>meet pleasant NPC >"you don't like him" >enter miserable place >"you like this city a lot" >be forced to take a drug I'm addicted to or act like a junkie piece of shit for the rest of the day >"you feel great and you love the stuff"
What is it with bad GMs and character hijacking? When was it the last time a GM invaded on your character's personality?
It's lack of communication with the DM. I find a lot of them when DM's say stuff like: "You feel x", or "You think X", or "You see/do X" that the player has failed to communicate what their character is trying to gain knowledge of, do, or what his/her personality is like to the DM. It's not about hijacking. Take your mind control/charm spell bait elsewhere.
Josiah Morris
>>enter miserable place >>"you like this city a lot" How do you know the place is miserable? What the DM is doing here is what could be called reverse worldbuilding. Instead of building a city that makes you say "I like this place", he tells you that you like this place so you imagine the rest of your city in your head.
Your scenario is impossible unless the DM directly contradicts himself.
Austin Watson
>meet pleasant NPC
He's emitting a weak level of negative energy/has a control unit making a high pitched whining sound outside of character perception which the players fail to make hidden perception checks for
>"you feel uneasy despite his pleasant demenor"
>enter miserable place
Area-wide mood enhancing spell to keep slave-drones in line, or undetectable mood-enhancing gas
>"you like this city a lot!"
>be forced to take a drug I'm addicted to >forced to take >drug I'm addicted to
Fuck off at this point, you take an addiction flaw at anything other than the lowest level and you're a goddamn junkie with various levels of discretion.
Evan Ward
He describes a city where there are heroin junkies in every street, it's raining constantly and every description so far have included mold and rust in some way.
My character is from a fucking tropical island. Although >undetectable mood-enhancing gas might also apply.
>Fuck off at this point, you take an addiction flaw at anything other than the lowest level and you're a goddamn junkie with various levels of discretion. Maybe bad wording on my part, but I don't play him as a rock star doing mounds of coke and living the high life, but a man that is trying to get his shit together and reconcile with all people he fell out with, aka literally everyone he knows.
>mind control/charm spell bait kys faggot kun
Brandon Gonzalez
This.
Michael Murphy
I always try to avoid phrasing "you like x" but I do say stuff like "He seems very pleasant and likable"
I think it's poor taste to speak directly for someone's character, but you can at least suggest it.
There's an exception when it comes to stuff where I might say "looking at the painting gives you a deep sense of unease" or something. IE an involuntary emotional response.
Caleb Lopez
no u
honestly, there is no problem here, and you are being a whiny bitch. The DM is the one who makes the universe, and is not obligated to tell you the objective reality. You are characters inside a fictional universe, and your character's brains interpret the world around them. If you believe that every emotion you have ever had in your life was controlled and planned by you from the beginning, you are the most retarded human I know.
Jonathan Torres
For drug addictions I feel the best solution is to have willpower tests, or failing that just start stacking negative withdrawal modifiers. Just unilaterally saying 'you take the drug' is poor DMing. The player still needs some agency when it comes to that kind of shit.
Grayson Ramirez
You are wrong here, faggot kun.
When the GM gives me a description, I decide my reaction to it. I am the PC and I dictate what the PCs opinions, likes and dislikes are, not the GM. If he says how I feel, act and what I think, then he is playing an NPC and I'm not a PC anymore, but a guy hearing some idiot play his fanfiction.
>but GM iz god! >but ur feelingz r not yurs! Go play with your dolls, faggot senpai. Then hang yourself. Lest likely way to get collateral when commiting suicide.
William Sanders
Are you fucking serious? And where the hell do you draw the line? The GM is the ONLY means of interacting with the world apart from other PCs. All the time he/she is dictating how the universe in the setting works. The GM is literally the physical/magical laws in the universe. If you ask "what do I see?" the GM is in fact entering your characters mind and dictating which neurons fire.
Liam Torres
My character >minor noble that greatly respects hard work and dedication to your craft no matter your social standing, giving frequent bonuses to all his servants and being very lenient to any mistakes his servants might do, stemming from the fact that his grandfather earned his title by going to great lengths and doing major sacrifices to secure the integrity of the kingdom, a fact that him and his mother will never shut up about it since it is their biggest badge of honor
The GM introduces my character thus >"A noble man enters the room, slapping and cursing his manservant after he served him unsavory tea"
Jonathan White
I usually try to use emotionally loaded adjectives instead.
Like "you meet a suspicious looking man" or something like that.
