Oh man, I was in the middle of my shift at work today when I suddenly remembered the blog. I forgot if I had published something ahead of time, and lo and behold, I did not.
Thankfully my job is super close by, literally five-to-ten minutes walk. If this would have happened when I had my old job, I would have been screeeewed. To put it lightly, that is. Or heavily.
Before I get into the content of this post, I know that only six posts into this thing and a third of my posts have been about Dungeons and Dragons, but it's generally on my mind five or six days a week due to how I made the game; essentially, an every-choice-matters sort of game where different choices lead to legitmately different paths.
Anyway, on the topic of timing, I've been thinking about D&D and how my games have been running so far. Pacing is incredibly important for anyone interested in telling a story; you take too long on one thing and you risk losing the audience. Unfortunately for me I feel like I've been doing just that these last few games.
Part of that is the uncertainty of the game's future, both in-game and out. In-game, I've given my players a general guideline--right now they're searching for a blacksmith--but how they do that I try to leave it up to them--they could either take one of two options presented, not take either, or choose an option other players discovered. Out of game, finding the time to play when college rolls around will be... difficult, to say the least.
The amount of time and effort I've put into this game, plus just my overall enjoyment of crafting a world and guiding some friends through it... honestly, this is one of the few things I look forward to doing each week. Generally.
But getting back on topic here, the last few sessions the party was split, so I had to divvy up the time for each person so that no one would feel left out or bored. The first dungeon I made was based solely on this concept; most of the players' characters hadn't even met until that one dungeon and they even came in from different entrances.
Last game, however, had the group split up looking for information on the aforementioned blacksmith. Since I try to make every choice feel meaningful and not just a slight variation on how to get from point A to point B, I plan very little outside of a general outline/checklist. This session was no different. Unfortunately, one of the things I planned on the fly was a small fight a couple of characters took part in, but the other players? Gathering information.
That's all well and good, but rolling the dice is part of the appeal to any tabletop game. I felt bad that I wasn't able to include them in any of the action, though they did manage to forward the plot. I haven't gotten any complaints yet, but I still want to improve the experience for everyone.
I also forget that despite myself thinking that what I plan ought to be just enough for three or four hours, my players are very curious; I found myself making up taverns and shops for the characters to visit. I need to keep this in mind for future games.
Anyway, thanks for dropping by. I'll try to talk about something not D&D-related for tomorrow's post.
No promises,
Eric
Thankfully my job is super close by, literally five-to-ten minutes walk. If this would have happened when I had my old job, I would have been screeeewed. To put it lightly, that is. Or heavily.
Before I get into the content of this post, I know that only six posts into this thing and a third of my posts have been about Dungeons and Dragons, but it's generally on my mind five or six days a week due to how I made the game; essentially, an every-choice-matters sort of game where different choices lead to legitmately different paths.
Anyway, on the topic of timing, I've been thinking about D&D and how my games have been running so far. Pacing is incredibly important for anyone interested in telling a story; you take too long on one thing and you risk losing the audience. Unfortunately for me I feel like I've been doing just that these last few games.
Part of that is the uncertainty of the game's future, both in-game and out. In-game, I've given my players a general guideline--right now they're searching for a blacksmith--but how they do that I try to leave it up to them--they could either take one of two options presented, not take either, or choose an option other players discovered. Out of game, finding the time to play when college rolls around will be... difficult, to say the least.
The amount of time and effort I've put into this game, plus just my overall enjoyment of crafting a world and guiding some friends through it... honestly, this is one of the few things I look forward to doing each week. Generally.
But getting back on topic here, the last few sessions the party was split, so I had to divvy up the time for each person so that no one would feel left out or bored. The first dungeon I made was based solely on this concept; most of the players' characters hadn't even met until that one dungeon and they even came in from different entrances.
Last game, however, had the group split up looking for information on the aforementioned blacksmith. Since I try to make every choice feel meaningful and not just a slight variation on how to get from point A to point B, I plan very little outside of a general outline/checklist. This session was no different. Unfortunately, one of the things I planned on the fly was a small fight a couple of characters took part in, but the other players? Gathering information.
That's all well and good, but rolling the dice is part of the appeal to any tabletop game. I felt bad that I wasn't able to include them in any of the action, though they did manage to forward the plot. I haven't gotten any complaints yet, but I still want to improve the experience for everyone.
I also forget that despite myself thinking that what I plan ought to be just enough for three or four hours, my players are very curious; I found myself making up taverns and shops for the characters to visit. I need to keep this in mind for future games.
Anyway, thanks for dropping by. I'll try to talk about something not D&D-related for tomorrow's post.
No promises,
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment