What Your Players Expect & How This Can Help You

In today's video, we are revisiting expectations in a little more detail. We know by now that expectations help to provide you with constraints for your roleplaying game, but it is also important that as game masters, you start to rely on expectations when creating your own world space as they will help you to not only come up with ideas on the fly, but also allow the players at your RPG table to create ideas & scenarios in their own minds that you can use and incorporate in your TTRPG. Whether you're a DM for D&D, Pathfinder or Call of Cthulhu, having & relying on expectations will change the way you run your roleplaying games.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:01 Expectation is personal
11:03 How do you do it?
11:20 Entrench
12:01 Subvert
12:35 Alter
12:59 Abandon
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[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

*Thanks for watching!* Let us know in the comments below where your dragon lives. What kind of lair do you see your creature living in? Gone are the days of lugging around big dice sets and dice boxes and cases! Celtic Knotworks have these amazing, small, very portable travel dice sets - perfect for DnD on the go! Use the code GREATGM for a 10% discount on everything in the store! Yes everything! Check it out now! Find them here: celticknotworks.com/ Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description above.

[@azx7023]

I know how you make that kind of wooden box that's not handmade. It's lasercut wood and that means the engraving is lrobably laser etched too. that is being mass produced with almost no input from a human, I'd all but guarantee you. all the human does is press the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle and slide the metal bit over it.

[@frigginsepone446]

On the top floors of an arcology. Yeah... it's Shadowrun! The dragon owns the corporation that runs the arcology. 🤪

[@darkmage07070777]

A two-word pairing for each form of expectation modification: Entrench - "Yes, so..." Alter - "Yes, and..." Abandon - "No, but..." Subvert - "Yes, but..."

[@seaborgium919]

Oh my god "yes, so" is so much better in my brain

[@marcosmiotti7399]

My dragon (a bronze one) dwells in a war-torn island-lair. Part of his treasure trove is a collection of human-sized, animated toy soldiers from different cultures across the multiverse, which keep the island in a permanent state of warfare. The dragon is a military tactician, and enjoys seeing the different strategies the toy soldiers employ in the conflicts.

[@elhoteldeloserrantes5056]

that's a cool concept

[@mrsashleymiller1980]

That's us!! The Mirth'nMerry Band from DnD in a Castle! I cannot say enough about how fantastic an experience this was. An absolutely epic campaign. And we were SO damn proud of ourselves for figuring out that we had been pulled through time to arrange a John Connor style murder before we could become heros... only to find out at the end of the campaign that we'd made it up. How he managed to sculpt a campaign of that magnitude while we were playing 8+ hours/day for days I still can't wrap my head around. All I can say is, as a person who lived at this man's table for days he knows what he's talking about. We had already begun plotting our next trip before we'd left the castle.

[@jamesvastine291]

Gibralter from the Mirthnmerry Band here. We thought we were so clever unraveling this amazing time traveling plot. When Guy told us at the end that he had not planned the time traveling undead lesbian wizard, we were floored. It was a great adventure and so much fun. Also my dragon lives in subterranean caverns at the edge of the great desert.

[@Riflery]

This channel has legitimately made me a much better DM over the last month, and has improved my ability to make compelling worlds for my players. Thank you for existing.

[@88Grabarz]

at 11:00 I was expecting something like: "...I didn't! Genndy Tartakovsky did." This "got send to the future to prevent him killing a villan in the past, but managed to kill him in the future anyway" was a basic story of Smurai Jack :D

[@ryanhenderson225]

Sea Glass, the tiny iridescent blue/green dragon, lives in a nice bar/tarvern/inn that is a refurbished wizard's tower. He is a tiny magical construct created by the wizard as an intended gift for his niece. But, due to some tragedy, the gift never made it and instead remained in the tower. When the wizard died, his tower was bought by an enterprising innkeeper who was looking for a place with good atmosphere for his inn. He bought the place that came with our tiny dragon, who now spends his days joyfully entertaining guests and sucking/licking/slurping dry the leftover contents of bottles left behind by inebriated patrons.

[@crunchydragontreats6692]

After your dragon meets and starts training with a monk, they create the Dunkin’ Dragon Style, which of course will involve belching their breath weapon on occasion. Grab your ketchup and crunch away.

