
Calybos1 |
You know your GM hasn't read the scenario when the response to EVERY player question or PC statement (to an NPC) results in a five-minute search through the scenario PDF to find the answer. And sometimes longer as he gets distracted by reading further to find out what's supposed to happen afterward.
If you haven't read it, DON'T RUN IT.

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You know your GM hasn't read the scenario when the response to EVERY player question or PC statement (to an NPC) results in a five-minute search through the scenario PDF to find the answer.
Or maybe, the GM is getting old, and can't remember every little detail and/or nuance of the adventure, which nowadays tend to run over 100 pages long...
Just sayin'!

Aishama |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

I love love love the psychic classes. I love psychic casting. I love all the spells and skill unlocks that give you "psychic impressions" from places and objects, reading auras, etc. I love the occultist in particular, and object reading might be my favorite class feature of any class in the game.
However, none of my friends are very "poetically-minded" - lots of scientists, programmers, etc. So when I play as one of the occult classes using these features, I get very basic, straightforward info, nothing symbolic or with multiple meanings or what have you. Emotional stuff is just "angry, sad, etc." and not "exhilarated, tentative, anxious," or anything else with more nuance.
Conversely, I'm about to be the GM, and none of my players are going to play an occult class. So my grievance is that I don't get to enjoy the full depth of these abilities and spells, and I don't get to provide that depth for anyone else to enjoy. It sucks. :(

DungeonmasterCal |

I'm in a similar situation. Though none of my players are scientists, they just don't have any interest in playing the Occult Classes. Which kinda hacks me off because I really like the book. And the book is nearly custom designed for my upcoming campaign setting. I'm going to keep pushing the book and hope someone caves in... lol.. but right now out of the 5 main players in the campaign I've got a Brawler, a Priest (Kobold Press), a Spell-less Ranger (again, Kobold Press), and a Sorcerer. I may be losing two of my "auxiliary" players (ones who have to drive a long distance to come to the game) because one couple who always played together are divorcing and another is getting married (oh, the irony). So I'm not sure at this moment how many players I'm going to end up having. But as stated above, I'm going to really try to get someone to play something from the Occult Adventures book.

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I love love love the psychic classes. I love psychic casting. I love all the spells and skill unlocks that give you "psychic impressions" from places and objects, reading auras, etc. I love the occultist in particular, and object reading might be my favorite class feature of any class in the game.
However, none of my friends are very "poetically-minded" - lots of scientists, programmers, etc. So when I play as one of the occult classes using these features, I get very basic, straightforward info, nothing symbolic or with multiple meanings or what have you. Emotional stuff is just "angry, sad, etc." and not "exhilarated, tentative, anxious," or anything else with more nuance.
Conversely, I'm about to be the GM, and none of my players are going to play an occult class. So my grievance is that I don't get to enjoy the full depth of these abilities and spells, and I don't get to provide that depth for anyone else to enjoy. It sucks. :(
Have you considered talking to them to try to run a shorter campaign with them mainly using that book? Not forced, but a request, like "hey guys/gals, I sort of want to try something and see how it plays out. What would you think of playing the equivalent of a single module with some of the psychic classes and themes, so you can try it out and I can get my fix, and if we don't like it, we can do something else in a few weeks."
Ive done something like that before with Ravenloft, Dragonlance, and a few homebrew ideas, and tends to work okay.

MidsouthGuy |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I can't stand pirates. I think most pirate movies are terrible, didn't care for Treasure Island when I read it in school, and the whole pirate accent thing just sounds ridiculous to me. Swashbuckling is just not my cup of tea, and my group knows this. That said, I would LOVE to run a nautical/underwater adventure with the players exploring underwater dungeons, ruins, and sunken ships. However, every time I mention an ocean based campaign to my players, they instantly think I'm talking about pirates and focus almost entirely on that. If the sea or a ship gets involved, my pack of murderhobos drops whatever they're doing and cooks up some scheme to become pirates. I know I shouldn't expect too much from the same group that ate a kid in a previous campaign, but I've told them more than once I don't want to do pirates. I recently tried running the opening adventure for Ruins of Azlant hoping that would interest them, but all they did was try to take over the ship that took them to the colony so that they could go be pirates. The ship ended up sinking and most of the party was killed by sharks. Because of that fiasco, I'm going to completely avoid ocean voyages and set my adventures as far inland as I can, even though I would love to throw a horde of sahuagin or an aboleth at my players.

