Nah, do what Adventure is Nigh did. The first NPC they met was Jeremy Goodsex, and when a guard yelled at another guard, he used the name Jeremy. He then argued that it’s a very common name, and lots of people are called Jeremy.
So for every NPC in season 1, about a quarter had the name Jeremy. It’s a very common name.
Don’t forget the Tease-dere! “Okay, so which of you touched the door handle again? …The door opens. No, there wasn’t a trap, I was just asking, haha.”
But it’s a specific he. It’s referring to a specific person.
And why is a generic pronoun male?
What does being a robot have to do with anything? He still has male pronouns.
“He’s”
So Gender is male? Interesting.
They said “design cues”, not “designs”. Research, don’t plagiarise.
Actually, a good number of dungeons have a room or two you can completely skip. These usually hold bonus loot, like rupees or pieces of heart.
Heck, that shrine in BotW with the ball maze apparatus. Most people just flip it over and skip the maze. Some even just bomb jump over the gate and skip the apparatus.
Instead, I recommend you just accept that you might work on something the players won’t see. Save that stuff for later.
Steve Irwin doesn’t have enough scimitars, and Drizzt speaks too softly.
Perhaps we could bring out the drow bard Hyuu Jakum’ann?
Actually, dice have a better scottish accent than me by virtue of not having one at all. But you don’t join my table for quality scottish accents.
I learned in my first adventure that what I’ve prepared to happen might just be stupid and unrealistic, so I’m never too attached to it. If the dice say it doesn’t happen, they know better than me, so I just toss it. If I lie about the dice to make it happen anyway, I’m making a worse experience for everyone.
If a failure means a path is unavailable, see if you can open up a different path. If there are no other paths, just let them have this one for free.
Can someone make a drow Steve Irwin, please? Exploring the underdark in search of strange creatures and then wrestling them.
“You know, I only really need one or two of these at a time, but I just like collecting them. It’s just so nice shaking them in my hand. I must have spent a fortune on them at this point. Heck, I’m even thinking of getting some resin and making my own!”
“Oh, no, not like that. I just take her on a journey through pain and pleasure, tell her what to do, act out wild fantasies, bring her to the brink of tears and have her thank me for it. You know, roleplaying. We actually have a bunch of other guys who do it with us. It’s not weird or anything. If you’d like, I wouldn’t mind having you too!”
It’s part of the reason I love running heists: the players are the ones doing most of the planning.
So, like usual then?
If it’s a new game, I start off with a basic adventure I always have tucked away. A good starter adventure is a lifesaver sometimes.
If it’s an ongoing game, then we probably have stuff we were still doing? Just recycle the prep from last time wherever possible and play for time. “Oh, yes, you have the treasure from the depths of the dungeon, but now your rivals have seized the place and you need to fight your way back out! Totally not just doing this to reuse the dungeon map.”
If it’s an ongoing game and we just had a good cutoff point? Thank god that player just arrived. Ask them what they’re expecting will happen this session, nod sagely at their guesses and work from that. “Oh, you’re hoping you’ll fight that cult sometime soon? You never know, it might come up sooner than you think!”
Everything else is just good prep advice. Keep generic NPC templates and tokens you can use for anything. Use a whiteboard for any maps you need. Give your players control of the plot so you don’t have to come up with it.
That is such a better way to do it. One map for plot, one map for setting.
It gets even worse when your players tend to stick to one general area, cause then all the places they want to see on the map get bunched up. No, there aren’t 5 times as many settlements in Ferelden compared to the rest of Thedas. We’ve just spent 2 games there and that’s what all the books, comics and adventure modules focus on. I promise you it’s more spread out than that.
With the Dragon Age series, a map of Ferelden was created for use in the first game, and became the map of the region for a long time after. The TTRPG used the same map, and even had a printout in the box set for it. Many players, and even some GMs, base their understanding of the setting on this map.
This map includes:
All that stuff appears in Dragon Age Origins, so it’s a good map of what a player might experience playing the video game. As a setting guide, it’s awful.
If you’re going to reply to me, at least pay attention to what I said.
At no point did I demonise casual styles of play. Beer and pretzels is a legitimate way to play, and it can be a ton of fun. If the point of the game is just to have some fun with a bunch of friends, you don’t need them to deliver monologues. They can just be there, rolling dice and making puns.
The more you invest into a campaign, the less work on the DM. Conversely, the less you invest into a campaign, the more work on the DM. And if the DM is fine with that, no problem!
But don’t for a second think that the dungeon just formed itself. Don’t think that all the combat encounters are a fun challenge for your unbalanced party by pure luck. Don’t assume this world is full of fun hooks for your character by random chance. And don’t assume that, just because the work was fun, it wasn’t work.
Don’t assume that spilling food on the carpet isn’t causing more work for the cleaners. Don’t assume your mother, who cooks as a hobby, wouldn’t delight at you offering to help peel potatoes at thanksgiving.
Don’t assume that, just because the DM picked up the slack, there is no slack.
It’s not casual play I condemn. It’s people who don’t appreciate the DM for working hard to make casual play happen.
No, there absolutely IS slack to be picked up. It’s by the DM. You get to have that fun, relaxed dungeon crawl because the DM busted their ass making it happen. Any work you put into your character’s backstory is work the DM doesn’t have to do themselves.
And it’s not a resentment thing. It’s fun to work on an adventure and balance things. I know, I like doing it myself. But don’t assume that just because YOU aren’t doing the work, nobody’s doing any work.
Adventure is Nigh (a D&D actual play starring Yahtzee) had both a prisoner and a guard called Jeremy in episode 1. It was pointed out, so roughly a quarter of the NPCs in season 1 were named Jeremy.