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Gaming stores selling used rpgs at full retail. Granted 2E D&D matetial is still somewhat popular. Yet selling a used 2E boxed sets at 46$ is a rip-off imo. I might as well buy the PDF and print it out on my own. Then they wonder why their used 2E stuff is not selling as well as it could.
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I work for corporation and for some time dated a lot of women in their 30's-40's. IT was all good but one thing many had in common was thinking gaming was for babies. I had to hide that fact well. If I got caught I might as well wear a diaper and suck my thumb. While I enjoyed the dating, I got real tired of playing crouching cougar, hidden gamer.
I took a shot at online dating thinking I could try a change of pace. I got hit up by a younger gal who liked my profile. We have been dating 2 years and are now engaged. She doesn't do TTRPGs but loves board games. She has zero issue with my PF/Traveller/Cuthulhu group. Its nice not having to keep that part of my life private!
That has definitely been the most welcome change over the past 20 years. I'm in my early 40s as well, and I can count on one hand the number of women I've played RPGs with in person (other than cons) over the years. A big reason for that is that back then/in this age range, women did not play games. I even remember once or twice being able to invite someone to join our game. She was curious and wanted to try, but the rest of us had to swear never to tell anyone that she did play the game. It would have ruined her if it were found out.
So glad that's over.
One of my male gaming friends used to keep his gaming secret. He also had a wife (now ex) who didn't like his gaming and constantly tried to get him to quit and spend every instant with her. His latest girlfriend seems more open to it, thankfully. She's even expressed interest in observing a session. That's how I was introduced to gaming, by asking to go along with my then-boyfriend (now husband). Maybe we'll be able to do the same with my friend's new GF.
My grievances today would be the following:
that there are still people who think playing tabletop RPGs is something that's only for kids;
that there are adult players who are ashamed to admit to anyone that they continue to play;
that there are still women (and men) who think D&D and similar games are only for men;
and that there are still people in certain religious groups who think that playing RPGs will lead to devil worship or demonic possession.
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My grievances today would be the following:
that there are still people who think playing tabletop RPGs is something that's only for kids;
that there are adult players who are ashamed to admit to anyone that they continue to play;
that there are still women (and men) who think D&D and similar games are only for men;
and that there are still people in certain religious groups who think that playing RPGs will lead to devil worship or demonic possession.
Wait. You mean I can't get the power of Beelzebub to rule the world by playing this? That's the only reason I've been playing these childish games for all these years!
Wait. You mean I can't get the power of Beelzebub to rule the world by playing this? That's the only reason I've been playing these childish games for all these years!My grievances today would be the following:
that there are still people who think playing tabletop RPGs is something that's only for kids;
that there are adult players who are ashamed to admit to anyone that they continue to play;
that there are still women (and men) who think D&D and similar games are only for men;
and that there are still people in certain religious groups who think that playing RPGs will lead to devil worship or demonic possession.
And I'm the guy who drug half of my church youth group into dnd and magic in the late 90's
bah, I learned more about magic in books I found on amazon than I ever did from RPGs
My grievance today is this: Having to edit maps of that blankety-blank ship in the first part of CoTCT, Revised so my players understand the deck of the ship extends over the aft cabin, not just a doorway into an open air room with stairs into the hold. Something tells me any captain with a sailing ship built like that isn't going to be happy when the waves or rain interrupt their dinner, let alone the fact that the aft cabin is built into the only access to the lower hold.
My grievance today is I have a friend coming to visit tomorrow night who is not a gamer and has ZERO interest in it so I had to cancel my game for her visit. I didn't want to be rude and ignore my guest for the sake of my beloved hobby, but dang it, I wanted to game.
Grievance over.
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At least I'll be running it as a solo campaign. I hate when the campaigns just fade into nothingness.
I am sure this didnt occur here, but Dms- when Player just start no showing up, more often or not that is their silent but effective way of complaining about your DMing style.
We had one DM who had the WORST DMPCs ever and I just dropped out and others did- and later he told me "everyone loved my DM Characters. No one ever complained."
