He changed enough that people don’t immediately realize it, so it’s not like he was trying to publish a Star Wars fanfic for money or make the claim that he was an official writer for the franchise, but man would the reader quickly drop that book…
I do find it a little funny the one based off of Han rejected the 'save the princess' plot hook given Han did the same thing in the movie. It's even funnier they have no reason to drop everything and save the princess because the DM didn't copy the movie hard enough XD He didn't give 'Luke' a message from her or anything.
Loved the ending too. Wasn't quite nuclear, but it was explosive!
Yeah, Han really got into character, and even though they were ripping off star wars it still could have been really cool and fun. I believe there's a podcast about redoing movies in D&D too.
It was close too nuclear probably cause remeber he also had more grenades in his pockets
Yeah, that Han character really did act very much like his movie counterpart would. All the unconventional tactics and stuff
@@CritCrab Do you have a link to that? That sounds really neat.
classic solo
A star wars themed game would be hilarious if you encouraged the players to deviate from the plot and make it their own
"But I was going into Tosche Tosche Station?! Uncle Owen? I was going into Tosche Tosche Station..."
*Suddenly 2 Death Stars*
th-cam.com/video/DhkgohG9lTM/w-d-xo.html
There is a podcast called "Film Reroll" that does this exact thing; they roleplay different movies, sometimes using dnd, sometimes using custom rules. When the DM wanted to do a game based on Friday the 13th, he instead told the players they were playing based on an obscure teenage romance movie in order to get the players into the right mindset, since the characters in a horror movie don't know they're in a horror movie
I mean there is a star wars role game with dnd rules
Tbh loose ripoffs are fine if done right. As long as they stay loose and are allowed to grow into their own story.
I'm actually doing exactly that in my campaign right now. The story is supposed to be Star Wars, but instead of Luke and Leia being born, the PCs take their place with their own characters instead.
Imagine trying to force a star wars adventure in d&d instead of picking up & learning to play *Edge of the Empire,* LITERALLY THE *_OFFICIAL_** STAR WARS TTRPG.*
Or heck, if you wanted something without a big brand name, you could play Starfinder, the go-to TTRPG for sci-fi.
That _is_ a big brand name, though. LOL
theres also The Star Wars Roleplaying Game and Saga Edition
There is an official SW D&D from the 3rd edition. Tons of books actually. Even in different time periods (KoTOR for example).
Funny how that works, isn't it? I think it's because D&D has the most exposure, being the firs thing people think of when they say "Tabletop roleplaying game" or "tabletop game" if they're not into Warhammer. But there's actually a lot more of those things than people think; I've even seen one for Pokemon!
@@rowanthearchitect3227 I saw a fan-made pokemon one and played it 2x, it was terrible.
BESM also has stuff for pokemon, although it isn't called it.
1:30
"...the Imperium..."
my mind clicked so hard
It took that long? I got it at pirate and first mate.
@@stainlesssteelfox1
it sounded familiar,but the mentiond of imperium sealed the deal
I suddenly thought this was some 40K stuff so I didn't get it
*Psykers on the lose!
@@hotshotstevennonofyourbiz7200 Imperium did partly make me think of Star Wars, but not because of the movies. It also kind of made me think of the Imperium of Man. It would make sense in the latter's setting that they're all criminals for obvious reasons to whoever knows a bit about the Imperium of Man.
Honestly, a campaign should never be set in stone like this. Sure, there can be a general plot, but the players are free to do whatever they wish. They're not bound by the plot, no matter how much it involves their characters.
The DM exists to moderate the story, not direct it.
@@CritCrab Exactly.
@GihKaL Thanks man! I loved Call of The Wild, pretty good book. White Fang's also a good one! I recommend it.
Truth. Our dm had a general plan and story. He has told us he had to to rework that plan due to our unpredictable nature. And occasional in character in fighting. Its worked out pretty well so far. He also adds elements from our backstory into the game and its pretty great.
Ya one thing guaranteed is the players will go wayyyy off path.
"Guys, guys, I have a great idea for a campaign!"
.... it was even better 50 years ago!
Wheeliebin18 I just realized how old Star Wars was, holy shit
@@wrongtime9097 42, almost 43 years.
This was not pod racing.
That's cos they didn't get to the prequels part yet...
This was where the fun ended
I have not been looking forward to this.
There is an art to railroading...when you do it right, players don't even know its happening.
Being a DM is all about adapting on the fly. Players have their own ideas and will surprise you often.
Poor railroading comes from poor imagination. As an example: let's say you have a mighty necromancer who you're setting up to be the end boss/big bad of a campaign, but the players kill him during the first encounter. The solution? The necromancer was the servant of an even more powerful necromancer/evil being/dark god and they're pissed the players are meddling in their affairs and killing their minions. You've suddenly got a new big bad, the story you've prepared can continue, and best of all the players don't even have to know that this wasn't your plan from the start.
@@damoclesecoe7184 Modularization. Allows you to railroad without railroading. The players went where they wanted, without knowing that they never had a choice.
@@damoclesecoe7184 theres no tangible difference between that, and just having the necromancer teleport off, as a normal railroader would do. Your solution is arguably worse, because it's more contrived and stupid.
Liam Williams
So you're saying that a Deus Ex Machina allowing the bad guy to escape is better than allowing the players to have victory and taking the campaign to even grander scales?
Have you ever been a game master?
@@damoclesecoe7184 I'm saying that a necromancer that's supposed to be really strong using magic to escape makes a lot more sense than him dying, and then suddenly oh wait now theres an even bigger one.
*kills the princess*
"I'm chaotic neutral, I'm just playing my role"
Here's a thing though.
I DID THIS.
Accidentally on purpose.
I ran a homebrew, allowed a LOT of leeway and concessions when it came to character creation. I also asked, as I always do, that the players consult ONLY with me, and never the other players (To avoid min-max and toolbox groups.)
Over a fortnight, 5 characters are made, light backstories established. I let everyone know I will be tinkering and altering their BS as details of everyone else emerges.
Session Zero, we all meet, stats rolled and assigned. The players still have no idea what the others are playing.
> Human Rogue, Criminal Background (Smuggler)
> Minotaur Barbarian, Sailor Background (Pirate)
> Rock Gnome Tinkerer, Alchemist's Apprentice Background
> High Elf Bard, Sage Background (Librarian)
> Teenage Human Divine Soul Sorcerer, Urchin Background
Dear Lord, these people.
So I pair off my "Han" and "Chewie," they met while smuggling pirated goods under the nose of an increasingly draconian Empire.
