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JustJeff88 posted:I think that I misinterpreted this. The way it was written I thought that the DM, alluded to as being nerdy and the couple being athletic and more traditionally socially at ease, was kind of having the piss taken out of him by the couple. I thought that the point was that he was uncomfortable with this and the couple was "railroading" him because it was funny to see him get so discomfited, but it looks like I was well off-base.
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Nov 8, 2013 17:16
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petrol blue posted:That's the way I read it as well. Did they seem like they were getting off on it, Dr. Jamming? I mean, it must have been mentioned after the game at least, right? Thank you - I feel infinitely better that I'm not the only one who read it as a prolonged taking of the mickey out of the DM. I mean, the way it was written the lady paladin's real-life husband was barely containing all-out laughter the whole time - if he had been breathing heavily and licking his lips during the whole process, then I would have assuredly gotten an entirely different vibe.
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Nov 8, 2013 17:24
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JustJeff88 posted:I think that I misinterpreted this. The way it was written I thought that the DM, alluded to as being nerdy and the couple being athletic and more traditionally socially at ease, was kind of having the piss taken out of him by the couple. I thought that the point was that he was uncomfortable with this and the couple was "railroading" him because it was funny to see him get so discomfited, but it looks like I was well off-base.
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Nov 8, 2013 17:48
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JustJeff88 posted:I think that I misinterpreted this. The way it was written I thought that the DM, alluded to as being nerdy and the couple being athletic and more traditionally socially at ease, was kind of having the piss taken out of him by the couple. I thought that the point was that he was uncomfortable with this and the couple was "railroading" him because it was funny to see him get so discomfited, but it looks like I was well off-base. If someone more socially adept had been DMing then I’d guess that they would have either: A (good) realized what the Paladin was doing, and shut the scene down somehow. or B (cat-piss) realized what the Paladin was doing, and lavished her with Harlequin-esque detail, which would have pleased her, at least. As it was, you could basically see error messages and proximity alerts flashing behind the DMs eyes, and he ended up just awkwardly proceeding with “okay, so this happens next” and waiting for the Paladin to take her action, which I’m sure he thought was going to happen any moment, up until the point of no return. The DM was plenty nerdy, often a bit awkward out of game (good in-game though), and had a strong streak of simulationism and “my immersion”, but he wasn’t some sort of creepy rape GM who we thought needed to be taken down a peg. The scene, as I’m sure he intended it, wouldn’t have bothered anyone. The Paladin was apparently just feeling audacious though, and by the end of the session, the DM was possibly the only person in the room who was still thinking “He’s gonna get you! You have to do something!” It seemed to register the same to him as if she’d been in a “crushing room” trap and just stood there asking what color the walls were, and what happens next, only with the added factor of his not wanting to rape her character at all, much less in front of her husband. He wasn’t the type to creep on people through games. There were a few other times when the Paladin seemed eager to offer herself up as a hostage or captive, even when it wasn’t strictly necessary, which we’d taken as her playing a noble and self-sacrificing character. At one point, a wizard connected to some organized crime figures was going to take an NPC friend of the party hostage, while we went into a labyrinth for him. The Paladin used diplomacy to convince him to take her instead. So, the wizard takes away her magic items, and chains her to the wall in a cell. Paladin: “I fall to my knees before him. ‘You may take my body, but you will never have my spirit!’” DM: … Alright… (as wizard): continues monologue. The Paladin played most of that session as her cohort, but would occasionally ask the DM what the wizard was doing to her. The DM told her that the wizard was probably somewhere else, and that she was just chained up in her cell. The second time that she asked what the wizard was doing to her, he asked if she was trying to escape. Paladin: “I gave my word that I would be his hostage. I cannot escape, no matter what he does.” DM: “Okay…” *goes