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Part of that is the culture of Living Greyhawk, which sold itself on being a rougher and more difficult campaign than the average. That said, I found "Killer GM"s to be rare even in that campaign. LG was just a much easier campaign to die in due to the scenarios. One scenario was a plague scenario. Basically unless you're a Paladin, if you're the first person to minister aid to the sick in that scenario, you're a dead man walking as you will not get to help in time and ordinary cure disease spells have no effect on it. (The Fortitude roll to avoid catching the disease was some absurdly high number)
The culture also extended itself pretty heavily into the Goodman Games Dungeon Tournaments. In those cases the GMs were actually given TPK ribbons as a "badge of honor" when they killed off a party. I wonder how many GMs come from the tournament world where that kind of attitude is rewarded as part of the standard of play.
I've noticed a couple of cases where modules are built assuming that a certain class is available, but generally I've found them pretty well balanced regardless of what kinds of characters players play.
Okay--I didn't comment on this originally because Michael indicated it had been resolved behind the scenes, but since people are still harping on it, I'm going to put in my two cents, here.
I was a player at the table where this character death occurred. Despite nearly dying myself, I had a pretty fantastic time playing the module and I didn't feel picked on or upset that my character was targeted by intelligent monsters. My cleric doles out up to 42 points of healing to everyone in a 30 foot burst every round for a REALLY long time. Intelligent monsters SHOULD target her. I also had this same GM for another module that weekend and had fun in that module as well. This is NOT a bad GM. She is, in point of fact, one of the most enjoyable GMs I've ever had in any organized play experience and I would play with her again in a cold heartbeat.
That said, the monster in this particular combat was an intelligent monster. It had downed a character and thought the character was dead just a couple rounds before. Then my cleric had dished out 7d6 healing to everyone in the vicinity and the downed characters popped back up, raring to fight. The monster, quite intelligently, took my cleric down next. My cleric then popped back up (with 4 hitpoints, but back up) and withdrew. So again, monster is seeing a downed character (one he sees as a threat and who he knows can heal other characters at a distance) pop back up. The next character that went down, the GM looked at him and actually explained WHY the monster was going to take the last attack, which was---the last two people the monster took down hadn't stayed down. He's intelligent, and he wants to make sure that this character does.
It should also be noted that on the very next round in this combat, my cleric cast Breath of Life and brought the dead character back to life so NO ONE ACTUALLY STAYED DEAD in this combat. The combat ended with everyone ALIVE, no gold or PA having to be spent, etc.
So the player was basically whining because the DM did not coddle anyone. From what I understand many of the scenarios are difficult, and there is a chance people will die. I will just stop now.
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same with flying out of the closest airport here .. if I can get two to ride with me, I'll drive it...whatever you do dont fly into chattanooga it will cost you at least 100 bucks extra
waves fresh baked cookies...come join in the dork side
Lol .. I'm mulling the details ..
homework/finals vs. vacation time vs. other summer conventions already slated for vs. cost of driving over flying vs. driving for 12-14 hours
I'd ride with you, easiest thing might be to find a public carpool location to ditch excess vehicles at a predetermined location, and then carpool the rest of the way. I think TK is near Gary, IN. I'm in Kalamazoo, MI, and you're in Iowa. So maybe South Bend, IN or something. Either way I'm going, but 11 hour solo drive sounds like a lot of suckage, and too much time alone with myself and my thoughts and nothing but country to occupy them.
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stuffTK is a 4 hour drive for me alone ... tho ... would be an easy stash point .. if he were going lol
me going is a super long shot .. depends on where I'm at with finals/classes and finances at that point
Yea, I did some map running, TK is only 30 minutes and 60 miles further. If he was going, or let us ditch our cars there, it'd be worth the extra bit of driving to have someone else to go.