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I just started running Iron Gods and was excited when the newest member said he wanted to go gunslinger. I thought for sure he'd take the techslinger archetype and fit the campaign like a glove. Nope he went musket master because, "its moar powar dood". Probably was expecting too much from our junior member the son of the existing group. Now im tired of guns touch AC targeting so they never miss......

DungeonmasterCal |

Yup, I used to have that problem a lot, though currently one of my players is playing a Psion Telepath and another a Pugilist (another 3PP class), so I'm pretty glad they stepped outside their boxes. In my upcoming campaign I've already got players ready with a Sorcerer, a Brawler, a Priest, and a Spell-Less Ranger (the latter two from Kobold Press). Now if I can just get someone to play an Investigator and something from Occult Adventures.......

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captain yesterday |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Yup, I used to have that problem a lot, though currently one of my players is playing a Psion Telepath and another a Pugilist (another 3PP class), so I'm pretty glad they stepped outside their boxes. In my upcoming campaign I've already got players ready with a Sorcerer, a Brawler, a Priest, and a Spell-Less Ranger (the latter two from Kobold Press). Now if I can just get someone to play an Investigator and something from Occult Adventures.......
I'm afraid if I run a Starfinder game they'll all just use the legacy chapter to convert wizards and rangers to Starfinder.

Sissyl |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |

I can't stand pirates. I think most pirate movies are terrible, didn't care for Treasure Island when I read it in school, and the whole pirate accent thing just sounds ridiculous to me. Swashbuckling is just not my cup of tea, and my group knows this. That said, I would LOVE to run a nautical/underwater adventure with the players exploring underwater dungeons, ruins, and sunken ships. However, every time I mention an ocean based campaign to my players, they instantly think I'm talking about pirates and focus almost entirely on that. If the sea or a ship gets involved, my pack of murderhobos drops whatever they're doing and cooks up some scheme to become pirates. I know I shouldn't expect too much from the same group that ate a kid in a previous campaign, but I've told them more than once I don't want to do pirates. I recently tried running the opening adventure for Ruins of Azlant hoping that would interest them, but all they did was try to take over the ship that took them to the colony so that they could go be pirates. The ship ended up sinking and most of the party was killed by sharks. Because of that fiasco, I'm going to completely avoid ocean voyages and set my adventures as far inland as I can, even though I would love to throw a horde of sahuagin or an aboleth at my players.
Could be worse.
*sprays silver spray over her mouth*
*grabs an explosive spear*
WITNESS ME!!!!!!!

Klorox |

I'm tired of people feeling no love for the poor psionics... Last 3.5 game I started, I asked the DM if he wanted me to play a warlock (to which he wasn't too enthusiastic either at first he asked me why not , say, a sorc), or a psion... He said, to go for warlock because psionics are so self centered there's no way to send them adventuring...

Goth Guru |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I'm tired of people feeling no love for the poor psionics... Last 3.5 game I started, I asked the DM if he wanted me to play a warlock (to which he wasn't too enthusiastic either at first he asked me why not , say, a sorc), or a psion... He said, to go for warlock because psionics are so self centered there's no way to send them adventuring...
He's just afraid your character will drop a house on their BBEG.:)

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DungeonmasterCal wrote:Fort Pierce, Florida. It's about four hours south of Jacksonville, and about three north of Miami.The Vagrant Erudite wrote:I moved and can't find a group within a tri-county radius. :-/Where did you move to?
It has been a couple of years, but I believe there used to be a group in Stuart. And I think there's stuff going on in Palm Beach County these days, too, which is a hike for you, but maybe under an hour drive, depending on exactly where they are.

DungeonmasterCal |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

We're only going to get together once this month, but it's all weekend thing. We're going to rent a lodge and game all evening Friday and all Day Saturday to celebrate what would've been the 50th birthday of our late friend and fellow gamer Jerry and then have our group Christmas party that night. If all things go as I hope, this will be the end of our current campaign and we can start the new on in January.

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My weekend was an utter and complete bust.
Saturday my spouse and I had tentative plans to go to the home of a friend and have a mini-painting session. Sadly our friend got a serious toothache and was so loopy on pain medication that he had to bow out.
Then we thought we'd go to a movie, but instead we both fell asleep for hours.
Sunday was supposed to be a gaming session. But between one of the players being the guy with the toothache, another player having a cold, and a third player (me) having some intestinal issues, we had to cancel the session. And I still didn't feel up to seeing a movie, either.

