How do you know when a game is DEAD!


3.5/d20/OGL

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OK heres my situation. I am not the DM for the current adventure but we havnt played it in over three months because of work schedule conflicts.
The one player that couldnt make it can make it for maybe one weekend every once and awhile. We have all moved on to other games, ebberon and a home brew, but now the ONE player can come back and wants to pick up where we left off.
Frankly there is no longer any intrest in the old game. The DM wants to shut it down because we are all 14th lvl and he hates running charecters that high.
My cleric is casting limited wish and saving party members from certain death on a regular basis and were basically walking through the dungeon that is set for 2-3 lvls above our current level. If any of you have played the forgotten realms adventuire anarouch you know the adventure I'm talking about.
My question is if your NOT the DM how do you bring up the subject or try to point out a game is dead?

Sovereign Court

honestly I'd just send an e-mail saying that interest in the game isn't there any more and be done with it, if he wanted to try and find another game or offered to DM I'd help him, but if not, yeah just a simple straight-forward, "hey man, no one really wants to go back to that game, but I'm playing x with y on zday want to join?"

Grand Lodge

It's really hard as your real world committments grow to maintain the momentum of a group.

My players and I all have real jobs, partners, kids, bad days, etc. I've had a bit of success keeping things rolling using messageboards or Facebook groups to maintain contact between adventures. Until we had started up again recently (Savage Tide!) it was more than a year between sessions for us.

It was a long time between games, but we were still having fun in between emailing or posting escapades our characters were getting into.

As to your original question, I'd say the game is dead when you're no longer having fun. The best thing you can do is front up and let the DM and other players know, and get on playing something you all enjoy.


Steven Tindall wrote:

Frankly there is no longer any intrest in the old game. The DM wants to shut it down because we are all 14th lvl and he hates running charecters that high.

My question is if your NOT the DM how do you bring up the subject or try to point out a game is dead?

Um, say "Guys, [the DM] wants to shut down that particluar campaign game and I agree" ? Seems pretty straightforward. Failing that, stop raising people from the dead. Eventually you'll be the only one left and you can end it on your own.


No DM, no game, is the way I've always seen it. If the DM can't make it or doesn't feel like running (illness, business, schedule conflicts, or in your case disinterest), then the session is pretty much shot.

I think about a month and a half of delay is the longest any of my group's campaigns have been on hiatus then picked back up again. Anything that waited longer than that was destined for the recycle bin, and attempts to revive it failed miserably. I learned that if the group is separate that long the gaming dynamic kind of falls apart, and the easiest way to get it back is to make a brand new party in a brand new campaign, with a new DM if necessary, and start over.

Also, if the DM is not wanting to run it because you're reaching the high levels and he doesn't like DMing them, perhaps you should propose to the DM that he adjust his campaigns to end around 12-14. There's another thread around here that presents basically the same complaint - "our games always fall apart past level 12" - and of all the suggested solutions that one sounded the best to me.

Scarab Sages

When flies start buzzing around it and it smells like moldy cheese?

Sovereign Court

Easily, handily, and quickly - - - - as a player you OWN the responsibility to provide feedback to your GM. The GM is only omnicient in-game, but the social lack of interest should be conveyed to him, preferably in private to avoid offending those who still enjoy it.

As a player, you have every right to:
1) Provide feedback maturely at the table when asked, or off-line in private
2) Avoid camp-building - if you have an issue, speak directly to the GM. You own him/her at least that much respect.
3) NOT remain silent. Players are not allowed to be half-assed, or act in a passive agreesive way. If you don't like the game, leave or tell your GM, but do not stay there and suffer - you will only ruin it for everyone else.
4) Retire your character. This can be done with the GM's approval, or naturally through the course of the story he/she provides. If the GM offers land far away- take it. Then make up another character in concer with your GM.

Every story on earth eventually runs its course. Some stories can last many many years. Others will reach an natural apex of either fulfillment or boredom..... Knowing when to move on is an important skill to have as both a player and a GM

Hope that helps,
-Pax


My experience has been if the question comes up, Is a game is dead? Then the game is dead.

But if no one else has interest in it any longer, the question doesn't even need to be asked.


Steven Tindall wrote:


Frankly there is no longer any intrest in the old game. The DM wants to shut it down

Well, there you have it. The game is dead.

This is not a job. It's a hobby.

