just wondering what you would do.

[zainale]

so my group has 5 lvl 5 people playing together.and we have traveled into a country that is under attack and having it's people murdered (rounded up put to the sword or shoved into wagons to be worked to death as slaves by a neighboring country. so being the heroes of the story we decide to help these people by trying to cut off the supply wagons that are going to the raiding parties.so we 5 rally some of the tribes and get 15-20 (ranging from lvl 4- 10 more on the ten side) stout lads to join us. so we set up and plan the attack spot. and bam the trap goes off. here is where stuff goes south instead of a a small group of similar lvled people we can easily take out every person turns out to be a war veteran (10-12 in lvl) and instead of 30 of them there's almost twice that amount.

what lvl do you think would be the right lvl to raid and help destroy the gates of Mordor because if we can survive the three tasks we will be helping these people sack and destroy the walled city that's on their borders that's letting the evil dwarven hordes into these peoples country. to me it is starting to look like and impossible task to succeed at.

in our last campaign which i did not survive through. we only survived because of the eagles! okay so it was not a flight of eagles but a lone forest drake that flew us to safety mostly the town where where going to got razed to by thousands of veggie pygmy that turned the dead/living into some sort of plant zombies.

so what are your thoughts are these scenarios out of our lvl range. i personally though that these games where meant to be as way to have fun and play the hero. i feel kinda useless and not so hero-y. >.> also feel like cannon fodder myself. everything i bring to the table so far since i just died in the last campaign has gone to the wizard of our group or was sold off and put into the wizards pocket.

[Boomerang Nebula]

You might get more advice if you post this in the advice forum.

It sounds like the encounters are too much for your character, but more importantly you are not having fun. My advice: tell the GM you are not having fun in as respectful way as you can. Most GMs will change things for the better if they know there is a problem.

[Scythia]

It sounds to me like the DM doesn't want you to succeed. Here's an easy way to test it though: you're trying to disrupt supply lines, right? You don't need to kill all of the guards, just set up banks of archers with fire arrows and burn the supply wagons. Crossbows are simple, so even crude militia peasants can participate. Have different banks on different sides fire in sequence so that they don't know which way to counter and to reignite one side if they try to put the other out. Employ hit and run guerrilla tactics.

If suddenly all the tarps are fire-proof, or they suddenly have acolytes around to cast create water, you'll know for sure that he is just auto failing your efforts.

[Ciaran Barnes]

Normal townspeople - even the stout lads - should not be higher level than the PCs. The enemies should be similar in level to the PCs. The followers lower, some the same level, and a big baddie can be higher level.

Because of the enemies' levels, if he wanted you all dead then it would be done already. I feel like the GM is toying with you, or running you through events that you have limited control over. The script to the move is already written and your ideas and actions will have a greater chance of success if they further what he has in mind. We call it railroading: the train only moves on one track to a single destination. He lays the tracks, you shovel the coal, but the engine only moves straight. Its a sign of an inexperienced GM, and I can say that with confidence because I also did it at times back in when I was young.

So you are left with the same cliché advice that people always give: talk to your GM about the problem. The beauty of table-top RPGs is the collaborative story telling - even though your GM has final say in many things. If you were co-writing a move script, then you are both also actors but the GM is doubling as the director. You need to trust him so that he has ultimate authority to run the game, and he needs to trust you to give you freedom in his world. When the GM consistently makes self-serving or bad choices, then the trust between the GM and the players begins to break down. You don't really have a collaboration anymore, and it sounds like you have lost trust in your GM. Explain your frustration, or offer to take over as GM.