My "3PO" and "ARTOO" met as scholars while in service to the former royal family, "3PO" was often assigned as a translator assisting diplomats, yada yada. "ARTOO" was entrusted a talisman from the princess and told to get out of former capital city, ends up on the same boat as "3PO" blah blah blah, attacked yada yada, runs aground near Halfling caravan, who allow them to accompany them down the road.
My "Luke" was living turning rutabagas on his uncles farm blah blah. Halfling caravan stops in, "3PO" and "ARTOO" stay for the night. "Luke" agrees to escort them to the nearby port. Emperors soldiers sweep through and burn the farm, looking for "ARTOO" and his trinket. They rush back.
To tie them together, I had an Elderly Eldritch Knight who was a member of the Royal Guard and close friend of the royal family living as a hermit in the woods nearby, watches over "Luke" blah blah. Is revealed and offers assistance. Is recognised by "ARTOO." Help the princess, the Emperor's fortress has only one weakness all that jazz.
Go to the port, looking for passage to the island where the Royals may be hiding. Meet "Han" and "Chewie" and agree to hire them.
It took 5 sessions, in which I never once tried to railroad them, they just kinda... made the same choices. With little extra's here and there.
> "Han" smuggles them out while guards shot at them.
> "Obi-Wan" reveals he knew "Luke's" Father, who was a Sorcerer, and he would have the same Divine Soul.
> They reach where the island should be, reefs and whirlpools and jagged rocks.
> Magically tractor beamed toward another, uncharted island.
> "That's no island."
> "Han" the smuggler has secret compartments, false walls and floors.
> Emperor's new fortress is a massive, sprawling, floating complex. That can seemingly destroy islands.
> "Obi-Wan" knows how to disrupt the crystals holding their ship in place.
> Sneak aboard, recon. The Princess is on board!
> Must Rescue.
> Prison Break.
> Mad dash back to ship.
"Across a large gaping expanse between two hulls of the complex, you can see "Obi-Wan" duelling a tall, dark, sinister Knight. His armour is a form of lamellar made from black, shiny plates over red cloth and his Kabuto helmet features a full face mask, from which you can hear his laboured, ragged breathing. His sword looks to be a longer, broader Katana with an edge that glows an evil red, which hisses and spits spitefully whenever it moves through the air. "Obi-Wan" moves with the grace of a much younger man, adeptly parrying "Vader's" heavy strikes with a curious Estoc which glows an incandescent blue and thrums with power in a low note that undercuts the hissing of his opponent's blade."
"Luke:" "Wait."
"What?"
"Luke:" "This is Star Wars. We're playing Medieval D&D Star Wars."
"Yeah."
"Luke:" "What?"
"When you all handed over your characters, it was too perfect, so I just started telling the story. I figured we'd do a session, maybe get halfway through the second - and you'd figure it out. Then we'd just continue with the story I've had kicking around in my head... But you didn't stop. You kept going, and actually didn't deviate that much."
"Han:" "It's actually really obvious now."
"3PO:" "So now what? I actually really liked this."
"Keep playing. You've show when faced with similar situations, you made the same decisions as the OT characters, or close enough."
"3PO:" "But we could have, at any time done something different?"
"You could have, at any time, done anything."
"3PO:" "... Like "Vicious Mockery" against "Vader?"
4th level Party proceeds to get involved in a fight between two level 13 Eldritch Knights. Don't kill "Vader" but save "Obi-Wan" and rescue the Princess.
Embrace it. Continue fighting as Rebels against the Evil Empire.
>"3PO" gilds everything so that he's golden, learns every language. Becomes the "Face Man" and incites rebellion wherever they travel.
>"ARTOO" clockworks himself a "movement powered suit" of R2-D2 themed armour, with dozens of gadgets and gizmos.
> "Han" takes five levels of Battle Master Fighter, fighting style "Archery," "Crossbow Expert" feat and has "ARTOO" make him a Spring and Cog hand crossbow.
> "Chewie" remains the same. He already bellows incoherently and beats stuff.
> "Luke" becomes a Divine Soul 14/6 Way of the Kensei Monk. Forges his own Estoc as his Kensei weapon, (which glows green).
5/7. Top campaign, would do again.
That is amazing.
Bro that sounds fun as hell
The Force was with your group.
Now see, THAT''S what the DM in this story should've done. Not try to railroad everyone into following the plot and instead letting them just go with it and change the story. Your game actually sounds amazing.
Nothing wrong with borrowing inspiration from movies and other media :)
I'm personally not a fan of keeping the PC's from talking to each other about their characters, but it seemed like it worked wonderfully here so gj on that :)
The fact that Han's player is the most annoyed at the situation is quite fitting
"There's a current pulling us toward that small island!"
"That's no island..."
It took me one/tenth of a second to figure out what this was from the moment farm boy was stated.
Wow, impressive. It took me until "potential as a psychic warrior" to get it xD
It took me “that’s no island”
I had to wait for OP to spell it out for me. Ive never seen starwars
"It's over PC, I have the plot hook!"
"You underestimate my power!"
I was setting up nuclear revenge vs an annoying DM... But I found a different game.
Even better revenge. He lost players.
I never dmed a serious game before, but if youre gonna reenact a movie, don't force the characters to reenact exact scènes. instead, you should see how the characters would react to the situation, and how they change the outcome, even if It completely derails the movie. Hell, derailing the story is half the fun tbh.
The best reenactment is a story that isn't the same. When the entire story is derailed and goes a different direction, then it becomes more interesting.
A story is defined by the attitudes and daringness to do the impossible, for better or worse, to make the story deliberately different than it was trying to head.
The heroes should often not be generic god-slayers.
There's a party member who's the only one capable of replacing God, and saving the world-
But what if that hero decided he wasn't going to become god? Was absolutely adamant that the world needed to end?
He'd become god... but not save the world. Instead, he'd make a new world with rules that would prevent the new world from ever getting to the point of collapsing.
A hero saves the world.
A better hero lets the world collapse, so a better world can exist WITHOUT GOD, and without a need for a god to sustain it.
A world where people can become God, and even pantheons... a world where aptitude matters, and to shape the world, you need power. A world where "God" no longer makes rules, and someone even above "God" decides the rules.
I enjoyed High Roller's Die Hard.
@@enigmaodell6806 You... and anyone wise.
If a game was ruled by good rolls alone, and bad rolls have negative effect, then the game sucks.
But with the power of my hand. I summon Die-Dice,
and I roll a 1. When this monster rolls a number below 3, I get to Special Summon 3 Kuriboh from my hand face-down, as well, I am able to banish each kuriboh I now control, and summon a monster whose level equal the combined levels of all my Kuriboh.
