I would do random dice rolls behind the screen.

Roll perception. 10? You are sure there’s no traps.

Shapeshifters!

rocks fall and snooggums dies

And they opposite, when they ask to roll perception or investigation when it doesn’t matter at all and the improv’ed answer turns into a major plot point

I wish they filmed Andor before Rogue One.

A while ago I watched Andor, Rogue One and Episode 4 chronologically. It felt like a step backwards with every switch.

Episode 4 is quite good, but it’s really old and kinda primitive by modern standards.

Rogue One is the best star wars movie so far, and it’s just really well done.

Andor is just pure amazing! They took the comparatively long time they had and really developed the characters, the world and the story.

Watching these three in that order is really good. But watching them in chronological order really lessens the experience.

I wonder how great Rogue One would have been if it had all the worldbuilding and character development of Andor behind it.

That’s the beauty of cooperative storytelling.

And the ability to rapidly pivot and discard all the preparation you did is THE most important skill for a good DM.

And the ability to rapidly pivot and discard all the preparation you did is THE most important skill for a good DM.

A good DM prepares an intricate and fulfilling dungeon for the party.

A great DM knows to leave half of the space empty, for when the players decide to smash straight through the goddamned wall and you need to improvise secret rooms.

And a fantastic DM knows that the content of the dungeon is constantly in flux until the party perceives it. They may have the floor plan and ideas for each room laid out, but the Macguffin they came here to claim is always in the farthest point away from wherever the party entered. It is Schrödingers treasure chest, simultaneously positioned in every room and none of the rooms of the dungeon until the party perceives it. Party sneaks in through the basement? The macguffin is in the attic. Party sneaks in through the attic? The macguffin is in the basement.

The DM rolls dice because of the way they sound when they bounce against the table. I just enjoy the clattering noises. No other reasons.

Oh, my god, I search for traps again.

You can’t.

Why tf not?!

You don’t think there are any traps to search for

Yes I tf do.

Yeah but your character doesn’t.

Ok hear me out, we have been doing this for five years now right?

Yeah.

So by now my character has came to an understand that he lives in a world controlled by chance and a cruel, cruel God right?

I guess technically He could know that.

So, he would never ever trust his own ability and would understand that no matter how sure you are you should try as many times as possible right?

That’s metagaming.

No, no, no it’s not actually, because in this world God’s are real.

Ok, I’ll accept it.

So can I roll again?

No.

Why TF not!?

Because your religion is too low.

…

You watch yourself, I’m taking a class in cleric next level.

Alternatively you allow that line of reasoning but subsequently require that they spend hours searching every room they enter multiple times.

ask to roll perfection

I didn’t know this was an option. I’d like a nat 20, please.

Give them the paranoid flaw and make it a roll-to-stop mechanic.

when they ask to roll

Well there is your problem. Players shouldn’t be asking for rolls, DMs tell players what rolls are needed so they can describe the scene playing out based on them.

People have said Andor made Rogue One better. I’ll be honest, I enjoyed it before, but after I finished Andor S2 I tried rewatching it and couldn’t finish it. It honestly killed it for me. It’s not the worst movie ever or anything, but going from the incredible writing of Andor to Rogue One is painful.

Yeah, the only way it would not be meta gaming is if it extends beyond this. They have to question everything else they do too. Did they succeed because “the cruel gods” wanted them to? Does that mean they should fail on purpose instead? Etc.

I don’t agree with the reasoning at all, but if you are going to agree with it it has to be painful. It also needs to be a lesson to the player to stop fucking around and just play the game.

It just feels so bare-bones, and compared to andor it is. Well, obviously. Andor had two seasons of development, and Rogue One had like 5 minutes for the setup.

But if Rogue One was made after Andor and could be based off it, it could have been much better.

-DM scatters traps randomly; they could be anywhere.
-Players get tired of getting hit by them, so they search every room for traps.
-DM gets angry that players are wasting time searching every room for traps.

rogue one memes are almost a decade old. thats fucking weird to think about

My first round as a new DM:

The group wakes up in the hold of a ship, all tied up. They piece together that they each individually (they didn’t know each other before) must have been drugged when they were out drinking. They all found that somebody tattooed a symbol onto their necks

The plan was to have some guards talk to each other, giving the players some exposition. Then they’d be shipped to a harbour, unloaded there and then put into an arena where they’d be used as gladiators. From there the story was supposed to go that they’d win their freedom through winning in the arena and so on.

So what actually happened was that the rogue managed to open up their chains, and before the guards could say or do something, the mage stunned them and the rest of the group totally wrecked these poor guards. I told them that the deck was full of fighters and crew. That’s when the orc barbarian had the bright idea to knock a hole into the hull of the ship to escape that way. You know, a ship on the sea. And he knocked that hole below the water line. In a storm.

Consequently, the story pivoted to trying to beach that sinking ship in the middle of a storm while the fighters on the deck were trying to get rid of them.

It was a fun round and ended with them just about managing to kill the guards and beach the ship. As a punishment for ruining my story, I kept teasing the significance of the tattoo, without ever revealing its meaning throughout the whole campaing