Questions tagged [story]
For questions about the sequence of events that take place in the fictional environment within a roleplaying game.
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Are there pitfalls to allowing for a Story with an open ending?
In 7th Sea second edition, I'm working with one of my players on a Story where their character is to retrieve a stolen item of significant value. He hasn't decided what the character wants to do with ...
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A reason someone would not just go to a cleric to resurrect a loved one in D&D? [closed]
I have been working on a scenario to play with a group of friends however I wasn't sure what system we would be using. We decided on 5e D&D but I've run into a problem with the core motivation of ...
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How do I learn to be a GM? [closed]
I have never played Pathfinder before or D&D. My friends and I started a trial run with various characters that they made and I have been directed into the GMing position. Yet I have no idea what ...
user44624
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How to teach gamers to roleplay [closed]
My question really boils down to:
How do I deal with pc-gamers who want to play my game as if it were a computer game?
I ran a game with several gamer friends, who were more or less new to the ...
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Is D&D a suitable tool for fleshing out my own fictional world?
So I've gone around on the web, trying to figure out exactly how D&D works, and still I'm befuddled. Let me first start by stating what exactly it is I'm trying to achieve.
So, I'm an aspiring ...
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How to throw off suspicion for the big reveal in a way that it is not unfairly blindsiding them?
In my plot I have a big bad obvious "dark lord" type villain... who is the pawn of the hidden evil mastermind. Basically said mastermind created a threat to ensure that everyone bands together to ...
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How do I keep my players from investing too much time in their doomed characters?
I'm designing a campaign for a group of friends. One of the main plot hooks is a bunch of mercenaries that want to bring them to an oracle which gives them the first indication of the Big Bad. When ...
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How do I reveal the Big Bad only by foreshadowing, without the reveal being too early or late?
What I plan for my campaign is to drop hints about some greater evil, and whenever my players reach the natural point of realization, have them go off on a search to stop it. I wanna do it naturally, ...
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What can I do to give the players more freedom? [closed]
I'm a newish DM playing a fantasy RPG similar do D&D but a lot simpler, either way, it won't matter that much.
I'm not very good at improvising yet and if i do it too much it may become a mess ...
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How do I make information that I give my players "accidental"?
I like the idea that the players of my campaign are meddlers. Creatures who have came upon knowledge only by accident or putting their noses where those noses don't belong. The idea that the ...
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Should I let one of my Players control his character's kids?
I have a Player whose character has kids. That's fine with me, the kids that this character has are 23, 24, and 25.
The player wants to control the kids of this character whenever they show up. I'm ...
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How can I avoid metagaming and conflicting narratives when presenting parallel stories to the same players?
If you are one of my Players: "Sam, Harlan, Simon or Matt" please do not ready this.
I am having the plan to run a side campaign in my World Custom 4e D&D game (Basically skins to replace the ...
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How can I add details to my character mid-campaign? [closed]
I'm very new to Dungeons and Dragons, but when creating my character, I made it part of his backstory that he had a magic amulet that he couldn't take off. It was originally a McGuffin that I used to ...
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The first story arc got too high powered, too fast. Help! [closed]
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but things are complicated!
We just finished playing a 3 year long, evil PCs, highly detail oriented, deeply immersive roleplay style game. As the ...
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Help me find a recap of an adventure where different party/same players, visit village [closed]
A couple years back I found a text about a player recapping one of their most memorable pen&paper sessions. I found it in a forum thread where people shared some of their most memorable pen&...
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My PCs are getting distracted from the main storyline, focusing on their own ventures instead
Ok, I say PCs... but I actually mean PC.
I am running a 1-player D&D 5e game for a friend (let's call her Jane), as a way of introducing them to the game. It was only meant to be a "non-canon", ...
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How do I correct giving the players too many plot details?
As a beginning DM, I still have to find my way in telling parts of the plot.
Twice, I've said things about the plot that I later regretted - once because it wouldn't make sense for the PCs to know ...
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What do you do when your players guess your plots?
So I'm a new GM and am running my first campaign.
I'm by no means running a terribly complicated game with Elizabethan parlor intrigue, but I do have a few twists that I'm excited to throw at my ...
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Who gets to write how character backgrounds tie into the game?
One of my player's character is searching for a long-lost brother whom he never knew. Who is ultimately responsible for how this NPC is written into the story?
I realize that I am the DM, and ...
user32165
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How can I stress my players' resources while making the stressors feel natural without simply adding more combat encounters?
In a weekly campaign I've been running my players have recently reached levels where they are obtaining some of their core abilities. One of my players is a druid, who has chosen the wild shape-...
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How many (loosely linked) layers of story are managable for the players? [closed]
While plotting the course of our "campaign", picking up adventure or story ideas, I have come to a point where multiple plots interleave. But not in the classic, homogeneous "adventure -> story arc -> ...
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My players want a tighter narrative, but have wandered off course. What now?
I started a new campaign yesterday for a smaller group of players that are new to pen and paper roll playing games. Before we started actually playing the players and I were talking about how P&...
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How should I handle killing (or not) this character? [closed]
So I've been playing with the same group for a long time and they aren't the smartest which has led to the loss of many PCs in this D&D game. Only one has survived this entire time. His name is ...
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How can I get my player to work with the story instead of roleplaying a lunatic?
My play group is currently running a prototype game we made based on Dragon Ball Z using d20 rules; I'm GMing. One player in particular always makes characters that are mentally limited, crazy or with ...