Are you still coming to Marmalade Dog? If so, I could maybe hide you from my wife somewhere in the apartment till Dicehead so you don't have to drive 4 hours out of your way. lol
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stuffTK is a 4 hour drive for me alone ... tho ... would be an easy stash point .. if he were going lol
me going is a super long shot .. depends on where I'm at with finals/classes and finances at that point
Yea, I did some map running, TK is only 30 minutes and 60 miles further. If he was going, or let us ditch our cars there, it'd be worth the extra bit of driving to have someone else to go.
Are you still coming to Marmalade Dog? If so, I could maybe hide you from my wife somewhere in the apartment till Dicehead so you don't have to drive 4 hours out of your way. lol
Lol .. m'dog is still on the burner .. tho we'll see how my homework works out .. ethics class started this week
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Lol .. m'dog is still on the burner .. tho we'll see how my homework works out .. ethics class started this weekstuffTK is a 4 hour drive for me alone ... tho ... would be an easy stash point .. if he were going lol
me going is a super long shot .. depends on where I'm at with finals/classes and finances at that point
Yea, I did some map running, TK is only 30 minutes and 60 miles further. If he was going, or let us ditch our cars there, it'd be worth the extra bit of driving to have someone else to go.
Are you still coming to Marmalade Dog? If so, I could maybe hide you from my wife somewhere in the apartment till Dicehead so you don't have to drive 4 hours out of your way. lol
Why is it when I think of us in the same location I get this thought:
"With our gnome powers combined!..."|
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Lol .. m'dog is still on the burner .. tho we'll see how my homework works out .. ethics class started this weekstuffTK is a 4 hour drive for me alone ... tho ... would be an easy stash point .. if he were going lol
me going is a super long shot .. depends on where I'm at with finals/classes and finances at that point
Yea, I did some map running, TK is only 30 minutes and 60 miles further. If he was going, or let us ditch our cars there, it'd be worth the extra bit of driving to have someone else to go.
Are you still coming to Marmalade Dog? If so, I could maybe hide you from my wife somewhere in the apartment till Dicehead so you don't have to drive 4 hours out of your way. lol
Why is it when I think of us in the same location I get this thought:
"With our gnome powers combined!..."
With our Gnome powers combined... We could take over the world and it could be all Gnomey and purple and bouncy!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Oooo....and splashes of bright red, like the red on the cheeze-it box. I like that color. Not for any malicious reasons, just because it's a bright passionate color. I imagine our world kinda like that prius commercial with all the people being grass and the sun and stuff. hehe...what am I talking about, that is what the world looks like through gnomey eyes! Though, we could show the non-gnomes why the world is so entertaining.
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Oooo....and splashes of bright red, like the red on the cheeze-it box. I like that color. Not for any malicious reasons, just because it's a bright passionate color. I imagine our world kinda like that prius commercial with all the people being grass and the sun and stuff. hehe...what am I talking about, that is what the world looks like through gnomey eyes! Though, we could show the non-gnomes why the world is so entertaining.
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ZOMG!!!!! like totally!!!!! All the world shall bow to the power of the Gnome that we bring them
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Ok, what's funny is that the shows I love were previous cooking channel hosts. David Bourdaine and the crazy food guy.Lol .. nope cooking channel... but I lurv to travel :DI bet you love the travel channel don't you?
<---ADD/random questions: True sign of a gnome mind. lol
Lol ... Those are good shows too
In other RPG news, a thread was successfully hijacked today...
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In other RPG news, a thread was successfully hijacked today...The GWDOA* agents are suspected in this latest act of Forum Terrorism. Though, as of now no representative of GWDOA has come forth to take credit for this heinous act.
*Gnomish World Domination Organization of Awesomeness
oooooooo we haz an organization.... me president prease!!!!!!
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Heck yea we do! We have to have elections gnome style. Whoever kills the most kobolds by disguising them as gnomes amongst their kin wins and gets to be president for an hour*.
*That's all the attention a leader will get from a gnome, so there isn't any point in being president for more than an hour. Though the honor allows you to wear a ribbon stating you're a past president on your dress uniform, or whatever you wear in formal situations!
