I was curious if anyone else reads KOTD and it reminds them of their old gaming groups?
I've always thought that my GMing was similar to Nitro's. I've had a number of GMs that remind me of B.A. and/or Nitro. Something that we all have in common is that we all started back in the 90s or earlier.
The last 10 years or so, whenever I play with someone who runs in a game store, RPGA or PFS, or who started after 2000 all runs their games the same way: grid and marker, move your figure on your turn even while out of combat, reading directly from a page written by someone else.
I don't get it. It isn't like it is an age or experience thing because when we all started, we started the way we are. What's the deal with the new way?
EntrerisShadow wrote: What is KOTD? I think, he means "Knights of the Dinner Table".
Nah, both my gaming groups are very different.
I think Zogonia best summarizes my style ;)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Damn I miss Zogonia and Mt. Zogon.
Crimson Jester wrote: Damn I miss Zogonia and Mt. Zogon. I really don't know what happened to it, I wish I did. And I wish Tony Moseley would come back and make new comics. He like dropped off the face of the planet as far as I can tell.
He did, and dropped his websites to boot.
In answer to the OP (and not discussing other comics not relative to the thread), I have to say "yes". KODT often reminds me of gaming back in the day.
Our group consisted primarily of hack-n-slashers who had killing and looting down on their sheets as character hobbies. I spent most of my time trying to turn the game toward something real, and tried very hard to follow the GM's plot hooks, but certain players were very good at derailing anything the GM tried to do.
Reading KODT makes me nostalgic for the old days, and sometimes makes me remember incidents that still get me upset.
"Hey what's this box marked character history?"
"Ah, just ignore that; if you write anything there B.A. will just spend hours and hours trying to talk about stuff..."
I've heard some version of this every time a new player comes into the group. The first time I read it i laughed, but now it makes me want cry.
Knights of the Dinner Table is good but I haven't read it since it stopped running in Dragon.
I have never been part of a group that had the KODT mentality and in fact found it quite dull and unfunny, possibly because of this very reason.
I still buy and read KoDT each month. Enjoy the writing a lot. Plenty of interesting pop culture and gaming culture references. It has a cast of characters that reminds me of the Simpsons in some ways. My players can sometimes be like BA's group but usually aren't rules lawyers to that extent, certainly not like Brian. I've never really played in a group that was that strict with the rules or who played a lot of RPGA games or convention games or the like.
KODT always makes me yearn for the old days in gaming, back when the only game at the table was D&D, and we didn't waste two hours of game time on character creation. I remember creating characters in batches of two and three, so I had replacements when my characters were killed.
You didn't bother trying to raise a character unless he was at least third level; anything lower wasn't worth it.
The DM's game world was jammed with random encounters and dungeons, and what few "real" NPCs there were had the power and might to stay that way. And when we reached 9th or 10th level, we might as well retire, because the best part of the game was surviving those first few levels.
Ah, nostalgia.... :)
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I love KODT, but since my anti-metagame stance has taken a hard line of late, I find myself infuriated with Brian's tactics, especially in the earlier games (like when he bought all the land worth mining in Cattlepunk, because he read the book).
Grrrrr.
Then I remind myself it is just a comic....
grrr
Zerombr wrote: I love KODT, but since my anti-metagame stance has taken a hard line of late, I find myself infuriated with Brian's tactics, especially in the earlier games (like when he bought all the land worth mining in Cattlepunk, because he read the book).
Grrrrr.
Then I remind myself it is just a comic....
grrr
"They're not loopholes! They're special rules for people who're dedicated enough to do the research!"
heh heh. Rules put in by the playtesters so they can be used in tourney for an extra advantage.
Zerombr wrote: heh heh. Rules put in by the playtesters so they can be used in tourney for an extra advantage. I've always thought of them as deliberate mistakes put in by game designers so they'd have an excuse to get us to buy reprints.
perhaps that is how it is in real life, but according to KoDT, its a bit more player-sided.
It's funny, but has never reminded me of real gaming.
KODT is just an exaggerated version of many of the things we went through during the early days of gaming during the 1E/2E era. Every character at the table has a real-world counterpart who wasn't as severe as portrayed, but who was definitely that type.
I remember during my first game session as DM, I had to deal with a Brian-type rules lawyer who tried to put a few things over on me. I listened to what he had to say, opened the book to the rule he was speaking of, read it for myself, and gave him a definite ruling: "No". After the third time that happened, he stopped, but not because I wore him down or anything. Because I halted the game every time he did it, the other players told him to stop.
That really wasn't my intent; I was honestly trying to be a good DM. It never occurred to me he was messing with me until the others called him on it.
Yes, I was that naive. :D
I guess the way it reminds me of real gaming the most is that their is a plot, a sandbox, invested players, and a prepared GM speaking from his mind instead of just reading something.
Seriously, every time I play in something at a LFGS the GM is just reading a story from a book and the players are just moving their stupid little figures around a dry erase map even when their isn't any combat, and the GM is getting stumped on things like, "I try to make him x the y." "That's not in the rules. I can't rule on that."
It is so painful.
People get caught up in the negative personality traits of Bob and Brain as if that is the real point of the book, but to me it isn't. To me, it is about great game mastering.
that is true, Cranewings, there have been some epic storylines in the series, I found myself drawn to see what happened next more than looking for lulz at more than one point! B.A. may still be a bit of the buttmonkey of the group, but he's really become quite the storyteller.
Aw, it's all just Flavor Text!
I loved the part that involved setting peasants on fire or cabbages or something.
If you've never experienced random peasant-killing in your game, then you haven't experienced random-peasant killing in your game.
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