You rolled a 17. You had the chance to win with your newly-summoned Photon Dragon, but because of my monster's additional effect, "Underdog,"
The worst luck becomes my strongest strength! Low-Roll will beat the kingdom of High-Roll.
@@AnjnShan High Rollers is a podcast who did a Christmas special using Die Hard in a fantasy setting.
Or maybe even a less well received movie. Sometimes "bad" movies work pretty well in D&D.
I just don't get these DMs. I haven't had a chance to sit down and play in person yet, but I watch a lot of DnD, and these DMs really should never DM with their attitudes. A DM is a worldbuilder and storyteller, not God. You aren't there to control the players, you're there to provide a fun experience and create a world that lives, breathes, and reacts to THEIR decisions.
I agree, but wish to quibble on what might seem like a minor point. A DM is _not_ a "storyteller". It is precisely the idea that it's the DM's job to tell a story that leads to the sort of railroading nonsense in the video.
The story in an RPG is not told by the DM (or anyone else at the table). Rather, it _emerges_ out of play organically as the players make decisions and the DM describes the consequences. Trying to _force_ a "good story" in an RPG* is one of the most reliable ways to ensure the story that _actually_ emerges will suck balls.
Absolutely agree with the general sentiment of your post though.
* Players can be guilty of this as well. Making decisions in order to "make things more interesting" or worse, "Wouldn't it be funny if..."
@@nickwilliams8302 Well I consider a story to largely be well developed characters interacting with their world, and the plot emerges from that. So the idea works a bit better if you think of storytellers as character designers (npc designers) but yeah, good point.
DMs are Gods, but they must have limits. When it comes to world building, everything the DM says goes, so if the DM says the streets are made of gold, and the houses made of silver, then that is exactly what the streets and houses are made of. Story telling is where the limits of a DM's power must be put into place. Everyone at the table is there to provide their perspective on the story, with just as much agency as everyone else at the table. Story telling for a TTRPG is a group effort. If the players decide to take the time to tear down the houses, and dig up the streets, and melt down the precious metals, then there must be consequences for their action; unless for some reason the whole area has been abandoned, as such no one there with which to provide those consequences. It's the DM's job to describe the action, and how far they get before the consequences come smashing down on them, in which they must also describe HOW those consequences come down (if consequences are possible [again if no one is there to provide consequences, there should be no consequences]).
I hope you arent just still watching & are getting a chance to play. When you dm & play then you will understand where these dms went wrong. They fell in love with their story & did want to work with the players. Easy mistake when youve sunk hrs of prep into a quest & the players decide they want to break into & steal supplies from the local merchant instead.
Using a movie or video game as inspiration for a DnD game is not inherently bad, but you need up understand 3 things.
1) if you change nothing, you’ll get caught and nay piss people off
2) if your players do things differently than the source, you’ll have to improvise. But you should be prepared to do so.
3) never tell people they have to do things a certain way.
Or better yet, take the world or universe of said movie or video game and do something original with it.
The Legend of Zelda is a perfect setting for DnD, but I’d get bored pretty quickly if we were just doing a straight retelling of Ocarina of Time.
Honestly? Star Wars at sea is a fun little concept. But not really something narratively unique enough to stand on its own as a game.
I think it can be a great concept to build a campaign on when it's done right. You can have players island-hopping while being chased by "The Empire" - each island being its own mini-setting with unique history, climate, culture, weirdness; then add various encounters at sea, and on top of that there is this base building thing going on with maintaining & upgrading the ship. So basically One Piece. One Piece is Star Wars with pirates and that manga has been running for decades.
+Dirk Maes
Nice. XD
Railroading is the reason Luke committed suicide. If the DM was competent, he could've fixed a few of the issues he had. REENACTMENT does not mean LITERAL COPY, and I'd have appreciated "Splitting up" to be a perfectly fine option for the story, so long as the premise of the story remained the same. Plot points remained the same. The story remaining mostly the same.
Han went to the other end of the ship to wreck stuff?
Chewie wants to blow up the engine room?
Well that doesn't mean they don't all find each other at the end of that arc, escaping. Luke blew up because nobody wanted to be controlled. Everyone agreed to that decision because the DM was not creative or intelligent enough to make the previous independent ideas work.
DM makes the final call, not the ONLY call. The point of a group campaign in any game is for options. Only the player using the character should know their character-- only the character's user should know what to do for the character. A DM is not connected or directly in control of the character's thoughts or options. The user themself often has better items in mind, to keep in-character.
We do not want a DM making every player's character generic, and similar to one another. We do not want a DM to decide an evil character does a good thing for once... the character's owner should be able to decide an evil character should create the most powerful thrall in the entire kingdom. Kill the most evil monarch bastard in the campaign? How about the player who happens to be a necromancer not take over the kingdom, having to earn the trust and respect of all the people in the kingdom... when you control the current monarch, and therefore the entire monarchy?
Or in other words, a campaign ending with the kingdom being saved, but the antagonist being forced to represent the party's intentions. Nothing needs to be generic. No story needs to end with the execution of a bad person, but the converting of evil into good. Not redemption, either. Good people doing the immoral act of controlling people and manipulating people. Doing bad things for a good cause.
The best story is not decided at the beginning. The ending is not decided at the end.
The best story ends with that one player destroying the INTENDED ending, and subverting expectations in an original fashion.
The villain is not the villain. The heroes are the real villains.
The Sceptor of Lord Fredderick? The relic used to cure any ailment, and form the entire universe? The Sceptor is actually out of power. The world is ending, and the only way to save the universe is to extract the soul of the bravest and most powerful hero in the party to recharge the relic... but it turns out the strongest person in the party is the weakest state-wise, but had adopted an extra soul, therefore making the character the strongest, having the combined strength of the minotaurus, but otherwise not physically or spiritually impressive.
The story shouldn't be decided by a movie, but the reinterpretation of the movie.
Luke doesn't commit suicide. Vader is actually a spirit, and not actually alive.
No, luv, that weapon is not the strongest in the world, the strongest would be the power of revival, which is actually the weakest. The weakest power is capable of resurrecting the final hero required to obtain seemingly infinite power.
The most powerful weapon is amalgamation, which fuses all the heroes together to become stronger than them all combined twice, but this falls into forbidden revival magic, making the weakest and least useful magic actually the most powerful when conditions were met.
Since I hadn't seen the video, when I read your first paragraph, I thought you were talking about The Last Jedi movie...
@@DraconicDuelist that sounds legit.
