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Derailed - What Happens When No One Follows the Tracks
0 Playsin 8 hours
This time on How We Roll Gaming, we dive into the art of embracing chaos, rolling with the unexpected, and turning total derailment into unforgettable storytelling. Because sometimes the best adventures are the ones you never planned.
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Transcript
Introduction to How We Roll Gaming Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
with the coachman D20 Radio. at Your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How will We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share us stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is How We Roll.
Adapting to Time Changes and Campaign Prepping
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome back everyone to the How We Roll Gaming Podcast. How's everybody doing? Nick, how you doing? Doing well. surviving the Surviving the time chains.
00:00:56
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Robert, in the words of Joey Tribbiani, how you doing?
00:01:01
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Doing good so far. Nice days of work. I was able to adjust to the time change pretty well. Other than that, pretty good. I'm glad you've been able to. It's been kicking my butt. monday Monday was bad, but after about Wednesday, of my body was like, okay, this is the new rhythm.
00:01:21
Speaker
and It's... it's and I know it's not based on anything we can control, but on the Sunday, when it's a Sunday one, that's when you get to hit it. That's when everyone shows. It's always on Sunday, Nick.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's always on Sunday. oh i have I have not really done much gaming related since the last time we recorded, other than, of course, played in our games. And I've been prepping for session one of ah the Star Trek campaign that I'm kicking off this weekend.
00:01:59
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I'm sure you're going have plenty of lens flares for all of us. I keep telling you, Nick, this is not in the JJ-verse. Yeah, we've just been going through the horrors of actually trying to schedule things out and trying not to let it kill our group.
00:02:15
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Yep, and I think I have convinced Nick to sit down with me, let me put together like basically a calendar and plan stuff out a couple of months ahead of time.
00:02:29
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Yeah, that'd be useful. Crazy talk, I know. Crazy, crazy talk. And I wouldn't be surprised if doing this will... Finish him! I just i felt like playing with the soundboard this episode.
00:02:47
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You seem to be having fun. It's fun soundboard.
Review of The Story Told Podcast
00:02:51
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Let's say before we dive in let's take a moment to talk about another great show here on the D20 radio network, the story told podcast.
00:03:02
Speaker
Now with the relatively new year following a group of awesome rotating guest hosts, Logan has welcomed new regular cohost Lex to the show.
00:03:14
Speaker
Oh really? Yes, that is true. And in addition to interviews with talented content creators, They share reviews of exciting new games and old favorites too, all in admiration of the greatest hobby in the world. In the most recent episode, they take a look at the field guide to floral floral dragons from hit point press and lean into its beautiful, potentially cozy vibes. Take a listen to this story told. you can find them at the story told podcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. And of course links in the notes.
00:03:45
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Of course links in the notes.
Adapting to Player Deviations in RPGs
00:03:48
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Let's say we talk about something that has happened to every GM at some time or another.
00:03:57
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we we always talk about how the players are going to zig when you expect them to zag and vice versa. Yeah, what what happens when those those little little guys won't get on the path at all? What happens when they won't follow whatever loose tracks that you have and totally derail your session, if not your campaign.
00:04:22
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Well, obviously you punish them. No, wait, that's a bad GM. that That's a bad GM. That's a bad GM. And, you know, i wish that I had thought, since I'm playing with the soundboard, wish I had thought to load up, I mentioned Joey Tribbiani earlier, should have channeled my inner Ross and loaded up a clip of PIVOT!
00:04:47
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ah Yes, and it is true. a story goes another direction, you can still keep the structure of what you had.
00:04:58
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But then at times you also got say, okay, we ball. you Or some others say, ah we do it live. Yeah, we just got, you can't even fix it in post.
00:05:11
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You got to do it live. Let's start with the idea that now here's going to be something that a lot of GMs don't want to admit. Yes. starting a campaign does have a little bit of railroad tracks.
00:05:24
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Yep, you you set up the premise, you put the players on the train, and you send them down the tracks, and you hope that they will go down the path that you're kind of expecting that everybody kind of agreed to.
00:05:42
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And again, it can be as simple as, like, Meet a tavern, meet guy with quest, guy sends you on quest. That's still a rail road.
00:05:53
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Yeah, or my kind go-to thing is you all are in prison, and first and some event gets you out of prison, and now you just got to take the fact that you're either fugitives or you basically have to claw your life back from nothing.
00:06:12
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AKA the the the Todd Howard Bethesda. Yes. The model. Or if you want to be spot on, which honestly I'm surprised and none none of us have done this yet, your prologue or your session 0.5 actually happens
Flexible Storytelling Techniques
00:06:26
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on a literal train.
00:06:29
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Or I'm going to give a a small shout out here to our friends GM Chris and Nate at his crew over at Tabletop Empire.
00:06:41
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Last week, they did a a an actual play live stream that ended up at about 13 hours from start to finish. yeah I'm not even through i want even halfway through watching it.
00:06:59
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They edited out half of are all of the breaks and everything and got it cut down to about nine and a half ten hours. ah Okay, but it's a good ratio between play and that.
00:07:11
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Yeah, considering when they started, yeah. The setup there, and this is a an adventure that Chris has available to download out on the D20 Radio website.
00:07:23
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The players wake up, or not wake up, but you know the the players start the session in the middle of a vault, clearly in the middle of what is a heist, and with no memory of who they are or how they got there.
00:07:40
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A big old, what is this? Where am I? Who are you people? yeah you you You talk about, we we joke about the, you're probably wondering how I got in into this mess, record scratch, beginning of movies and adapting that to campaigns sometimes. That's exactly what this was.
00:08:01
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Except they're all wondering how they got into that situation. Yeah. You're all wondering how I got here. Well, so am I. Yeah, we don't have time for that.
00:08:12
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it's like It's like that indie game I remember. It's the no time to explain. Like the guy literally trying to tell you the lore and then just like a hand grabs him and pulls him away and she's like, well, you gotta to go.
