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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 2765414" data-attributes="member: 150">It really does sound like this is a good game, with good players -- players that are invested in their characters and the story, which says a lot.  In an old campaign of mine, with a group I recently disbanded, I used to have occassioanl debates and problems along these sorts of lines with one of my players.  She had a narrative of the game going on in her head, and when things that happened didn't follow the path that she had laid out in her own mind, she would get upset and we would end up having a long email conversation about it between sessions.  I used to think that I had her understanding things, and trusting me again by the time we got to our next game session, but the next time there was a moment of dissonance between my game her the story in her head, our email dialog would start up again.  Now, the first bit of good news is that she would talk to me about it, and we could always have an intelligent discussion and debate about things.  Often I would end up having to reveal things to her about the background story so that she could get a sense of what was going on behind the scenes that forced things to go the way the did.  The bottom line, though, is that you and your husband have two different esthetics about the game -- you're sitting down at the table with two different ideas about what's going to happen.  You're there for escapism, for success, for the fun of being active in ways the real world tends to deny us.  Your Husband is obviously very invested in telling a good story -- and a good story has ups and downs, peaks and valleys of plot that help to push things along.  Bad times make the good times better and keep the story interesting.  Most of the time those two ideas about the game are close enough that it all works out -- after all, the good story that the DM is trying to tell does end with the players succeeding -- but every once in a while there's a big enough gap to cause this sort of discomfort.  The things that happened leading up to the big firestorm -- some foreshadowing, some sense of bad things going on -- and the idea that you were "set up" to care about the town before the attack -- those are all classic narrative techniques.  In any Stephen King movie, the plucky likeable minor character you meet early in the movie is the one who will be dead before the first act.  So, yeah, as others have said, it would be good if you turned your emotional discomfort into character development and roleplaying fodder.  And, probably, this is going to make your eventual defeat of the Elder that much more cathartic and sweet.  But the other things I'd say to you are that you should keep talking about things. Talk with the group and with your husband about what's going on in the game and how you feel about it.  Because, maybe the type of story the DM is trying to tell right now isn't the type of story you want to play a part of.  And while I don't think the DM should jump the tracks and change gears now, for the future having this sort of dialog will help him shape the story into something you'll be more comfortable with.  And, at the same time, have some faith in the story and the job your DM is doing.  Most DMs get their pleasure out of gaming by feeding off the pleasure the players get from the game.  A few just like to kill PCs, but most of us are there to have a good time, and we only have a good time if the players do.  We get very invested in our stories, our plots, and our NPCs.  And we put a lot of work into the game. We're not doing it to mess with your head and make you miserable -- or, at least, only a little miserable so the taste of success later is that much better. I dunno.  I hope that helps.  Reading this thread has told me one thing, though -- I need to go read this story hour.  Sounds like a good one.  -rg</blockquote>

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