I don't know if I'm here to ask for advice or just tell my tale, but I thought some of you might be interested and/or have had similar experiences.
A quick background: I played D&D all through Junior High/High School and then quit once I left for college. I didn't play again until about 3 years ago (about a 9 year gap) when I guest played in a friends campaign. That re-sparked my interest and I quickly found a DM online who was looking for players, and met not too far from where I lived. I joined that campaign, which lasted about a year and a half. Then we switched to 3rd edition and started a new game, which has gone on ever since.
This game is unlike any I have ever played in. Back in high school we all cheated, never could get enough people together, never really roleplayed, etc.. We didn't care about continuity or logic in our stories and characters. In this game, its the most amazingly detailed, organized, and well presented campaign I've seen. The DM has hundreds of pages of material, and has his own pre-prepared modules that will last us off until probably level 20 or so. There are side plots and back stories, and personal events happening to each character. The campaign itself features our party as a elite strike team in service of an Empire that is under assault from all directions from evil powers (it takes place in Greyhawk, though the Empire is the DM's own creation. The enemies are Iuz and the Great Kingdom). Each mission the Emperor briefs us on the state of the war, what needs to be done, and allocates whatever resources he can spare to help us.
But here's where the problems start. The amazing level of detail comes at a price. The DM, is, charitably speaking, a control freak. We are railroaded into every adventure, with no options. While some of the adventures allow for freedom inside that particular mission as to how to complete it, others are extremely linear.
The last two adventures consisted of an incredibly large underground temple (5 levels, each a full sheet of graph paper), and a more political adventure.
Most everything we needed to know about the Temple we were told ahead of time. We weren't required to find out how to find it, or how to get in, nor did we have to figure out WHY to go there (that was all given to us by the Emperor). it took us about 10 sessions (each 5-8 hours) to get through the whole thing. By the end we were all feeling extremely claustraphobic.
The political adventure involved us in trying to manipulate the succession of the kingship in another kingdom. This one could have led to all sorts of intriguing politics and situations. Instead, there were 3 assassination attempts on those who were allied to our cause, and they came in the form of huge (60+) hordes of low level fighters led by mid-low level clerics of Hextor. These battles stretched out over two LONG sessions, and seemed to consist largely of us using up all our high level spells (the party is 8th-9th level) annihalating the hordes of low level attackers, and then fighting tooth and nail with the remaining enemy leaders once our magic had run out.
Then the last session we returned back to the Imperial capital to find that several members of the group had been assigned followers by their superiors. The group now numbers as follows:
6 player characters (for 6 players), 2 NPC full party members, 6 lower level followers, a travelling historian, the wizard's raven, plus my character's intelligent sword.
Add to this that a 4th character will likely obtain 2 followers, plus my paladin's warhorse (soon to be gotten) and we've got a party of 6 PCs and 14 NPC personalities! While some of us have suggested that we not haul all these people with us everywhere, the DM fails to see the problem, as long as we don't drag them directly into the dungeon. I find it hard to believe we can be an elite strike team with a huge train of followers behind us.
Last session was agony. Every character was dealing with personal story lines, a feud between to of the PCs, plus meeting all the new NPC followers (much of which had taken place online) plus dividing up loot from the last adventure. I and another player had about 15 minutes each of things to do, the rest was spent watching and waiting.
To me this campaign has lost its magic for two reasons. One is the rigid linearity of it all. I almost feel like I'm playing Baldur's Gate II rather than D&D at this point. We don't even have time to do things like make magic items, build strongholds, etc. The second is the overwhelming mass of NPCs that seem to be eating up so much time. The DM is very skilled at playing them all and giving each personalities, but there are just so many of them, each with their own stories.
I have made many friends in this group, including the DM. I have attempted to talk to him about my issues but he gets very defensive and hostile to criticism. This is his 'baby', I think and any vision other than his own is not tolerated. Another player agrees with me for the most part but the rest seem to still be enjoying themselves.
I think it might be time for me to move on. I have run my own game occasionally but its hard to find time to play two games (one running, one playing). It just seems such a shame. I've invested so much time and effort into this game, but I just don't feel I can get enough enjoyment out of it to justify the time commitment anymore.
What do you folks think? Have you had similar experiences? Should I take a different approach to my playing in order to get more out of the game, or is it sometimes just the time to move on?