00:08:24
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the let Let me explain. No, there is no time. Let me sum up. But the main factor is like no matter how how experienced or inexperienced a GM you are, there's always going to be a track you want to set down.
00:08:42
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Right. even Even if you're setting up a sandbox, ah it would since I'm running session zero of my Star Trek campaign Sunday, and not really much in the way ah of spoilers here because it is Star Trek, you know.
00:08:57
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ah The players are going to be Starfleet officers on a starship, and we're going to pick up with the launch of the ship. It's just like the start of a Star Trek series.
00:09:10
Speaker
Again, thank you for allowing me to play That's very, very nice of you. Yeah, i didn't do that, and you're not playing Q. a Fun little aside, the last time...
00:09:23
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I started playing in a Star Trek campaign, which was many, many, many years ago. ah It was not the current Modiphius system. It was a previous one. And Lauren and I talked about it on our podcast.
00:09:40
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Expectations and Licensed RPGs episode, but one of the players wanted to play a human Q, depowered Q, and the GM let him.
00:09:52
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And you I'm like, are you sure that's a good idea? Because given this player this player likes to min-max and likes to try to make his character the the main character... yeah you sure about that? You sure about this? Because he's going to find a way to get his powers back.
00:10:14
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ah But it only lasted one session. Silver linings? Yeah. Yeah. and And that was, I mentioned this in that episode, but since neither of you were here, it wasn't a flaw of the GM or the campaign premise.
00:10:32
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or anything like that. It was a flaw of the system and the GM taking one of the suggestions of the system to heart, which was to avoid any kind of power trips among the players or any kind of imbalance since your standard Star Trek game is going to have a hierarchical structure, an actual command structure.
00:11:00
Speaker
Don't let a PC be the captain. have an NPC be the captain. And it ended up being several hours of us role-playing, pushing the buttons that the NPC captain told us to push.
00:11:14
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bond you Yeah, it didn't work out. And as we saw when we played the quick start of Star Trek Adventures, the current system, having a PC captain works just fine.
00:11:26
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or it does, yeah. Yeah, it really does. More to the point, they're going to be set out. There's a premise. Given the nature of Star Trek, each session I'm going to come in with a hook and you a mission that the crew has been assigned to for the session.
00:11:43
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But it's still entirely possible for that kind of thing to go off the rails. I can plan each session, but it might not survive first contact with the players. you The players might decide to do something when they beam down to this planet that I never considered.
00:12:08
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It's entirely true. Very true. You may decide to throw the Prime Directive into the nearest waste bin and become the conquerors of this planet.
00:12:21
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Yes, and that that's when a GM, especially first time GM has to confront the truth that we've told in a previous episode is that you are telling a story with the players. You're not telling a story to the players.
00:12:37
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but there is There is a sort of a, you could argue that there is a social contract that they are accepting that you are setting the scenario and therefore the tracks, they should at least,
00:12:52
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Take a peek at them. Yeah. But the inverse of that as well is that if they decide to do something else, then you have to reformat. You can still keep your major plot points, but you just have to work them in a different way.
00:13:06
Speaker
I have dealt with this kind of thing. that This is something that I've just started doing in the time since I've started playing with what has become our current group, since I started playing in games in Nick's group.
00:13:22
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and started running games in the FFG system after listening to once again, the Order 66 podcast on the D20 Radio Network and um a a former podcast ah regarding Genesis, The Dice Pool,
00:13:43
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and also GM Chris and GM Hooley's The Forge podcast about Genesis. And that is, I no longer sit down for the most part and say, here is the story for this session.
00:14:04
Speaker
Here's plot point A, plot point B, plot point C, plot point C. I come in with you anywhere from two to four major story beats. that I want to hit in that session. You
00:14:21
Speaker
you know, ah using Star Wars as an example, I may have in mind that this session takes place on Tatooine, but if the players don't go to Tatooine, unless it is vital...
00:14:35
Speaker
that those story beats happen on Tatooine, in which case I don't give them the opportunity to go any place but Tatooine. I start them off on Tatooine.
00:14:47
Speaker
Those beats can happen anywhere. And wherever the players decide to go, that's where they happen. Exactly. And going back to Star Wars, that's the nice thing about a universe set in space is that if you have plot points,
00:15:03
Speaker
you can just make them happen in space somewhere. doesn't even matter where. It's like, exactly you are caught by a ship and X happens. That can be happened anywhere in the galaxy. yeah but Anywhere from Tatooine to Coruscant to the Hoth, who cares?
00:15:20
Speaker
yeah You know, they it can be anywhere. it can, and if it has has to happen in a certain location, that's where you start the players off. You don't let them wander off of the beaten path.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yes, or a thing I like to do is when I do plot points, I have it centered around an NPC or some type of group because then I have the mobility and mobility to move them wherever the players are.
00:15:50
Speaker
Right. and In a similar vein, ah you can also use, in fact, if you aren't in space, if you are on a travel map, a world map,
00:16:03
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then there is a, even if they are going off the beaten trail that you wanted to to make, there still is a area that you can see, okay, they're traveling this way.
00:16:17
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I just have to factor in that travel down this direction based on what they're using for travel and how they're moving. And now, depending on what it is that you're wanting to happen, what a given story beat is,
00:16:32
Speaker
if it needs to happen in a certain place or a certain way or with certain people, you can always also have the NPCs nudge them in that direction.
00:16:45
Speaker
So yeah, it's like, Oh, you're looking for MacGuffin a well, last I heard it's it's in there. Yeah. It's like, Oh, Oh, you're looking for that. Oh yeah. It it was here on cloud city, but, uh, Somebody came and took it, and they took it to Tatooine.
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, yeah, Boba Fett took it and brought it to Jabba for a payday. To those who played ah the Mario games, like, ah your princesses are not a castle.
00:17:19
Speaker
Just less aggravating. The first few sessions of our Walking Dead campaign, you guys were kind of dancing around the outskirts of the Las Vegas Strip.
