Guilty Admissions...

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Hi, I'm Alaxk and ...
[roll 1d10 and read the following result to the players]

1. My User name is taken from a character I made up in middle school. Only later did it become a DnD character
2. I love, love, love 7th Sea.
3. I want to roll 3d6, in line, and play what I get. I want you to do this too!
4. I like tactical combat, but I also like games that don't feature tactical combat
5. I like story driven games and I like sandbox games
6. I believe in Harvey Dent
7. I think its the DM's job to manage player expectation
8. I don't think random encounter tables are used enough
9. I'm being attacked by 1d4 orcs!
10. roll twice and ignore this result

 

[Dragonbait]

Hello, my name is Dragonbait (no, not THE Dragonbait) and..

* Found the Lord of the Rings novel series to be terribly boring but I greatly enjoyed the movies.
* Preferred the Hobbit over the Lord of the Rings.
* Never played basic D&D or more than 1 session of a 1e game.
* Find the underdog hero much more entertaining than the experienced hero.
* Adore kobolds, even before they became the "other popular race that are not Drow" in 3E.
* Almost never play a human-like race (human, elf, dwarf, etc.) unless those are the only options (Warhammer) then will never play anything BUT a human.
* I am intimidated by the fact that I might need to start looking for a new system after I realized that 4E never sat well and I now can't stand 3E.
* I get pissed off at the rules for the Pathfinder/3E campaign I'm playing in every session but I adore Paizo and and love their products.
* Find Grayhawk terribly dated.

 

[M.L. Martin]

My confessions:

* I went through an anti-D&D period shortly after I started, for a variety of reasons. I changed my mind, but . . .
* I still don't much like 'classic' or 'old school' D&D and all its works. My heart rests with 2nd Edition and some of its spinoffs regarding tone and flavor, and non-D&D games.
* I would like to like 4E more than I do, but the grid-centric nature of combat and the lack of mechanical stability put me off.
* I would love to have seen a 3E without Adkison and Dancey's philosophies of "Rules for Everything", "One Game to Rule Them All, One Game to Bind Them" and "DM as Locutus of RAW" (along with the later emphasis on miniatures).
* I have no interest in Planescape and Greyhawk, and get annoyed by some of the more vocal fans who think that those settings are somehow objectively superior or 'truer' D&D.
* I still love Ravenloft.
* I have a convoluted love/hate/apathy/frustration relationship with Dragonlance.
* I miss the SAGA System.
* I love Tolkien, but think Jackson's movies started out good but got more and more flawed until the first half or so of RotK (theatrical version at least) was almost a complete trainwreck as an adaptation.
* I like Star Wars--Original films, Special Editions, Prequels, and most of the Expanded Universe. Strangely, the part of the last I've never gotten into (through both lack of opportunity and lack of interest) is Bioware's KOTOR material.
* I have no patience with the self-appointed promoters of sandbox play and amoral, ruthless, "kill them and take their stuff" as the 'right' way to play D&D. Indeed, I think the latter has done more harm than good to the hobby and its players, and would welcome a more heroic model as the 'baseline'.
* While I acknowledge Paizo's skill at writing, their focus on Greyhawk, 1E nostalgia and downright demonophilia during their run on DRAGON (and apparently DUNGEON) leave me uninterested in most of their material.
* With all that in mind, I was half-hoping that 4E and Pathfinder would destroy each other, and Star Wars: Saga Edition would become the new 'default' game. Unfortunately, even if the former happens, the latter will not.

 

[Almacov]

Hello folks. I'm Almacov...
I love both gnomes and kobolds and sometimes wonder if I should feel conflicted about that.

In my heart I feel I'd probably prefer rules-light systems without level-based progression tracks, but I still can't stop myself from playing and collecting D&D.

I find the idea of tracking XP daunting and unrewarding, so I never have. I've also infected all the DMs I've introduced to the game with this mindset.

When a fellow gamer damages one of my books, I never fully forgive them.

I have a campaign that I've left at a cliffhanger for months and months... out of laziness, and not wanting to fight the dark lord Skeh Djule.

Sometimes I feel like I still play D20 out of sloth - Not wanting to teach other gamers a new ruleset, and not having many friends who are already familiar with other systems.

Nevertheless, I do have fun with it.

 

[ghrezdd]

Hi, my name is Ghrezdd and I...

