{"id":56167,"date":"2023-09-17T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T04:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=56167"},"modified":"2023-09-16T22:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T02:55:46","slug":"dm-of-the-rings-remaster-xxxvii-intervention-interruptus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=56167","title":{"rendered":"DM of the Rings Remaster XXXVII: Intervention Interruptus"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

The Circle of Fantasy Roleplaying Life:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Enchantment<\/strong>:You begin a new campaign. How exciting! As you play, you will eventually experience\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Disillusionment<\/strong>: You notice all the flaws in the campaign. Loot distribution is uneven. The house rules outnumber the core rules, and the only person who knows these house rules is the DM. Some players (not you) are taking center stage. Some players greatly overpower others. The plot is on rails and none of the NPCs are likeable. You decide to cope with this through\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Long Suffering<\/strong>: Deal with it \u2013 bad DMs happen. Give the guy a chance to learn. When the campaign gets worse it will be time to engage in\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Sabotage<\/strong>: Try to run the campaign off the rails and kill off major characters, just to break free and do something that isn\u2019t being imposed on you. If you\u2019re still not having fun\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Confrontation<\/strong>: Talk to the DM and let him or her know your concerns. If this doesn\u2019t transform them into a great DM, then you may be obliged to resort to\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Coup d\u2019\u00e9tat<\/strong>: Get the players together and tell the DM that his work just isn\u2019t cutting it. Appoint someone else to run the campaign. However, the DM might mange to retain power. If he owns all the books, all the dice, and you meet at his house, then kicking him out isn\u2019t usually an option. If you can\u2019t depose him, then the only thing left is\u2026<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Exile<\/strong>: Make up some lame excuse about getting a girlfriend \/ boyfriend or a new job and find a new gaming group. Then the cycle begins anew.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It has its low moments, but I still love this game.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    –\u00a0 Shamus, Monday Dec 4, 2006<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    <\/p>\n

    I have no clue where Dad was pulling this cycle from. Was this his experience as a player? I don’t remember him ever being a player in a game, only being a DM, but maybe this was from before I was born. Was this his experience as a DM? I don’t find that likely. People were usually begging my dad to be their DM. I can’t imagine his players trying to pose a coup only to come back a few weeks later touting that he was the best DM they’d ever met. Was this possibly how he thought<\/em> people felt at his table? Maybe, that seems a bit more likely, but makes me sad.<\/p>\n

    Oh yeah, the internet. Yeah he probably pulled this cycle from commenters, forums, and players’ past experience with other tables. Probably also fortified with his own experience back from before I was alive. Duh.<\/p>\n

    Man, I hope he thought he was better than that. I only got to play one short one-shot with him as the DM, but his other past players loved his work.<\/p>\n

    Either way, this list is pretty cynical. Dang. I’d say about 40% of the games I’ve played have gone like this, but maybe I’m lucky. I only have my own experience to draw from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Circle of Fantasy Roleplaying Life: Enchantment:You begin a new campaign. How exciting! As you play, you will eventually experience\u2026 Disillusionment: You notice all the flaws in the campaign. Loot distribution is uneven. The house rules outnumber the core rules, and the only person who knows these house rules is the DM. Some players (not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dm-of-the-rings-remaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56167"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56215,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56167\/revisions\/56215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}