Friendship is Dragons
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Page 812 - Tangled Webs
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Not to say we're necessarily fudging numbers where The Great and Powerful Trixie is now taking on sixteen armed guards in a stairwell when the actual event had only two guards. It's the presentation; garnish the story with inspiring prose and detail that turns a fairly ordinary encounter into an exciting one. It's a small embellishment in the same way one would clean up and repaint a house (maybe add some new curtains and a power wall) before sale. The basic house hasn't changed, but wow does it look nicer than before.
You gotta sell it. :D
So it's now Trixie taking on two skilled guards in the cramped stairwell, both armed with MP5 rifles and frag grenades! They got their sights trained on our blue unicorn protagonist because she lost initiative, but Trixie isn't one to back down, concentrating on a spell that'll dazzle and amaze!
Like here. Yes, they absolutely did start the campaign by taking on a demon (or one who had earned the name within the campaign's universe, even if not literally a demon by standard multiversal D&D definition) who had spent so much time on the moon that she could fairly have been said to be "from" the moon. Maybe they didn't roll initiative nearly as much as would ordinarily be presumed for such a quest, and they won by out-thinking their foe rather than eliminating their foe's HP, but they still won.
I get the impression Rainbow fudged the details of some of those other encounters, but explaining it correctly could sell Gilda on what's really going on.
"Let's take that last example, the rogue tornado. The one that came up from Ponyville's lake, right? That wasn't rogue at all: Rainbow Dash and the others created it, to resupply Cloudsdale so the entire kingdom could have clouds and rain. You know what happens when all the farms in a kingdom suddenly stop getting rain, right? Applejack does. Sure, they had to take it down too, so I guess you could say they defeated it, but building it was the harder and more interesting part.
"But yeah, those lords? Totally corrupt. And Rarity's been blackballed from the Thieves' Guild; that's a longer plot. And they totally chased away a dragon, after two of the party had to deal with some dragonlings. And those dogs - not actually mutant, they were born that way, but that was one epic takedown. As to the kids - she did mention they were making sure none were actually harmed, right? Did she also mention that's when we made a PC out of what was left of that demon?"
Personally, I don't believe in fudging the details of a story. By all means, tell it in a manner that evokes the emotions felt at the time.
Granted, I don't have very many stories of my own, but the ones I do like to share tend to speak for themselves. Like the times my group's witch used Magic Jar to possess creatures like an alien monster and even a Colour From Space. Or when my alchemist finished that same story arc by rigging Mi-go technology to blow on a timer, flooding and destroying the underwater temple we were in as the group raced to keep ahead of the flood and the spawn of Shub-Niggurath that our impulsive and lovably dim paladin accidentally completed the summoning ritual for.
Granted, I don't have very many stories of my own, but the ones I do like to share tend to speak for themselves. Like the times my group's witch used Magic Jar to possess creatures like an alien monster and even a Colour From Space. Or when my alchemist finished that same story arc by rigging Mi-go technology to blow on a timer, flooding and destroying the underwater temple we were in as the group raced to keep ahead of the flood and the spawn of Shub-Niggurath that our impulsive and lovably dim paladin accidentally completed the summoning ritual for.
Demon from the moon: More like deity with some personality issues. ... maybe?
Dragon: Somepony made the dragon cry. Let that sink in.
Evil scientist: It's more like Chaotic neutral... maybe good? Betterment of equine kind, maybe? Scientist/shaman.
Mutant dogs: Even they look insulted by that Dash.
Corrupt lords: ... that's actually about it, minus the fact one of them is reformed (ing?).
Creepy possessed kids: It was Nightmare Night, I'd be worried if they weren't.
Ancient ghost kings: That was off screen, so I can't say.
Mafia bosses: Yeah, that's true. Not Jubilee in particular, but definitely some.
Rogue tornadoes: ... what? Ponies control the weather, you can't get 'rogue' anything from nature (at least not without chaos). ... sorry, out of character knowledge, my bad.
5.5 out of 9 correct.
Possesded, yeah. Creepy, not so much.
Possesded, yeah. Creepy, not so much.
It's not just about selling it, I think, so much as accurately conveying the emotion you felt in the moment. Sometimes you recognize that two guards just doesn't show how exciting, how close of a fight it was, so you embellish to give the heart of a story.
Other times it just straight up sounds cooler.
Other times it just straight up sounds cooler.
And like Digo said, It's how we choose to present our stories that makes them all the more interesting to read. I just try not to go overboard and sell the moon to people when I engage in Story Time.
Off screen humor.
It's funnier, because you don't actually see what's happening.
For example:Rainbow Dash breaking down the door. Slipped past the first trap, then got caught in everything else.
Any stories?
It's funnier, because you don't actually see what's happening.
For example:Rainbow Dash breaking down the door. Slipped past the first trap, then got caught in everything else.
Any stories?
An hour later he came back and I described to him that it was the next morning Additionally, the Ranger's girlfriend was still smitten on how wonderful he was in bed. However, both the player and the character don't remember any of it. It became something of a running gag the rest of the night; the off-screen incident the Ranger wished he could remember. :3
The Ranger's player was totally having fun with that too, by the way.
