Thread by @AlexandraErin

Quick #DND thread.

So, since @moofable's character Dirt, Friend of All Living Things, invited the Raven Queen to the town's victory festival, at the end of the party she left him with a thank you gift: a box containing one death and one life.

Here's a fun DM thing: I did not, at the point I came up with this and said that, know exactly what that means and I still don't. (This tweet does not contain a question.) It's a closed box. Ornate. Dark. Bird motif. A literal and figurative black box.

IF you were a writer doing an ensemble story about adventurers, and you had a McGuffin like this, you would probably have some idea of not only what it would do but also what need the recipients would have for it, later in the season or whatever.

And you could also guarantee that the heroes figure out exactly what it is and how it works right when they need to.

When you're a DM, a game runner, the main story-weaver of a collaborative story, you might have some ideas but you can't control what's going to happen or dictate when the party will decide what.

So you can provide them with something like this as a formally defined magic item with exact parameters and then let them figure out when it will be useful on that basis.

Orrrrrrrrrrr you can define it in mythic terms and let them figure it out for themselves. If one of them happens to come up with something cool that fits the brief you've given them, the outcome will be like one of those great scripted moments.

This is the biggest lesson I've learned as a storytelling DM: if I come up with a big set piece where there's some solution I think will be perfectly solved by using their one-shot mystic McGuffin, no matter how broadly I think I'm hinting or how obvious it is, it's a crap shoot.

Buuuuuut if I give them something portentous and important like a box that contains one life and one death and let them figure out what it means, they'll create their own opportune moment.

And you're way more likely to get that kind of climactic season finale moment that you're dreaming of seeing.

A tabletop roleplaying game is collaborative. If you want to tell a great story, you have to realize that you can't write the players' parts for them. It's better to give them pieces to play with than write a script with their parts blank.

By the way, ~400 new followers I gained yesterday for my thoughtful and reflective political threads: around these parts, Saturday is game day so expect a lot of out-of-context Dungeons & Dragons posts starting in an hour or two.