You don't do hobbies that aren't fun. If you want to do something that isn't any fun to you, make a job of it and get paid for it. Wait, no, don't even do that if you can help it. Even jobs should be enjoyable.

And if it's the GM who's not enjoying the game any more, it's double dead.

Unless you all want to bribe the GM in continuing (making it his job), the game's gone.

Steven Tindall wrote:


My cleric is casting limited wish and saving party members from certain death on a regular basis

No wonder the GM doesn't want to play any more: You're cheating!

;-P (Clerics don't get limited wishes)


KaeYoss wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:


My cleric is casting limited wish and saving party members from certain death on a regular basis

No wonder the GM doesn't want to play any more: You're cheating!

;-P (Clerics don't get limited wishes)

Domain?


Orthos wrote:
KaeYoss wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:


My cleric is casting limited wish and saving party members from certain death on a regular basis

No wonder the GM doesn't want to play any more: You're cheating!

;-P (Clerics don't get limited wishes)

Domain?

None that I'm aware of. I've looked. Well, the search function looked. But it's good at what it does.


Sounds like your game is dead. Not because of the amount of time that has passed, but because the players and DM have lost interest in the campaign.

When I first started DMing my "current" campaign, which was some time in 2006, we had two sessions that were a couple weeks apart, then we went three months and had another session, then we went another two months and had 3 sessions over an eight week period, then we went another 2 months without a session and then had 3 sessions within 6 weeks. Then we got a routine going and had a session every two weeks for at least a year, with only a missed week here and there, and notification of breaks in sessions for holidays. Our last session was in August and our next session will probably be in late November. This is information that my players have. When I see them, we'll occasionally talk about the game when it picks up.

My mind is wandering. My point in talking about my own game is just that time spent not playing isn't enough to kill a game. If the DM and the players want to continue it, it will work no matter how much time passes between sessions. But by the same token, if the players don't want to continue it, that could be a reason so much time has passed.

I want to continue my game. I'm looking forward to it. I'd like to pick up a few more miniatures first though, and have some fun money for food, and most of my players are in college so it's kind of easier to take hiatus at certain times during the school year.


Wolf Munroe wrote:

Sounds like your game is dead. Not because of the amount of time that has passed, but because the players and DM have lost interest in the campaign.

When I first started DMing my "current" campaign, which was some time in 2006, we had two sessions that were a couple weeks apart, then we went three months and had another session, then we went another two months and had 3 sessions over an eight week period, then we went another 2 months without a session and then had 3 sessions within 6 weeks. Then we got a routine going and had a session every two weeks for at least a year, with only a missed week here and there, and notification of breaks in sessions for holidays. Our last session was in August and our next session will probably be in late November. This is information that my players have. When I see them, we'll occasionally talk about the game when it picks up.

My mind is wandering. My point in talking about my own game is just that time spent not playing isn't enough to kill a game. If the DM and the players want to continue it, it will work no matter how much time passes between sessions. But by the same token, if the players don't want to continue it, that could be a reason so much time has passed.

I want to continue my game. I'm looking forward to it. I'd like to pick up a few more miniatures first though, and have some fun money for food, and most of my players are in college so it's kind of easier to take hiatus at certain times during the school year.

I don't really have anything to add, I just want to reply to this guy's post or he cries again!

;-P


KaeYoss wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:


Frankly there is no longer any intrest in the old game. The DM wants to shut it down

Well, there you have it. The game is dead.

This is not a job. It's a hobby.

You don't do hobbies that aren't fun. If you want to do something that isn't any fun to you, make a job of it and get paid for it. Wait, no, don't even do that if you can help it. Even jobs should be enjoyable.

And if it's the GM who's not enjoying the game any more, it's double dead.

Unless you all want to bribe the GM in continuing (making it his job), the game's gone.

Steven Tindall wrote:


My cleric is casting limited wish and saving party members from certain death on a regular basis

No wonder the GM doesn't want to play any more: You're cheating!

;-P (Clerics don't get limited wishes)

Orthos was correct if you chose the Spell domain to compliment the magic domain then you do get limited wish, then to really crack out the charecter you take spontanious domain from the complete divine and you can convert your other 7th lvl spells into limited wish.

