RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Sure, it's a problem if the player makes a character that doesn't work with the campaign or party well. But it's not a problem if the player, whose character has worked just fine until now, decides that he won't bite a plot hook because of his character's motivations - regardless of how he chose those motivations. That's all I was trying to say.
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Similar to the drama club, it's:
Character Assassination
The DM, and possibly some of the group, have someone they don't like very much. It might be a political figure, or a celebrity, but often it's a former DM or player that is no longer with the group. Naturally they've decided to do the mature thing, and create an expy of the disliked person that they can make fun of, torment, or burn in absentia. These games tend to be like mob violence, in that anyone who expresses discomfort with the events risks being tarred with the same brush as the target.
Suggestion: Start planning your exit now, a group like this is not a healthy environment. If you want to be helpful, leave a list of possible joke names for your expy.
The Teachable Campaign
or
The Campaign for Social JusticeThe DM has deemed their players to be hideous hate-filled neanderthal troglodytes who need the DM's glorious and inspired guidance to become better human beings. Instead of focusing on adventure, you learn how your character is intrinsically oppressing the orcs who have been forced into their position because of intrinsic unfairness. That one cannot judge the man-eating morlocks because that would be ethnocentric. That alignment represents objective morality which is intrinsically and objectively bad. Sometimes including the DM outright lecturing players in and out of character.
The History of Suffering
or
What's this 'Fantasy' You Keep Talking About?The DM loves medieval history. Realistic medieval history. You aren't going to see piles of glittering loot. Roll against ergot poisoning from the bread! Sumptuary laws will get you locked up for wearing the wrong pants, peasant! And oh yeah, your max level is four. What happens? Well mostly you get to deal with bandits and die of the plague. You don't encounter orcs or kobolds. You might get to deal with saracens. Mindset actually doesn't work too bad in an Ars Magica game, but in Pathfinder/DND? Whoo boy.
Repent Sinner and Make Your Saving Throw!
or
We don't use 3d6 for stat generation, as it might result in the number of the beast!Similar to the Teachable Campaign above, this campaign is where the DM belongs to a certain religious group and instead of just having certain themes, actually requires your every player and character action to conform to his particular denomination's beliefs or else . Your elf bard sleeps with a comely made out of wedlock? Lightning. Your half-orc uses rough language? His tongue rots. Your wizard swills coffee? The demon caffienatus claims your soul for his coffee bean mines in Hell. It differs because instead of trying to batter your head, you instead suffer strange inexplicable (to you...
Urgh. The campaign for social justice. Yes and yes I have seen that. Some people are absolute puppets of their belief system and they just have to push it on the players. Incredibly annoying.
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Far Too Many Shades of Gray
The campaign that's all about the moral ambiguity. Quest-givers all run their own agendas. Bad guys have noble aspirations and are just misunderstood. Authorities are almost as corrupt as the cabal of cultists, who are really only trying to improve their lot in life. No one's a good guy, no one's a bad guy. Every actions the PCs take have questions of morality, and discussions of right-and-wrong take precedence over the overall plot.
Solution: If that's the game you like, great. If you'd rather be the Big Hero Who Saves The World, you might want to find another game.
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Far Too Many Shades of Gray
The campaign that's all about the moral ambiguity. Quest-givers all run their own agendas. Bad guys have noble aspirations and are just misunderstood. Authorities are almost as corrupt as the cabal of cultists, who are really only trying to improve their lot in life. No one's a good guy, no one's a bad guy. Every actions the PCs take have questions of morality, and discussions of right-and-wrong take precedence over the overall plot.
Solution: If that's the game you like, great. If you'd rather be the Big Hero Who Saves The World, you might want to find another game.
Alternatively,
We're the good guys. No, really
This happens a lot in games where the DM forces everyone to be good, or at the very least, no evil alignments. You really won't know it from how the game is played. Wholesale slaughter of anyone who isn't good is very much encouraged. It doesn't matter how it happens. You can regularly cheat, lie, hold their loved ones hostage, who cares? It's their fault for being evil. Only paladins are held to a higher standard in these games, and as a result, no one plays a paladin because they actually have consequences for their actions.
