- you do you. if you are more comfortable in a certain thing then go for it. If you are comfy, we’ll adapt because we’ll get comfy.
- For me. I run 100% open worlds meaning if you want to do something Im not ready for. Ill wing it. if you turn an enemy into an ally, I’ll adapt. If you ignore the campaign and go onto your own adventure.. that’s OK to. Ill find opportunities to give you hooks that you can ignore or take. either way I roll (role) with it.
- For you, that might be. “I’m open to whatever but guys try to stay on track cause I am not super comfy with massive on the fly improve world building.” if you tell us that), we’ll stay on track. with some minor bits here or there. and we wont feel railroaded.
- For me. I run 100% open worlds meaning if you want to do something Im not ready for. Ill wing it. if you turn an enemy into an ally, I’ll adapt. If you ignore the campaign and go onto your own adventure.. that’s OK to. Ill find opportunities to give you hooks that you can ignore or take. either way I roll (role) with it.
- Always remember the Rule of Cool. If it makes a memorable moment or give a character an opportunity to be a hero/amazing – They are certainly willing to try. And the rolls allow it, let it happen. and allow the character to tell how it happened “How do you want to do this”
- Example A: Critical Role: Season 1. Grog jumping out of a locket 100 feet up, raging and slamming his axe into the BBEG (I think NAT 19 or 20) for the killing blow driving through him before taking fall damage and falling unconscious.
- Example B: Stitch (tabaxi Monk) rolling nat 20, nat 19 and nat 20 to steal goggles. This would be next to impossible for any class to do except a rogue or a fighter (with disarm). but it makes sense a Bruce Lee / Jackie Chan monk could try it and make it funny. so Stitch did it. and the dice Gods allowed it.
- Example A: Critical Role: Season 1. Grog jumping out of a locket 100 feet up, raging and slamming his axe into the BBEG (I think NAT 19 or 20) for the killing blow driving through him before taking fall damage and falling unconscious.
- Never blow over ‘downtime’ activities. Most character and team building don’t come from combat but from activities like discussions around campfires and on watch and shopping. If you think of characters as real people. They only spend 10 minutes a day fighting, 8 hours sleeping, 2 hours eating. That leaves 14 hours of exploration research and talking.
- You can ROLL for what an NPC knows and fake it. Give them a DC with proficiency if it makes sense. Maybe the towns guard (DC 14) has a gossipy wife or the mayor plays in a card game with the local corrupt merchant (DC 12). Asking a researcher for help in a library might give you advantage AND lower the DC from a 17 to a 13. – I do this all the time.
Lastly:
Don’t try to mimic a DM (like Matt Mercer, B Dave Walters, the guys from RockPunchATL, etc). Their style is theirs. You should do yours – but watch what they do and how they manage players.
Best of luck and Happy rolling / role-ing