Has doing research for a campaign ever led you to learn new things and/or useless trivia? I recently started DMing a GURPS campaign and had to gain a reasonable familiarity with radio cabling, encryption machines, obscure towns and villages in Hesse, Germany, the first few sections of the Book of Enoch, and how quickly fire depleted oxygen in an enclosed space the answer is very quickly.
>>93303179I ended up writing my undergrad thesis on honor culture in Imperial Germany since I based a nation in my personal fantasy setting on Prussia.
>>93303179I fell down the rabbit hole of how the internet handles website addresses and learned about the different ways to get to a website besides typing in blahblah.com.
>>93303345How detailed was the setting? Was it medieval fantasy or 17/1800s?
>>93303179I was invited to a Western game and ended up reading a bunch about peary caribou and purple saxifrage among other things since the DM asked me to make a centaur. I like digging into local flora so it was fun figuring out what my druid would use from their homelands up north and what they'd use from the local American landscape. I am Australian and this will have zero use in my gardening work, but still! Very fun, and seeing similarities between my country and North American flora was neat.
>>93303442The latter, not the former. The mid-19th century mostly, but I take bits and pieces from throughout the Long Nineteenth Century (and a bit earlier, depending) based on vibes.
>>93303447>centaur>druid>western gameWere you a cowboy or did someone ride on you?
>>93303513Oh, I also read the novels of Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest and Schach von Wuthenow. Both were good, IMO. There are English translations available free online.
>>93303179>I recently started DMing a GURPSStopped reading RIGHT THERE. There are systems so unforgivably horrible that you can immediately dismiss it and anybody even contemplating ever participating in it.
>>93304512(You)
>>93303179I started actually looking at random bugs whenever I know I won't be caught as a bug staring weirdo. I looked for an inspiration for a Hollow Knight campaign and I accidently learned that there are more species of bees all around me that I ever realized, that some of them live solitary lives and some other neat trivia. That led me into other buggo research and goddamn, that shit is fascinating. And metal. And some ideas literally write themselves. Ants with aphipld farms? Ants stitching wounds? Bees fighting by dogpiling a hornet and overheating It? Goddamn
I played GURPS and I had to shit my pants.
>>93303179I learned an awful lot about Medieval trade networks.
>>93303179I learned homebrewing (the hobby, not the making your own rules thing) for a character I once wrote.So now I make alcohol in my basement, people have said it was pretty good but I don't tend to drink it myself.
>>93303179>research for a campaign ever led you to learn new thingsIsn't that the whole point of research?
>>93305298Hehe bunnyfly ears go flap flap
>>93303179I like the sound of your campaign.
>>93303179>Has doing research for a campaign ever led you to learn new things and/or useless trivia?No. I don't do any research at all.>I recently started DMing a GURPSNice bait, but I'm not taking it>had to gain a reasonable familiarity with radio cabling, encryption machines, obscure towns and villages in Hesse, Germany, the first few sections of the Book of Enoch, and how quickly fire depleted oxygen in an enclosed space>had toNo, you didn't. Nobody forced you to do so and you could ignore any of those informations and still run a game without a hitchWhat's even the fucking point of this thread? It sucks ass as bait and if this is supposed to be an actual genuine discussion prompt, then it sucks even harder.
>>93310812Just because you run lazy slop doesn't mean everyone else does.
>>93310837>If you don't waste time on something that can be literally winged on the run, your campaigns are bad and you are lazySure buddy. It's not like sinking stupid amount of time on pre-planning and researching literally the top of the list of newfag greenhorns do, in some idiotic chase after minutiae detail that then never comes up.We run games (even if I doubt you do), but we are not the same.
>>93310837And before you go all tipy-typy some retarded answer:Unless you are running a strict historical campaign set in a highly specific moment, any amount of research is wasted time and effort. And God help you if you are running a game in a fictional setting and do "research"
>>93310884By the sounds of things OP is doing some sort of Cold War investigative campaign, which sounds exactly the sort of thing research works for.The greenhorn mistake is sinking more time in research than is borne out at the table OR by one's own enjoyment. Getting bogged down in D&D lore is almost always going to be a losing proposition. Enjoying an afternoon learning about old fashioned communications tech (OP) or reading about Libertalia (me) enriches both the game and one's life. You do no research because you're too self-important to think you have anything left to learn, or because your game doesn't require you to do any kind of storytelling (literally presenting information to keep people engaged).We are not the same, because I run something with soul and you run something with dice.
