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Thursday, June 5, 2014

Can You See the Problem?

I don't understand why we're waiting for him to get to the point, I whispered to Poot.
 
"Don't be like that, Charlie," he said with a grim smile, "he just feels like the game has to take on a certain tone."
 
Really? 'Cause he's boring the fuck out of me.
 
"You two on the end," the DM said, "none of that talk. What you say in this game matters."
 
Good. I'm going to the nearest bar and having a drink.
 
"We're not there yet."
 
"Seriously," Poot asked. "You've been giving us the set up for twenty minutes."
 
"Look, if you two jokers don't want to play," he began.
 
See, that's the problem. We desperately want to play. You just want to tell a fucking story. I'm done waiting. Anyone else want to go to the Dog Food Factory? It's Cinco de Mayo and they've got half priced beer all night.
 
"Yeah," Poot said, "fuck this noise."
 
"You two just don't understand how to play D&D!"

9 comments:

  1. If you are going to tell your players a story it better be a good story, and the players should be telling the GM how it ends not sitting and waiting for the noise to stop.

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    Replies
    1. I've only had three experiences like this in my life. I've walked out of each of them.

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  2. You can't take too long to get to the point. I'm not a fan of "hack & slash" myself, but if your Players want -- or will tolerant -- that much story, they'll probably buy a book.

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    1. For my group and I, story in our games is a key component that brings us to the table again and again.

      It must be a story the players and PC are involved in however. It should be told while things are happening, not instead of things happening.

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    2. Mystic Scholar

      Brevity, as the old saying goes, is king.

      Barking Alien

      You're absolutely right!

      Delete
  3. Oh yeah. That's one of the things I never liked in the beginning of many of the AD&D adventure modules, the DMs felt the need to read it to us. Fuck! That was boring. By the time they would finish reading the intro I'd have no idea what we needed to do. And I ask. "Okay, so what do we need to do again?" GM, "Recover the artifact from the sunken temple." Me, "Done. Try that next time."

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    1. Sometimes, Tim, I would swear that we've played in the same games!

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  4. I'm remember similar discussion happening at my gaming table back in 1991 or 92, when I was still a neophyte DM. I'd just read a long piece boxed text from a module (Eye of Traldar?), and my players started writing notes and forth to each other. I got annoyed and asked, "What's going on?"

    My brother, without saying a word, passed me a note that said: "you suck."

    I've never read boxed text word-for-word again. LOL

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