Been there. Players are so insane with the curveballs they throw. It’s why I don’t invest heavily into reading/planning on what’s specifically in the adventure packs anymore. I just write down a list of the most important rules for the campaign/universe and vibe the rest.
My players are the opposite. They seem to probe for the “right” railroad choice and I wish they’d throw me a curveball every so often! I’ll improvise if they let me!
I see some DMs with their 400 pages of notes going into session 0, and I’m just like “oh honey.” For me, it’s primarily a cooperative storytelling game, and you’re not being cooperative if you decide the story you want told up front.
I’m up to 24 pages of notes but in my defense about a third of that is recording what happened in previous sessions precisely because the party rarely does remotely what I was expecting and also I wanna remember the countless NPCs and relationships I came up with on the spot
On the one hand, totally fair. on the other hand, I’m not sure how familiar the DM was with law, or how to turn that into an exciting encounter for the other players.
At the end of a day, a DM’s creativity is allowed to have a limit, they’re human. Even if the obviously correct answer is an Ace Attorney-esque court battle with the vampires where every player can live out the fantasy of shouting “OBJECTION!!!”
Absolutely DMs have limits — I’m a DM and I am acutely aware of my limits. If you can’t make filing the paperwork exciting, maybe the party gets jumped on the way to filing, or the law clerk you have to file with is a vampire, or the inspectors keep getting vampire-ified and the party has to go investigate. But you can be guaranteed that any time you make a plan contingent on the party doing what they’re supposed to, they won’t actually do that thing.
If you are DMing and you have an action your players are “supposed” to take, you have made a grievous error.
Been there. Players are so insane with the curveballs they throw. It’s why I don’t invest heavily into reading/planning on what’s specifically in the adventure packs anymore. I just write down a list of the most important rules for the campaign/universe and vibe the rest.
My players are the opposite. They seem to probe for the “right” railroad choice and I wish they’d throw me a curveball every so often! I’ll improvise if they let me!
I see some DMs with their 400 pages of notes going into session 0, and I’m just like “oh honey.” For me, it’s primarily a cooperative storytelling game, and you’re not being cooperative if you decide the story you want told up front.
I’m up to 24 pages of notes but in my defense about a third of that is recording what happened in previous sessions precisely because the party rarely does remotely what I was expecting and also I wanna remember the countless NPCs and relationships I came up with on the spot
Notes from sessions are great, notes for sessions will usually leave someone very disappointed.
If the action one player takes prevents the rest of the party from contributing, I can see why the GM would be annoyed.
On the one hand, totally fair. on the other hand, I’m not sure how familiar the DM was with law, or how to turn that into an exciting encounter for the other players.
At the end of a day, a DM’s creativity is allowed to have a limit, they’re human. Even if the obviously correct answer is an Ace Attorney-esque court battle with the vampires where every player can live out the fantasy of shouting “OBJECTION!!!”
Absolutely DMs have limits — I’m a DM and I am acutely aware of my limits. If you can’t make filing the paperwork exciting, maybe the party gets jumped on the way to filing, or the law clerk you have to file with is a vampire, or the inspectors keep getting vampire-ified and the party has to go investigate. But you can be guaranteed that any time you make a plan contingent on the party doing what they’re supposed to, they won’t actually do that thing.
Depending on the length of rules around combat, having mandatory ones seems reasonable.