Solution: Point out gently to all involved that good involves more altruism to all than punishment of those who are not good.
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Then leave.
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The last Video Game the GM played
The campaign sounds interesting, the monsters a little different than what is in the books, but there's something vaguely familiar about it all... Wait, what? Oh crap we're in Dark Souls!
Variations include campaigns based on books, movies, or TV shows. Note that I'm not talking about games really set in fictitious universes, but games that the GM insists are original despite being clearly ripped off from other media. Bonus points if the GM doesn't even bother to change the names of important NPC's, and acts surprised when anyone points out the similarities to said media.
Solution: Tell thew GM you cast "Alt-F4" and double click "Reader Rabbit Teaches Typing" instead.
You wake up naked in prison!
You're characters are all criminals! Maybe even falsely accused! You get thrown into an elaborate dungeon/maze/island/alternate dimension filled with monsters you have to fight oh and you start with no equipment oh and you get some rags to protect your modesty oh and the only weapons you'll find are bent rusty daggers oh and the place is full of monsters and traps and you have no thieves tools and...and...and!
Solution: Flip the table and run screaming from the room.
You should have known the barkeep was a retired Pit Fiend in disguise!
True story: our group was hired by a small town's council to kill some giant centipedes. Afterwards, the town tried to pay us with a horse instead of the promised gold. When we started to argue the council of level 20 wizards chain-cast maze to punish us.
That's just one example of the game where pretty much every NPC becomes the GM's pet NPC. Yes, the adventurers should not be messing with the townsfolk. The rogue shouldn't try to take the barkeeper's strongbox, the fighter shouldn't be threatening the mayor to get a higher reward, etc., etc. But that doesn't mean that every other NPC gets to be a high level retired adventurer or monster in disguise that happens to be way more capable and powerful than the PC's could ever hope to be.
Solution: Point behind the GM and shout, "Look, your Mom made us cookies!" and then grab your dice and jump out the window while they're distracted.
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You wake up naked in prison!
You're characters are all criminals! Maybe even falsely accused! You get thrown into an elaborate dungeon/maze/island/alternate dimension filled with monsters you have to fight oh and you start with no equipment oh and you get some rags to protect your modesty oh and the only weapons you'll find are bent rusty daggers oh and the place is full of monsters and traps and you have no thieves tools and...and...and!
Solution: Flip the table and run screaming from the room.
Do note that this is one of those that can be done well - for example, this is how Way of the Wicked starts. But if you're five sessions in and the best gear anyone has is the rusty fork the rogue found.... yeeeeaaaaah.
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The last Video Game the GM played
The campaign sounds interesting, the monsters a little different than what is in the books, but there's something vaguely familiar about it all... Wait, what? Oh crap we're in Dark Souls!
Variations include campaigns based on books, movies, or TV shows. Note that I'm not talking about games really set in fictitious universes, but games that the GM insists are original despite being clearly ripped off from other media. Bonus points if the GM doesn't even bother to change the names of important NPC's, and acts surprised when anyone points out the similarities to said media.
The Last Video Game The GM Played (corollary)
This campaign is literally the last video game the GM played. I mean the same maps, same encounters, same NPCs, everything. Bonus points if there are more than two people in the group who have played the game in question and metagame the s#$$ out of every encounter.
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The Teachable Campaign
or
The Campaign for Social JusticeThe DM has deemed their players to be hideous hate-filled neanderthal troglodytes who need the DM's glorious and inspired guidance to become better human beings. Instead of focusing on adventure, you learn how your character is intrinsically oppressing the orcs who have been forced into their position because of intrinsic unfairness. That one cannot judge the man-eating morlocks because that would be ethnocentric. That alignment represents objective morality which is intrinsically and objectively bad. Sometimes including the DM outright lecturing players in and out of character.
