donjons-and-disasters

[donjons-and-disasters]

TTRPG: A Collaborative Creative Project

RPGs are creative endeavors. Though there are premade settings, adventures and character sheets, I have always felt it was easier to get immersed in something original. Running your own setting allows you to surprise players since there is no module they could reference for what to expect, and it becomes less controversial to take creative agency over the setting if it is wholly your creation. Premade characters have a bit more agency as they're usually just a name and stats, then whoever that character is becomes dependent on how the player plays them. It's not like how there are deep cultures and complicated politics which must be adhered to so player immersion doesn't break running a well known setting like Faerun, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, etc.

One unique thing about running a game is that the setting is the entire table's creation. Obviously it is the primary role of the GM to create the initial sandbox that players explore, but as the players take actions in the campaign, that will trigger a domino effect that changes the world. In addition, parties that start at higher levels are more likely to have an established place in the setting which excuses the experience they already start with. One of my favorite things is to fit the towns, NPCs, groups and Gods my players bring to the table into what already exists, and this engages them more than if they were just little side things that go mostly ignored for a mainline plot.

That brings me to a very common sentiment which I also agree with: If a GM wants to control the outcomes of the campaign, they should write a book. Even if there is a good narrative opportunity or your favorite part of the setting could be explored if they take this route, railroading players away from their intentions is a likely way to break their immersion. It can remind them that this is just a game, or give them a sense they have no control, or plant this idea that the GM's vision matters more than theirs. Remember that RPGs are collaborative experiences, not just for the players to unite against the challenges their GM throws at them, but for the GM to work with the players to get them to the experience they want to have.

Side note: This isn't to say you can't railroad a party. Sometimes, it can be satisfying. Like a BBEG forcing the party into a corner, syncing up this feeling of resistance in the players to their characters urgency to make a memorable encounter. Some players/parties are also just not there to make the choices, but rather be presented with something that they can react off of (Heroes are reactive and villains are proactive, after all.) Railroading is a valid tool that has appropriate applications, just like any other method of running a game.

For my GMs out there, just remember to be loosey goosey. It can make some of the most memorable things in a campaign. For instance, there was an amnesiac character who in the first session of my current campaign mispronounced alcohol as "al-coco-hall." Everyone was like, "yeah whatever buddy," until they came to a bar that served "Al-cocoa-hol," which is now the amnesiacs favorite drink and the most disgusting thing to the rest of the party. Even all these years later, he still asks for it to be imported wherever they travel and keeps a small keg of it on the caravan. Little moments like this are just as important as the high stakes/intensity encounters you spend hours meticulously crafting. Do what you can to bring players into the world, rather than just show it to them, and it will take your campaign from fun to immersive (no matter how silly!)

[donjons-and-disasters]

Plot Relevant Multiclassing

I, and a few of the people I play with, don't treat multiclassing as a means to make the strongest character. I've played with min/max power fantasy players before and I gotta tell you, that shit sucks. To play with someone who would rather bust the mechanics of the game to say they beat the encounter better than everyone else is an exhausting thing to deal with as a fellow player, as it makes characters feel especially inferior because of a player's IRL knowledge (usually just finding busted builds on reddit or something since the most OP ones have already been identified.)

No, we multiclass for story purposes. Each class indicates something different for each character. For instance, my Firbolg character started off as a 3rd level Wizard to indicate his calculated approach to his Fey Court occupation as a Chancellor. As the campaign has advanced, though, he has developed relationships to NPCs and to the party which are warming him up. Since I had the Wisdom for it (and he has connections with the Druids at the court,) I decided he would multiclass into Druid. Each level into Druid indicates a deepening of his emotional intelligence, while each level into Wizard will come when he has to depend more on his logic.

Same thing with my partners Tiefling character from my campaign. She's a Rouge/Monk, and each level she takes is assigned based on what kind of character development she went through since the last level: Being toughened up with angsty, traumatic events means advancing in her Assassin subclass, while each time she gets introspective or comes to term with aspects of her personality she suppresses (like the affection she feels over NPCs or her caretaking nature despite her dangerous occupation) then she advances her in Way of Shadows, like she's doing shadow work.