Reach out, talk to them. Learn and grow.
again, I am sure Kileanna this is not the case but still, when it happens be aware. Players do not complain about things like railroading or DMPCs. They just stop showing up.
All my players are missing for this weekend so I'll have to cancel or GM to the chairs. My chairs can only RP paladins and they always end falling (maybe I just trip on them) so it's not very funny.
I'll probably have a solo session of WotW with Dalindra, talking seriously. I've already started GMing the story to him on solo (starting where we ended the group campaign) and it's going well. I just don't know what to do with the former PCs, as I don't feel comfortable roleplaying them. For now one of them got killed and reincarnated into a goblin xD
My grievance is the bard in our group (I may have mentioned this guy before. If so, I forgot and forgive the repeat post). It's not the class itself because I think the Bard can fill a pretty important niche in a group. It's the player. He has no clue how to play this character and he's 13th level/4th Tier Mythic (I've been pretty easy on this group because they really wanted to reach 20th level so I've challenged them plenty but try to avoid killing anyone). But he has a bevy of spells he NEVER uses, and just uses Sound burst, Ball Lightning from a wand, a wand of Magic Missiles, his Ring of Shooting Stars (all of which have come in handy in past). But they're encountering more and more powerful creatures and these spells are next to worthless against them. And he just doesn't get it. I've tried to talk to him about it, but he just doesn't seem to grasp it.
Grievance over.
I had one who since the Bard was proficient with the whip, wanted to use that weapon all the time. No do Bardic performances or spells.
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And I'm the guy who drug half of my church youth group into dnd and magic in the late 90'sWait. You mean I can't get the power of Beelzebub to rule the world by playing this? That's the only reason I've been playing these childish games for all these years!My grievances today would be the following:
that there are still people who think playing tabletop RPGs is something that's only for kids;
that there are adult players who are ashamed to admit to anyone that they continue to play;
that there are still women (and men) who think D&D and similar games are only for men;
and that there are still people in certain religious groups who think that playing RPGs will lead to devil worship or demonic possession.
Bad choice of verbs there, dude.
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At least I'll be running it as a solo campaign. I hate when the campaigns just fade into nothingness.I am sure this didnt occur here, but Dms- when Player just start no showing up, more often or not that is their silent but effective way of complaining about your DMing style.
We had one DM who had the WORST DMPCs ever and I just dropped out and others did- and later he told me "everyone loved my DM Characters. No one ever complained."
Reach out, talk to them. Learn and grow.
again, I am sure Kileanna this is not the case but still, when it happens be aware. Players do not complain about things like railroading or DMPCs. They just stop showing up.
I see how it could seem like it was the case but it isn't. I had some of my less creative players complaining on how my campaigns don't railroad them enough a couple of times (they actually complained on me not giving them the «right» way to do the things instead of letting them choose original develope new ways).
About GMNPCs I've always told I use them and my players enjoy them and I think it's true, as they tend to look for them for interacting. I try not to force them into the game but letting my players come to them if they want to.In this case one of my players is studying at university in another city and doesn't come all weeks, another one has a new girlfriend, another one doesn't like a lot my GMing style and doesn't come often (I like my players taking choices and facing consequences, he likes being railroaded, being told what to do and bullying PCs and NPCs, we don't get on too well xD). And myself I have to cancel a lot of sessions because of job. The last player nevrr misses a game. So the game turned out really slow because when we had a session we spent half of it remembering to the players what happened last session. I think we all got bored, even myself. They want to come (most)but we have to change the game. We cannot do long stories at this time because of our personal things.
Edit: I'm actually the kind of person who has stopped going to stories with too much railroading or not enough roleplaying. It's something that really scares me away.
And I'm the guy who drug half of my church youth group into dnd and magic in the late 90'sBad choice of verbs there, dude.
I'm not seein' in, man.
Drug is not the past tense of drag. It's dragged.
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I don't know, man. It's kind of a drag when the drugs are past tense...
