Wait. Its Not About Me?

Yesterday I posted about how I feel like I'm a better DM than I have been in the past and I how I thought I was really starting to get into the role. That said, I still have trouble remembering that its not my story about my characters, its my story about the players and their characters. I was doing a bare bones overview of the campaign plot in my head a bit ago and I came to a part where things could go multiple ways and I said aloud to myself, "Then they could fight Cenn the Reaver! (pause) And he could kill them!"

I feel at this point I should say that I am not planning a TPK.

I have made the mistake, and will continue to make it, of populating my world with NPCs that are either stars of their own story or are aborted stars of aborted stories. Cenn the Reaver, star of his own story and star of another aborted story. The Bleak Tyrant, aborted star of an aborted story. Volung and Maggot, stars of their own story. The Silver King, second string character that plays a pivotal role in the story of a star of another story. Traith Harris, star. I do this because it makes the world more real to me because I know that Keroen Skathos isn't just some dude with a black sword and a name that I like the sound of. He has eighty-seven thousand words about him and there are a bunch more about shit that is relevant to him. You may not believe in him, but just like the Sharkosians and Dolphinians, he is a part of my mythos, my creed, and he will be involved in my Rapture.

While I'm talking about Cenn the Reaver, he's not Cernunnos. Not even close. Cernunnos has been hit with the Retcon Machete and is no longer a part of my mythos. (However, Kern Yew'nose plays an immensily important role in my mythos. Har har.) Cenn the Reaver is an inhuman creature just as Cernunnos was, but he is just a bloodthirsty warrior and leader of men, he has some magic, but it is mostly of the cantrip nature. Altering reality in the way Cernunnos could is defintely far beyond his meager powers. He (Cenn) also does not sit on an obsidian throne caged in a malavolent suit of living armor brooding and being pissed off at the universe for not letting him rule it like his dad did.

Anyway. Like I said, I populated this world with my own characters because it made it more real to me. This makes it a lot easier for me to get into it and be psyched about it. It has also led me to do silly stuff like come with a plot line that can result in the PCs death. Technically, every adventure could result in a TPK. Sometimes the dice just decide to bugger you and there's nothing you can do about it but bend over and grit your teeth. Its quite a different thing to pit the PCs deliberately against something they have no means of defeating though. Cenn the Reaver is thousands of years old and knows more about bloodletting than Nostathon (star of aborted story). He also has a magic sword, its magic is understated but robust in nature.

I guess part of the reason I forget who/what the campaign is really about is because the player's characters aren't "real" to me in the same way that my characters are "real" to me. Like when I'm writing, I know what Cenn the Reaver had for breakfast, who he assigned duties to at the morning camp meeting, who challanged him for leadership at noon, and who cleaned up the bloodstain afterwards. Why did D'Alton plan his heist in the first place? Why does Gideon use a rifle and not a bow? What is the name of Fred's dwarf? I don't have answers for these questions, these characters are just names and collections of stats to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the guys about these issues, I just offering up some of my reasonings on why I think I get my characters caught up so much in the story of D'Alton, Gideon, Xain, and the others.

Music: Freya - The Sword