Venting (a long rant)

[Edena_of_Neith]

You have a Player who thinks in terms of the Item Making the Character.
No thought of the Character making the Character.

A rather common problem, in my experience.

I do not know what to say ... except that IME some players have a need to play like this, and they are not easily susceptible to suggestions of change.

Your other players behaved rather foolishly, IMO.

Foolish playing is also rather common, according to my experience.
And if you, the DM, allow the foolishness to go, and work to keep the PCs alive in spite of it, then the game degenerates into one foolish action after another.
And if you don't, you have angry Players of dead PCs.

An unpleasant situation for you, no?

Why not try playing, and let some other poor person be the DM of your group?

Not that you are a bad DM.
But your players need to refine their playing skills (and why should you suffer from it?)

 

[Airwolf]

Thanks!

I don't mean to hijack a thread but I want to say thanks for all the greetings.

I finished my engineering degree in May, before then I didn't have much time to post or play and very little to even read.

For anyone who is wondering (KM) Airwolf is a he who just happens to have a thing for beautiful women in bikinis.

 

[rounser]

LE wants to make a name for himself for the church of bane and in the future wants to hopefully become the second in command to Fzoul.

There is no way Fzoul would have got to where he was by killing himself for losing an item.

LE posses a +2 impact (keen for bludgeoning) burst (not sure which element), vorpal gauntlet. His reasoning being, " if they have a keen for bludgeoning they should have a vorpal too."

This guy is a powergamer.

LE has cleric levels and casts destruction on himself and purposefully fails the save. "that gauntlet was the whole basis for my characters faith in Bane. Without it I'm nothing."

This guy is a powergamer who just realised that the basket he put all his eggs into was just dropped, and he has the audacity to try and justify it with an "in character" voice instead of being honest about why he's really wanting to dump the character. A new character arrives with new equipment, right? Bah.

NE and the rest of the adventurers congratulate him on a fine bit of role playing and express their condolences in the loss of his character. Now the ooze is taken care of but the group is one player down.

Now, either:
* The other players were suckered by his act, or
* They recognise that his character is a hell of a lot weaker from that little episode, and so the rest of the party is too - so it's best if they back his play.

I reckon it's a combination of both - they want to believe he's doing it for roleplaying purposes so that they can get a new character for him.

I don't think the PC alignments are the only thing wicked about this campaign; the player's attitudes run a close second!

 

[Rune]

For the guy who had his PC commit suicide, I would make him play his next character as one of the other PCs' weapons. It seems like that would be up his alley, not too different from the last character, anyway.

Oh yeah, it would have to be a non-intelligent item.

 

[hong]

Vorpal gauntlets

*FAP! THUD! THUD!*

Hmmmmm.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

You have a Player who thinks in terms of the Item Making the Character.
No thought of the Character making the Character.

Exactly. What a great role-playing opportunity--"I lost my god's weapon!" Think of all the character might go through to make up for his mistake.

Instead the character kills himself?

 

[trimeulose]

a few notes

First off I'ld like to clarify that I am not an experienced DM. And as simply a person I can tell that my group as a whole is becoming better role players. I don't expect them to be perfect, and I KNOW I won't be perfect, but I still felt the need to vent.

I realize that I have flaws and for the most part I could have done a whole lot better.

Notes on myself:

My DM materials were at another players house so while I had the entire adventure planned out, a detailed idea of the map, and a perfect plan for the monsters none of it was on paper. Now I didn't want to run through a whole adventure with everything in my head (makes things complicated for me and frustrating for characters). So I spent a good deal of time writing down the adventure. I know that I pissed off the group because they didnt show up to watch me make an adventure, they came to play one. (couldn't fully help it, but my fault nonetheless) I should have been better prepared and ready to go well before I showed up.

By leaving a quick way to the Dragon at the end I thought it would make sense (you don't walk thirty miles to work and back if you live one block away). I figured that If the first dragon didnt attack them outright, but wouldn't join them either (plus warned them not to go further) the group might reconsider and try to recruit more allies. A mistake in judgement by me (groups do not travel for three days to go back and get reinforcements).

I made a mistake in the CR of the Dragon at the end. A big one. I was looking at the CR for the white dragon age category (its on the same page as the abilities chart for the red dragon) and I got it confused. This was a BIG...... BIG mistake. I still feel (afterwards) that if they went through the whole cave recruited everything and also gained exp that they should have been able to take her. Provided the group would have had to not knock on a door that hadn't ever been opened and say "house keeping"

I realize that I could have done much... MUCH better. A learning experience for me in the least.

 

[Tratyn Runewind]

Hello!

Posted by trimeulose:
LE posses a +2 impact (keen for bludgeoning) burst (not sure which element), vorpal gauntlet. His reasoning being, " if they have a keen for bludgeoning they should have a vorpal too."

ROCK 'EM SOCK 'EM GAUNTLETS! Gotta love it. "You knocked my block off!"

Posted by trimeulose:
LE has cleric levels and casts destruction on himself and purposefully fails the save.

Suicide as atonement, while perhaps realistic for harsh lawfuls, generally does not improve the game experience, you're right. Perhaps a peek at the character's fate - his petitioner (basically, spirit, see Manual of the Planes) being tormented by minions of Bane for all eternity, while they explain to him and everyone else entering Bane's realm what a complete pathetic loser he was and how suicide is proof that he was never worthy to wield the gauntlet in the first place - will help discourage that sort of thing in the future.

As to him being a munchkin - well, maybe. But my own munchkin-quotient is pretty high, and if my favorite munckhin-toy were dissolved by some stupid monster, my first thought would not be suicide, but an all-consuming lust for REVENGE. Then again, if I had lost the toy through the utter stupidity of attacking an obviously acidic monster with it, I might drop dead of sheer embarrassment.

Posted by trimeulose:
Now, NE watched me make the map

This sounds like part of the problem right here. Who needs to blow scarce gold on a crystal ball or precious Skill Points on Gather Information when you can learn all the hidden information you need before the game even starts?

Posted by trimeulose:
The group critized me because I left their options very narrow, and their chances slim at best.

YOU left their options narrow? Sounds more like THEY narrowed their own options by ignoring those you presented and going straight to the main event. And then THEY discard the option of potential surprise, with a creature somewhere ahead that they apparently KNOW is more powerful than they, by KNOCKING ON THE DOOR...TWICE. Priceless. And then there's the option of living to fight another day. Why even bother being evil if you won't abandon your mission or your friends for the sake of your own survival?

Posted by trimeulose:
I should have been better prepared and ready to go well before I showed up.

This may be true, but it shouldn't really be relevant once you're ready and the game actually does start. Yeah, it may make the players a bit more impatient, but I think generous amounts of courtesy and patience are always in order with a novice DM. And a certain amount of pre-game preparation is more or less inevitable, often having to do with players asking about final details and follow-up of stuff that happened the previous session. A deck of cards, a quick-playing boardgame, or a console videogame can keep players who are not involved in the preparations occupied until things are ready to roll - it's a lot better than impatient toe-tapping, hurry-up glares, or sneaking peeks at the adventure map.

Posted by trimeulose:
A learning experience for me in the least.

Well, it's good to hear you got something out of the experience. Good luck with your next session!