Sometimes it’s funny when tabletop RPG players expect the game to behave like a video game.
GM: “The nearby town sent a message that a swarm of zombies is coming down the haunted mountain for them! They need help!”
PCs: “Cool. But let’s finish that mushroom side quest first, and then we gotta help our wizard buddy get his new broom tuned up.”
GM: “…okay.”
<two in-game days later>
PCs: “Ok, what do we see when we get to that town?”
GM: “Seems like everyone’s dead. Looks a swarm of zombies or something came down from the mountain and ate everyone alive or something, maybe a day or two ago.”
PCs: <confused, shocked>
IIRC in Mass Effect 2 after your crew gets abducted going and doing some side stuff before doing the rescue mission did actually result in some crew member(s?) dying
And also not doing enough side quests and upgrades before you got the abduction also meant the outcome of the rescue mission changed.
I was loosely following a guide and I misunderstood that I needed to wait to rescue them to I did a few side missions and half my crew died 🥲
I did a few side missions and half my crew died
That reminds me of how I got dishonorably discharged from the navy.
In my defense, nobody told me that a nuclear submarine can’t handle the depths of the Mariana trench and I figured that it would be an obvious place for the developers to stash rare loot!
What can I say? I’m wacky like that 🤷
Hey! Skyrim was legitimately easier when dragons and vampires weren’t killing off all your townspeople. It made sense not to trigger the dragons, and wipe the floor with the vampires as soon as possible. Jarl Balgruf will be there when the Archmage/ Nightingale/ Speaker is ready. It takes me a few weeks to take over those organizations.
I absolutely hate timed quests in games. I’m perfectly capable of suspending a little bit of disbelief—in fact, I prefer it sometimes. Don’t fucking rush me during my relaxation activity.
If you’re going to die, better to die on the main quest. I avoid side quest distractions.
“The hero died before he could defeat the Dark Lord because he was killed whilst on an errand to deliver 20 bear asses to a random villager.”
But what about when you die fighting the Dark Lord because you’re not overlevelled from doing all the sidequests?
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. - Bruce Lee
Live to Win intensifies
I’m reminded of Deadline an interactive fiction game where you are solving a murder mystery and unless you are in the right place at the right time you will miss some important evidence.
