this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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What honestly surprised you most when you ran (or played in) your first full campaign?

I've been talking to a lot of indie TTRPG creators lately — people designing their own systems, running campaigns, preparing Kickstarters — and one thing keeps coming up: the gap between what you planned and what actually happened at the table.

For some it's pacing (sessions ran 2x longer than expected). For others it's player attachment to NPCs they thought were throwaways. For some it's the opposite — a carefully built villain got ignored completely.

As someone who builds tools for TTRPG creators, I'm genuinely curious what the community thinks:

What's the one thing you wish someone had warned you about before running your first campaign?

Could be prep, could be player dynamics, could be the mechanics themselves. No wrong answers — I'm here to learn from people who've actually been at the table.

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[–] Aeri@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This post has several fingerprints common to LLM-generated engagement bait, could you elaborate on why that is OP?

In particular:

The title and opening line appear duplicated/rephrased, which is a common artifact of LLM borne text being carelessly copied.

The body is structured in a highly generalized, templated way (broad setup --> three example scenarios --> bolded central question), with no specific personal anecdote or concrete detail.

Phrasing such as “I’ve been talking to a lot of indie TTRPG creators” and “as someone who builds tools for TTRPG creators” establishes authority but remains non-specific and unverifiable. Who are these TTRPG creators, are they in the room with us now? What sorts of things have you already made, may we see them?

The tone is uniformly neutral and engagement-optimized (“no wrong answers,” “I’m here to learn”), which is typical of engagement bait.

Also the nefarious Em Dash makes an appearance.

Checking on OPs profile, they seem to be all in on LLMs. Keep in mind if you're answering this thread and you don't like LLM stuff, you're feeding it by answering this thread.