That... was beautiful.
The most important thing in D&D: Communication. If you don't have a 'session zero' where you all sit down and talk this out, the chances for trouble go up exponentially.
Plot twist: The DM was J.J Abrams.
BEAUTIFUL
The problem I have with rail roading is that
1). If the dice don’t agree with the “intended” outcome, somebody is going to get REAL pissed.
2). BSing said rolls to progress with the story takes away a players sense of individuality and thoughts of “I wonder what could happen next”
You can almost say he Forced the campaign on them
This story hits all the sweet spots.
-Railroading
-Borrowed Story
-Player Rebellion
Delightful.
There's something ironic about how the DM wants to railroad players into playing a story about "rebellion" and won't tolerate any rebellion from the players themselves.
Railroading is sometimes needed when DM'ing but it can be done in subtle ways. You got to be the illusionist on stage telling people to watch the right hand, when you are messing with the trick with the left hand.
So when the party starts to go off track you can move things around on the fly, never set things into stone. "That large castle you placed in the mountains, and the players ignore it." Simple move that castle to the swamps where the players are right now, and then give them an incentive to investigate. Such as an attack on the local village from undead or demons. Then have the npcs tell the players it happens regular on certain nights due to some evil in yonder castle.
Don't even need to move the castle in that case.
A great tip for making a campaign based on a movie/tv show is to *party poppers and streamers come out of nowhere* tell the players and make it a fun re-enactment rather than a forced rip-off
"Excuses himself to go scream in the other room for a few minutes."
Lmao I laughed so fucking hard at that. I picture it like a stereotypical nerd rage scene in a parody, except its real.
And I just picture everyone else at the table just blinking and looking at each other in silence while the DM has an episode in the other room.
While I do run movie scenarios as games...I LOVE it when they break canon and break the film story. Two examples; A SW New Hope based game where the players intercepted R2-D2 BEFORE he was captured by the Jawas... did not find the hidden recording and then opting to take the droid to the empire to cash in on the bounty.... this was session two.
The next was a RE inspired story with pre-mades based on the film characters. In this one I did not tell them it was RE and was running it in the White Wolf system using Pentex in place of Umbrella... about 3/4 of the way through ONE player caught on to the narrative and handed be a note about it instead of blurting it out. In the end, the player that was in the role of memory wiped corporate espionage player succeeded in actually talking the rest of the players into securing themselves in a locked room while he sneak out solo to 'get help'...which he managed to do, then locking them in the facility and leaving with the stolen virus samples to be sold to the highest bidders on the black market....
Both were simply glorious and to varying degrees ran roughshod over the canonical sources.
Jesus, I think I’ve lost my nerd card. It took me way longer than it should’ve to realize.
Me too, it literally had to be said for me!
I figured out right away but I had the help of star wars listed in the comments. I give you back your nerd cards. D&d is a nerd game with pride. I know people who have no clue what star wars or star trek is who still have their need cards for being willing to dress up cosplay as characters and go to a convention with me.
This happened to me too a few months ago !!
It was a one-shot game at a monthly RPG meetup in a library I occasionally go to and where multiple GM's are always present and offer multiple kinds of games to the people who come, from classic DnD/Pathfinder to more experimental things. Usually an awesome experience. Lots of different games and GMing styles. That evening one GM was running a kind of parodic homebrew space opera game which looked fun at first, so I joined his table. And then the horror started. Our party had to retrieve two droids on a desert planet... We quickly got railroaded into meeting some alien droid traders, going to a small farm, then a cantina, getting ambushed in the desert and saved by a weird space wizard... The players kept dropping hints about the fact that they saw the movie and knew where all this was headed. The GM did not listen. After we took a break, we all politely passed on playing the second half of the "scenario". The worst and most boring game I ever played.
I tend to play D&D with players who don't tell me their expectations of what they want from a game. They just want to play a game and whatever happens, happens. To this end, I've had to "adapt" fairly well.
The current session I'm running, has been going on for two years, off and on (my players all have children and other obligations, so scheduling game nights is a pain in the butt). I decided that I'd simply control the setting. I don't know what the players want. So... let's start simple.
Recently, an island that has been embroiled in conflict for the last 200 years has been "opened to the public". The military have finally secured much of the island from the natives and have discovered that the place is teeming with magic and resources. It is called simply, "The Island of Foothold". It has exactly one city on it. Foothold. There is a strange occurrence that happens once a week, the locals call "Curse Day". Things just seem to go wrong on this day (it's every Friday). Tides to the island get wonky. Rivers flow backwards. Ships have trouble making port as even the currents all change and are never the same from one Curse Day to the next. The locals are sometimes more irritable on this day. Sometimes crime runs rampant on this day. Sometimes, everyone is just apathetic. It's a strange disturbance. There's political infighting on the island over who should rule it as king (it has only recently secured its independence), and adventurers and merchants alike are flocking to the land in droves. The players were simply tasked with two things at the beginning of "session 0" of this campaign. You need only to bring a reason why you're coming to this island and a reason you're looking for party members so that you all end up together. The only stipulation for the campaign is that players are not allowed to screw each other over on purpose. That includes, if they are going to be "Evil", that they not screw over their party or actively do anything to hurt their own party. Be evil on their own time, in a place it doesn't hurt their allies.
I gave all the players a short 3-page hand-out on the setting and the island. A list of every possible thing the island was boasting and that they would've heard about from where-ever they hailed (I don't care if they made up places or backstories. The place doesn't traditionally exist in any of the D&D settings. It was completely made up by me and very little of the Lore of the books translated, which let players be whatever they wanted). Lots of political opportunities. Lots of opportunities for mercenary work. Merchanting opportunities. Strange magic to discover and study. Weird ruins on the island. Figure out the mystery of Curse Day. Lots of reasons to come for fame, fortune, power, or just work.
I then gave everyone a month after the setting was established to think about their character and why they were coming.
