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I was feeling nostalgic and pulled all my little stories from the Best Experiences thread (who's ready for WAY TOO MUCH TEXT!?):Doomsayer posted:One of my best experiences with roleplaying was with, shockingly, an evil campaign. I thought it was a horrible idea, but all the players were really insistent on playing evil. It actually ended up with them playing as the bad guys from the campaign (With a few of the same players) we had played during the summer. So while before they were fighting the Generic Dark Lord Meyas, now they were working for him. Doomsayer posted:[Later that year] that same group has managed to (in a near-future Sci-Fi game) clear a skyscraper full of terrorists (ala Die Hard) when they were trapped at a party, shot said terrorist leader through a plate glass window (into an explosion), blew up a gang with a motorcycle (with a flaming rag jammed in the gas tank), rammed a jeep into what was effectively a dire tiger, killed a sniper by heaving a (different) motorcycle through the window he was shooting from, convinced a group of gang members that the pilot was God and the talky character His prophet, fist-fought a clan of extreme sports barbarians, blew up multiple bars, fought several invisible space ninjas, stole a helicopter (in mid-flight), managed to entirely circumvent the Big Bad's monologue using a summoned skeleton (whose ribcage was stuffed full of C4), used said stolen helicopter to fight a demon (the Big Bad) on top of a skyscraper, and the pilot killed that demon in free-fall as he, the demon, and the torn-apart helicopter all plummeted to the earth; all in the same campaign. Doomsayer posted:So, tonight we wrapped up a campaign. It was a weird sort of "accelerated" campaign where we wanted to start a new campaign, but were invested enough in this one that we wanted to see it through. Long story short, it ended up with the party split, 2 working with the BBEG, 4 working against. It was an incredibly intense battle, taking place on a floating chunk of rock hurtling through the air above a massive war between earth and the heavens occurring below them. Towards the end of the battle, they finally bring the BBEG (named Finnoc) to his knees. The Sorceress blasts him off the edge while the fighter hurls his sword into Finnoc's chest to seal the deal and finish it; yet just before it connects one of the players fighting alongside Finnoc uses a move where they switch positions, leaving Finnoc unconscious and the Paladin (the one who sacrificed himself) with a sword in his gut several yards away. Finnoc rises to his feet, attempts to charge the sorceress, she dodges and hurls a bolt of ice into his chest, sending him stumbling off the edge, plummeting to the earth below and he's dead before he hits the ground. Doomsayer posted:My group is playing a modern zombie campaign right now, using D&D 4e rules. The game takes place on the tourist trap resort island of Isla de Vida, sort of a Barbados type of thing. The characters are: Meemmmoriieeesss... I have the best groups.  More recently I'm playing a really awesome game of Dark Sun PbP, but that has less stand out awesome moments and is just more or less consistently excellent. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Jan 14, 2012 |
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Jan 14, 2012 07:42
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I chronicled this a bit in #badwrongfun, but I'm told it's worth putting in here. So, I just moved to town for grad school. Not only did I move, I didn't know a single person here when I moved, save for a single phone conversation with my adviser. I made friends with my roommates, and a couple other grad students, but I had that itch. You know the one, or you wouldn't be here. I needed some D&D, and I needed it bad. I had taken a year off after graduating, and thus hadn't played with my (incredible, amazing, responsible-for-all-my-stories-in-this-thread) undergrad group in something like 16 months. After a couple attempts to find folks through online sources and meeting some very nice people who unfortunately couldn't meet very consistently, I decided to try a shot at an actual, dedicated RPG group. I had never been a member before, my old undergrad group was a collection of non-RPG friends and Greek system people I'd met through charity work and the like. Anyway, long story short I found out that there were precisely two groups in town: a Pathfinder group (ugh) and a group at the university. The university group had a forum with threads for a variety of systems (that I would later realize were spaced years apart and inactive), but their weekly meetings were D&D 3.5 and only 3.5. But, what the hell, I figured I'd take a shot at it. The first red flag was the 60-page .pdf of backstory and homebrew classes for their campaign world. It wasn't great but hell, I'm guilty of terribly embarrassing nerdy endeavors like that myself, so who am I to judge? Making it mandatory and cutting out other classes/prestige classes in favor for their poorly-balanced homebrew ones was weird, but alright. The second red flag was that you were randomly assigned a DM during the meeting. Oookay, that's a bit strange but hey, maybe it's conducive to meeting new people. Except it meant that parties were disparate levels. Like, level 1s with level 4s disparate. That level 1 barbarian I was playing looked *considerably* more useless alongside the level 4 wizard. To top it off, the module began with a 20-minute exposition dump from