shadow
First Post
Many of us older gamers have had the chance to play with several different gaming groups over the years with different styles of play. What was the best gaming group that you played with? What was the worst? Why?
My best gaming group was a group that I played with last year until it unfortunately broke up. It was a rather small group with a mere three permanent members. Yet in spite of the small size (or rather because of it) it was one of the best groups that I played with. The small size meant that we could have very specific adventures geared toward our characters. I really enjoyed the interesting and fast paced adventures. Things that I don't usually enjoy like plot heavy role playing and political intrigue worked real well in the group because the small size meant that I didn't get left in the shadow of more talkative players. Moreover I got along really well with the other two members. Being friends with the other players really helped make it a good group
The worst group that I played with was a group I played with in college some years ago. They just had an incompatible playing style. I enjoy high fantasy, epic adventure, and heroic characters. The group that I played with played a grim/gritty "life is cheap" style of game. In the game PC's got killed at the drop of a hat. Moreover the DM made up his own rule system because D&D was too "unrealistic". From what little that I remember it used a percentile role for skills and everything, except no one in the group (including long time players) had more than a 30% chance in succeeding in any skill. In fact my gypsy / bard character had a negative chance for move silently because he was wearing normal clothes! (I remember the explanation being something to the fact of the medieval clothes were very loose fitting and tended to get snagged and hence make lots of noise.) Also we had to talk in character in all times. If we said something (even as a joke) it was assumed that our character said it. I once asked a question to the DM about the name of a town we were traveling to (he only mentioned it once previously) and since it was assumed that my character said it, I was interogated by NPCs in the party. (Any native would obviously know the name of the town. My character not knowing it made him very suspicious.) Finally I got killed in combat. I tried to back stab an opponent in combat. (A valid tactic in D&D). However, I failed the attack, and the opponent turned around and swung his sword cutting my character's throat killing him instantly. I was then told to roll up a new character for the next session. Needless to say that I didn't come back. If people enjoy the "grim-gritty", "life is cheap" style of play, that's fine, but I don't care for it at all.
My best gaming group was a group that I played with last year until it unfortunately broke up. It was a rather small group with a mere three permanent members. Yet in spite of the small size (or rather because of it) it was one of the best groups that I played with. The small size meant that we could have very specific adventures geared toward our characters. I really enjoyed the interesting and fast paced adventures. Things that I don't usually enjoy like plot heavy role playing and political intrigue worked real well in the group because the small size meant that I didn't get left in the shadow of more talkative players. Moreover I got along really well with the other two members. Being friends with the other players really helped make it a good group
The worst group that I played with was a group I played with in college some years ago. They just had an incompatible playing style. I enjoy high fantasy, epic adventure, and heroic characters. The group that I played with played a grim/gritty "life is cheap" style of game. In the game PC's got killed at the drop of a hat. Moreover the DM made up his own rule system because D&D was too "unrealistic". From what little that I remember it used a percentile role for skills and everything, except no one in the group (including long time players) had more than a 30% chance in succeeding in any skill. In fact my gypsy / bard character had a negative chance for move silently because he was wearing normal clothes! (I remember the explanation being something to the fact of the medieval clothes were very loose fitting and tended to get snagged and hence make lots of noise.) Also we had to talk in character in all times. If we said something (even as a joke) it was assumed that our character said it. I once asked a question to the DM about the name of a town we were traveling to (he only mentioned it once previously) and since it was assumed that my character said it, I was interogated by NPCs in the party. (Any native would obviously know the name of the town. My character not knowing it made him very suspicious.) Finally I got killed in combat. I tried to back stab an opponent in combat. (A valid tactic in D&D). However, I failed the attack, and the opponent turned around and swung his sword cutting my character's throat killing him instantly. I was then told to roll up a new character for the next session. Needless to say that I didn't come back. If people enjoy the "grim-gritty", "life is cheap" style of play, that's fine, but I don't care for it at all.