>>93310986By the sound of it, OP isn't running anything at all, and there is a high chance the sentences in the OP weren't even typed down by a human.But let's move on: if you are doing a research for an investigation campaign, you've failed the campaign on two different venues:- you have a solution in your head- you just reinforced the solution by reading on means how to achieve the goal, so in your head, only one version is trueAnd you are running an investigation game (chances are - using a system that can't handle it for shit), rather than writing a detective short story.I don't do research, because it serves no purpose. There is no gain in it, and it oftentimes makes the game worse, rather than better. Not to mention the time sunk about it. When I want to read about something, I go to library and do so. I don't have to convince myself that I need those information for a game, rather than my own curiosity.Everything else you tried to project - tough luck, son, but wrong avenues.So all in all, newfag mistakes. Takes about 2-5 years (depends on how often running, how many groups and how many systems) to get over this phase and it's pretty normal thing
>>93311049I didn't realise you were some kind of Brindlewood Bay flashback-using fuckwit. Of course investigations have a solution. There is a mystery, and that mystery can be patiently unpicked. How the players go about it is the heart of the thing.I'd love to know how you intend to paint a rich picture of a scene without knowing anything about the milieu. Even for genres I'm familiar with I'll immerse myself in the books and films and music of it before running.I'm reasonably sure you're underage b&, and therefore I've been running games longer than you've been alive.
>>93303179Yes. Running a KoB game set in 1975.>the popular kid researched what were the best bikes, he downloaded a Schwinn with the banana seat and back rest>the mathlete (tech kid) and I researched what "hacking" was in '75>no computer networks per se, but 'phreaking' was, so he phreaked radio stations, universities, and large corporations >when the tech kid phreaked the radio station to win a call in contest, I had to look up what bands were touring in '75>we settled for Queens tour of 'Night at the Opera' over KISS and Led Zepplin>the kids found Confederate gold that made them obscenely rich and wanted to spend it>tech kid IRL moved across country so I had to find a way to keep him in the game>had to look up what was available for cutting edge tech that I as a GM could use and what the PCs would enjoy>went with cable, color TV and a fax machineI really went into a rabbit hole finding if Confederate gold caches were real and if there was any credence to the Knights of the Golden Circle.The KGC arc didn't play out so I kept it simple. Confederate marauders looted banks and mints in a retreat out west and stashed gold that the kids found.Fun times
>>93311114>Another completely random projectionsAre you winning son?>There is a mystery, and that mystery can be patiently unpicked.>How the players go about it is the heart of the thing.So which one is it, then? Because if you ever run an investigation scenario in your life, you would know the contradiction. Not few, not regularly, just one, ever.>I'd love to know how you intend to paint a rich picture of a sceneIt's called imagination, son. Unless you were born blind, it's perfectly normal for a human being to visualise things and then describe them with words. This is in fact the basis of this whole hobby.> Even for genres I'm familiar with I'll immerse myself in the books and films and music of it before running.So you're researching, or leisuring?But since you are so gung-ho about this research thing, I've got a better one: please tell me what do I gain by doing research for my current CoC campaign. Go on, enlighten me. What, why and for what purpose should I be researching to enhance the campaign of the following premise:It's right after Operation Magic Carpet wrapped up, so a lot of jobless vets. The PCs recently inherited a sea-side boarding house/hotel at the outskirts of Kingsport. They board a weird young lad, who few days later gets a genuine heart attack and dies in his sleep. And from there more and more weird stuff starts to happen, with eventually the Esoteric Order of Dagon trying to push them out of the hotel, one way or another.I mean clearly I'm missing something for having notes for the scenario and not a single second spend on researching anything at all.And since this is a dick-measuring competition: I'm in this hobby since '97. Were you at least literate by then? Or born, for that matter?
>>93303345Baron von Steuben was a Boss.
Airship knowledge has infused my brain through tabletop to the point where I can instantly quote casualty figures from some of the great disasters.