back to running dungeon* We thought it was just good roleplaying from the Paladin, but thought slightly differently after the session at the brewery. No one else noticed at the time, but, in retrospect, her husband knew exactly what she was doing. Both of them were totally stealth nerds, so it was pretty surprising. After the brewery incident, whenever there would be prisoners, slaves, or captives of any sort, some one would crack “Just trade them (Paladin) she’ll enjoy it.” The jokes never bothered her at all, and sometimes she’d mime putting her hands out in cuffs. So, yeah… it was less “This is what you get for alluding to rape in your game, you pervert,” and more “Overcome by feelings she can’t understand, the holy maiden submits! Paint me a picture…” Unfortunately involving the most savvy member of the group (Paladin), and the least socially aware (DM). The rest of us were kind of in awe, not least of all that she’d go that far, and the surreal way the situation unfolded.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:04
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For christmas, buy her a giant stack of bodice-rippers and say "here, now you can stop making GBS threads up the game with your fantasies." Then kick the both of them out because that's a lovely thing to do to anyone.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:23
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I love the mental image of the BBEG blithely continuing his monologue while the Paladin tries to seduce him.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:41
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Kurieg posted:I love the mental image of the BBEG blithely continuing his monologue while the Paladin tries to seduce him. That's it lady! I'm trying to commit atrocities against an entire people and you are creeping me the gently caress out! I'd gag you but I get the sense it will just make you weirder.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:52
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A character whose schtick is to be so super creepy that all the bad dudes just sort of drop all their bad dude plans and go home to think about their life choices.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:56
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I think the difference between good and bad is entirely a matter of the context and level of trust around the table. There are things I'd do as a GM with the folks I've been gaming with for a decade that I wouldn't with strangers at a con, and things I'd do with during one-on-one with my wife that I wouldn't do with anyone I'm not married to.
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Nov 8, 2013 19:05
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drunkencarp posted:I think the difference between good and bad is entirely a matter of the context and level of trust around the table. There are things I'd do as a GM with the folks I've been gaming with for a decade that I wouldn't with strangers at a con, and things I'd do with during one-on-one with my wife that I wouldn't do with anyone I'm not married to. "Honey, can we do butt stuff?" "Roll 1d20+2"
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Nov 8, 2013 19:23
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Turtlicious posted:"Honey, can we do butt stuff?" DC is 35.
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Nov 8, 2013 20:10
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Dr. Jamming posted:Paladin being weird I think not only is she getting off on the bodice-ripper nonsense, but she seems to actively enjoy pushing her sexual fantasies on unsuspecting people - which is really an rear end in a top hat thing to do. If I was the DM, I'd tell them to leave and not come back after that stunt she pulled.
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Nov 8, 2013 20:15
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Let's all please not forget that the DM was the one who put a rapist NPC in his game in the first place, before we all jump into his smelly sneakers to take offense over someone going along with it, whatever her reasons. The moral of the story is that everything is terrible! 
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Nov 8, 2013 21:45
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First off, I would never put rape or sexual coercion into a game I ran. Not as a plot element, not mentioned, anything. Secondly, I can't help feeling like the DM missed a prime opportunity here. He should have made a roll behind the screen and gone "okay, you hear the unbuckling of a belt as the man pulls down his breeches in the dark.... then a mutter, followed by *repeatedly slaps fingers on wrist* 'oh dammit, not now! Why does this always happen!?' You're left lying in the dark as he shamefacedly turns and stumbles out."
