DM Spoilers; A Discussion.

keiran25 · August 2013

This came to me while I was typing up the latest review in my thread, and I was curious as to what the authoring community thought about it, for example;

How much should the DM give away?
How much is enough to guide the player, but not drag them on a leash?
Should dialogue be noted, to indicate which quest paths and endings they will lead to?
If so, how much is too much? How much is too little?
Whatever else falls under this kind of DM information I haven't thought of just now.

Just thought this would be an interesting topic for everyone, and who knows, maybe help improve our quests!

(Though if it has been discussed before and I just didn't see it, I'll retract the thread :cool:)

runis12 · August 2013

I honestly hate DM notes mid-quest. At the very start and/or the very end is enough. Quest objectives should be clear enough to not have to type DM notes. It seems to me that you destroy any playability your quest has if you give away the endings. I'd maybe say at the very start that there are multiple endings depending on your actions, and leave it at that.

keiran25 · August 2013

runis12 wrote: »

I honestly hate DM notes mid-quest. At the very start and/or the very end is enough. Quest objectives should be clear enough to not have to type DM notes. It seems to me that you destroy any playability your quest has if you give away the endings. I'd maybe say at the very start that there are multiple endings depending on your actions, and leave it at that.

I'd agree with that, giving away the endings does destroy immersion for me. That said, how obvious would you think quest text can be without becoming a spoiler, but without dumbfounding the player?

What about things like..oh how to word it..hhmm.."What do I see/hear, etc" DM Voice over"? For example "Reach component" text.

mosby1 · August 2013

On my first quest (Weird of the Weather-witch) I have a DM NPC at the very end next to the final chest. He will give more information about the story for those who are interested. He also will provide more info about any of the hidden "accolade" items that the player found. Basically what a real DM would do, for special items the players found our harvested. Of course we can't really reward the players with real gold, but I think it helps to 'pretend' a bit.

I don't use any "DM text" during the quest. But I did have a lot of fairly specific objectives. The player is never in doubt about what to do. In my second chapter (not yet published), I chose to leave it much more open. I have only 1 or 2 objectives per map, and I avoided using the sparkly path most of the time. I think it will be more immersive. I'm looking forward to the feedback though, it's hard to tell as the author.

keiran25 · August 2013

mosby1 wrote: »

On my first quest (Weird of the Weather-witch) I have a DM NPC at the very end next to the final chest. He will give more information about the story for those who are interested. He also will provide more info about any of the hidden "accolade" items that the player found. Basically what a real DM would do, for special items the players found our harvested. Of course we can't really reward the players with real gold, but I think it helps to 'pretend' a bit.

Great minds think alike xD

zebular · August 2013

. . . . . I add my DM Notes in Dialog either at the beginning or at the end, sometimes both. However, if I feel details are needed to help players understand what is going on or to give back-story, I'll add optional "lore elements" that are not objectives to help to give a feel for the story. You can see what I mean here in my first three installments of The Dweomerkeepers campaign. I even added side-quests not tied to the adventure in the first and third missions along with optional mobs to fight in them all, which in themselves, help to add to the feel and story. Link's in my signature.

keiran25 · August 2013

Now there's a nice approach, I was going for something similar in mine, then again I'm adapting my tabletop campaign to Foundry so I can't really escape at least one or two lore options.

DM Spoilers; A Discussion.

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