Friendship is Dragons
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Page 1689 - Chaos Embraced
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Interesting to see Discord-DM is actually quite a bit more considerate than I expected. I wonder if he did a little analysis of how the previous game went and found he was----dissatisfied with the results.
At the end of the day, he's still a veteran Dungeon Master. And at the end of the day a campaign is still a cooperative event between players and DM. If the players don't want to play, then the table falls apart, and any DM worth his dice is going to be paying attention to that level of engagement all throughout the night.
"I'm offended but not raging" is my new favorite line for a barbarian. :D
I like to get my players a bit riled up, but I will make sure that anger is focused on the villain. Because when you get your players invested in destroying the villain, you're gonna have a good time watching them move mountains to reach them.
I like to get my players a bit riled up, but I will make sure that anger is focused on the villain. Because when you get your players invested in destroying the villain, you're gonna have a good time watching them move mountains to reach them.
I guess the Discord Mod could read the winds, he could see that Discord was not going to be popular and decided that the best was to make him go away
Yeah, even a hard-challenger DM still have to have some concerns for the players, good to see that the Discord-DM is like that.
Looking at the other comments, idk, I'm not getting the "I'm suddenly concerned about the wellbeing of the players" vibe from DMcord's dialogue. It feels less like "I'm making sure they're not upset this time" and more "I'm somewhat SURPRISED they're not upset this time". It feels like he was expecting them to be crushed from his trick but they're not playing along so easily this time around.
Plus it would be wildly out of character considering that there's still a lot of unresolved tension from the previous game for everyone to suddenly be all hunky-dory.
Plus it would be wildly out of character considering that there's still a lot of unresolved tension from the previous game for everyone to suddenly be all hunky-dory.
Yeah, this feels more like a "gotcha moment" that didn't quite get the result he'd hoped for. Over the last few pages, he seemed pretty pleased with himself for doing it. Bare minimum, he was expecting to surprise the players and catch them off-guard, which he achieved.
I think part of the Mane 6's players' collective strategy was as much about putting themselves in an understanding and receptive mindset as much as in-game planning. Not to the extent where they ANTI Discord DM's jokes, but are in a less combative frame to receive them.
I think part of the Mane 6's players' collective strategy was as much about putting themselves in an understanding and receptive mindset as much as in-game planning. Not to the extent where they ANTI Discord DM's jokes, but are in a less combative frame to receive them.
Honestly, as the dm no I don't out of my way to do that (I have met some who do), but the distinction between, dm, npc, and villain is a blurry line. A smart villain uses everything they've got, if manipulating emotions of the characters is what it takes then do so, it's at that point on the players to decide how much bleed over between them and their character is. It's unfortunate but at times a villain using every trick they've got is going to be irritating. As for getting a rise out of them, well what other metric does one use to determine emotional investment other then emotion after all? Our goal is to make the world feel real, the players to become immersed in their characters, to feel the thrill of victory they would, to feel the agony of defeat, to truly worry when "this might be the end" after all.
Hmm. I probably would go out of my way to rile my players, but not like this. The trick with catharsis is that if it takes too long to arrive it loses some of the pleasure. The satisfaction from finally getting the bastard becomes outweighed by the ongoing frustration of them always getting away. If I pulled such a stunt, it would be at most a single session's delay, lest I risk losing the joy.
My preferred way to rile my players is to show them something awful in universe and then give them the chance to act against said awful, especially if they have extra reason to care in character. The last thing I want is to hurt my players by teasing them unfairly, so having the big bad go poof without a way to track him is just rude. Hmm, there's an idea: an entire story mission based around tracking this one asshole on the run so you can give him his just desserts. Such missions usually take around three sessions to complete, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. I need to go write this down...
My preferred way to rile my players is to show them something awful in universe and then give them the chance to act against said awful, especially if they have extra reason to care in character. The last thing I want is to hurt my players by teasing them unfairly, so having the big bad go poof without a way to track him is just rude. Hmm, there's an idea: an entire story mission based around tracking this one asshole on the run so you can give him his just desserts. Such missions usually take around three sessions to complete, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. I need to go write this down...
But. Y'know. Maybe we want to get a rise out of them, maybe. Maybe get 'em nice and riled up.