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Dungeon Master Advice

The Importance of Story:
We'll probably all agree that RPGs are quite different than other games. People who don't play RPGs normally ask, "How do you win? Are you playing against each other?" The more I explain the concept the more I often lose them. You don't win and you don't play against each other. The DM can always win a battle. Twenety Dragons come down and poof, game over. From the DM side, good luck in getting them back for a second session.

Adventures tend to have a beginning, a middle, an end. Just like a television show, a novel, a video game, or whatever else, but in RPGs? End the story and your just rolling dice. One of the best cartoon shows I've ever watched is Gargoyals on the Disney Afternoon. The story has so many avenues, villians, and developed characters that everything is messed together. Miss an episode and your in the dark. I believe the same is true with RPGs.

Without a story, characters can't relate to each other or develop a personality. Playing unrelated moduels and stories is great for gathering experience points and spending an evening, but when you role-play your character how can he/she relate to past events that are unrelated? It becomes, "Yeah, remember my character found that gem in that chest last time." instead of, "I stole that gem from that Castle weeks ago," knowing very well that the King will have a price on your head, "and you want me to go back there? Are you mad!"

So if you want your story to be more than a numbers game, a strong story is probably your only avenue.

The Impartial DM:
I remember in my DM'ing youth how foolish and angry I was. I placed the characters actions in front on my campaign and my world suffered horribly. Basically I wanted revenge on the characters and I ruined a game due to bad players. It's always better to stop a game, remove a player, turn the PC into an NPC, kill her/him off, than explain the events in your world.
I have a story to tell. In College, I had a player generate a poor character with only an 8 for Strength named Chaul Grym. Hi Couter! Anyway Courter hated his character and he was always disruptive. Got rid of him, but took him back at the request of another friend. My mistake, but during one of the sessions this happened:

The party was trying to Zhentil Keep from Dagger Falls by buying passage on a boat. The Captain charged a high price, since most of the trip will be through a basic battle zone. The party couldn't pay, so Chaul, a Dwarven Cleric, gets mad and decides to challenge the Captain.

 

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