As a sidenote, I remember in the old AD&D all-evil Game I played. Player presence was usually weak, I was one of the very few who was practically there every time, others came when they wanted. So then I was sick one day and told the DM I can't come. On that day, they all get to have a "magic dream": They tell the DM about what they dream and all get a massive bonus (probably as a reward for their playing overall). The vampire in the party suddenly became a daywalker, other got ability bonuses, and such strong stuff. I didn't get any, because I wasn't there. I wasn't absent because I preferred to go swimming (something others did regularly), but I had a good reason, and it was my first, second at most, time I wasn't there for the game. When I asked If I could get to have a dream like the others, the Dm answered "No, I'm to lazy for it."
Nothing to do with the discussion in progress, just remembered it when I read this, reminded me of it, and so I posted it
Chimera said:
If it had been a matter of that timing, then that might have been so. But he decided to do this just as we were making progress in figuring out the plot. Suddenly he's interrupting the flow to say that his character is going off on his own to find someone to teach him UnderCommon and spending time talking to the GM about where he can find such an instructor. He did this well before he got the call to leave.
As your rules for giving loot and XP clearly show, you like to have individuals, not a hive-mind party (we usually keep the XP level, people work together on the battles, even if they can't contribute equally for all of them, they work together on the other thigns, even if they can't contribute equally. There's combat XP, story XP, quest XP, and the players usually play their characters reasonably well. Leads to less competitiveness in the party and hey, it's a game, not a race). So you surely understand if those players have personal matters to attent to, not just the party's quest. I even say he's doing good roleplaying - others would just have takent he language on the next level-up and ignored that you have to teach it, assuming it happens behind the curtain. Every player is entitled to a little time for individual stuff now and then.
I suggest that you try this bit of logic on your next employer and see how well it flies.
We're not talking about work. We're not payed for roleplaying, and we're not supposed to take it all too seriously. Try your logic on another friend of yours (a non-roleplayer) and see how well it flies...
Chimera said:
Our GM gives an amount for the session and for role-play. As far as I can see, he's due partial credit for the session, but given his sleeping and non-participation during the role-play (deciding his character was effectively walking out on us to go off and learn Undercommon),
The way I see it he did help the party: he had to fight his desire to use his psionic abilities to try to charm people. Maybe sooner or later he'd have done it, failed, and ruined the whole show for the party. The way people react here he'd probably got XP penalty for failing the mission or something. He chose to look into his language training (which might even help the party in the future) instead of tempting himself any longer.
It hasn't been clear whether he would have abandoned the party to that big fight in order to learn Undercommon, though. He had no other choice but to leave the table, and so he found a good way to explain it. Personally, I don't like to have another play my character, either. If I kill it myself, It's my fault, but if someone else plays my character and lets him die, I'll might actually get mad at that person. And considering the kind of relationship the party seems to have (based on the observations I made reading this post), I couldn't blame anyone if they wouldn't let others touch their dice.
Hatchling Dragon said:
On the plus side, assuming the group will even consider letting me back in next session,
And you even consider going back to them...
Chimera said:
He told me that he didn't trust any of us to run his character properly.
Well, you don't know his character. Period. You don't know his deep motivations and all that. From that POV, you're not able to run his character properly. Noone but he himself is. Not you, not the DM, not Gary Gygax himself.
Me personally, I've been playing D&D since 1977. That's 27 years of D&D experience. I've GM'd six campaigns in that time. I've probably played more psionic characters and NPCs (a major race in my homebrew world are psionic) than all the PCs HD has ever played in total.
Now, I might get you wrong, but I sense a little bit of arrogance in this statement. Numbers don't make a good roleplayer. You may have played more psions than Hatchling Dragon, but you didn't create his character.
If we start throwing numbers around, I might get ridiculous and go "Hey, I have like 10 times as many posts on enworld as you have, so my opinion is worth far more. Now shut up, worthless newblood." But I don't do that (If we did that, we'd have been forced to kill Crothian long before ;-)), so please don't do such a thing, either.
Not a one of us wants to replay this encounter to satisfy HD!!!
The way I hear it, he doesn't really want it. It was mentioned here that he could get a little solo-adventure (this can even be done with ICQ or someting like that - In fact, I did that once) so he can get back on par with the others (not that he wouldn't, he's lower level then the rest now, and will earn more combat XP).
Btw: Ingame, if the other members of my party wouldn't even consider letting me have a small share of their spoils (especially those things they can't use, anyway, like a dorje or cognizance crystal), It would be my turn to be offended by them. Friends would do such a thing...
On the bottom line: The way you guys are talking to each other (especially Chimeras reactions), I'd make haste to go look for another party. You seem overly hostile and take it all too seriously. I wouldn't expect such reactions from friends.