My cleric is the only major spell caster in the party,I have to be both cleric & mage, everyone else took a lvl or two or warlock or force mage or basically cherry picked what they wanted for max damage while I just kept going straight cleric were all now 15 lvl soon to hit 16(fighting and owning CR 20's again and again bumps you real quick) so I have the highest lvl spell casting in the group.
I was using ANYSPELL like it was cool to teleport us where we needed to go, I took the feat Initaite of Mystra so dead and anti magic zones dont bother me. I dual weild two wands one fireball and the other icestorm.
I know what your thinking "what kindda crack is this "cleric" on" easy I am the most normal charecter in my group the cherry charecter(the guy never has more than two or three lvls in any class) is chanelling 5th lvl spells into his holy sword with an arcane strike for over 50 pts per hit and getting 5 swings a round. We dont even want to get into the frustartion the monks inate spell resistance has caused the DM. High lvl monks are nasty,everyone else is out damaging him like its nothing but his SR and movement make him a tough charecter. I'm using destruction to kill CR 20's in one spell and moving on. The rouge just sorta hangs back and watches us go,she really cant do a whole lot at this lvl cause her damage out put is negated by the DR of the creatures and nothing we have been fighting(shades,golems,abberations,undead) can be sneak attacked.
Anyway sorry for the long winded expanation and game update but yes with the spell domain and the magic domain a cleric can pull double duty as healer and wizard when the party doesnt have one.

Scarab Sages

sigh

I miss my game....


Aberzombie wrote:

sigh

I miss my game....

Shouldn't have eaten their brains so early on...


The problem is the DM not the players. If the players are min maxers then the DM has to min max the NPC's as well to keep things even. These NPC's also have access to Limited Wish and Destruction if the DM is not using them on the players it is his own fault. Of course as a player I think you would be bored casting Limited Wish 4 times a day but to each his own :-)

I don't think an extended break kills a game. For the last 5 years my group takes off from June through August so we only play 9 months out of the year.

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Dennis Harry wrote:
I don't think an extended break kills a game. For the last 5 years my group takes off from June through August so we only play 9 months out of the year.

When I moved away, my old campaign got put on hiatus. But whenever I come back to town for a visit, if I mention I want to do an adventure with those characters, my players cancel all their plans :-) So even a break of YEARS doesn't necessarily kill a game if everybody's having the time of their lives with it.

Conversely, lack of interest kills a game deader than Caesar.

Scarab Sages

Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

sigh

I miss my game....

Shouldn't have eaten their brains so early on...

You're probably right, but I was hungry.

Shadow Lodge

Aberzombie wrote:
Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

sigh

I miss my game....

Shouldn't have eaten their brains so early on...
You're probably right, but I was hungry.

Look on the bright side, now they will do whatever you want them to...

Like play the game the way you are comfortable with or... go get you more brains.


A cleric that can cast limited wish?!?!

It's a MIRACLE!!!!


Sorry. I got here as quick as I could. *gives the body a quick once-over* Yep, dead as a hammer. Now, who needed the unspeakable substance injection?


Sean Mahoney wrote:

A cleric that can cast limited wish?!?!

It's a MIRACLE!!!!

It's better than a miracle is MAGIC!!

Honestly I can't see playing any other cleric in the realms except for mystran, it has always been my favorite.
I have played others, the cleric/death knight of Velsharoon was a close second but we took over everything so easily there was little challenge.
With mystran you get all your cures and arc of lightning too.
The +3 Called Mithral full plate combined with boots of springing and strideing is just a nice touch. He wasnt built as a undead turner as he has a 10 charisma but I combined some old holy symbol stuff from 3.0 to have a True Greater Holy symbol of Wisdom +6. Basically the symbol lets me turn for an aditional 2D6 of undead with no penalty. The true gives me a +2 on the turn check the Greater gives me the Empower turning feat for free as long as I take a -2 on my check(nice cancell out there huh) and I added in the Periphat of wisdom as a necklace instead of head gear cause it made sense for a cleric.
You can find all these items in the 3.0 defenders of the faith.
My cleric isnt a CoDzilla he's a spellzilla, I cant remeber the last time I actually used my morningstar for anything.


Doctor Sinister, M.E. wrote:
Sorry. I got here as quick as I could. *gives the body a quick once-over* Yep, dead as a hammer. Now, who needed the unspeakable substance injection?