The GM cancelled a game that was programmed for monday because there would be players missing, how dare they be unavailable on a bank holiday?!?
and my game for tomorrow has changed venue to a place much farther and less easily accessible than the usual one because one player is in the throes of divorce and does not want to leave his ex alone in his home... bummer, I hate going there.
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I am sure it isnt, Kil, but why not try it without DMPCs? You never know, and your players will never tell you if that is a problem.
It's worse when they try to bend the rules to justify horrible things as good. I'm talking about one thread in the forums.
So that thread finally got the boot and that's not really my grievance.
It's more that fact, that I couldn't help getting a bit too sarcastic and salty about the whole thing towards the end, and thus the last few of my posts got eaten...got to learn to just tune threads like that out, when they start going down hill.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hate getting into a big discussion about my playing style, then finding out all GM Characters are by definition GMNPCs.
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...I am sure it isnt, Kil, but why not try it without DMPCs? You never know, and your players will never tell you if that is a problem.
You seem to think that I always use them, but it's not the case.
I often use GMNPCs but I don't always use them. I might had used them in... about 20-30% of the games I've GMed on group (maybe less).When I solo GM to Dalindra it's different, as I've asked him what he likes better. He wants to fill the 4 group party with GMNPCs so he always has some characters to interact with. We base our games a lot on interaction and role-playing and in a solo game the only interaction you can have is with NPCs so he likes to keep a few of trusted NPCs around like it was a real party. They have their own ambitions and goals but the main character is always the PC. In this case I'm specifically asked by the player to use them so I don't think it counts.
In group playing, I've used them a few times when I have too small groups and my players specifically asked me to create some extra characters to fill the group, specially if they lack some role that they feel they need, like a healer, someone to detect/disarm traps, etc.
But more often than not I don't have GMNPCs in my games.
I had both good and bad experiences using them:
-When I was more inexperienced and had never used GMNPCs in a group, a player wanted to take Leadership to have a healer cohort. The player was both inexperienced and an issue player. So I created this NPC who was his character's cousin and was a devoted healer (he just had healing and status removal so he didn't steal spotlight, or so I thought). I gave him a personality so he wasn't just a walking CLW wand. The player ended feeling like the NPC did better in combat than he did. When one of the PCs told him «we like your cousin better than you» I realized that the NPC was stealing his master's spotlight and it wasn't ok. The other players didn't have an issue with this NPC but the player with leadership did and it was enough. My players didn't want this character out of the game or to replace him for a different cohort so he remained in the game, but I took note so I didn't repeat my mistake.
-In the other hand even when I don't use GMNPCs my usual players keep trying to recruit every single character that they find interesting in the adventure. I'm often told «can we take this NPC with us?» all the time. They like NPCs joining the group even if they don't participate in combats or decission taking just for interacting. They also like some of them to have character sheets similar to the PCs' so they can pick one of them for the group when a player misses a session. A lot of times I've been specifically asked to give a NPC that they like a character sheet so they can have him in the group. So I don't think they have an issue about NPCs.
In WotW we have a player who stated from the very beginning of the game that he wouldn't be coming too often because of being too busy. But he wanted to join the game anyway, so there is a character who is both a NPC and a PC: a possessed man. I play the host when he doesn't come, he plays the posessing spirit. The host is a support sorcerer and I had my players to choose if they want to leave him behind doing things in the background or have him in the group with them. They always wanted to take him.
What I never do is trying to force an NPC to the group. I let my players choose if they want to take a character with them, replace him for a different NPC, get rid of him...
In my long story with my gaming group (as we are mostly the same players since a lot of years ago) I have enough trust from my players to be told what they want and what they don't. I usually ask about this things (too much, I must say, as I can be very insecure and I always need to know what I am doing right and what I have to improve) to my players and get them to choose what kind of game they want to have.