the bartender that managed to hint at cool things and then immediately snatch them away ("You're currently in the city of Nomad, an ancient citadel that literally moves around on eldritch machinery." "Oh that's cool, so we-" "Oh it's currently stuck though and hasn't moved in years." "Oh.") over and over again. I'm vaguely-ashamed to admit that I made an excuse and left. Then got hammered and went to a party. I went back the next week, hoping to find some people to snipe into making a new group. I had some nibbles that first meeting ("We'd like to start our own group, but don't have a DM.") but got interrupted by random-game-time starting. Got dumped into another party where I was the only level 1. I had gotten a text about a party going on back at my place, immediately made another excuse and left. But this week... this week I was determined. I was going to finish a whole game. A whole game of 3.5. I hadn't done it in high school, but I'm gonna do it dammit! I had a brand new Cleric of Kord, dedicated to Personal Fitness, that is I'm all about lookin' good and feelin' good, my brothers. His name was Jacques (  ), and I thought he was a pretty neat concept for a one-off and I was excited to play him. Anyway, 5:30pm, we get started. Our DM, in a sullen monotone, describes how we were all in a tavern looking at the adventure board.  "You see there are several notices on the board, mostly your run-of-the-mill stuff like a farmer having wolf problems, but one catches your eye. A rich collector is interested in a <I don't remember the actual name but a velociraptor, basically.>""Sweet, I vote we go check out those wolves because doggies  " "Nah, that'd be too boring."Um, alright, a bit railroad-y, but I suppose that's the nature of the beast here. Maybe we can- "Are there any other notices?" another player asks. "Yeah, there's one more. A guy wants you to go hunt one of these. <points to the MM picture of the Terrasque>" "gently caress yeah, let's go do that. I vote we go in through the eyes." "No, it's massive, there's no way you'd be able to beat it." "Pffft, just means it's easier to get the drop on it! C'mon guys let's go-" "No, it's impossible."Okay, well, that's alright. Let's go charter a ship out to Dinosaur Island or whatever then. "It requires a Gather Information check."To find a boat? In a city? A port city? Alright, we shall persevere. After several tries, we finally manage to track down a captain who's passing that way. "He says 'Well, I'd be willing to take you, but you'd have to clear it with the Guild first, of course.' They're over by-" "I'm gonna try and convince him to take us anyway." "You can't-" "27! For diplomacy." "*Hems and haws* Well, alright, he offers to take you for twice the normal amount of gold." ! A concession to expediency and player agency! Hooray! Maybe this will be fun now that we're under way. (I made a recording around this point, if you hate yourself and have time to kill. This actually covers ~30 minutes, but the recording keeps dropping out because there'd be several long, soul-crushing moments of silence that the app cuts out)The ship leaves, and we all have to make a fortitude save. Only the fighter saves. He is now Sickened (-2 to all rolls) for the remainder of the session. From seasickness. The hardy fighter has crippling seasickness for several hours after getting back on land. Alright, that's... kinda dumb, but whatever. We arrive on the beach to find... nothing. Just empty beach. Any villages? No. Any creatures visible from here? No. Smoke, ruins, anything? No. Ranger searches for tracks. Fails. I figure maybe this is a could time to give the DM some ideas for mixing it up a bit, maybe. "Hmmm, are we sure these are mundane animals? If they're evil, or maybe agents of chaos, I could help track them down. Oh, or maybe they're shapeshifters or something like that? I can look for their aura that way." "Nope, just normal monsters."Ranger looks for tracks again. Fails. Checks one more time, fails. Remembers that taking 20 is a thing. Success! Turns out there were tracks all along! Tracks from the wrong kind of dinosaur. This one's an herbivore, we're looking for a carnivore. After several IRL minutes of arguing about what to do, I and the fighter decide to follow them anyway. Then we're told we can't follow them, only the ranger can. Finally he elects to follow them, and we find a group of herbivores in the clearing. The herbivores are <giant Ankylosaurus that we could never in a million years beat>, but they're being stalked by a group of <thing we have to find>. We're informed that there's no way we'd survive against the pack of carnivores (bullllshit, I know how 3.5 works, between me and the monk I'm pretty sure we could take down a dragon). We have another discussion about how best to capture one of the carnivores. For 60. Minutes. I counted. Sixty minutes we discussed how to best capture one of these things. Everything from building a rudimentary deer stand to leaving and trying to find a lone one. The fight-or-flight responses of herbivores was discussed, and whether that applied to dinosaurs, going back and hiring an NPC, various elaborate traps and ruses... finally I came up with a plan. "Alright, we wait until the carnivores attack, I'll drop an Obscuring Mist, put one of them in a headlock, and we're golden. Oh wait, I don't have Obscuring Mist prepped. Alright, same plan, but gently caress hiding. Hiding's against my religion anyway."Finally the ranger (with DM prompting) remembers that he has Animal Empathy. For 35 minutes we lure one