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Oh, and do you watch any anime? I normally don't watch it anymore. I used to when I was younger, but eventually grew out of it. Then I watched an episode of "That Guy With the Glasses" about watching shows from when you're younger to see if the shows you watched as a kid were actually awesome, or if it was your juvenile mind twisted to it's whims. So, I downloaded "Love Hina" and I found out that I still really like the show, even though I haven't watched it since like 2002. That made me happy, though a bit sad because I haven't watched it since 2002.
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Oh, and do you watch any anime? I normally don't watch it anymore. I used to when I was younger, but eventually grew out of it. Then I watched an episode of "That Guy With the Glasses" about watching shows from when you're younger to see if the shows you watched as a kid were actually awesome, or if it was your juvenile mind twisted to it's whims. So, I downloaded "Love Hina" and I found out that I still really like the show, even though I haven't watched it since like 2002. That made me happy, though a bit sad because I haven't watched it since 2002.
aniwhat?
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Oh, and do you watch any anime? I normally don't watch it anymore. I used to when I was younger, but eventually grew out of it. Then I watched an episode of "That Guy With the Glasses" about watching shows from when you're younger to see if the shows you watched as a kid were actually awesome, or if it was your juvenile mind twisted to it's whims. So, I downloaded "Love Hina" and I found out that I still really like the show, even though I haven't watched it since like 2002. That made me happy, though a bit sad because I haven't watched it since 2002.aniwhat?
silly cartoons primarily originating from japan.
So, either you're being extremely sarcastic or you could care less. Bank that experience of watching anime for a day when you're out of ideas to keep the bleaching at bay.
It should also be noted that on the very next round in this combat, my cleric cast Breath of Life and brought the dead character back to life so NO ONE ACTUALLY STAYED DEAD in this combat. The combat ended with everyone ALIVE, no gold or PA having to be spent, etc.
Personally, I don't necessarily think a GM deliberately killing a character is a bad thing (whether the death was permanent or not). The part of the original message that I found disturbing is the allegation that the GM was "gleeful" and was bragging to other GMs about it. I find that kind of behaviour to be in extremely poor taste, whether it's jokingly done or not.
Now whether that's how that particular GM was behaving or not, I couldn't say. It's probably a bit of a judgment call as well; what seems like a friendly chat to one person could easily seem like gloating to someone else. But I'd hope that GMs would err on the side of respectfulness, if possible.
Just my two cents.
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I'll add myself to this list. Though, it was just bad dice rolls that led to a barbarian's untimely death.
I've wiped 2 tables and killed a few single players. Never intentionally, usually just bad tactics by the PCs.
I'll add myself to this list. Though, it was just bad dice rolls that led to a barbarian's untimely death.
As long as you didn't gloat about it!
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I'll add myself to this list. Though, it was just bad dice rolls that led to a barbarian's untimely death.As long as you didn't gloat about it!
I felt really bad, because it was a druid with a club, he hit the barbarian twice in a row, and crit twice and then rolled max damage twice. Everyone at the table groaned as the rolls came out. I roll in the open unless it's like a bluff/sense motive or similar type of vs. DC roll.
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Pregen and companion creatures do not count
You totally killed Ezren on Saturday. Does that count?
Based on this criteria I am innocent. Qstor still holds me accountable for bull-rushing his pet wolf into a chasm at GenCon 2009. I was playing the Ezren pre-gen when he died, not GMing. It wasn't my fault I rolled a nat 1 while trying to show Mark's cleric how easy it was to jump an 8 foot gap--over a 30 foot deep ravine.
I felt really bad, because it was a druid with a club, he hit the barbarian twice in a row, and crit twice and then rolled max damage twice.
That's the perfect attitude for a GM when a PC dies -- rueful, but fatalistic.
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I felt really bad, because it was a druid with a club, he hit the barbarian twice in a row, and crit twice and then rolled max damage twice.That's the perfect attitude for a GM when a PC dies -- rueful, but fatalistic.
In hindsight, maybe it wasn't a good idea for the barbarian to kill the druids pet rats, because the druid got revenge, before the party jumped him.
