Intro
Greetings everyone. I'm a lifelong gamer of D&D just finally getting around to getting myself on ENWorld. I live and work in Connecticut and run a 3.0 campaign in my own world (Tol Vehara) and am currently playing in DMChucky's Rappan Athok 3.5 campaign. As a player I'm much more interested in plot development and character growth than necessarily the hack & slash, and I find myself drawn to the odd-yet-non-spectacular race/class/personae combinations. For example, in the 3.5 campaign I'm about to enter with my second character (I try to only play one at a time... the first one just retired to off-camera) as Nipnottle the Gnome Paladin of Shaundakul (and his Riding Dog/special mount 'Sparky', the St. Bernard [great Gnomish Saint of Garl Glittergold's, but that's another story]).
As a DM, I'm particularly good at world-building in the socio-political sense (and I don't really care how much the albedo would warm the planet at that tilt and yay far from its sun, unless it's going to affect the dynastic succession of Amoeba King George in the primordial sea, thus ushering in an age of darkness or light). I enjoy using the 'one for fun' method of determining random encounters, and then using every third or fifth roll to make the clock of plotted macro-setting events advance one notch.
As a DM, I'm pretty bad at judging where the fine line between a firefight of such intense proportions you lose a third of the PCs and the dreaded TPK. So I often overcompensate and make things too easy (at least to my notion of the same) and then sit there in baffled befuddlement at the fact that even though I decided the invisible rogue assassin would NOT be needed the party came damned near close to biting the big one. And then other times putting things in their path that are supposed to be awfully dreadful and enough to end the game session, only to have the pixie half-dragon barbarian party member sneeze sideways to wipe the whole thing out.
As a player, I find myself appreciating the fact that someone else has put the effort into the work of plotting and scheming. And I rather enjoy a subtle approach to roleplaying, trying to adjust not only my character's direct actions and statements to be in character, but also taking a light overtone of mood or whimsy in things I let myself say out of character, too. Example: playing a CG elf with a short attention span, I would often come across as though I the player were stating that an action any experienced player would avoid or at least be wary of was something the rest of the players ought to consider and follow through with. It was a couple of game sessions before they all caught on.
But then, one of the DM's I gamed under for years would tell stories of *his* DM who had moved away... man by the name of Rich, who would assign extra days of schooling (AD&D 2nd edition advancement requiring x# of sp/week of training, he'd tack on extra days that then got prorated in sp cost and tacked on to the bill for advancement). He'd make notes of folks talking quietly among themselves while their characters were under a silence spell, etc. It led to a disciplined bunch of players who passed such discipline (anecdotally only) on to me. So, when the character died this past Sunday, the player became rather reserved, not even watching the rest of the battle much beyond occasionally taking the Hershey's Kisses with Almonds off the board as each of the NPC clerics died. (Hey, I waited until they were dead and then put the crumpled foil wrappers back in place.)
Anyway, that's me, gaming style. I look forward to getting to know you all through the boards. Guess I've got a bit of reading to catch up on, though. Hrm.
