Ludus Dominus

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How Ludus Dominus runs games

When it comes to my players and the world they will be in. . . I thrive in creating living breathing worlds, rampant in high stakes, burning ambitions, and unfiltered realistic fantasy. I enjoy running deep, reactive style games. A place where punches are not pulled, and danger and betrayal are always lurking for opportunity. Factions move and flesh out the world, always moving, never stopping, while rivals advance their own agendas and goals. Ecosystems cycle and civilizations operate on grounded, real logic no matter your involvement. I don't use scripts, or railroads, nor will I shield you with artificial safety nets. You are the inhabitants carving out your own life in an authentic, high consequence world that awaits to anticipate your every move. My worlds filter like grains through the eye of the hourglass and are unending. The world moves with or against you. Ignoring embers of conflict, breaking words of promise and contract, or overlooking rumors of rot and ruin may sow the seeds of your undoing if left to blister. So mind your whispers wisely. The lands are filled with beasts and creatures which behave as such. They hunt for food and patrol their territories for the resources within. Kingdoms of men build grand castles and cities that flourish with trade routes and sprawling cultures. In places where magic is real it is feared as such, just like in worlds where technology is king. I won't monologue vast entries of lore to bore you, you will need to find the truth yourself within the world. From speaking to those in the world, to handouts from treasures you discover. Otherwise you will have to take the time to read entries I will provide as to information you character would know off hand before the start of the game from your character creation. Day to day information I will toss out as needed rather than making you roll for it. Though you can roll for any information provided you can give a logical and plausible reason you might actually know something. You never know if you had a memory of some random stranger saying something of interest at sometime in your life. You may find journals, encounter regional superstitions and so on. I do not cower at the thought of my players and their characters accruing wealth and power. If they are wise and clever enough to survive the perils before them, then they should be able to relish their hard work. With the understanding that with great power comes great responsibility, along with greater threats and higher stakes. You have the freedom to build the life you want provided the campaign you are in has the room for it. A mega dungeon isn't going to provide you with your own lands whereas a sandbox openworld would. That doesn't mean you can't hire henchmen and others to do your bidding. You can join guilds, start a business, or start your own mercenary company, provided it will fit into the story we are telling and won't interfere with the campaign style. Your ambitions are your greatest limitation aside from the story we are trying to tell together. There is not just one story being told, there are countless stories unfolding all at once. From the player's characters' lives, to the world around them. All happening at once, all around you. The tapestry you choose to weave depends on the strings you pull and follow. Progression in my games is always about overcoming an obstacle, surviving peril, and the discovery of solutions. Never murder, genocide, and trophy hunting. The situation dictates how much an encounter is worth in experience, and how that situation is resolved does not dictate the amount of experience you will receive from it. No matter stealth, bribery, violence, cunning, or misdirection. Killing everything is boring. When engaging in encounters, understand that they are rooted in logic and realism and never about party level and experience. Fights and alliances will grow organically through player action and behavior. IF you enter a random creature's layer or territory, you are either prey or an intruder. Resulting in a situation based on what is happening. Just as a predator wounded will run verse fight to the death for a meal. Poor decisions on your part will land you and your party into dire situations. Bad decisions will lead to bad outcomes. Success will stem from scouting out an area, gathering information, finding clues, diplomacy and so on. Pulling your sword on the night watch because your out past curfew will get you thrown in jail and possibly hung the next morning. The worlds I create for my players do not grant them the rights and abilities to do as they wish and behave like rotten gods. You will not be immune to the reality of the situation. You should use your own critical thinking to ascertain if you need to run or surrender to survive. When it comes to dice, all my rolls are straight up. I do not fudge the outcome of a situation. That is literally the design purpose of the dice, to create random outcomes. good or bad. Life works the same way. People sometimes are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes, bad things just happen. I am not an adversarial game master but in my worlds, the bad guys want to win just as much as you, and survive. NPC's, monsters, and creatures, will behave intelligently, think critically, plot and plan just like you. In doing so makes everyone of your victories 100% authentic and real. Meaning, you together, earned all the glory. Or failure... I create an authentic REAL world cohesively as possible with the