Halivar
First Post
My pity-party begins here:
I joined my gaming group almost 5 years ago. When I joined, it had been running for almost 10 years previous. I'm definitely the "newbie" of the group. The group rotated DM's ever couple years, but one guy was definitely the default go-to guy for new games. We played the mess out of some 3.5, and we had good fun. All of us became friends outside of the game table.
It was a motley group: we had min-maxer's, casuals, and amateur thespians like me. The typical campaign ran from 6-10 players, and we never wanted for a game, every week, for 5 years. When on game ended, another started.
When 4E was on the horizon, I ran some of the more receptive guys in our group through the preview material. As a special favor to me, the DM also participated (as a player), because if the DM doesn't convert, no one converts. He didn't like the things he had been hearing, but he wanted to give it a fair shake. I had high hopes he would enjoy the new system as much as I did.
The week 4E came out, I started a mid-week game with some new players, and invited the core members of the Friday group to join. I also invited our regular DM. My goal was to get our regular DM comfortable with 4E enough to run a game. As a player, he was fantastic. He grasped the rules, he synergized his powers with the team, and he is one of the best roleplayers I know. As a DM, I must say he was one the best contributing players at the table, even if he only joined for a session.
So, our Friday 3.5 game finished. Unfortunately, I was already starting a second 4E game, scheduled for Friday, and would not be able to attend the 3.5 game anymore. The other members of the core group, already playing in my Wednesday night game, were either unable or unwilling to join a second weekly game. The 3.5 group thus dissolved and centered around the 4E game (essentially, we lost three casuals and a powergamer; not considered a huge loss by the rest of the group).
Yesterday, I called up my DM friend to coordinate the pre-game dinner, whereupon he gave me the sorry news that he would not be joining us anymore. He simply didn't like 4E (the reasons are nebulous and vague, but I never pressed; a man is entitled to an opinion without being badgered about it), and could not bring himself to play it anymore, so he was going to play WoW that night instead. He didn't try to persuade me into switching back (he knows I'm a "4ron", if I may be a little self-deprecatory). Needless to say, this was quite disheartening, and the other group members missed him at the table (he made quite an impression on the new players, even with him only having joined us for a single session). For him, his only available players for 3.5 games are the "problem" players he wanted to get away from, anyway. So we're losers on all sides.
So, here's the end result: I've got this friend that I used to game with, that I don't game with anymore. He used to DM, but he doesn't have a group anymore. I was the group's newbie, and broke it up with an edition change. I feel guilty, like I stole something. This group would still be playing 3.5, and perhaps happily, if it weren't for me. But I can't switch back; if I'm running the game, I gotta run 4E because I believe I can give my players the best game I can with it, and because the majority of players at my table believe it's the right game for us right now (there is yet one more who is skeptical; but I believe his reservations have more to do with my poor and unpracticed DM'ing).
It's one thing to have edition wars on the internet. It's another to have it break up your RL group. Has anyone else experienced anthing like this?
I joined my gaming group almost 5 years ago. When I joined, it had been running for almost 10 years previous. I'm definitely the "newbie" of the group. The group rotated DM's ever couple years, but one guy was definitely the default go-to guy for new games. We played the mess out of some 3.5, and we had good fun. All of us became friends outside of the game table.
It was a motley group: we had min-maxer's, casuals, and amateur thespians like me. The typical campaign ran from 6-10 players, and we never wanted for a game, every week, for 5 years. When on game ended, another started.
When 4E was on the horizon, I ran some of the more receptive guys in our group through the preview material. As a special favor to me, the DM also participated (as a player), because if the DM doesn't convert, no one converts. He didn't like the things he had been hearing, but he wanted to give it a fair shake. I had high hopes he would enjoy the new system as much as I did.
The week 4E came out, I started a mid-week game with some new players, and invited the core members of the Friday group to join. I also invited our regular DM. My goal was to get our regular DM comfortable with 4E enough to run a game. As a player, he was fantastic. He grasped the rules, he synergized his powers with the team, and he is one of the best roleplayers I know. As a DM, I must say he was one the best contributing players at the table, even if he only joined for a session.
So, our Friday 3.5 game finished. Unfortunately, I was already starting a second 4E game, scheduled for Friday, and would not be able to attend the 3.5 game anymore. The other members of the core group, already playing in my Wednesday night game, were either unable or unwilling to join a second weekly game. The 3.5 group thus dissolved and centered around the 4E game (essentially, we lost three casuals and a powergamer; not considered a huge loss by the rest of the group).
Yesterday, I called up my DM friend to coordinate the pre-game dinner, whereupon he gave me the sorry news that he would not be joining us anymore. He simply didn't like 4E (the reasons are nebulous and vague, but I never pressed; a man is entitled to an opinion without being badgered about it), and could not bring himself to play it anymore, so he was going to play WoW that night instead. He didn't try to persuade me into switching back (he knows I'm a "4ron", if I may be a little self-deprecatory). Needless to say, this was quite disheartening, and the other group members missed him at the table (he made quite an impression on the new players, even with him only having joined us for a single session). For him, his only available players for 3.5 games are the "problem" players he wanted to get away from, anyway. So we're losers on all sides.
So, here's the end result: I've got this friend that I used to game with, that I don't game with anymore. He used to DM, but he doesn't have a group anymore. I was the group's newbie, and broke it up with an edition change. I feel guilty, like I stole something. This group would still be playing 3.5, and perhaps happily, if it weren't for me. But I can't switch back; if I'm running the game, I gotta run 4E because I believe I can give my players the best game I can with it, and because the majority of players at my table believe it's the right game for us right now (there is yet one more who is skeptical; but I believe his reservations have more to do with my poor and unpracticed DM'ing).
It's one thing to have edition wars on the internet. It's another to have it break up your RL group. Has anyone else experienced anthing like this?
