Embrace the dark side Jiggy.
*steeples fingers*
Good. Good...
Just make sure you call mother, you know how she worries.
*blink*
Just make sure you call mother, you know how she worries.
wat
Curses! forgot the "my" in "make sure you call my mother" how embarrassing.
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I got one.
Those players/groups that will follow published adventure path rails, even if "it doesn't really make sense for this character/build/concept/game/whatever".... That immediately turn around and cause complete and utter chaos in a homebrew game by refusing to do anything relating to any quest or adventure that THEY AGREED TO BEFORE THE GAME STARTED! We talked about this people! You wanted a "Steam punk magitech high fantasy/soft scifi investigative thriller", so why are you completely ignoring every hook I throw at you to go check out the eerie green glowing fallen star in order to go check out the random volcano that has nothing to do with anything except as a fascINATING FEATURE OF TOPOGRAPHY!!!!?? (Or, what I usually wound up running into with one player instead of this particular little gem, "No, I wanna go out to sea and become a pirate lord" "But the rest of the party doesn't really want to" "I don't care, I want to go become pirate king." and try to drag the party with him...)
Even worse? When they give the excuse of "Well.... It doesn't make sense for this character to do that, the glowing green ball of metal and mutated beasties are intimidating, so I wanna go check out the volcano, should be a red dragon's lair or something there.".... Alright... So... I gave leave of my senses to let you build whatever crazy thing you were planning on using 3rd party stuff I've only managed to skim so far, because you claimed the concept of your character would fit in the world... And you want to do the complete FREAKING OPPOSITE!?
Okay, eye twitching. I'll cut this rant short with the last bit of annoyance pertaining to this... When they don't require any explainations from published APs, whether 3rd party or not... But they want every little last detail explained about your homebrew adventure, then argue and nitpick over every tiniest detail like this is debate club. THIS IS NOT DEBATE CLUB! THIS IS WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR! NO! I DO NOT HAVE REASON NOR DO I CARE TO EXPLAIN WHY THE ALIEN'S HAIR IS FREAKING BLUE TENTACLES! IT'S PART OF THEIR ANATOMY! SHUT UP AND PLAY!
GGAAHHH!!!!!
Preach it, brother.
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I got one.
Those players/groups that will follow published adventure path rails, even if "it doesn't really make sense for this character/build/concept/game/whatever".... That immediately turn around and cause complete and utter chaos in a homebrew game by refusing to do anything relating to any quest or adventure that THEY AGREED TO BEFORE THE GAME STARTED! We talked about this people! You wanted a "Steam punk magitech high fantasy/soft scifi investigative thriller", so why are you completely ignoring every hook I throw at you to go check out the eerie green glowing fallen star in order to go check out the random volcano that has nothing to do with anything except as a fascINATING FEATURE OF TOPOGRAPHY!!!!?? (Or, what I usually wound up running into with one player instead of this particular little gem, "No, I wanna go out to sea and become a pirate lord" "But the rest of the party doesn't really want to" "I don't care, I want to go become pirate king." and try to drag the party with him...)
Even worse? When they give the excuse of "Well.... It doesn't make sense for this character to do that, the glowing green ball of metal and mutated beasties are intimidating, so I wanna go check out the volcano, should be a red dragon's lair or something there.".... Alright... So... I gave leave of my senses to let you build whatever crazy thing you were planning on using 3rd party stuff I've only managed to skim so far, because you claimed the concept of your character would fit in the world... And you want to do the complete FREAKING OPPOSITE!?
Okay, eye twitching. I'll cut this rant short with the last bit of annoyance pertaining to this... When they don't require any explainations from published APs, whether 3rd party or not... But they want every little last detail explained about your homebrew adventure, then argue and nitpick over every tiniest detail like this is debate club. THIS IS NOT DEBATE CLUB! THIS IS WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR! NO! I DO NOT HAVE REASON NOR DO I CARE TO EXPLAIN WHY THE...
