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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5344447" data-attributes="member: 16069">I love you Jester... but I can see his point. Me and my players have been together since Feb/March of this year. None of them have any of the books, or access to CB, if I said 'Wizards' to them they'd think of Gandalf... not WOTC.The point being I do the work, and when I've mentioned this before at Enworld, I've had many messages from many other DMs saying exactly the same thing- the players turn up and play.And its not that I'm lazy, I work hard for my game, but I don't understand all of Dark Sun, and how I've figured things out in the past is by making a character using the CB. I think I could sit down with my players and get them to produce PCs in 4 hours- based on how long it takes them to produce characters using CB with me helping them (even then the PCs are usually with errors). Two Handed Fighters with Longswords et al- and they've been at the game for 6 months. If its second nature to you then... if you're new to it... and at an age when computers/exams/forms/writing is not your friend then its a tough ask.And here's another confession- I don't understand the changes made by Essentials, I mean I've read it (actually not all of it- and that's nothing to do with lazy, that's real work getting in the way) but I don't have the brain space- I ask here if its vitally important but otherwise I try to just get by.Now you could tell me to get better players- but these are the first round-the-table real people I've had to game with here in Grimsby for 5 years. The electronic tools are the best thing that has happened to D&D (alongside 4e) IMHO, and I've been about since the first Red box.And yes, I rely on them too much, but I rely on them because without them my game is very limited, as far as DS and the Essentials rules then I just can't do it.And the cost of the tools and the value for money is spurious, if they were $10/month I'd pay it, $20/month same, $30/month same etc.Providing I could rely on them to keep up to date with hard copies being produced.Other than Enworld (and similar) websites I have no one (not even my players) to ask the questions I need answers to- in truth the questions mostly disappear when I can fiddle with the Comp/CB et al and figure things out for myself.It's not that I hate WOTC, it's not that I'm a fanboy- I just don't get (on a regular basis) how the company that produces the game that I love can continue to disappoint me, and still I want to give them my money, my time, et al.All the arguments have been paraded here before- they knew Essentials was coming, same DS et al, they've messed up and the new info looks like a bit of smoke and mirrors. My interpretation of course but based upon my (and nobody elses) previous experiences as regards Gandalf, I mean Wizards.Nothing I can do of course, sigh... I'm the kind of idiot that goes to sleep at night dreaming of the 4e (TM) Gaming Table... incidentally when Wizards announced the on-line game table was coming... and here's 4e by the way, then spontaneously over a dozen of my ex-players (dispersed around the country/globe) got in touch with me within a week of the video going on Youtube. We talked about it for an age on-line, half of them bought the 4E PHB, and after approx six months, with fewer and fewer e-mails and still no sign of the table, they all went back to their everyday lives.The few that were left tried Maptools but... Anyway, my final point since the start of 4e Wizards (IMHO) have had all these great ideas et al, which have made it easier for me to get a game going, ultimately. But have still managed to somehow make it harder (IMHO) to keep up with the game. Lots of time saving on-line tools that are not quite...Last example (promise). In our game we've-Applied some of the Essentials but not all, because... (see above).Postponed (again, and again) DarksunHad real problems updating the monsters for Paragon Level in-line with the changes from MM2, MM3 etc. In truth I didn't even know the changes had happened- which I'm blaming no-one for, I've got 95% of the hard back books but  only read the things that I've needed to know. Not a massive problem I know but we've stopped playing our Paragon game (the WOTC H1 etc. Adventure Path) because it was just too easy- I'm trying to fix the problems but... time.At presnt I have not played D&D for two weeks, in March when we started we played once/week, at one point over the summer we got up to three sessions in a week. The desire is still there but with work getting busy, and time issues, the players are still phoning and e-mailing-Have you fixed the monsters for the next scenario- nope.Have you got DS figured- nope.When are we going to play again...I've read back through what I've put- the only thing I'd change is now that I remember Becky (one of my players) didn't know who Gandalf was.The thing is you can play D&D without being a... whatever the word is (geek/nerd/grognard), actually now that I think about in my previous group then only half of the players had access to the 4e PHB (maptools players scattered around the globe, all used CB). The group before that the same...I feel better now... and relax.Cheers Goonalan</blockquote>

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