It's not like I haven't scared away a lot of players because of my GMing style. I admit it. Most players in Lugo favor very heavy combat, very railroady and very black or white stories. They love to roll dice but don't like to roleplay their characters. They also like the choices to be very simple and not to think of creative solutions to solve an encounter. My gaming group is more RP oriented, love stories with a complex morality and shades and where decissions have consequences. So I had many new players running away from a campaign I'm GMing because my GMing style doesn't fit theirs. Not that there's anything bad about lighter stories more combat oriented and with less RPing, but when I already have an ongoing campaign, with 4-5 players who are enjoying and want it as it is, I cannot change everything to fit a gaming style that I don't specially enjoy and my players definitely don't want.
So, is my GMing style perfect? Definitely not. But it fits my group. I know it's not for everybody, but as long as my players enjoy it it's OK to me.
my grievance: g~@$+@n trying to coordinate people's schedules to actually get a game going consistently.
my grievance: g$$&#~n trying to coordinate people's schedules to actually get a game going consistently.
Exactly the same here. I have a new player who is being very interested and active who only comes to town in Saturdays and some Sundays and another of my most active players can usually come on Fridays. I get called to work with 2 hours of anticipation so I never know when I'll have to cancel a session.
It's frustrating when you are the GM and you realize you are dinamiting your own campaign for being the one who makes 50% of the session cancellations. I've already lost my own WotW campaign for this reason and my players were loving it before we started having too many cancellations.
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Drug is not the past tense of drag. It's dragged.
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Dave's not here, man!
You seem to think that I always use them, but it's not the case.
I often use GMNPCs but I don't always use them. I might had used them in... about 20-30% of the games I've GMed on group (maybe less).
When I solo GM to Dalindra it's different, as I've asked him what he likes better. He wants to fill the 4 group party with GMNPCs so he always has some characters to interact with. We base our games a lot on interaction and role-playing and in a solo game the only interaction you can have is with NPCs so he likes to keep a few of trusted NPCs around like it was a real party. They have their own ambitions and goals but the main character is always the PC. In this case I'm specifically asked by the player to use them so I don't think it counts.In group playing, I've used them a few times when I have too small groups and my players specifically asked me to create some extra characters to fill the group, specially if they lack some role that they feel they need, like a healer, someone to detect/disarm traps, etc.
But more often than not I don't have GMNPCs in my games.I had both good and bad experiences using them:
-When I was more inexperienced and had never used GMNPCs in a group, a player wanted to take Leadership to have a healer cohort. The player was both inexperienced and an issue player. So I created this NPC who was his character's cousin and was a devoted healer (he just had healing and status removal so he didn't steal spotlight, or so I thought). I gave him a personality so he wasn't just a walking CLW wand. The player ended feeling like the NPC did better in combat than he did. When one of the PCs told him «we like your cousin better than you» I realized that the NPC was stealing his master's spotlight and it wasn't ok. The other players didn't have an issue with this NPC but the player with...
Very close to how I run Npc's.
I tend to divide them up into recurring merchant/service providers and the like, who tend to be flat characters characterized by a few likes and dislikes.
Then the "true" Npc's who are fully fledged characters in their own right who provide the background stage functions, while the players take the foreground. They also have the important function of creating camaraderie, conflict or other roleplaying opportunities.
I also tend to recycle a lot of NPCs from one campaign to another, so my players get to meet them again. I have NPCs who have been around for about 10 years and keep coming back and it adds continuity to the stories. As Dalindra GMs too in the same setting, we share NPCs.
A lot of former PCs have also become NPCs after finishing their stories and remain in the background so sometimes the players get to know what are they former PCs doing.
I avoid giving those too relevant roles to get the spotlight to the PCs but keeping them in the background is always cool.
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Yes, I use GMPCs, no, I don't care if anyone on here objects. :-)
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Yes, I use GMPCs, no, I don't care if anyone on here objects. :-)
Of cause you don't have to care! Your the Captain!
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I used to have to run two of them, as our daughter insisted her baby brother have a character too, but he's old enough to do easy stuff himself, I still mostly create and level up his characters, but the fighting and role play he's handling mostly by himself. I tried to get my brothers involved so I wouldn't have to, but they're busy and have their own two decades running game with 6-9 people, so it's just me, my wife, and two kids.