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Nov 8, 2013 21:54
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Yawgmoth posted:For christmas, buy her a giant stack of bodice-rippers and say "here, now you can stop making GBS threads up the game with your fantasies." There wouldn't be any way to know which ones she didn't have (it came up). drunkencarp posted:I think the difference between good and bad is entirely a matter of the context and level of trust around the table. There are things I'd do as a GM with the folks I've been gaming with for a decade that I wouldn't with strangers at a con, and things I'd do with during one-on-one with my wife that I wouldn't do with anyone I'm not married to. I agree with this, and frankly, the level of content didn't bother me nearly so much as the way that the Paladin slipped it in. I never felt uncomfortable or threatened at that session, or any other (though the DM certainly did). If everyone knows, and is comfortable with, the types of content in the game, then that's one thing, but backing the DM into it as a surprise was quite another. Robindaybird posted:I think not only is she getting off on the bodice-ripper nonsense, but she seems to actively enjoy pushing her sexual fantasies on unsuspecting people - which is really an rear end in a top hat thing to do. I bet you would have noticed what was going on a lot faster too. That was definitely adding a thrill for her. Though, if the DM had wanted to call her on it out of game, he would have been in a difficult position, as, in a literal sense, she didn't do anything, and literal and technical were definitely his strong suits as far as RL argumentation was concerned. It was strange, as she technically didn't force him to do anything, and, as DM, he technically had more control of the game than anyone else. But, given his personality and how he ran his games, and her personality and the social dynamic, she probably could have prompted him for details of every step of the sex itself, and he'd have just turned red and stammered through it. I don't think she would have though, she was usually a fine enough player, and that was the most she ever teased the DM. It definitely wouldn't have flown with anyone else though, at least not in the same fashion. Varjon posted:Let's all please not forget that the DM was the one who put a rapist NPC in his game in the first place, before we all jump into his smelly sneakers to take offense over someone going along with it, whatever her reasons. It's a Saturnalia Miracle! 
Dr. Jamming fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Nov 8, 2013 |
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Nov 8, 2013 21:58
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Piedmon Sama posted:First off, I would never put rape or sexual coercion into a game I ran. Not as a plot element, not mentioned, anything. Please actually read what I'm going to say, because I think that it needs to be said: Why is it that exploitation of all kinds is fine in gaming, but not of a sexual nature? If it makes people uncomfortable then by all means that should be addressed and anyone who feels disgusted should be able to leave, but all forms of media, electronic/tabletop gaming being no exception, deal with murder, genocide, oppression and a lot of other horrible things - why is rape any exception? How is sexual exploitation any worse than a horde of orcs slaughtering wholesale a bunch of peasants, a powerful necromancer violating the sanctity of the dead, or a ring of immoral slavers who buy and sell people like chattel? It goes without saying that anyone can be disrespectful to any subject matter, but films/television/other media regularly treat these topics often with all due gravity and I don't see why fantasy gaming on any medium is forbidden to broach that topic. I can actually think of a modern fantasy novel, quite mainstream, where rape was brought up as a significant plot hook. It was actually a woman lying about rape to cover up an extramarital encounter that led to pregnancy, but I don't see people in arms about it. Granted, she didn't go into detail about this fictional violation (thankfully), but I don't see how it is a blanket wrong to incorporate that into a story with skill and decorum. In the case above, it looks like the couple was getting off on some kind of fantasy. That would have made me horribly uncomfortable to the point that I either would have vocally complained or outright left, but I can also see myself reacting in the same fashion to any number of scenarios. I'm going to bail if I see anyone getting aroused by anything that happens during a role-playing game. However, an angry king sending off a party to ice the guy who violated his daughter seems a plausible scenario without involving detailed descriptions of sexual congress, and I could see the "attempted" rape of a beloved PC comrade as possibly making narrative sense and creating tension and party motivation... it just shouldn't turn into foreplay. If some feel that that is taboo, then don't do it. I certainly can understand and I've never incorporated any sexual elements into any game; I honestly don't even really like romances in games of any kind, to be frank. That said, I don't see how it is an automatic no-no. I think that people have heard too many cat-piss stories like the previous or rubbish from the Book of Erotic Fantasy or whatever it is called and can't see the forest for the creepy, penis-shaped trees.