>>93311811There's no contradiction.It is necessary to know what the facts of the matter are. If there is a mystery, from the players' perspective, then there must be facts known to the GM. If the players are to investigate a murder, then the GM must know who was killed, and by whom, and for what, and by what means, and at what time, and so on.Whether the players discover the facts by investigating this element or that, by checking for fingerprints or speaking to witnesses or casting Speak With Dead or whatever else, that is up to the players. Indeed, this is the first reason a GM may want to do research: so they can construct a mystery that can stand up to analysis.This is true in smaller ways with all games. To present compelling locales, NPCs, or objects the GM has to know things and know them well. You need to understand what a telephone of the era was like, what buildings were like. When you describe two people at breakfast you must know what sort of thing they may be eating and how they will gather to eat it. The patently absurd autism of listing every NPCs breakfast is unnecessary, but you have to have approximate knowledge of all these things and a thousand more. And yes, this is as much leisure as research because I do it in service of the game but I run games that go in directions I'd like to know about anyway. I'm not going to run a game of Exalted because I couldn't give a shit about weeb fuckery and I don't want to watch anime.So let's look at your campaign, seeing as you're determined to be a lazy fucker, and see what we can put on our reading list.>Operation Magic CarpetIs that relevant to the scenario at all, aside from a rough benchmark of time? Where are the vets going? Are they going to be customers at the boarding house?>the boarding houseWhat is such an establishment actually like? Are there important differences and quirks that could help bring the place across to the players, if you describe them? [CONT]
>>93312654Nta, but are you autistic? Your questions are completely out of whack with a standard "Dagon cultists needs to be shot dead" premise
>>93311811>>93312654What do roughly exactly four newly minted hoteliers DO all day? Do any of those jobs suggest scenes or opportunities to you as a GM?>KingsportWhere the fuck is that, and what is it like? What's the lay of the land? Where are the things the players will likely want, like dynamite and parish records and morphine?>a guest diesWhat is supposed to happen in such an eventuality? Who do they call in in 1945ish? Who investigates such cases, and why won't they give a fuck so the stage is clear for the players?>Weird stuffDraw the rest of the fucking owl.>Esoteric Order of DagonIs there stuff in the lore for you to pick out already? Members, tactics, signs, locations to learn more? Are your players likely to use their knowledge of the EOD to get ahead of you, and can you use that?The likely thing you're missing is that you're going off your own half-remembered knowledge and haven't refreshed yourself or checked for blindspots. What a greenhorn mistake.You'll be pleased to know our dicks are roughly the same length. Mine's thicker, but one can't have everything.
>>93312678If you're just going to do Dog Soldiers with fishmen, then I suppose I'd refactor my already too effort-filled post, but that's not the kind of session I'd bring to the table.
>an actually interesting thread>derailed by some asshole intentionally lowering the quality of discussionI don't know why everyone doesn't just ignore this cunt.
>>93312819To paraphrase a scholar of our age: I mad.
>>93303179For practical stuff, the pressure regulation in closed systems and quality of valves and seals on it (along with regular replacement of the latter as their reliability in turn depends on how well other tools can measure the current state of the substances going though) that ended up useful when the boiler didnt want let hot water flow and impact of efficient reverberation dispersal during earthquakes based on small island building architecture scaled down to fixing my 3d printers ghosting effect (turns out the padding on the wood table was causing more problems and the shock mat was a tad too soft)On the pointless but interesting side bits of Spains (and Portugals) history during Moorish occupation (mostly how coastal towns kept being able to resist actual occupation/kept a larger part of their culture), consequences of revolutions in the african colonies of the powers on local agriculture, what resources lead to what cup sparking mechanisms for guns end up the preference for their respective regions despite downsides of environment, etc.
>>93312733But that's clearly the type of scenario at the table given by the premise. And anon asked you how to apply research to it, not if you would run it. It's like you genuinely can't grasp such simple concept that there are other games than some autistic navel-gazing that require everyone in the group to read 2d3+1 books on some specific subject to even sit to it.Speaking of which, this reminds me a paragraph game that was created by a guy obsessing over early Bronze Age spiritualism that went with the metal-working, and wrote a game about it. Cool for him, but the end result was a boring slog that was lifting almost verbatim lines from the research paper he used as his basis, making it the most dry CYOA ever.
>>93312819Stay mad.And there is nothing interesting or valuable in this thread
>>93313068Then why did you click on it?
>>93313089To mock you
>>93313053>But that's clearly the type of scenario at the table given by the premise.It absolutely isn't. If he meant "four guys spawn in on de_storm and go frag the Deep Ones" he could have said so. He lead with investigation, a historical setting, and a fairly domestic conceit.