That sucks :-(
If I may make a suggestion? I just thought this up based on your issue.
Take your notes, keep them on computer, and tell them it's an indie RP company's third party AP you got a PDF of, and you don't want to spoil the plot or risk metagaming by telling them the name.
Then you can put them back on the rails any time you need by being like "come on guys, I told you what this AP is like. I'm not prepared for XYZ" just like you would a real AP!
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I got one.
Those players/groups that will follow published adventure path rails, even if "it doesn't really make sense for this character/build/concept/game/whatever".... That immediately turn around and cause complete and utter chaos in a homebrew game by refusing to do anything relating to any quest or adventure that THEY AGREED TO BEFORE THE GAME STARTED! We talked about this people! You wanted a "Steam punk magitech high fantasy/soft scifi investigative thriller", so why are you completely ignoring every hook I throw at you to go check out the eerie green glowing fallen star in order to go check out the random volcano that has nothing to do with anything except as a fascINATING FEATURE OF TOPOGRAPHY!!!!?? (Or, what I usually wound up running into with one player instead of this particular little gem, "No, I wanna go out to sea and become a pirate lord" "But the rest of the party doesn't really want to" "I don't care, I want to go become pirate king." and try to drag the party with him...)
Even worse? When they give the excuse of "Well.... It doesn't make sense for this character to do that, the glowing green ball of metal and mutated beasties are intimidating, so I wanna go check out the volcano, should be a red dragon's lair or something there.".... Alright... So... I gave leave of my senses to let you build whatever crazy thing you were planning on using 3rd party stuff I've only managed to skim so far, because you claimed the concept of your character would fit in the world... And you want to do the complete FREAKING OPPOSITE!?
Okay, eye twitching. I'll cut this rant short with the last bit of annoyance pertaining to this... When they don't require any explainations from published APs, whether 3rd party or not... But they want every little last detail explained about your homebrew adventure, then argue and nitpick over every tiniest detail like this is debate club. THIS IS NOT DEBATE CLUB! THIS IS WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR! NO! I DO NOT HAVE REASON NOR DO I CARE TO EXPLAIN WHY THE...
Ugh, I had a horrible experience like this while running a Traveller game. I sold it to the PCs as "rogues with a heart of gold", kinda like Firefly. What I got was a group of PCs applying the most brutal scorched earth tactics I'd ever seen; murdering everyone they talked to, burning down or blowing up every building they entered, it was awful. I ragequit that campaign pretty quickly.
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Sorry to hear about that, HeHateMe. In my experience, brutal scorched earth PC parties are the worst in every system. It's usually coupled with extreme paranoia, to the point that they're paralyzed with fear if it becomes clear that people will know who they are, even if it's just for crossing the street.
Sometimes I wonder if it's because of bad experiences with prior GMs, or if it's in their nature.
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Perform thread necromancy...
I have to whine. Back in the day our group mostly did homebrew adventures in published settings - Eberron and Forgotten Realms, primarily. We used to have 3 or 4 campaigns running concurrently, on alternating weeks.
But lately all the GMs in the group have decided running published adventures is easier, and they don't want to play each campaign on alternate weeks; they want to keep the same campaign going for a month, then switch to a different campaign the next month. Okay, I can roll with that, though I miss the originality and opportunities for roleplay that homebrew adventures afforded us, and the immersion provided by weekly or bi-weekly sessions.
We started Kingmaker first, a couple of years ago. The GM for that AP is a relative newcomer to our group (the rest of the group have been together for 20+ years). He's not much for working roleplaying opportunities into the AP plot; we just progress from one plot point to the next. Our in-game downtime is usually devoted to kingdom-building activities rather than roleplaying PC relationships or getting to know NPCs. He's also unfortunately the victim of some serious health issues, so much so that he ends up in the hospital overnight at least every few months. As a result, his game gets postponed a lot. On several occasions he's also taken a long hiatus (as in months) for personal reasons. Thus we've been playing for over 2 years and have only recently progressed to the 3rd module of the AP. Sometimes I despair that we will ever finish. I'm also not a fan of the kingdom-building mechanics of this AP. I don't really want to become the rulers of a country. I just went along with this because it was my only opportunity to play at the time, and one of the other players said the AP was fun. Which it is, when we're not doing bookkeeping.
