Bill Kirsch's page

I wouldn't do it. I don't think it's professional.

1) Lack of commitment to attending the campaign. If you can't make it a priority to show up regularly, don't join the game in the first place.
2) Tardiness. The game starts at seven, not 7:45.
3) Not being ready when your turn is up, especially during high level combats where you've had at least 20 minutes to prepare.
4) Cell phones/tech being used at the table for non-game purposes.
5) Playing the wife/girlfriend or husband/boyfriend card when your character has no particular reason to show such favoritism. The married couple in my game occasionally pulls this stunt and it irks me to no end.

So 2014 will be our year of Fluff?
I certainly hope so

Yes. I did nothing to kill the dragon. Why should I,get anything?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I have had that policy for 30 years of gaming, and I won't be changing it anytime soon.
Plus, in the dozens of campaigns I've played in, pretty much the same policy was in effect.
For example, I missed a crucial encounter with a dragon's hoard last year due to food poisoning. Missed out on dragon XP and some nice treasure. Did I expect any experience? Hell, no. If anything, I felt bad about not being able to help my party out.

I hated Monty Python's Holy Grail.

Okay. I'm lying. I loved it, but it would get you shunned from the vast majority of gaming groups.

If you don't show, why should you get any experience? That makes no sense.
That being said, I think bribing people who bring food with experience is bad form. XP are earned for in game activity, not meta activity.
However, if you have "rage quit" four groups, I would strongly suggest looking in the mirror for the primary source of your problem.
And perhaps consider a new hobby.

Jacobs might have to move up a slot or two on my "DM's whose campaigns I wish I could play in" list. That was one hell of a sadistic move.
Well done, sir.

It's amazing what a little acceptance will do for people, especially introverts.

36. They were coming out of the walls! Out of the g~#+&@ned walls! So I booked.

37. The talking dog and hippie burn out were really getting on my nerves.

Or you could use the encounter as an opportunity to insert your own idea for a ghost of your own devising.

This is why I hate random encounters. Even when I do use them, I usually just pick one that happens to strike my fancy rather than letting a die roll determine the outcome.

I'm running a mostly urban campaign and I've been impressed by some of the other lists composed on the boards. I'd prefer mostly serious vignettes. The city is Saltmarsh from the DMG2. It's a small walled city with a port and a river running through it. I have set it between Cormyr and Sembia in the Forgotten Realms just south of the Vast Swamp if anybody wants to throw some Faerun goodness into the mix. I'd rather have quality over quantity (i.e. one or two short paragraphs rather than several single sentence entries).

Thanks for your input in advance! I'll start it off:

1) Two large wagons, one pulled by a pair of horses, the other by a sturdy ox, block a narrow street from both directions. The drovers (one human, one half elf) are arguing who has the right of way. Things are becoming rather heated as voices are raised, and a small crowd gathers to watch the impromptu entertainment.

40. He hates plaid. And dead men don't wear plaid.

Ah, but the fools didn't see the insanity they had wrought until the Castration Devastation.

In my secondary campaign, I play a self-loathing half drow that was the product of rape. His hatred of drow is epic and he goes out of his way to kill them, even after they've surrendered.
It makes for good role-play.
As a player I get pretty tired of Drzzt wannabes.
As a DM, I don't allow drow as PCs.

My players can RP however they want.
As long as it's clear it's just part of the game.
I generally don't associate with a lot of sexist and/or racist people IRL.

Easier and more seductive is the Dark Side.
And a lot more fun to play!

As a DM, I can't stand CN. It's basically carte blanche to do whatever they feel like. I'm very close to banning it (I currently allow any non evil).

I game, collect comics, and have more action figures than a Toys-R-Us.
I absolutely love BBT. The characters like the same stuff I do, and they do a lot of the same things I enjoy. They actually celebrate comic book day for crying out loud!
I don't care about the stereotypes because I am too busy laughing my butt off.
And for the record, I also enjoyed Community, IT Crowd, and Spaced!
I swear some people just go through life waiting to be offended by things.

Wizards not being able to cast healing spells.
Which I think is just fine.
But I'm an "old guard" D&D player (almost 30 years now).

In my house it was simple. You ate what was served or you didn't eat.
My parents had better things to do than worry about a little kid's palate.
Eventually, I got hungry enough to eat it anyway.

I think you should run the best game you can and let the dice fall where they may.

You're burned out. It happens. Hang up the dice for six months or so. You should feel the itch again soon enough.
In addition, you should really try to get someone else to DM for awhile. Even if it's just a bunch of one shots.
Finally, you may want to check your meds. Lack of interest in things that you used to enjoy is one of the telltale signs your depression is acting up again. You may have built up a tolerance to whatever medication you're taking.