... am addicted to gaming of all sorts (RPGs, card games and board games);
... am addicted to dice. I have a spreadsheet to keep track of which sets I have (over 400 7 die polyhedral sets);
... despise some rules sets so utterly that I will never play them;
... have learned that it does not matter what game you play (or edition for that matter) as long as you are with your friends and have a good time;
... feel that theory behind generic systems is ultimately flawed. To make them work for a particular genre, mods have to be applied, which means they are no longer generic;
... find the Harry Potter series to be annoying;
... believe that JRRT was deeply, deeply, deeply in dire need of an editor;
... spend waaaayyy to much on games, especially since I will never play or use most of them;
... lightly railroad my players through campaigns, but my favorite games I have played in were very player driven;
... feel that the AD&D DMG is one of the best rpg books ever;
... swill Coke Classic like it is going out of style;

and lastly my online name if from a character I made in High School. At the time I was infatuated with weirdness that we collectively call the English Language. So I picked a name - Fred - then adjusted the spelling. "Gh" from touGH, decided that if English can support a silent "p" (pteradon) then it can support a silent "z" and then stuck an extra "d" at the end because I was sure that there was an exception in the English language that would support it. So Ghrezdd = Fred. Sigh. I am so glad I am way past High School.

 

[Dedekind]

My name is Dedekind and my parole officer suggests that I tell you that:

* I dislike almost all fantasy and sci-fi novels. IMO, most are terribly written, particularly the dialogue. I've stopped reading them.

* I really love the statistics/probability side of the game.
* Corollary: I get irritated when I'm told that shouldn't be my focus.

* I care more about the DM's plot than my character's motivation.

* I occasionally like to sing pop songs at the gaming table and occasionally they are related to what we are doing.

 

[nedjer]

My name is Dedekind and my parole officer suggests that I tell you that:

* I occasionally like to sing pop songs at the gaming table and occasionally they are related to what we are doing.

My name is nedjer and the body of the last person to sing a pop song at my gaming table is buried under a patio somewhere north of Aberdeen.

Wake me up bloody buttercup - not if I hit you on the head with this spade.

 

[SKyOdin]

Okay, here is some of my embarrassing stuff:

1) I have never watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and most references to it go over my head.

2) Heck, 90% of geek pop-culture references go over my head. I know videogames and anime and that's about it.

3) I haven't had a consistent D&D game for more than three years now.

4) I'm a history major, so I turn into "that guy who thinks he's an expert" whenever history is brought up in a gaming context.

5) When I bought my first D&D boxed set, I thought I had gotten a bad copy since it didn't have a board in it like most board games do.

 

[Skeld]

I am Skeld.


As a DM, I -

• ... am a dirty railroader.
• ... get driven into fits of rage by the Monk class. Hate isn't a strong enough word.
• ... fudge rolls on occasion, but usually to keep from killing a PC that doesn't deserve death (unless they're playing a Monk).
• ... usually make my players roll stats, sometimes 3d6 in order.
• ... emphasis the "play" over the "role" in RPG.
• ... dislike weird, complex PC backstories about dead fathers, missing sisters, orphaned characters, and anything else that screams "me, me, me!"
• ... want to convince my players (most of whom didn't start until 2e or 3e) to give a BEMCI mini-campaign a try.

As a player, I

• ... am fond of Bards and Rangers.
• ... constantly get my fellow party members in trouble by charging off into challenges.
• ... prefer rolling stats.
• ... don't remotely optimize because I don't care about whether or not my character is "effective."

-Skeld

 

[jbear]

I am John and ...

-I don't like being a Nilbog.

-I was warned away from D&D by my parents for fear it would lead to demon posession.

-I suffered guilt attacks after sneaking into the lounge on Saturday mornings to watch Dungeons and Dragons cartoon on the telly, volume on minimum, face pressed up to the screen, finger hovering over the button to change the channel at the slightest sound of anyone else getting up. I truly feared for my soul ... but not half as much as I feared Dad's belt.

-My slide down the slippery slope began after playing Heroe Quest at a friend's house who lived down the road.

-I had several hiding places in my bedroom for the fantasy novels that I got on loan from the library. I would read them hidden inside the covers of 'safe' books.

-I made up my own RPG when I was 13 so that I could play guilt free with my friends. If I made the game up, it couldn't be considered D&D and hence I was safe from the Lake of Eternal Fire.

-D&D is the only thing I've ever remotely been addicted to, except maybe Coke (as in Cola).

-To this day, 25 years after they had that conversation with me, my parents still do not know that I play Dungeons and Dragons. They are also completely oblivious to the fact that it is their fault.