tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post4774990270588580900..comments2024-03-12T22:45:16.936+01:00Comments on The Disoriented Ranger: Talking to myself: Culture vs. the Sandbox (June 2014)Jens D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-11391258825666666482016-08-28T19:46:38.604+02:002016-08-28T19:46:38.604+02:00Thanks, Ripper! I try to solve everything as rando...Thanks, Ripper! I try to solve everything as random as possible, but often enough it begins with asking the right questions. Like, I ask at the beginning of a session what the weather is like and roll a d20. Later I'll roll the same die, but not to see what the weather is right now, but how it changed ... So it's mostly about interpreting the results you get, but with continuity in mind. And I totally agree that random results feel more organic and complex. Good call on Random Encounters, btw! That's how I like it, too :) And it usually makes for a good story to find the explanation for a weird result! As far as the story development goes, I'll always go with the picaresque before anything else. Weird and random results all over the place and somehow it all merges into one coherent entity over time. Beautiful, but hard work :)<br /><br />I think everything that could be somehow measured in a game could just as well be random, but I know that's just as much a matter of taste. So if it works for me, it doesn't have to work for everyone else. And even with me it might change from game to game (still would take the Monster Reaction Table into every game ... it's really hard to find or make a substitute for that!). Never without, though. It's the main reason why I think "light rules" are somewhat suspect, IMO, because most of the time the DM tools are among the first things that get cut out.<br /><br />I work on something like that right now and hope I'll get it done soon. It'll illustrate some of the points I made here, I hope :)Jens D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-28242919617713661132016-08-24T00:00:59.883+02:002016-08-24T00:00:59.883+02:00It is funny, those of us with blogs can actually t...It is funny, those of us with blogs can actually track our personal improvement as we seek to actually master our roles. A few years ago, I didn't want anything random in my adventures, I wasn't at a spot yet where I could use it as the tool that it is. Today I love it when I get bizarre and seemingly contradictory results, it is fun to attempt to make it work in an aesthetically pleasing way. <br /><br />Today I use random encounters, but they are still generated during the prep stage of the adventure. I prefer the detailed kind, but I do use the other as well, as long as it makes sense. In my mind, if a random encounter is detected by the players as what it is, then I've failed. My goal is to make them seem organic and more complex than they really are. Naturally, the larger the portion of the map is, the harder this becomes, but not impossible. While my last campaign idea ended in failure, the methods that I had adapted to prep a large area was a tremendously useful experience. I knew roughly what was going on in all general areas of the map, which ended up making travel and wilderness exploration more enjoyable than the scenes that I had wrote in detail. We played with that map for a long time and it never got old! <br /><br />My story was a simple one, that of invasion. I can see the benefits of a generation tool which quickly suggests a large scale idea of what is going on in a given area which is independent of the characters, however I also notice some pitfalls as I could see this tool potentially limiting play, not that every tool that we have in our arsenal is ever perfect, and a good DM knows when and when not to use random generation. I would still be interested in seeing what you could come up with. RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-76843900285111727662016-08-21T15:54:36.140+02:002016-08-21T15:54:36.140+02:00You are very welcome. I aim to tackle this beast s...You are very welcome. I aim to tackle this beast some time this year, I think, as I'd really like to use it for the Lost Songs play tests. So it's going to happen relatively soon :)Jens D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-7244772399028953052016-08-21T14:41:13.436+02:002016-08-21T14:41:13.436+02:00very interesting, thanks for the read. looking for...very interesting, thanks for the read. looking forward to your culture generator!Psikerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02744089998921613315noreply@blogger.com