Category Archives: Rambles

DMPCs

Back when and where I cut my teeth, MMORPGs, this term really did not come up often. When you were DM’ing a scene your character had to be there. Since the developers of MMOs never really took us roleplayers in account and there were no real tools that we had to our disposal. As such for us to be there, our avatar and our character would have to be there, to run the story. To set the scene. To animate the bad guys (if any).

Yet in TTRPGs we don’t have to and when we do plop down a DMPC it is usually soon to be featured on /r/rpghorrorstories. To say that the consensus is that DMPCs are bad is an understatement. But it certainly does not have to be! There is a simple list, steps and measures you can take to make sure a DMPC can be a safe implement. Whether to fill out a temporary (or not so temporary) vacancy, a device for exposition or just someone, anyone, that knows revivify and has it prepared.

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Ramble: Magic Weapons

In a world where a magical jar can produce near infinite amounts of mayonnaise. In a realm where carpets can fly and your toothbrush may be a mimic. Why the fuck do +1 weapons exist.

I’m not talking about weapons that do a thing and additionally have +1 to hit… that’s fine, I suppose.

I’m talking about that sword of goblin slaying (usually obtained after killing plenty of those) that does 2 points of damage more to goblins and forces you to either come up with another encounter with goblins to make it feel remotely relevant.

Or the magical item shop +1 longbow that’s ‘better than nothing I guess’.

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Gatekeeping and Nuanced Alignment

TTRPGs are like Lego. You buy the system and out of the box it shows you how to build something with it. A reoccurring problem I see is that DMs will take the Lego booklet, build what’s shown or maybe one of the three variations of it and that’s it. It’s done. Not a problem, if that’s the extent of your creativity or maybe you feel attached to a structure written by someone else, fine. Just like with Lego, some people get their box, build the manual and are content. Me? I build the thing that’s depicted on the box, then I smash it up and see what else I can make.

It is becoming a problem when people demand others adhere to the pre-build and can’t see beyond it and that’s something I see a little too often.

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