Recently one of the other GMs in the group, who's been taking a break from GMing for quite a while, decided to start a Mummy's Mask campaign. But we've only played 5-6 sessions and I'm already seeing signs of burnout in him. He jokes constantly about finding reasons to cancel the game. That's been a running gag with him for years, and I'm starting to dislike it. I'm hoping that only running his game every couple of months will help deal with that, as I'm pretty excited about this AP.
We had also started a Wrath of the Righteous campaign about a year ago. But then the GM of that campaign had some major personal issues and had to put it on hiatus after only 4-5 sessions. He's finally decided to start up again, but this guy has the worst luck in his personal life and is constantly in crisis mode, so I'm not sure how long we'll be able to keep it going. I'm really looking forward to getting into mythic tiers and seeing what we can do with that. This GM ran a homebrew campaign that had its own form of mythic adventures and it was a lot of fun until it was canceled due to a player departure. I hope he can keep this one going this time around.
There, done venting.
It's ok to vent. I do it, too. It's sometimes therapeutic. I've said it many times I don't get to be a player because I'm the GM/DM 95% of the time and have been for the last 30 years. The very rare times I get to be a player are fun, but the guy who runs the other game is pretty flaky and seldom ever finishes a campaign. We're on our 5th session of some module (the name of which I've never learned) but we're close to finding a red pyramid and the final piece of a Medusa's Mask, if that gives anyone a clue.
He's supposed to run his game this coming Saturday at our FLGS. We've reserved a private "quiet" room already and are expecting about 7 people. But I've known this guy long enough to know that I need to prep something as a GM just in case he backs out of coming. It happens more than it doesn't.
So my venting is not getting to play enough. And before anyone suggests it, I tried PbP and I SUH-HUH-HUCKED at it. I guess I need face to face interaction in order to play. I've tried online gaming, too. Stunk at that, too.
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So my venting is not getting to play enough. And before anyone suggests it, I tried PbP and I SUH-HUH-HUCKED at it. I guess I need face to face interaction in order to play. I've tried online gaming, too. Stunk at that, too.
PbP is HARD! Keeping track of multiple threads, reading all the posts to find out what everyone else is doing... And when I tried it, all the other members of the group were in a different time zone. By the time I could log on and post, everyone else had already finished their actions for the day. I was always way behind. The rest of the group was doing their posting while I was at work.
The DM finally asked me to leave because I couldn't keep up. It was a very disappointing experience.
It's not that hard. Know your limits. Don't sign up for more than you can handle.
Once a day is not a lot. It's really not. You find time once a day for other stuff. It's three minutes of typing a post, maybe ten minutes if you really think about it. Most people carry their phone with them and play games throughout the day.
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It's not that hard. Know your limits. Don't sign up for more than you can handle.
Once a day is not a lot. It's really not. You find time once a day for other stuff. It's three minutes of typing a post, maybe ten minutes if you really think about it. Most people carry their phone with them and play games throughout the day.
It was my first ever PbP (and my only one, so far) and I didn't really know the etiquette. Back in those days I didn't have a smartphone. The other players also definitely posted more than once a day, which I think is why they found my less frequent posts trying. It wasn't the posting once a day I had trouble with, it was figuring out what had happened so I could do something that was in sync with the action. I suffered from analysis paralysis, I think.
But "know your limits" is good advice.
PBP is a struggle for me too. Ironically, compared to live gaming, I find myself much less focussed on the story/roleplaying and more on getting the mechanics right and not making dumb decisions. I always feel like I'm doing it badly... :/
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PBP is a struggle for me too. Ironically, compared to live gaming, I find myself much less focussed on the story/roleplaying and more on getting the mechanics right and not making dumb decisions. I always feel like I'm doing it badly... :/
That was my biggest problem. We play a little fast and loose with some of the rules, so I was always making some mistake that the GM had to point out. The GM was great, don't get me wrong. The problem was all me.
