I think I am giving up all public tabletop RPG play. Recently I have been playing in DnD Encounters and some game days before that. This is not really a reaction to the Encounters program or 4e though - the problems would be similar with PF or any other system.
I am curious if I have just been unlucky and my experiences atypical or if I am just an impatient jerk and everyone else just tolerates this.
Let me be specific.
I have played Encounters sessions in three locations recently. Each had their own problems - though some are common.
Location 1 - (played about a dozen sessions there)
Players were generally nice though one was a pathetic cheat. Just about every session started with a crit though no one ever saw him actually roll anything. I grew jaded when the same player was bored one day and just charged rather than actually talk out a strategy with everyone else. He died, left early, and we were screwed.
My main problem was a lack of preparation and inconsistent timing. Sessions averaged 30 minutes late with a couple that never happened due to a lack of turn out. Sometimes the DM would not show and the backup DM (at least they had one) would have to return home to get his packet.
There were some minor annoyances with distractions -- a person having his 5 year old play for him for awhile, a good deal of arriving late with food to eat during the game. These were minor though. In retrospect, it seems amusing that I stopped attending these sessions because it would get MUCH worse at the other locations I tried.
Location 2 -- one session in another town while I was on vacation
This place had a great set up and was packed (beginning of the NW cycle). I was about 5 mins late and would have been happy to not play given my late arrival. It turns out they had 3 tables already started but a fourth was just starting and had an open slot. I slid right in and took a pregen defender and put up my char (we had no other leader at the table).
There were some new players - which was great to see. The problem was that the DM and some of the other "experienced" players had no idea what they were doing. One player kept talking about how important it was to be "behind" an enemy (referring to some mythical facing rules, NOT CA). Some players were individually selecting twitter buffs that helped them individually. The buffs were changing within any given round. The new players were, rightfully, quite confused.
The large number of tables made for quite a noisy environment. That was to be expected. However our DM walked off multiple times just to check out what his friends were doing at other tables -- most humorously in the middle of his own sentence one time. He just stopped what he was saying, looked up, and walked away for a minute.
I don't think I will go back there.
Location 3 - (3 sessions)
My most recent location has been the most frustrating in a way. In these three sessions, they averaged 45 minutes late. In the worst case, we started an hour late with a new group walking in about the time we started saying that two of their friends still needed to gen characters. The second group then interrupted us about every 5 minutes to see if we were done because they wanted one of our players to DM them. It became clear that if was perfectly acceptable to show up 30 minutes late and then ask everyone to wait while one prints/gens a character, gets dinner next door, or both.
In those three session, the game became increasingly ridiculous. My char was hit by every attack in the last two sessions - totaling about 12 hits. Of these 12 hits, 2 were crits. The DM averaged criting about 25% of the time on the table. It got so crazy that the third night the DM did not bother to ever ask any of my defenses (I had not been there in two weeks - I guess he just memorized my chars stats from much earlier... riiiight). He just said, "you got hit, take X damage." When this run of hits started, I asked "do you need to know one of my defenses?""No, it was an 18 on the die". When he never asked he said, "well, the lowest roll was a 16. I am sure that would hit".
After 2.5 hours of play -- a player saying "I can't believe this phone keeps ringing""Why don't you set it to silent or vibrate?""I can't because someone might call I want to talk to"...the phone rang about 6 times. When it stopped, she got bored and put her ear buds in until someone would tap her shoulder to indicate it was her turn, she eventually missed that she was knocked unconscious -- a player just sitting there working on her school work -- and I had read the MtG rules and about 30 pages of course work myself -- I just flipped out.
Given these three locations (really the only options I have), I am done with public gaming. So, are my complaints just indicative of impatience or are these sorts of problems atypical? I feel a little guilty for flipping out but more disappointed that so promising a program as encounters has had these problems for me.
I am curious if I have just been unlucky and my experiences atypical or if I am just an impatient jerk and everyone else just tolerates this.
Let me be specific.
I have played Encounters sessions in three locations recently. Each had their own problems - though some are common.
Location 1 - (played about a dozen sessions there)
Players were generally nice though one was a pathetic cheat. Just about every session started with a crit though no one ever saw him actually roll anything. I grew jaded when the same player was bored one day and just charged rather than actually talk out a strategy with everyone else. He died, left early, and we were screwed.
My main problem was a lack of preparation and inconsistent timing. Sessions averaged 30 minutes late with a couple that never happened due to a lack of turn out. Sometimes the DM would not show and the backup DM (at least they had one) would have to return home to get his packet.
There were some minor annoyances with distractions -- a person having his 5 year old play for him for awhile, a good deal of arriving late with food to eat during the game. These were minor though. In retrospect, it seems amusing that I stopped attending these sessions because it would get MUCH worse at the other locations I tried.
Location 2 -- one session in another town while I was on vacation
This place had a great set up and was packed (beginning of the NW cycle). I was about 5 mins late and would have been happy to not play given my late arrival. It turns out they had 3 tables already started but a fourth was just starting and had an open slot. I slid right in and took a pregen defender and put up my char (we had no other leader at the table).
There were some new players - which was great to see. The problem was that the DM and some of the other "experienced" players had no idea what they were doing. One player kept talking about how important it was to be "behind" an enemy (referring to some mythical facing rules, NOT CA). Some players were individually selecting twitter buffs that helped them individually. The buffs were changing within any given round. The new players were, rightfully, quite confused.
The large number of tables made for quite a noisy environment. That was to be expected. However our DM walked off multiple times just to check out what his friends were doing at other tables -- most humorously in the middle of his own sentence one time. He just stopped what he was saying, looked up, and walked away for a minute.
I don't think I will go back there.
Location 3 - (3 sessions)
My most recent location has been the most frustrating in a way. In these three sessions, they averaged 45 minutes late. In the worst case, we started an hour late with a new group walking in about the time we started saying that two of their friends still needed to gen characters. The second group then interrupted us about every 5 minutes to see if we were done because they wanted one of our players to DM them. It became clear that if was perfectly acceptable to show up 30 minutes late and then ask everyone to wait while one prints/gens a character, gets dinner next door, or both.
In those three session, the game became increasingly ridiculous. My char was hit by every attack in the last two sessions - totaling about 12 hits. Of these 12 hits, 2 were crits. The DM averaged criting about 25% of the time on the table. It got so crazy that the third night the DM did not bother to ever ask any of my defenses (I had not been there in two weeks - I guess he just memorized my chars stats from much earlier... riiiight). He just said, "you got hit, take X damage." When this run of hits started, I asked "do you need to know one of my defenses?""No, it was an 18 on the die". When he never asked he said, "well, the lowest roll was a 16. I am sure that would hit".
After 2.5 hours of play -- a player saying "I can't believe this phone keeps ringing""Why don't you set it to silent or vibrate?""I can't because someone might call I want to talk to"...the phone rang about 6 times. When it stopped, she got bored and put her ear buds in until someone would tap her shoulder to indicate it was her turn, she eventually missed that she was knocked unconscious -- a player just sitting there working on her school work -- and I had read the MtG rules and about 30 pages of course work myself -- I just flipped out.
Given these three locations (really the only options I have), I am done with public gaming. So, are my complaints just indicative of impatience or are these sorts of problems atypical? I feel a little guilty for flipping out but more disappointed that so promising a program as encounters has had these problems for me.