of the things over, and the Ranger repeatedly empathizes with it, finally managing to get it to the point of not actively wanting to eat him. There's more discussion about relating DCs of Handle Animal and how long Animal Empathy takes to work before I'm fed up and say: "gently caress it, I'm putting it in a head lock." I was kind of hoping the DM would, like any good DM when faced when 3.5 grapple rules, just sigh and let me do it, but no, he has all the grapple rules memorized. So I fail the grapple. The thing comes just shy of one-shotting the fighter (who's two levels higher than me), I say forget it to head-locking it again and dejectedly decide to just cleave it in half with my greatsword. So I do so. It gets knocked unconscious.We tie it up, then drag it back to the boat. End of module. That's it. No denouement, no anti-poaching paladins trying to stop us, no nothing. The DM puts his books away and finishes up a pre-gen character he had been working on, everyone is asking about whether there's another game after this one ( "Normally there would be, but I'm going to <local LARP> tonight."). I tear my sheet in half and toss it in the recycling. "Oh, are you going to make a new character next time? Your guy was pretty unoptimized." "Oh, no. I gave it a shot, but I just hate 3.5 too much. Sorry."And thus ends my involvement with the university RPG club .tl;dr: Went to the university D&D club. Made me pick complete and utter loneliness over actually playing RPGs.
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Oct 19, 2013 09:25
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UNR Dragon Club is the club. I'd kind of considered starting my own club, but all my time is taken up by grad school, and the Dragon club already meets at the best time (Friday afternoons). I offered to DM a new system, and got this response on their forum after making a post that said "Hey, I love teaching new systems! If anyone's interested in <long list of systems>, I'd be more than happy to run a couple games of it!":Official Dragon Club Forum posted:We've already run Dungeon World, Fate, 4e, and Dark Heresy for club. Personally, I've dabbled in everything else besides 13th world as well.  Golden Bee posted:You had the right opinion when you left the first two times, but the fact you got pushed around for hours instead of discussing play expectations...kind of mega-lame. I know, but I just wanted to rescue them, okay? I just wanted to take a few under my wing and show them the sacred ways of Funhaving, like I used to in undergrad. I dunno, perhaps I've grown too old, maybe I'm not the savior D&D 3.5 needs anymore  The first time I showed up I was psyched, because I was actually waved over by a girl who is a student in the class I TA for. We were talking about D&D, she said she was just starting out but thought it was fun, etc. She introduced me to her friends and the girl that brought her. Eventually the subject of starting a new splinter group got broached, and she got as far as saying "Well, we'd like to start a new group, but don't have a DM." I was mulling over how creepy it would be to offer to DM considering A) We had just officially met and B) I'm her teacher. Before I reached a decision, I got cut off by them announcing the random groups. Cue the 20-minute exposition dump by the bartender and me bailing.
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Oct 19, 2013 17:42
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Bieeardo posted:Where's that gif of David Caruso going 'gently caress you' I dug up a couple of weeks back? I'm trying one more time to run a Dungeon World game before giving up.
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Oct 20, 2013 02:57
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Achmed Jones posted:Teachers/TAs should not be hanging out with their students outside of class. This includes playing dwarfgames. Yep. Ultimately I figured defeating imaginary monsters using the power of math wasn't worth my job. Were I just a normal non-staff grad student, I would've offered on the spot, but I hesitated enough to get cut off. Probably for the best.
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Oct 22, 2013 07:21
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AmiYumi posted:I'd assume there's a lot of variance between majors; I switched in undergrad and watched my relationship with professors go from "all business, no small talk, barely remembers my name" to "hang out outside of class, bullshit about movies and cooking, curse liberally usually about ex-wives". It's one of those things where in practice yeah it's totally fine 99.9% of the time, but according to university rules you're not technically allowed to "show preference" to a student (by hanging out with them, drinking, etc.), so if someone felt like being a dick and reporting it you could get in trouble. Your Gay Uncle posted:Hey Reno buddy, try hitting up Comic Kingdom on Moana Lane. They have all kinds of gaming groups who meet there, you should be able to find a group more to your liking. Really? I've been there, but I thought they only did Pathfinder? I might have to go check it out. Though generally the only thing worse than official university tabletop groups are comic book store tabletop groups 
Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Oct 23, 2013 |
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Oct 23, 2013 08:26
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Your Gay Uncle posted:2e, 3, 3.5, Traveler and Rifts ...that doesn't make me feel better.