[@RobbieReviewsThings]

Well for me, The dragon lives in a burrow he created inside a dead forest that as a result of him living there, has a magical phenomena that causes people to experience a feeling of weakness. ( The dragon is some sort of Dracolich. Because how he said dragon made me think of a drauger. Soo zombie dragon)

[@darkmage07070777]

The first thing that popped into my mind for where the dragon lives was "a gingerbread house". No, I don't know why. But I'm sticking with it.

[@AdrienneMorrisa]

Ruth, the shapeshifting dragon and main character from my story, lives in a small village on the edge of a cliff. The dragons were nearly wiped out before, so they live there because they are in hiding. Dragons in my world control one of six elements, and they are able to use their magic to be mostly self-sustained. Earth dragons can easily carve living spaces into the mountain itself, water dragons can transport and purify drinking water, fire and ice dragons can keep the temperature at a comfortable level and provide light. Air dragons and Lightning dragons are great hunters and defenders if anyone tries to attack them.

[@timkramar9729]

I always found it funny how people expected this huge dragon to be in this large cavern with small exits. No large exits for the dragon to be able to get out.

[@danduval6181]

My dragon is inherently a dark brown/green colour but most of its scales are masked by the “rubble” it’s covered in. It mostly travels and spends periods of time in the ruins of whatever structure/village it has destroyed, adding more construction rubble to its “armour”. Although this armour is useful both offensively and defensively for the dragon it makes it easy to track, just follow the tenements of the location it just destroyed.

[@pippogriffthegreat7003]

I just wanted to express how grateful I am for my two players. They know I don't like combat and would rather have a good story! Also, sir, your facial hair is immaculately done!

[@CrazyKungfuGirl]

For some reason "swamp" was the first thing I thought even though logically I know it should be a mountain cave full of gold coins...

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

*Thanks for watching!* Let us know in the comments below where your dragon lives. What kind of lair do you see your creature living in? Gone are the days of lugging around big dice sets and dice boxes and cases! Celtic Knotworks have these amazing, small, very portable travel dice sets - perfect for DnD on the go! Use the code GREATGM for a 10% discount on everything in the store! Yes everything! Check it out now! Find them here: celticknotworks.com/ Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description above.

[@CRandyGamble]

I highly recommend the Patreon! Loads of fantastic resources that have inspired me time and time again! The dragon lives in an enormous mansion in the heart of the largest trade city on the continent. It has spent centuries masquerading as a series of merchants and one notable soldier. It is growing steadily more and more bored and may just decide to stir up some trouble for the city before long. It previously dated one of the PC's and had its heart broken.

[@tym445]

An azure dragon looks maniacally at a bottle filled with stolen joy and laughter in his abandoned candle-lit cliffside castle

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

My green-gold dragon lives in an underwater cave system. Thanks for this series again!

[@MajorQuux]

A thought for your sponsors: I can’t finish shopping right now, so I opened a tab to revisit later. I might not remember your discount code by then. Regardless of the 10% discount, a referrer code in the URL may be more effective at tracking ad campaigns than discount codes.

[@theladyamalthea]

Very helpful! I struggle with reverting to tropes under pressure, and I’m starting to think of more unique, interesting things as a result of your channel.

[@poilboiler]

The dragon lives in an abandoned chateau and every fortnight at midnight local peasants roll barrels of wine up to keep it from rampaging across the countryside in search of drink.

[@christophermzdenek]

The dragon lives in the great desert on the west of the continent. The desert is renowned for its blazing days, but nights so frigid that the scant moisture freezes to frost overnight. A perfect domain for a hybrid from its Silver and Blue parentage (assuming D&D designations). Yup, still loving this series.

[@warrenzeminsky5807]

I didn't comment on last week's video, but there's been an idea I've been kicking around in my head since Fizban's came out. A Storm Dragon. It has grayish semi-transparent skin/scales under which you can see blue-white lightning moving about under. This creature is well secluded in an abandoned storm-shrouded flying city. He is served by an army of Warforged the previous inhabitants of the city left behind. They were originally meant to pilot the city and still do, thousands of years later.