Reminds me of another variety that's closely related.
The Mary Suetopia
In the GM's world, one race (Almost always elves) are utterly perfect, wonderful, enlightened, advanced, and beyond reproach, while all other (especially those dirty filthy humans) are backwards racist judgemental imbeciles who look down on the enlightened race because they're too stupid to see the obvious superiority of the GM's favourite race.
Characters who play as members of the enlightened race in question can expect numerous benefits and rewards, while those who play the filthy knuckle-dragging races can expect long speeches on why they should be so glad that members of the enlightened race even deign to acknowledge their presence.
There can be some variety on the chosen race depending on the DM's personal beliefs. Dwarves may emulate conservative ideals, forming a strong organized crime-free society while everyone else boasts about freedom while scrounging for scraps in squalid hellholes. Even orcs could become noble savages and honourable warriors, simply fighting for their right to exist among racist douchebags that kill them simply because of their skin colour.
Solution: The balanced approach is to have a talk with your GM. While there's a good chance they're blinded by their own ideology, perhaps they simply have an overly colourful view of the race in question, and need a reminder that nobody's perfect.
The underhanded approach is to live up to every sterotype the GM plays of their non-pet race, and emulate the Elfslayer Chronicles
I'm waiting for any solution that isn't talk with your GM or leave. It's almost like I've seen that systematic means of dealing with problems somewhere else before!
Not that it's the wrong approach...by all means, it totally is the right way to go every time. I'm just wondering why there's even a "solution" section if we aren't gonna see anything else.
:-P
I did enjoy the table flipping, etc, that preceded running away, but, yeah...
I'm waiting for any solution that isn't talk with your GM or leave. It's almost like I've seen that systematic means of dealing with problems somewhere else before!
Not that it's the wrong approach...by all means, it totally is the right way to go every time. I'm just wondering why there's even a "solution" section if we aren't gonna see anything else.
:-P
I did enjoy the table flipping, etc, that preceded running away, but, yeah...
because there is more than one type of conversation to be had beyond "stop being an idiot or (I) leave".
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This RPG is for porn...
Encounters with NPCs invariably turn sexual, with emphasis on the scandalous and explicit details. The "maturity" of the scenes tends to be inversely proportional to the maturity of the players.
Solution: This usually corrects itself with the players' acquisition of a real-world sex life.
I should probably include more sex in my games...
I love sex in game.
The last Video Game the GM played
The campaign sounds interesting, the monsters a little different than what is in the books, but there's something vaguely familiar about it all... Wait, what? Oh crap we're in Dark Souls!
Variations include campaigns based on books, movies, or TV shows. Note that I'm not talking about games really set in fictitious universes, but games that the GM insists are original despite being clearly ripped off from other media. Bonus points if the GM doesn't even bother to change the names of important NPC's, and acts surprised when anyone points out the similarities to said media.
Solution: Tell thew GM you cast "Alt-F4" and double click "Reader Rabbit Teaches Typing" instead.
You wake up naked in prison!
You're characters are all criminals! Maybe even falsely accused! You get thrown into an elaborate dungeon/maze/island/alternate dimension filled with monsters you have to fight oh and you start with no equipment oh and you get some rags to protect your modesty oh and the only weapons you'll find are bent rusty daggers oh and the place is full of monsters and traps and you have no thieves tools and...and...and!
Solution: Flip the table and run screaming from the room.
You should have known the barkeep was a retired Pit Fiend in disguise!
True story: our group was hired by a small town's council to kill some giant centipedes. Afterwards, the town tried to pay us with a horse instead of the promised gold. When we started to argue the council of level 20 wizards chain-cast maze to punish us.
That's just one example of the game where pretty much every NPC becomes the GM's pet NPC. Yes, the adventurers should not be messing with the townsfolk. The rogue shouldn't try to take the barkeeper's strongbox, the fighter shouldn't be threatening the mayor to get a higher reward, etc., etc. But that doesn't mean that every other NPC gets to be a high level retired adventurer or monster in disguise that happens to be way more...
