Actually, I laughed at Tophandour struggles to make sure his work isn't wasted by players just running randomly around. Is this problem really so common? I have not played that many games yet (soon 2 years of experience)
Now that I come to think of it, this problem arise a lot recently, but my first game, we (the players) didn't had any plan, so we just followed the path set by the GM...
If you're okay with some profanity, inanity, and major social dysfunction, the story of Old Man Henderson is a famously extreme example of style/goal mismatches and the kinds of problems which arise from them both in and out of game.
I've still got some games-with-rails that I'd like to run some time, but by and large I'm happier collaborating with the group to discover a story that surprises us all, rather than trying to manipulate or cajole the players into following my plans.
Play-to-discover is a lot harder, though, in systems that require a lot of prep for encounters and don't mechanise collective creativity.
In DP:PE, threats are defined only by whether they have a particular strength or weakness. Makes it easy to stat up a threat quickly.
The interesting bits come from the player's side, where they narrate how they're handling the threat and that changes what dice they're rolling--and then every other player gets to describe something dangerous about what the hero is doing, which can give the hero more dice.
As a GM all I have to do is say, "One of the threats is a sixty-foot-tall electric alien that's trying to eat the city's power station. He's strong against Science but weak against Weird stuff."
The players take it from there, saying what they're doing and what's dangerous about it, and the dice then tell us if the threat is defeated, and what new dangerous or challenges have come about because of the hero's actions.
Back. Was going to say earlier: @Zachiel most recently, this DM friend of mine was forcing us on rails by making every other path totally lethal or by forcing impossible saves against compulsion. Someone complained that they felt railroaded so he stopped scheduling the campaigns.
That particular game isn't good for long-form campaigns (it's designed for quick games that take an hour or two to play), but the principle of loading complexity onto PCs instead of the world, and of sharing creative worldbuilding responsibility between players and GM alike, is present in many other systems.
Their game is more toward the "pulp" end of things, where you can punch eldritch abominations in the face.
Pulp Mythos games are about being outclassed but still having a good chance to really save the day.
Classic Mythos games are grimmer, focused more on the ineffable nature of the cosmos. Victory conditions in those games tend to be more "I didn't go entirely mad!"
cthulhu-dark is a good short-form (and free!) example of the more classic approach.
Well, the pulp side seems to be a lot of fun, with the proper group to play it. This kind of story is why I came to rpg.stackexchange in the first place
@Nyakouai I suspect part of the underlying problem with Old Man Henderson's group was they didn't all agree on whether they were playing a pulp or classic Mythos game, but nobody recognised that was a thing they might not all be thinking the same way about.
BESW Read about that matter a lot with "problems-player" and "problems-gm". I suppose this is why most games (designed to last) recommand to discuss it beforehand.
@BESW I would say that victory conditions in "classic" Mythos games are closer to "I may have gone crazy and/or died, but at least I managed to prevent the world being devoured at this time."
Both of their Mythos settings have the underlying conceit that humanity's population has recently reached a critical mass where it's broadcasting a psychic welcome mat to the multiverse, and malevolent beings are responding.
Charles Stross' "Laundry Files" series is much more despairing, dwells on darker, more disturbing expressions of that malevolence, and takes a very cynical, almost misanthropic view of the world.
Peter Clines' books "14" and "The Fold" are much much more optimistic about humanity's chances to survive the multiverse, and (more importantly to me) have more faith in humanity's essential goodness.
While I'm quite okay with reading books that have philosophies I disagree with, I prefer my casual entertainment to give the impression it likes the species it's trying to entertain.
So Cline is more likely to feature characters who would choose to sacrifice themselves in order to save others, rather than Stross, whose characters would favor preservation of the self?
Wait SevenSidedDie... You're telling me I stumbled upon the RPG cave? That's were you're asking the sidekicks if they want to help the confused souls in the questions thread? God, I wish I had known this earlier...
@Nyakouai Yeah, if somebody runs across something they don't feel qualified to address (or just don't have time/energy for at the moment), we'll often mention it here.
But the best way to deal with that kind of troll, I've found, is to be relentlessly polite in affirming the site's policies re: clarity, topicality, etc.
(Plus, that means if it's not a troll everything's still okay.)
@Aether Ah, missed that. Yeah, they originally posted it as a question-in-answer to a 5e question, then posted this with a “D&D Next: [stuff]” title. I didn't notice that it was mistagged; fixed now!
@BESW Interesting; they're not tripping my troll sense. What in there is doing it for you?
Are there many trolls? I hardly see them, but I suppose you must be handling this problem too quickly for lil ol' me.... (in fact, I supposed this site was miraculously spared)
process question: is it generally acceptable to post an answer and then go back to add citations, or are answers expected to be complete from the start?
Okay, just bought the German (expanded) and English Montsegur 1244. Time to find out how long it takes, or ask my usual Main Site question of “How long does [This Thing] usually take?”
@Anaphory I've had a game lasting around 3 hours, with mostly expert people and I've personally ran one that would have lasted maybe more, but not that much, with some less experienced people including one complete RPG newbie.
It lasts slightly less if people know what they want to achieve and keep their scenes short and focused.
@BESW got to the creation of the British Spy. It's actually really hard to read when crying from laughter, as I just experienced for the first time since long. Thank you :) (Though it's getting a bit late, and I'm going to resume my reading tommorow)
@JoelHarmon If the citations are important then it's technically ok, but voters will probably not like it. On the flip side, it's encouraged to edit one's answers to improve them, so there's no “final” version that should be the first version posted, if that's what you're thinking.
@SevenSidedDie @BESW Thanks for the feedback. I just feel like I'm often in the situation where I have most of an answer written up, and while I'm reference checking and proof reading, someone else writes essentially the same thing
@nitsua60 I only bothered continuing with my answer this time because I think your answer is incomplete without a reference to the rules on what different actions are (so be aware that it happens the other way, too :) )
@JoelHarmon certainly, there seem to be enough confused points in OP for a variety of answer-approaches to each be a possible best explanation for the author. We'll see what particular turn of a phrase illuminates them. =)
