Why Going Off-Script In DnD Is Not Always Bad | Narrated D&D Story

How quickly the roll of the dice can turn a villain into an inconsequential bump in the road. These are the best damn moments. A DM can’t plan for this, player’s can’t predict it. That’s the beauty of it. We aren’t playing a perfectly scripted story. The crazy and unknown are what makes this game great. Embrace the dice gods as they make or break your campaigns.
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Credits
Story Source: / death_of_the_invincibl...
Video Editor: Shawn Kadian
Editors: Lonny Foran ([e-mail])
Narration: MyLo (Twitter/VoMylo)
Thumbnail Art & Channel Artwork: NalaFontaine (Twitter/@nala_fontaine)
#dndstories #dnd #dungeonsanddragons

[@lockskelington314]

"They were more than Just Co-Workers, More than Friends Eve" They were roomates!

[@TheStartrek99]

"The DM can't plan for this" True, but a smart DM allows space for things to not go as planned. For example, in the second story, the dragon could have come back as some form of undead creature.

[@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8]

The DM improvises vague story beats and shifts around the elements so that the narrative still makes a lick of sense

[@denverarnold6210]

Did something like the second story in a Cyberpunk game once. Had a gig where we were kleping some data or other maguffin, and a corpo and some goons came to "negotiate" for it. Needless to say, we didn't take kindly to it. He tried to escape while we were fighting his muscle, but with a couple of clever moves, including jacking a car and ramming into his escape transport so he couldn't get in, we managed to flatline him. He was supposed to be the mastermind at the desk, pupoeteering things from the shadows, and be our Palpatine. And we cut him down, session 1.

[@cloudfair2]

Oh in that last story I would just describe the Wushu Finger Hold scene from KungFu Panda just for the laughs

[@GayBearBro2]

For anyone not aware of the archetype mentioned in the second story (The Dragon), I refer you to TV Tropes or Overly Sarcastic Productions's video.

[@kingwildcat6192000]

IMO the first vid isnt going off the script at all, the dm prepared for everything that happened. Again imo its like saying your going off the rails because you had to stop at a Caseys to use the bathroom. You know its gonna happen, you prepare for it and it does eventually happen. A true off-script moment is more the second vid where it wasnt planned for and truly threw the dm for a loop. Also imo dont throw your big bad at the players unless you want them to possibly die, like plan 4-5 bbegs for different tiers of play and throw the strongest yet weakest at the players first. Otherwise you risk losing Sauron to a bunch of level ones when that could of been Bruz the orc instead.

[@TheatreStyle]

Couldn't have said it better myself. There's a reason why every cliche fantasy Demon King surrounds himself with at least four subordinates (the first one to be killed being retroactively considered to be the weakest of the group, in order to hype up the rest.)

[@fredvincent7967]

At my group's last session we made a deal with an NPC we are pretty sure is based off Bill Cypher and we got sent to break into the prison of a dark creature and put a book near the cage so that the creature can fight a storm giant.

[@saber5694]

3 thing iv learned as a dm never put a creature in front of the party that you are not willing to let be killed. Also falls into thw abyss doesn't equal dead, restriction spells exists and clone is a fun spell. Lastly never let a good bad guy just die. Brought the same bad guy back 3 times to be killed each time using said methods before. Gods my players hated him

[@GreaterGrievobeast55]

YIRBEL LIVES! WAit a sec are cave bears in the base game or is that a homebrew thing? I'm always psyched when prehistoric animals end up in dnd like dinosaurs or pterrosaurs. Bet synapsids or terror birds would fit well

[@mentalrebllion1270]

Heh….sorry when you first started talking about the suspicious church I remembered the last session with my all fey party I play in. My character in particular was raised in a fey court and was very immersed in that culture. As such I decided that there was two things that are off putting to my character in particular, church people and merchants. The first is because they just give away things for free and the second is because, while they make deals, they do so with too much paperwork. Both these things are off putting to your average fey, least in my mind. This was double hilarious to the party though because my character is the healer of the party for one, and second, they are constantly trying to cut petty deals or equalize one they perceive themselves to have made. Also when my character said they don’t like merchants they had the audacity to say that in front of one. This conversation came up because my character was looking for a artisan weaver’s guild and was pointed to the merchant one. This made them shut that down fast with their declaration. Honestly the entire table bust out laughing from how I said it (quick, matter of fact, and with no shame to say this to the npc I was). Anyway, yeah so this is funny and all the rest of the party and I had an in character conversation about church people just “being weird” and “giving stuff away they say is free” and “healing us without our consent.” So on and so on. I do have it as a point of pride for my character that they are a healer so they did find it doubly insulting to be tricked into being healed (and being tricked). In fact, the only thing they admitted to right now is that they are a healer, they can occasionally talk to plants, that they are skilled in weaving and other sewing skills (etc), and that they can take animal shapes. I have yet to, other than shillelagh, shown my character to have offensive skills. They do have them…just not used them yet. The reveal is going to be hilarious.

[@jasminebryant4238]

I'm really not a fan of the "you can't tell this person their partner died" mechanic Like this person is an ally and potentially a friend and you want a group of heroes to beat around the bush and blow them off when they asked about the well being of someone that important to them? Important enough that before that climatic finish they would abandon their ideals and likely the ideals of their now dead partner? Seems like a set up

[@ccarrl1257]

amazing

[@mixmastermike2128]

SURPRISE GUYS! YOU DONT HAVE TO STICK TO THE SCRIPT IN A GAME!!

[@FenrisSkarn]

Something is fishy in this story... Why is the Cleric still a Giant Ape after the Druid (who Polymorphed the Cleric) casted Invisibility ? Concentration on Polymorph should have ended the moment Invisibility was casted since it's a concentration spell too...

[@denverarnold6210]

Guessing certain homerules. Teleporting also seems way more common than the spell level would suggest.

[@godofimagination]

@@denverarnold6210 Firbolgs can cast one-turn invisibility on themselves as a racial trait without using spell slots. The real rules error was casting two leveled spells (healing word and polymorph) in one turn.

[@chadbodine336]

655

[@revshad4226]

off script? since when does TTRPG have scripts?

[@miguelsuarez-solis5027]

Lol you have a script?