[@hollyannsimpson3296]

My red-gold dragon lives in a mountain cave deep in a forest. Their home is full of mounds of treasure gathered over centuries, but treasure is relative - like a magpie, they collect things they find pretty or interesting, not always things humans would find valuable.

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

I thought ancient black dragon in a brackish swamp on the southern tip of Brune. Good tips The players always come up with great ideas for campaigns or sessions. I’ve used stuff they came up with when it wasn’t where I was going but their ides seemed more fun.

[@iangee4846]

My dragon lives in a ruined keep, that clings on a high mountain cliff. The walls of the keep are riddled with vines and broken stones are lying around. The wooden parts are rotting away and you see some burn marks on the walls. Most of the roofs have collapsed, just the crypt, that is build halfway into the cave in the side of the moutain still stands. Just the great stone doors of the crypt are broken and scattered around inside the keep.

[@jackeldridge4225]

It arose from it's slumber in the whispering mountains in the northern expanses. A beast slumbering for over a generation had become nothing more than a myth, thought dead. Until that faithful day when it awoke, hungry. Lifting off from it's perch the morning sun at it's back as it descends upon the city of Westingham Sound

[@clericofchaos1]

I usually go into a game with very low expectations. That makes things way more enjoyable. What i would like is an epic level 20+ campaign that takes us through the multiverse and let's us battle gods for domination of the material plane...but, that's never going to happen. Especially since most dms are afraid to run anything above 10th level. So, my expectations for games now are to just roll some dice, have some laughs, and kill some time.

[@99zxk]

"World space" can be simplified as "World." Digging the new facial hair.

[@CHAMPIONJOE]

The dragon lives on a snowy mountain top - guarding the remains of a past loved one.

[@SuperGrimmwolf]

My dragon lives in a Cave under a big lake. The entrance is a sinkhole to the north of it. When it rains he barricades it with stones. He manipulates the townsvolk nearby to grow a lot of veggis and fruits around that sinkhole, so he can steal that.

[@Stephen-Fox]

"Where does this creature live?" My brain just now - "A cave, wait, no, space. A cave on the moon? Moon is often associated with dreams, so maybe feeds on dreams? No, hoards them. The dragon lives in a cave in a crater of the moon and has a hoard of children's dreams. When it steals them for its hoard... That's where nightmares come from." ...Which, well, wouldn't work for most games, but I want to play a game it makes any sense in.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

This is great and will be logged away as a possible spell-jammer encounter.

[@benmwalls]

Holding onto the eggs, plan to use them in some fashion in the next campaign - an idea that hasn't quite hatched yet.

[@AvenueStudios]

I am definitely envisioning a young black dragon peering out from the edge of a gloomy swamp. He hides partially under the moss that dangles down from the massive upturned root system of a long dead ancient tree.

[@jondoh2226]

My dragon lives in the upper atmosphere. It never rests. It just cruises over the world surface eternally.

[@SuperGoose42]

When you said that pronunciation of dragon, I thought of a fire breathing dragon, something much smaller than Smoug but still nothing to sneeze at, living in the far far north, eating Vikings in the mountains of frigid cold islands

[@SunWoodMC]

My Dragon lives in a dark part of a deep forest, mostly swampy with lots of dead wood and mushrooms. So dangerous that mortals rarely make the trip there, making it the perfect place for a hoard to be undisturbed. Unless you activly search the dark deathly parts of woods, you would never step into that area of the woods.

[@olinkirkland]

I was imagining a large, feathered dragon in the style of the new dinosaur visualizations that lives high up in a nest on an outcropping of a cliff-face, on the edge of an expansive beach along the ocean.

[@derkeve]

My dragon is an Ancient Red Dragon that lives in a recently active dormant volcano not far from a desert city that once manufactured Warforge for the war. The city is filled with metallic Dragonborne, Kobold and Lizardfolk. This is one of the areas for the campaign I'm putting together. In this setting chromatic dragons aren't natural, they're created by a magical disease that corrupts metallics into chromatics.

