Morphine: Easing the Pain of Playing D&D
David C:
One of the guys I game with wants to start a new campaign of D&D. Partly this is at the group's behest, because, well let me explain how the game has been going.
The game is set in Ptolus by Monte Cook. We've been using the modules made for Ptolus, and have been playing bi-monthly for 2 years. We're level 13 and barely scraping by as the GM prefers "low level, low magic" settings. I've been playing a sub-optimized wizard that only focuses on buffing the party, which I'm sure the the GM, Nick, still thinks is vastly OP. Unfortunately, we get tussled nearly every combat, anyways, partly because our magic equipment is about 33% of "The intended level." The game is basically what I'd consider "Dungeon Crawling at it's finest." Luckily, it is broken up by some otherwise incredibly portrayed NPCs. There's an implied, but incredibly lame story that's immutable (as part of the modules.)
Well, a lot of the players I know would actually prefer to not dungeon crawl (imagine that?) And they see this new campaign as some sort of magic bullet to get out of the Ptolus spire. I'm either more cynical or more wise, but believe we'll be getting more of the same (with combat boring characters to boot. Go 1st level D&D, wooo!)
Also, Nick in his most recent E-Mail, has said, "As I'm giving massive bonuses in feats and hit-points/healing, I hope you can all focus more attention on the character than on the mechanics and just have fun." Which really makes me think that not even Nick wants to run dungeon crawls and is trying to capture more of those moments we *really* play for.
I come here asking for advice. Is there something I can do to enlighten Nick?
Callan S.:
Hi David,
Could you give an example of gameplay you have enjoyed? In any campaign or under any system. Even if it was years back?
Wordman:
Without knowing more about your group, I'd like to suggest that, perhaps, the problem may be something more intrinsic to the system you are using, rather than the GM or whatever else. That is, your description seems to be saying "we dislike a lot of the things about playing D&D, so we want to start a new D&D game to solve them".
If the question is what can you do to "enlighten Nick", I'd suggest the following: convince the group to play a single session of a different game. Run it if you have to. From the sound of it, Spirit of the Century would match the desires of your players pretty well. (It also is good for quick-learning, one-shot, style games.)
In the session following the one in which you played this new game, talk about what you liked and didn't about the new game. Then talk about how you could pull some of what you liked about it into a D&D game, if, in fact, you are still then fixated on playing D&D.
One of the forces at work here will be that everyone can essentially use the other game to voice what they want and like without it sounding like an attack on Nick.
David C:
Quote from: Callan S. on February 04, 2009, 10:37:21 PM
Hi David,
Could you give an example of gameplay you have enjoyed? In any campaign or under any system. Even if it was years back?
Well Callan, I've put up play reports before, but here's the short of it. I can enjoy tactical combat, but have a low limit for how much I enjoy. For me to get really involved and be entertained, I need some good character development and interaction. Talking to different people in the group, I think this is what they're looking for, too. This kind of sounds like what Nick wants too (Come up with some really good characters!) But it might be he wants Sim play with us roleplaying our dwarves in scottish accents and stuff... I don't know for sure.
Wordman, you have good advice. The trick is seeing if I can actually convince them to play a one off or not. Nick has a very strong personality, and I don't. There's also some crazy group dynamics going on. In truth, I might not even play in the group anymore, except the fact of the matter is they're all my friends and sometimes being a friend means putting up with quirky RPG sessions, haha.
I think that part of what's going on here is that Nick doesn't understand or realize that there's other types of challenges he can throw at us. Maybe getting him to read Spirit of the Century would help? I don't know, I've read bits of it, but haven't had a chance to read it like I want to.
Abkajud:
David,
I feel your pain. It burns. One thing that really, really sucks about having discovered such cool, awesome RPGs, like the ones from Forge designers, is that most of my friends who play any RPGs at all actually enjoy playing D&D.
It actually does feel painful to play D&D - I was mulling over a recent play-by-Skype session that I did with a friend (on the basis that the Order of the Stick comic got him all reminiscent) and I realized just how frustrating it is to have pretty much zero connections between my character and the world he lived in, at least as defined through the rules themselves.
Of course, if you have any kind of clear CA in your head, D&D is probably going to disappoint.
Ba-lech. Still, it's awesome to get to a place where you realize what it is that's missing, and can start doing something about it.
/rant
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