Video games can be excellent sources of quests, enemies, bosses, dungeons and settings. I've stolen a bit here and there, and it has turned out well.
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I love sex in game.
I don't allow it, except to handwave it and fade to black. The last thing I want to hear is two players in their mid 40s who've collectively had 1 date between them (I'm not kidding) ask me to describe how the hooker is gettin' it on with them.
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You're missing out. I have a subsystem and everything! It never fails to get a laugh out of all but the most repressed.
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Yeeeeaaaaah I'm with Cal on this one. I'm not interested in hearing about anybody's real sex life, much less their fantasy one. -_-
I'm waiting for any solution that isn't talk with your GM or leave. It's almost like I've seen that systematic means of dealing with problems somewhere else before!
Not that it's the wrong approach...by all means, it totally is the right way to go every time. I'm just wondering why there's even a "solution" section if we aren't gonna see anything else.
:-P
I did enjoy the table flipping, etc, that preceded running away, but, yeah...
I include Suggestion entries mostly for humour value.
Largely because saying "talk it out or leave" repeatedly would be very boring.
Do the sex details in private, that's what my group does.
I'm waiting for any solution that isn't talk with your GM or leave. It's almost like I've seen that systematic means of dealing with problems somewhere else before!
Not that it's the wrong approach...by all means, it totally is the right way to go every time. I'm just wondering why there's even a "solution" section if we aren't gonna see anything else.
:-P
I did enjoy the table flipping, etc, that preceded running away, but, yeah...
I include Suggestion entries mostly for humour value.
Largely because saying "talk it out or leave" repeatedly would be very boring.
It's all good. I was being coyly humorous, or at least trying to be.
It's all good. I was being coyly humorous, or at least trying to be.I'm waiting for any solution that isn't talk with your GM or leave. It's almost like I've seen that systematic means of dealing with problems somewhere else before!
Not that it's the wrong approach...by all means, it totally is the right way to go every time. I'm just wondering why there's even a "solution" section if we aren't gonna see anything else.
:-P
I did enjoy the table flipping, etc, that preceded running away, but, yeah...
I include Suggestion entries mostly for humour value.
Largely because saying "talk it out or leave" repeatedly would be very boring.
Being humourous is kind of a thing in this thread. :)
Two things I think it's important to be able to do: learn from your experiences, and laugh about them.
You people have read entirely too much TVTropes.
That's not true, I haven't read any TV tropes in the past six months... see, I knew I could quit if I really wanted to... *twitch*
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I love sex in game.
Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
I don't pretend the settings are sexless worlds and every npc is asexual, lol.
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Elfslayer Chronicles
Eh, I'd honestly rather play the GM's planned elf yaoi campaign than that.
Or Blue Rose.
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Alternatively,
We're the good guys. No, really
This happens a lot in games where the DM forces everyone to be good, or at the very least, no evil alignments. You really won't know it from how the game is played. Wholesale slaughter of anyone who isn't good is very much encouraged. It doesn't matter how it happens. You can regularly cheat, lie, hold their loved ones hostage, who cares? It's their fault for being evil. Only paladins are held to a higher standard in these games, and as a result, no one plays a paladin because they actually have consequences for their actions.
Solution: Point out gently to all involved that good involves more altruism to all than punishment of those who are not good.
+1000
On a related note, Terry Goodkind would be the worst GM.
You people have read entirely too much TVTropes.That's not true, I haven't read any TV tropes in the past six months... see, I knew I could quit if I really wanted to... *twitch*
You know that they changed the layout?
You know that they changed the layout?You people have read entirely too much TVTropes.That's not true, I haven't read any TV tropes in the past six months... see, I knew I could quit if I really wanted to... *twitch*
I had no idea. Is the new one easier to read on a phone, in portrait view?
The old layout was a pain, but I would put up with it to have reading material at work.
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I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.
