der_kluge
Adventurer
This past weekend was game night for us. Recently this has been somewhat of a rare occurrence seems it seems like we have all been so busy this year. It's been really crazy. In fact, next game night won't be for another 3 weeks.
Normally we would have played my game. In fact, I went to my friends house with all the appopriate books. This is a 15th level romp through Slaad infested dungeons.
But instead of 6 players, I had 3. Actually, I can't remember the last time I had all 6 show up, but normally we proceed with at least 4.
I decided I didn't want to run my game with so few people. First, I don't like people missing out on the events that might unfold, and secondly, everyone would have to play two characters each, and combat would have taken forever.
Instead I talked them into playing something my friends and I developed called "round-robin DM'ing".
The concept is simple:
1. roll a dice. This could be 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6 depending on how *crazy* you want to get with it. This dice determines character level. Everyone then makes a character of this level. Alternatively, you can decide on a level. We decided on level 3.
2. Make your character. Everyone makes a character of the chosen level. In our game, we opted to go "hard-core" and did a 3d6 IN ORDER build. The highest stat was 15. My character - a halfling cleric, had a 12 wisdom. He didn't have anything higher than a 12. The highest strenght in the party was a 9! (and that was the fighter, who didn't know enough about the rules to know to take weapon finesse, even though he had a 15 Dex) Oddly enough, we had an array of scores such that we could play 1 each of the core classes, at least semi-effectively.
3. Roll initiative (unmodified). The lowest roll has to DM first. DMing then proceeds clockwise.
4. A DM *has* to DM for at least 15 minutes, and can not DM for more than 30 minutes. Someone needs to be designated as a time keeper. Having more than one person keep time doesn't hurt either. Between 15 and 30 minutes, the current DM can PASS at any time, even in the middle of melee. While DM'ing, the players character becomes an NPC.
It was great. The guy playing the fighter started, and we found ourselves in a tavern, and we became enthralled with this old man telling stories. While we were in this place, a man came in with some thugs, and the storyteller yelled out, "I see you've found me, Brill! You won't take me out that easily!" And then a battle ensued. Once the battle was under way, I took over, and the storyteller vanished, and then "Brill" fled, leaving his thugs. Shortly therafter, the thugs' forms changed, and they were revealed as zombies! During this commotion, the rogue pilfered a key hidden under a pile of turnips behind the counter. Later, another DM had "Brill" arrive again with some sort of compass device that enabled him to locate this key - finding it on the rogue, who was hiding in shadows. Eventually, the storyteller returned, and told us that his apprentice had blocked him from his tower, and he hired us to infiltrate it so that he could return. The key was the key to his treasure vault, and his apprentice wanted in it desperately.
Needless to say we had great fun. After we finished, we discussed where we had intended to take the plot, and it was interesting to see how the other had evolved our ideas into other things. Something tends to appear that I call a "meta-rule" where things generally occur that are not normally found within the books. For example, this storyteller had an ability to mimic sounds that was quite captivating. He did this numerous times during the course of the evening. That's not something in the rules, and if someone has a vague description, creatures can often "morph" when shifted from one DM to another, creating abstract monsters that don't exist in the core rules.
This, my friends, is D&D in its purest form. There was no min-maxing. We all laughed, and had a great time. There was a lot of role-playing going on, and our character sheets were literally scrawled onto pieces of 4"x6" notepad paper.
If you're in a rut, give this a shot. It may very well be the best game of D&D you ever play.
Normally we would have played my game. In fact, I went to my friends house with all the appopriate books. This is a 15th level romp through Slaad infested dungeons.
But instead of 6 players, I had 3. Actually, I can't remember the last time I had all 6 show up, but normally we proceed with at least 4.
I decided I didn't want to run my game with so few people. First, I don't like people missing out on the events that might unfold, and secondly, everyone would have to play two characters each, and combat would have taken forever.
Instead I talked them into playing something my friends and I developed called "round-robin DM'ing".
The concept is simple:
1. roll a dice. This could be 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6 depending on how *crazy* you want to get with it. This dice determines character level. Everyone then makes a character of this level. Alternatively, you can decide on a level. We decided on level 3.
2. Make your character. Everyone makes a character of the chosen level. In our game, we opted to go "hard-core" and did a 3d6 IN ORDER build. The highest stat was 15. My character - a halfling cleric, had a 12 wisdom. He didn't have anything higher than a 12. The highest strenght in the party was a 9! (and that was the fighter, who didn't know enough about the rules to know to take weapon finesse, even though he had a 15 Dex) Oddly enough, we had an array of scores such that we could play 1 each of the core classes, at least semi-effectively.
3. Roll initiative (unmodified). The lowest roll has to DM first. DMing then proceeds clockwise.
4. A DM *has* to DM for at least 15 minutes, and can not DM for more than 30 minutes. Someone needs to be designated as a time keeper. Having more than one person keep time doesn't hurt either. Between 15 and 30 minutes, the current DM can PASS at any time, even in the middle of melee. While DM'ing, the players character becomes an NPC.
It was great. The guy playing the fighter started, and we found ourselves in a tavern, and we became enthralled with this old man telling stories. While we were in this place, a man came in with some thugs, and the storyteller yelled out, "I see you've found me, Brill! You won't take me out that easily!" And then a battle ensued. Once the battle was under way, I took over, and the storyteller vanished, and then "Brill" fled, leaving his thugs. Shortly therafter, the thugs' forms changed, and they were revealed as zombies! During this commotion, the rogue pilfered a key hidden under a pile of turnips behind the counter. Later, another DM had "Brill" arrive again with some sort of compass device that enabled him to locate this key - finding it on the rogue, who was hiding in shadows. Eventually, the storyteller returned, and told us that his apprentice had blocked him from his tower, and he hired us to infiltrate it so that he could return. The key was the key to his treasure vault, and his apprentice wanted in it desperately.
Needless to say we had great fun. After we finished, we discussed where we had intended to take the plot, and it was interesting to see how the other had evolved our ideas into other things. Something tends to appear that I call a "meta-rule" where things generally occur that are not normally found within the books. For example, this storyteller had an ability to mimic sounds that was quite captivating. He did this numerous times during the course of the evening. That's not something in the rules, and if someone has a vague description, creatures can often "morph" when shifted from one DM to another, creating abstract monsters that don't exist in the core rules.
This, my friends, is D&D in its purest form. There was no min-maxing. We all laughed, and had a great time. There was a lot of role-playing going on, and our character sheets were literally scrawled onto pieces of 4"x6" notepad paper.
If you're in a rut, give this a shot. It may very well be the best game of D&D you ever play.