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Oct 23, 2013 09:23
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Guys, there might be a happy ending to the University Tabletop Group story! I offered to run a Dungeon World game and five people signed up! Unfortunately, since everything is done via forum I don't know exactly who is signing up, just their usernames. And several of them are marked as "Dungeon Masters" so But hey, chin up, always be optimistic, yeah? I'm hoping this will go well! Oh, also, one of the members of the group turned out to be a goon and apologized for the DMs being grogs. Thank you, kind goon, for saying that as well as reminding me that I have to start using different usernames for things! FourmyleCircus posted:"Zombies"  Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 16:03
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Whelp, just when I thought I walked out, they pulled me back in. I had a couple of bites to my Dungeon World game, and I just saw on the forums one of the OG club founders is doing "DM lessons" to make up for their dwindling number of DMs. I sent a perhaps-too-happy and upbeat email to him explaining that I would be more than happy to run different systems on Club Days in order to try and bring back players (who have gone sprinting into the night) and bring in new ones. I explained that I had heard that several players were interested in alternate systems, and I would be happy to provide. If 3rd Ed. is the One True God King of RPGs, then they have nothing to fear, right? Why not expand the club, let people try other games, and then inevitably return to 3e? Seems reasonable to me. Or perhaps now I've made myself a complete pariah
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Oct 29, 2013 23:38
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Green Intern posted:Doomsayer, you're threatening to topple their "ownership" of the club. People get so controlling over these sorts of things. Don't I know it. That's why I tried to be super, super nice and added about a thousand "But if you don't want to it's totally cool! " qualifiers.But I have to try dammit! I cannot stand idly by while good, decent, kind-hearted folk are held hostage by grogs! Unless this doesn't work. Then I'm fine with standing idly by. gently caress it.
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Oct 30, 2013 00:25
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Doodmons posted:This is kinda funny because the other day someone posted a relatively groggy post on my university's RPG society's facebook page about how he had a level 2 bard and was looking to play 3rd Edition D&D. The conclusion was that there's literally not a single third ed game running this semester - there's a couple of 4th, an AD&D and I think one Pathfinder that was full. It was a weird experience - my local club's actually awesome. Guys I am.... I am astounded. He emailed me back and said he'd be willing to schedule a meeting to talk about 4e! He has some stipulations, like I have to use pre-written modules, must print up "certs" as the end of the game which states what items everyone got so players don't cheat (I'm hoping to bypass this by just doing Inherent Bonuses and saying magic items don't confer math bonuses. Boom, problem solved), and everyone has to be in the same campaign setting, but still! Something not-3rd edition!
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Oct 30, 2013 17:25
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Mr. Maltose posted:To be fair, that sounds like the sort of thing an organized games club would want if they were trying for a local RPGA light. That was my assumption too, but as my earlier posts show, it's like pulling teeth! From a bear! ...a dire bear, maybe. EDIT: Oh, you mean the certs stuff. Yeah, I understand the concerns, but really considering the actual frequency and consistency that people can show up at a student tabletop club, they're pretty much non-issues. If someone shows up with a character full of +11 Swords of Bullshit, just call them nerds and push their chair over. Also, I'm hoping that 4e can use a different campaign setting than the club one. Or at least they won't mind if I just start arbitrarily shoving poo poo in there but call it a different continent or w/e. Their setting has no warforged, aasimar, dragonborn, or really any of the cool 4e races and frankly that just will not stand  Admittedly I'd still rather be running Dungeon World or something consistently but meh, c'est la vie. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 30, 2013 17:30
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Oh no, I'm saying I normally run a homebrew campaign that ends up just being a mismash of the raddest poo poo we can think of. You come from a city full of rear end in a top hat Wizards that supply magical shotguns to the rest of the world? Boom, canon. Earlier campaign ultimately ended up fighting a Final Boss who assassinated all the gods to absorb their power? Time for the PCs to become the new gods of the setting! etc. I agree, having a campaign with, like, "rules" and "backstory" is a weird thing to me. Backstory is something you make up on the fly when they're fighting Lizard Golems on top of a magic-fueled zeppelin. I have, like, five campaign settings that I call "Circadia" (the name of the first one I made up in high school) that we just freely rip apart, shove new things into, combine with other settings, etc. I mean I have my own DM notes and stuff, sure, but what the players want take precedence, and I certainly wouldn't expect them to, like, read that poo poo ahead of time (unless that's what they're into, and admittedly some are). I mean I get the idea of having a shared campaign setting all 30 group members can participate in and shape, but it should be a lump of clay you mould, not a book you add footnotes to.