I used that month to build the world. I wrote six reams of content in that month (a ream that I put into a folder is roughly 300 pages). Possible quests to take. What everyone was doing. Important NPC schedules for the first two weeks of in-game time (which could all be altered by players if they chose to interact with it). I created shops with supplies. Places to eat with rotating menus. The social hierarchy. The governing rules once they arrived. The personalities of all the major players. Random charts for things, one of which, was the "random effect" that would happen every single "Curse Day". I used inspiration from the "Wild Magic" mechanic of... the Sorcerer? I forget which class uses it. A D100 table of random effects. Some beneficial, some detrimental, some just outright weird. I put "rumors" everywhere. On the street that could be overheard. In Taverns. At the Inns. From guards. I then created "backup" rumors that would fill in the places of ones that were already used. Some of these were Quest Hooks. Some were just random tidbits. Some were outright lies. Some were half-truths. I filled the world with Plot Hooks everywhere. Gave those Quests "timelines". If the players didn't take them or stumble on them within a certain time limit, other adventurers in the world would take the quests and complete them. I also created some guilds and a "Passport System" for the island. Players started "Dockside", which is where everyone ended up... The poorest and most crime-ridden part of town. They couldn't move into other areas until they'd paid a "fee" to get access to those locations. To move into the regular business district (also known as Lowside), required the players accumulate 50 Gold Pieces and pay for the stamp on their Passport. Once they got the stamp, they could move freely into and out of that location. There were various stamps they could pay for. To get access into the Rich area (the name always escapes me), they could either find a way to sneak in (as it was only separated by a massive cliff over 200 yards high, but was patrolled by guards) or pay 200 Gold Pieces for a stamp to get in. If they wanted access to the Castle, they had to do something special enough to warrant "frequent business at the castle" to get the stamp. If they wanted to "leave the city", they needed 75 Gold Pieces for the stamp. If they did special work, they could also get another Stamp that exempted them from taxes when they came back into the city (Taxes were 50 GP per entry, or 10% of everything in their carts/rucksacks. Whichever was more valuable). There was a final stamp that allowed them access into the "Military District" where all the guards and soldiers were stationed. One could get this simply by enlisting in the local military... or by the same avenue of the Castle Stamp. The only way to Exit the City was through "Lowside". The only place to dock a ship was Dockside (the island is surrounded by massive cliffs that are so dangerous to climb that nobody ever bothers trying. The only place to even make landfall is at Foothold, as there are no Cliffs there, and it has a proper beach).
Finally, I did one last thing. Vignette's. The players needed a proper introduction to the world and the island. So, the game would start aboard a ship they were all on. There were 12 events, one for each week of travel. Players would roll a D12 a grand total of 3 times. I had four players. The only events they could interact with, were those they had rolled for. They got to fill in the weeks they didn't get to play with whatever story they wanted (within reason). There was quite a bit of overlap, and as a result, only 4 events didn't get seen by the players (which they never got to hear about). The little stories could be interacted with, or taken as they were. They offered Quest Hooks and information to the players about where they were going to. They were introduced to several other travelers that they might be able to interact with later on the island as well. If they chose to.
The players docked, went through the issue of getting Passports signed over to them, with an initial stamp and a "very rehearsed" speech. They also got a little insulted by the Dwarf taking their information down, because he was sick of admitting "Mercenaries" to the island, since that's basically all that ever came (few people who had jobs ever showed up on the shore, and none of the players claimed to have ever worked a job before other than random work they picked up). I then turned them loose on the world. A brief description of the surrounding area, with what was immediately going on, and that's all they got.
Since then, they've paved their own way. They've ignored the "big main plot". Instead, they do odd jobs. Some good, some bad, some weird. Most of them are simply personal stakes. They've worked for the local mob boss, the local Dwarves Guild (yep, it's a guild specifically for Dwarves... this setting has some racism in it), a city official, the local guards, and the local ruling merchant. They've done a little bit of work for almost everyone.
All I did was give them every option for how to play. "This is the setting and the game. Figure out what you want to do." They did. Without much effort. Even turning some of my random events to spice up travel across the world and town (rolling for encounters) into their own Quest lines when there were none originally.
Players, left to their own devices, will often surprise you as a DM and create some pretty amazing stories. All you gotta do is set some ground rules to cut down on shenanigans and try to keep the game grounded in its reality. The players will do amazing things then.
Really amazing! Tbh I never played a D&D in my entire life and barely know how it works; but things like this really get me excited. You should even write a book about your adventures.
@@madlad7837 Two of the players were wives of the guys who were going to be my players. So, it was their first time playing as well. This is one of the reasons I created such a vast world. I didn't know what sort of players they would be, or what sort of stories they'd want to be involved in.
They have a lot of stories so far. One of the favorite ones I like to tell relates to their adventure in tracking down "The Great Mizzar". This character was initially just an event to see on the streets. A "noob trap". In essence, he sold very cheap magical items. However, they were flawed. If they were bathed in too much blood, they grew unstable and... well... exploded. The guy was just an example of the sort of people you run into on "Dockside". He had a crowd gathered as he demonstrated his merchandise, and a bunch of children pickpockets would wander through the crowd and fleece people who didn't look like they were going to buy from The Great Mizzar.
My players didn't fall for the trap. They didn't get pickpocketed, nor did they buy anything. But, they decided to report him to the guards. Well, word gets around a little fast when you say you're looking for the guards outloud in such a crowd, so the guy shut up shop while they wandered into the part of town where the guard stations were.
The head guard got word they were trying to shut down "The Great Mizzar" and immediately took interest in the unemployed and unaffiliated party. He'd pay them 5 Gold Pieces each if they could do some scouting for him and try to find the guy. He'd been trying to shut down The Great Mizzar" for quite a while, and could never manage to catch him.
So, this quest arose out of nothing. A small trap with nothing planned, was suddenly a Quest.
The players got what information they could get from the Guard, which included that The Great Mizzar was probably a master of disguise as reports of his appearance varied wildly from victim to victim. They also got the information that the magical items explode and have killed and maimed people, but the method used to explode the items was unknown. They were even given a couple leads on where they'd found some of these injured and killed people as "possible hotspots".
Anyway, so this became their main driving force. Looking for this guy. Trying to stop him.
The guy was so dangerous and hard to find, that even the local Crime Lord did not want him operating in the city. He even offered payment to the Players for any information they had on him, and something extra for turning over any of his associates to him. The players opted to give information, but not turn over people, as they thought the people would be treated poorly and it was morally wrong.
So, the story that is my favorite takes place a bit further along. They discover that outside of the city is "The Dragonborn Cult". What these people are, essentially, are people who use Illusion Magic to look like Dragonborn (the island natives are all Dragonborn, so it's an attempt to frame the natives) and throw dangerous potions at travelers and merchants and everyone outside of the city. After killing several of these cultists in an ambush (that they cultists set up), they took their potions. They actually had a scare here as well. In every "bandolier" of potions, I included two potions that were nothing but colored water. Because the unknown is scarier than the known. During the fight, one of the Players was hit with a Green Potion of Water. I give them the effect, "It doesn't have a smell, but it splashes green all over your armor and body. It doesn't seem to have any immediate effect on you". Cue player trying to wipe it off. It was obviously some kind of poison!