HEY KIDS! COME A LITTLE CLOSER - IT'S THE RE-ANIMATOR!! MOVE YOUR DEAD BONES! BONES! BONES!


Well now I can honestly say the game is DEAD!. We finished it.

If any one is ever going to play the Forgotten Realms Aunorach module I honestly wish you good luck.
It says it's for 9-13 but we as a 15-16th lvl party were having difficulty.
The main issue through out the entire adventure was the NO magic. Unless you have a cleric of Mystra, take the Initiate of Mystra feat from the Players guid to Faerun and then take both spell penetration feats the cleric of the party cant heal anyone because nobody can cast in the anti magic zones.
Dont bother with extra turning or any turning for that matter the undead are so many hit dice above you even on a nat. 20 you cant turn them.
All in all we as a group had alot of fun in this series of modules and I do recommend it. Dont bother playing a rouge because your sneak attack is usless against 70% of the monsters, dont even think of playing a mage most of your spells are not going to work unless you can cast in an anti-magic feild. Clerics of mystra are the best option because all other clerics suffer the mages fate. The fighter shines, this whole adventure was built to showcase the awesomeness of the fighter class when you gimp the other classes abilty to do anything usefull. Even they are hammpered by the fact that you need magic weapons to do any meaningful damage to the creatures and for the most part your weapons dont work. All of the villians stuff works fine because it's based off shadown weave and is therefore able to by pass the anti-magic/dead magic zones.

The campaign is dead and the feeling of it was "ok we beat it, lets never play anything like this again"


I guess; its dead or nearly so when the players spend more time making it unpleasant for others by demeaning them so you dont get any gaming done and people are all b$%%$y. I have some buds who constantly complain about games like this; and more and more; nobody wants to go to those games; pbp seem to sometimes get like this; really ruins a game with a bunch of surly players; then the game is probably dead; really unfair to the other players.


Valegrim wrote:
I guess; its dead or nearly so when the players spend more time making it unpleasant for others by demeaning them so you dont get any gaming done and people are all b&~#!y. I have some buds who constantly complain about games like this; and more and more; nobody wants to go to those games; pbp seem to sometimes get like this; really ruins a game with a bunch of surly players; then the game is probably dead; really unfair to the other players.

I have gamed with people like that too. We as a group generally kick them out. I have had a guy that dressed like his charecter,didnt bath nearly often enough,and tried to be the constant "leader" even thou our bard was better at it cause she was a very intelligent person( hi Jen, just in case your reading this) but this just didnt make sense to that guy cause rangers should be the leaders. The fact that we had 12 male dark elf ranger charecters, yes thats right 12( you can guess what series ALL their charecters were based off of)didnt matter to him either. Oh well the DM put in one figuiren of woundrous power(black panther) and 8 of them killed one another fighting over it. The others quit the game in protest leaving me the wizard,the bard,and paladin to finish the adventure, ahh 2nd ed curse of the azure bonds is still my favorite mod.

Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.

I see your point in rereading this post the game is dead when the players no longer have fun.


Curse of the Azure Bonds was a great module, I ran it for 3.5. I agree with you on the hubby/wife combo quite often it is a problem in game if it is approached in that manner. I had a friend who actually would kill his girlfriend if she did something stupid, of course he would hear it for weeks on end after :-)

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Steven Tindall wrote:
Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.

Don't damn all husband/wife player combo sets :) Not all of us will "cheat" to insure the fun of the spouse. Yes, there are some sets out there like that, just as there are sets of gaming friends that ALWAYS game together, have the same kind of character, and work together to "win" no matter what their methods do to the rest of the party ... I'm not going to avoid games just because some friends are in it together expecting them to be jerks like I've met sometime in the past :)

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Gamer Girrl wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:
Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.
Don't damn all husband/wife player combo sets :) Not all of us will "cheat" to insure the fun of the spouse. Yes, there are some sets out there like that, just as there are sets of gaming friends that ALWAYS game together, have the same kind of character, and work together to "win" no matter what their methods do to the rest of the party ... I'm not going to avoid games just because some friends are in it together expecting them to be jerks like I've met sometime in the past :)

I gamed with a husband and wife for years, some of the best players you could hope to have at your table. Heck MY wife plays.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Dennis Harry wrote:
Curse of the Azure Bonds was a great module, I ran it for 3.5. I agree with you on the hubby/wife combo quite often it is a problem in game if it is approached in that manner. I had a friend who actually would kill his girlfriend if she did something stupid, of course he would hear it for weeks on end after :-)