I used to have to run two of them, as our daughter insisted her baby brother have a character too, but he's old enough to do easy stuff himself, I still mostly create and level up his characters, but the fighting and role play he's handling mostly by himself. I tried to get my brothers involved so I wouldn't have to, but they're busy and have their own two decades running game with 6-9 people, so it's just me, my wife, and two kids.
I think roleplayinh with your family is a great hobby and a great way to have fun and socialize with them.
For now I only have Dalindra but maybe one day I'll have my own familiar gaming group.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I used to have to run two of them, as our daughter insisted her baby brother have a character too, but he's old enough to do easy stuff himself, I still mostly create and level up his characters, but the fighting and role play he's handling mostly by himself. I tried to get my brothers involved so I wouldn't have to, but they're busy and have their own two decades running game with 6-9 people, so it's just me, my wife, and two kids.I think roleplayinh with your family is a great hobby and a great way to have fun and socialize with them.
For now I only have Dalindra but maybe one day I'll have my own familiar gaming group.
Man, I wish I lived with someone, I could play with, whenever we felt like it.
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That came out kind of wrong didn't it.
*Hides his blushing face beneath his pillow*
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Gaming stores selling used rpgs at full retail. Granted 2E D&D matetial is still somewhat popular. Yet selling a used 2E boxed sets at 46$ is a rip-off imo. I might as well buy the PDF and print it out on my own. Then they wonder why their used 2E stuff is not selling as well as it could.
My grievance? Actually finding a store that sells used RPG's in my area. There's ONE, an hour and fifteen minutes away. I'm trying to find a decent copy of 1st edition AD&D books to run some of the classic campaigns, and coming up with squat.
Go go rural living.
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Gaming stores selling used rpgs at full retail. Granted 2E D&D matetial is still somewhat popular. Yet selling a used 2E boxed sets at 46$ is a rip-off imo. I might as well buy the PDF and print it out on my own. Then they wonder why their used 2E stuff is not selling as well as it could.My grievance? Actually finding a store that sells used RPG's in my area. There's ONE, an hour and fifteen minutes away. I'm trying to find a decent copy of 1st edition AD&D books to run some of the classic campaigns, and coming up with squat.
Go go rural living.
Try eBay, or other online retailers.
I tried to sell stuff on Ebay once. My account got hacked, some tool ran up a huge bill, and I had to cancel my account and block Ebay from my Email and change the password. My sister was able to sell the copy of Vampire Dark Ages, finally.
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So this has happened every time I try a PFS game (which isn't that often):
We get in a situation where there isn't any compelling reason to kill/injure someone. Maybe we've even been ordered to actively avoid hurting certain people.
A player insists on something that will kill/hurt people--not people who would kill/hurt us, mind you. Just people. I object. They say "What, are you good?" I say, "Neutral." They reply "Then why do you care?"
Not actively injuring people for no compelling reason != goodness.
I worry about people who believe not shanking dock workers or not bear-trapping a warehouse so the owner will break his leg rises to the level of moral goodness. That seems to be setting the bar a bit low.
So this has happened every time I try a PFS game (which isn't that often):
We get in a situation where there isn't any compelling reason to kill/injure someone. Maybe we've even been ordered to actively avoid hurting certain people.
A player insists on something that will kill/hurt people--not people who would kill/hurt us, mind you. Just people. I object. They say "What, are you good?" I say, "Neutral." They reply "Then why do you care?"
Not actively injuring people for no compelling reason != goodness.
I worry about people who believe not shanking dock workers or not bear-trapping a warehouse so the owner will break his leg rises to the level of moral goodness. That seems to be setting the bar a bit low.
Yea, I can, kind of, see the how this could be both disruptive and frustrating.
I have been described, by my fellow players, as having a somewhat "bloodthirsty" play-style, but I do try to rein it in, and direct it at targets deserving of a good smiting/zapping/bashing/murdering.