>>93313139Let's recap:>It's right after Operation Magic Carpet wrapped up, so a lot of jobless vets. The PCs recently inherited a sea-side boarding house/hotel at the outskirts of Kingsport. They board a weird young lad, who few days later gets a genuine heart attack and dies in his sleep. And from there more and more weird stuff starts to happen, with eventually the Esoteric Order of Dagon trying to push them out of the hotel, one way or another.>It absolutely isn't. If he meant "four guys spawn in on de_storm and go frag the Deep Ones" he could have said so>He lead with investigation, a historical setting, and a fairly domestic conceit.None of those statements are in contradiction. And if you never played Call of Cthulhu: the combat might be boring and uninspired, but it's a perfectly viable solution to pack bunch of Tommy guns, some grenades and go to town with it, party-wide. In fact, it's usually the only real solution.
>>93313262Pulling a heroic assault on a cult stronghold might work in some scenarios but it has a few major drawbacks.A) Tommy Guns cannot locate the stronghold alone.B) Violent investigation puts a huge target on your back, and the Investigators cannot fight the feds.C) Cultists have insane dedication and can use that, both to resist interrogation and to commit to suicide attacks. PCs lose SAN for committing murders.D) Most PC groups are not favoured in combat, and will die in battle quickly.E) Some mythos creatures are effectively immune to gunfire and could be deployed to stop posses of vigilantes quite effectively.
>>93313333>No, I never played CoC, how could you tell?Must be my lucky guess
>>93310091its my first campaign that's really hooked my players, three sessions in and they're clamoring to know more
>>93313354If you're playing it like Black Crusade, more power to you.
>>93303179>Doesn't share any triviaNot only do you not play games but you are a brainlet
>>93303366>DNS>rabbit hole
>>93313660No, I mean stuff like a hex value or a single number string with no periods.
>>93303179>Has doing research for a campaign ever led you to learn new things and/or useless trivia?All. The. Damn. Time.Last week I spent an hour learning about the chemical composition (and decomposition, and recomposition) of chalk, and the formation of the English downlands, all to write a one-paragraph clue for an in-game mystery. One of the PCs is a geologist, so at least it fit her character. I spent another hour researching exotic seafoods, troglobites (cave-dwelling creatures), and Native American aquaculture practices, in order to flesh out the sushi the PCs wanted to sample in a lighthearted downtime scene.I need to work on time-management...
>>93303179I had to make a super-yacht map that was 6-8 levels big and reasonably authentic in layout.I learned after looking through numerous deckplans and youtube walkthroughs that some people have far too much money.
>>93313053>It's like you genuinely can't grasp such simple concept that there are other games than some autistic navel-gazing that require everyone in the group to read 2d3+1 books on some specific subject to even sit to it.vs>Unless you are running a strict historical campaign set in a highly specific moment, any amount of research is wasted time and effort.Kill yourself retard.
>>93316279Post it
>ran a campaign centered around a nameless collapsing communist country>players were hoodlums, dissidents, and corrupt police>did days of research into late soviet culture, daily life, the structure of organized crime, music scenes, even briefly considered learning russian because of how interesting it all was>campaign went nowhere because one of my players ragequit when he had to face consequences for murdering someone in broad daylightthank fuck i don't run fate anymore, rules-lite games seem to always end badly
>>93303179Oh yeah and i'm pretty sure it got me on a bunch of watchlists too. Stuff like Ragnar Bensons Mantrapping is great for Player Character (and DMs) to built simple but dangerous traps for use against humans and Gureillia Warfare basics. I also learned how to spot if a child is getting abused (research for a game) and a couple of other things. Most recently i learned that the toxin of the blue ring octopus/pufferfish ist the antidote to thhe poison dart frog toxin as they affect the same nervous structures in completely the opposite way (poison dart froq makes mucles unable to shut off leading to cramping, while pufferfish venom makes the muscles unable to turn on leading to paralysis)
>>93312654>>93312702>Dumb retard is dumbWow, zero surprises.No wonder you need to "research" everything.>Esoteric Order of Dagon>Is there stuff in the lore for you to pick out already?You can't be this fucking new. You just can't.
>>93317251Only one of those posts you are quoting is mine.And it's not the one you are replying to.
>>93319319PROTIP: Spending half an hour Googling something doesn't count as "research," you philistines. Also, whenever you do anything for your W O R L D B U I L D I N G make sure to give it the "does it matter for the game" test first. If it doesn't matter, you're just doing intellectual masturbation.
>>93320730Nah, it's the "does it matter for the game OR do I find it fun" test that matters.