00:17:31
Speaker
which is where you one all of the all of the main stuff was happening. The meat and potatoes.
Exploring Campaign Settings and Player Choices
00:17:40
Speaker
Things just kept happening to you all that were more or less driving you to the strip.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, we were like, maybe it's little too dangerous to just be out here on our own. Maybe we do need the safety the walls and the strip. We need to blend with the masses. Yeah. Yeah. So and yeah we were like, and then it's kind of like,
00:18:01
Speaker
the group players and non-player characters, like, basically, like, took a vote. Do we go to this trip or not? And then the AIs won it. It basically felt that. But it did feel natural that all the decisions, like, all the the ah the guidelines lines where were pushing us towards there.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, and it even worked for the inter-player conflict because even when we got to this trip, Like my player was they like, okay, we can make this work. I got a job. I can raise my niece who another player character plays Betsy.
00:18:38
Speaker
I can raise her on the strip while Dante's first character was like, hey, while Dante's first character was like, I've seen this before. This is just some tyrant playing Empire. We need to leave. And my character by the house was like, no, you stop jumping at shadows. Just live.
00:18:54
Speaker
Of your two characters, which one is still alive? Mine. ah how How Dante's character die. yeah i killed him.
00:19:07
Speaker
ah For good reasons, though. Yes. Yes. No, it was. ah This comes up most episodes. And I once again just have to take my hat off to all of you as a wonderful group of players.
00:19:21
Speaker
Because i I know that I can trust all of you. That even when it does get to a situation like that where one PC is about to, let's be frank, murder another.
00:19:37
Speaker
i knew all all i had to do was take, stop, not even stop, pause the game for a second. And take the temperature of everybody in the room.
00:19:50
Speaker
like, hey, we all see where this is going, right? Are we good with it? And we were just like, yeah, yeah. Even his character who was dying was like, yeah. is' like He even said, like if he didn't do it, I was going to ask him to do it. It's like, okay, resume.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yep. so and i I'll say that again, like a even though I have died the most of the in the campaign, no point do I feel like, no, this is um this is not unfair.
00:20:17
Speaker
It's either accommodated to poor decisions or it just really bad rules. And in a type of universe like that where it's brutal, like we're very squishy, dying is somewhat expected.
00:20:30
Speaker
So like, it's either a bad decision on my character's part, or at least one of them was like, just, wow, that role really worked. I mean, how many times have we joked that my character's been truthful, he's opened up, and like, oh, okay, you're going to die next.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, if we had an actual writer's room, if this was an actual actual writer's room at AMC, yeah, you'd be the next one gone, man. Yeah. and that' But that's why he's never invited to the post-game game. games So the talking day. Yeah, you say that, but you also joke on basically male Carol and she never died. so this is true.
00:21:12
Speaker
This is true. ye Carol just kept getting trauma dumped. I've done a few of that. It's going to be real trauma dump if Betsy characters dies.
00:21:23
Speaker
that ah That would be the big trauma dump. i feel I think that would depress every... I think that would destroy everybody. i mean, you know, Coral died, so... Yeah, yeah say and this Earthfall is sort of afterwards.
00:21:39
Speaker
where Where was he? Not in the house. But... i' say that damn else There's plenty of ways that that campaign could derail, but it's also very sandboxy, so it's tough to derail. Really, the only way that the premise could be derailed is if everyone up and said, you know what? Screw this place. We're leaving Las Vegas.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah, basically it's like, Las Vegas? Nah. Let's go to Denver. Yeah. which in In which case I would have to you research Denver and come up with things that happen along the way. And thing we we all just get stoned. It's like, dude.
00:22:28
Speaker
And that's also a good thing with our group is that we know each other and we also know Daryl. He chose Las Vegas because one, he's been there. Two, he has a relative that actually lives there right now.
00:22:40
Speaker
been living well a long time and so we know he's put a lot of thought into this it would be really a shame if we tried to go somewhere else that was one of the points when the owner of one of the game stores around here was telling me the premise of a walking dead game which is i i told him flat out i'm stealing this and i did and he was like go for it it was the same premise while i have never seen him gm i know from spending plenty of time talking to him that our gming styles and approaches are going to be vastly different so i know that even it's this even if it's the same premise we're not playing running the same game exactly but i'm just stating we know you chose the place you researched it you even got that map printed out to be like
00:23:34
Speaker
We're going to leave. i mean, to to be fair, the core rulebook does recommend having a map of the greater area that you're in. Yeah, and it does. So that you can... hu and But it even the game's implying like, hey stay in this map for now.
00:23:56
Speaker
Since I do have family there and have been there multiple times since I was seven years old, Yeah, I do have that ability to lend a little bit of realistic flavor, even though we're in a post-apocalyptic world that basically Las Vegas, the the status of Las Vegas, the landmarks and everything froze about 13 years before now.
00:24:24
Speaker
yeah So I have to kind of keep that in mind. you when When I am grilling my dad for information, was like, I remember this is 2013. yeah I know that this wasn't there yet.
00:24:36
Speaker
And we're all going be able to visit Area 51, right? I mean, Groom Lake is you a short airline ry airplane ride away. Yeah. Let's all go to Area 51. I want to see the alien. But yeah, barring an entire like universe shift, like going in an entirely different place than anyone expected, a GM can always pivot.
00:25:01
Speaker
Pivot! Pivot! May not be graceful. Don't ever expect you can just gracefully like, okay, I've thought thought of an entirely new storyline. We can go over here. Definitely don't do that. You're going to turn your brain. i did sort of have to pivot.
00:25:16
Speaker
Going back to Star Wars, the first Star Wars campaign that I ran in the FFG system. My pivoting started from my initial plan was to follow a process that The original Star Wars RPG that I played in ages ago in the West End system would follow suit in that there would be one or two other GMs to rotate with.
00:25:43
Speaker
So I had a PC. It quickly became clear that I was going to be the sole GM for it. And was like, I'm not going to be that person that has a GM PC. How do I get this character off of the board?
