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14:16

TTRPGkids: Interview with Aaron from Inner Realms Journey, a meditative TTRPG experience

posted on February 05, 2024 by Steph C.

After getting to meet Aaron from Inner Realms Journey in person at GenCon last year, I had the opportunity to chat with him about how he's combining meditation and TTRPGs to help both kids and adults find peace and self empowerment in a way that's fun and engaging! Continue reading “Interview with Aaron from Inner Realms Journey, a meditative TTRPG experience”…

VLAZ

17:17

I don't really see why Reasons for being sent to retrieve an all-powerful artefact? was closed as OB. Surely "how to set up an adventure" is a question that this stack should be able to answer. I don't see a huge difference to the recent question How to handle a plot twist for a character arc?

or Why Do We Keep Adventuring? (which has been closed as OB then reopened)

VLAZ

17:30

Also, as a separate thing I don't understand - how is that a shopping question? I was under the impression that "shopping" is for products only - seeking game systems, or supplements, etc. Not for "how do I write an adventure hook for <context>" which at worst might be POB, however, I fail to see how it is not what the help centre describes as "Constructive subjective questions"

Trish

17:51

@VLAZ there's multiple metas on recommendation and campaign research, that one falls under multiple:

25

Q: Are campaign research questions on topic? [2012]

There is a category of questions on this site that seriously pollutes our scope. Taking these questions to their logical maximum (which I see us continually approaching) everything under the sun has become on topic. This category is campaign research. Appending historical-settings, campaign-de...

26

Q: Are tool recommendation questions on topic?

Recommendations for games and published adventures are now off topic due to our policy on them being rescinded. The general agreement was that we did have functioning rules for them, but enough users were intentionally disobeying them that the effort of enforcing them was no longer balanced by t...

discussion faq on-topic tools

22

Q: Are Game Recommendation Questions On Topic? [2015]

Game recommendation questions are sadly NOT on topic here on RPG.SE. This means the following kinds of questions are off topic: I want to play (details) kind of game/story. What game should I use to do that? Which game does (thing) the best? Are there any games that let me do (thing) / have this...

discussion faq on-topic game-recommendation

And most damning:

12

Q: I want to ask for recommendations, but that's off topic. Is there any way to ask my question?

Recommendation questions have been off-topic since August 2015. If I need a recommendation, how can I get help now? Return to the FAQ Index

support faq game-recommendation

VLAZ

Literally not one of these is applicable, though. It's not asking for a recommendation for a game, adventure, not even a "research question" which the first link essentially defines as anything that's not quite relevant to the plot. Is setting up adventures for an RPG group really off-topic?

Trish

in general, we are very strict on the Good/bad subjective part, and if that wouldn't be opinion based, it's "needs more info".
"make up a reason for a campaign" is something that is much too much on the bad subjective part, as to even attempt to answer it we'd need to join their group during the Sessions 0 in which they ought to discuss that and only then we can answer.

VLAZ

Seriously?! "How do I justify my players go after the McGuffin" is not something GMs have to deal with and have relevant experience with?

Trish

the problem is "Invent a story for me!" - that we can't do. How is "The dragon stole the gold" better than "the king stole the gold"?
"How can I tell this story I made up?" we can answer.

VLAZ

I suppose all that's left to do is amend the help centre, since it seems to suggest that adventure writing is on-topic. You seem to claim it never is.

Trish

17:57

@VLAZ That only works if you tell us what the McGuffin is, who the players are, what the world is and like... you'd present us your anwer then!

@VLAZ Adventure writing is on topic when it comes to actual, showable expertise. Like "How to structure my adventure?" On topic. "How to progress from A to C over some [undefined] B?" Opinion based.

rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/search?q=adventure+design7

VLAZ

I don't see meaningful difference with "How to structure my adventure" here. Surely it's OB, as it requires the same expertise and skills that one needs to answer "How do I set up an adventure for X".

Trish

adventure-design in general is on topic. Like, it's usually abstract. But the moment that two answers could be diametrical opposite and still be valid, then it is by definition opinion based.

and "Why do my heroes chase the McGuffin" can only be answered by the players.

VLAZ

And "How to structure my adventure" can have diametrically opposed answers. Ergo, it's off-topic.

Trish

"How do I make my McGuffin interesting" however is answerable without going opinion based by us: you can analyse tropes or base interests

VLAZ

"How do I make my McGuffin interesting" can also have diametrically opposed answers.

Trish

18:07

How do I make my McGuffin Interesting and How to structure my Adventure are answerable with good subjective by showing what worked and how, or what are genre basics. How to structure an adventure could be answered with "Challenge, Focus, Strike" or it could be pointing to the Dungeon Master guidelines, and elaborating when either is useful.

How to make the McGuffin interesting could be answered by looking at player types and pointing to their base motivations and what would feed those player types with what they crave for.

But how would you answer "How to get Frank Miller to like my plot and hunt the McGuffin" if you are not Frank Miller or know him?

One of the main problems with the question in itself came in the accepted answer:

> I think you're making a questionable assumption: that the quest-giver is hiring a 'random' group of adventurers. This looks like a terrible misapplication of statistical thinking to me.

and in the other answer:

> Tailor the adventure to your table and your campaign.
> It's a best practice as a DM. May as well start doing that right off.

VLAZ

@Trish The question is not that, though. It's "How do I set up an adventure hook where the players have to go after a McGuffin" and does describe the boundaries of that - what in-game reason should they be given and also how it should be framed for the players to not run off with the McGuffin.

This is a basic plot device that, I'd hazard a guess, comes up in at least 50% of the all adventures ever. There is surely a good subjective answer to how to handle such a plot.

Trish

@VLAZ I don't read the question like that. I see the question as "My party shall retrieve OP item of the week for 200 GP, Why do they do it and not take the OP item?"

VLAZ

Right, it also talks about why they'd even go after it.

Trish

>"Are there any reasons that I'm missing that feel less artificial and still provide an in-world reason for the party not to run off with the artefact?"

That is highly opinion based or at least specific on unstated facts of the group. What I find artificial, you might find natural. What works in Shadowrun might not work in Cyberpunk. What works in Group A's D&D campaign works not in Group B's, even though they have the same GM and use the same world because the players are different.

Like, if Group A is all made up from Explorers, and Group B is made up of Killers, the two groups have little to nothing in common, and you would need to either write a 50k character blog post on it (-> needs more focus and/or details/clarity ), or you could ansawer with "just bribe the characters more" just as well as "threaten to throw them out of the group if they don'T want to play the adventures you offer."

but that's just my take on the question. If you want more, make a meta.

Feeds

18:59

Deeper in the Game: Poking the Door – the biggest trap of all

posted on February 05, 2024 by bankuei

Our Errant game is going fine, though I’ve been reminded of the thing I like the least in dungeoncrawling… I call it “poking the door”. It’s when the party spends 20 minutes describing in intricate detail how they go about testing the door, trying to glean info from it, and so on, like verbally describing dismantling […]