Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 3174741" data-attributes="member: 12332">All of my house-ruled games have fact-sheets or, lately, game wikis, so that everybody can have a working knowledge of the rules of the game as the game will be played.  I tend to like to play with Grim Tales or d20Modern with a few house rules on how Action Points work and a few additional manuevers for flavor ... changes to gear and things like that.  I think it can be fun to, say, play in a game where weapons and armor are different or more expensive ... I wouldn't want the NPCs to get stuff from the books as normal just because.I thought the Draconians sucked in Dragonlance, I thought the Drow sucked in Forgotten Realms.  People who show up with better gear than the PCs improve the level of gear the PCs get ... now, flavor stuff like orc weapons might be kind of cool, if we're not otherwise hurting for weapons and armor.  A guy fighting for his life, however, is going to go ahead and use the orc sword ... heck, I'd be choping off orc ears and decorating the scabbard of my nifty new Orc Sword.  "He's an Orc Sympathizer!"  "No, I'm a Professional Orc Slayer and I took this sword in a fight with an orc chief and these are his ears ... for luck."On the whole, your situation sucks.  You've already laid out your parameters, however ... you're not going to try to change the game, you're not going to quit, and you're not going to say that the GM knows better than you do how to have fun (which he probably doesn't, but there we are).So, really, all you've got left is venting on messageboards and waiting for the game to be over.It's probably not going to be fun ... I would start configuring your rogue away from combat and away from any skills he doesn't call for checks for, only put ranks in thigs he calls for checks on with regularity and become a face/role-playing specialist.  This guy sounds like he responds well to total and utter BS as long as it feeds his egotistical vision of cinema (self-aggrandizing cinema where the PCs get backhanded off piers and badguys stomp them down to attack the back lines) ... hell, your character will probably LIVE LONGER if he subjugates himself at every possible opportunity to the evil NPCs.One of the most fun PCs I've played in a long time was Grimbold The Mighty, a goblin rogue.  I played him as a cowardly little conniver ... at the start of every combat I'd do my high-pitched "goblin voice" and say:  "Flee!!!" and make my first actions to move directly for cover/concealment and Hide.  Then I'd sneak around the fringes and find an opportunity to jump out and stab something or shoot an arrow into something from hiding ... hopefully to kill it, and if not, then I'd flee again.  That was the whole schtick ... running and fleeing and being terrified of everything and then boasting to NPCs about Grimbold's mightiness.At night, setting up camp, Grimbold would set up a tent, lay out his bedroll ... and then stuff it with grass and old clothes and go sleep under a log or in a hole 30-60 feet outside of camp.Essentially, I played him as pretty much useless.  I got into it, and I thought it was a lot of fun.  Now, MY reason was that another player had such an overpowered character that there was no real need for me to be effective ... but I figure tactics like that would be pretty good when you're also denied the ability to be effective because of the GM's dippy house rules.  Just get into NOT being effective.  I say stuff him and his house rules ... the only possible logical reason for all of it is that he wants to have total control over the PCs so he can "tell a story" and make sure it's HIS story ... so the hell with it and play to it the best you can.  Swing from the chandeliers BECAUSE the encounter is so hopelessly over the top that you can't win ... obviously he doesn't want YOU to win, he wants his little STORY to win ... and here's the thing - if the story is the all-important thing here, then he can't kill your PC.  This guy sounds like he's the kind of guy that's going to start ignoring and fudging die rolls to keep you guys alive at all costs ... not winning ... at least not winning without phyrric victories ... but you'll probably find that after about half the party has been stomped into dogmeat the badguys will start falling over themselves to lose to you.  Especially with the DMPC there.  This guy will probably fall all over himself with joy if you start setting it up where his little PC archer gets to save your bacon at every turn.  It's all going to be about his power trip anyway, so take joy in making it a spectacularly dumb power trip of suitably cinematic and epic proportions. Slapstick comedy if you will.Swing from the rafters while brandishing your sword and do so more when things are obviously dire!  Broach of barrel of ale when combat starts and say you're going to fight with your sword in your left hand while drinking a tankard ... then change to the right while quoting Princess Bride!  When the going gets tough, the tough get stupid.  Throw bottles and rocks for 1d2 points of damage instead of trying to stab people.  Spend round after round of combat setting up a simple tripwire trap or toss a bucketful of waste from the head at the enemy.Ignore the rules, because it's obvious that he's going to.And, if it gets your character killed ... excellent.  If it causes a TPK, even more excellent than excellent.  Then its done and you're out of a dumb game.  I doubt it'll go that way, though, because that would mean this dude's power trip is over.You've basically been disenfranchised, so you might as well show out because nothing you do within the rules is really going to change anything.--fje</blockquote>

Verification