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Nov 8, 2013 23:06
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JustJeff88 posted:Please actually read what I'm going to say, because I think that it needs to be said: Because basically everybody at any gaming table knows somebody who was sexually assaulted (even if they aren't aware of it), and there's a non-trivial chance that there is a survivor of sexual assault at the table. You don't have slavery in a game where there's a good chance a player has been a slave, you don't have somebody get knifed in a game where a player's sibling got knifed, and for that same reason you don't bring up sexual assault. If you really want, you can have a Nice Long Chat about it with people and make sure it's OK with everyone and blah blah blah, but (1) People will say they're OK with something that they aren't OK with and (2) Why would you go to so much trouble to include sexual assault in a stupid game? Just leave it out, it is easy to do. The second reason is just what you identify: what would be ok in a legit movie or novel isn't OK for dwarfgames because one is a legitimate artistic medium and the other is some friends getting together to pretend to be Gimli. Your/my weekly D&D game is just not the same thing as the Royal Shakespeare Company, so we're not gonna try to recreate The Diary of Anne Frank, you know? edit: And if you don't believe me and are thinking something like "My group is all guys" or whatever, the CDC says that ~16% of men are sexually abused before they're 18. That means that in a group of four men, the odds are that at least one of them was sexually assaulted as a child (ie .844 < .50). Do you really want to risk bringing that poo poo up with one of your friends? Achmed Jones fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Nov 8, 2013 |
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Nov 8, 2013 23:15
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There's also the very real fact that a large segment of NerdsTM are horribly sexist, up and to the point where almost every single gaming group I've been a part of has That One Guy who will make rape "jokes". Sometimes, the group is a majority of That One Guy, and those groups I usually back out of pretty fast. Bringing up rape in a situation where a frank, edifying discussion about it can be had might not be a terrible idea. Bringing up rape in a game where the dude at the end of the table is grinning with glee about raping the busty bar wench is actively a Pretty loving Bad Idea. Even if you know your group well, there's almost always a little scum hiding beneath the surface, if you try and look for it.
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Nov 8, 2013 23:27
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Captain Bravo posted:There's also the very real fact that a large segment of NerdsTM are horribly sexist, up and to the point where almost every single gaming group I've been a part of has That One Guy who will make rape "jokes". Sometimes, the group is a majority of That One Guy, and those groups I usually back out of pretty fast. Bringing up rape in a situation where a frank, edifying discussion about it can be had might not be a terrible idea. Bringing up rape in a game where the dude at the end of the table is grinning with glee about raping the busty bar wench is actively a Pretty loving Bad Idea. Even if you know your group well, there's almost always a little scum hiding beneath the surface, if you try and look for it. I can attest to this, somehow at work the topic of discussion got turned to D&D games and our fun experiences with them, and one of my co-workers who up until this point had seemed a pretty stand up guy brought up the 'awesome' time his half-orc sorcerer had an extramarital affair with a Red Wizard's wife and ran around the house naked. Later that game there was this massive wizard's duel between the Red wizards and someone else and he decided that rather than participating he started ravishing ladies that he found on the battlefield. But it was okay because later it turned out they were succubi and he took a bunch of con damage. Everyone else in the room was looking real uncomfortable so I casually steered the conversation away from that topic and haven't spoken to him by choice since.
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Nov 8, 2013 23:38
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What I don't get about that session, is why the DM just take things offline for a second and straight up ask the player, "Where are you going with this? This guy is going to force himself on you." and then have a conversation about it. As a DM, the weirdest thing about gaming groups is when the players start telling secrets to each other and I don't know what's going on. Typically I break the action to remind them that I'm here to paint the setting and deliver an environment, not to act as the adversary. I like to think that I'm pretty impartial and that the more I know about the players intentions, the better I'll be able to prepare the storyline for any actions they might take continuing to play NPCs and fodder as if they had no idea what the players were planning. Because they don't. Ultimately I am able to paint a better picture of how their plan unfolds because I am "in on it". In this case, I would have found out that the player was going to do nothing and let the guy have is way with her. Fine. We jump back into the action, say, "The man has his way with you and then laces up and leaves." and then move on with the story.
