I have been wrestling with this for a while, but I didn't think of seeking advice on-line until I read the wonderful "My wife's taking the plunge" thread. Not wanting to hijack it, I started this new one.
After years of showing little interest in my gaming hobby, my wife recently expressed a desire to join a new campaign I was beginning. We had just moved across the country for a new job and didn't know anyone, but a local game shop owner said I could start a campaign at the shop.
Things seemed to be going pretty well, however, it became clear that there was a great dichotomy between my wife and all of the other players. While I had peppered the group with various mysteries and intrigue, the group generally chose to ignore them. They decided to simply leave town when they learned a local merchant might want them dead and they sold off a collection of mysterious jewelry that had acquired rather than bother with discovering its origins or even its properties. Only when member of the party ever expressed any interest in investigating these plots. You guessed it, only my wife.
I've been continually trying to gage her opinion of my campaign. In general, she says she likes the ideas in the game, but that the other players just want to venture through the wilderness and kill things (a very true observation) and she has expressed boredom while playing.
Trying to please everyone as much of the time as I can (and without the benefit of the great advice in the aforementioned "plunge" thread), I decided to run a large combat adventure, destroying an entire town of undead, when I figured my wife would be out of town (as she occassionally is during her job). Well, her schedule got changed, so her character was there for the first session, when the PCs fought their way into the town, but she wasn't there for the second, when the PCs fought their way into the castle.
Now, knowing that she wasn't going to be there for the second session, I asked her if she wanted someone else to run her character or remove the character from the adventure. I explained to her that in the latter case, there was the chance her character (and possibly the rest of the party) would be killed. She said to have one of the party members run her character.
The PCs stormed the castle, but were attacked by a wraith in a long, confined stairwell. The wraith used hit and run tactics on the PCs, and though he tried killing all of the PCs equally, only one of them died. You guessed it, my wife's character.
We are on hiatus for a few weeks while I take the CA bar exam, but I am wondering what to do when we start up again.
My wife is pretty mad at me, even though I told her that there are ways to resurrect her character. I am thinking of imposing a DM fiat that prevents characters from dying when the player is not around, but this would invalidate things that have occurred during game play and causes problems for the future in justifying why a character is suddenly missing or nigh invulnerable when a player is not around.
Any in game and/or marital advice? I'd greatly appreciate it.
After years of showing little interest in my gaming hobby, my wife recently expressed a desire to join a new campaign I was beginning. We had just moved across the country for a new job and didn't know anyone, but a local game shop owner said I could start a campaign at the shop.
Things seemed to be going pretty well, however, it became clear that there was a great dichotomy between my wife and all of the other players. While I had peppered the group with various mysteries and intrigue, the group generally chose to ignore them. They decided to simply leave town when they learned a local merchant might want them dead and they sold off a collection of mysterious jewelry that had acquired rather than bother with discovering its origins or even its properties. Only when member of the party ever expressed any interest in investigating these plots. You guessed it, only my wife.
I've been continually trying to gage her opinion of my campaign. In general, she says she likes the ideas in the game, but that the other players just want to venture through the wilderness and kill things (a very true observation) and she has expressed boredom while playing.
Trying to please everyone as much of the time as I can (and without the benefit of the great advice in the aforementioned "plunge" thread), I decided to run a large combat adventure, destroying an entire town of undead, when I figured my wife would be out of town (as she occassionally is during her job). Well, her schedule got changed, so her character was there for the first session, when the PCs fought their way into the town, but she wasn't there for the second, when the PCs fought their way into the castle.
Now, knowing that she wasn't going to be there for the second session, I asked her if she wanted someone else to run her character or remove the character from the adventure. I explained to her that in the latter case, there was the chance her character (and possibly the rest of the party) would be killed. She said to have one of the party members run her character.
The PCs stormed the castle, but were attacked by a wraith in a long, confined stairwell. The wraith used hit and run tactics on the PCs, and though he tried killing all of the PCs equally, only one of them died. You guessed it, my wife's character.
We are on hiatus for a few weeks while I take the CA bar exam, but I am wondering what to do when we start up again.
My wife is pretty mad at me, even though I told her that there are ways to resurrect her character. I am thinking of imposing a DM fiat that prevents characters from dying when the player is not around, but this would invalidate things that have occurred during game play and causes problems for the future in justifying why a character is suddenly missing or nigh invulnerable when a player is not around.
Any in game and/or marital advice? I'd greatly appreciate it.
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