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Oct 30, 2013 18:09
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Good news! Turns out the guy I was talking to wasn't the president, but the ex-President now returned. We had a chat and he said if someone told me Friday was only for 3.5, that was absolute bullshit. The club is and should always be for all games. They just want a structure to it, so DMs can rotate and all be on the same page. We talked about the certs thing and I said that using Inherent Bonuses would fix that, and he agreed. He said 4e shouldn't use the same campaign setting as the 3.5 group, so we're going with a base of Eberron with Scales of War stacked on top for a club "Campaign Path". As of next Saturday, 4e will be a staple of the Friday meetings. FourmyleCircus posted:It can be both. Haha, nah, I was referring to the current club setting where nothing of consequence happens to the setting, ever. It's like Forgotten Realms with more homebrew prestige classes. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 30, 2013 19:08
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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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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 start a new club, but Jim is about to graduate, and I'm a grad student. I shouldn't even be devoting this much time to elfgames in the first place, let alone running the club. I'd like to, and would if this was undergrad, but c'est la vie. The big problem is that when people left, they were generally all pretty new to the hobby, so when they left I don't think they formed new groups, they just stopped playing RPGs altogether
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Nov 9, 2013 05:46
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Doomsayer posted:I'd start a new club, but Jim is about to graduate, and I'm a grad student. I shouldn't even be devoting this much time to elfgames in the first place, let alone running the club. I'd like to, and would if this was undergrad, but c'est la vie. A quick update: Jim's actually got one semester left, the club leaders continue to be shitheads, so we probably are indeed just going to start a new club in January Now we just need to think of a better name than Dedicated Roleplayers Association for Gaming On Nights... Edit: I'm thinking Good Roleplayers Out Gallivanting Near Absolutely Righteous Dragons. Or something. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Nov 14, 2013 |
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Nov 14, 2013 21:19
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YggiDee posted:"We Aren't Inviting Jim" Jim's cool though, me and Jim are bros
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Nov 14, 2013 22:07
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VanSandman posted:Who's the lame one then? If he shows up ask him to leave. Oh, the now-president of the current club. I don't actually know his name. Dave, I think? And why wouldn't he be allowed? He's more than welcome to come play 4e  Actually he wouldn't, we'll be meeting at the same time as Dragon 
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Nov 14, 2013 22:17
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Doomsayer posted:A quick update: Jim's actually got one semester left, the club leaders continue to be shitheads, so we probably are indeed just going to start a new club in January Well, it's a new semester and this will be interesting. Jim's still in town, but is complaining about how he needs "a job" and "income" and  At the very end of last semester he said that he and the former club president talked to the new club president and the new president said it was cool to start up the official 4e game Spring semester. I just emailed the new president and said James would be unable to do it, but I would still be willing to run it. If they say no, I'm sure as hell not starting up a new club on my own. I guess I'll just have to use Fridays to... I dunno, study or go out and socialize or something. We'll see what happens Edit: He responded! quote:I would like to request that you set a different night of the week for your 4e games. I know that some players will want to do both and I don't want to create scheduling conflicts. If you let me know what nights you're open to run, we can add it into the weekly calendar to help you get set up with available members.  Edit 2: He sent another message: quote:Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with the game, but I wish to prevent scheduling conflicts that would arise. I don't know what you've spoken about with Ed, but we decide the scheduling of games together to make sure they all have their own time. If you want to run this we'll talk about a time that doesn't conflict with existing games, but Ed has not communicated this with us about any of this. 
Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jan 22, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 06:41
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goatface posted:They decide the scheduling of games? They'll do something similar if you schedule your game for a time other than 5pm on a Friday (the best time to play for most students  ), but club meetings on Fridays have scheduled games where they play 3.5 undt only 3.5, no exceptions.
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Jan 22, 2014 19:17
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B.B. Rodriguez posted:I mean at least play Pathfinder, not 3.5. These guys are 18-22 years old. 3.5 was winding down when they were freshmen in high school. The weirdest part is some of them use Pathfinder rulebooks, but are still playing 3.5 rules. They just memorize what's different between books  Like, I get not wanting some random loon to hijack your club, but I've offered up and down to have meetings with officers beforehand, do a system other than 4e (like 13th Age or Dungeon World) if they prefer, set up a Campaign Path for players and other interested DMs to follow, use similar Gaming League rules like they do with 3.5 (consistent items between DMs, etc.),would be totally willing to provide the materials I have (I have a shoebox full to the brim with mixed Reaper/D&D minis and a crate full of tiles) explained that I've been DMing since early high school, etc. No dice. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Jan 22, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 21:22
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I can't, you need 10 people to start one per university rules and I currently have exactly one person If I knew literally anyone else in town I'd just have my own group. It's not like I can use their forum to advertise for a competing club I might consider going to their first meeting. Maybe if there's enough new folks I can snipe a few.
Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Jan 22, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 21:50
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Yawgmoth posted:The great thing about college groups is that you can join as many as you like, even ones that meet on the same day at the same time. Get 9 people from the other group to help form your new group. Easy peasy. This is the current plan. Golden Bee posted:Make a sign: "Join gamers against tyranny. Free candy." Part of the problem is that every time I get all riled up and ready to seize the means of production from the corrupt 3rd Edition bourgeoisie I remember that I'm a grad student and theoretically should be devoting my time to, like, writing papers and poo poo rather than elfgames.
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Jan 23, 2014 03:00
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mmj posted:As a student in law school my brother played board games during his time off. He and his friends got so into settlers of catan that they started making futures exchanges and derivative markets in their regular games. Spend some time on elf games before you snap and show up to defend your thesis covered in peanut butter or something. Bonus points for pissing off grogs. That... is a very good point. I'd like to go to the Friday meeting and snipe people, but that would require me to play 3.5 and quite frankly I'm just not that committed. Not after last time... Not after the things I've seen. I'm thinking I'll try and get a game of Dungeon World going on a non-Friday to attract (hopefully!) non-grogs, then broach the subject. We'll see what happens.
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Jan 23, 2014 03:29
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ActingPower posted:Keep me posted. I'd love to get in on this action. (I'd also like to GM it myself some time, but... baby steps.) You live in Reno?
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Jan 23, 2014 09:05
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VanSandman posted:Plutonic love? So kidnapping the daughter of the goddess of seasons and creating winter kind of love? That would actually be a great character. "Oh you're a cleric? What of?" "Um... the Plutonic ideal of love." "Oh, that sounds ni-" "It's not bro. Trust me, it's not."
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Jan 23, 2014 17:37
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Verr posted:Plutonic love "Ah yeah, I like to do it with the cap of invisibility on baby."
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Jan 24, 2014 06:00
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mmj posted:Doomsayer what university are you at? I am at University of Arizona and I think I could provide at least the majority of the people you need to make a new group. If not, I'm sure there are plenty of folks like me but reaching out to board/SCA/geek groups that haven't committed yet might net you enough folks that were put off by grognards to get your base. I'm willing to bet there are folks that would crossover if the environment was more casual and were either scared off by the club you're working on or just need a bit of a sales pitch to give it a try. Really, you're recruiting pool probably extends beyond the group dominated by 3.5ers and with a little creativity you could have a fresh group to introduce to the scene. This does take time though and I have no idea how much free time your grad work allows you so try to get creative and deputize curious people if you can to spread some of the recruitment work. It sounds like you want to DM these games and I bet some of the group is interested, try a slightly less head on tactic and let the grog group deal with the brain drain of players having options. I'm sure those people do exist but I have no idea how to reach out to them apart from the UNR D&D club forum (where all the grognards are, yet where I am indeed looking for people in a desperate bid against hope regardless), the comic book shop (they told me they only do LFG for Pathfinder games), or various "find gamers" websites all of which have yielded little to no results. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the first time to the making-a-new group rodeo, and that is precisely what I am currently doing, and obviously people who want to play something other than 3.5 exist, it's just that finding these people is drat difficult.