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Nov 8, 2013 23:49
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Kurieg posted:I can attest to this, somehow at work the topic of discussion got turned to D&D games and our fun experiences with them, and one of my co-workers who up until this point had seemed a pretty stand up guy brought up the 'awesome' time his half-orc sorcerer had an extramarital affair with a Red Wizard's wife and ran around the house naked. Later that game there was this massive wizard's duel between the Red wizards and someone else and he decided that rather than participating he started ravishing ladies that he found on the battlefield. But it was okay because later it turned out they were succubi and he took a bunch of con damage. Individual group tolerances my vary, but regardless of the overall level of sexual content in a game, rape is a very sensitive subject. It requires mature, thoughtful treatment if it's to be dealt with in any real depth, should generally be off screen if not further away, and players should be neither perpetrators nor victims. Milder incidents may allow for milder rules, and if a game's gone monkeycheese with sexual misconduct then you're probably in for a bad time regardless. Dr. Jamming fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Nov 9, 2013 |
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Nov 8, 2013 23:51
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Agrikk posted:What I don't get about that session, is why the DM just take things offline for a second and straight up ask the player, "Where are you going with this? This guy is going to force himself on you." and then have a conversation about it. I'm pretty sure that the reason he didn't just ask her right out what she was doing came from a combination of his assumption that she was obviously going to do anything other than nothing, and a bit of a freeze up on his part due to how things were playing out. He was generally the most awkward, and the fact that she seemed totally fine with the situation threw him pretty well. Anyone else would have just said "So are you just letting him do what he wants then?" and if she said yes then that would have been fine, and even the DM for the session could be good with asking direct out of game questions sometimes but the idea that she was both a)just going to lay there, and b)fine with this, was apparently flagging as "does not compute". Combined with her prompting him for description, and to continue the scene, I think he got kind of stuck. He did later say that he was sure she was going to do something, right up until the end. He's accustomed to the PCs having some sort of plan when one or more of them starts acting strangely, though this time he'd have done well to have the presence of mind to ask about it, rather than just trying to work it out himself.
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Nov 9, 2013 00:06
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Hopefully the DM learned that creating a scenario in which a player character will get raped unless they defend themselves is a terrible idea.
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Nov 9, 2013 01:02
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Evil Sagan posted:Hopefully the DM learned that creating a scenario in which a player character will get raped unless they defend themselves is a terrible idea. Well, there wasn't a real threat of a rape being forced on the character. It was never going to come down to "What's your CMD? Oooh... too low, he puts it in." Things would have just been initiative, and regular combat etc. It was more a scenario in which a player character will get raped if it turns out the player is into that, which to be fair, the DM himself was far, far less prepared for than the Paladin. But that's why it was notable (and incredibly awkward).
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Nov 9, 2013 01:27
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Piedmon Sama posted:First off, I would never put rape or sexual coercion into a game I ran. Not as a plot element, not mentioned, anything. No, the prime opportunity would be creating another story arc by having the man be an assassin hired by [insert wronged NPC or something here]. The rustle is him pulling a poisoned dagger out. Roll initiative.
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Nov 9, 2013 01:39
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hipster werewolf posted:No, the prime opportunity would be creating another story arc by having the man be an assassin hired by [insert wronged NPC or something here]. The rustle is him pulling a poisoned dagger out. Roll initiative. I immediately upped the ante mentally by "As you lie there, feigning sleep (and being a dumbshit), you feel the searing shock of a dagger slashing along your rib cage. Take X damage, roll save vs poison (slow acting, minuses to all actions, etc). You are bleeding through your shift and weaponless. Roll initiative."
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Nov 9, 2013 01:51
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Yea, not too mention the whole sleeping drugs thing would be way cooler if they were harvesting organs or something, but nope it's all a secret date rape cabal.
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Nov 9, 2013 02:04
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Captain Bravo posted:There's also the very real fact that a large segment of NerdsTM are horribly sexist, up and to the point where almost every single gaming group I've been a part of has That One Guy who will make rape "jokes". Sometimes, the group is a majority of That One Guy, and those groups I usually back out of pretty fast. Bringing up rape in a situation where a frank, edifying discussion about it can be had might not be a terrible idea. Bringing up rape in a game where the dude at the end of the table is grinning with glee about raping the busty bar wench is actively a Pretty loving Bad Idea. Even if you know your group well, there's almost always a little scum hiding beneath the surface, if you try and look for it. So in the spirit of the thread, tell us about the That One Guy in your current group!
