Returning to DM

I have a new group going! Yay!

Holidays and one of them having a baby probably throws a lot into the... garbage disposal as far as continuing, but I have high hopes. They're all friends of mine and we play online. We even are getting a new player coming up.

The first few sessions featured 5 players (the most I have had concurrently, and it has been really interesting testing difficulty curves with them). We are playing in 5th edition, which has me constantly thinking of things the wrong way (playing only 2nd and 4th editions will do that).

The party itself is pretty diverse:

Leaf on the Wind, Tabaxi Rogue

Kumaro, Water Genasi Sorceror

Gil, Moon Elf Paladin

Floyd Tonpetty, Drunken Master Monk

Torrin, Dragonborn Cleric

We're playing online (discord in this case), with theater of the mind style combat (it saves me a ton of time in prep). It also allows me to do things like say, "You don't know where they're at" and the players really don't. Where as with game map battles the players usually have a harder time disconnecting in game info from out of game info.

So far everyone has been playing their character's really well, and I'm trying to balance keeping the game on track with some players that very much want to meme their way to victory. I often will allow absurd looking attacks, to keep them happy so that I can ignore their other...references....

Playing with Others - Flip Side from GM to Player

At some point of having known someone long enough, there begins to be assumptions made by the other person. At the same time, those assumptions can be near the mark, but inaccurate enough to cause frustration.

So it is with my gaming group. I'm just barely done with my character sheet, submitting it for review, and suddenly things that were agreed on are being changed. The rules are misread by the "leads" in the experience and therefore the character must be altered to fit their perception of the system.

An argument is had, and accusations fly. The "leads" are so right, that they refuse to accept a vision of the game's mechanics other than their own. They refuse to listen to a munchkin or someone who's trying to rule's lawyer their way into "more power" than they deem acceptable for the game.

Unfortunately, I'm the munchkin in this case. I don't understand the purpose or belief that just because someone wants to play a badass "monk" style bare handed adept, that they have to cancel out so much of the power that I'm trying to access. The rules are there to give the adept more to do, because they sacrifice so much to gain the ability to punch someone effectively.

So why is it that all my teammates can blast someone in the gut, and kill them in one hit, but because I'm trying to play a "pure" character that doesn't have modifications, I suddenly am not allowed to be on the same power level as my team mates.

Its frustrating to see that I sacrificed on other ends to reach this point, but I'm not allowed to perform at this level that I built up. I'm supposed to be gimped, for not having modified my "body". I'm supposed to not be helpful because I sacrificed other aspects (covered by the rest of the team) so that I could be most helpful in assassinating armored foes with punches.

So now I'm sitting here, rethinking my entire concept. I can NOT run like this. I can not play this character as they are telling me to. For one they are trying to further lower my stats by having Magic be part of the 200 point buy of Physical and Mental Attributes. Second, they are not letting me follow the rules as written for the Martial Arts buys from the supplement book (I gave on this one as I considered it an optional rule as it was).

They gave on armor mods for civie armor, and they gave on an adept ability. But those just barely, and with a lot of fighting. I feel tired of this game, and I haven't even played it yet.

I'm not sure if I'll bother making another character. The more I think about it, the more I just don't even want to deal with this group. I want to play, but I don't want to have to fight for every roll and for every decision. Their attitude is, that they are right 100% of the time. No amount of contradictory evidence will fix their point of view.

When the only way to be heard is to scream louder than the other person, and even then, they "hear" you but don't listen... what is the point? I think, I'll bring it up with them. I'll explain to them why I feel that playing with them would be detrimental to our friendship.

I wanted to enjoy myself. I wanted to have fun with friends.

Being a Player Again

So I picked up some Shadowrun 4e books to play with some friends. One of them is GMing, so I'll actually be a player this time around. I'm rather excited to be a player again.

Now between school and work, I'm not sure when these games are supposed to happen. But I'm having fun learning how Shadowrun operates, and how different it is from D&D. The build system is very freeform, and in generating a character concept, I was able to get about 85% of what I wanted from the system as is.

The rest I'll talk to the GM about modifying abilities that are there, and swapping out the aesthetics of what it does, and perhaps change some other things. But hey, if you EVER play an pen and paper RPG vanilla with no alterations, then you're probably having less fun.

Part of the beauty of pen and paper is that you CAN change how things work. Something that you can't do with an videogame RPG. I have to say that pen and paper is still my preferred challenge.

Below is the "draft" of the character as I envisioned him. This does not have any game rules applied to it yet:

Wyld Stallion
Orc - Adept or Mystic-Adept

• Martial Arts
• Grew up in slums and no formal education, Knows the streets, how to avoid gangs/drugs etc
• Clean body, no weapons, No Cyber - No machines - He is “Pure”
• Can’t hack
• Knows enough about physicalness of things to hurt them/Pressure points
• Agile/Acrobatic, high evasion/movement, can burst move
• Uses ‘chi’ to power up attacks.
• Can break stones with a touch by filling them up with energy, can also do so to some-one’s bones (maybe later on)
• High jump
• fingers can penetrate walls to climb if needed
• Fast attacks, can get in extra attacks under specific conditions

Bald head except for a long braid down the back.
Wearing “chinese” style clothing.
a few day’s growth of a beard, 15 o’clock shadow
clothes are worn, but not raggedy. At least one knee of his clothes is “patched up”.
Wandering lifestyle, knows how to find shelter for the night in the city

New Game Incoming

Well, I've been planning a new game, with a new set of people. I'll bring info later, but I wanted to set up the transition.

