A campaign I'm fed up with. . .

[Frostmarrow]

At least she's creative! I'd play along if the group was good. A bad GM isn't the most important thing.

What bugs me the most is the GM that says no. Whatever you attempt the GM says no - it's not true or it can't be done. Even when the GM has to agree he'll agree with a "No, but..." That's hellish, but as long as the group role-plays and enjoys the company I don't care if the plot is found wanting.

 

[wingsandsword]

Yeah, I remember the old thread. I first thought I had a deja-vu, or someone had cast True Resurrect Topic again.


Back then, whoever posted only told us about the vast cube-style underground dungeon, I can't remember anything about VR-gear. I do remember that they were all normal humans, the ST insisting on it (there was something about her saying beforehand that they had a chance to be mages, but then she said that she rolled some dice and that it turns out they aren't).

I also remember the uber-BF.

The new stuff is consistant with what I remember, though. It always amazes me what people put up with, especially if it is leasure activities.

Yes, it was me who started that prior thread. The VR gear hadn't come into the campaign at that point, that happened late in the cube-type dungeon, as the challenges started getting into the sort of things that were physically impossible to do in an underground dungeon (huge car races, or searches through an entire city for a single person). Yeah, at first she said no mages, then a day or two after we escape from the Cube, my character awakens and the party becomes all supernatural.

That you guys are now all supernatural creatures at a sex fetish club pretty much drives that one home. Hopefully you like playing out erotic sexual encounters with hotsexy vampires ... because brother, you're probably going to be playing out erotic sexual encounters with hotsexy vampires whether you want to or not.

Already happening. . .if the vampires in the party want to learn new disciplines, there is always an uber-Vampire to teach them, but only if they have sex with him. I don't know what it is with vampires, but the GM absolutely loves them, and doesn't understand why everybody wouldn't want to play one (like how my mage character said he'd rather commit suicide than be embraced, an attitude she found utterly baffling, more wondering why anybody wouldn't jump at the chance to become a vampire, since she keeps insisting that it's far better than being anything else).

 

[Nifft]

It's games like this that make really great GMs (out of the former players).

-- N

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Already happening. . .if the vampires in the party want to learn new disciplines, there is always an uber-Vampire to teach them, but only if they have sex with him. I don't know what it is with vampires, but the GM absolutely loves them, and doesn't understand why everybody wouldn't want to play one (like how my mage character said he'd rather commit suicide than be embraced, an attitude she found utterly baffling, more wondering why anybody wouldn't jump at the chance to become a vampire, since she keeps insisting that it's far better than being anything else).

Ugh. Pain in head...increasing.

I think your ST has given me a brain tumor.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Wow. This game sounds just brutal. I'd just politely drop out if you don't want to suffer this but can't have any kind of honest dialog with her.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Already happening. . .if the vampires in the party want to learn new disciplines, there is always an uber-Vampire to teach them, but only if they have sex with him. I don't know what it is with vampires, but the GM absolutely loves them, and doesn't understand why everybody wouldn't want to play one (like how my mage character said he'd rather commit suicide than be embraced, an attitude she found utterly baffling, more wondering why anybody wouldn't jump at the chance to become a vampire, since she keeps insisting that it's far better than being anything else).

Urk. That would be it for me, friends or no I would never RP sexual encounters. And vampires SUCK!

*rimshot*

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

One of the hottest selling, and most rapidly growing, subgenres of "Fantasy" right now is the "Supernatural Romance" ... you can find these in both the romance section (for the totally overt bodice-rippers) and the fantasy section (for the books that, well, got picked up by those wings of the publishers).

Supernatural Romance usually focuses on a female central character, who may or may not be a supernatural creature herself, and her relationships with supernatural creatures. It's been around for a while, but if you walk into your average Big Name Bookseller today and pick up half a dozen books you've not read in the fantasy section, you're going to get 2-3 Supernatural Romances.

Laurel K. Hamilton has made a disgusting amount of money writing them.

What it says to me, as a layperson with a particular interest in what the genre markets look like right now, is that:

1) Women are a very large market. Large enough to play to in big numbers.
2) Women dig vampire sex.
3) Vampire sex sells ... even when it isn't very good, because there's a big market out there that just wants to read about women with vampires.

I don't know exactly WHY ... psychologically speaking. Has something to do with the death/sex reproductive reflex, I think. Vampires represent a lot of things ... death, power, immortality. Vampires are "bad boys" and seem to trigger that "bad boy" danger/attraction thing.

And vampires of either gender seem to be able to pull off leather pants. There aren't alot of real people out there that can pull off leather pants without looking like a total rube. Even very attractive and athletic people often can't pull off leather pants.

So she figures everybody wants to be a vampire because SHE wants to be a vampire ... and, for her, it's probably tied up in her reproductive response. So since SHE's attracted to the vampire mythology, she figures everybody else just HAS to be sitting around waiting to vicariously live out their own Vampire Pr0n fantasy at the table.

Which, even if I were into vampires, which I'm not ... I wouldn't be comfortable, myself, in somebody's "This Turns Me On, Doesn't It Turn You On?" RPG. That sounds like Discomfort City, honestly.