rules RAW. I apply logical adjudication where the glue is needed. I try to provide predictable, consistant outcomes based on the RAW. However there are always situations in which rules don't exactly cover niche moments. I will always use logic and plausibility over flight of fancy in those moments. But, I will always allow a player to plead their case for a better outcome or provide reasons why something should work. I can think of a lot of things but not everything. Sometimes I overlook things or overthink them and if my players can provide insight where I am blind, then they win, and why shouldn't they. I also don't do loophole rules. You can go play Gary's mod for that. Most of the action and experience will flow through the theatre of the mind in exploration, traversing a sprawling city, and overland travel. You are free to make maps, track things however you may like, just as I will provide maps when you purchase them from a cartographer. Combat maps will also be provided as well, when it fits the situation like complex terrain and tactical engagement is vital. However, if we are playing a megadungeon campaign I will probably make the maps because it's a lot of fun to have maps and play also. It more so just really depends on the situation. Most of the time, a map is not needed. I try and create vibrant and engagable NPC's. I will and can do voices. When speaking with npc's I will try and engage players in 1st person but when a large amount of information needs to be parsed between me and the party, I will speak from a 3rd person just to keep things moving quickly not holding up the game acting everything out. If you want, we can do it but it can be quite time consuming and no one wants to wait two hours for one player to speak to a shopkeeper trying to save 2 gold on a sale. Or wait for a caretaker to explain the exact path they need to take in the sewers. I am an accommodating game master for the most part, but I am in no way a placating one. With genuine concerns I will gladly sit down with any player to resolve issues, but I do not hold hands or water down the gritty, logical realism of the worlds I run. All worlds have pretty things and awful things. We are all adults and can understand that. The world is a harsh place and should be respected as such. The bad is what makes the good matter. Backstories - I do not weave backstories into my campaigns in most cases, this does not mean I won't use them or that you won't be able to interact with npc's from your life. A game where the players backstories are part of the story directly, is a very niche game type, and I am not opposed to those but it's not a find a table kind of game. That's a "Hey, we have been playing together x amount of time and we want you to create us a campaign directly for the characters we are going to create." kinda game, and that costs extra and has to be with people that will ride that story out until the end, because if people leave, the story falls apart. When it comes to my players and table etiquette . . . I have zero tolerance for poor behavior and dumping on other players. I don't allow PVP. We are all different people and sometimes some people don't understand or know how to get along with others different than themselves, and that is understandable, and ok. I allow anyone at my table provided they can be kind, courteous, and ACCOUNTABLE. We are here to play a game not to engage about our personal belief systems of culture, politics, religion, or life. Everyone has different experiences and education and very few people know how to have a genuine conversation without their beliefs or emotions getting involved. So don't bring them to the table. We are here to escape, I do not have the certifications for therapy gaming, or the doctorates to help you. I don't run those kinds of games. I expect direct and mature communication. I do not run layers of safety tools and checklists. I expect direct and concise communication because I do not read between lines. I am not psychic, I am not telepathic. I am not part of the feelings police. I run tables for mature adults who can manage their feelings and emotions. Who can enjoy adult, mature content and conversations. This does not mean if something is said or happens in the game that causes a player to have a strong response, that stopping the game or having a conversation can't happen. You do have to say something though, it is your responsibility to come forward and make sure I am aware that something has happened for you, so I can address the issue and we can get the game back on track. Some people can't handle certain topics and that's ok, but if you can't tell me, I can't do anything about it. That being said, I won't narrate bad things, or adult situations. I will only make my players aware of the bad things that are present and have transpired. I am not going to describe things involving children or women. I would say so and so was tortured, et cetera. Everyone has boundaries and everyone should be able to be respectful and mindful of one another. I rely on my players to have the confidence and understanding to say something either at the table or to me personally, in the moment. So it can be resolved. If you are a person who has a problem and I work with you to resolve it, you agree that those problems are resolved, and you for whatever reason can not resolve the issue internally with yourself. You do not need to play at my table. I will call you out in front of the table and bring receipts. I do not have the time or patience to play JR. High. Role-play versus tactical/grind - The balance