First Dm Experience!
I sponsor a High School dnd club. Our Dm was late, so I stepped in and ran a 2 hour dungeon crawl. Tonight we ran a monthly Friday meeting that lasts longer (4 hours instead of 2). I got to create a world or Racial tension between human masterlords and white dragon slaves in which one of our characters is White Dragonborn. I typed a 3 page synopsis of the night, but wanted to share the best moment of the night. The club is very heavy combat oriented but I did an RP intense story that I picked up from the student DM (being a guest Dm for 2 sessions). The team finally was found by the designed mentor meant to aid the players to find the assassination hit--give the DM a voice to work through. The RP kept their attention more than Combat ever did.
Morcan (was Morcant until the team said Morcan as he can do more) came back to pelt the wolves and Jeff talked to him as a fellow dragon born in a racially intense conflict being a main plot driver. Ollie tried to talk to him but he was a "simple Sheppard impersonating an assassin" (he came late so he was the Sheppard of the farm they were on as a "how did you find us mechanic"). The team finally said what they wanted to "Kill Victor" and Morcan proclaimed "I WANT TO KILL VICTOR TOO" but required payment since that's his main motivation. 500 Gold from each PC, 700 from the Human Casey who the white dragon born are not fans of due to slavery and all, and 200 from his racial brother Jeff. The plan to find Victor was called R&R explained by Morcan: find a cleric, capture a white dragon born alive. Torture him until he tells us where to go or he dies. The party talked between them but finally said "Wait, whats the R&R part?" "Well, if you he doesn't tell you then you resurrect and repeat." The four players out of character were like "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH." (honesty, the Pcs can find the assassination hit any way they want to, I'm giving them a way if they want to figure it out. Finding a cleric and a live rebel is part of their problem)
So I prepped the day before and came up with this R&R bit. This was one paragraph of the 4 page summary. The reaction from the student players made the prep worth it.
My out of no where question is that I had the students roll responses to random events and if they said "I do something something something" I have them roll a D20 to determine success, but I didn't really state a type of roll. The student DM asked if I could start saying which type of roll to add modifier for. Is there a rule of thumb when its okay to do a naked d20 roll to make a decision so I am not railroading but let the crazy ideas actually be successful based on the roll. Ie, the PC takes off his shirt, the Aes Sedai roll d20 to determine if they are attracted. A nat-twenty happens and the PC was teleported away with her. Does it always need to be a type of roll, and when should it be/not be? Can "roll the reaction" be a way to let rail-roading not happen?
Posted May 12, 2018, 1:00 AM UTC
Fantastic job with your ability to adapt and improvise! That will serve you well in the long run for sure. I remember the first time I had players react that way to something I created, SO ADDICTIVE.
As for your question ultimately you are in control of the experience, but allowing the players to feel cool is a tight rope we DMs have to walk. Just as we take a long time to create our stories, our players put alot of thought into their characters. The sneaky rouge wants to focus on Dexterity based actions because they know thats what they are good at for example.
Here is how I would approach it in your situation. Firstly, I would prefer modifiers and rolls based off the main stats. (Creates depth and a unique experience for your players.) It also allows for you to put players in positions that they aren’t necessarily comfortable with but create fun and memorable experiences. (Although there have been times that I have made my players roll 20s for things outside of the main 6 stats.)
For example rolling for embarrassment on the way to a jail, etc. Each number was tied to something embarrassing happening to the players allowing them to laugh or have fun. (Roll a 13 and a players pants fall around their ankles.) If success and failure are involved I would absolutely recommend using the statistical modifications.
Actions players take should be associated in some way or another to those six main stats. I usually play fast and loose with alot of rules but that just lays out general structure. As for the railroading side of things, your imagination can burden alot of that load. You can also mitigate the depth of diversion by just creating certain scenarios. In the event of one of your PCs showing off the super awesome pectorals, a nat 20 shouldnt go unrewarded. That also doesnt mean you have to deviate wildly from a particular path. Instead of teleporting them away, maybe create a call back to the time they legendarily woo’d an entire crowd of beings.
Im not sure if this was helpful or not but there was alot to dig through lol. Am I on track with what you were asking?
More anecdotes from last night's session that stand out:
One of the PC killed a sheep since he was infected with a evil plague... at the same time another PC was summoning a familiar. Sure you get a familiar--the familiar is the mini ghost of the slain sheep, whose name was Bella, and runs away from the first PC who is still wet with sheep blood.
The wife of the PC who replaced the Sheppard's life sees the dead sheep, beckons the husband to fix this. The husband PC says "They're my friends" and she promptly kicks him out of his house, due to friends of sheep murderer
The question was amorphous and nebulous.
I don't want the PC to think their rolls is the only thing that matter, that their skills matter, and more importantly their interactions affect the outcome the most, but I have them/me roll when I'm on the fence about the outcome of their actions. Now I know to say this exact line to the players so they know how I roll(ha).
A lot of what you said makes sense and reinforce's a PC (who is the DM but I am taking over for a few sessions) opinion of "let us modify our rolls more based on a skills" which I did not utilize as much as I should. If I am undecided I should roll instead when there's no modifiers to see "eff it, lets randomize the outcome."
Tight rope of their in control is not hard for me, but I want to live in a semi-random world which their actions have unforeseen consequences since let's roll and respond based on the impressions fostered by the rolls. I'm on the fence of the reaction, I respond based on the roll.
Thanks for your response. It helped me figure out how to balance randomizing the encounters enough to keep it fresh with small variances from my ideas based on chance.