Kamaduck's page

Kamaduck wrote:

First of all, elf aging doesn't make any sense. I like the idea that it's because they're aliens, and maybe their home planet has much longer years.

Castrovel actually has shorter years, but that explanation doesn't make a lot of sense anyways. However long the planet takes to go around the sun, there's still the same amount of living time in what we call a year. You still learn and experience just as much in the same amount of time, however long the units you measure it in are.

Darn, foiled again. Well, I have no idea why the elves evolved to live hundreds of years.

I still think they just spend a really long time mastering each step of doing everything, and that's why it takes them decades to become adventure-ready. Although the 90+ years of being a teenager idea has appeal, too.

I'm still not sure on dhampirs.

First of all, elf aging doesn't make any sense. I like the idea that it's because they're aliens, and maybe their home planet has much longer years.

As far as what they spend their time doing, I like to think that elves as a race tend towards both perfectionistic and relaxed. They only spend a few hours a day actually doing things other than listening to music and poetry, and they spend years learning how to do each thing because they have to get each step just right before moving on. Adventuring elves level up at the same rate as other races because adventuring is unforgiving and doesn't allow for the same kind of perfectionism or relaxation. They learn to accept their mistakes and move on.

The reason that all adventuring elves aren't level 20 is because adventuring, like everything else, is something that elves try and then move on from. They usually go back to their previous lifestyle of lounging around and getting everything near-perfect.

Again, though, all of that is my personal explanation for something that doesn't make all that much sense.

Not sure on dhampirs, but I'd love to see an explanation for how they manage to remain children for so long. Especially since in a lot of cases, nobody wants to care for them. You would think they would have to grow up faster.

It's too much if the players or GM stop having fun. That's really all there is to it.

My GM enjoys telling us the manner in which our characters tear their enemies to shreds. Other than that, we go really light on the objectionable and messy stuff. Mostly because we have a young group with somewhat squeamish people in it. But even apart from that, the group prefers comedy and character drama to horror. Therefore, that's how we play.

If your group likes horror, by all means, play a horrific game. But make sure everyone's OK with it first.

My group still laughs about the first time they ever tried to play D&D, years before I joined them. They went to sleep without a watch, and were ambushed by giant weasels. TPK.

They have never since gone to sleep without a watch.

Sounds like an awesome idea to me. Great way to encourage social interaction in a safe and fun setting, with an activity that is both orderly and creative. I wonder if something similar has ever been tried?

--How does your group handle characters of opposite gender to the player? Is it allowed? Do the other players make fun of anyone who does that? Is everyone more comfortable playing their own gender?

--What about PC romance? Does that happen? Or is it something the players would rather not get into?

Our party is usually about half male and half female, even though most of the players are female. Some girls always play males, some only females, and some both. I've only played one male character so far, but he was fine. So far the one boy has only played male characters, but we'd probably praise him if he played a female in the future.

Romance doesn't officially happen, although we have a certain player who makes a point of shipping most of the characters with someone or something. She ships my paladin with a random silver dragon we met once.

--Does your group have a player or players who always play the same race or class in every campaign?

We've got a new-ish player who only plays female rogues. Nobody else wants to be a rogue, so it works out.

--Do the players in your group focus more on playing the kind of character they want to play even if they don't fit well with the rest of the party, or do they prefer playing characters that will support the group dynamic?

--If someone wants to play something that doesn't fit comfortably, do the other players or DM try to talk them out of it, or do you...

We usually have a no evil PC's rule and are restricted to the core races, aasimar, and tiefling. No base classes, either. Other than that, we're pretty much allowed to do whatever we want, and the GM will make it work. We usually cover all the necessary party roles automatically.

My latest group is 3/4 female amongst the players. College and post college.

Good times, I am glad more women are giving gaming a go in all its forms.

Sounds like fun. We're all video game-playing pals already, and tabletop rpg's are a lot more fun so far. I think the fact that there's a lot of roleplay helps it immensely. Most of us get bored with games that are nothing but fighting, but PF can be as combat-heavy or story-heavy as the group desires. It's the perfect fit for us.

My group is 8 people, 3 college kids and 5 high school kids, so definitely younger and newer than most of these boards. It's also 90% female, which is apparently abnormal. The GM is an adult, the father of 3 of the players. Half of them grew up playing, and the other half have joined over the course of the past year or so. I'm in the latter group. I'm also in a smaller group of 5 that's just the high school students, but that one's still figuring itself out. The main group has been going for about nine months now, and I've only been gaming for about a year.

--How often do PCs die in your group? Does the DM make it hard to die, or does the DM seem to be out to kill the PCs?

--How do you handle it when they do die? Resurrection, bring in a new character, there's a last-minute "divine intervention", or the player of the dead PC bows out of the game?
--Does the way the death is handled depend on who the player is, or who the character is?

Nothing prevents PC's from dying (unless the GM messed up an encounter CR, which occasionally allows the rules to be bent), but as a rule, they always get resurrected. We usually have to go on a quest to find diamonds to repay the church after being resurrected, but sometimes we just find a scroll. My paladin has died three times so far (mostly because of impossibly high CR's), but she always gets brought back in the same session or the next one.

Our old party was TPK'd by "lettuce monsters". We switched to Pathfinder the next week.

--Which type of campaign do you favor?

--How often do you start new campaigns, and how long do they usually last?
--How often have you been involved in a campaign that was unexpectedly canceled?

The main group doesn't campaign, per se. The GM gives us mostly one-shot adventures and occasionally character-based adventures that last 2-3 weeks at most. There's kind of a loose storyline going on, but it's only an excuse to tie the random adventures together.

The smaller group is new and just started RotRL. No telling how long that will last.

--How often do you play?

--How long do your sessions last?
--Do you play...

The large group meets every saturday for about 5 hours, excluding certain busy seasons like finals time. The small group meets less frequently, usually on Sundays or the rare Saturdays when the main GM is busy. Both groups stick to one adventure at a time.