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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5860196" data-attributes="member: 92305">These guys sound like they came from the same group. What's interesting is that I expected this guy, given what he's said, to play with a tad bit of munchkinism in him--always wanting the +5 sword, that sort of thing. The Conan RPG isn't about "finding goodies" as it is in D&D. Once you get a weapon you like, you're pretty much set. There are no magical weapons. I keep a little thrill in finding equipment by keeping exotic items exotic. For example, you're not going to find a Hyrkanian Bow (one of the better bows in the game) anywhere except in Hyrkania. And, if you do, it will be a highly sought after, expensive, piece of equipment. Even the frequency of finding something exotic like that (the bow is common in Hyrkania) is rare. The new player of mine seems to be completely at home with that. I've already mentioned how he uses his inferior dirk more often than any other weapon. In fact, he just pulled a shiny war sword (akin to a bastard sword) off a foe two game sessions ago, and he has yet to swing it as a weapon (and the thing does 1d12 damage! with a 3rd level character swining it!). It's an interesting dichotomy in his personality. He's a strong roleplayer, yet he wants heroic stats and assuances his character will never die.       Strange. The older I get, the more I'm running into things like this. The player I've been talking about is 47 years old!  I had another player start the campaign previous to this one. He was a long time player with me from back in the old days. He moved to another state. We kept in touch. And, he moved back recently. We hadn't gamed together in over 15 years. I was starting a 2E AD&D Dragonlance game, and I asked him if he wanted to warm up the old dice. He said, "Absolutely!" Then, he got all excited about the game. I mean more than just looking forward to play, he started reading tons of Dragonlance novels. He seached the net for Dragonlance info. He was really into it. It had been years since I had touched 2E AD&D, so I ruled that I was going to start the game just using the core three books: PG, DMG, and MM. As we became more comfortable with the rules, I would bring in the supplementary books, and we could use the expanded rules there. Well, this player would have nothing to do with that. He basically said that, if we didn't use the ENTIRE 2E LINE OF GAME BOOKS, that he wouldn't play. He wanted all the little extra rules that those books brought to the game. I told him that we would eventually get there, but it would be better for all of us if we just started simple, re-learned that, and then added the books once we had a achieved a certain comfort level. He would have none of it. It was a definite ultimatum. Play with everything, or don't play at all. For the first time in my DMing life, I gave in and let this player have his way. It was a huge mistake. First, the game was very, very slow and unenjoyable because....you guessed it! We weren't comfortable with the rules! Second, it seems that player's memory of what was and was not written in the supplemental rule books was different from what was really in them. I found several instances where the player was not interpreting a rule correctly. I'm all for house rules, but I usually try to learn the RAW first before I start changing things. This led to an argument every freakin' time we played. I got so tired of it. It went so far that I actually met one of the three game designers of 2E (Steve Winter) and asked him several questions and rule clarifications. 99% of the time, Steve's answers supported what I said and made what the player said incorrect. Of course, the player didn't like that and would dismiss what Steve said anyway. Basically, the player wanted the game to run the way he wanted it to run, house rules and all, or he wouldn't be happy. That Dragonlance game ended after the first adventure because of that player, and, naively, I thought that I wouldn't have the same problems with the player if I changed to a rule system with which he wasn't familiar. That's how I got to the Conan RPG. None of us were very familair with 3.x d20 at all. I had avoided that entire era of RPGs, instead playing things like D6 Star Wars or Classic Traveller. Well, the arguments continued with Conan, too, until I finally had to ask the guy to leave the game. He did, and our game is better for it. And, now, I've got this new player issue. Man, maybe my memory is selective, but I sure miss the days when we all just sat down to play and had fun. The GM was the GM. The players respected that. And, we all had fun, spending hours and days afterward talking about the situations that popped up. I do miss that.       EDIT:  Happy Birthday, btw!</blockquote>

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