QTFW

I mostly GM, but my GF, (We'll get married. Eventually.) doesn't trust me. Mostly because she knows how my mind works. I once killed her character twice in a single combat, without batting an eye. She had a contingent Revivify on her, so the second time the pit fiend bit her character's head off. She wasn't happy about that one. But if I play with her, and she's playing a paladin, I had better be danged careful. She will bring down the wrath of her deity on my characters if I break the code by enough. She, and my groups in general, don't play with the Lawful-stick-up-their-arse Good Pallys.


I don't think it is ALWAYS a problem but I have seen what Steven is describing first hand and when it does not work it is not pretty :-)


Gamer Girrl wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:
Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.
Don't damn all husband/wife player combo sets :) Not all of us will "cheat" to insure the fun of the spouse. Yes, there are some sets out there like that, just as there are sets of gaming friends that ALWAYS game together, have the same kind of character, and work together to "win" no matter what their methods do to the rest of the party ... I'm not going to avoid games just because some friends are in it together expecting them to be jerks like I've met sometime in the past :)

Amen. My brother and his wife are both in my game, and sometimes she DMs. She will squish him like the bug he is given half a chance. [Hi Bella, please don't kill me :) ]

I agree that it does happen, but I'd say rather to give it a shot and see if they actually are bending the rules for one another before you write the entire game off.


Gamer Girrl wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:
Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.
Don't damn all husband/wife player combo sets :) Not all of us will "cheat" to insure the fun of the spouse. Yes, there are some sets out there like that, just as there are sets of gaming friends that ALWAYS game together, have the same kind of character, and work together to "win" no matter what their methods do to the rest of the party ... I'm not going to avoid games just because some friends are in it together expecting them to be jerks like I've met sometime in the past :)

OK massive amounts of apologies to gamer girl. You were right and my statement was overly broad. I was relating my one bad experiance but I didnt relate the good ones where a hubby and wife co-gm'd and it was one of the best gamnes I ever played in.

The spouse combo can be problematic but so can any other situation. No insult to married gamers was intended, heck I actually hope that when I decide that this is the person for me that they game too or have a hobbie that they like as much so we can have individual time or time that we both look forward to sharing.

Scarab Sages

Maybe the married-player-combo is more noticed because people expect it to be a problem, and are looking out for it?

I think I'd be tempted to go all out to kill my wife's PC (if she played), because I know I'm being watched, and need to prove my 'impartiality'. LOL

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Steven Tindall wrote:

OK massive amounts of apologies to gamer girl. You were right and my statement was overly broad. I was relating my one bad experiance but I didnt relate the good ones where a hubby and wife co-gm'd and it was one of the best gamnes I ever played in.

The spouse combo can be problematic but so can any other situation. No insult to married gamers was intended, heck I actually hope that when I decide that this is the person for me that they game too or have a hobbie that they like as much so we can have individual time or time that we both look forward to sharing.

No need to apologize :) I do understand where you were coming from, having GMed for friends, co-workers and at conventions for far too many years and run across all combos of good and horrific ::chuckle::

I am one of the lucky ones, we met in the college Sci-Fi club, played D&D (and other RPGs) together in many campaigns, and the rest is many years of history together :) We have our own hobbies as well, but gaming is first choice for both of us, whether P&P or MMO.

Good gaming!


Heh my wife is the main fighter in the 3rd edition game I play, and I would say that other than the occasional "mundane world issues" that cause problems, the biggest problem I have found is that after 14 years of marraige she can somehow solve riddles, puzzles, and traps, that for anyone else would be impossible, because she knows me that well!

In fact, sometmes I try to use riddles and traps from other sources, just to throw her off!

One time we did have to cancel the game because we wre in the middle of some giogantic argument, but in 2 yrs only one cancelled game aint too bad. And yes, I try to kill her character, but I have to make DAMN sure I am not being vicious about it :)

And to bring this around to the topic, I realized my game was dead the other day when I found myself using ANY excuse to substitute our usual 11th level 3rd edition game session with a "4th edition playtest."

3rd edition is no longer fun for me, and the fact that we crossed 10th level at the same time I started buying the 4th edition books pretty much put a death curse on our game.

