Just ranting about stuff I know nothing about. I don't design games, I don't understand rpg theory, and I'm a half-assed writer. But I love gm-ing and feel a need to publicly spill my thoughts. Read at your own risk.
I miss that old school feeling...
Posted 2nd March 2009 at 03:55 AM by subrosas
Just thinking about those other roots of D&D: the sword-and-sorcery mercenary kill-yer-mother-for-a-gold-piece campaigns. I've played maybe two adventures of that flavor since 1980. Everything else seems to be about saving the world writ large or writ small.
Allow me to explain.
As much as D&D has its roots in Middle Earth it also has its roots in the world of Vance, Lieber, Howard, etc. But for whatever reason the players who've indulged me over the years (and there has been a few) have seemed to favor the Tolkien side of things.
They wanted to save the world and little else.
Now, if the world needs saving, I'm all in favor of saving it, whether we are talking RL or fantasy-land. But when I read others talking about the drudgery of one more tavern-brawl, one more dungeon door kicked in out of raw unapologetic greed, the emotion I feel is envy. Please send me some of that boredom - it sounds fun!
I'm sick of these world is a princess in distress campaigns.
I blame myself as much as the players at my table. I can roll a mean story, and I get caught up in the whole "epic" thing too. I'm an instigator I admit. More than one dark lord has traipsed through my campaign setting. Its embarrassing.
On the other hand my players are responsible too. The players' characters live like goddamn ascetics. They don't drink, eat the cheapest gruel at the cheapest taverns, abandon their families unless I force them to talk to a relative with the plot hammer, and are misers with their gold - spending nothing unless it ups their to-hit and damage ratios. When I asked them what their characters did between adventures they shrugged. Looked for another way to save the world? Its kind of disturbing to think about - especially since its become the norm in my campaigns.
No doubt I'm most at fault. I create the world their characters exist in, and player after player has redrawn their character to fit this mold. They claim they are having fun, but I'm not sure I am anymore.
So I go back to the old stuff. Stories about rogues (in style, not the class) blowing their share of the treasure in ugly taverns, nasty bar brawls, parties taking down monsters to get paid, and all the rest.
Which I suppose makes me about a decade out of step - wasn't everyone talking about the return of old-school back when 3e rolled out? I did too, but somehow the players I was gaming with then always ended up saving the world.
They always do, bless them.
One of these days I'll cook up a world that doesn't need saving.
Allow me to explain.
As much as D&D has its roots in Middle Earth it also has its roots in the world of Vance, Lieber, Howard, etc. But for whatever reason the players who've indulged me over the years (and there has been a few) have seemed to favor the Tolkien side of things.
They wanted to save the world and little else.
Now, if the world needs saving, I'm all in favor of saving it, whether we are talking RL or fantasy-land. But when I read others talking about the drudgery of one more tavern-brawl, one more dungeon door kicked in out of raw unapologetic greed, the emotion I feel is envy. Please send me some of that boredom - it sounds fun!
I'm sick of these world is a princess in distress campaigns.
I blame myself as much as the players at my table. I can roll a mean story, and I get caught up in the whole "epic" thing too. I'm an instigator I admit. More than one dark lord has traipsed through my campaign setting. Its embarrassing.
On the other hand my players are responsible too. The players' characters live like goddamn ascetics. They don't drink, eat the cheapest gruel at the cheapest taverns, abandon their families unless I force them to talk to a relative with the plot hammer, and are misers with their gold - spending nothing unless it ups their to-hit and damage ratios. When I asked them what their characters did between adventures they shrugged. Looked for another way to save the world? Its kind of disturbing to think about - especially since its become the norm in my campaigns.
No doubt I'm most at fault. I create the world their characters exist in, and player after player has redrawn their character to fit this mold. They claim they are having fun, but I'm not sure I am anymore.
So I go back to the old stuff. Stories about rogues (in style, not the class) blowing their share of the treasure in ugly taverns, nasty bar brawls, parties taking down monsters to get paid, and all the rest.
Which I suppose makes me about a decade out of step - wasn't everyone talking about the return of old-school back when 3e rolled out? I did too, but somehow the players I was gaming with then always ended up saving the world.
They always do, bless them.
One of these days I'll cook up a world that doesn't need saving.
Tags: old school, rant
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Right On!
Subrosas, I couldn't agree with you more. I've been playing D&D myself since ~1983, I have to admit, it's imagination like that that gives the game its flavor.
Characters and stories are much more interesting when there is no "plot" just one event after the other that depicts the 'real' life and ambitions of the characters involved.
What do they do when no one is looking? Where do they live? Do they know a trade? Are they drunken brawlers, theives, gamblers, bullies, beaurocrats? What songs do they hum in their heads as they fight? What stories did their now dead fathers tell them to scare them into submission? What nightmares do they have when they fall asleep. How do they spend their down time?
As you pointed out. The stuff that sounds boring (or too much like everyday life) is what colors the game.
It's missing, and I want it back too.Posted 2nd March 2009 at 11:53 PM by H.M.Gimlord
- Maybe it's in part a pacing issue? I mean, I have no problem changing my pacing (and scope of narrative) for other things: summarizing to set premise or establish a sense of place. I could easily make up parts of it - "you are hard at work in your smithy on a humid summer day, thunder crouched at the horizon, when a heavyset stranger peels out of the crowd and comes to stand before you."
But it feels wrong telling the players what their characters have been up to on their time off. I want them to be able to tell me that!
When I think about it, though I ranted a lot about saving the world or epic adventures, I think you are right that the main thing I want is some sort of anchor in the mundane. Otherwise adventurers who do nothing but adventure, spend no gold except to become more powerful - I find it almost a little disturbing. Like some crazy guy sitting in a trashy apartment surrounded by stacks of money and knives, counting his pennies to buy bullets.
Note - I'm not blaming the players for this - I'll take first blame. I'm just not clear on the remedy...Posted 3rd March 2009 at 04:43 AM by subrosas 
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