>>93320856See, I used to agree with you with the understanding that "worldbuilding I do in my spare time" is fun for me. And I agree that it is. Unfortunately it also leads to "I want to share this with the players," so it ends up being forced into the narrative whether it fits or not.
>>93320876>Unfortunately it also leads to "I want to share this with the players," so it ends up being forced into the narrative whether it fits or not.That's just you. Well, not literally just you, I'm sure the same happens to other people as well, but it's not any kind of an inevitable consequence of worldbuilding.
>>93320876>>93320891Also saying "that's just you" probably came off a bit more rudely than I meant it. To be clear, I think it's understandable that you'd want to show something you've put a lot if thought in to other people, but I think it's important to recognize that people are different and not everyone will feel the need to show their worldbuilding to players to the same extent.
>>93310884anon, sitting around a table, rolling dice and talking about places, people and things that don't actually exist is the definition of wasted time unless you had fun doing it.why are you even here?
>>93303179Research has led me to discover a lot of diets and foods eaten in ancient times, but also modern foods that I have tried.My favourite is the Greek salad that I had featured in a campaign (inspired by Ancient Greek myth) and a player said in real life it is very delicious. He wasn't wrong. I really like it.
>>93320730>Missing the point this badlyIf you are sitting to a game of CoC and you don't know who the Dagon cultists are, you better be someone's girlfriend. And even that is a poor excuse.
>>93303179I did a whole bunch of research for a setting I was working on back in 2010. The end result was a monumental, utterly pointless autistic heartbreaker. One that served no purpose and never was used for anything at all. In fact, the setting was never put to play for real, as the scenarios supposedly set in it could happen in any generic.But it was an enlightening experience in the end. I learned buch of valuable lessons, such as:- extensive settings are fucking pointless- especially if they aren't directly used for specific scenario- doing research to create fictional worlds is a complete waste of time, because you might as well say "wizard did it" and it will be of zero consequence for the end result, especially when gauged by an outsider to the creative process- maps are only good when they are for a scenario/campaign, setting maps are restrictive as all fuck, since they pre-emptively set shit in stone- trying to subvert the expectations or being original for the sake of it is retarded as all fuck- treating your setting like some sort of checklist is nearly just as dumbSo yeah, the 300+ pages monstrosity I've written (no, I don't have it, I switched PCs twice in the meantime and by 2013 I was tossed it out already), split into subfiles and catalogues, along with a 30+ books from the nearby uni library were all a pointless time and energy sinkhole that didn't even work out as stroking my personal vanity, since all I've got from it was shame.The only practical, non-game-related thing that I've learned from the whole deal was how archaeological digs evolved through the 20th century and why collarbone is important for human-like grip. That's about it. Veeeery useful.
>>93326971>extensive settings are fucking pointless>especially if they aren't directly used for specific scenariothis, players will say they care but unless the setting is somehow pointing a gun at their character's head they don't give a shit
Huh. Do people not like reading and learning about things for fun anymore? I've been running a continuous campaign world for a fantasy adventure game over the last 8 years with 4 different play groups. Doing a decent amount of casual historical reading to get a broad overview of the time periods I am ripping off (early modernism/renaissance) so I can use that as inspiration was fun. Get to make little references for scenarios, have world events happening in the background players find enjoyable as a more real place, overall increase my ability to improvise as needed and learn about different historical periods and cultures. Is that bad somehow? The fuck happened to nerds suddenly not wanting to know about things because its neat?
>>93303179Prepping a WW2 game had me learn how the hell a small badly beaten country could somehow handle three world powers at the same time for several years the answer is by having less dumbasses in charge than the other sideAlso a bunch of fun WW2 conceptual weapons, pic related
>>93338906WW2 Games are great because the amount of batshit stuff that was almost adopted is massive. I was doing research for a campaign set during Operation Downfall and was able to find concept rockets for the Bazooka filled with blood agent chemical the U.S. had actually planned to use during the invasion (that and more mundane stuff like the box-magazine Garand).
>>93303179I just write extensive lore doing zero research
>>93340507>I just bump dead threadsftfy
>>93303179Tangently related, I looked up Asian typewriters to see how they would look because I wanted to see if I could fix the shitty Legend of Korra cartoon.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZcui85b4EEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f79OOtbkjtIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJzybAflMU
>>93303179>Has doing research for a campaign ever led you to learn new things and/or useless trivia?Many, many times
