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Author Topic: The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!  (Read 2559 times)

thedungeondelver

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The stories of D&D are not character backgrounds or elaborate plots created by the DM. They're the memories we create when we play, whether meta-game or within the game, they're the "Remember the time Bob cast invisibility on himself, and tied the Giant's shoelaces together as the giant slept?" moments.

Last night I was privileged enough to create and be a part of one of the best of those.

Every year I run a "Christmas game" for the adventurers. Without delving too much into the specifics, the party was squared off against a herd of deadly Christmas Tree Monsters (shamelessly lifted from the Zork games). They had no idea how they'd overcome hundreds of 9' tall, angry intelligent Christmas trees. Charm Plant? Use a Potion of Plant Control? Fireball them?

Finally a couple of players suggested they try to sing Christmas carols at them (the Trees were singing off-color versions of old Christmas standards like "Plover the River and Frotz the Woods" and "I'm Dreaming of a Black Cavern" and so on).

Jeremy Rule, playing the party bard, picked up his guitar (note: Jeremy, not the bard) and started strumming "Oh Christmas Tree".

I told them that if they all had a sing-along, I would let them by the encounter, that they'd overcome the Christmas Tree Monster army.

So they did just that, on Discord (the lag made it a little jumbled but the spirit was with them) and after a few bars of the song, the deadly Yule Tide parted and they were able to pass unassailed.

I remember years ago when I got my Dungeon Masters Guide, the notes for Heward's Mystical Organ said that if you (the DM) had a piano handy, to either write your own sheet music or compel the players to play old standards to activate and successfully use it. When I was 13, I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read. Neat, but impractical. And yet, here I was, 36 years later...

It's memories like that, which are the "story" of D&D games.
THE DELVERS DUNGEON


Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

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EOTB

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2019, 12:28:55 AM »
That's cool!  You do run great Christmas games!  Sounds like this one was a blast.
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thedungeondelver

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2019, 01:45:07 AM »
Quote from: EOTB;1117010
That's cool!  You do run great Christmas games!  Sounds like this one was a blast.

Thanks man.  I hope one day you can come game with us again.
THE DELVERS DUNGEON


Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

Quote
Astrophysicists are reassessing Einsteinian relativity because the 28 billion l

finarvyn

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2019, 07:43:09 AM »
One big difference between games Back Then and games today:

Back Then -- make a character, backstory gets created as we play.

Today -- make a backstory as you create the character, 1st level character has led an exciting life.
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ElBorak

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2019, 07:17:52 PM »
Quote from: finarvyn;1117171
One big difference between games Back Then and games today:

Back Then -- make a character, backstory gets created as we play.

Today -- make a backstory as you create the character, 1st level character has led an exciting life.

I see this more this way,

Back Then -- make a character, backstory gets created as we play.

Today -- make a 10 page backstory as you create the character, so that the DM is forced to swallow your claim to the 110 skills that you have mastered so that you can have an Über character.

Reckall

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2019, 06:17:25 PM »
Quote from: finarvyn;1117171
Today -- make a backstory as you create the character, 1st level character has led an exciting life.

Why not? The events that led from 0 level to 1st level could have been quite exciting.
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

BoxCrayonTales

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2019, 08:06:05 AM »
Quote from: finarvyn;1117171
One big difference between games Back Then and games today:

Back Then -- make a character, backstory gets created as we play.

Today -- make a backstory as you create the character, 1st level character has led an exciting life.

Quote from: ElBorak;1117273
I see this more this way,

Back Then -- make a character, backstory gets created as we play.

Today -- make a 10 page backstory as you create the character, so that the DM is forced to swallow your claim to the 110 skills that you have mastered so that you can have an Über character.

Quote from: Reckall;1117362
Why not? The events that led from 0 level to 1st level could have been quite exciting.

I feel like this is a false dichotomy. "Backstory" technically would include all of the character's life prior to an arbitrarily defined present story. That present isn't fixed at "the beginning of a campaign where the PCs all start at level 1."

Focusing excessively on a backstory at the expense of the present story would be a mistake, I agree, but that doesn't mean we should arbitrarily discard all backstory prior to the present story. I don't know, it might be interesting if the PCs all have very simple backstories that help to explain how they got to the present, like a paladin who wants to avenge his massacred tribe, a seemingly human warlock who is actually an artificial surveyor for aliens intending to colonize the planet, a wizard or priest who is seeking out all sorts of hidden lore, an oracle who had a vision that demands they join the party, etc.

Then again, I'm the sort of GM who would hand out XP for comedic soap operatic roleplaying. Like, I don't know, the alien warlock gets impregnated by the paladin with the kwisatz haderach antichrist her creators need to open the way to invade the planet, the wizard priest discovers a spell to destroy the world except for the caster and keeps it secret, the oracle is abducted by talking squirrels to become their goddess and actually gets into the role, etc.