[@legonerd162]

My dragon is a french green dragon with a stereotypical handlebar mustache who has decided to gather minions solely to renovate the ruined, moss-covered castle he has found in the woods to be his beautiful living space

[@robertsedzik7827]

Hi Guy, long time follower, first-time commenter. I have recently borrowed an expectation-elliciting tool from my friend and fellow DM, wherein every several sessions I ask my players to write me approx. 3 sentences of what they believe happened so far during the course of current adventure and 3 more sentences about what they believe is going to happen next. BUT! Here is my question to you: should I specify that they should be writing from the point of view of their characters or themselves as players? Thry are not always the same. So far, I have been asking for the former, but now based on this video I am beginning to think it might be even more important to ask for the PLAYERS' expectations! Cheers, have a great one!

[@kmoustakas]

I love the look! Keep it!

[@bluejoy127]

I believe I had thought of an ancient gold dragon in the prior video so my ancient gold dragon lives within a monastery that is devoted to him. The monastery sits high atop a temperate mountain range and the dragon dwells deep within the mountain itself. Only the most trusted and elite monks there know of the dragon. The newer monks think it's all legend and smoke and mirrors.

[@axelwulf6220]

This beautiful abomination is a recluse, never staying in one area longer than he feels necessary, but he has found comfort in the violent fiery volcanic regions that line the far western continent

[@le_jhakesarchive9184]

This creature lives at the heart of an abandoned dwarven city, laid to waste by this creature's avarice and rage

[@davidscott4919]

The dragon lives in a chocolate shop. He saw the gold foil coins and just went nuts. Didn't go well when his heat melted the chocolate.

[@lordixlandis5085]

The way you said dragon sounds vampiric so I had an image of a dragon controlled by a vampire living in/around a castle

[@jonathanowen9917]

My black dragon lives in a grotto in the middle of a saltwater swamp. The marshlands are populated with crabs and shellfish, herons, pelicans, gulls, ospreys, grebes, cormorants, kingfishers, poisonous snakes, deer, wild horses, otters, and mink. Sharks, dolphins, and saltwater fish team in the water. Mosquitoes, flies, and ticks are nuisance insects but there are also dragonflies, mud wasps, bees, poisonous spiders, butterflies, beetles, and ants. Cattails, marsh grass, and reeds grow thickly across the marsh, which is cut by various channels. Driftwood and detritus from the occasional shipwreck are entangled in these plants and there are patches of thick mud and quicksand. Above the grotto the land rises into a small mountain at whose crest grows a grove of red, white, and chestnut oaks. At the center of this grove is a small clearing which has a ring of totem poles, each a debarked trunk upon which is carved a single face towards the upper end of the upright trunk. The faces are stained red and bear a variety of expressions, some scowling, some angry, some calm, and some singing or shouting. Inside the ring of totem poles is room for dancing and a large, central firepit. The lizardfolk that inhabit the marsh use this sacred site for their worship of the dragon. Outside the grotto are a collection of stones, and some of the larger ones have deep scratches in them and are stained with blood. These stones are used by the lizardfolk to offer sacrifices to the dragon of both beast and humanoid varieties. The mouth of the grotto is dotted with tafoni. Inside of the grotto are draperies, stalactites and stalagmites, helictites, and crystals. The first room of the grotto remains constantly flooded but can be navigated by a small boat. The adjoining room is partially flooded with the rising tide. Littered about this second space are the acid-pitted bones of the dragon’s prey and the bloated, fly-ridden corpses of recent kills. Amongst this stench of death and decay nests poisonous snakes, centipedes, spiders, and scorpions. The third room of the cave is connected to the former by a long passage, and houses the dragon’s nest and treasure hoard. The bones and carcasses of victims continues along the passage and right up into the nest.

[@danieldees9686]

Deep earth dragon/tunnel wyrm. Inaccurately named but upon seeing a massive maw with rows of swirling teeth spinning like a mine wall cutter and spewing corrosive, stone-softening acid, the deep mining crew that spread news of its existence knew no better word to describe this Underdark behemoth that looks like it belongs in Tremors in Space.

[@meikograveyard]

He lives in a mountainous cavern, where his lair is just a giant geode filled with amethysts. An eerie ghostly energy fills the cavern with a somber violet light

[@maksim9612]

Such brilliant ideas

[@Nobody-bp5wh]

In my back yard. ... The dragon was my neighbor's dog.