Anyway, with that over with, they take the remaining potions to the local apothecary to get them identified. Several of them turn out to be "colored water", so that puts the other player at ease, realizing what probably happened. A couple are things like acid and alchemist fire. There's one that is Dragon Urine. Another that is a bottle of foul smelling ink... And the final one... A Grey Ooze. The Cultists had somehow managed to get a Grey ooze into a glass flask and it not eat the flask. The apothecary was stunned that this was even possible. The players were a little horrified that they could've been hit by such a flask.
Anyway, several adventures later, they find the lair (one of them, anyway) of the Dragonborn Cultists. The Cultists are using Dragon Blood to make these items, but beyond that, the method is unknown for how they are created. The players climb into the cliffs at the edge of the island, and through a hole in the ceiling within the dungeon to find a dead dragon (when the Cultists heard they were coming, they slew the Dragon to keep it from telling them what they were doing) and immediately ran out to the edge of the cliff (the room they climbed into had a door that opened out onto a cliff that was on the interior of the island) to prepare for combat. The Players spent a good amount of time trying to figure out the makeshift lab in the room and taking a Dragon's Tooth.
When they stepped out onto the cliff, they came face to face with 3 Cultists. This wasn't going to be much of a fight. But, they had the advantage.
You see, all the players had to come through the same door. Easy targets for flasks. The Cultists had very few of these on hand, but the few they had deterred immediate action from the players as they tried to file out safely.
When the flasks were out, two of the cultists took up their weapons and charged into melee. The third Cultist... was the problem.
Earlier in the adventures, the players had discovered that these Cultists sometimes had the power to "control animals". Specifically, large groups of ravens.
On this cliff edge, is where they would gather a great many of these ravens. The Cultist did his chanting and had his eyes go pure blood red as he controlled 3 groups of ravens.
The players were now out-numbered. And, without a lot of magic, those ravens would be hard to put down.
So, our Half-Orc Barbarian decided the best course of action, without informing anyone, was to throw a flask at the guy controlling the Ravens. Because, by now, the players were absolutely sick of trying to kill the Ravens as they were difficult to put down and caused a lot of problems... but they knew if you killed the Cultist controlling them, the Ravens either dropped dead immediately or became docile (they didn't yet know why either one happened).
The flask filled with the Grey Ooze missed the Cultist. But, he rolled just a single number under what he needed to land a hit (the Half-Orc Barbarian had almost no points into Dexterity, so him throwing things was always a really long shot). So, I gave him the information of: "It smashes on the ground at the feet of the Cultist, just a little to his right".
I added the Grey Ooze to the battlefield as an enemy.
So, my Half Orc was irritated that his amazing plan had amounted to nothing and began to wade into combat against the Ravens, protecting the Gnome Druid and the Dragonborn Paladin.
On the turn of the Grey Ooze... it attacked the nearest target. The Cultist.
It climbed up his leg and immediately began melting him to consume him.
The turn in battle was punctuated with a loud and blood-curdling scream.
The players were immediately horrified all over again, except the Half-Orc who was happy his plan had sort of worked. I believe his words were, "Good! F*ck that guy!"
Combat went on for another 5 turns as they dispatched what was left of the ravens (who were all suffering penalties for accuracy due to their cultist being consumed alive.) and had their attention split between the players and trying to kill the Grey Ooze (and several ravens also being caught by it and consumed).
The players didn't want to go anywhere near this ooze, so avoided combat with that Cultist specifically and gave him a wide berth while they finished up the battle.
Experience points were earned, tattered equipment from the Cultists divvied up, and they went looking at the area, while forgetting about the Grey Ooze and the last gurgling cry of the Cultist.
When they finished their investigation, they went looking for the Grey Ooze, thinking it would be dangerous to let it live, or maybe they could get it back into another Flask or something. But, it was gone. With a noticeable trail of blood leading back into the room with the dead dragon. The players decided to shut the door and leave it there.
As they scaled down the cliff from the makeshift and quite rickety "elevator" that required they hold the ropes themselves and lower themselves down... The Druid hoped outloud that they'd never see that Ooze again, and hope that the meal it would make of the Dragon didn't make it grow even larger in size.
The Paladin hoped the same. The other two players said nothing.
The Half-Orc, at the bottom of the ride finally said, "I sort of feel bad for that guy now. That's a horrible way to die."
The other player, who was a Dwarf... I forget her combat class off-hand. She said, "Just remember, they were going to throw that flask at us at one point. These guys deserve what they get from their own weapons."
Everyone agreed, but nobody has thrown a Flask since. Not even at the Cultists.
hoooly s**t the way you made this city, it should be a either a whole game or at least a module
@@wackpool1491 It probably could be a module, but it does require quite a bit of improvisation, or the DM knowing a lot about the setting.
Though, to be honest, any DM that likes any of the content of the setting I've already shared could probably adapt it into their own "homebrew" version of the thing.
Well, unless they wanted the maps I was using. That would likely be a problem as I don't really have a scanner ^_^
mate if you can somehow send me your 6 reams of worldbuilding notes that'd be more than enough for anyone to make up the rest
I'm honestly imagining the star wars actors playing and George Lucas being the neckbearded railroad conductor
We actually did see that with the prequals and all the updates that Lucas made to the films after production.
That's a lot of beard, knowing George.
You know, that would explain a hell of a lot...
What does that make Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams, and Rian Johnson?
@@TheEmperorHyperion Kathleen and Rian are the people interested in DMing but get harassed out of the room for trying to be unique or different, JJ Abrams is the little brother of the original neckbeared DM that wants to DM his own thing and refuses to admit he just directly copied the plot of his campaign from his older brother's.
This actually makes me interested in running, playing, or watching a session(s) that is just a movie. Only this time actually allowing the players to change what happens instead of sticking to the original plot.
I am so smooth brained, I really did think this was based off of Pirates of the Carribean until they reached the "floating naval base" part.
I was like, “This is Star Wars, isn’t it?”
The first few seconds; yup, it’s Star Wars.
I called the references from just the list of character roles. By the time you got to pirate, I was confident enough to say so to the group I'm watching this with.
DM:You stand infront of Darth Vader.
Me: I throw Sand at him...
I don't like sand.
Ah my eyes.
Stunned for 1 round
Wait I had my helmet on after stunned round elapsed.
Sorry not rewinding back time.
