People need to stop structuring their campaigns in the fashion of static media like books, video games, and movies. We all had that one friend who'd be watching a movie with you and constantly asking "Why didn't they just do X?"Well the TTRPG Frodo really can just turn to the camera and ask>Why don't we just fly over on the eagles?And instead of shitting your pants you need to be able to respond to that right then and there. And if you can't, then you need to get the fuck over it and just let them do it, come what may. That's the best part of these games. And this isn't about preparation. It's impossible to prepare for everything. It's about improvisation.The TTRPG medium is unlike any other type of media and you need to get used to it.
>>96823814Frodo didn't see a giant eagle until the ring had already been destroyed
Retarded zoomer thread.
>>96823814what if gaydalf raped the saruman how would this change the eventsdiscuss
They could've gone to Radagast and ask if he could call on the Eagles (and Radagast would've explained that he cannot do it, maybe). That's the point OP is making, that the "story" should remain open - i'm going to guess he just had one of those adventures where you watch important NPC talking about what's going to happen no matter what you do.
>>96823814If you don't like how I run games, Kevin, you're welcome to take the GM chair.
>>96823910>Hahaha. Foolish wizard. How can you rape that which has no bussy--OW THAT'S MY EYE WTF
Honestly, it was a bit silly not even mentioning the eagles until the end. What they should have done was have them try attacking Mordor at the beginning only to get shot down by AA defenses or eaten by wyverns. Then when you see them flying into Mt. Doom after the ring melts it's an immediate way of showing the audience the plan worked and Saurons power has been broken.
>>96823844He had surely heard of Bilbo's adventures innumerable times and knew that giant eagles existed and that Gandalf was familiar with them.
I tend to hate both railroads and adventures where the DM is obviously pulling the whole thing out of his ass. I'd argue it's a balancing act. Players should broadcast their intentions ahead of time so the DM can prep for next session and occasionally throw him a bone if he spent time creating a unique dungeon or something. And GMs should incorporate stuff the players want into games and let them have a W if they solve a problem in an unexpected way.
>>96823917>>96824487>>96824544Oh my god. The eagles are sapient creatures vulnerable to the ring's corruption. They owed Gandalf one favor, and were not going to risk an orc ballista bolt for it. How is this still a fucking question
>>96824722The PC cannot know that - them trying to secure a free ride (and failing to do so) is perfectly reasonable. So is them trying to destroy the Ring, even after Gandalf informed them that it wouldn't work.>https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1017
>>96824722Provided they spend a short amount of time with the ring, they didn't have to carry them all the way to Mordor, but could've at least got them a ways across middle earth to drop off nearer to Mordor.At the very least, carry them over the misty mountains rather than risk than having to go through the fucking mines of Moria where an actual god damned demon from hell is walking around. Could you imagine what would've happened if the Balrog got the Ring?
>>96825118Well then why didn't Aragorn use his mountain level destructive power to just carve out a path through the misty mountains >>96795359Then they don't need to risk the mines or the eagles.
>>96825373The entire point of the Fellowship was to move stealthily. Blowing up a mountain range would've basically been saying "hey Sauron, we're right here".
>>96823910Well he wouldnt have raped him until they fought at minas tirith, and if he could overpower and sexually violate saruman there then he wouldnt have needed to escape on an eagle, and wouldnt have been delayed on his way to weathertop(?), so frodo wouldnt have been stabbed, they would have gotten to mordor a month or two sooner and they wouldnt have needed the ents to flip isenguard. They might also get over the misty mountains without needing to treck through moria, so gandalf wouldnt die to the balrog and they would never see the watcher. saron would know this because of the palantirs and might accelerate his plans accordingly, so he would accelerate his attacks on rohan and they would only have gandalf the grey to chase off the wraiths there, which isnt ideal.Tldr fewer but harder battles happening earlier. Oh and it would have been super hot
>>96825843Hold up, you are not taking into account that fucking empties your balls and makes you tired. Semenless Gandalf would certainly lack the edge (heh) that Semen Retention Gandalf had. His performance would be diminished for sure until his balls recovered.
>>968238141) Flying the ring to Mordor would have done nothing but save time. Time didn't matter. It wasn't an issue until Aragorn goaded Sauron into launching his attack on Minas Tirith ahead of schedule. Frodo had the ring for decades until Gandalf uncovered its origin. The Fellowship took a month's vacation in Lothlorien halfway through their journey. They took two months to leave Rivendell. It had been about 2,000 years since the wizards arrived in Middle-earth to deal with Sauron to begin with. There was no rush.2) The ring couldn't simply be dropped into the caldera of Mt. Doom. There's a reason why Frodo didn't just throw it into the first lava flow he came across. The ring couldn't be destroyed by lava outside of the (subterranean) forge. It could only be unmade where it was made. Why? Because magic. That's how it worked.3) Sauron had an entire army stationed around Mt. Doom. Until it was sent towards the black gates the entire mountain was protected.4) The only chance the fellowship had of success rested on the fact that Sauron didn't think that his enemies would attempt to destroy his ring. He believed that no one could overcome the ring's corruption (and was completely correct in thinking so, too). Aragorn tricked Sauron into believing that he had the ring. If Sauron knew that the ring was approaching Mordor, or was not with Aragorn, he could have surmised what Gandalf was planning. A suicidal air raid on his HQ would have been a fairly obvious tip-off that something was going on.5) The ringbearer would still be susceptible to the ring's influence and control, as would the eagles themselves since they are sapient.