00:25:55
Speaker
So I found it, came up with a way to get that character off of the board due to scheduling issues. some of the players, about half of the group, if not a little more, began to filter out.
00:26:07
Speaker
Fortunately, around that same time, several other people were like, hey, you know that campaign that you're that you're running, do you have seats? Yes, I do. And so new characters came in.
00:26:20
Speaker
Since my intended PC was the owner of the group's ship, he and the other characters that left, since they left around the same time, I was about to okay, they went off scouting for a new job and Something must have gone horribly wrong because you haven't heard back from them. But oh look, this new PC that has joined the group has a ship.
00:26:46
Speaker
So now you have a ship again. I intentionally then wrote in that there had been kind of a landed home base on Naboo for them. I literally wiped that off the map in an Imperial attack.
00:26:59
Speaker
So they were they were much more on the go. And they can even add stakes like Oh, all that stuff you had in your base is gone now. So a little more up the stakes now, because now you have to rebuild.
00:27:13
Speaker
And spoiler alert, I will be pivoting. Pivot! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! That campaign again here in a couple of months when I re-relaunch it. We'll see who does come back.
00:27:28
Speaker
But I know that there will be a lot of new characters in it because Robert, you didn't play in it before. Nick, you didn't play in it before. Betsy didn't play in it before. Lauren didn't play in it before. If Dante's interested, Dante didn't play in it before. But Stephanie will be back bringing her character back.
00:27:46
Speaker
Xander, our son, may or may not come back and bring his character back. oh yeah he exists Doug and Brian may or may not come back. I hope Brian does come back because I never got to finish up the subplot with his character.
00:28:01
Speaker
So that that will be fun to do. That is a way that you'll have to change, but Sometimes a derailment can happen, not that they've went off on a different direction. Maybe they introduced a new set of tracks.
00:28:14
Speaker
Because I'm remembering, yes even with our Star Wars motif, Nick, you ran that limited campaign for this, for the created adventure, the Jewel of Yavin. Yes. And it,
00:28:29
Speaker
Again, it started as like a since you guys are starting off as like more experienced characters and sort of give that classic heist vibe. You I allowed you all to have like your own sort of like interconnected, like sort of pseudo connections to each other and fruit. Yes.
00:28:46
Speaker
Natural banter and everything. The mystique, the mythos of the Corellian job sort of built so much that this so much that we That you and Daryl decided, okay, the Corellian job's got to be the prequel, and then there's got to be a sequel after this.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yep, and so I will be running the Corellian job, and then together, Nick and I will run the sequel. And a whole lot of vague ideas of what happened, mostly what happened in the Corellian job. we just introduced tidbits. We know that all the named Star Wars characters are there, somehow.
00:29:26
Speaker
We know involved a job. And we know the ending already. The job failed spectacularly. Right. And, you know, and mumble, mumble, mumble, Vader, mumble, mumble, mumble.
00:29:39
Speaker
Something's on our side. I even said my character dances with Darth Vader. And somehow Daryl has to make that happen. Something, something... that's going to That leads into the events of a campaign that didn't have a backstory, now has a backstory that's going to be backfilled.
00:29:59
Speaker
But that's more of a it's more setting tracks behind than actually setting the tracks forward. But our actions set up the tracks forward for the sequel. Yeah.
00:30:10
Speaker
Oh, and and Nick and I have some just next-level out-there ideas for the sequel. Mm-hmm. Damn, I'm... Truck Truck is ready for it as long as he gets to go fast.
00:30:23
Speaker
I think we've kind of been dancing around the biggest example that we've had of a derailed campaign. True, because we wanted it I wanted to save it until now. Well, yes, we we were wanting to save it.
00:30:38
Speaker
But Nick, I'm going to turn the floor over to you and tell us about the Seekers of the Ashen Crown.
Significance of Narrative Pivots and Player Creativity
00:30:47
Speaker
Yes, tell us.
00:30:49
Speaker
Ah, yes. The Seekers of the Asking Crown, a D&D fourth edition module meant for a first level to progress through quickly to fourth to fifth level level adventures in a rather simple ah adventure.
00:31:07
Speaker
a a quick way to play with the at the moment in vogue 5th edition rules and get some players that you haven't delved into D&D or have not played D&D in a while. Give it like roughly like maybe a few weeks of fun adventuring. Yeah. What's the goal of the Seekers of the Ashen Crown, Nick? Yeah, what are we doing?
00:31:30
Speaker
What's the basic premise? The premise is basically a group of basic level adventurers are meant to clear out a pest infestation, but then stumble upon one of a series of artifacts that will create a powerful artifact of ancient elven kind that many factions are trying to take.
00:31:52
Speaker
So yeah, the beginning worked pretty well. So how how many artifacts are there, Nick? Five. How many players should we have? Five. And what happens if all five of these artifacts are brought together? Well, the proper ritual, they willll be they will create the acid crown and there will be one big super powerful thing that could be either a doomsday weapon or a great bargaining chip in a world that's in the middle of basically magical cold war.
00:32:22
Speaker
Doomsday weapon. in the Cold War. There wouldn't happen to be powerful factions that want these artifacts to form the ritual. And weren't we hired by one?
00:32:34
Speaker
By one, then that i found out that was being infiltrated by another one. Then they were spying on you by another one. And it just gets on down in and of itself. Several of them wanted us to get these artifacts and bring all five of them to them for their own purposes, didn't they? Yes. Classic mercenary contract. Robert, what did our characters decide?
00:32:58
Speaker
We said, nah none of them are getting this. So we were like, you you trust these guys Yeah, and and we have and they have to have all five to actually put the crown together.
00:33:11
Speaker
there's five us. And there's one, two, four, five of us. So what if each of us just take one of these artifacts and never approaches each other again? We walk off our different ways, never ever see one another again, and disappear into the world. Yeah, and that was the initial plan, except we fell into this, like, basement thing with a beholder. And when we killed the it, there was just all these...
