I once had a DM tell me and the rest of the party that he took us off the main story months ago. To this day I am still baffled at that statement. What did he mean by that exactly? Who are the main characters in this story? What exactly are the players doing then? Is there an awesome story going on in his head at all times?
The campaign in question was also a bit of a meat grinder. I went through at least 4 characters before we finally called it quits. One player I think got up to 7 characters but it was so long ago... I think only one player actually still had his original character in the end before we called it fubar.
So was there any time your DM took you off the main story?
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We’ve had several obvious (and usually stated) diversions from the ‘main story’ in our current campaign. These have mostly come about when the main GM couldn’t make a session or series of sessions, and someone else has picked up the reigns, taking our characters off on some task, mission or quest that is only peripherally (if at all) related to the main story line.
No, it was his own creation. Since it had everything, space travel, zombie apocalypse, time travel, Dragons, Mary Sue Angels. No literally, there was g~% d+*n angels, had the wings and the angel template. although he did use modules from time to time. At one time I was a Jedi from the d20 role playing game. I think he died from fighting a Sith boss that had the "remove all force powers from character" power, and force lifting and throwing me out a window on the 50th floor. With The Bard, who was magically now too far away from me to cast feather fall. This was before episode 3 mind you, so it wasn't a homage to Samuel L Jackson getting punked, he was just being a dick. I think I actually survived that fall too. The shards of glass landed on me... That was character 2.
My favorite moment was when I accidentally cut off both arms of one of my team mate while using the force to throw my lightsaber. Since apparently, as he later stated, that is a stupid idea and they can't do that... I don't know if that was his way of saying, I don't want you to be playing this class, since I asked and he said yes.
For some strange reason though, he enjoyed making us lose. Every session ended with us being worse off then when we started. I have no idea why we played for as long as we did.
So I again, what the hell was the "main story". Aside from, there was no main story, he was just being a jerk.
*blink blink*
Uh..what just happened there?
I think someone just slipped me a...I don't know what, but I'm confused, nauseated and mildly offended.
I don't normally have a problem with how others choose to run their home games, but that..that's...
wow.
And I thought my first campaign importing homebrew races into a tiny section of an established campaign setting was bad.
I ..uh...
I'm sorry?
O it got worse too, since despite him being an "experience DM" he didn't even know half the rules, but it wasn't about homebrewing and mixing other games from the d20 OGL. This was probably the first or second or third campaign I was ever in "so long ago", so I didn't what was going on half the time ether. Since all of his bosses, as it where, ended up being "puzzle" bosses. So if we didn't do what we where suppose to do to hurt the boss, they wouldn't be harmed, or would have an insane health regeneration, or damage reduction, or something...
It basically was a mess of a setting. It wasn't an "established campaign setting" in any regard. I think the party got arrested 5 different times for completely arbitrary reasons. The Bard, the only character who lived through it all must have been the most wanted man in existence. I still get worked up thinking about it, but I'll stop now since I am already starting to rant, and I could easily rant a novel out of this setting.
Yet, a part of me still wants to know, what the hell was the "Main Story", and what did we do to get "taken off of it".
that sounds alot like a campaign that I have played in, what with the time traveling, and classes from other d20 games. I remember our mostly fantasy group was in some kind of nazi camp, and my newest character was a cop from modernday USA, so I didntlike that nazis, and I went all sorts of rambo on those jerks.
However, if the DM is using the power of "take away you power" I would suggest calling it quits cause that doesnt sound like fun. Sounds like my first longterm dm us "FM" or "F!@#$ing magic" and there is a reason we dont play with him anymore.
Since it had everything, space travel, zombie apocalypse, time travel, Dragons, Mary Sue Angels.
...
So I again, what the hell was the "main story". Aside from, there was no main story, he was just being a jerk.
Yeah, unless you guys got off the main story from the very beginning, it sounds like your DM didn't have much of a story to tell.
Anyway, the problem with the story telling campaign is that the players have to agree to play a part in that story. That's why adventure paths work, the players know they're a part of a story and they've agreed to play in it.
If the players aren't willing to play a part in the story then as a DM you shouldn't try and force them into one, and just play a series of adventures instead. What ever keeps 'em happy.
I know in my case when I do campaigns I have one or two big concepts that are building and slowly being revealed. Yet as the campaign begins they are far removed from the end game. They might meet a few low levels in the BBEG organization. Or deal with some tangential goal of said BBEG. So many of the adventures along the way are about growing the PC's up, introducing them to the region, letting them gain power and responsibility. In this sense the "main story" of the campaign is out there or potentially out there, afterall other things might happen. PC's might do things that take the region in another way. A NPC who was intened as a one off runs away and becomes a reoccuring nuicence. This might change the "main story"
It might also be just simply that your DM is flexible and what he originally laid out that may come back later.
Yet, a part of me still wants to know, what the hell was the "Main Story", and what did we do to get "taken off of it".
Its interesting that you say this. It may have been a cool story to have been a part of, but if your DM didn't let you in on the story, just a little bit, then how are you supposed to know what your part is or if you even want to be a part of it.
I haven't talked to him in years. Partly because of this, and partly because of other things not related to table top gaming. Yet strangely related to gaming technically, but that is not related to the MAIN STORY!
It is funny how depending on the type of games the person plays, you can tell the type of campaign your in for.
This guy loved jrpgs, along with several other Video game RPGs. He also loved adventure games like Monkey Island and Zork. Not to mention a lot of those old text base RPGs that where murderously hard, including the online MUD rpgs people still play today. Where you can take weeks, months, years, of your life invested in playing your character, then someone ganks you, and that character is dead forever. So looking back, I probably shouldn't be so surprised at the meat grinding nature of this campaign.
Another thing he did constantly, that he thought was funny was taking what you said you wanted to do, and make it mess you up. For example, one of us fell down a hole, so somebody threw down a rope. The player at the bottom of the pit now has 50 feet of rope, since no one said they where holding on to it! AH hahahaha...... He did this actively, and it got characters killed on a regular bases.
O look at that I'm ranting again... My point is, he loved stories, so I don't disbelieve that he made an entire plot line, and dialog written out for these characters that the players never saw, and would never see this "Main Story" :p .