Now, rather than defeating Strahd, I am going to have to gently let my significant other know that the "Immortal Queen of Shalazar" just happens to be ANOTHER human warrior named Cady who came along and slew Strahd on their wedding noght to take the crown for herself.

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Steven Tindall wrote:
The fact that we had 12 male dark elf ranger charecters, yes thats right 12( you can guess what series ALL their charecters were based off of)didnt matter to him either. Oh well the DM put in one figuiren of woundrous power(black panther) and 8 of them killed one another fighting over it.

^ The most hilarious thing I've read all day. Thank you. XD


Gamer Girrl wrote:
Steven Tindall wrote:
Its not just players either, I will never again paly with a hubby/wife combo. She could do anything because he would never kill his wifes charecter. she was a fighter and she had a magical artifact that let he cast any spell of any level once per day. I quite that game after 3 sessions.
Don't damn all husband/wife player combo sets :) Not all of us will "cheat" to insure the fun of the spouse. Yes, there are some sets out there like that, just as there are sets of gaming friends that ALWAYS game together, have the same kind of character, and work together to "win" no matter what their methods do to the rest of the party ... I'm not going to avoid games just because some friends are in it together expecting them to be jerks like I've met sometime in the past :)

QFT

Not all husband/wife combo games are equal. My wife had to get initiated into my style of DMing the hard way. She got pretty brazen with some of the things her Drow Rogue was doing in towns, and I called her on it. The authorities responded promptly. She survived, but only because of some well timed skill checks.

I had to bring it to her attention that during the game, while everyone is in character, that I am the DM and she is a player. Outside of gaming, we're husband and wife. During gaming, all's fair:) At first she had thought I was being a jerk, but she then realized that when I DM, nobody gets special exceptions. I have to treat everyone on a level playing field.

But, to keep things on the topic of the thread, I have lost interest in the campaign I am DMing, but everyone really enjoys their characters. I kinda want this campaign to die off, and I am tempted to transplant them into another campaign setting, but it just wouldn't be the same. I'm continuing the campaign for the sake of the players, at least until the next TPK.


jandrem, it is a regular issue in my group that the campaign dies long before our interest in playing the character's does.

Usually when that happens we reboot the game. The players regularly make small tweaks to the character that after sometime of play they wished they had doen originally...both to stats and backgrounds. The GM often does the same to the NPCs that they plan to use again and to the setting at large. You can never cvount on a given NPC being like they were in a previous game. Much like how some people have characters that are recurring in various incarnation, some of our GMs' NPC are the same.

On the subject of husband-wife in games. I have gamed and continue to game with my ex-wife and my ex-fiancee. We have never had any issues because of the relationship at the time or any issue because of the past relationship now. My ex-wife is one of the GMs in my group and my ex-fiancee is the other.

-Weylin


Weylin wrote:


jandrem, it is a regular issue in my group that the campaign dies long before our interest in playing the character's does.

I'm really conflicted, and in our case a re-boot might not work. I'm running a campaign module called The Drow Wars, which takes players from levels 1-30. When we agreed to play it, I hadn't DMed a game in several years and had quite a bit of rust. Now that we've played a few months, I've got tons of ideas for adventures and plot hooks, but the problem is the campaign module is start to finish, cut and dry, no room for additional stuff. Not to mention it is chock FULL of unfinished sections and requires constant ad-libbing. Rather than continually updating and reworking someone else's work, I'd rather just start over and make our own game. But, we're back to the problem of everyone's characters. My wife in particular is playing out an iconic idea she's waited to play for years.

Blah!


Jandrem wrote:
Weylin wrote:


jandrem, it is a regular issue in my group that the campaign dies long before our interest in playing the character's does.

I'm really conflicted, and in our case a re-boot might not work. I'm running a campaign module called The Drow Wars, which takes players from levels 1-30. When we agreed to play it, I hadn't DMed a game in several years and had quite a bit of rust. Now that we've played a few months, I've got tons of ideas for adventures and plot hooks, but the problem is the campaign module is start to finish, cut and dry, no room for additional stuff. Not to mention it is chock FULL of unfinished sections and requires constant ad-libbing. Rather than continually updating and reworking someone else's work, I'd rather just start over and make our own game. But, we're back to the problem of everyone's characters. My wife in particular is playing out an iconic idea she's waited to play for years.