00:33:35
Speaker
barrels of good alcohol and we were just like h what can we do with this daryl we can make a bar yeah we can make a tavern but we probably shouldn't do it in the very city we got hired on this side of the map because here getting all the facts it's that no you have and we're just like hmm didn't nick tell us on the very far other end of the map there were these bunch of islands led by a bunch of pirates More importantly, became before we came to before we came to that decision, Nick, had it become clear to you that we we did not want to follow this particular pre-written campaign's tracks to its end?
00:34:23
Speaker
Admittedly, The writing was on the wall halfway through when you when you guys asked your druid to turn into a whale and escape the ship because you thought... because You were correctly guessing that... that Were we wrong?
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. So, what what'd you do, Nick? i kept on introducing the fact that, well, you're in the area where the or the stuff is, so that means you if you don't want them to get get it so you should get it anyways but i didn't stop you from once you got it from changing that path at all well you you kind of fast-tracked us getting to that yeah major goal of getting the artifacts yeah you were like oh there's four more well uh oh look all four of them are in this town
00:35:15
Speaker
Correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, but here is how I have always interpreted at least part of your thought process. You trusted us to know that you wanted to run a D&D campaign with us and that when we decided to be our normal chaos gremlin selves and say, nah, we're not going to play this the way that that WotC wrote it, that you you trusted us to say, well, it would be kind of kind of a jerk move if here at the end of like session three we accomplished the goal and then said, okay, we have all five parts. See you never.
00:35:59
Speaker
And all walked five separate ways. And so you trusted us to, despite having that plan, since we had gotten all five pieces so quickly,
00:36:11
Speaker
to stay together so we weren't being jerks and completely ruining your game. At this point, and this is truly a case of like, the rails are we' were gone at that point.
00:36:23
Speaker
You skipped several quote-unquote dungeons, you accomplished a couple tasks that were necessary, even a bonus and on an airship. But it's like, the main factor was you got the you got the items.
00:36:36
Speaker
Now, what you should be doing is putting them together, making the crowd, and then making your choice. Nah. Nah. Now that's where you firmly throw the last last rail in off the map.
00:36:53
Speaker
That's where we firmly you blew up. We didn't just go off the tracks. We blew up the tracks. Yeah, no, it wasn't even just narratively. We also saw mechanically, it's like, well, These artifacts give us some pretty good boosts apart. If we put it together, only one person can have it. So, no, I want to keep my boost.
00:37:12
Speaker
This is true. They each of the items, and they all attune to, they all have to be attuned. You each attune to tune do each part of the Asking Crown. And was like, as part of your plan, it'd be like your initial plan to fly off to wherever you want to go to so that Denver comes back. It's like, well, it's attuned to me.
00:37:29
Speaker
They got to kill me to get it. Yeah, it's like we basically would have left and then that that would have created like a stereotypical movie. Like a bad guy is chasing all these holders down to gain their pieces and some brave hero has to stop him.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah, so if we were looking at this as a movie, that would be the end of of the first movie where we've we've gotten the parts and we've walked off and never, never, ever see each other again. We each have the Infinity Stone, but now the second movie, Thanos, is going around finding us and taking the stone. Yes.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yes, we each have an Infinity Stone, and Thanos starts coming after us, and so one of us shows up and says, like, hey, big purple guy with a prune chin is after us. We need to get the band back together.
00:38:24
Speaker
All right, I'm in. But basically, somewhere around the de moment you beat up the Beholder with the alcohol was when you came up with the ultimate pivot.
00:38:36
Speaker
don't think it's going to pivot anymore. You think? You have the ritual, and I think you still have the ritual scroll, but you just... Oh yeah, Stephanie does. We just haven't done anything with It's the ritual scroll.
00:38:49
Speaker
So at any moment you could, not that you have any reason to, to to use the Ashen Crus. diffuse the action crowd back together. Hey, maybe we'll have a chance in the future if things go 12 in our danger. If things get, yeah, things get, I mean, we already know that, that things are going pear-shaped and we are, as I did in, in a session recently to borrow a phrase from Buffy, the vampire slayer, we are suddenly having to learn the plural of the word apocalypse.
00:39:18
Speaker
Yes. And that could be a situation where like, okay, maybe we do it to bring this thing together. which could even be a comedic moment if an NPC is like, you've had it this entire time.
00:39:30
Speaker
but the main factor was, rather than split off, end the campaign like that, you're sort like, let's go into business together. And thusly, the train on the metaphorical lightning rail flipped off the track, spun down a hill, onto a different one. so Nick, I have a question.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yes. Was this narrative train the one in the Fugitive that went off the tracks, or the one in Back to the Future Part 3 that went flying off the end of an uncompleted track in flames and exploded?
00:40:08
Speaker
and It's closer to the Back to the Future Part 3. Right on. This was meant to be like, this was meant to end with just like, oh, big boss fight. If you stop the big bad from trying to make the crown and then maybe you have a moral compunction, like do we give the crown to morally ambiguous facts in number one through five? Yeah, we're not going to that. Who knows what happens? We chose option C. Run away.
00:40:36
Speaker
You chose option G in terms of like the amount of... Option G, get out. yeah Just go.
00:40:47
Speaker
And thus, the Seeker of the Ashen Crown perished, and the hopeless situation warriors were born. There were moments that I did have to bring those elements back. You did eventually fight the big bad. Oh, yeah, I still remember that. it's It's that lady who's like, I have been waiting for you guys for months. Yeah.
00:41:09
Speaker
I was like, all right, she's underleveled to fight you now, but she's so, I need to get her off the board. And we did. And we did, yes. And you even her introduce a possible more danger in the future. Yeah, it's an escalating campaign that admittedly was never my intention, but I'm glad mainly because I trusted, as you said, Darrell, my players to do something unique. And as I saw what you guys were doing, it's like I see the potential. I see the different tracks that we can do.
00:41:46
Speaker
I dug the characters. I dug the concepts. And it's like, OK, so I may have come in this with like, all right, here's a limited campaign this would be like a good couple of weeks of just some role in D&D.
