What Would You Do: The Halfling Problem

[Sidran]

Enlist the help of a few very epically high halfling NPC's, out of the realms if you have to Band together and take to the Sea, or Move to a secluded Island. I wouldn't want to play in that situation
Being that I play halflings 99.9% of all my character time...I have a pretty powerfull 17th level Fighter bard halfling, and a 24th level Epic Vampiric Necromancer Halfling who is actually sometimes good ( whole dark knight thing going on).


I suggest this

Take a more aggressive aproach to dealing with the evils of the Northern City. like sneaking in at night and starting fires all over the city, Wishing a curse upon the city fouling its drinking water with poisons, and disease, releasing a group of well payed Dopplegangers into the city population. or Alley Reapers

Find or Steal a large number of Wands of Fireballs and attack the town. Get an Epic level Bard to cast mass suggestion. Make a pact with a devil, or demon, or Celestial.

Hit your DM over the head hard whilst saying "Why in the 9 layers of hell would they do that" over and over again, that always fixxes the problem

Start mass producing rings of disguise ( as in the Hat of disguise)

 

[Zappo]

Listen to me.

Every time a DM creates an economically unfeasible situation, there is a way to exploit it horribly.

The Clone spell costs 1000 gold to cast (plus 500 as a focus), which means that you'll net 3500 gold from sending a cloned head to your mysterious foes. The profit raises to 4000 after the first time, since you've already got the focus.

I hope that, among all the halflings in the mafia, you'll have at least one 15th level wizard; otherwise you'll have to hire one.

If the originals are still alive, the clones are just lifeless corpses, so you don't have major moral problems for killing off the clones. The cloned bodies are normal bodies to all respects, cannot be distinguished from normally born people in any way, and aren't magical.
Since I would get suspicious if I suddenly got 50 identical heads, you should make clones from a large variety of halflings.

The tricky bit is that it takes 2d4 months to grow a clone. You will need to find some place to hide for a few months. After that, you'll quickly become filthy rich and be able to afford a mercenary army to protect you.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I like Kamikaze's idea towards the end there.
Don't worry about dying, just have the same halfling ready to replace your current halfling. Maybe start numbering him.

Heck, name him Kenny.

If you're going to have any fun, you might have to get silly. Don't worry about dying, through yourself in front of danger to save innocent people, or, heck, throw yourself into danger to save a cute painting, whatever

Other option is to bring a book with you to the game. When the game starts just ignore it and start reading. If he asks you what you're doing, say "I'll follow the gnome". If he asks why you're acting like that, say something along the lines of "nothing I do in the game matters anyway, you'll just find a new way to screw me over. This way I give you free reign."

 

[Tsyr]

Quit the game. Now. There is no saving a DM like that.

Get one of your group to be a new DM. Don't invite said DM. Ever, preferably, or at least not untill your new group is "on it's feet". Your DM is on a nice little power-trip, and it's re-enforced by the fact that you all keep showing up. So don't.

Well, at least, that would be my advice...

 

[Voneth]

Keith is evil. I mean, he is VERY EVIL. Beyond the normal evilness that every good DM has, he outevils them by far. He was considering buying an old church so he could desecrate it and play D&D among symbols of Satanism on the walls and ceiling. ...

I think the church thing had more to do with being able to get it reasonably cheap compared to a regular house and his appreciation of the irony involved in gaming there. It's possibly I'm being overly charitable, though.

Uhhh, what irony? That whole religion vs. rpg think is soooo 1980s, get over it. I should know, I was there. While there is still alot of people who thing rpgs are out there, the same people think that those who scream that games and rock n' roll are evil are scarier than us.

I can understand the "it's a cheap house" reason. The whole "Let's get back at 'them' by being immature and acting like a stereotype" is very lame. It would be like walking into a strange neighborhood that has a different culture than yours and then you act out the worst of the stereotypes of your own culture. What does it accomplish, a lot of negative feelings.

Buddy, it sounds like to me that you are in denial that perhaps it is time for your crew to take a break from gaming, you all sound like you're stuck in ruts, subconciously know it, but don't want to face it for fear of not gaming at all. (I believe one should have several hobbies, I personaly rpg, wargame, card game, write fiction and have a son -- okay, he's not a hobby.)

I was there. There were a couple of times I was in tiny towns with just a few gamers and to tell the truth, to play in a bad group over a couple of years did more to push me away from rpging than anything else. It was pretty bad, the guy who owned the only (and nastiest) game store in town pretty much invited an banned people on his own whim since he saw the place as his personal game club. His style was so simplistic that rpging almost died out when he go hooked on Diablo. One of my other players called me up a year later and said that he found that everyone in college ran games like I did and that they were actualy fun with everyone participaitng in that manner.