Blah!

Jandrem, for me personally, if the GM is not enjoying running the game it is going to majorly impair my enjoyment playing the game. My group just finished an almost two month hiatus from gaming because both our GMs were at the point of running games was beginning to feel like work. Even when I have been really enjoying playing a specific character myself, I would rather shelf that character than have a GM who is not happy running a given campaign.

This is why as a group my friends and i regularly discuss the state of the games, the characters, our state as players and the state of our GMs. While I have been sad to see certain campaigns end or certain characters go back into the "inactive folder", I always enjoy the next game...sometimes more.

-Weylin


I agree with Weylin here. I have a GM that will just stop running a game when he loses interest. While we are not pleased with the changes he always picks something else up and we have just as much if not more fun. In an 8 year time period we have gone from Greyhawk 3.0 to Exalted to Scarred Lands to Cthulhu d20, to Dragonlance 3.5 (though we did finish this campaign) and finally to Dark Heresy and have a had a blast with each new game. I would of course discuss stopping and restarting a new game with the players first :-)

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Best way to tell is if it's walking around moaning for brains.

Oh, wait, that's undead. My bad.


When you can see maggots rippling just under the purple bloated flesh.

Years ago, when I was DM'ing a group in which my gf was playing, I pulled all of my other players aside and told them, "Look, I've played in a lot of games where the DM had his gf as a player and it just didn't work out. They couldn't treat the gf's fairly. Had to give them all sorts of special stuff. I just want you to know that I'm going to try hard not to do any of that." They all looked at each other sort of guiltily and one of them said, "Yeah, we've all gotten together and talked and we were really nervous about you DM'ing with your gf playing. But we're relieved you're aware of it and we'll just see how it goes."

It went great. I ended up marrying that gf. Campaign went well, too. I still play with that core group. (Though I'll never let brilliant energy end up on a lance again . . . ever).


Dennis Harry wrote:
I agree with Weylin here. I have a GM that will just stop running a game when he loses interest. While we are not pleased with the changes he always picks something else up and we have just as much if not more fun. In an 8 year time period we have gone from Greyhawk 3.0 to Exalted to Scarred Lands to Cthulhu d20, to Dragonlance 3.5 (though we did finish this campaign) and finally to Dark Heresy and have a had a blast with each new game. I would of course discuss stopping and restarting a new game with the players first :-)

That's happened a lot in the games I've played in too. I've spoke to a couple of the players and they say they're cool with whatever, they just want to game. So at this week's session I'll talk to everyone and get some feedback on how to go about it. We may just continue the current game until we reach a decent stopping point, or jump ship altogether.

I'm looking into running a Dragonlance: War of the Lance era game, but trying to figure out how to deal with there being no divine spellcasters...

Silver Crusade

Jandrem wrote:
Dennis Harry wrote:
I agree with Weylin here. I have a GM that will just stop running a game when he loses interest. While we are not pleased with the changes he always picks something else up and we have just as much if not more fun. In an 8 year time period we have gone from Greyhawk 3.0 to Exalted to Scarred Lands to Cthulhu d20, to Dragonlance 3.5 (though we did finish this campaign) and finally to Dark Heresy and have a had a blast with each new game. I would of course discuss stopping and restarting a new game with the players first :-)

That's happened a lot in the games I've played in too. I've spoke to a couple of the players and they say they're cool with whatever, they just want to game. So at this week's session I'll talk to everyone and get some feedback on how to go about it. We may just continue the current game until we reach a decent stopping point, or jump ship altogether.

I'm looking into running a Dragonlance: War of the Lance era game, but trying to figure out how to deal with there being no divine spellcasters...

Could you figure out a way to quickly wrap up any obvious loose ends in your adventure path and just have the characters start on some new homebrew stuff? That way they're keeping their characters, but you're using the material you want.


Celestial Healer wrote:


Could you figure out a way to quickly wrap up any obvious loose ends in your adventure path and just have the characters start on some new homebrew stuff? That way they're keeping their characters, but you're using the material you want.

We've thought about that, but it's a pregen campaign module, with the players playing reborn heroes sent to stop a Drow invasion. It takes place in it's own contained campaign world. I've been thinking of ways around it, since so far it's all taken place on a small island, I could just as easily plant this tiny island into another setting...*gears turning* Thank you for the suggestion!

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