(RANT) (longish) A player wishes to drop
- Thread starter Ashrum the Black
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Ashrum the Black
Explorer
S'mon said:
I agree, but since her wonderful gaming opputunity that she left for was an epic campaign I think it's what she enjoys. That, and the fact that it was an evil campaign which I refuse to run. There are somethings that I'm uncomfortable with, evil PC's are one of them. I made that very clear right form the start with the whole group.
As for the comment on how the rest of the group may be min-maxing and rolling dice instead of acting, to a point you may be right. But only to a point. Yes the group may lean more torwards the "hey, let's go kill the dragon" types, than the "let's go have high tea with the King" types. But when the Emperor walks in they bow and scap with the best of them.
When his head flunky makes thinly vieled threats to them, they swallow their pride and take it while making threats back. Sometimes not so sublty but hey, I'm the DM, I get more time to think up the perfect threat. 
I guess what I'm saying is, that the roleplaying is less than a typical storyteller game, but more than a "you walk into a 10x10 room" game. And none of those games are incorrect in terms of roleplaying though. As long as people are having fun then you're "doing it right". She's obviously not having fun, so it may be time for her to move on. I just wish she had done it without having to slam the group and myself on the way out the door. Which is the basis of this whole post I guess.
Once again I thank everybody for thier wonderful advice and the insightful posts. They really are helping me to order my thoughts so I can get a handle on this one.
Dirt
Explorer
quote:
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Originally posted by Dinkeldog
Fathead, I've been in the situation of joining a group. They were 8th level except one that was 7th about to go to 8th. I came in at 6th. It blows chunks. Big chunks that you didn't have the foresight to chew particularly well the first time.
Really, gaming is not work or college, and one shouldn't be needlessly be penalized while playing. If your player with a fighter decides he'd rather be a druid, why punish him for changing?
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It depends on the circumstances. If there is good reason for the player to want to change (and maybe retire the other character), I'd just set him at the lowest level in the party.
My game is very heavily involved in the roleplaying aspects. The absence of a character can affect the story. Additionally, every time a new character is developed, it takes a good amount of work. As a DM, I will spend a couple hours on each character, just developing background hooks, NPC's that they know, etc. So, it is as much a protection for my time, as it is a protection to the continuity of the story.
PC death is a necessary part of adventuring life, so it is bound to happen. I had one player recently who lost his character (remember...they are allowed only one raise) after playing it for 3 years. The next gaming session was spent largely at the funeral of "Dover the Freeholder". All of the PC's attended, old NPC's attended, and a eulogy was read, recapping the life of Dover. For the eulogy, I did something unique - the person writing the eulogy gathered most of his information from the rest of the group...which made it a very fun and enjoyable session, that I think the player enjoyed.
My point is this - unless the character is being played poorly, PC death does not occur often. My games are mostly comprised of NPC interaction, politics, and roleplaying. So, character level is not the most important aspect of the game in this case.
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Originally posted by Dinkeldog
Fathead, I've been in the situation of joining a group. They were 8th level except one that was 7th about to go to 8th. I came in at 6th. It blows chunks. Big chunks that you didn't have the foresight to chew particularly well the first time.
Really, gaming is not work or college, and one shouldn't be needlessly be penalized while playing. If your player with a fighter decides he'd rather be a druid, why punish him for changing?
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It depends on the circumstances. If there is good reason for the player to want to change (and maybe retire the other character), I'd just set him at the lowest level in the party.
My game is very heavily involved in the roleplaying aspects. The absence of a character can affect the story. Additionally, every time a new character is developed, it takes a good amount of work. As a DM, I will spend a couple hours on each character, just developing background hooks, NPC's that they know, etc. So, it is as much a protection for my time, as it is a protection to the continuity of the story.
PC death is a necessary part of adventuring life, so it is bound to happen. I had one player recently who lost his character (remember...they are allowed only one raise) after playing it for 3 years. The next gaming session was spent largely at the funeral of "Dover the Freeholder". All of the PC's attended, old NPC's attended, and a eulogy was read, recapping the life of Dover. For the eulogy, I did something unique - the person writing the eulogy gathered most of his information from the rest of the group...which made it a very fun and enjoyable session, that I think the player enjoyed.
My point is this - unless the character is being played poorly, PC death does not occur often. My games are mostly comprised of NPC interaction, politics, and roleplaying. So, character level is not the most important aspect of the game in this case.
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Personally, I don't think she sounds that bad. A difference of style perhaps? Not knowing the rules may have made her a little insecure, but I don't see not knowing the rules that well as necessarily a bad thing. Rules lawyering by people who know the rules really well takes up much more time than clarification and explanation for rules-lite folks--at least in my group.