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Jan 24, 2014 07:17
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Dammit_Carl! posted:Word. Do an end-run around their restrictive asses. That was actually the very first thing I did! I posted this: quote:Hi there! I'm Kevin, I'm new to the club but I noticed a heavy emphasis on D&D 3.5. While obviously that's totally fine, I thought I'd make an offer to DM a different system if anyone is interested! I've been DMing for almost 10 years now, and I'd be more than happy to give pretty much anything a shot. If you're interested, here are the systems I normally play: And then got some replies: quote:The people of this club are generally up for anything new and expansive, and this is not an exclusively D&D 3.5 club so new games are encouraged. quote:We've already run Dungeon World, Fate, 4e, and Dark Heresy for club. Personally, I've dabbled in everything else besides 13th world as well. The problem is that whatever the officers think, no one actually reads the forum except them. And why would they? Most people just show up because Fridays at 5pm are the best time (seriously, what normal undergrad goes to a Wednesday afternoon day or whatever? Or would give up such a great drinking day like Saturday?) and it's all set up. But nope, at every turn I just get told "Set it up for a different day than Friday." As of right now I have a post about a DW game on Saturdays, but no takers. I got a couple nibbles last year (though I had to cancel due to grad commitments) but they were all from the same 8 people that actually read the forum. I'm probably going to go to the club fair today since they have a booth set up and... I dunno. Just look around I guess. The weird part is a bunch of the ex-officers insist that they used to play all manner of games on Friday, so apparently it's only been this way for a year or two now. But then I try and get the old officers to talk to the new and either they didn't or the new officers lied about it, depending on who you want to believe I guess. Maybe I could get a bunch of goons to make accounts on the forums and post "Yo why do we never play anything but 3.5 on Fridays?"  (Yes I know this is a terrible idea please don't actually do it)Sorry, I don't mean to clog up the catpiss thread with petty RPG club politics EDIT: I just noticed that when they were telling me to look at the calendar they have an actual calendar of upcoming games on their forum. The only entry? Every Friday: "Adventures in Ayron(3.5 D&D)"
Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 23:05
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goatface posted:Maybe it's different over here in the UK, but every regular game I've ever played associated with a university thing has been on a weekday evening other than Friday. Is there a huge thing in the US about not doing anything on a week-night that we never see? Eh, it's more just assumed that people have work to do on weeknights. Studying, writing papers, doing assignments, etc. It's not that you can't, it's just a recipe for flakiness. QuantumNinja posted:This, too. In undergrad I ran a semester-long campaign on Wednesday evenings, because undergrads don't have anywhere to be on Thursday morning unless they have terrible schedules and everyone drank from Thursday to Saturday. I've also played Sunday afternoons, Tuesday evenings, and Saturday evenings. I would love to do that! Problem is that I just moved here and don't know anyone. The only people I know who play games are in the club and don't read the forum. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 23:24
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QuantumNinja posted:You're a grad student, which means you're one soul short of being a full, job-holding adult. To be honest, I've always felt funny about socializing that heavily with people who might show up in my classes. Stop letting undergraduates get under your skin, and go meet some cool people and have a good time. Yeah, I know, I know. Thanks for reminding me about ObsidianPortal though, I had forgotten to check that. I know I should just give up on them, and I am, and I have, in my heart, but it still sucks that so many people who could be shown the Sacred Ways of Funhaving are stuck playing 3.5 with "Watching an unmoving pack of herbivores for 3 hours is fun, right guys?" DMs.
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Jan 24, 2014 23:46
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QuantumNinja posted:I'd like to parrot this. I moved to grad school, didn't know anyone, met a few friends in class, mentioned tabletop games to one, found out he was in a group, got a year and a half of games. That group fell apart, I talked to a few of my other friends, put my own group together. It fell apart because of academic obligations (I don't have enough time to run) and stuff, but I know at least four people I could ask right now to put a group together if I got the time. I don't know what you're studying, but there are tons of nerds in hiding everywhere and you just gotta bring it up! Yeah I know, that's how I got my incredible undergrad group together. But last time there wasn't Funhaving Injustice involved  For real though, I honestly have given up on them. gently caress 'em, I'm done. I feel bad leaving all those poor uneducated souls to rot, but maybe they'll show up in my classes and I'll risk getting fired by bringing them into the fold. I'll keep checking the forum in case someone posts a sane-sounding game, or maybe occasionally use it to get a Dungeon World game going. But as for meetings? gently caress it, no gaming is better than bad gaming. Or maybe I'll just go, get a little liquored up beforehand, and Funhave as hard as I can Funhave. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jan 25, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 23:49
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rock rock posted:Doomsayer, I've vaguely remember you saying you'd have to make a first level character for the 3.5 game but I'm on my phone and can't be bothered checking, but if not I would suggest: This is my current plan but replace "Wizard" with "Druid". Their house rules are pretty much: "PHB 1 and 2 only. Nothing else. Ever." save for their awful Prestige Classes that are probably broken as hell but I'm certainly not going to be the one to read them. My final plan is to just go attend the club games, Funhave from within. Best case scenario I find some sane people, worst case I have more fodder for the thread