This will be a "demonstration" game of 4th Edition, to see if the players enjoy it, and enjoy having me as a DM. These are people who really like 3.5 and Pathfinder style D&D and hate the MMO-ness of 4th Edition.

My goals are to A) Show that RP is still good in 4th Edition, B) Make combat fun and exciting and force them to use their abilities and not just spam At-Will abilities, C) Develop an interesting storyline with their characters that makes them want to finish the story and therefore play again, and finally D) Have fun!

The team is 3 players this time around. The players are two Tieflings, one is a Sorcerer, the other is a Sword Mage. The third player is a Dwarf Warlord.

Current set up is that the Teiflings are attempting to regain glory to the nobility that they were once a part of. The Dwarf, who belongs to the new kingdom, is there to help them, not achieve this personal goal, but because their current actions are leading them to also help the current empire.

Due to the goals of the Sorcerer's father, and the dealings associated with those goals, the Sorcerer has a debt he must pay off.

With the barest of plot, we'll see how this goes.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it disappear

Five days travel south, with cold nights, and heavy snow, the four men approached Kelthalon Cathedral. Only to find it missing... in the mountains a mysterious cave led them to a simple conclusion, investigation! And though Rayne audibly suggested another route to be taken, the quartet progressed into the dark cavern. Chromwyn lights a torch and hands it to Andez to carry. They keep going as the round a bend in the wide cavern.

They soon came to an open chamber where the cave ceiling was lit like a bonfire. Soon they realized, that they had stumbled upon burning firey bats, and the sudden intrusion, was NOT welcome. Shrieking and screaming they were attacked by the horrible burning flying vermin. Launching lightning, and radiant light they fought off their attackers.

During all this Rayne noticed something amiss, and after pointing out that they were being attacked by a large bear, he let fly his arrows. Chromwyn charged in at the bear, and as his companions shot the bats out of the sky, he wrestled the bear down, toe to toe.

Losing his composure, Rayne's loosed arrows had difficulty finding purchase, and it took him awhile to calm down after the creatures were laid to rest. The party, settled down to catch their breath, and they had barely gotten ready to proceed downt he cave, before they heard shuffling approaching them. "I told you, someone had triggered the alarm!", "Well then perhaps we've caught them?", "Our master won't be pleased, they must die, or we'll be exposed!". Before them came three loathesome frogfaced men, their eyes bulging, wide mouths with rows of sharp teeth.

With a blessing and a Gift

Rayne, sitting at the local Pub in Sylvancity (original, I know), was almost startled by the excitement coming from Thei'la'del. Where once was a studious cleric now stood someone brimming with passion, and a lust for adventure. The words poured out from the Eladrin scholar, and it's musical singsong notes resonated with Rayne's soul. Aggreeing to accompany Thei'la'del and his companions, Rayne went to say farewell to his family.

His father, long retired war vetran and ranger, was out back, practicing his archery. Rayne approached him, cautiously, confidently. Seeing the resolve in his son, the father granted him leave, and a gift, money for a horse to carry him on his way. After packing to go, and saying goodbye to his mother, Rayne leaves to meet with his companions, outside of the city walls.

There he sees Chromwyn Rageborn, Redscaled Dragonborn Fighter, he sees Thei'la'del, the Eladrin Cleric, and he sees someone new, a Teifling, with a deeply tanned skin, and black horns sweeping up and back, with a little bit of a kink at the end. "Finally, it seems like our last member as arrived," the Tiefling comments, "I'm Storm Bringer, pleasure to meet, you, now lets get out of this blighted woods, and down somewhere warmer." Andez, the Storm Bringer, wore his torn clothes, ravaged and ragged, yet stood in the snows that surround the elven land as if he were in some tropical paradise.

Bewildered, Rayne simply mounts up, seeing the others do the same, except..... suddenly there was someone behind him! Rayne quickly dismounts, and on his steed, was Andez. "Sorry, they won't let me ride on theirs, and I have no mount," the Storm Bringer gives Rayne an impish grin. Sighing with resignation, Rayne mounts up again, and the four companions make their way south, to the ruins of Kelthalon Cathedral.

Introducing: The Storm Bringer

Andez sits around the campfire, telling the tale again, as a passing merchant decided to share the fire with your group. "I was on the Astenwary, a massive passenger ship. I was a guard you see. When all of a sudden, we were hit by a massive storm! It was coming at us for at least three different directions! So I went to the passengers rooms to check on them, they were strapped to their beds, praying to their gods to save them, and I noticed that their magical goodies were sitting out there being tossed about, and if I had left it like that, half of them would have been impaled! So I grabbed the clothes, and weapons, and items from each room, to take to storage mind you, and to keep them safe. So as I crossed the deck to the storage room, a massive bolt of lightning came right at me and next thing I knew I was washed ashore on this god-forsaken peninsula, my clothes ruined, and magic and lightning flowing through my veins. That's as honest a truth as you'll hear out of anybody."