Although, I don't think, I have ever gone out of my way to shank someone, for just being there. I mean shanking someone who's clearly an opponent, okay I can sort of see that, but shanking someone who's just there, minding their own business, that's just sick.
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I mean shanking someone who's clearly an opponent, okay I can sort of see that
Well yeah. I mean, some jerk with a holy symbol of Zon-Kuthon hanging off his nipples comes in and starts emitting painful dark energy bursts, you gotta shank him. That's practically in the CRB.
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I tried to sell stuff on Ebay once. My account got hacked, some tool ran up a huge bill, and I had to cancel my account and block Ebay from my Email and change the password. My sister was able to sell the copy of Vampire Dark Ages, finally.
You're password wasn't 12345, was it?
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I mean shanking someone who's clearly an opponent, okay I can sort of see that, but shanking someone who's just there, minding their own business, that's just sick.Well yeah. I mean, some jerk with a holy symbol of Zon-Kuthon hanging off his nipples comes in and starts emitting painful dark energy bursts, you gotta shank him. That's practically in the CRB.
Kind of makes me want to do a word check, of the CRB, to see if the word "surrender" is even in there.
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Kind of makes me want to do a word check, of the CRB, to see if the word "surrender" is even in there.I mean shanking someone who's clearly an opponent, okay I can sort of see that, but shanking someone who's just there, minding their own business, that's just sick.Well yeah. I mean, some jerk with a holy symbol of Zon-Kuthon hanging off his nipples comes in and starts emitting painful dark energy bursts, you gotta shank him. That's practically in the CRB.
I could only find it in this negative context: Force its possessor to surrender to an opponent.
I can think of a few scenarios where the party is penalized (either loss of boon/treasure/Prestige) if a member goes 'shank-happy'.
I've only seen it be an issue at one convention table (home campaigns are a different animal depending on context) and thankfully was able to preserve the second prestige (though we didn't know it at the time) by being sneakier than the 'shanker' and rendering emergency aid to the 'shankee' subtly.
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I feel the pain. I keep seeing people justify sociopathic behavior on the basis of "I'm neutral", and I just don't buy it. You slaughter innocents, that's evil.
If you don't worry too much about incidental harm coming to people as you pursue your goals, you're probably neutral. If you're good, you don't just not actively kill people, but you worry about the incidental harm.
Neutral folks can easily be civilized folks. They just aren't do-gooders. It bugs me when people play neutral as "evil, but not calling it that so I can pretend it's PFS legal".
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I can think of a few scenarios where the party is penalized (either loss of boon/treasure/Prestige) if a member goes 'shank-happy'.I've only seen it be an issue at one convention table (home campaigns are a different animal depending on context) and thankfully was able to preserve the second prestige (though we didn't know it at the time) by being sneakier than the 'shanker' and rendering emergency aid to the 'shankee' subtly.
It's less the ruining of the mission that I'm concerned with and more the "you don't commit unprovoked homicide, yet you call yourself neutral, not good?" line of thinking... It's like someone's turning my hobby into a Milgram experiment...
Kind of makes me want to do a word check, of the CRB, to see if the word "surrender" is even in there.Once, in reference to intelligent items forcing their bearers to surrender to an opponent. (Because that's the only way a PC will give up, unwillingly.)
Oh, the things games teach us ^^
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I've played neutral and even evil characters that were a lot more moral than many so-called good characters.
Kileanna (now turned good) started as true neutral and she was completely against killing because despite being neutral she thought life was something holy.
Seleena, my evil enchantress was against killing unless completely necessary for totally selfish reasons and sometimes she had to keep her not so evil party from killing people who could be useful or even that she thought that killing could mean trouble in the long term.
I think that many people gets easily offended if they find that you want to roleplay morality in a game. Like it was an unnecessary hindrance. And why should have morality if you are not good? People who wants to roleplay it chooses Good, right? To me, everybody has a morality. Even bad guys care about things, even if their morality is twisted. But many players don't even want to think about it.
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Ocular migraines are the delayed blast fireball of headaches. They show up, interfere in your reading, and let you know that in an hour your will be in a world of pain.