[@russelljacob7955]

I had a form of fun time travel. So it was subtle and mentioned campaign in previous video where I discussed post apocalypse. To create world changes for plot, the game had a form of time travel. As they interacted with items during the campaign on the mystery of 'what happened' it caused releases of magical energy that caused them to enter a sort of stasis state, knocked out of reality so to speak. It was instant for them, but time went by around them. Short jumps at first, but bigger as things happened. The big jump that revealed all this was gathering a form of key which was arms and armor of the legendary hero who saved the world in the apocalypse. By bringing them together, the hero would revive to help stop the monsters should they rampage once more. Party did, another flash of energy, and suddenly they found themselves in the ruins of the besieged fort, old bodies of the defenders lying around a trail of destruction into the horizon with smoke in the direction of their home!

[@klousewhite3591]

Dragon like the one on the Welsh flag, it lives on the peaks of old, worn, mountains.

[@Genom10]

It is a territorial animal that has multiple layers on its territory. They marks the borders using it's breath usually devastating the environment and turning it into permafrost, permafire, permapoison, and so on. Brders are the most harsh of all of the dragon's territory, because of common border-friction with others dragons.

[@vinspad3]

My dragon lives in a tea cup which it demands hot water to be poured in for its two daily baths.

[@mr.wheatman]

My dragon a black rainbow pearlescent dragon. Lives here in this world, in the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in New York City. He is incredibly wealthy and amassed his wealth by playing the stock markets… (I borrowed this idea from a book I read…)

[@minine6508]

My green dragon lives on a massive floating island. Now that I imagine it more, he’s probably more of a Malachite colored dragon . Perhaps he’s more mystical than a standard green dragon 🤔

[@jierdareisa4313]

I imagine that dragon living in a flat in a tall, shiny skycraper. Meaning the dragon is working from home and wears glasses. Don't ask...

[@andreifrolenkov513]

When he began talking about abandoning expectations, I remembered a game I played... It was an one-shot game at a RPG convention, and we played young space aristocrats on a vacation on some remote planet hunting dinosaurs. Hunting went wrong, we had to save ourselves from the dinosaurs, then there were pirates who wanted to kidnap us, then OUT OF THE BLUE there were some underground alien Precursor ruins... and, finally, it turned out that it was all a VR computer simulation, we never were on that planet, and our characters weren't even who we think they were. I was SO pissed at our GM - if nothing in the game really happened, then nothing, nothing we did had any meaning.

[@fredhuot9279]

The dragon lives at the bottom of a huge lake. The lake is wide and its water is black. The land around it is a swamp with dead tree because the area used to be a forest but it is now flooded. As is it devoid of large animal life and living trees, it is rich in insects, aquatic plants and birds.

[@JPW1006]

The creature lives in the gm brain

[@Scyclo]

My dragon is a classic red dragon lives in the mountains, causing atmospheric disruptions and stuff like that.

[@Frederic_S]

My dragon lives in a deserted vineyard he tries to revive with some helpful hilldwarfs.

[@lentulus01]

The dragon of my mind is not a physical dragon, but a demon bound by a wizard to manifest as a dragon if the barrow horde is robbed. Because Beowulf

[@DarkTravelerProductions]

My dragon, a red one, lives alone in an abandoned inn that he's converted into a home/hoard space. He polymorphed himself into a middle-aged human male and spends most of his time acting as a drunkard to hide his personal loneliness after discovering the loss of his hoard and mate.

[@beardalaxy]

The dragon lives in a cave in some blindingly white, snowy mountains.

[@edwarduribe2910]

My dragon is living in mountain. Collecting rare books and information brought to it from the green hag that lives at the bottom of the mountain.

[@GianKout20]

When I think of dragon I cannot help but make a picture in my head similar to its original Greek roots, since I am really affected by Greek mythology. Usually I picture a big vicious (wingless) sentient lizard-like creature that is an evil and malicious creation of the gods. It resides in various places of great importance and power, where likely some adventurer will end up seeking something mythical. The dragon acts as a guardian of sorts, similar to the Sphinx, it toys with the heroes and puts them to the test both mentally and physically.The dragon may be smart and cunning but its will is not actually free since it is heavily influenced by the God who created or conditioned it to act as it does. An amazing, powerful, sentient and intelligent creature made only to test mortals, its existence is tragic.

