Weird Things You do as a GM?

tuypo1 · November 29, 2014, 01:32:16 PM

i dont know why some people have the players roll the inititive in play by post instead of having the gm rolling it

Gronan of Simmerya · November 29, 2014, 06:29:48 PM

Quote from: Gold Roger;801447Not from me, but one of my old gaming buddies, when DMing, would take an extended toilet break when he got stumped by us doing something unexpected.

That's pretty common in my experience. "I'm not sure where to go with this so this is a good time to tap a kidney and get another beer while I think about it."

TristramEvans · November 30, 2014, 02:21:32 AM

Quote from: Old Geezer;801521That's pretty common in my experience. "I'm not sure where to go with this so this is a good time to tap a kidney and get another beer while I think about it."

I'll have to remember that one. Honestly, though, I'm not often stumped so much as I drive the game to the point where the players basically take over and then I simply facilitate that. I find its much easier for me to improvise when playing off the ideas of others then ab initio.

OTOH, sometimes when I'm playing an NPC I simply don't know how to respond to a player. At least verbally. Many occasions I'll just be like "they don't acknowledge that with a response" or something to that effect, especially when players start treated NPCs like "Ask Jeeves". The more natural players are, the easier it is for me to respond in character, but I get stumped when the players don't really treat the NPCs like human beings.

Justin Alexander · November 30, 2014, 03:37:15 AM

Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;801481It blows my mind that all you guys having players roll for initiative before combat don't get your group planning around that - "Ok, I rolled low for initiative in the upcoming fight, whenever that is - I'll move back away from the front of the marching order for the next section of exploration."

Combination of:

(a) My players simply aren't that interested in exploiting metagame knowledge.

(b) My bad guys aren't so predictable that the next combat always conveniently comes from the direction they're traveling.

(c) There are a lot of other strategic and tactical concerns to deal within the dungeon other than combat.

(d) Positioning is frequently more important than initiative in any case.

Ravenswing · November 30, 2014, 10:00:06 AM

Quote from: Old Geezer;801521That's pretty common in my experience. "I'm not sure where to go with this so this is a good time to tap a kidney and get another beer while I think about it."

Or the flip side of it, which is when I hand my players an unexpected hot potato, and figure that's a good time to hit the can, while they're blinking and trying to come up with a scheme ...

D-503 · November 30, 2014, 10:11:27 AM

Quote from: TristramEvans;800534Well, I draw pictures of all the NPCs and then attach them to popsicle sticks and hold them up when they're talking sort of like little puppets...

Here's an example of some I did for a Cthulhu game pre-sticks...

If I could buy those illustrations, I'd seriously consider doing so. Those are great. I think you're confusing the weird things thread with the awesome things thread.

RPGPundit · December 02, 2014, 12:10:38 AM

Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;801481It blows my mind that all you guys having players roll for initiative before combat don't get your group planning around that - "Ok, I rolled low for initiative in the upcoming fight, whenever that is - I'll move back away from the front of the marching order for the next section of exploration."

Yup, I would think that a disadvantage of that method, which wouldn't be worth the small amount of time saved.

Justin Alexander · December 02, 2014, 05:19:40 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;801808Yup, I would think that a disadvantage of that method, which wouldn't be worth the small amount of time saved.

To be clear: It saves absolutely no time whatsoever. Dice don't magically roll faster.

The benefit is that, when combat breaks out, the players remain focused on what's happening in the game world, instead of taking their attention away from that in order to generate initiative numbers.

You can get a similar effect by changing your initiative mechanic entirely. (For example, Trail of Cthulhu's approach of having everyone declare their action and then resolving based on whoever has the highest pool in the action they're attempting.)

tuypo1 · December 02, 2014, 05:22:28 AM

you can solve that (minor) problem by having the dm roll the inititive it takes a few seconds longer but it does not break the flow of combat like you say it does (to be clear i dont think inititive has any problems at all)

TristramEvans · December 02, 2014, 06:33:54 AM

Quote from: D-503;801563If I could buy those illustrations, I'd seriously consider doing so. Those are great. I think you're confusing the weird things thread with the awesome things thread.

HA! Thanks. My artwork will have a new home on the web soon, along with the opportunity for people to purchase suuch things. I'm afraid these particular sketches were discarded after the adventure concluded, merely indicative of the sketches I do as part of prep for a game.

Canny viewers may notice that all of these NPCs are in fact historic personages.

RPGPundit · December 03, 2014, 01:44:11 AM

Quote from: tuypo1;801826you can solve that (minor) problem by having the dm roll the inititive it takes a few seconds longer but it does not break the flow of combat like you say it does (to be clear i dont think inititive has any problems at all)

Yeah, I still don't know if this is really necessary, because as you say the problem seems minor to me, but this seems a better solution to avoid potential meta-gaming.

tenbones · December 03, 2014, 11:48:54 AM

... I used to do aikijujitsu and jujitsu in highschool and college. During the winter when it was cold I'd sometimes wear my gi - it was a standard judo-gi, so it was super thick and heavy and WARM.

So when I stopped rolling on the mat, I used it as a bathrobe... which I just wore around the house and when I GMed I wore it since everyone was at my house and hey! who cares right?

Over the years it became kinda my stupid "GM Robe" as my players coined it. And it stuck until finally it gave out.

I have a very nice bathrobe I sometimes wear now over my clothes now... someday I'll get a Sun-God headress to match and conduct proper sacrifices. But I'm not up to that. Yet.

Gronan of Simmerya · December 03, 2014, 07:57:00 PM

According to some accounts at least, the fact that I talk to my players about expectations and the direction of the game is weird.

tuypo1 · December 03, 2014, 08:01:23 PM

Quote from: Old Geezer;802100According to some accounts at least, the fact that I talk to my players about expectations and the direction of the game is weird.

jeez people consider that weird im suprised hell a lot of my work as a gm involves helping guide people towards prestige classes they are interested in

tuypo1 · December 03, 2014, 11:17:15 PM

would it be considered wierd that if my players only say they search a room i assume they have not looted the bodys