{"id":188,"date":"2018-08-20T01:20:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T01:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/missiledine.com\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2025-03-09T02:48:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T02:48:27","slug":"my-style","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/?page_id=188","title":{"rendered":"My Style"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As I have noted elsewhere, I have played and GMed (or DMed) for a long time. \u00a0During that period I had a core group of Regulars who played in most if not all of my campaigns and their presence had the effect of cluing in new players to how I ran things. \u00a0Now that I am playing on line I have opened my campaigns to a much wider audience but at the same time I have lost most of my \u2018Old Regulars.\u2019 \u00a0Consequently I now need to explain things myself.<\/div>\n
First, let me say that I run \u2018realistic campaigns.\u2019 \u00a0I know, I know\u2026 It\u2019s Fantasy Games with Magic, Demons, Dragons and a cast of thousands of fantastic and improbable creatures. How can it be realistic?<\/div>\n
By Realistic I mean that things happen in my campaigns for sound, logical reasons. I try and make my NPCs and the events surrounding them as \u2018real\u2019 and as genuine as possible. \u00a0You won\u2019t find mountains of treasure guarded by anemic Goblins. \u00a0Magic and magical items, though not always rare, are proportional to the circumstances and people attached to them. \u00a0By that I mean that \u2018Griswald the Grunt\u2019 doesn\u2019t have a Sword of God Slaying and if by some strange twist of fate he did come across such he would either A) Quickly learn how to use it and employ it to cut off the party\u2019s nads. Or, B) Quickly have it taken from him by someone who does know how to use it and is able to turn Griswald, and anyone else who gets in his way, into lawn fertilizer.<\/div>\n
Realistic also means that events, good or bad, have consequences that fit the circumstances. \u00a0If you break the law you can expect to face consequences. \u00a0You may be able to evade justice, but that will require some effort on your part. \u00a0\u00a0By the same token, doing something outstanding will be to your credit. \u00a0But don\u2019t expect the Keys to the Kingdom because you scrag a couple highwaymen.<\/div>\n
In many games the NPCs that players meet fall into one of two categories, those who have useful information\/goods\/services to sell\/buy\/trade and those that the party kills\/robs\/cheats. \u00a0\u00a0In either case they are basically there for the party to exploit. \u00a0My NPCs are not so accommodating! \u00a0I once overheard one of my Regulars telling a new player that \u201cHis NPCs are all either smart, powerful or well connected\u2026.\u201d<\/div>\n
While not literally true it does capture an essential point\u2026. All the NPCs are part of the society in which they live and even if they aren\u2019t capable of taking care of themselves they have value to other people and harming the NPC will ultimately irritate somebody who is capable of taking care of the players. \u00a0At it\u2019s most basic level this will be the local lord who relies on that now dead serf to pay his taxes, work the lord\u2019s fields and serve in the lord\u2019s army. \u00a0\u00a0The lord may not have any personal or emotional stake in that dead serf, but allowing the player (s) to go unpunished is bad for the other serf\u2019s morale and, ultimately, bad for business. \u00a0In short, just because the NPC seems like a worthless slob to you, it doesn\u2019t mean everyone else sees him that way.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Me and my last gaming group….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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As I have noted elsewhere, I have played and GMed (or DMed) for a long time. \u00a0During that period I had a core group of Regulars who played in most if not all of my campaigns and their presence had the effect of cluing in new players to how I ran things. \u00a0Now that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-188","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missiledine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}