Let's just say it was very humorous and very offscreen and leave it at that.
I can't actually remember if all of my stories are true or not. It's been a long time for some of them, and given that I now average about 6 weeks between game sessions a lot of what really happened gets mixed up with what I wish would happen.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you that contribute to Story Time. You've shared some fascinating tales, and inspired me to new heights of oddity. Embellished or not, they're well worth coming back for again and again.
There's a reason I rarely chime in, and not least because my session collapsed due to scheduling conflicts and my playgroup has yet to recoalesce. I'm not going to share things that didn't happen. Not when my friends are so remarkably adept at achieving the ridiculous.
I'm sure some people like to put a little extra spin on their stories, but the ones I usually choose to share are pure truth, and often funny simply because of simplicity.
Like the time I was playing a Rogue in 3.5 and we were chasing a fugitive through a sewer. The suspect had an escape route with allies already set up. We were supposed to be road blocked by a set of five goons in a pretty tight tunnel. I wanted to stay on the convict so instead of stopping to engage, so I asked to roll Tumble to move my speed past the goons without provoking AOs.
I succeeded, but before we could get any farther in the narrative the DM just started cackling. When we finally got him calm enough to explain, he just needed one sentence: "You just tumbled.. in an active sewer."
Queue the table blowing up with laughter and me facedesking hard enough to move the figures.
See? No embellishment required when you have your rogue roll through a half-foot of shit.
Like the time I was playing a Rogue in 3.5 and we were chasing a fugitive through a sewer. The suspect had an escape route with allies already set up. We were supposed to be road blocked by a set of five goons in a pretty tight tunnel. I wanted to stay on the convict so instead of stopping to engage, so I asked to roll Tumble to move my speed past the goons without provoking AOs.
I succeeded, but before we could get any farther in the narrative the DM just started cackling. When we finally got him calm enough to explain, he just needed one sentence: "You just tumbled.. in an active sewer."
Queue the table blowing up with laughter and me facedesking hard enough to move the figures.
See? No embellishment required when you have your rogue roll through a half-foot of shit.
All my tales are true. No need for embelisshment or tall-tales, the stuff we get up to is more than worthy of standing on its own.
It helps that we have an awesome GM who is a wizard at melding settings together.
It helps that we have an awesome GM who is a wizard at melding settings together.
This character was later caught willingly partaking in human sacrifices to similar results. The other players in that game may have been a tad dumb.
I think I know where this is going, now. After they set everything straight with Gilda's player, she shrugs and rolls up a way-OP Bard character (because social game), Cheese Sandwich. This puts her directly into conflict with Pinky, who simply _has_ to defend her title as the greatest party pony.
Oh, I dunno, some stories don't need a lot of embellishment. But then, I don't play often enough to acquire *really juicy* stories.
I mean, not like the Vampire: Dark Ages group which had a guy who . . . according to everyone, sold someone down the river for a calzone.
That one's gold, and worth drinks one day.
I mean, not like the Vampire: Dark Ages group which had a guy who . . . according to everyone, sold someone down the river for a calzone.
That one's gold, and worth drinks one day.
And then they chickened out last minute so I had to rescue myself.
Well, these were vampires. "Down the river" is . . . not as good. And, ah, I don't see drinks therefore the story remains silent for now.
;)
;)
ANY OF YOU REMEMBER THAT STORY I KEEP TELLING.
ok yeah confession time. I like to embellish it when i tell it.
I make it sound like a totally soloed almost a half of the dungeon truth is that half of the dungeon was set up so id actually have a chance of completing my objective one of the few times the gm was actually nice about something
also as cool as sliding down a wet roof on a guards unconscious body is it's less cool when you fall off halfway down and almost die due to a nat one to grab a ledge.
ok yeah confession time. I like to embellish it when i tell it.
I make it sound like a totally soloed almost a half of the dungeon truth is that half of the dungeon was set up so id actually have a chance of completing my objective one of the few times the gm was actually nice about something
also as cool as sliding down a wet roof on a guards unconscious body is it's less cool when you fall off halfway down and almost die due to a nat one to grab a ledge.
... You can know it had pinned me to the ground, and I STILL stabbed in in the face.
Honestly, if I embellish something it's because I have to extrapolate details from what I know about the players involved and most events being at least eight years old . . . but at most twenty.
I do not need to extrapolate or embellish for the D&D campaign which let engineers both be GM and players. It was terrifying and awesome. (And may have involved excessive use of the laws of thermodynamics.)
I do not need to extrapolate or embellish for the D&D campaign which let engineers both be GM and players. It was terrifying and awesome. (And may have involved excessive use of the laws of thermodynamics.)
I wonder if this little revelation puts a question to the whole concept of Story Time. Is it possible you could have embellished what was objectively a more mundane sequence of events?
I'm inclined to think all the stories are more legit than not, myself. The tales that come out of tabletop RPGs are the very definition of truth that's stranger than fiction.