Makes it easier to communicate what sort if impression the NPC is supposed to give even if I bungle up my rp:ing.
Sebastian Turner
There is a tremendous difference between "what do I see" and "what do I think." But you already know that, don't you faggot kun?
6/10 bait You got me, but I realised what was happening early.
Since you guys seem like you know what you're doing, can I get some tips on describing encounters efficiently?
Hunter Robinson
As a DM I'm careful to avoid this as much as I can. Whenever the players have a strong reaction to an NPC or place, I ask them why so that I know what kind of stuff they like or dislike.
Jason Collins
I'm personally fairly dry and I try to keep it simple.
Environments: >A general outline of what the place is (you are in a lush forest.) >What the mood seem to be (even though it's in the middle of the day, little sunlight makes it past the tree crowns. The forest is covered in calming shade.) >What sticks to the memory (the foresty smell of dirt and decay fills your noses)
People: >What they look like (he's a balding man hitting his fifties hard. His face is wrinkly and leathery, and his dark eyes peer at you suspiciously) >What are they wearing and what does this tell them about you (he wears handmade leathers. The clothes of a hunter. It seems like they've seen lots of use) >What sort of impression does he make (when he hails you, he doesn't walk towards you. He stays at the distance and you take note of the fact that he got highground and that he's carrying a bow. It seems like he doesn't trust strangers)
Happenings: >What happened (the arrow flew past you, piercing an old tree behind you. When this happens, the tree moans and springs to life. You discover that what you thought were roots are actually feet, and its branches are arms) >No seriously, what happened (yeah guys, that's no ordinary tree. You just pissed off a treant-like thing. It seems like its about to attack you.) >What's going on (the treant moans in pain and anger, and with a big whooshing sound as it leaves moves through the air, it swipes at you).
Blake Barnes
>tfw contrarions on this board would defend someone stopping midgame to take a dump in the middle of the table.
Benjamin Brown
I lay a massive deuce on the table whenever the party I DM enters anything resembling a sewer. It's immersive.
Lincoln Sanders
> Why the fuck would you deny a man to take a dump? What the actual shit? Is this brown bait?
James Watson
If my dm makes statements like those, I'm expecting him to have rolled for perception/sense motive (or ruleset equivalents) without telling me and I've passed the check, hence the warning.
Brandon Fisher
I think I already said that one, but here it goes
>Declare to ST that I'll steal a police car >He tells me I found one and tells me to roll Larceny >Oddly generous but why not >Succeed >"Ten police cars chase you, because you stole a police car from the station like an idiot" >mfw
Nolan Cox
I've literally never heard of this, in my 20 years of arpegeening?
Hunter Roberts
You're either lucky or it's a new bad thing that needs to die.
Anthony Ross
but thats retarded
Ryan Williams
>Maybe bad wording on my part, but I don't play him as a rock star doing mounds of coke and living the high life, but a man that is trying to get his shit together and reconcile with all people he fell out with, aka literally everyone he knows. That sub-example of yours still doesn't work out badly for the GM.
Making you feel good is what the drugs do. So yes your character will feel good while on them. He's just going to be completely miserable for failling for it again once they wear off.
Other two examples are shit, but this one is actually for you to RP through.
Henry Sullivan
That's bad on the DM's part, it's up to him to make a world for players to enjoy/not enjoy on their own Unless there's charming gas everywhere in which case you didn't pick up on it
Parker Brown
>roll a Wisdom save >"you're afraid of the dragon"
Blake Johnson
I find sometimes when I'm GMing Mutant Chronicles and I'm trying to convey the atmosphere of a particular scene or location I slip into that whole "You feel a sense of dread/off balance/whatever the fuck" for my players rather than just letting my description and sound assets carry the mood.
It annoys the shit out of me when it happens.
Joseph Martinez
>He describes a city where there are heroin junkies in every street, it's raining constantly and every description so far have included mold and rust in some way.
Sounds 10/10 comfy desu senpai.
Brody Anderson
AYY FELLOW CHICAGO MAN
Jayden Sanchez
>where the hell do you draw the line? The line is cleanly drawn between the physical and the mental/emotional. The GM doesn't describe a PC being afraid, but they can describe goosebumps on their skin. Generally, anytime a GM describes an internal mental or emotional response, I consider it shorthand for an unknown influence. When your cynical warrior starts feeling warm fuzzies upon entering the enchanted fairy glen, my first thought would be fairy magic, not GM railroading.