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Nov 9, 2013 03:54
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None in my current group, but in a group from ages ago That One Guy threw a shitfit and quit when my cousin brought his boyfriend along. Funny how much we ended up enjoying ourselves more after he's gone.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:07
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Did he just have a problem with people being there who weren't part of the game, or what?  e: \/\/\/\/ oh, derp. Addamere fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Nov 9, 2013 |
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Nov 9, 2013 04:16
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""His boyfriend ". Dude was a homophobe.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:19
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Hwaet! Gather ye 'round children, for I have a tale to tell. I regret to say that it is a tale of woe and sadness, but it is a tale nonetheless. This is the story of... HOW THE DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLUB FULL OF DICKS CONTINUED TO BE FULL OF DICKS Last time, I was very excited because I had hooked up with "Jim", the old president of the club. He talked to the current president, got everything all cleared, showed him the campaign path, everything was all good. Today, we came to the character workshop for four hours, talking up 4e, building pregens, etc. Even the grognardiest dude there said it was a good idea, and if it went well he might be willing to play. Finally, 5 o'clock rolls around, we get to the classroom where the club is held, it's all good. They start setting up for 3.5, and the "PR Director" asks all non-DMs to leave so they can set up. Jim and I continue to set up, and she glares at us. "That means you guys too." Me: "Oh, it's cool, we're DMs." PR: "No you're not." Jim: "Uh, yeah he is, he's DMing 4e tonight. I guess I can leave if you really want me to." PR: "No. It's Friday, we only play 3.5 on Fridays." Me: "Sorry, there must've been a miscommunication, we already talked this over with <President>." At this point another guy comes over, someone I already know is a pretty 3.5 diehard himself. Grognard: "Who said you could play 4e." Jim: "<President>." Grognard: "No he didn't." At this point we're very confused and worried, because not only did we clear it with the President, we went over *everything* with him. We were *extremely* prepared for this. Jim: "Uh, yeah we did. We talked to <President>." Grognard: "Who?" Jim: "<President.>" Grognard: "<President> isn't president, I'm president." Jim: "Uhhh, no, because I was president, and then <President> became President." Grognard: "We just had elections. I'm president now." (Note: turns out this was a lie, the club hadn't had elections yet. Elections were that night.) Jim: "Well... okay, I'm sorry if there was a miscommunication or whatever, but this is only the first night, we're not expecting many players. Can we just put down the sign-ups anyway?" Grognard: *Hems and haws* "You guys don't have any stuff prepped, or a campaign, or anything like that..." Jim: "Actually we do, we went over all this with <President.> We can show you if you want?" Grognard: "Well did you announce it on the forum?" (The forum has like six people that ever visit it, including club officers) Jim: "Yep!" Grognard: "Did anyone sign up?" Me: "Well, no, but we didn't ask anyone to. It's not like you ask for sign-ups when you announce the club meetings?" Grognard: "That's different." Me: "Why?" Grognard: "Because the club plays 3.5." Jim: "But we talked to <President>. The Club mission is about getting new people to try RPGs and explore a wide variety of systems? We used to run a variety of games when the club was smaller, doesn't it make more sense to run a variety of games now that we have more people? Particularly when people like Kevin are willing to volunteer their time to DM it?" PR: "No." Me: "Why not?" PR: "Friday is only for 3.5!" Jim: "Seriously... I don't get how this is a problem? Don't you guys have like fifty members?" (Note: the first time I went to the club, there was easily 60 people ready to play. As of this week, there was perhaps 15. This whole 4e thing came about because several members explicitly told me they don't like 3.5, particularly the new members. I can't imagine why they have such a large dropoff...) Grognard: "That's not the point. It's not fair to make people choose between being in the 3.5 campaign or doing your thing." (I think I've mentioned this before, their "club campaign" involves earning "dracots" to buy magic items outside of gameplay and poo poo) Me: "Well... I mean it's not like you'd be upset if someone was sick or just couldn't make it, right? Why not just let them try 4e? If they don't like it they're obviously more than welcome to do 3.5 again next week." PR: "No." Grognard: "You have every other night of the week to run other systems. Friday is for 3.5." Me: "Yeah, but you guys already have the infrastructure set up with reserved rooms and a playerbase. Also, you already took the best timeslot. What college student is going to come play D&D on a loving Wednesday? Hell, I'm surprised this many are willing to give up their Friday nights. When are we supposed to play? Saturday? God's Chosen Drinking Day?" Grognard: "Not my problem." Jim: "Look, I don't get it, why is this-" PR: "No." Me: "But-" PR: "No." Jim: *turning to NotPresident Grognard* "So really, we can't just put sign-ups here?" Grognard: "It's not fair to the 3.5 players." Me: "Uh... alright. Then see ya, I guess?" We grab our stuff and leave. I was willing to fight more about it but then I realized that A) I was a school employee and B) I was gettin' made 'bout elfgames and gently caress that. Jim and I are still going to try and put together a group (and, if we get drunk and stupid enough, maybe start a new club), but it looks like that's the end of it for us and the official group. Why did I try so hard to integrate 4e into the club? I dunno. I just want people to have fun, and if people are fleeing the club in droves (and really, I've had single groups that were bigger than the crowd I saw tonight, let alone a whole club), why wouldn't you try something new? Give the people what they want man, c'mon  Whatevs, some of my old, amazing undergrad group have agreed to a Skype game of Dungeon World so :3 TL;DR: Dungeons and Dragons club was terrible, is terrible, and will continue to be terrible, despite best efforts. 
Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Nov 9, 2013 |
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Nov 9, 2013 04:33
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Tardcore posted:Yea, not too mention the whole sleeping drugs thing would be way cooler if they were harvesting organs or something, but nope it's all a secret date rape cabal. Honestly I imagine a bunch of priestesses dedicated to the God of Beer (who I'm assuming is basically Ninkasi) should have provided way better plot hooks than a generic Save Our Ravished Nuns setup.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:37
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Doomsayer posted:Grognard: "That's not the point. It's not fair to make people choose between being in the 3.5 campaign or doing your thing." (I think I've mentioned this before, their "club campaign" involves earning "dracots" to buy magic items outside of gameplay and poo poo) Is this sort of thing common in large group settings? Personally, I get irked when I'm playing a game and have a shittier character than everyone else because I haven't been playing as long. This is compounded in 3.5, where character level can be an overwhelmingly huge advantage (especially for a spellcaster - getting to cast higher level spells is a fantastic advantage), and challenges that won't faze someone with good gear and a couple of levels under their belt will mulch the newbie who probably is neither as experienced at the game nor has the same gear level. Also holy hell are those people awful at running a group. Honestly I'd just wash my hands of them if I were you, find people who want to play games and run them.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:46
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Doomsayer posted:why wouldn't you try something new? Give the people what they want  There is a guy like this on my campus. What makes it the worst is that he's a perpetual part-time student who's been taking one class per semester for years, so he's pretty much going to be there forever. Sometimes the established clubs on a campus just turn into a steaming cesspool of ego and grog. Nothing you can do about it, don't feel bad.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:47
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I feel for you, they are literally ruining their own club.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:49
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Dirk the Average posted:Is this sort of thing common in large group settings? Personally, I get irked when I'm playing a game and have a shittier character than everyone else because I haven't been playing as long. This is compounded in 3.5, where character level can be an overwhelmingly huge advantage (especially for a spellcaster - getting to cast higher level spells is a fantastic advantage), and challenges that won't faze someone with good gear and a couple of levels under their belt will mulch the newbie who probably is neither as experienced at the game nor has the same gear level. I have a story somewhat related to this. I was playing Dark Heresy for the first time with a group of people a friend of mine introduced me to. We're all adults, and in every other respect it was a wonderful and mature group. The game sessions were fun, and people were patient with me as I learned the mechanics and made a character to join an existing campaign. We had a couple of sessions that advanced the story in some published adventure path, in which my Metallican Gunslinger joined up with the other dudes when we all woke up stripped of our gear and had to fight our way out of some kind of arena and sneak into a warehouse. Really great fun. After a couple of sessions, scheduling conflicts for the DM and some of the other players meant that we kept putting off the next session until some indefinite time in the future. They end up having a session without me when it's convenient for them a month or so later, and when my friend tells me about it I'm like, oh that's cool when are we going to have the next session? He tells me that I'll need to make a new character, because my character was controlled by someone else while I wasn't there and got killed by an errant gunshot. It wasn't a huge deal, so I started working on another. They wanted me to make a higher-level character for my new one, and I was curious why. Apparently the DM had me start my first character several levels below the rest of the team, in a system where there's only like 7 or 10 levels total, with far less funds and points for gear and abilities. Some armor that I remember wanting to get but couldn't afford, not to mention the additional chances to buy more health through the level-up perks, would probably have saved my character from having died to an errant gunshot. I was a bit disgusted by it, and when I brought it up to the DM his response was: "Did your character's level bother you before you knew it was lower than everyone else's level?" That sort of attitude, coupled with the inability to get a steady schedule, led me to just never going back.