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You know that they changed the layout?You people have read entirely too much TVTropes.That's not true, I haven't read any TV tropes in the past six months... see, I knew I could quit if I really wanted to... *twitch*I had no idea. Is the new one easier to read on a phone, in portrait view?
The old layout was a pain, but I would put up with it to have reading material at work.
If you have Android. Download Android troper from the app store.
Elfslayer ChroniclesEh, I'd honestly rather play the GM's planned elf yaoi campaign than that.
Or Blue Rose.
Based on the summary, this sounds pretty good.
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Could be worse. I had to roll penis length for a character in a Harry Potter game this past Friday. And the GM's a woman.That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
In a White-Wolf crossover game, a Mage who was Harry Potter themed was trying to stake a vampire, so he wanted to come up with a Latin sounding spell word to make his wand get longer and more firm. For some bizarre reason he decided the best way to reach the heart was via the mouth. So, here was this bespectacled Gryffindor wannabe forcing a stout length of wood down a vampire's throat.
To this day, I can look at my housemate and say "Duro" to provoke laughter.
Could be worse. I had to roll penis length for a character in a Harry Potter game this past Friday. And the GM's a woman.
Oh I cant wait to hear what your patronus is...
Its MAH BALLZ!
Howd' you like to come back to my place and inspecto my patronum, if you know what I mean
I'd sure like to avrada your cadavra... if you know what I mean.
You must get the quaffle through the hoop as many times as possible... Failing that, you must be the first to catch the golden snitch. If you know what I mean..
The fastest game lasted less than 4 seconds.
Hagrid has a 'way with animals' if you know what I mean...
A one-eyed snake.
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Could be worse. I had to roll penis length for a character in a Harry Potter game this past Friday. And the GM's a woman.That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
People always point out when it's a female player being inappropriate as though this makes the occurrence strange, but my experience has always been the most inappropriate things have been instigated by women. My wife's first game she played a former courtesan with a bust they could politely be described as absurd. I posted before about the woman with the creepy loli-fetishism. And I had a female player play a transparently closeted gay man with a penchant for making his defeated foes undress .... slowly, and then ask for detailed descriptions of the action. (That same player also interrupted a description of an NPC to specifically ask about her cleavage - though I'm cleaning up the language here.)
There was one time it got that weird in an all male group and that's when our DM made the guy who dared make a stereotypical lesbian cross play PC role play the actual sex with another player to show him how uncomfortable it was. It did work, but in retrospect and after reading some of these forum posts about creepy players, I realize now it was a major gamble.
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Could be worse. I had to roll penis length for a character in a Harry Potter game this past Friday. And the GM's a woman.That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
That doesn't surprise me at all. Most of the inappropriate things that have occurred in games I was in were instigated by women. For all of the sleaze I hear male gamers accused of, I have had some women at my table whose idea of appropriate would make your flesh crawl.
That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
Well it might be difficult to call it just but certainly fun for all involved.
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Well it might be difficult to call it just but certainly fun for all involved.That sounds less like a game, and more like just sex.I love sex in game.Eh, I prefer it for one gm one player games.
They have to be rules-lite and diceless.
More like a LARP than anything I have to be honest.
It's an adventure.
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I think this will be my third time on this forum to address sex in RPGs, so I think I'll just dig out of an old post or two and quote myself:
I've never once seen it handled appropriately, except in "fade to black". I'm a happily married hetero male. I'm NOT interested in hearing other guys, or women who are not my wife, going into graphic detail about their sexual preferences and activities. It's not only not my business, it's just not something I'm interested in, and frankly, it's a sign of a phenomenally juvenile group
I agree 100% with fade to black, or a brief description along the lines of "okay, you have sex, moving right along..."
I don't dislike sex talk at the table because of prudishness, but rather because of personal experience with really immature players. You know, the grown man player who makes a lesbian character and immediately begins to whore her out to anything without a penis? Yeah, I've been at that table with that guy. We did kick him out in short order for that and many other issues.