>>96824722Better argument is highlighting that the Nazgul would 100% kill the ringbearer's eagle and all would be lost. The idea of sending a hobbit with the ring to Mount Doom works specifically because it's something Sauron would never expect.
>>96826316The Nazgul just got their shit rocked outside rivendell, how are they getting back to Mordor first?
>>96823814Well, go and ask them, if you can.
>>96823814Hmm gee why don't we accomplish this mission that requires extreme stealth where we must avoid, at all costs, being detected by Sauron, by FLYING STRAIGHT AT HIM ON GIANT BIRDS? WHAT COULD GO WRONG? IT'S NOT LIKE HE HAS HIS OWN VERY POWERFUL FLYING MONSTERS
>>96823814>The TTRPG medium is unlike any other type of mediaThis is true. Real life experience helps a lot more with running/winning TRPGs.
>winninglol
>>96823814If your "why don't they just do X?" idea wasn't stupid, you'd be able to tell us what happened outright, instead of making vague analogies seething about your GM telling you no.
>>96823814>Well the TTRPG Frodo really can just turn to the camera and ask Why don't we just fly over on the eagles?>"you can, roll persuasion to convince them, riding to not fall, and endurance for the high altitude breathing (except the zephhyr player). DCs are 28, 32 and 40"What a retarded nogames thread
>>96824577>throw him a bone if he spent time creating a unique dungeon or something.I feel bad for GMs whose players hear the word "dungeon" and don't beeline to it with a giddy cildlike grin. Even first time players jump at any interaction I throw at them.
>>96828135your games are ass
>>96823814>bitch about improv campaigns>bitch about railroaded campaigns >bitch about prewritten adventuresWhy don't you be the Game Master you ungrateful whiny runt
A recording from the author himself from back in the day on the very subject of why the eagles didn't fly the fellowship to Mordor:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Uz0LMbWpI>tfw lore faggots will still argue over it after hearing itBesides, The Hobbit was more of an inspiration for TTRPGs as we know them than LotR.
>>96828188You are an ass
>>96828548are you schizophrenic?
>>96825118Not only are birds huge dicks, they also like shiny things. I wouldn't risk having ring anywhere close to them.
>>96828682cope bitch
Eagles are not the point you retards.
yeah they are
>>96823814>The TTRPG medium is unlike any other type of media and you need to get used to it.You're absolutely correct and people who have played TTRPGs for decades still don't fully understand that it is not a medium that exists solely to recreate and emulate other mediums. It meant to be its own, unique, incomparable thing.
>>96830451dilate sneed
When you're running a game, your first duty is to your players. All you need for story is a hook for the inciting incident, a boss fight for a climax, and some loot for a denouement. James Cameron said "You make the movie twice. Once during filming, and once during editing." If you want to share what happened in your game with others, the expectation is that you fit the events into some kind of established story structure. So when you go over the events of your game, it becomes like a scavenger hunt, where you look for the proper story beats.Now, you should never try to FORCE a story beat. But if you know how story structure works, you can certainly increase the odds that the story beats will be there when you go looking for them. It might make your game a bit spicier, too.In a classic dungeon crawl, you would just endlessly loop through the first three stages. Under no circumstances should you have a Point of No Return unless you and your players are reasonably experienced and have discussed what type of campaign you're running (your players would be pretty pissed if they unwittingly triggered an Endgame state in what they thought was an open-ended, episodic campaign). If you 're running a game with a Final Boss, the final boss should be at the end of a long and mostly linear gauntlet in the most dangerous part of the setting so far. This section is about endurance, rather than exploration. You definitely can't force a setback, but this gauntlet is where the thing(s) that will be remembered as "The Setback" happen. A PC dies or is horribly injured. The party has to expend the use of a powerful magic item just to survive.The climax is obviously the fight with the final boss. The players will pull out all the stops, so do not pull your punches.The Stonehell dungeon has this structure baked into its architecture.Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
>>96836285>you shouldn't make your games after movies>"movieman sez..."kek
>>96826316Sauron is literally a giant eye atop a massive tower. And you think he wouldn't see the fucking ring of power flying in on an eagle from a million miles away?
>>96828135Yeah. For all the talk about an "adventure hook" or motivation or whatever, I think it just comes down to "don't join an RPG if you don't want to explore dungeons or investigate eldritch mysteries or whatever".
