• blazeknave@lemmy.world
      451·
      2 years ago

      Dude… I’m laying in bed between my son and cat right now. He’s playing Marvel on Switch, I just made him look at this pic. Meanwhile, my arm is around the cat, petting her. She suddenly bites me while we’re looking at pic. I reprimand and continue petting. Bites again. I reprimand and stop petting. Pause, resume petting in spite of angry tail in peripheral vision. Child applauds cat for getting me good while saying the pic is sick. I read your comment. I am living your comment. I would not have second guessed my current petting mimic if I hadn’t read your comment. Pets biting cat again.

      • nifty@lemmy.world
        121·
        2 years ago

        You’re probably infected with T. Gondii. Not sure how to make this a cute comment, so here’s this face :3

  • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
    542·
    2 years ago

    Mimics, mimics everywhere is a sign of a bad DM who can’t create tension without bullshit paranoia, or a personal grudge.

    Unless the table signed up for that kind of adventure, the challenges should be achievable within the party’s abilities, eg “Oh if only you could speak with animals you could have foiled the BBEG’s plans”

    • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
      281·
      2 years ago

      I mean, the same could be said of GMs that run a module without telling the table they’re running a module “to keep you from looking it up”, etc. Personally, I flat-out tell my players I’ll be running a certain module and that I’ll be considering it like jazz does sheet music. In fact, when I ran Xanathar’s arc after it’s release, the silent business partner to his faction was an ages-old black market syndicate headed by a mimic mafia (with changelings as their juvenile stage, tasked with learning humanoid ways via a sort of rumspringa).

      Establishing that not only can anything be a mimic, but the resonant fact that said mimics were more interested in observing rather than mindlessly ambushing outright was far more paranoia-inducing than any stereotypical expectation, NGL. It wasn’t long before the party was all but wishing for the wardrobe/carriage/over-large chest/ornate tome to just attack and get it over with. 🤣🤘🏼

      edit: spelling, clarity

      • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
        5·
        2 years ago

        I’d argue that it’s more fun to bury the lead on a module/set dungeon, to prevent any (even subconscious) meta-gaming from upsetting the play between more/less seasoned players, but I do like the “jazz and sheet music” analogy.

        If someone clicks/is told you’re using Tomb of Horrors, they’ll know more than a player who is experiencing that for the first time organically. Obviously applying that and not breaking PC-player knowledge divide is the players issue to maintain, but they’ll still have that seed lurking in their brain about the upcoming set pieces

        • Susaga@ttrpg.networkEnglish
          3·
          2 years ago

          I’m on team “tell the players”, personally, because it lets the players customise their characters for the module. A group for Wilds Beyond the Witchlight are going to be different from Descent Into Avernus, for example.

          (Of course, if a player decides to put Doom Guy in a fairy tale, that’s perfectly fine, but it should be their choice.)

          Also, a person who knows about Tomb of Horrors will figure it out pretty quickly during gameplay anyway because of those set pieces you mentioned, so it doesn’t matter if you didn’t tell them what it was. Heck, they might even have bowed out so they don’t ruin things with their meta-knowledge, if only they knew what they were going to be playing.

        • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
          12·
          2 years ago

          Lede*

          And, I don’t necessarily disagree, though it’s the latter half of the statement that clarifies the problematic thinking: removing player agency is not a good first step.

            • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
              11·
              2 years ago

              Fair point, though I can only assume that it won’t be long before people are mispronouncing it IRL, for reasons not unlike “decimate” vs. “devastate”. 🫣 Ah, the consequences of underfunded education at the national scale. 🥹

    • corcaroli@ttrpg.network
      181·
      2 years ago

      Still, memes likes this one actually breed such GMs, because somehow they think it’s funny.

  • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
    291·
    2 years ago

    Serious question, who here actually tries to create such paranoia in their players? It’s probably one of the biggest reoccurring memes around here and I don’t entirely get it.

    Is this the tone some people are actually trying to create and if so, why?

    It could just be I have a very narrow group of people I’ve played with, but this doesn’t necessarily seem a tone I’d be striving for.

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      2 years ago

      I had a DM hide mimics and traps everywhere and then get pissed at us for “wasting” so much time checking everything for traps.

      • kreekybonez@lemmy.world
        10·
        2 years ago

        my personal rule is to only lay a trap that has clear potential to be discovered in-game, with a context clue, and not an ambiguous “roll for perception” out of nowhere.

        randomly dropping an anvil on a player is a dick move.

        telling players they’re walking through an active construction site of a new smithing conglomerate, with an unfinished forge 10 meters above them, at least sets the tone and let’s them know caution is a reasonable option.

        also sets up some weird intrigue that could easily turn into a sidequest.

    • kreekybonez@lemmy.world
      13·
      2 years ago

      I had a sort of opposite problem the last time I ran a campaign. my players came into the game super paranoid, probably from reading stories about tricky DMs, and it made my life pretty difficult.

      I did set up traps and misdirection, but only when there were exactly enough clues to figure it out. I learned that the major problem with that method, is that what’s obviously a clue to me wasn’t always obvious for them. so, I was thought of as a tricky DM. then, after I softened up, my sessions looked too easy and obvious.

      honestly, it’s just a really difficult balance. I eventually got it to a good place for everyone, but everyone really does have a preferred level of deceit, and it isn’t easy to cater to a group of 5 with varying levels of expectation

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 years ago

      My life is so stressful. I like to giggle with friends when I play games. This would give me so much anxiety and end relationships.

    • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
      2·
      2 years ago

      who here actually tries to create such paranoia in their players

      Call of Cthulhu DMs, I’d assume, though I don’t know if there’s mimics in that, I’m just somewhat familiar with shoggoths and garden gnomes.

      • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        2 years ago

        I’m genuinely curious how garden gnomes fit into the Cthulhu mythos. I thought I was relatively well versed on the topic, but that’s new to me.

        • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
          5·
          2 years ago

          Ah. I see you’re unfamiliar with the tale of Old Man Henderson. Enjoy.

          (To be fair it was specifically the lack of garden gnomes that was a significant plot point in said tale, but characters in a setting being aware of a lack of garden gnomes sort of implies that garden gnomes do exist in said setting… but, again, given Old Man Henderson’s nature they could have easily just ever have existed in his head…)