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Gamers are by far the most unreliable flakes I have ever met as a subgroup. I've met potheads more able to make a coherent schedule and stick to it.
Another group bit the dust this week because "life got in the way." Life didn't change. Nothing new arrived compared to the last two months we were playing, and yet somehow now two thirds of the group is too busy to meet a regularly occurring schedule...and when the rest of us offer to make it week by week as they're available they say sure...until about 48 hours before the game day THEY SUGGESTED and now, well, nope.
I would be suprised if this didn't happen an average of once a year for the last ten with multiple groups of different age groups and backgrounds, where the only two consistencies are a) gamers and b) flaky bastards.
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PBP is a struggle for me too. Ironically, compared to live gaming, I find myself much less focussed on the story/roleplaying and more on getting the mechanics right and not making dumb decisions. I always feel like I'm doing it badly... :/That was my biggest problem. We play a little fast and loose with some of the rules, so I was always making some mistake that the GM had to point out. The GM was great, don't get me wrong. The problem was all me.
Ah, PbP never worked for me either. I just... couldnt get into it. I always finished by forgetting it was even there...
It's no fun when nearly every enemy (except the trash mooks, of course) mysteriously makes all their saves against your spells but no one else's.
Sub 30% success rate (including the mooks) over 4 levels, with a character specialized in that particular type of magic, is simply not plausible.
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Gamers are by far the most unreliable flakes I have ever met as a subgroup. I've met potheads more able to make a coherent schedule and stick to it.
IME these type of gamers don't really enjoy gaming all that much, but they do enjoy hanging out with the other gamers when they have nothing better to do.
So you end up competing against any possible fun activity that comes along.
I actually have had gamers who didn't want to game when the weather was nice. We'd all show up at gaming location, and if it was warm outside, they'd encourage the group to go outside instead.
It all goes back to the idea of getting the right type of players for the right type of game.
I think we're all losing focus on Redbeard's main point.
All we are, are a sub group, we're not even worthy of a classification as a complete group, we have to hope for getting tablescraps from whatever mystery group made us their b$~+&, whomever they may be.
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At the risk of sounding old, I actually sometimes wonder if it's less of a subgroup thing and more of an age thing (or a sign of the age we live in). I've met a lot of people in the 40-and-under category that tend towards being self-focused and flaky. For example, if there's something that *they* want to do, they'll go and do it without waiting for others who might also want to participate. And it's not done out of malice either, it's like the thought of waiting or checking with others genuinely never occurs to them. It can also never be assumed that plans are actually going to happen until they're happening; I've seen a lot of last-minute cancellations on plans that basically boiled down to, 'Nah, don't actually feel like doing <X> after all' or cases where nothing happened because the participants were too lazy to actually get up and go.
*edit* Generic disclaimer about how not everyone under 40 is self-focused and flaky and not everyone 40+ is a shining example of maturity and excellent time-management skills.
Actually, I'm talking about people as young as 25 and as old as 50, so it pretty much spreads the gamut.
As I said, the ONLY consistency among these people is their hobby and their flakiness.
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Actually, I'm talking about people as young as 25 and as old as 50, so it pretty much spreads the gamut.
As I said, the ONLY consistency among these people is their hobby and their flakiness.
Eh, I see it more as a "people" thing. Most people I know are VERY flaky. As somebody who has been trying to organise more social activities, most people are flaky with everything that isnt "core" to them. It sucks, but it's normal. I still do get pissed when I organize something and 1 out of the 6 "confirmed" show up.
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Imagine a player optimizing an Inquisitor...for hit points. Imagine this player rolling out his Daemon-worshipping Inquisitor (with a -2 to Bluff and Diplomacy and no stat but Constitution over 13) with his 23 hp, firmly believing that this character could have traveled halfway across the Inner Sea, through either Belkzen or the Worldwound, without being butchered/eaten/smote.
