J-Gal's page

I like play unoptimized characters in a party of equally unoptimized characters. Half the fun is actually being a little afraid of the roving band of orcs, and running away as your friends are being chopped to bits.

Maybe it's just me, but the second someone sits down at my table and shows me their catfolk character, I immediately tune it out. In my opinion, this race is a magnet that attracts (and reveals) horrible gamers.

The drow are that race to me. I've never seen a drow played that I haven't absolutely despised.

J-Gal wrote:

I'm not declaring any of it wrong. I'm just saying it's gotten a bit much and I want to vent about how much it vexes me to no end. I'm nostalgic about the old days of D&D and all this weird stuff is taking a big crap all over it for me. I don't want to have to make a list of the 30+ things I ban from my games. It's a personal preference, I don't like that Pathfinder is going in this particular direction. Never once did I say that this is the wrong way to play, I'm saying that I don't like it. There is no wrong way to roleplay, but the more stuff that is getting heaped on to Pathfinder makes it less and less attractive to ME specifically and probably many people out there.

Then play another game? I would recommend "Dungeon world". It has pretty much exactly the aesthetic you seem to seek, is super-simple to pick-up, and can be bought for a mere 10 bucks.

I see little value in complaining for the sake of complaining, when there are things out there that could make you happy NOW (and for such an affordable price too).

Because just as you feel the new stuff is taking a crap on what you like, many of us feel you are doing the same on what we enjoy (IE more stuff).

My good sir, this country was founded on complaining for the sake of complaining.

J-Gal wrote:

Ashiel wrote:

Wait, even the GM didn't know? O.o

I used to have an honor system in place where I would trust players not to do weird stuff like that (and I have a lot to think about in the game besides reviewing their character sheets.)

Needless to say I have ceased the honor system.

Wow. Well I can actually relate to the honor system idea as I too trust my players a lot. I would even say that under the right circumstances that might have not even bothered me and could have been really cool (say the the PC did something unexpected that wasn't cheesy within the rules and then did the big reveal as sort of a thematic surprise) but I get the impression this wasn't one of those times. :P

I guess that doesn't come up much because I tend to be pretty involved in the development of most of my PC's characters because I tend to try to incorporate things about and for those characters into my games, so usually even if one of the PCs has a secret that is kept from the rest of the party for long stretches of the campaign I'm usually privy to it. (^_^)"

In fact, there's actually quite a few PCs and NPCs in the current campaign that I'm running that have some secrets - some of them quite dark and would get them into serious trouble - that the rest of the PCs don't know anything about yet, or in some cases only a few select PCs with similar dark secrets are aware of (some of the PCs have picked their battles in who they speak of their situations to).

If we had talked about it before and level-adjusted it a bit, I would've allowed it. But he literally just said "I turn werebear!" and looked at me with a defiant grin. I then screamed at him for about 20 minutes while he sipped on his Mt. Dew and then I calmed down I just accepted it, hahaha

bob_the_monster wrote:

He's all like "You didn't even ask what they were charged with".

And I am like "Korgoth doesn't care" They pointed swords at him and tried to arrest him by association and threatened him. Barbarians follow the law of nature. On a battlefield if you point a sword at someone that's a death threat.

I think what he's really mad about is that my little level 4 Barbarian has Power Attack, Cleave and was able to kill both the Paladin captain's mount and him in a single round. Honestly I am sick of mediocre or bad DMs trying to shove "the local law" down on PCs. A group of Paladins hunting a party over a stolen magical sword is just silly.

Yeah OK I'm min-maxed and deal 2d6 + 22 damage on a hit and have a bite attack. So what? Sure I can critically hit for 4d6 + 44 damage while raging. That's what Barbarians do.

He made me justify my build, which is strictly APG and Core. Masterwork greatsword, 20 base strength. Potions of Bull's strength for emergencies, or cleric buffs. Rage for 4 more strength. 3 levels in Fighter get me extra feats for cleave, power attack and extra rage. Also Two-hand fighter variant gives me. 2*STR damage on the first attack.