I know this is a while ago, but I do have a somewhat wholesome story about a Star wars campaign I was in, all Ill say, is we had a robot we found a way to put a ai we found in it. We were entering a fight and he proceeds to say in a monotone voice, Let's get this Breeeeeaad!! 1 of my best DND moments
Honestly, I think it'd be kinda fun taking a plot of a movie and seeing how players would react when they're put in the situation.
It lets creative thinking going.
As soon as you said Warforged Diplomat, I knew it was Star Wars...
I'm proud of myself for figuring out it was Star Wars before "The Imperium" was mentioned. Good job brain.
All you had to say was psychic warrior, war forged, pirate, and pirate sidekick and I knew exactly where this was going
I completely agree on telling the party what to expect from the start. There was a campaign I joined from launch that was GURPS and the idea was all the popular scifi and fantasy movies and tv shows rolled into one for a futuristic setting, so you would have space battles with magic and demons and the like. So I made my character someone that commanded a frigate spaceship and spent the majority of my point on being a captain and having a crew, which I kept the GM fully aware of everything that I was doing and what my end goals were. First session and we are planet side, everything is going just fine, then boom we are sucked into a rift spitting us into a fantasy only world set in Roman times. Needless to say, my character had zero capability to doing anything for the next four sessions. And when we made it back to our world, we learn that we had gone back in time, changed the time line to making the future a utopia, and my characters long term plans were then ruined due to "people having out grown war".
Ran a one player campaign-ish(not done). Said a portal appears thinking he won't go threw just ment to be a later plot...nope a necromancer which is clumsy and his characters soul is connected falls in and his character getts sligshoted in so yep that happened.
This made me laugh so hard because all the players actually acted like the characters. So it actually played out like if the characters read the scrip. I can see Han saying "Fuck this", Chewy and the droids are just along for the ride, and Luke going "I could go and knowing let this take years with millions of lives lost...or I can end this now!" It came off as a little ironic but in a beautiful way.
Was the ship called the _Century Eagle_ ?
Chewie is the personification of "Fine, but I'm gonna complain the whole time!"
The game being played always makes me laugh. While walking with casting arms ready, it looks like the wizard has shat his pants.
1:52 I love how he just says goodbye to a book great dialogue game
Luke's player is just like "Fuck around and find out" lmao
What an absolute chad
Party: So, basically we're playing Star Wars...
DM: No! It's not Star Wars!
Party: Ok, we want to do this then.
DM: You can't do that, because that's not how the story goes!
Party: How what story goes?
DM:...
Party: Was it a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?
DM: REEEEEE!
I assume Roger was a 12 year old trying to DM for the grown ups right?
Welp I'm lost on what movie this was. Wait isn't star Wars that movie with the green frog thing
You're thinking the Muppets.
@@louisblack8474 so muppets had the weird backwards talking frog thing and the robot with asthma
@@zenorose8569 star wars didn't have a robot with Asmath, but it did have a semi-backwards talking frog.
@@KraNisOG I don't know it was all black and sounded like it had asthma think it had a red glow stick
Zeno Rose Are you colorblind? It was green, actually. And that robot is a mom.
This was SO cathartic to hear.
I wish I'd done the same with a DM once. I had a DM who loved putting me in paladin-traps (I wasn't a paladin, but that didn't stop him), and in hindsight I realise he didn't want me to fall and become non-functional as a character, he just wanted me to jump through tiresome hoops forever. In hindsight, I really wish my character just started stabbing NPCs in the face just to horrify him and go hardcore down the evil route.
Huh....I'm currently running a Kingdom Hearts inspired campaign where the players chose characters from different sources (one of them is Han Solo btw) and they're exploring different universes trying to help people out and keep the heartless/darkness at bay. We use Cypher, not DnD, as Cypher is more suitable for crazy ideas like this
My plan was to make a fun a goofy campaign with a serious undertone (so basically Kingdom Hearts but more mature). So far they've gone through two movies: Hocus Pocus and Moana. Today they'll face a corrupted version of Te Ka.
I guess the campaign so far has been kind of railroady, as they're part of a resistance that gives them these specific missions and they don't have much say in where they go (so far), but I'm making sure to add different elements to the movies and allowing them to find their own solutions. Hocus Pocus turned into an investigation and a race against time, as a precog npc (Sapphire from Steven Universe) told them they had until 3am to find what was going to happen with that world, before it succumbed to the heartless (that was when the witches would eat the children and the despair caused would bring the heartless, but they didn't know that). The plot was essentially the same as the movie's plot, with some extra combat in the form of zombies that the witches had raised.
Moana was more of a classic adventure, as the village's elder (who's actually Moana, as our game is set 60 years after the movie) asked the resistance for help. They had to protect the village against an attack, rescue Moana's grandson, travel to the Lalotai (realm of the monsters), rescue Maui and are now about to face Te Ka (a gigantic being of rock and magma).
They're all making their own decisions and as much as there's a movie plot to "follow" they get to say how they do that. When they faced a giant ship full of coconut monsters, they decided to kill them all and steal their ship, which goes very much against the plot of the movie, but of course I allowed to happen and rewarded them with a sturdier vessel for their trip. The battle was insanely fun, especially when Ben 10 decided to transform into a flying alien to help and instead turned into an alien with the power to control metal, of which there was none as everything was made of wood. He was smart enough to control the metal in Han's gun and rescue him from drowning though, when Steven Universe used a magical staff he had looted from the witches and accidentally blew one of their boats up.
PS: the other PCs are Dante (Devil May Cry) and Nico (from the Percy Jackson books).
PPS: I have a feeling there's gonna be a romance plot between Ben 10 and Steven Universe, especially cus the players are IRL boyfriends
I lost it at "goes to scream in the other room"!! I wonder if any drywall needed to be patched!
With how much railroading this had, it might as well have been recreating unstoppable...
This DM is definitely not even close to the worst we have heard from CritCrab. I actually didn’t pick up initially that this was a Star Wars 4 clone, because I thought a giant naval ship in DND sounded like a cool and interesting idea. I had an idea for a huge flotilla of ships that functioned as something similar.
Fun fact, I actually started a D&D campaign as a player and was told to make a "sci-fi character from a war-torn society" that would be transported into a traditional magic world; we weren't going to pick a race, and we didn't have access to all the classes. I wound up with the rogue and thought it would be interesting to be a forger. Then we got in the game. And then when he started describing things I realized the DM had made a Transformers game.
The "Warforged" that I made in that campaign is now one of my hallmark 5E characters.
Moral of the story: You *can* leave out aspects of what you want your players to do, as long as you don't take away their ability to be their own character at the end of the day.