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Engaging players away from the table [closed]
So I'm running a D&D 3.5 game right now with 4 friends, soon to be 5. I was talking with one of them after a session asking what they thought I could do to improve the campaign and they ...
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How do I turn a scenario idea into an adventure?
I'm still struggling with, as a GM, turning a scenario idea or a goal of the PCs' into a proper adventure. A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” ...
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How would you sever the material plane from the rest? [closed]
I won't bore you with my world and plot details, but the end goal for the BBEG is to cut the material plane entirely from the other planes, thereby:
Eliminating all forms of magic
Preventing gods ...
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How do you incorporate improved plot details? [closed]
I am the DM for a group of a few guys and I'm currently running a 5e campaign set in the jungle where the players are from an isolated group of people who have gone into the wilderness and uncovered ...
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Has anyone blended dice from SW Force and Destiny to the d20 in a Pathfinder campaign? [closed]
So we just finished a SW Force and Destiny campaign and now we are into a Pathfinder campaign. We miss the enriching plot elements that were added by the threats and advantages from the novel dice ...
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How does Fate handle wildly out-of-scope attempts to declare story details?
The way I see, Fate lets anyone declare details and describe parts of the world more or less as the player sees fit. Unless the setting is based on a certain fixed universe known by all players, ...
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How can I moderate the flow of information in a discovery-focused campaign?
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The overarching structure of my current campaign relies a lot on discovery. My players are placed in an open world that they can explore more or less freely, but in order to make ...
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How can I tell if my prep is right for a session's length?
Because I have a group that acts unpredictably, I stay away from laying out the whole adventure - let alone the campaign - beforehand. Instead I write each new session as a response to their actions ...
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Building Story as a Player
I would like to know how to help a new GM build story as a player.
History
I am playing a campaign with some friends and our GM is a new GM and we have been playing for about a month now.
He has ...
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Is making characters who go off the rails unlucky a good technique for keeping the plot moving?
I will soon be the GM of a 4 players party. It will be my very first game as a GM, and one thing that terrifies me is to let players make the choices they want and lose them far away from the plot.
I ...
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How do I design a campaign about stealing? [closed]
In the one-on-one campaign I'm running, the player's rogue wants to steal stuff. All the time. His goal is to become the Greatest Thief of All Time. I prefer good stories, but the player seems more ...
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Managing a Medieval Low Orbit Ion Cannon
Sometimes I hate my players.
My table is currently composed of five diabolically inventive players. They come from a mixed IT/Engineering background, so more often than not, I have to deal with some ...
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Where can I find stories about the yakuza? [closed]
I'm planning my first (short) adventure, replacing my group's previous GM for a few sessions. Thing is, I'm new to Shadowrun, and I don't have much background knowledge of the universe in general or ...
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How do I tie episodic sessions together to make larger campaign arcs?
My D&D group only plays perhaps once a month and occasionally one of them won't be able to make it. I (the DM) home-brewed our last campaign and, whilst fun, the big story arcs and multiple NPCs ...
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What do you do when avoiding railroading just gives you stuck players?
I'm seeking some newbie GM advice. I'm an experienced rpg player, but am much less experienced as a GM
I was recently running an D&D 5e adventure, where the players would be investigating in a ...
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Are amnesia stories good for RPGs? [closed]
I've noticed that some plot types seem hard to pull off in Role Playing Games.
Are Party Amnesia plots good for the medium? Do they require any special handling? Should the players be in on it (...
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How to recover when players go the "wrong" way?
I'm GMing some Shadow of Esteren games with friend. If you do not know that RPG just take a look it's very cool :-).
I'm following the scenarios given in the official book (don't have time to set up ...
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How long should I wait to bring back the Player character? [closed]
So I have been running this game for a while now. The player character has died a few times at this point and was resurrected each time. I made it clear that they had run out of resurrects.
In our ...
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How should I go about stabbing my friend in the back? [closed]
I'll let that title sit there for a second while I explain my situation.
So, first off - recently the DM let slip that his current campaign is loosely based on the Star Wars trilogy (which one though,...
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How do I hint at events outside the scope of the current quest?
I'm GMing a long-term game with some friends, and they are the sort who, as soon as I drop a hint about anything, go "Let's investigate that!" I want there to be an overarching story arc, but it's ...
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How do I deal with a PC with an NPC's soul bonded to them? [closed]
Brief version: an NPC's soul has just been bonded to a PC, but I haven't decided on the mechanics of what that means yet. How do I do this in a fun way?
Background
My party is currently on a long-term ...
user3829
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Creating an artifact that the heroes must destroy? [closed]
I'm on a Lord of the Rings kick, so I'm curious how you'd create a major plot device that is both the main antagonist and the strongest weapon they have without killing the party with Ring Wraiths (or ...
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What is a fractal style of story generator?
Inspired by this question:
I have never heard of a Fractal style story generator, I did a quick google and am somewhat uncertain as to how this differs from developing a normal story arc. So, what ...
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What are some 'Realistic' ideas for side-quests? [closed]
Okay, to start off by "Realistic", I don't mean stern, and lifeless. I mean within realms of reason, and not high-fantasy stuff.
So, our group is playing a campaign, and there's no over-arching ...
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How to make your players hate your villain, but not your game
How does one build the character of a villain such that the players (playing heroic characters) hate the villain as much as possible without detracting too much from the quality of the game?
What ...
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How to make a great villain who your players hate more than anything else? [closed]
I'd love to hear from you guys what you consider to be the best way to make the motive that drives the players to defeat the villain to be something personal and even passional.
I believe a villain ...
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