I find this to be a more rewarding experience than following a preset build. I enjoy doing that, but then things always happen in a campaign which change the way I perceive my character and the trajectory I initially had in mind for them. It makes me feel like a character is more integrated into the game world, a facet of the bigger picture rather than a set destiny that will always come up regardless of the other players you're creating this experience with (and yes, the DM counts as a player, because they are also playing the game.)

[donjons-and-disasters]

Tabletop Roleplaying Games: The Penultimate Hobby

Hello people of the internet! My name is Orch (pronounced like Orc) and I am extremely passionate about TTRPGs, specifically Dungeons and Dragons. I have been running the game for about 7 years since mid high school and been playing it since before then. It has helped me connect with some of the most important people of my life and guided me through difficult times like quarantine. In the last year, I have ran therapeutic campaigns in a formal setting alongside licensed counselors in addition to my current ongoing 3 year campaign and playing in two other campaigns with my personal group.

There is a fantastic book that, if you don't read, you should at least skim the notes of called Tabletop Role Playing Therapy by Megan Conell. Reading it was a revelation for me, putting names to concepts I had been subconsciously utilizing in my own campaigns. It also pools together some of the most recent research on the subject to describe what kinds of benefits it has. I'd also recommend looking up TikTok pages of parents running campaigns for their children and just seeing the growth it supports in action.

I want to take this post to simply state my case for TTRPGs potentially being one of the best hobbies all around. It is the most fun, creative, skill-building, socializing, bonding, confidence building activities that anyone can partake in.

Starting with some of the more clinical things, TTRPG players build reading comprehension and math skills. Having to roll dice and add values together constantly flexes those basic math muscles, making it easier to do more complicated math in day to day life. It also requires reading and interpreting rules, such as the descriptions of your characters actions or of rulings when particular scenarios arise in session. Not only that but many fantasy settings also include riddles or reading passages of lore to solve puzzles and advance through dungeons.

There is also this concept of Bleed In/Out. It sounds a bit daunting, but its actually really fascinating: Basically, it describes how behaviors from a player "Bleed In," to their characters actions, or how a character's experiences, "Bleed Out," into its players real life. Playing the role of something that you aspire to be in real life, of a fantasy of your ideal you, gives you the tangible experience needed to be like that away from the table. Say you want to be more bold since you're shy in-person, so you play a brash character that gets to take social risks with the party and NPCs that you normally wouldn't in a real-life scenario. You simulate all the same emotional reactions being confronted with arguments, debates, questions, embarrassment, and whatnot in a safe space. This acts as a form of exposure therapy that then will make being a bold person easier in your day to day life.

It's also an inherently social activity. RPGs are composed of parties of players which all have to interact with one another to gameplan how to overcome encounters together and accomplish goals in the game's setting. For demographics which may not get much socialization, playing D&D once a week could be the thing keeping them in community. In addition, creative problem solving skills develop alongside teamwork and communication skills.

If you have kids, I highly recommend getting them started in a campaign as early as possible. Though I can't think of any names, there are examples you can look up seeing how timid kids are their first time playing D&D and how much confidence and creativity they grow after playing for years.

Not only does playing an RPG have all these benefits, but so does running one. As a DM, I can attest to how many weird fields I got into to make an immersive, deep, inclusive, tasteful and interesting setting for my players to explore. You don't need to do this, as there are plenty of modules from the decades that you can use or pull from, but I always felt more confident running my own setting where I knew whatever I said was true, that I wasn't going to get anything wrong because it was my creation. I've gotten into history, civil engineering, geology, economics, political science, linguistics, culinary arts, fashion and so, so, SO much more just to make a good setting. Not only that, but you develop skills like worldbuilding, character writing, acting, improvisation, visual arts for character/creature design, maps and flags, on top of all of the other things a normal player gets as well.

I think that's all I'm going to write about in this post. I could go on forever about the endless benefits of playing RPGs. I probably will over the course of my planned future posts. My hope is that this sparks some interest in aspiring players or Game Masters and that you'll follow up with my future posts detailing my experiences with playing, GMing, tips and advice for mechanics and player relations, tools that make all this easier, and hopefully the creative inspiration to do your own thing in the future.