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A powergamer in a non-powergame.
- Thread starter takyris
- Start date
The Lost Muse
First Post
I should be wrapping up my current campaign near the end of December - if you're looking for something a little less crippling to players, drop me a line at timmundo (at) hotmail (dot) com
I will be running in Eberron for the foreseeable future.
I will be running in Eberron for the foreseeable future.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Is it your perception that the other players really enjoy this guy's GMing style or at least don't mind it? Because if not then it's clear that this GM believes that compromise is key: Everybody should compromise to his rigid way of running a game.
I've seen this mindset before. This guy truly believes that the story he has to tell is so cool that if everybody will just listen to it then they'll absolutely love it. And it could be that he's right.
The problem is that there is more to gaming than the story. The WAY that the story gets told is through the game mechanics and if that isn't fun for the players then the best story in the world is pretty meaningnless because nobody wants to hear it.
Now if the rest of the group is fine and dandy with his style then you're kinda screwed. Then I guess that you grin and bear it as long as you can. But I think that your dissatisfaction with it is going to get worse because you're hyper aware of each time his style detracts from the fun you could be having.
My suggestion for him would be to read something about different playstyles. Either the opening couple chapters of the DMGII or Robin Laws Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering would be good. They talk about how you bring your own playstyle to the GMing chair but how you still have to try and meet the other players halfway to their own styles. A frank discussion about which styles the other people identify themselves as would be helpful for ANY gaming group, even one with fewer troubles than this.
It is the single thing that has improved my campaigns the most.
I've seen this mindset before. This guy truly believes that the story he has to tell is so cool that if everybody will just listen to it then they'll absolutely love it. And it could be that he's right.
The problem is that there is more to gaming than the story. The WAY that the story gets told is through the game mechanics and if that isn't fun for the players then the best story in the world is pretty meaningnless because nobody wants to hear it.
Now if the rest of the group is fine and dandy with his style then you're kinda screwed. Then I guess that you grin and bear it as long as you can. But I think that your dissatisfaction with it is going to get worse because you're hyper aware of each time his style detracts from the fun you could be having.
My suggestion for him would be to read something about different playstyles. Either the opening couple chapters of the DMGII or Robin Laws Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering would be good. They talk about how you bring your own playstyle to the GMing chair but how you still have to try and meet the other players halfway to their own styles. A frank discussion about which styles the other people identify themselves as would be helpful for ANY gaming group, even one with fewer troubles than this.
It is the single thing that has improved my campaigns the most.
My op
The armor issue is what struck me, if he is running semi-realistic prices for armor than the haul you could get for even a magical weapon would be a ludicrous amount of gold. Having run a game were I gave the PC’s to much gold I can understand his trepidation.
Improved Feint, and Power attack are not power gaming, they are judicious use of core rules and your DM may be forgetting the eternal maxim the monsters are there to die. We can give them all the back story and special items we want but in the end they must die or be mind controlled into our willing slaves to further destroy a campaign, but that’s a story for another time
Just my 2 cents
The armor issue is what struck me, if he is running semi-realistic prices for armor than the haul you could get for even a magical weapon would be a ludicrous amount of gold. Having run a game were I gave the PC’s to much gold I can understand his trepidation.
Improved Feint, and Power attack are not power gaming, they are judicious use of core rules and your DM may be forgetting the eternal maxim the monsters are there to die. We can give them all the back story and special items we want but in the end they must die or be mind controlled into our willing slaves to further destroy a campaign, but that’s a story for another time
Just my 2 cents
Odysseus
Explorer
My advice is leave the rulebook at home, and go with the flow. Forget what the best thing to do is, go with what the Dm lets you do. If he throws dice to decide what to do, keep suggesting ideas until you get a good dice throw. Role play more, and fight less. You may end up dead , but you'll have some fun.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Tacky,
It's naturally frustrating if you feel like you're not accomplishing anything in the game because story concerns are overriding what you can do as a character. If it's just too far down the road of railroading, and you feel like the PCs are going to go through certain outcomes no matter what they do, then you probably will be frustrated.
It's naturally frustrating if you feel like you're not accomplishing anything in the game because story concerns are overriding what you can do as a character. If it's just too far down the road of railroading, and you feel like the PCs are going to go through certain outcomes no matter what they do, then you probably will be frustrated.
JRRNeiklot
First Post
I saw absolutely no peoblem with the low magic aspect, nor the limited weapons and armor, but the DM NPC and story telling crap gets on my nerves. It's not the dm's job to tell a story. He presents the framework and the pcs tell the story. I'd just axe his pet npc the first chance I got, even if it meant an alignment change.
ThoughtBubble said:
Danke. I'm not really looking for solutions, because, well, I'm not quitting the game, and I'm not going to do a one-man "I can make the game change" campaign.
- The OOC table talk.
- Actually getting to play a game, not just GM one.
- Varied environments for combat
- A fun "kill it, then eat it" system that uses snacks for miniatures
Smurf: My mistake in writing. I was actually taken below 0. I was definitely down and dying.
Someone else made the good suggestion of learning to work with his house-ruled combat system as best I can. I'm working with that, as I am with runic magic, but in order to keep elements of mystery and surprise in the game (paraphrasing the DM's words), the DM has refused to tell us how things work beyond the introductory levels. We weren't allowed to see the high-level combat maneuvers.
So yes, this would be like being able to see Dodge and Power Attack and not getting to read the descriptions for (or even know about) Spring Attack or Great Cleave. I have no idea what the rules are like up there -- just that those rules make bad guys screw us over from time to time.
Thanks, everybody. Good to know I'm not just crazy.
Your DM's name isn't Dave by any chance? This setup sounds suspiciously like that a DM who ran a brief campaign, that came before Shilsen started running our current saturday campaign. He really wanted to be running a GURPS campaign, but since nobody was interested in that he was trying to force D&D to fit the GURPS mould. It may be a similar sort of thing with your DM there Takyris.
Well good luck, I know there are few things more frustrating than trying to deal with a DM who's response to everything is "No you can't do that" and who doesn't offer any alternatives.
Well good luck, I know there are few things more frustrating than trying to deal with a DM who's response to everything is "No you can't do that" and who doesn't offer any alternatives.