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Nov 9, 2013 04:56
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Dirk the Average posted:Also holy hell are those people awful at running a group. Honestly I'd just wash my hands of them if I were you, find people who want to play games and run them. That's the thing, if there were anyone else in town I would  Reno is apparently the worst town in the US for gaming. I met a goon couple who were super nice, but have two kids and are often unavailable. Met a cool couple who work at one of the bigger casinos... which means they work Thursday-Sunday nights. I've hit Meetup, hit the local comic book shops, even searched Craigslist, I was that desperate... nothing. Well, nothing that isn't explicitly 3.5/Pathfinder. That's what irks me about the club, they are outwardly an all-systems club that, as part of their mission statement, are supposed to be playing a wide variety of games. If they were just the "Campus Pathfinder Society" or whatever, that'd be fine.And yeah, people who've been playing longer are objectively better. And could, if they so chose, level up to level 20, buy hella powerful magic items, then give them to their own lvl 1 twink characters. Don't know if that ever happened, but I know people had multiple characters, because... Characters were assigned randomly to parties. Yes, that means people can have wildly disparate levels in a party. The one game I managed to sit all the way through (while, admittedly, having had several beers beforehand) had level 1 characters teamed up with level 4 characters. The enemies we fought could have one-shot my cleric, even if they rolled minimum damage. They were, of course, almost a non-threat to the level 4 characters. Nietzschean posted:"Because what the people want is at best a secondary concern to my ability to monopolize the power structure in the club." I don't feel bad, but it always hurts to lose. Especially to grognards. Senior Scarybagels posted:I feel for you, they are literally ruining their own club. They're ruining their club for everyone else too
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Nov 9, 2013 05:02
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I'd suggest starting a new club, if people are actually leaving in droves. I've no idea what the rules/dues/etc for that are at your school though, so it may be too late for something official this year. Stinks though, either way. That Guy stories? The closest I've got is in the Friday arm of the campaign I play on Sundays... and part of the reason why I moved from Friday to Sunday. He skypes in from cross-town, which gives him opportunity to cheat on his rolls... which, until he was caught out one night with a particularly large sample, he did on a regular basis. The GM loves all the stupid math and bullshit of D&D3.5, but has little patience for skulduggery and splitting the party and that sort of thing. Naturally, That Guy rolls some kind of sneak-oriented character. A beguiler, I think. Pickpocketed my character in the first session, because he's that kind of asshat. Later declared that he was going to sit on top of the inn and do that silly elf-meditation crap, because he's that kind of twit. Cheated on his rolls to avoid being caught and sanctioned of course. DM didn't help by not forbidding classes he wasn't interested in dealing with fallout from, either. He's also the kind of player who, when he plays a female character, decides that she must be the prettiest. In a previous campaign he played some drow wench with a 30+ Charisma. In the RIFTS game I joined before we switched to D&D again, he played a Star Elf with a penchant for pole dancing, loving everything that moved, and out-of-character demanding to know how much people appreciated her displays. He was audibly unimpressed when my basically sexless Cosmo Knight ended up with an even more absurd Physical Beauty score than his multiclass rocket-jock/stripper.
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Nov 9, 2013 05:29
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| # ? May 14, 2024 12:52 |
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Doomsayer posted:They're ruining their club for everyone else too By the fact that from the numbers you gave, it felt like they were the only ones left.
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Nov 9, 2013 05:38
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