[@kariellokwell914]

My dragón lives in the between of the spirit and material world. Connecting a Gateway in an old temple. P.s. the imagination vídeo help me a Lot, now i use a Lot of fruits and vegetables to prepare my adventures and sessions.

[@lwnasidh]

My blue dragon, Ceruleas, the Eternal Devourer, lives atop a tall, steep butte in the center of a high desert, from which she can survey her domain.

[@Red-jb2zj]

My dragon, an adult Brine Dragon (Pathfinder Bestiary 2) lives below a port city which it rules by proxy through a dominated lord/mayor and also controls an underwater temple that its forced the local sea dwelling races to use as the only acceptable place of worship.

[@erokvanrocksalot7545]

Guy, you could also tag this video, *What to consider when running a Time Travel Campaign* hahaha

[@timdeppen1644]

Greetings Great GM community! On my way to Gencon 2022 and using the layover to get caught up on videos :) I appreciate the time travel example from your recent game as well as the behind the scenes info you've provided from your streamed role playing games. I'm curious if Guy or anyone else watching this video has advice for someone that isn't confident in their ability to change the story based on player feedback so quickly. If I had planed to transport my players through space and they thought it was through time, I think I would need a couple of days or hours to think about the consequences before incorporating that into my game. I'm more likely to reject my player's input because I'm afraid of unforeseen inconsistency or error in my world/campaign than taking advantage of it. How do you guys overcome this? Thanks!

[@AngelicBeatdown]

Do a smaller challenge to hold you over like enemies or memories/scenes so there is content that is not entirely challenging the new idea imo

[@suulix4065]

I submit to the idea that dragons are burrowing creatures that burrow into outcroppings of rock

[@Symboliic]

A Sea Green dragon who lives in a small fishing village called Honah Lee.

[@RoryIsNotACabbage]

The dragon is a nomad, it is truly ancient and has the wisdom to match. But with this age it is bored of all this world has to offer and therefore it hasn't landed (at least that any one has seen) in as long as there are records of it's existence

[@FaxeAxe]

My Red Dragon lives in a castle on top of a large hill. He conquered it from a warrior queen and her people.

[@WeizDLC]

Expectation: Comment for the algorithm Dragon's Lair: Underwater Volcano near a small archipelago similar to Southeast Alaska Plan to remember: Armor Class -> AC -> A Sea -> A S E A -> Alter Subvert Entrench Abandon

[@nuadhufireheart]

I a vast swamp, on a small stretch of relatively dry land.

[@CharlesTersteeg]

Green dragons in the foreet? And here I thought it was a tavern!

[@zackeryh250]

Underwater sea cave heated by lava vents

[@patrickwilkerson1728]

My fire dragon will be living in a fiery volcano.

[@KevRTrem]

The way you pronounce it "drowgan" makes it feel like an ancient terror... It lives in isolation, perhaps deep underground or even underwater, using intricate and maze-like cave-systems to protect it while it hibernates for many years at a time, allowing its prey populations to hope that maybe it has finally perished (or even forget it exists as tales of it pass from history into legend and myth) until it eventually resurfaces once more to feed its great hunger before returning to its hidden lair for another long nap.

[@brettcardon4552]

Any tips on how to make your terrain/dungeons more interesting?

[@Atze.Tatze69]

in a cave under an ruined castle, hidden by long vindes an thick roots, on the side of a natural Rocky Hill ontop wich the castle stands

[@reevabellefeuille2057]

My dragon lives under neath the ground. THey are the bankers of the world so the have a small building above thier lair. They give out paper money in echange for gold, teasures and more. My dragons need gold and teasure inorder to hatch thier eggs so they're eggs and young stay underground until the parents are ready to teach and let them explore.(they are shap shifters)

[@definatehuman2967]

Well, my answer for the dragon question was the band, imagine dragons. I would probably say comfortable mansions

[@seaborgium919]

Lol my necromancer dragon is basically a person so none of the "green dragons live in a forest" applies. At large, his race of dragons come from a massive mountain range and he is an oddity, having been cast out (necromancy is the BIGGEST taboo and there was no discussion. He swore himself to a necromancer god, and lost his entire family for it.) He lives In an old tower in a sheltered bay. (Previously it was a wizard type tower. He killed the previous owner in civil combat after she challenged him)

[@ascenziobilelloiii6611]

My dragon is a scavenger and vulture type creature. Diseased and disgusting and as such he has raided a giant spider nest and taken their dwelling as his own. Adventurers would wander through a foul stench nest of mazes of webs and bodies decaying expecting the spiders at any turn but only find a greedy and horrid dragon picking apart web covered cadavers for any of the treasure and magical items left to accumulate from many an adventurer who has met a tragic fat over the ages.