Bill Kirsch wrote:

And don't get me started on having kids arond. UGH.
I believe firmly in the children should be neither seen nor heard ethos. LOL

If you haven't had to deal with this yet, unless you're just playing with an ever-rotating group of college kids or younger, you will have to some time. As a parent and long-time gamer, I hope you will develop a little more tolerance of those of us who sometimes have to arrange gaming around our kids or need to play where there are kids about. We typically move our game to the site where kid care is most convenient or necessary for the younger kids because we're not going to ditch decent players simply because they have kids.

Fortunately, I don't.

I will respectfully disagree with you, Snow.
Nine times out of ten it was disruptive to my table at worse or milldy distracting at best. And that's being generous. I personally can't remember a time when it proved to be positive in my games.
I'm firmly on the "gamers only at the table" side of the discussion.
And don't get me started on having kids arond. UGH.
I believe firmly in the children should be neither seen nor heard ethos. LOL

I would say bluff to start. If somebody approached you, then perhaps deception.
Or are those the same thing in PF?

Never say no, just assign an appropriate level of difficulty.

Couple quick tips I've learned over 25 years of DMing:

1) Learn to improvise. Players will often surprise you.
2) Don't take monster/NPC deaths personally. It's not an "us vs. them" situation.
3) Plan, but don't over plan. A lot of your work may never be experienced by the players, and you'll resent the time you spent designing an area that never gets explored.
4) Steal a lot. Grab an NPC from one source, a map from another, and a monster from a third. DMing can be time consuming so utilize all the great stuff people have already made for you. Just mix it up in a different way.
5) Be aware of pacing. One of your primary jobs is to keep the game moving. Don't be afraid to advance the plot if things get bogged down.

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure other posters will be able to elaborate.

I do wonder if age plays a factor. I'd be curious to see if those who think leaving is rude are significantly older than those that say it's okay.

For the record I am in my 40's. IMO it is rude to leave a game in mid-combat under most circumstances(dying wives not withstanding). Annoyance is not sufficient. Not having fun is not sufficient. If you can't put up with a mildly or moderately uncomfortable situation for a few hours on behalf of your fellow players, I'd consider you a fairly selfish person. As was said above, talk to the DM later and tell him you simply won't be coming back. Now, if you are being harassed or threatened, by all means leave.

Gaming with strangers is foreign to me. I will only game with those I know well or with those who have been recommended by those I know well. I find that eliminates almost all of the problems that causes you to leave the table to begin with.

I hope none of this comes off as rude. ;-)

You know what's rude?

Hijacking a thread to discuss the definition of rudeness.

<wink>

Lighten up.
They just put in massive overtime in prep for Gencon.

DM = Demigod Multi-tasker.

Epic fail.
And my enthusiasm for this KS drops yet another notch.

He is the smart ass know it all that people dislike being around. Poor social skills. No sense of decorum or tact. The fact that what he or she says is usually on the mark ( often painfully so) just makes things worse.

Taking your ball and going home is immature behavior.
When you join a D&D game you're entering into a social contract of sorts. You should finish the session and just never return if the experience was so terrible. Of course, you should attempt to find a compatible gaming group (and DM) before you invest the time and energy into building a character. Communication is the key.
Just picking up and leaving (especially if your party is in the middle of combat and needs you there) is poor form. Even if the DM is being a dick.

Marvel Super-Heroes all the way.
Still play it now and then. It's a bit simple in some regards, but it plays quickly and everybody has a good time.

Then they should have bumped back the delivery date before the KS closed.
I find it amazing how many of you are defending a company that's clearly screwed up their delivery date. In the real world, missing deadlines has consequences. Why should Reaper be immune?
It's put a damper on an otherwise excellent KS.

I typically don't have those relationships because I just don't think about it. When a player shows an interest (in my current campaign, one of the players is playing a bisexual), I design NPCs and hooks related to it.
Otherwise, it's simply not on my radar.
Like Matt said above, it's not prejudice, it's indifference. I write what I know, and that goes for campaigns as well.

I was willing to give them a month (April) because it was a heck of a deal. But it's May now. I also question halting shipping to have their little Con. It would have been better to delay the Con until the shipments are done. People gave them $3 million. Fulfillment of their promise should be the priority over everything else.
Use some of the money to hire temps as suggested above.

I lean more towards fluff than crunch, mainly because I cut my RPG teeth on mostly 2nd edition Forgotten Realms. Most of those FR source books were about 80% fluff with the occasional rule thrown in.
There are enough rules, classes, spells, etc. The DM in me needs names, places, maps, plots, chronologies, villains, and, of course, monsters. Lots of monsters.
In fact, just about the only crunch I don't mind is Monster books.
But Splat books get old.
Maybe if I played more than I DMed, I'd feel different.

