Hey everyone! I'm running my first real campaign and on my second session. I had the idea to (later) give my players some sort of special power due to the way the story's unfolding. I was hoping to do something based on wild magic since these powers come from a godlike sorcerer (like giving them a one time use of a wild magic surge specific to each character) but I'm honestly not sure what to do. This might be a bit ambitious of me for my first game too haha. Any ideas from you all? And have you ever done something like this before? I'm open to just about anything long as I can make it fit.

That is, how many TTRPG campaigns that you were a part of reached a conclusion where you'd say the fiction of the game was finished? Story told, done, complete, etc? Instead of fizzling out (due to scheduling conflicts, loss of interest, moving on to a new game, etc). I'm trying to figure out if my experience is typical or not. I've played in or run 20+ campaigns since I got into TTRPGs about 20 years ago, but I've only ever "finished" 3 campaigns. One-shots don't count! I mean something that was meant to be episodic and take a long time to unfold. (I made this a post instead of a poll because I'm interested in specifics if you have them!)

As penultimate battle of the campaign begins, the party forms to create a Megazord consisting of a owl bear torso, fire giant legs, arms made from the body of a dracolitch complete with its head as a biting hand, and behold eye stocks in place of a head. After countless 5e fights with normal mechanics, they agree to a new mechanic for the fight. Each round is a defensive action against the other mech, followed by a offensive action. I would describe what the hostile mech would try to do with them, and then I would turn to a player, and ask them a trivia question. The trivia, is a question not about the campaign or the characters, but the players themselves. If they get it right the they avoid the attack or prevent the maneuver, and if wrong it lands. Then I turn to another player and they narrate their mechs attempted action, and if they answer the question correctly it lands, and if not I describe how it fails. Fails contribute to a clock, and each time that clock fills up, that is a resource the BBEG gets in the final fight that immediately follows this one. The older player who is about 5 years older than the rest of the party, was quite nervous that he was going to out himself as the player least connected to the group, but when I shuffled the questions and called on him first I pulled, "what's my favorite mecha Anime" for him and as he give the correct answer of "Gurren Lagann" he was elated and it set the tone for a fun fight with just the right level of tension. I've tried some wacky ideas in the campaign over the last year, and I was excited to see that the this one land well, as a palate cleanser, before the fight multi-enemy final fight.

Hey everyone! Was hoping I could get some advice on this. I started DMing for my brother and a friend yesterday and it was fun for sure. However, there was a bit of friction in that they really didn’t want to follow any of the plot hooks I gave them. I know DMing is like herding cats, but I get the feeling that my storytelling style might not work for these two. Not quite sure how to put it, but they’re like 50% of the way toward “murder hobo” territory. Nothing wrong with that play style, I’ve just never really handled it before. My question is, how do you give players plot hooks when they’re really not interested in helping NPCs and want to mind their own business? They just kind of ignored the obvious “hey look, go here” stuff. They even made a remark that they knew I was trying to get them to go somewhere at the very start but ignored it. I’m worried that whatever I try to make look interesting, they’ll just continue to look past. That and I’m not sure how to make a plot for them that doesn’t rely on them being at least somewhat interested in NPCs. This was a bit rambling but I hope you kinda get what I mean. Long story short, players aren’t very responsive to what I have set up and I need a new way to make them invested. Or at the very least follow the breadcrumb trail I leave out for them.

Do you allow your players to have their PCs fight? Feel free to elaborate as a comment!