00:42:00
Speaker
ah There's some there's some richness here. There's there's characters, the story, the stuff that you guys are as are still questioning. You still don't know what's going on the rabbit for some reason. You guys are really obsessed. with There is a secret there.
00:42:16
Speaker
We will uncover it. And Nick, at this point, even if you never meant for there to be a secret for the rabbit, you have to come up with a secret for the rabbit.
00:42:28
Speaker
yeah Because otherwise, we will be disappointed and it will be anticlimactic. That rabbit must be the key to stopping the Armageddon. Yes.
00:42:40
Speaker
But yes, now it's just Daryl's character and Artur Feist are very interested in war crimes. Betsy's character is Shifter, who still has not shifted for us, so we have no idea what their form is.
00:42:54
Speaker
We've got Stephanie, the druid that kind of just wants to be left alone. Zander. Druid that transforms, but is also a changeling that also transforms.
00:43:06
Speaker
It's like double on double. Then we got Zander, the cleric, who has been recently engaged against his will. We got Dante, the the the the but the bard spy.
00:43:19
Speaker
We've got Lawrence, the exploding hamster. Sorcerer. Who knows where that came from. And then we have my character, an orc fighter who's basically traumatized himself and he cannot feel a thing physically.
00:43:35
Speaker
and then put And decided to put an eye, a golden eye, in the place of his eye, one of his eyes, and now... as it Wait, has I actually went on the rail for you that time, okay?
00:43:48
Speaker
ah I did not expect anyone to put the eye in their eye. Well, there's another derail for you. But what? was like, man who puts the eye in their eye? Hey, I just touched it. That's when you said, okay, it's now in your eye now. It's like, Yeah. Okay.
00:44:06
Speaker
I am sorely disappointed with myself that until hearing you say the word just now, Nick, that I have not done a GoldenEye pun or pulled up the theme song.
00:44:22
Speaker
I was expecting that. wouldn't we We're like five seconds into this whole I thing. No, I am disappointed with with myself. um It just means my my relationship with the black dragon that's through this golden eye has diverted the attention to it.
00:44:42
Speaker
Also because I can finally feel, because of this dragon and this eye, that I've honestly become basically balder from God of War when he can feel things again. He's just so ecstatic, even if it's pain.
00:44:55
Speaker
You have a ah hate, hate relationship with the dragon. Yes. And it's going to be explored once we actually get to them. All of this is leading up to a grander, larger plot that you guys are piecing together, seeing parts of it. Where all the parts fall are still up in the air, but it's like, from what came from like, okay, I didn't want to do a big campaign, I just wanted to do a little bit of D&D, became a ongoing your campaign that I am very happy with and
00:45:29
Speaker
Glad that you all enjoying. Yes. Now we have to face Armageddon as well as pay our lease in our tavern. okay Yes.
00:45:39
Speaker
And we ironically have a ton of top shelf beverages, but not a lot of bottom shelf beverages. We're very expensive tavern. And you're still trying to figure out the the to create the quote unquote, I still have it in my notes, the beer elemental.
00:45:58
Speaker
We have ways. I have several concepts so far. I've come up with several concepts. I'm not sure how any of it's going to work, but we'll figure it out. We have like a thousand year old Elvin ale.
00:46:14
Speaker
And it's a hard time for us finding normal beer. we I don't get it. to to give everyone a peek behind the curtain, the beer elemental stems from one of our Havoc Brigade games at Gamer Nation Con with Steve from Me and Steve Talk RPGs. Yes. and that where that's the And that's the one universe where there are no reels. Havoc Brigade is just you're building it as you go. There is no... There's a sentence and then you build off that.
00:46:41
Speaker
Yes, and we we accidentally created a beer elemental there and once we trapped... or once we got this crystal with an air elemental in hopeless situation warriors was like oh we we we got to do the beer elemental we got do the beer elemental bit and and our thought show i still been working on it i i i swear i every so often i'm like i go back through the hopeless situation warrior does like
00:47:12
Speaker
in bold letters, figure out beer element. And I have like seven different like combinations of like spells and ideas. i just I just need to figure out which one I'm going to use.
00:47:24
Speaker
I remember when we first mentioned that, just the look that you got on your face, like, why am I friends with these people? i was like I was like, on the one hand, that's absurd.
00:47:36
Speaker
On the other hand, wait. work. but I literally, I remember just jotting down and like taking notes a minute, ah like the second, like the after the minute of like, did you just propose? I was like, wait, this might work if I tweak a little bit. If I if divide look, like if I, if I, if I got a way of this.
00:48:01
Speaker
I can work with this. there's something there's This can work. It's crazy, but it just might work. but yeah yeah this But this goes to show that a derail can lead your group into one of the most remarkable experiences ever.
00:48:21
Speaker
We brought up multiple times about the hopeless situation warriors, ah the the multiple legal cases they've been been involved in. The hopeless situation warriors, our tavern, your hopeless solutions, our side business, the hopeless situation lawyers.
00:48:39
Speaker
We got all of it. The the the sorrowful dragons they've held through crises. The half-dragon who is the son of two have of two dragons but didn't become a dragon of any kind.
00:48:53
Speaker
The number of war crimes we've gathered and are now working on getting a Warforged Colossus for Artificer, waiting for Xander's character to finally meet his fiancee.
00:49:05
Speaker
while the wild's going back yeah All the while going back to this city that we initially started in, in Seeker's The Ashen Crown, to Rabba University.
00:49:16
Speaker
Yep, and all while stemming off the apocalypse. Multiple apocalypse. All while stemming off the apocalypse, hiring a werebear, killing a vampire, and bringing some stuff to a dragon's astronomy tower. which we then learned of said moon.
00:49:32
Speaker
And then the dragon was like, nope, I'm leaving. And he just, he just dipped. It's a campaign that of convenience. and there's like It's basically a truncated version of a campaign that i had dreamt of a long time ago, but never found anyone to actually be interested in.
