The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Ryujin]

Pathfinder .... pathfinder .... pathfinder .... isn't that some kind of merit badge for the Boy Scouts?

Worked pretty well in 3.0/3.5e too

 

[overgeeked]

In principle, yes.

In practice ... I don't much like who I am when I'm playing those sorts of games, and I don't think my friends do, either. My wife has been on the receiving end of enough bad sportsmanship that she doesn't care for competitive play anymore.

Sportsmanship in gaming is one of the reasons I prefer to play older editions of D&D or WFRP. The players know to expect their characters to not be the big damn heroes and the main protagonists in an epic fantasy novel, so they can accept things like wounds, injuries, character death, magical mishaps, miscasts, etc while being a good sport about it. It's a game with randomness and death. Don't throw the controller just because you suffered a setback or lost a character. Pat yourself on the back for making it that far and push ahead or roll up a new character and see how far that one gets. It's a game, just play.

Same with competitiveness and cooperation. The players know that it's not the referee competing against them when obstacles occur or bad dice rolls happen. It's just part of the game. They don't take it personally and don't get bent out of shape. I've never seen an old-school player rage quit because they took damage or lost a character for example. If the referee was in competition with the players, the referee could simply declare they win. "Rocks fall, everyone dies" or "infinite dragons appear" or some other nonsense. You also don't see competitiveness in the form of power gaming.

There's always been rules lawyers, unfortunately. Yet another reason to sack the rules or play black-box games.

 

[prabe]

Sportsmanship in gaming is one of the reasons I prefer to play older editions of D&D or WFRP. The players know to expect their characters to not be the big damn heroes and the main protagonists in an epic fantasy novel, so they can accept things like wounds, injuries, character death, magical mishaps, miscasts, etc while being a good sport about it. It's a game with randomness and death. Don't throw the controller just because you suffered a setback or lost a character. Pat yourself on the back for making it that far and push ahead or roll up a new character and see how far that one gets. It's a game, just play.

Same with competitiveness and cooperation. The players know that it's not the referee competing against them when obstacles occur or bad dice rolls happen. It's just part of the game. They don't take it personally and don't get bent out of shape. I've never seen an old-school player rage quit because they took damage or lost a character for example. If the referee was in competition with the players, the referee could simply declare they win. "Rocks fall, everyone dies" or "infinite dragons appear" or some other nonsense. You also don't see competitiveness in the form of power gaming.

There's always been rules lawyers, unfortunately. Yet another reason to sack the rules or play black-box games.

I haven't noticed any difference in sportsmanship or cooperation between the various TRPGs I've played, but much of that might be that I've mostly played with the same groups. And my only PC death as a GM has been with 5e.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I once played a 1e Appendix Bard. Bloody useless. All that effort to be bad at everything.

I played a 1E Appendix Bard back in the day. He never got to do any of the cool adventure things, probably because he was always in the inn having sex.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And my only PC death as a GM has been with 5e.

If you ain't killin' PCs, you ain't tryin'.
-The 1e DMG*



*I'd cite a page number .... but ... you know ....

 

[prabe]

If you ain't killin' PCs, you ain't tryin'.
-The 1e DMG*



*I'd cite a page number .... but ... you know ....

I only ran a very little 1e, so I didn't really have much time.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I only ran a very little 1e, so I didn't really have much time.

Some players will find more enjoyment in spoiling a game than in playing it, and some DMs will find more enjoyment in killing the characters of these players swiftly rather than engaging in arguments with these pouting and childish rules lawyers. When a degree of expeditiousness is required to swiftly dispatch these irksome louts while taking the minimum of time from the harried DM's schedule, the following table may be of assistance:

WHAT JUST KILLED THAT CHARACTER?
01 – 10 Ethereal Mummy
11 – 25 Blue Bolt from the Heavens
26 – 35 Invisible sphere of annihilation
36 – 50 Sudden collapse of tons of rock from above
51 – 65 Spontaneous combustion (similar to a Druid wearing metal armor)
66 – 75 The character was never alive
76 – 85 Stampeding tarrasques
86 – 90 That last decision the PC made? It was the wrong one. Very wrong.
91 – 92 Unstoppable internal rot
93 – 94 A plague of horizontal sentient guillotines
95 – 98 The sudden heat death of the multiverse
99 – 00 Roll twice, and the PC is twice is dead.

 

[Ryujin]

Some players will find more enjoyment in spoiling a game than in playing it, and some DMs will find more enjoyment in killing the characters of these players swiftly rather than engaging in arguments with these pouting and childish rules lawyers. When a degree of expeditiousness is required to swiftly dispatch these irksome louts while taking the minimum of time from the harried DM's schedule, the following table may be of assistance:

WHAT JUST KILLED THAT CHARACTER?
01 – 10 Ethereal Mummy
11 – 25 Blue Bolt from the Heavens
26 – 35 Invisible sphere of annihilation
36 – 50 Sudden collapse of tons of rock from above
51 – 65 Spontaneous combustion (similar to a Druid wearing metal armor)
66 – 75 The character was never alive
76 – 85 Stampeding tarrasques
86 – 90 That last decision the PC made? It was the wrong one. Very wrong.
91 – 92 Unstoppable internal rot
93 – 94 A plague of horizontal sentient guillotines
95 – 98 The sudden heat death of the multiverse
99 – 00 Roll twice, and the PC is twice is dead.

You missed two of my favourites there: "Spontaneous myocardial infarction" and "Assassinated, for practice."

(The second one actually appeared in a 1e adventure by Judge's Guild, back in the day)

 

[RealAlHazred]

You missed two of my favourites there: "Spontaneous myocardial infarction" and "Assassinated, for practice."

(The second one actually appeared in a 1e adventure by Judge's Guild, back in the day)

What about Lupus? I think it's Lupus.

 

[Deset Gled]

What about Lupus? I think it's Lupus.