Honestly this guy's just mad that I critically hit his Paladin for 61 damage and buried him. Isn't that the epitome of bad DMing?

Your GM raises a lot of red flags that have nothing to do with alignment. Most notably the fact that he's demanding you "justify" your build when the entire build can be summed up as "I swing my sword real good".

The fact a group of Paladins is apparently the equivalent of the local police also seems pretty suspect, but that could just be a difference of ideals from my perspective and that GM's (to me Paladins are way more than just mundane law enforcement).

While I'm also of the opinion that what your barbarian did wasn't evil I'm also tossing out that I don't think it was particularly good either since it was effectively just self defense. It was illegal, unacceptable self defense...

Regardless of the plausibility of paladins working as the local law enforcement, we can't deny that the OP is having a temper tantrum on the forum because he stole something valuable and oh no... They want it back.

We only need three classes: the Cleric, the Fighting man, and the Magic-User. Anything else is blasphemy and not allowed in my games.

It should be stated that no one else wants to play with me anymore. Kids nowadays want to play all these weird classes like "rogue".

I know you're being snide but this honestly sounds wonderful to me. Except the rogue part. Rogues have their place and it's called thief. But what's with all these superfluous classes?

The presence of those options doesn't take away from your ability to have a game without them. So why wish that those options be taken away from those who don't want to play your style of game?

I see your point but the same argument could be applied to nearly anything. I'm all for roleplaying games to be diverse and inclusive... But you can't deny that D&D and Pathfinder strive for a certain theme. If they released a new book with stats for AK-47s and Rocket Launchers I believe that would be going against the spirit of this specific game. Would I look down upon an RPG that uses it? No. But it ain't Pathfinder man.

I'm not bashing the way anyone wants to play their homebrew settings, but when you're in what one could call the "typical D&D setting" these races should be incredibly rare and specific to a location. How all these weirdos come together in one group all the time is just ridiculous at best and absolutely immersion breaking at its worst.

Sooo....this is your lawn, and you want us to leave, old man?

Yes. And take your monkey men with you.

Welp, that seals it. I wouldn't want to be stuck in such a "classic" game and am grateful it's not the default assumption.

It's a matter of realistic roleplay to me. If it were up to me entirely, I would only allow humans in my game because I find them the only race someone can relate to. However, I am giving up some ground, and I'm usually okay with one person to play a "weird race", if they actually roleplay what it MEANS to be such a being. I find that most players play the same way whether they are a human or an elf or a Half-Dragon Half-Demon Half Angel monstrosity.

J-Gal wrote:

I'm talking humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and half-elves.

raises an eyebrow

I am unsure what the implication of your raised eyebrow is, but if it's because of the exclusion of half-orcs, I assure you, it was purposeful.

Still there. See them? They are the NPC's

Well the worst part is that you can either make every NPC comment on your ragtag group of X-Men or just act like it's normal. The former is annoying and the latter is just... weird.

They point swords at me = They are dead.

This is precisely why I can't stand about 40% of all my player's characters. You can't tell a complex plot with recurring villains and tense roleplaying moments if your response to every issue is "I KILL IT. I KILL IT NOW. YOU CAN'T FINISH THAT SENTENCE. MY AXE HAS ALREADY SPLIT YOUR HEAD."

I'm talking humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and half-elves. These days everyone is playing some anthropomorphic animal or some elemental being or just something that is essentially a dark and edgy human. The obvious solution to this issue is just to limit the races... But alas, this only leads to complaints upon complaints. -Sigh-. Does anyone else feel similarly?

Oh man, I just shot Marvin in the face...

Hey guys, I just graduated from high school and I'm going to college in the Fall as an English major. Since I've been playing them since I was a kid and spend many hours a day playing/reading/working with tabletop RPGs, I've decided that at some point in my life, I would very much like to be a writer or game designer for a gaming company (be it Paizo, WotC, etc.)
But I have no idea what kind of education is needed for the industry, how to make yourself known, or where to even begin.
Any suggestions for a GM and writer who wants to take it a step further?