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Gamers are by far the most unreliable flakes I have ever met as a subgroup. I've met potheads more able to make a coherent schedule and stick to it.
Another group bit the dust this week because "life got in the way." Life didn't change. Nothing new arrived compared to the last two months we were playing, and yet somehow now two thirds of the group is too busy to meet a regularly occurring schedule...and when the rest of us offer to make it week by week as they're available they say sure...until about 48 hours before the game day THEY SUGGESTED and now, well, nope.
I would be suprised if this didn't happen an average of once a year for the last ten with multiple groups of different age groups and backgrounds, where the only two consistencies are a) gamers and b) flaky bastards.
I know exactly what you mean. We have one guy who keeps doing the same. The rest of us try to at least give 24-48 hours notice so that we can adjust our schedules. Finally I had enough and called him out on it on the group emails. Last week another player. The problem is the DM refuses to really do anything. Yes I get the other player " has out of game issues". The DM defense of the other player is "well you missed sessions too".
I admit I did but you know I don't wait on the day of the game or 2-3 hours before the game starts to cancel. Not unless it's a real emergency. Or say I find out a hour before I leave work that I have to do overtime. Even then it's understandable if the player was young and in his teens. The guy is in his late thirties. He has no consideration for anyone else at the table. So I agree drug addicts are less flaky then gamers. It's made worse when they get told at the start of the game that theirs a certain amount of commitment expected and showing up at least semi-regularly is one of them.
I actually have had gamers who didn't want to game when the weather was nice. We'd all show up at gaming location, and if it was warm outside, they'd encourage the group to go outside instead.
I gamed with a few like that but their is a point where you have to ask if they really are interested in the game. Or simply showing up because they have nothing better to do. I enjoy a nice weather like the rest of them. I'm not going to constantly keep cancelling or as a player willing to see games cancelled over and over because it's nice outside. It's all a matter of priorities and I get that some have different kinds in the hobby. It's also made worse when they then complain that they game is not consistent or run regularly enough.
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I don't have anyone whose playstyle I like to play with. All of my players are horrifying number crunchers that see roleplay as a means to an end and nothing more.
I think I'm horribly burned out. To the level that I might just decide not to play RPGs for about a decade.
Try creative writing for a while. I find it helps.
I gamed with a few like that but their is a point where you have to ask if they really are interested in the game. Or simply showing up because they have nothing better to do. I enjoy a nice weather like the rest of them. I'm not going to constantly keep cancelling or as a player willing to see games cancelled over and over because it's nice outside. It's all a matter of priorities and I get that some have different kinds in the hobby. It's also made worse when they then complain that they game is not consistent or run regularly enough
Yeah - when I think back to a lot of my f2f games, there were usually two or perhaps three individuals that really wanted to play TTRPGs. The other two or three individuals were people that were talked into playing in order to have enough players.
With online play, it's much easier to get a full group of individuals that actually want to play and have a high level of interest.
The transition from f2f to online was a bit difficult, but now that I've gotten used to it, I really like it.
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I don't have anyone whose playstyle I like to play with. All of my players are horrifying number crunchers that see roleplay as a means to an end and nothing more.
I think I'm horribly burned out. To the level that I might just decide not to play RPGs for about a decade.
It's a shame we don't live in the same place. Neither I nor my players are number crunchers and dig roleplaying over optimizing any day. We've had whole sessions where there was no combat, just rp.
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It's a shame we don't live in the same place. Neither I nor my players are number crunchers and dig roleplaying over optimizing any day. We've had whole sessions where there was no combat, just rp.I don't have anyone whose playstyle I like to play with. All of my players are horrifying number crunchers that see roleplay as a means to an end and nothing more.
I think I'm horribly burned out. To the level that I might just decide not to play RPGs for about a decade.