Round-Robin GM Style and Player-Driven Narratives
00:49:50
Speaker
And I sort of truncated it and made it work in this ad hoc campaign that never intended to be one. Yes, but hey, not knowing what's going to happen or being derailed can even be fun because I know we floated the idea and one day we'll probably do it if I've just in whatever universe, probably Star Wars.
00:50:13
Speaker
We'll run a campaign to where maybe Nick starts GMing one session, get to an end point, then he goes to Daryl, who's just going to do it in whatever direction he wants to go through it. Then it's me, this whole round robin, who knows where it's going to go.
00:50:27
Speaker
I say it is an idea. I say we revisit that this summer. i have it like great I agree. that sounds like it's a fun That sounds like a fun summer thing to do.
00:50:39
Speaker
that The How We Roll Gaming Challenge. Yes. sir yeah only i think the only limit would be like we could set like, alright. It goes between either this many players are going to it or this many sessions. It's like we see how it ends up. yep and we'll working it all right We can invite anyone else who's been GMing for us, GMing with us to GM as well.
00:51:05
Speaker
True. Yes. Yes, rails are important. they're always You must always start with rails. Yes. And part of it says zero is how railroady you want things to be or how sandboxy, but you gotta to admit players will always sort of skip the rails, step over them or completely just throw the thing over, but then it rewrites itself onto a new rail.
00:51:31
Speaker
That's why we like to say, have a framework or a skeleton. Don't create the entire body, just create a skeleton that can handle when players, Zig here, Zag here, hopscotch over there, and then dive bomb over here.
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah, my my earliest GM self would be at a total loss with our current group because I would sit down and the the first game that I GM'd in was DC Heroes. And I think I've mentioned this in a in a an episode before. When I would sit down to plan out a session that I was going to be running, I wrote it out like a full module, like what Mayfair was publishing for DC Heroes.
00:52:17
Speaker
And so... If it was our current group, I would be at a loss because in the second scene, the second encounter, you all would be going completely off of the rails that I had put down and I would have no contingency plan for getting anywhere back near the rails.
00:52:39
Speaker
Oh, I used to do big dramatic villain monologues. But none of you, I know enough players who was like, we're going to hit when he's monologuing. Exactly. We're going hit you while you're monologuing. So I was like, all right then. You still write out the monologue.
00:52:55
Speaker
I still write them out because they're fun. Oh yeah, they're totally fun. And there can be ways to include them. And I get a couple of lines out in them. But I most but i used to be like, okay, I'm going to do the monologue.
00:53:08
Speaker
Oh, wait, they hit me. He's like, all right, then. we We're going to see how... That's how we're playing it. You know, Nick, and in some cross-podcast synergy, part of the problem with us writing villain monologues like that is...
00:53:25
Speaker
In our current group, our characters are meta-narrative savvy. They're genre savvy for the genre that they're in. and that's when they And I'm guilty of doing this as a player in either of your campaigns, too.
00:53:44
Speaker
As the villain starts monologuing, we all start chiming in and riffing and like, okay, are you done now? Because this is the part where you're the bad guy and you keep talking and you monologue, but we're we're ready to just fight.
00:54:01
Speaker
So bring it on. Kind of bringing the cross synergy, we are characters in a Scream movie in a Scream movie, like we talked about just yeah this latest Casual Nerdity episode.
00:54:16
Speaker
And honestly, that's kind of how I sort of play. There's dire stakes in Hopeless Situation Warriors, but there's moments where it's like, yeah, it's like, OK, here's a little bit of like incredible levity.
00:54:29
Speaker
Yeah, we can have comedic moments and then dramatic moments, fun moments while living in the past. It's a whole thing. I do love the how you guys were terrified five of the of five of my twist on the basilisk. One eye turned people young, the other one turned them old. I was just like, oh, oh, oh. yeah Yeah, that was just horrible. That was awful.
00:54:53
Speaker
And we were just like, kill it. Kill it with fire. Kill it with fire. Kill it with ice. Kill it with with metal. may Kill it with anything. you guys took cover and you made sure, like, don't look at it.
00:55:07
Speaker
Don't look at it. Take out its eyes. which in our Which in the campaign universe of Eberron, that can actually happen because the Mornland is just chaos. It's all chaos.
00:55:18
Speaker
Magic plus everything is like ten times worse. I mean, didn't we even get a guy out of the Mornland? He was like a half blob creature. Yep. When we found out he was like an 18-year-old who just tripped in there. Mm-hmm. And that's just that' us on the periphery. You haven't even entered it Well, weird entering a place with a bunch of screaming faces.
00:55:40
Speaker
so there's There's many different ways to deal with the plot being derailed, most of which has a GM you can ultimately use to your advantage. Because the thing to keep in mind, when your players deri your players aren't trying or necessarily even knowingly derailing your story. Yeah, because they don't know how you're thinking. Yeah. They're taking the story seeds that you're giving them, the elements that have been presented to them, and they're running with what engages them.
00:56:17
Speaker
And so take that as a cue. oh I totally didn't plan that. But they're really, really into that. They're digging that storyline. So that's completely the opposite of where I was planning for this to go.
00:56:32
Speaker
But if that's what they want to do, they're going to have more fun if I focus on that than if I force them back over here to what I wanted to do.
00:56:43
Speaker
Exactly. the The worst thing you can do is like, the worst thing to do is to force them back onto a railroad. But sometimes, and again, it's honestly more rare. I've,
00:56:56
Speaker
I've only maybe seen it once in my entire time as a GM. Where it's like, okay, they get lost in the sauce. And it's like they need to be like, alright, here's the track, back on the way to go.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah, you you give them a switch back that leads them back to the tracks. Yes. But most of the times, it's a path to like be good. Yeah, you can even have the fortuitous thing of like, oh, well I was planning this.
00:57:25
Speaker
why'd you just say that so much better? Yeah. Yeah. That's going back to Walking Dead and the plot element that we've talked about where Dante tried to come up with some kind of...
