S
Sunseeker
Guest
It seems too often we hear nightmare stories about groups that are poisonous to the point to make you want to like your face or your books on fire, whichever gets closest to the flame first. So I thought I'd pop in and share my somewhat more positive story.
I moved to a new town recently (yes it is the one under my name), and once 5E launched I kicked off a simple game so people could get the hang of it. There was a lot of confusion on all sides but some really good people and some really bad people and some really odd people. As a mix, this all seemed to balance out.
When that game ended I naturally wanted to keep playing but many people didn't or couldn't, which was okay, at its peak my game had some 14 players. So we started a new game with a smaller set of people. Unfortunately one of them was one of the problem people from the other table, which in a group of 8-14 people was a small enough of an issue that his poor behavior was subsumed beneath the good behavior from others. Also, his dad attended regularly and was able to keep the kid in line. Unchecked his behaviour got worse and worse. My game ended and a new DM took over, which was unfortunately for him at a time when I simply couldn't take it anymore and needed a couple weeks break...that game didn't go so well. A new game with a new DM, who was friends of the family with the problem player took over and he seemed to be able to keep things in line but over time was notable stressed and disheartened over how things were going.
Things progressively got worse, problem player invited his sister, among other people (he had a habit of just inviting everyone he knew). Aside from the time sink in getting them up to speed, many of them had attitude and personality problems of their own, problem player's sister was even worse than problem player himself. Finally having enough I started talking with the current DM and the other cooler-headed player who had DMed the previous game. Well turns out we had all been feeling the same way.
So we split. We now host a private game instead of a public one in my home, we're probably a player short, but even with a 3-person, everyone-is-a-DM-everyone-is-a-player game things are INCREDIBLE. We played through Castle Ravenloft, not perfectly but hey it was fun and it wasn't inundated with stupid. I started a new game on the side intended to be fun and silly, a monster game and we have successfully avoided any of the creepy, human-slaughtering stuff that often goes along with those and players who are themselves problems.
We're hoping to restart one of the games we had before, but we'd probably need one more regular player. Still on the whole things have gone really well. We're more creative, our weekends are fun and uplifting instead of stressful and rage-inducing.
So really folks, lesson of the story is this: If you can't stand who you play with, split. But take a moment to check around the table, you might find some common sentiment and it'd suck to miss out on that.
I moved to a new town recently (yes it is the one under my name), and once 5E launched I kicked off a simple game so people could get the hang of it. There was a lot of confusion on all sides but some really good people and some really bad people and some really odd people. As a mix, this all seemed to balance out.
When that game ended I naturally wanted to keep playing but many people didn't or couldn't, which was okay, at its peak my game had some 14 players. So we started a new game with a smaller set of people. Unfortunately one of them was one of the problem people from the other table, which in a group of 8-14 people was a small enough of an issue that his poor behavior was subsumed beneath the good behavior from others. Also, his dad attended regularly and was able to keep the kid in line. Unchecked his behaviour got worse and worse. My game ended and a new DM took over, which was unfortunately for him at a time when I simply couldn't take it anymore and needed a couple weeks break...that game didn't go so well. A new game with a new DM, who was friends of the family with the problem player took over and he seemed to be able to keep things in line but over time was notable stressed and disheartened over how things were going.
Things progressively got worse, problem player invited his sister, among other people (he had a habit of just inviting everyone he knew). Aside from the time sink in getting them up to speed, many of them had attitude and personality problems of their own, problem player's sister was even worse than problem player himself. Finally having enough I started talking with the current DM and the other cooler-headed player who had DMed the previous game. Well turns out we had all been feeling the same way.
So we split. We now host a private game instead of a public one in my home, we're probably a player short, but even with a 3-person, everyone-is-a-DM-everyone-is-a-player game things are INCREDIBLE. We played through Castle Ravenloft, not perfectly but hey it was fun and it wasn't inundated with stupid. I started a new game on the side intended to be fun and silly, a monster game and we have successfully avoided any of the creepy, human-slaughtering stuff that often goes along with those and players who are themselves problems.
We're hoping to restart one of the games we had before, but we'd probably need one more regular player. Still on the whole things have gone really well. We're more creative, our weekends are fun and uplifting instead of stressful and rage-inducing.
So really folks, lesson of the story is this: If you can't stand who you play with, split. But take a moment to check around the table, you might find some common sentiment and it'd suck to miss out on that.