As soon as the characters were described I knew what was going on
The thing that would've made this really cool? Have the same exact premise, characters, and so on ripped right from the movie, but instead of railroading into doing the exact thing that happens in said movie, let the players decide how to go about the mission in a different way. THAT could've been really fun.
immediately face palms as soon as the description of the first character is done.... "whyyyyyyyyyyy"
In my Star Wars campaign (FFG), I played a human Smuggler with a Wookiee companion. We had a YT-1300 ship. Basically Han and Chewie. The DM used this to great comedic effect. Obi-Wan mistakes the Wookiee for Chewie, leading to the Wookiee calling his a dick for not being able to tell Wookiees apart. Jabba and the bounty hunters show up at my ship looking for Han ("No, Solo's in Docking Bay 94. This is 49".) There were several things like this, and the characters took to wearing name tags that said "I am not Han Solo/ Chewbacca". It was fun.
Honestly, if I was being railroaded into playing Star Wars I would embrace it, pull up a script and only talk in exact quotes of the character I’m playing (yes that includes only roaring for Chewbacca), in an attempt to annoy the DM
Damn bro. That'd be a huge fucking plot twist if Luke tried to spam Thermal Detonators at Vader before leaving.
And with Vader's tunnel vision of revenge against Obi Wan, I actually think that the idea by Luke/The Player would have a genuine chance at crippling Vader severely (although not killing him) and even if Vader has the forethought to knock away the detonators using the force, then it would still deal significant damage to that docking station, which at the very least would limit the amount of Tie Fighters being deployed at once during the big battle above Yavin
I know right? It could have been a really interesting way to explore an alternate Star Wars universe from the comfort of their own table. That actually sounds like something I would want to do at home.
@@CritCrab More DMs should allow exploration of universes like this. Just have set events here and there that happen unless drastic changes are made.
Such as the Death Star will attack the main base on X/X date every time unless the Death Star is crippled/destroyed before hand, if the players arent movie characters then it could be something like "Leia and friends will visit Cloud City on X/X date to try and get help" but it doesnt mean the players have to even mess wirh the events there, they could fuck a Twi'lek on Tatooine while that goes down
@@socialaccount0000 that. Sounds. Awesome.
it took me 3 seconds after the "if you've figured it out by now, congratulations" bit for me to get what was going on because i was only sort of paying attention up until then and i haven't watched e4 in years lmao
“...so he can train the kid.”
Myyyyy, my, this here Anakin guy...
It sounds like a cool way to start the campaign; "Hey guys, I've got a great idea for a campaign, but you'll have to do pre-created characters." "Ok sure... wait, this is Starwars!" "Hah, gotcha! Ok now let's just go off the rails." If only he had actually gone off the rails once the joke was realized.
We borrowed someone's Homebrew modern D&D to play a Sci Fi game I made up. I pretty much grabbed inspiration from every Sci Fi Fi game I could think of from the Outer Worlds to just usual Star Wars. I told them they could be whatever race they liked and all that. We had 5 Humans (I was almost upset) and an Awakened Cat. I slowly dipped into trippy Scooby Doo inspiration after that Session 0 and a half.
"NO, Luke does not do that!"
We played a one-shot based on star wars, but it was in the astral sea with Githyanki as the empire and Githzerai as the rebels. We played as regular DnD characters and actually killed the knock-off "Darth Vader" before destroying the knock-off "death star". It was fun, but everyone knew what we were getting ourselves into.
Before he got to the naval base, I thought, "These pirates seem a lot like Han and Chewbacca."
"IMPERIUM" "CYONS" I'm dying please send help
Psions
@@SuperBoyboys cylons :D
*Psykers
If the DM made a point of encouraging things happening differently than the movie, that would be epic.
Someone should have told the DM "Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to us leaving your sorry ass behind."
My brother has almost no plot that overarchs unless the hooks us players take make it such which is very open-ended
Running a campaign that is Literally The Plot Of Star Wars would actually be kinda cool if he gave the players freedom to come up with their own solutions. See how their course through the story differs from the one Luke, Han, etc took.
What is up with this common trend of DMs thinking this is "THEIR" game, or that "what the DM says goes" with regard to PC choices? This isn't (and never has been) what the DM role is for...
A young human peasant who turned out to have potential as a psychic warrior, a warforged bard who had been a diplomat and spy in the setting's backstory, a human pirate swashbuckler, and his first mate, a half-orc ranger.
Oh, I see where this is going.
Yeah, as soon as he said "further out than they could have gotten on their own I knew it was a slight variation on Star Wars
The DM "Rodger" was not played by Mark Waid.
Bruh that luke annihilated himself to help his comrades escape the movie script. That is some post modern shit right there
This could have been a really good idea and game if the DM wasn't railroading. To all the people saying why not just play a SW ttrpg that would defeat half the point (if the DM wasn't railroading) because then the players would immediately know it was Star Wars and so in any given situation either do what they did in the movie cause they know it will work or deliberately do something different for the sake of doing something different instead of coming to their own decisions organically. It would be hard to keep the players from figuring it out (unless they really went in a different direction) even with the setting swap but it would still be interesting.
"only a Sith deals in absolutes"
-Obi-Wan, I think
This would be so cool if the players were actually allowed to make their own choices. Could you imagine finishing the campaign,getting a very different ending from the movie, and then the DM reveals you were playing Star Wars? That'd be pretty neat I think.
One minute in: It's Pirates of the Caribbean. Two minutes in: Oh, it's Star Wars.
Oh god, I was starting to feel dumb because I thought to myself, this couldn't be a star wars game. I was in soo much denial that I legit was confused about the island. Then the names were dropped and mind was blown.
Thank you for the video! All of you friends are super awesome! Oh, moments in that video are sad.
I think it's cool how the different players react to this Star Wars railroad in the same way their characters would have reacted. Han would definitely be having none of it, Chewie would have agreed with him, and Luke would have disliked the situation, but tried to make the best of things.
This campaign could have been cool, if the players had had the option of making the plot go off in different directions. Lukes decision to kill Vader in a suicide-bombing is a perfect example.
“What if D&D, but everyone already knows exactly what’s going to happen?”
This reminds me the time we did a honest and good Star Wars dnd game. The story goes that our ship was shot down scouting a Imperial planet before a massive rebel invasion was to come. We learn the planet was a trap and the rebel fleet was going to attack and be massacred in less then a month. We had to survive, avoid imperial forces, sabotage enemy forces, and our primary goal. Destroying the naming station preventing us and any other rebels on the planet from warning the rebel fleet.
You could say the DM's expectations got subverted
"Wait Luke can't die we have more movies to shoot!"
we can't bring in Jake this early!