IIRC there are some indie mechanics where the player can retroactively invent backstory that pertains to the current situation. YMMV.

RPGPundit

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2019, 05:45:26 AM »
You know, I don't recall ever having done a "christmas" session .I've done a few for Halloween.
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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2019, 10:16:06 AM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;1117536
You know, I don't recall ever having done a "christmas" session .I've done a few for Halloween.

You totally should, it's lots of fun!

Ohhh Noooes! Santa's gettin' the Axe out again!!!...



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« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 10:26:45 AM by GameDaddy »
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insubordinate polyhedral

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2019, 04:44:57 PM »
Quote from: GameDaddy;1117541
Sloppy paint jobs provided by the GameDaddy, neat paint jobs and miniatures brought to you by, The War in Christmas Village kickstarters found here!
https://www.facebook.com/WarinChristmasVillage/


Well, rats. I totally would've backed that but it looks like I just missed it.

I want to run a Christmas game in 2020. Didn't quite make it this year. Gives me a whole year to plot something hopefully fun!

ElBorak

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2019, 04:23:47 AM »
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1117439
I feel like this is a false dichotomy. "Backstory" technically would include all of the character's life prior to an arbitrarily defined present story. That present isn't fixed at "the beginning of a campaign where the PCs all start at level 1."

Focusing excessively on a backstory at the expense of the present story would be a mistake, I agree, but that doesn't mean we should arbitrarily discard all backstory prior to the present story. I don't know, it might be interesting if the PCs all have very simple backstories that help to explain how they got to the present, like a paladin who wants to avenge his massacred tribe, a seemingly human warlock who is actually an artificial surveyor for aliens intending to colonize the planet, a wizard or priest who is seeking out all sorts of hidden lore, an oracle who had a vision that demands they join the party, etc.

Then again, I'm the sort of GM who would hand out XP for comedic soap operatic roleplaying. Like, I don't know, the alien warlock gets impregnated by the paladin with the kwisatz haderach antichrist her creators need to open the way to invade the planet, the wizard priest discovers a spell to destroy the world except for the caster and keeps it secret, the oracle is abducted by talking squirrels to become their goddess and actually gets into the role, etc.

IIRC there are some indie mechanics where the player can retroactively invent backstory that pertains to the current situation. YMMV.

Focusing excessively on backstory to the detriment of the game is the current and long running paradigm. Just as "story" i.e. script, is a detriment to the game and is the current and long running paradigm

ElBorak

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2019, 04:25:38 AM »
Quote from: GameDaddy;1117541
Sloppy paint jobs provided by the GameDaddy, neat paint jobs and miniatures brought to you by, The War in Christmas Village kickstarters found here!
https://www.facebook.com/WarinChristmasVillage/

That is great stuff, thanks for sharing.

BoxCrayonTales

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2020, 07:40:06 AM »
Quote from: ElBorak;1117604
Focusing excessively on backstory to the detriment of the game is the current and long running paradigm. Just as "story" i.e. script, is a detriment to the game and is the current and long running paradigm

Okay, then I've been out of the loop for a while because I thought roleplaying was akin to improv theater. Even when characters die and replace according to deadly old school standards the replacements are still the same meta-character like Doctor Who. Did I get that wrong?

estar

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2020, 03:01:45 PM »
Quote from: ElBorak;1117604
Focusing excessively on backstory to the detriment of the game is the current and long running paradigm.

Quote from: ElBorak;1117604
Just as "story" i.e. script, is a detriment to the game and is the current and long running paradigm

The two are not equivalent. Having a past at the start of a campaign is not doing it "wrong". It is a preference. RPG campaign work fine with either extreme in terms of character backstory. There could be issues but those are not the same as trying to conform a campaign to a set of predetermined events.

estar

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The 2019 annual Christmas Game - D&D is not a shared storytelling game!
« Reply #14 on: January 02, 2020, 03:13:46 PM »
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1117939
Okay, then I've been out of the loop for a while because I thought roleplaying was akin to improv theater. Even when characters die and replace according to deadly old school standards the replacements are still the same meta-character like Doctor Who. Did I get that wrong?

Roleplaying is pretending to be a character. It could be one with a detailed background and a distinct personality that the players acts out. Or it could be basically you with the abilities of the
character and no backstory. Or anything in between.

In my experience most hobbyists play a version of themselves, with the abilities of the character, with a different personality trait or two, and a background element or two that encompasses a sentence or at most a short paragraph.

My own preference is to sketch out a character personality and background and act as that character not as myself. Background I usually create with a light touch unless I know the referee is interested in using it. Then I would supply more detail but only to the point the ref feel they have enough.

And it my preference, I don't expect or care if players do the same. I just accept whatever they do at face value and go from there.

The only time I run into issues are with some older gamers who don't grasp that that me roleplaying my character is not the same as me talking.