between roleplay and combat is completely up to the player's choice and actions. You need to be able to recognize dangerous actions carry fallout, combat requires calculated risk, and how you engage with the world in any and all interactions determines how the game is played. It is entirely up to you. I am here simply to provide the opportunities. Everyone is an equal member at my table, everyone. You do not have to be an all star or the most of any other role but I do expect you to be present, engaged, and ready for your turn during combat or social situations. We are here to tell a story together not individually, we are either all heroes or all villains together. There is no I, only we. Come to each session prepared, with goals and pursuits in mind. Be aware of your character sheet and everything on it. Each character should have a reason to be in a party adventuring together as a group. There are no such things as alphas/betas, that is a social pseudoscience construct, and there are no spotlights at my table. It is your responsibility to know the rules of the system we are playing (unless you are new and learning). It is your responsibility to know how your character works and operates, to take notes, and track items and inventory. I am here to provide you with the information you need, what you do with it after I hand it off, is your responsibility. You also need to know how the VTT works and functions. I have limitless things to know and remember and sometimes I even forget the rules, or read them wrong because of a comma. I am not perfect and do not expect anyone else to be but I do expect you to put in the same amount of effort as me and everyone else. Not doing so will get you replaced at the table. I do like to keep things moving and will rule as fast as possible but if it need be, I will stop the game. It happens. I also will retcon anything provided we are all in agreement. I don't have problems with that, provided it wasn't something that happened weeks or months ago. Sometimes I like to try new things, sometimes those things aren't so great. I'm sorry in advance, but we will fix what needs to be fixed and cut what isn't working. Sometimes I make a poor decision game mechanic wise, and I have to fix it, and I have no problems doing that. Mistakes are how we build and get better, provided you learn from them. Everyone is welcome at my table. But I have a bar that must be set to be fair and just to all who would sit at the table with me. I require a working mic, and for you to be able to capably operate your computer and be able to learn the table top program adequately enough, not to hold up the game or other players, requiring constant aid, or constantly having issues maintaining your pc in any way. This includes a stable internet connection. (Please understand, sometimes vtt's break or have issues, or someone loses power, etc. Stuff happens and we will work through it when it does. I don't expect every session to be flawless or without problems.) I don't mind characters having disputes, and grudges, as long as it aids the story. Characters can have tiks and flaws that add drama between characters for story purposes. Provided all involved are ok with it and it stays as flavor and doesn't become real drama. Not everyone can separate themselves from their characters. I DO mind players having grudges and disputes. I understand differences will occur and some people can't let things go. Some people use their characters to express their real life views and personality. This is not ok if you do it in a way to get at another player. Using your character as an extension to taunt another player is not ok and will not be tolerated. As far as attendance goes, I expect everyone there, as I would believe everyone to expect of me. However, if you don't plan on making it to the game I do expect you to still make payment to maintain your spot at the table. If you repeatedly can not make it to the table you will be asked to leave once a replacement is found. As for any days I am forced from the table, you will of course not need to pay for a session I was unable to provide.

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Ludus Dominus's ideal table

Overall . . I provide a high effort experience where a character's downtime, crafting, npc engagement, and players choices leave permanent footprints in the world. Before a game we will work together to create your character's life in the world, if it's a game that is fitting for that. I can run a linear campaign in a sandbox style without notice in most cases. I am not perfect but I always strive to add more and do better. I am open for communication in and out of game for my players and don't mind taking care of things out of game on personal time. In most situations it's usually easier and faster so we can keep the game moving and enjoy more of the immersion rather than the logistics. The people who will thrive most at my table are those who enjoy npc interactions and dialogue. Physically visualizing and exercising their imagination while exploring deep character roots. Players who treat violence as a potential hazard, who will leverage the terrain to their advantage. Enjoy the ins and outs of social dynamics. Players who value diplomacy, and stealth as much as combat. People who can collaborate and build with others. I am at home in any game type or genre. Linear, sandbox, west march, megadungeon. I love them all. The only thing that limits me is my players ability to be and do more. There's no game I can't learn and run.

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