00:57:38
Speaker
not vaccine yeah a a vaccine to forestall the walkers okay let me run with this because oh this this could get worse this would get so much worse because you opened it's like oh living breathing zombies great yep Living, breathing zombies who you are just, they're they're awful.
00:58:06
Speaker
They're frightening. They're terrifying. ah And you love it. And I love it. And they haven't shown back up yet. But let me tell you, in that time since we established that he had done that, I've had plenty of time to think of how they work.
00:58:23
Speaker
Yeah, you even put some like in scenes of like, and then this scene happens where something's happening in the behind the scenes. I know how they work now. And so eight I'm just waiting for the right time for them to be reintroduced.
00:58:40
Speaker
Yeah. But how you handle a derail is the difference between what happened with Sopla Situation Warriors or getting bogged down on a space station for a month. Yeah.
00:58:52
Speaker
Actually, it's it sadly, that wasn't a derailment. That was an intention. But that's a... That's a whole nother episode. Yeah. True, true. That's a whole nother episode. As GM, let's let's kind of let's kind of put it this way. We won't linger on it because i think it is worth its own episode. But what what I'm thinking is this is something that knowing the GM, great person...
00:59:22
Speaker
And knowing the kinds of of fiction and elements in games that interested him, i understand as a GM on paper, this was an awesome idea on paper. This was, o they're racing against the clock because they have to get back home with the parts. But the realities of how long it's going to take to load everything, at get everything cleared to be loaded, and get off the station can't be changed.
00:59:56
Speaker
So all of this other so stuff can happen on the station while they're there. The problem is, as the GM, you have to read the room. The narrative flow was...
01:00:09
Speaker
Not working. If your players are visibly becoming disenchanted and frustrated with this element, then you have to pivot.
Player Engagement and GM Adaptability
01:00:21
Speaker
I can't believe that didn't work. I know, me neither. mean, it had a sketch. Oh, you know what? What did you mean when you said pivot? When a rather normal, the ah pretty calm fella seems to start to be a bit more agitated. It's like, hey, dude, take a breather.
01:00:42
Speaker
It's just like, ah get me out of here. Get me out of here. I would say, and we we'll put a pin in that for a future episode, i think. Just until we started talking about it, there is a good episode to be had, I think, in discussing reading the room as a GM.
01:01:01
Speaker
and making sure that your players are having fun. So I am going to put this in our notes. Yes. So yeah that's what you can do with the derailment.
01:01:12
Speaker
And yep players don't derail just to hurt the GM. Unless it's Nick, then it's a requirement. Yes. So much that we put it in our session zero document.
01:01:24
Speaker
yeah i mean we have I mean, it's been a while since you've gotten there used to be a ah kind of a running a competition to see what is known as the broken Nick face.
01:01:37
Speaker
Used to be. It's a lot more difficult. yeah We'll see. It's a lot more difficult. We just haven't tried as hard lately. We just need to find a way that causes you to have to fully skip a session because of something we did.
01:01:54
Speaker
I mean, i know something that I can do that would just you totally break Nick. And for those listening on audio, I am holding up a calculator.
01:02:07
Speaker
And now I'm sliding the calculator back. Put it away. Put it away. Put it away. That gives me an idea. in Star Wars, you can play a droid. What if I just play a sentient calculator?
01:02:21
Speaker
I mean, that's basically what a droid is. If you get right down to it. Yeah, a droid accountant. Oh, you you know what else you could play in a game? Squirrel!
01:02:33
Speaker
No. True. I mean, you are going to eventually do your Marvel heroes. so Squirrel! Well, there's there's no Marvel hero that's a squirrel.
01:02:46
Speaker
Nick, there is Squirrel Girl and Tippy Toe. I will not have this Squirrel Girl ratio. But Squirrel Girl cool! Damn it! Yes.
01:02:57
Speaker
And what is Tippy Toe, Nick? Squirrel. What was that? Squirrel. Squirrel. And if we do a Green Lantern campaign, are you going to be Chip?
01:03:12
Speaker
Chip is not a squirrel. Chip is is an alien equivalent of a chipmunk, not a squirrel. This is true. Or better, we have to do... Remember a game in ancient con, you played the game where you were all wizard familiars. Familiar! familiar So all the familiars are squirrels.
01:03:30
Speaker
Yes. But don't want to be a snake. No. No. The snake has been replaced with a squirrel. I think you guys won. ah I think we've met our quota, Daryl. Yes, we segued into bullying Nick without even trying.
01:03:46
Speaker
We didn't even call it. We just slid into it.
Podcast Support and Listener Engagement
01:03:50
Speaker
You you you just you just drifted rails. Nah, we just did a good pivot. Here we go, pivot! nick is ah Nick is now curled up in a fetal position.
01:04:01
Speaker
As he records. So it's time to say. Check out our. at How we roll gaming dot com. And there you'll find information. About our current campaigns. Our podcast archive. our world And links to our merch store. And all of our social media.
01:04:19
Speaker
Yes you can also directly. Support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon dot com. slash How we roll gaming. And you'll see our different membership tiers. Starting at just two dollars a month. with special recognition on our Discord server, and higher tiers giving you on-air credit and discounts on our merch store. Finally, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer, topics you want us to cover, and even submit your own RPGGlory story, shoot us an email at podcast at howwerollgaming.com.
01:04:49
Speaker
Thank you, everyone, for listening. um we i am I'm sorry, Nick. I didn't mean to traumatize you so so harshly. can feel the will seeping out of his voice.
01:05:02
Speaker
Yes, well, he can't be a green liner now. No, the yellow is my color anyways. Until next time, we we hope you will join us again. We hope you enjoyed this episode.
01:05:14
Speaker
And we hope to see you next time. As always, I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. Robert. And this is How We Roll. This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2026, How We Roll Gaming, LLC.
01:05:33
Speaker
All games and associated intellectual properties are copyright their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.