A quick background: I played D&D all through Junior High/High School and then quit once I left for college. I didn't play again until about 3 years ago (about a 9 year gap) when I guest played in a friends campaign. That re-sparked my interest and I quickly found a DM online who was looking for players, and met not too far from where I lived. I joined that campaign, which lasted about a year and a half. Then we switched to 3rd edition and started a new game, which has gone on ever since.
This game is unlike any I have ever played in. Back in high school we all cheated, never could get enough people together, never really roleplayed, etc.. We didn't care about continuity or logic in our stories and characters. In this game, its the most amazingly detailed, organized, and well presented campaign I've seen. The DM has hundreds of pages of material, and has his own pre-prepared modules that will last us off until probably level 20 or so. There are side plots and back stories, and personal events happening to each character. The campaign itself features our party as a elite strike team in service of an Empire that is under assault from all directions from evil powers (it takes place in Greyhawk, though the Empire is the DM's own creation. The enemies are Iuz and the Great Kingdom). Each mission the Emperor briefs us on the state of the war, what needs to be done, and allocates whatever resources he can spare to help us.
But here's where the problems start. The amazing level of detail comes at a price. The DM, is, charitably speaking, a control freak. We are railroaded into every adventure, with no options. While some of the adventures allow for freedom inside that particular mission as to how to complete it, others are extremely linear.
The last two adventures consisted of an incredibly large underground temple (5 levels, each a full sheet of graph paper), and a more political adventure.
Most everything we needed to know about the Temple we were told ahead of time. We weren't required to find out how to find it, or how to get in, nor did we have to figure out WHY to go there (that was all given to us by the Emperor). it took us about 10 sessions (each 5-8 hours) to get through the whole thing. By the end we were all feeling extremely claustraphobic.
The political adventure involved us in trying to manipulate the succession of the kingship in another kingdom. This one could have led to all sorts of intriguing politics and situations. Instead, there were 3 assassination attempts on those who were allied to our cause, and they came in the form of huge (60+) hordes of low level fighters led by mid-low level clerics of Hextor. These battles stretched out over two LONG sessions, and seemed to consist largely of us using up all our high level spells (the party is 8th-9th level) annihalating the hordes of low level attackers, and then fighting tooth and nail with the remaining enemy leaders once our magic had run out.
Then the last session we returned back to the Imperial capital to find that several members of the group had been assigned followers by their superiors. The group now numbers as follows:
6 player characters (for 6 players), 2 NPC full party members, 6 lower level followers, a travelling historian, the wizard's raven, plus my character's intelligent sword.
Add to this that a 4th character will likely obtain 2 followers, plus my paladin's warhorse (soon to be gotten) and we've got a party of 6 PCs and 14 NPC personalities! While some of us have suggested that we not haul all these people with us everywhere, the DM fails to see the problem, as long as we don't drag them directly into the dungeon. I find it hard to believe we can be an elite strike team with a huge train of followers behind us.
Last session was agony. Every character was dealing with personal story lines, a feud between to of the PCs, plus meeting all the new NPC followers (much of which had taken place online) plus dividing up loot from the last adventure. I and another player had about 15 minutes each of things to do, the rest was spent watching and waiting.
To me this campaign has lost its magic for two reasons. One is the rigid linearity of it all. I almost feel like I'm playing Baldur's Gate II rather than D&D at this point. We don't even have time to do things like make magic items, build strongholds, etc. The second is the overwhelming mass of NPCs that seem to be eating up so much time. The DM is very skilled at playing them all and giving each personalities, but there are just so many of them, each with their own stories.
I have made many friends in this group, including the DM. I have attempted to talk to him about my issues but he gets very defensive and hostile to criticism. This is his 'baby', I think and any vision other than his own is not tolerated. Another player agrees with me for the most part but the rest seem to still be enjoying themselves.
I think it might be time for me to move on. I have run my own game occasionally but its hard to find time to play two games (one running, one playing). It just seems such a shame. I've invested so much time and effort into this game, but I just don't feel I can get enough enjoyment out of it to justify the time commitment anymore.
What do you folks think? Have you had similar experiences? Should I take a different approach to my playing in order to get more out of the game, or is it sometimes just the time to move on?
