this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
23 points (71.7% liked)

Dungeons and Dragons

11029 readers
89 users here now

A community for discussion of all things Dungeons and Dragons! This is the catch all community for anything relating to Dungeons and Dragons, though we encourage you to see out our Networked Communities listed below!

/c/DnD Network Communities

Other DnD and related Communities to follow*

DnD/RPG Podcasts

*Please Follow the rules of these individual communities, not all of them are strictly DnD related, but may be of interest to DnD Fans

Rules (Subject to Change)

Format: [Source Name] Article Title

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world
owenfromcanada@lemmy.world
23
DMs are just writers that have an idea for a story, but don't feel like writing a book. (lemmy.world)
submitted 12 hours ago by Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world to c/dnd@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Kind of a shower thought, and maybe it's just how I run campaigns, but it feels like there's a lot of parallels between DMing and that guy who has a great idea for a book/movie but will never write a single page.

The DM comes up with "So what if there's this guy with this magic power, and the only way to beat him is through a very specific process." And then all the Players decide: who are the characters? What do they do? What do they say? How's it all work out?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BCOVertigo@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago

The campaigns my players consistently voice as their favorites are ones where I created an overarching plot, and then incorporated their backstories as significant and impactful portions of that plot. Being the sole input for character motivations for a story (as with a book) makes it easier to end up with a coherent vision and story, but more difficult because of the amount of content you're responsible for. Conversely a good DM can offload work to players and end up with a result that everyone is personally invested in.

I will say though that some DMs end up writing thousands of pages over the course of years spent in an ongoing campaign and might cry at your characterization.

It's definitely POSSIBLE to run a campaign without ever writing a page, but good luck when your characters get attached to an NPC you forgot about if improvisation isn't your forte.