[@Lord_Godd]

He spends most of his time as a human knight who governs over the land of his noble house. No one suspects him, except his squire.

[@green_dragon_knight]

My black dragon lives at the bottom of a foaming waterfall in a river of dark green acid

[@primeemperor9196]

My dragon lives in the mountain range that forms the border between two nations.

[@EdS-du2wu]

Sounds like a great game session but, did you tell them that it wasn't the plan when they asked? If you told me that it wasn't the and it didn't have a direction then anything can happen. Doesn't that also take away player agency? Like nothing matters because anything is possible? You created a constraint only to break it? Sorry for being forward I am just trying to understand. Thank you for all the information and time you have been been providing so far. Also it was a black Dragon with orange tones. I immediately thought the top of a mountain, with a hidden cave within.

[@foxross]

The pronunciation of dragon at the start sounded fairly welsh so whilst my dragon should be red my mind skipped sideways across the Irish Sea and was visualised as a green dragon stalking across a peat bog. Oddly this is specifically an Irish peat bog and not a Scottish one, I have no idea how I know this.

[@vodostar9134]

The dragon lives in a cave of course lol. Yeah, I know there are mythologically a lot of other answers, but that is my immediate assumption.

[@xychoticbreak5198]

oh, hey, you figured out the moustache wax

[@kodidavis2819]

My dragon lives in the bottom of a caldra at the heart of a blood marsh

[@jeffreybomba]

I get the concept, but this was an extreme example that could radically change the game’s dynamics. Depending on the constraints/contract already agreed to by the GM and players, a player based expectation/idea like this needs to fit within the parameters already agreed to. If the DM is only comfortable running a 5e campaign, someone suddenly deciding they want to time jump to a Star Trek like setting that 5e has no material for. Suggestion #1: Give examples a typical GM can relate to instead of a set of expectations from players on a DnD vacation expecting a professional level game experience. Suggestion 2: If your have designed this series to last a year, you should introduce you topic and frame it within the other topics you have covered, such as the contract/constraints mentioned above.

[@mrsashleymiller1980]

As one of the party members involved I don't think the campaign was changed as much as it was embellished, in part because he *planned* for flexibility. We ended up finding/creating connections between the handful of characters we met before walking through the portal and the baddies we met afterwards and that led to adding/changing details about those characters eg: weapons, items, clothing, etc to make them recognizable as our past rivals. That said it was a bit staggering the humility and quick thinking it must have taken to be prepared to listen and respond to players this way, especially given how little downtime we had; we played 8+ hours/day and had three days to complete the campaign. I would expect in a longer campaign with a week or two between sessions this would be much more feasible.

[@jeffreybomba]

@@mrsashleymiller1980 I can remember the days of binge playing, eating and sleeping for a couple days. I assume the time jump was not too far in the future?

[@mrsashleymiller1980]

Several centuries? Long enough to change the landscape but recent enough that constellations and ruins were recognizable. Not millennia. It was a solid 5e game. The game shift happened after we connected a couple absolute coincidences and decided to test a theory that we had arrived in a when rather than a where (it certainly could have been either) by addressing one of the undead baddies by the name of one of our past rivals (which of course he watched us plan out). It never occurred to us that *our* plan had shaped *his* response. Rather than saying "Who the hell is Daithwin?" we got an interesting threat and then saw that she was wearing Daithwin's circlet. From then on every enemy and every ruin showed new potential links to a past we hadn't lived yet that we would try desperately to understand. Basically imagine the Pevensies experiencing the events in "Prince Caspian" before living through the events in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe." It became a mind melting experience of trying to figure out what the hell we had done that someone was so desperate to stop.