Oh my god that is beautiful. I remember it. I remember whole sessions without rolling dice at all.
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Try Play by Post, Hama. Seems a lot RP heavier than in person table games.
I had a game that went three months without a combat where we players RP'd just to fill the space before the GM flaked out harder than dandruff on an unwashed head.
...it was awful.
I like RP, but ye gods, if I just wanted to play pretend I wouldn't own dice and a rules book.
It is a pain in the butt to find a game that posts faster than 1/day, but there are a few out there. The two I GM average about 3/day per player, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but that's because I specifically told people during recruiting that I roll fast and don't have time for that 1/day garbage...and when deciding my players I lookd through their history and didn't even bother with anyone who went two days apart on any posts.
You gotta research your GMs, and just be up front when going through recruiting. Getting in a game will take a bit longer, but it's worth it if you find the right group. My two groups I'm a GM for are golden, and the four I'm a player in...well three are gold, but the other...I didn't research enough in, and it's struggling.
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Played in a game Saturday at a local FLGS where the GM seemed totally unprepared and threw creatures at us that were far beyond our APL. One character died and my cleric ended up in the negative 3 times. Those two issues are to be expected, but he'd stop combat to read the entries in the NPC Codex for the monsters right in the middle of the action, sometimes taking nearly 5 minutes between rolls. No one had a good time except him.
I shouldn't gripe so much, because I only get to be a player about 5% of the time, but I like that time to be quality.
Grievance ended.
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Yeah, that's going to be a big adjustment. Sincerely, good luck.
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I was reminded tonight of the fact that I once had nearly 80% or more of the hard copies of Dragon Magazines until a move about 8 years ago, when the box with EVERY 3.x issue in it disappeared. I get sick every time I remember it. I have them all on .pdf, but it's not the same. I don't like reading on a tablet or computer screen, so I just whinge and gripe and moan about the loss from time to time.
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I really enjoy painting miniatures for my characters. I'm not a great mini painter, but it's a hobby I like. But right now our living situation doesn't give me anywhere to keep my paints handy, or a good area to paint in. Everything had to go into storage. One of my friends keeps suggesting having a painting night at his place, but he's playing in a game almost every night of the week so he never has any free time for a painting night.
I miss mini painting.
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I really enjoy painting miniatures for my characters. I'm not a great mini painter, but it's a hobby I like. But right now our living situation doesn't give me anywhere to keep my paints handy, or a good area to paint in. Everything had to go into storage. One of my friends keeps suggesting having a painting night at his place, but he's playing in a game almost every night of the week so he never has any free time for a painting night.
I miss mini painting.
I so envy your friend
I so envy your friendI really enjoy painting miniatures for my characters. I'm not a great mini painter, but it's a hobby I like. But right now our living situation doesn't give me anywhere to keep my paints handy, or a good area to paint in. Everything had to go into storage. One of my friends keeps suggesting having a painting night at his place, but he's playing in a game almost every night of the week so he never has any free time for a painting night.
I miss mini painting.
Seconded.
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I couldn't paint a wall decently, so mini painting is like sorcery to me.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I couldn't paint a wall decently, so mini painting is like sorcery to me.
On the other hand, painting a wall requires very broad motions to be even and consistent, while mini painting requires lots of different tiny details. Totally different motor skills, so who knows? Heck, maybe you have a natural talent for mini painting that prevents good wall painting! ;)
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Taking characters from level 1-15 in a narrow but detailed adventure is nearly impossible. Yet again another member from one of my groups wants to hang up the GM towel from burnout half way into an AP. Im not sure if Im a good GM or just damn stubborn enough to plow through one. All I really know is that im tired of APs dying on the vine and not getting finished. :(
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I just want to find one group of people who:
A) Aren't asshats.
B) Aren't flakes.
C) Are punctual.
I don't care if we play f+$@ing checkers with that group.
Of course, finding four other people who are gamers and fit in those categories...I might as well be asking to find a group of unicorns.