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Jan 25, 2014 23:20
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Doomsayer posted:Yeah I know, that's how I got my incredible undergrad group together. Alright I chose the last option, filled up a Big Gulp with rum and coke, went to go play some 3.5. (I actually went last week and a fellow goon got me into a decent-but-not-incredible World of Darkness game that went reasonably well, but they weren't playing this week) I brought my 1st level utilidruid, built around having a good time and helpin' my bros. Our adventure began in the city of Hero's Keep, which is apparently a thing since goon friend's module also started there (we tried to get into a game together but that is verboten). We were contacted by a peacekeeper for the local... I dunno, mob boss I guess. He had a job for us, and referred us to a turquoise-haired peacekeeper named Jenny... Officer Jenny. She told us that a nearby town had been having a problem with "strange reptiles with turtle shells". My response of "So... turtles, then?" was not appreciated. She gives us the following mission, verbatim: "We need you to get rid of the turtles, but don't let the townsfolk see you hurt them." Our party consisted of me (a level 1 gnome druid), 2 rogues (level 1 and level 4, forgot their names), and a level 1 (technically) Grey Render fighter. The Grey Render elected to climb on the roof of the carriage for the ride to Vermillion City (yes the town was literally called Vermillion City), and I elected to join him as I had been drinking (both in-game and in real life! ). We got to town and immediately set off in our search.Fighter: "I climb on the roof of the inn. (He liked roofs)" Rogues: "We go search the alley behind the hospital." Me: "I go find the nearest patch of tall grass and wander around back and forth in it." ...the DM gave me a death glare. The two rogues didn't find anything (Grey Render just continued to chill on the roof) so started search elsewhere. I went to go find the gym. The DM said it was just a gym, where they lift anvils. So I lifted anvils for a while. Finally, the DM tells the rogues they find something! Rogues: "Hey, there's a hole leading underground in this alley!" Fighter: "I jump down! Me: "Hang on a sec, I don't have any thunder or grass magic prepared." Another glare from the DM. Long story short we climb down and begin killing turtles. They start yelling some stuff about "No please, stop!" and "The humans took our land, we just want it back!" and poo poo, but gently caress that we got a job to do and we're getting paid. Grey Render and I press forward, I throw down an entangle that basically fills up the whole cave, rendering them all drat near helpless (each turtle had 1HP a piece, but AC as high as a dude in platemail). They can't do much more than 1 damage to us. The rogues start yelling at us, trying to trip us and grapple us. Neither is successful. Fighter and I spend over forty turns slowly killing our way through the turtles. There were 25 of them. No swarm rules, no making them a mob. Nope, just roll individually for each turtle. Just me, my wolf companion, and the fighter plinking away at them. Finally we butcher all of them, Grey Render picks up some meat for soup and swipes a couple eggs, then picks up the shades from the lead turtle (just in case you didn't realize this was literally that squirtle episode from the Pokemon cartoon) and gives them to me. So the good news is, my wolf now has a  pair of tiny shades.So we leave, find Officer Jenny, and are told our money is back in Hero's Keep. Fighter and I immediately hike off to get our reward. The rogues stay behind and gather up all the body detritus, drag it in sacks into the police station at night when everyone is gone, and build a literal statuary fountain out of bones and meat. No, I don't know why. But I got 450 gold so...  At this point I'm thinking of volunteering to DM because drat, it can't be any worse, right? The good news is, drinking during the games really helped mitigate the terribleness. Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Feb 8, 2014 |
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Feb 8, 2014 07:29
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Bieeardo posted:Wait. There's a rule that states you can't choose to play with specific people? Yes. My friend was running late and I asked the person handing out tickets: "Hey is it cool if my friend and I play together? She's kinda new (a lie, but meh) and we were hoping to be in the same group." "No, that's not how it works." "...seriously? We're both level 1, fresh characters, can't we just-" "No. It's favoritism."
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Feb 8, 2014 08:16
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Eh, it's an excuse to start drinking at like 4. Would you guys rather I not have content for the thread?
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Feb 8, 2014 08:25
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Meh, it's something to do on Fridays. Once I find something to do on Fridays I'll do it but for now it's fun vv
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Feb 8, 2014 08:54
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rock rock posted:Ok I'm posting on my phone so I'm not quoting nothing, but when I said play a wizard, destroy the game and you said I will, but a druid, I didn't read that as I will play their stupid game where I kill turtles for over an hour with a grey render, which has 3 intelligence and zero interesting fluff how is that even a playable race?!. You can only break the game so much when you're limited to level 1, PHB1. I dunno why that guy was allowed to play something weird like that, but he's one of the officers of the club, I think? I dunno, here's there all the time, I know that. No psionics, warforged, dragonborn, etc. But monster classes are cool, I guess? Oh, and the official response I got for why there are no psionics? "They're too intimidating to newcomers."
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Feb 8, 2014 20:56
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