King_Stannis
Explorer
Ravellion said:
Great point, Rav. I started wondering the same thing. Is this girl fairly attractive, Ashrum? It might explain a great deal about her legacy of being a great gamer.
reapersaurus
Explorer
I have similar issues with the way some people play.TenseAlcyoneus said:
I'd love to talk about it on a seperate thread, if you want to start one about that...
But that was a big mistake by your DM and group, to do something like Hold Person you, and actually TELL YOU that your PC wouldn't have a problem with it.
There's a big difference between you being able to see the necessity of an action, and your PC seeing it.
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
buzzard said:
If players are switching PC's all the time, I could see the reasoning behind this, but in most games I've played in or run, that's not really an issue.
Bringing in a new PC at substantially lower power than all the established PC's seems terribly unfair to me. Chances are, the player is already a little reserved, having joined an existing group, and to be hobbled like that would irk me, personally.
My own rule of thumb is that new PC's get XP equal to that of the current PC with the least XP. That way they don't outshine anyone.
If the PC is the same level as the established PC's and outshines them, that just means they're just doing their job better.
On bringing in new PCs
Two levels lower than the bulk of the existing group is very harsh. I give new playrs characters with the minimum experience total to be the same level as the lowest-level current character. This gurantees they will be a bit lower than the existing characters, but not enough so to run into the problems mentioned in this thread.
I also use the optional rule form the FRCS about varying XP awards inversely with level (I actually came up with it independantly shortly before the FRCS came out). So after a certain amount of dues-paying everyone ends up at about the same level. With deaths and the case of my game a Book of Exalted Deeds you can still end up with a two-level spread but that's not insurmountable even at mid-single-digit levels, and at higher levels can be totally washed out by differences in design skill and tactical acumen. (I favor about the same level of RP as Asram, to give people some idea - fairly middle-of-the-road. My players vary widely in their preferences there, but not widely enough to cause serious problems, at least not lately.)
Two levels lower than the bulk of the existing group is very harsh. I give new playrs characters with the minimum experience total to be the same level as the lowest-level current character. This gurantees they will be a bit lower than the existing characters, but not enough so to run into the problems mentioned in this thread.
I also use the optional rule form the FRCS about varying XP awards inversely with level (I actually came up with it independantly shortly before the FRCS came out). So after a certain amount of dues-paying everyone ends up at about the same level. With deaths and the case of my game a Book of Exalted Deeds you can still end up with a two-level spread but that's not insurmountable even at mid-single-digit levels, and at higher levels can be totally washed out by differences in design skill and tactical acumen. (I favor about the same level of RP as Asram, to give people some idea - fairly middle-of-the-road. My players vary widely in their preferences there, but not widely enough to cause serious problems, at least not lately.)
Ashrum the Black
Explorer
Re: On bringing in new PCs
Actually, the reason I have this house rule is to keep players from hopping form PC to PC because of the way I was running this campaign. I asked them all to think long and hard before we started what they'd like to play. I wanted the characters at a lower level to look at death as something more than "quick find a high level cleric!" I wanted them to think things through before they drew their weapons and say, "is this worth the risk?".
At lower levels it seemed to work. At higher levels though they seem to have forgotten their previous caution now that the party cleric can bring them back. I haven't come up with a suitable house rule for this yet. I don't want to "nerf" the cleric's powers, but I do want them to avoid repeats of the almost TPK that happened the other night. It all could have been avoided if they'd just stopped and said to themselves "is releasing the big evil form its prison so we can try to destroy it really such a good idea?"
As for wether or not she's pretty I can't really say. She's not my type, but she is very out going and flirtatious which can be some people's thing.
jeffh said:
Actually, the reason I have this house rule is to keep players from hopping form PC to PC because of the way I was running this campaign. I asked them all to think long and hard before we started what they'd like to play. I wanted the characters at a lower level to look at death as something more than "quick find a high level cleric!" I wanted them to think things through before they drew their weapons and say, "is this worth the risk?".
At lower levels it seemed to work. At higher levels though they seem to have forgotten their previous caution now that the party cleric can bring them back. I haven't come up with a suitable house rule for this yet. I don't want to "nerf" the cleric's powers, but I do want them to avoid repeats of the almost TPK that happened the other night. It all could have been avoided if they'd just stopped and said to themselves "is releasing the big evil form its prison so we can try to destroy it really such a good idea?"
As for wether or not she's pretty I can't really say. She's not my type, but she is very out going and flirtatious which can be some people's thing.
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