By that time, I had found a new group ... in the same town. I never met them before because ... they never went to the store. So take some time off, you'll find a new group a couple of months, in the mean time make up your own campaign and characers, learn the game more.

 

[derverdammte]

I don't know. I'd give these guys the benefit of the doubt. While their DM may not be the only game in town, maybe he's the most interesting DM they can play under. I've played with terrible DMs and still had fun, just because they kept the game interesting enough to mitigate their lack of ability.

I had a similar situation with players, a while back. I had people I'd classify as the worst players of all time, but I kept running games for them because they were better than the alternatives. Maybe Samnell and randcortin are in a similar situation.

 

[Xarlen]

Okay, I've read the last thread about the constant dying, and now this one.

I've surveyed everything, and the most common responses are this:

Quit.

Mess with your DM's setup, via ECL races, simple disposable characters, and throwing monkey wrenches into his plans.

Try and be civil, and keep trying, via IC and OOC methods.

Framkly, I'm with the first one.

Samnell, Randy, if this dude is so mean that 1) When you bring a serious problem to him, about how you're Not enjoying a game that should be ABOUT enjoyment, he calls you whiners, 2) When you finally get him to change, he purposely starts beating you down with the plot, 3) Turns everything you do against you, 4) Is a relatively unreasonable person PERIOD, and 5) Your fellow players aren't much help... I gotta ask. WHY are you trying?

Yes, he's the only dude in town. Look, I know several plaes online to game. Infact, I could offer you two places on a Muck where I run a game, and some friends also run some Tabletop games online. They need players. You guys need a Good Game, and that's what you're NOT getting.

If all else fails, then start looking to try and DM yourself. Infact, try and convert one of the other players to do some stuff away from the main session, and just do a little fun gaming. Pass the DM hat, try a few things. If you enjoy, START YOUR OWN GROUP. Don't look for a DM. Look for players. Go to the local college, there are players there.

If you think you won't make a good DM, I've had all of I'd say three days worth of gaming experience as a player, before I picked up the DM hat, and just ran with it. Yes, I wasn't good at first, but you, Randy and Samnell, you guys are all about the plot, the characters. That's all you need.

Set up some stuff online.
Play by yourselves, with maybe one or two of the people in the group.

If all else fails, make a 1st level human fighter who just came out of some sticks, learned how to fight from his farmer dad, and join the party. Make a background that as No possible way of biting you.

But I ask you, please, Get away from this guy. You're just going to keep making stuff, and he's just going to keep trashing you, because He's Not Nice.

 

[Gaius]

The same people I game with are the same people I hang out with on a social basis. My players are also my best friends. We grew up together, found RPG's together, and just incorporated them into the long list of other things that we do besides game. When I moved away from home, I didn't really work that hard to find a new group. I kept up with various RPG's, I gamed when I visited home, and was content to keep it at that. When I moved a second time, I made an effort to find a new group. I played with them a few times, but their style wasn't my own, so I quit. If you're not having fun with a game, why play it?

That said, it doesn't sound like Keith is much of a friend. So what's the investment here? He's a "good" DM? Sure doesn't sound like it. Quit making excuses for him, guys. Players who have this many complaints probably aren't enjoying the game. And players who are enjoying the game don't complain. So if you roleplay for enjoyment, and Keith ain't providing, get the hell out of Dodge.

There's nothing you can do to "mess with his plot." He's the DM. He's in control of the rules and what he says goes. You're always going to be at his whim, you're always going to get the short stick, and he's always going to brutalize your characters in a classic case of "players v DM." This isn't a good thing and you guys know it.

There are two of you so far who have spoken up about this. If the rest of your players agree with you, start a new game on your own. Why are you afraid of doing this? You said you don't want it to get back to Keith, but why? How can he possibly affect a new gaming group?

You know, you guys sound like your in a classic domestic violence scenario here. Seriously. You don't like the treatment you receive, yet you rationalize it away. You make excuses for Keith. And you're afraid to leave because you know that you're going to end up going back and paying the price for your "betrayal." You probably have the classic honeymoon phase as well, where everything is peachy keen for a while and you wonder what you ever saw wrong with him.

You guys need to do one of two things; leave this a-hole of a DM and start your own group or quit whining about him and keep taking it in the chin time and time again.

You've got like 30 replies to this thread telling you the same thing I am. What's left to debate about it? QUIT already! Geez.

Why play a game if it isn't fun?

Gaius