I don't see how valuing role-playing is elitist.
I like a little hack and slash now and then, but after 25 years of gaming, you tend to evolve beyond it.
This particular book doesn't look useful to me. Do we have an open forum or are we just supposed to shill for Paizo?
There's no need for ad hominem attacks.
No one can please all the people all the time. I loved the NPC Codex. This one? Not so much. YMMV.

Sigh.
Power gaming trumps role-playing once again.
Not everything needs to converted into bonuses.
The potential backgrounds might be interesting for those who can't be bothered to dream up their own origins.
This book's still looking like a pass.

I never pay attention to the wealth level tables. They're too arbitrary for me.

It depends on:
A) how important the particular situation is. Haggling for a better price. Roll the dice. Convincing the lord that his advisor is a traitor. Role-play.
B) how the tempo of the game is going. Already spent an hour debating things, and people's eyes are glazing over? Roll the dice. Everybody seems interested in the verbal tete a tete? Role-play.
It's all about reading your group and keeping things moving along.

Meh. Goblins are evil and deserve to die. Period.

NOTE: Check the Interest Check thread for more information

Greetings, True Believers!

This is the official recruitment thread for my Advanced Marvel Super-Heroes online play by post campaign. Familiarity with the original game system from TSR back in the 80's is a plus. Check out this link:
http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/
for all the information you need (including downloads of the original rulebooks if you dig a bit).

Expectations:

Ability to post at least 5 days a week. No villain characters (anti-heroes are okay). Must play well with others. As you will probably be forming a team with a karma pool, it's very important people are on the same page (especially regarding killing foes). Some basic knowledge of the Marvel Universe, as your characters will be citizens of it. No aliens. No magic-users (having artifacts of mystic origin give you your powers is fine).

Character Generation:

I strongly recommend the Ultimate Powers book. It is the definitive character creation text for MSH. FASERIP is determined by a 140 point buy system. If you want Remarkable fighting, it will cost you at least 26 points. No stat may be higher than Incredible(40). I feel this is necessary for play balance.
You have 100 points to spend on Resources and Powers. You can divide these points up however you wish, with a maximum of Incredible (40) in any particular power or Resource rank. NOTE: Double powers (see UPB) use points on a 2 to 1 ratio. For example: you could have a character with three powers at In(40), Rm(30), and Ex(20) with a Resource Rank of Good(10). Or you could have a character with five powers of Rm(26), Ex(16), Ex(16), Gd(12), and Gd(10) with Ex(20) Resources.
You have 60 points to spend on Talents and Contacts. Each talent or contact costs you 10 points. So you could be a Talented individulual who's a loner, a well connected person with few skills, or somewhere inbetween. NOTE: In my experience, Contacts make for a better, more enriched game, so I'd recommend that your character has at least one.
Talents and Contacts must come from the Advanced Player's Book.

Send your characters to me via PM. I will be accepting up to 5 characters. The campaign will be set in New York City, 'cause that's where most of the superhero-types are, but it's a backdrop so don't worry if you've never been there. Recruitment will cease one week from today or whenever I have sufficient suitable candidates, whichever comes first.

Post any other questions or concerns below.

Make Mine Marvel!

Jesus saves!

He takes half damage.

<wink>

I'd say he'd be the kid getting D's and F's in school. Able to maintain conversation, but has trouble with abstract thought or philosophical debate. Barely literate with a basic vocabulary. Maybe has trouble remembering things?
But not at the "Me, Tarzan. You, Jane." stage. I'd put that at Int 5.

I played a little AD&D in middle school.
I really got into RPGs with 2nd, which was my game (along with Marvel Super-Heroes) throughout high school and college.
I resisted the switch to 3.0 for about a year, but relented and made the switch to 3.0 when most of the rest of my players wanted to. Surprisingly, the update to 3.5 didn't bother me that much and I dove right in.
I balked at 4th. I didn't like what I saw. I considered it World of Warcraft D&D.
All three campaigns I'm involved in are 3.5.
Around 2011, I was beginning to desire new material, so I began to get Dungeon and Dragon magazines from the Paizo era. They turned out to be quite good, so I bought the bound Shackled City hardcover. Also pretty good.
I started dipping my toe into PF last year. Now that's it's become apparent WOTC doesn't know what the hell it is doing, I've begun to buy more and buy books (and lots of plastic minis).
My next campaign will most likely be Pathfinder, but I will continue to use the Forgotten Realms as the setting.