Airwalkrr's Age of Worms

[Olaf the Stout]

The frustrating thing is that he's still posting on EN World. I've posted multiple times asking him about it when I saw him post in a thread in General. I've also e-mailed him twice about it. In all instances he has simply ignored me. Either I'm now on his ignore list for some reason or he is just avoiding me about it. Either way I think it is pretty rude.

Is this relatively common for a DM to just ditch a PbP game without bothering to let the players know? I've only played in one other one before so I don't know what is common or uncommon.

On a related note, airwalkrr also seems to have stopped posting without warning in the other PbP that he was running (and that one had actually started play).

Olaf the Stout

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Sometimes a person can't meet an obligation and, when confronted with their inability to perform as expected, they clam up not out of ill-will toward their confronter, but out of uncertainty. Admittedly, I don't know anything about airwalkrr or this game, but were I a player here, I'd probably have to content myself with the knowledge that the game tanked prematurely. No need to thrash the DM; something must've changed for him so that he felt he couldn't devote the time to PbP. We all make mistakes.

 

[Phoenix8008]

Sometimes a person can't meet an obligation and, when confronted with their inability to perform as expected, they clam up not out of ill-will toward their confronter, but out of uncertainty. Admittedly, I don't know anything about airwalkrr or this game, but were I a player here, I'd probably have to content myself with the knowledge that the game tanked prematurely. No need to thrash the DM; something must've changed for him so that he felt he couldn't devote the time to PbP. We all make mistakes.

I understand and appreciate all that. I even agree. I suppose my post was trying to give him something to respond to so that he may actually post to let us know if it wasn't going to happen. I don't think it was thrashing the DM too much to say what I've said. If life has interfered and stopped him from being able to run this game or any other, maybe this is the first time this has happened for him and like you say, he might be shy or uncertain of how to tell us. All I'm posting here to do is let him know that in the future, at least let people know what's going on if at all possible. Because people poured time and energy into making up these characters, posting here, and checking here for updates over the last month and more. To silently disappear is just bad manners. I would have been fine with an explanation and apology anytime in the last month. Now, I'm only checking/posting here because of this conversation because I don't think I'd join in now even if the game started for real today.

 

[Manzanita]

These games die all the time. I've been playing PbP here for 4.5 years now. The longest game I was involved with lasted nearly 2 years. It was great, but even the best of games dies eventually. The DM &/or several of the players are sure to burn out.

This is why I now play almost exclusively on persistant worlds, such as our own Living EN world, and Living Eberron. If you really want to bring a PC up levels, and keep playing him or her, you've got to go to a persistant world. I've got two 7th level PCs in Living En World who have now lasted nearly 4 years. When a DM disapears there, a judge steps in and completes the game. Then your PC can continue with a different DM.

If you're a serious, long-term player, you need to check it out.

It can be good for DMs, too. While you do have to conform to certain rules of the board, you can also DM away, until you're tired of it, then quit for a while. You don't have to feel guilty about abandoning your Players, b/c some other DM will step in and take over for you until you're ready to run something else. I wish more DMs would start adventures over there.

 

[Someone]

To be sincere, I've seen the pattenr many times: a DM steps in, starts an ambitious game (like playing an entire adventure path), and soon after starts recruiting for one or two more games. 9 times out of ten, the game dies in a couple of months. I hoped this time I'd had the opportunity to try a class from ToB.

 

[Manzanita]

Really. I only joined this one b/c I've been jonsing for a shot at Age of Worms.

 

[Phoenix8008]

Really. I only joined this one b/c I've been jonsing for a shot at Age of Worms.

Me as well. Maybe something else good will come along and last longer. This is my last post here. Deleting this from my favorites now so I won't be checking back again.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Sometimes a person can't meet an obligation and, when confronted with their inability to perform as expected, they clam up not out of ill-will toward their confronter, but out of uncertainty. Admittedly, I don't know anything about airwalkrr or this game, but were I a player here, I'd probably have to content myself with the knowledge that the game tanked prematurely. No need to thrash the DM; something must've changed for him so that he felt he couldn't devote the time to PbP. We all make mistakes.

That's a fair enough comment CB. I'm not sure if your comment re: thrashing the DM was directed at me. If it was, in my defence, I don't think I am being particularly harsh on airwalkrr. I think that if you start a PbP game and then don't reply to multiple e-mails and messages about the game it is rude.

If he had replied to my e-mail and just said, "I'm unsure whether the game is still going to go ahead." that would have been fine by me. Sometimes people get a bit over-ambitious and then realise it's not going to work out. Psion's RttToH ended fairly early on. However, he kept us informed of how things were going so we all knew what the situation was. I was disappointed that the game ended but because he was honest about it, I didn't have a problem. Similiarly, in your Pathfinder PbP, you let everyone know that you were going to be out of town for a bit and wouldn't be posting. That way, we all knew that you hadn't just ditched the game.

I'm not saying that DM's have to finish a game once they start it. I just ask that they let players know if they decide to end a game instead of just not posting on the thread anymore. I think that is the polite thing to do more than anything else.

CB, if on the other hand, your comment re: thrashing the DM wasn't directed at me, please ignore my comments!

P.S. I'm still very excited about your Pathfinder PbP. August can't come fast enough.

Olaf the Stout