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2 people marked this as a favorite. |

DungeonmasterCal wrote:I've had to cancel more than one game due to my innards fomenting rebellion against the rest of my body.Sadly, I've found that as I've gotten older, my once Cast-Iron stomach has rusted.
The things they don't tell you about getting old. It's not just wrinkles, gray hair, and arthritis.

DrDeth |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I can't stand pirates. I think most pirate movies are terrible, didn't care for Treasure Island when I read it in school, and the whole pirate accent thing just sounds ridiculous to me. Swashbuckling is just not my cup of tea, and my group knows this. That said, I would LOVE to run a nautical/underwater adventure with the players exploring underwater dungeons, ruins, and sunken ships. However, every time I mention an ocean based campaign to my players, they instantly think I'm talking about pirates and focus almost entirely on that. If the sea or a ship gets involved, my pack of murderhobos drops whatever they're doing and cooks up some scheme to become pirates. I know I shouldn't expect too much from the same group that ate a kid in a previous campaign, but I've told them more than once I don't want to do pirates.
You could of course just say "No evils'.
On calling your players muderhobos, I not too long ago actually played with some (5th ed0 guys that could be called that: When meeting a "old man at a crossroads who gestures towards the party" they said "We kill him and take his stuff." They did, too. When a merchant refused to give a discount they did the same. I quit that game.
Very very few D&D players actually run their PCs are "murderhobos".
And, also try this "Guys, D&D is a game and the object of a game is to have fun- but that includes me, the DM. I would like for you guys to try and run a heroic campaign, OK?"

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I have made this complaint before, but - why are there so many fire spells?
I'm playing a wizard in one campaign. She's a 5 Elements wizard, and her element is wood. She doesn't really like fire. It's not her opposition element (metal is the opponent of wood in the 5 Elements school specialization), but she doesn't like it and doesn't really want to cast fire spells. Plus, we're going up against a lot of demons that are immune or resistant to fire. I'd like to find some high-damage or area effect spells that aren't fire spells, but it's a challenge.

DungeonmasterCal |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

This isn't strictly a gaming grievance, though I was just getting presents for my regular group members and it applies.
In 43 Christmases, every damn year the presents I give look like Charlie Brown wrapped them. WHY MUST I BE SO INEPT AT THIS SIMPLE SEASONAL TASK?!
I can't wrap presents at all, and I've got 54 Christmases going for me. It's gift bags or nothing.

quibblemuch |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |

quibblemuch wrote:I can't wrap presents at all, and I've got 54 Christmases going for me. It's gift bags or nothing.This isn't strictly a gaming grievance, though I was just getting presents for my regular group members and it applies.
In 43 Christmases, every damn year the presents I give look like Charlie Brown wrapped them. WHY MUST I BE SO INEPT AT THIS SIMPLE SEASONAL TASK?!
43 years have taught me NOTHING.
I am a stubborn man who insists that some day I will master this task. It is my Grail, my Mount Doom, my whatever it was everyone in the Wheel of Time was after, honestly I didn't finish it because jeez.
Terrinam |

I have made this complaint before, but - why are there so many fire spells?
I'm playing a wizard in one campaign. She's a 5 Elements wizard, and her element is wood. She doesn't really like fire. It's not her opposition element (metal is the opponent of wood in the 5 Elements school specialization), but she doesn't like it and doesn't really want to cast fire spells. Plus, we're going up against a lot of demons that are immune or resistant to fire. I'd like to find some high-damage or area effect spells that aren't fire spells, but it's a challenge.
I refuse to play a Pathfinder wizard that isn't admixture precisely because of this.
5E is better about it, particularly after Elemental Evil, but there's so much less you can do with that system at current.

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1 person marked this as a favorite. |

There are plenty of non-fire blasting spells. We have a blasting sorcerer in my Rise of the Runelords campaign with Magic Missile, Fireball, Acid Arrow, Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, etc. Since she's draconic and gets extra damage from acid spells, she took the metamagic feat to be able to convert them to acid, but she has every element covered in varying quantities even before that.

The Vagrant Erudite |

I always thought the fire-does-more-damage-but-is-easier-to-resist was an intentional design consideration; sort of a balancing effect. You want more damage, you risk things being resistant to it. That's why sonic spells do s&%~ damage, cause ain't s&&! resistant to it, and force is garbage damage compared to almost anything else of an equivalent level, because f~#+ing force man.