But, the larger issue is, you've been disenfranchised as a player. This seems to be a pretty common theme with "I'm Telling A Story" type GMs. The story overshadows the people playing the game. "Flavor" or "genre tropes" begin to stomp all over "fun" and "playability". It happens, and sometimes I'm even left thinking: "Man, GMing this would be loads of fun if it weren't for the darn players." Especially when somebody decides to come up with a character concept that defeats or works at cross purposes with the type of story I was hoping we'd be playing.

I suck it up and deal, though, because I can always go write a friggin' short story. Gaming is not an authorial release. It's gaming. Everybody is supposed to have fun.

So, like my suggestion to another poster ... have fun with what you CAN do. You've been disenfranchised as a player, the power is no longer in your hands as far as the game and story go ... that means you can do whatever crazy thing it is that you want to do. Make being a powerless pawn into the fun focus of your gaming night. Swing from the rafters, get into arguments with powerful vampires. Make a flow-chart and see how many vampires your mage character can get romantically involved with. Ham it the heck up: "Oh, mighty Azreal Shadowfang, though I am a straight male non-vampire ... I am ... curiously attracted ... to your ... fangs ... take me, you fool, before I awake from this dreamscape!"

She's not going to off your character, she's just going to keep looking for more and more ways to embroil you in her weird fetishistic romantic fantasy. So dive in. Make what you can of it. Show out.

Sort of like the old cartoons where when the kid got caught smoking the dad would force them to smoke a pack or carton of cigarettes. Give her so much crazy and convoluted vampire sex-fantasy that she gets sick and sated off of it ... maybe then she'll end the campaign and let somebody else run something.

--fje

 

[gamecat]

<SNIP>
Make a flow-chart and see how many vampires your mage character can get romantically involved with. Ham it the heck up: "Oh, mighty Azreal Shadowfang, though I am a straight male non-vampire ... I am ... curiously attracted ... to your ... fangs ... take me, you fool, before I awake from this dreamscape!"

She's not going to off your character, she's just going to keep looking for more and more ways to embroil you in her weird fetishistic romantic fantasy. So dive in. Make what you can of it. Show out.

Sort of like the old cartoons where when the kid got caught smoking the dad would force them to smoke a pack or carton of cigarettes. Give her so much crazy and convoluted vampire sex-fantasy that she gets sick and sated off of it ... maybe then she'll end the campaign and let somebody else run something.

--fje

That has got to be the funniest post I've read in a long time.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Already happening. . .if the vampires in the party want to learn new disciplines, there is always an uber-Vampire to teach them, but only if they have sex with him.

Well, you can always insist to roleplay the situation. Are you married/engaged/with someone right now? Is she looking good? If so, go for it. Chances are she either backs off and rethings it, or you'll have a good time

Or she just says no, at which time you can always say that you were overcome by the whole scene and blurted it out or something

And if you're married/whatever and she's hot, tell me where she hangs out, I'll get false teeth, a horrible Eastern European accent and... Embrace her a bit



But seriously, that's all just awful. I hope you didn't run into any Nosferatu elders that need to teach you any tricks. Or maybe you should seek them out. Might just really mess up her fantasies when she imagines a Nosferatu without clothes (I think she won't get to the actual sex part before her brain does an emergency shut down)

I don't know what it is with vampires, but the GM absolutely loves them, and doesn't understand why everybody wouldn't want to play one (like how my mage character said he'd rather commit suicide than be embraced, an attitude she found utterly baffling, more wondering why anybody wouldn't jump at the chance to become a vampire, since she keeps insisting that it's far better than being anything else).

I know those. Same people who insist on plaing Vampire as the "I'm the big bad mofo now, I do whatever I want now" game, and whenever you mention the darker side to a vampires wretched existance, or remind them that they might want to keep the Beast in check at least a little, they either give you blank stares or a big rant.

I don't know exactly WHY ... psychologically speaking. Has something to do with the death/sex reproductive reflex, I think. Vampires represent a lot of things ... death, power, immortality. Vampires are "bad boys" and seem to trigger that "bad boy" danger/attraction thing.

Yeah. People can be sick and weird sometimes. Now, where's my book with the newest exploits of Pronator the Hentacle Demon

Isn't there some theory that if the man gets home and brings meat, the woman gets aroused, because of the ways of old where the men would go out and hunt and those who could bring home the most meat would be the fittest candidate for preserve the species?

Which, even if I were into vampires, which I'm not ... I wouldn't be comfortable, myself, in somebody's "This Turns Me On, Doesn't It Turn You On?" RPG. That sounds like Discomfort City, honestly.

I have to say that I like watching Underworld, but then the girls in that movie wouldn't at all be a vampire for me.

But you're absolutely, 100% right that sitting around playing someone's wet dreams isn't the kind of roleplaying I'd ever want to play.

Sort of like the old cartoons where when the kid got caught smoking the dad would force them to smoke a pack or carton of cigarettes. Give her so much crazy and convoluted vampire sex-fantasy that she gets sick and sated off of it ... maybe then she'll end the campaign and let somebody else run something.

As I said: Nosferatu!

 

[fusangite]

This game sounds like an unmitigated disaster. Sounds like you should take the pulse of the other players and go from there.

My first instinct in this situation would be to just politely and quietly quit the game but it may be that the consensus is broad enough in the group that you could craft a proposal to improve the game and present it to the GM.