Post by blakeryan on Jul 19, 2016 0:09:28 GMT
Good ep with very relevant messages.
Regarding making sure everyone has a good time, here's a few bad & good examples from my gaming history -
One game - DM wanted to impress a female player. Her character always found items that suited her race/class combo. Anytime someone was doing something interesting, bam-her character would instantly rock up and take the spotlight, items and exp. After 3 sessions of this the other players often had looks of disappointment on their faces. Yes we did try to talk to the DM, but he waved it off saying She is just better than you guys, you have to try harder. It's hard to compete against someone with a ring of teleporting and eyes of charming. When we confronted the female character about how she treated us, a Solar (that's powerful Celestial) came down and yelled at us.
Another game - The DM and two players were running a side campaign with evil characters, they kept attacking the main campaigns heroes, using metagaming knowledge of their powers/activities. So aside from struggling with whatever quests we were on, we'd get attacked by a group who know our abilities with no hint/story link why they were there and after us. They could not see what the problem was, players left the group.
As a Player - You can tell if the DM is not into the game, the npcs don't interact much, they don't set the scene for encounters, and find excuses not to run the game. As a player i've talked to DM's and said Hey man if you are not into it, lets fix it, it's our game. We can change it, we can start a new plot, we can reboot the campaign, cause players can't have fun if the DM is not, it's impossible.
I've played in a few Pathfinder games that the DM refused to guide character creation. He said any race/class/feat/trait combination is fine. Each time the players followed a linear plot but none of the characters were tied into the plot or eachother, backgrounds were for min/max not story based, it was very hard to generate comradery or envision what we were doing. When I asked if we could go do this (non plot event) the DM looked at me blankly then kept going with the module.
As a DM - I've had a few games i've run that died because people didn't leave their baggage at the door. They had work or home life stress and took it out on others. As soon as something doesn't go their charcters way, they attack one of the other players (verbally as players and actually as characters). Players don't want to deal with it and leave. I've had two campaigns die from this, and the other players don't want to keep going-they vote for restart. As a DM I found it's best to say Hey anyone want to talk about anything? before we start, gauge player stress level, let them de-stress/share cool news about a movie etc first, then get into it.
The two most memorable games both had strong themes. First one-I told them they were secret agents for the king, covertly working against evil cults in evil lands. The players decided they would be travelling musicians as a cover, so they all chose a perform skill. The alternating between both of their jobs/lives was so great. Second one - All members of a small caster guild, so they were all spellcasters. They were competing against larger guilds for power/quests etc, so their guild was like a goal/motivation, something to make better, like their own business.
Regarding making sure everyone has a good time, here's a few bad & good examples from my gaming history -
One game - DM wanted to impress a female player. Her character always found items that suited her race/class combo. Anytime someone was doing something interesting, bam-her character would instantly rock up and take the spotlight, items and exp. After 3 sessions of this the other players often had looks of disappointment on their faces. Yes we did try to talk to the DM, but he waved it off saying She is just better than you guys, you have to try harder. It's hard to compete against someone with a ring of teleporting and eyes of charming. When we confronted the female character about how she treated us, a Solar (that's powerful Celestial) came down and yelled at us.
Another game - The DM and two players were running a side campaign with evil characters, they kept attacking the main campaigns heroes, using metagaming knowledge of their powers/activities. So aside from struggling with whatever quests we were on, we'd get attacked by a group who know our abilities with no hint/story link why they were there and after us. They could not see what the problem was, players left the group.
As a Player - You can tell if the DM is not into the game, the npcs don't interact much, they don't set the scene for encounters, and find excuses not to run the game. As a player i've talked to DM's and said Hey man if you are not into it, lets fix it, it's our game. We can change it, we can start a new plot, we can reboot the campaign, cause players can't have fun if the DM is not, it's impossible.
I've played in a few Pathfinder games that the DM refused to guide character creation. He said any race/class/feat/trait combination is fine. Each time the players followed a linear plot but none of the characters were tied into the plot or eachother, backgrounds were for min/max not story based, it was very hard to generate comradery or envision what we were doing. When I asked if we could go do this (non plot event) the DM looked at me blankly then kept going with the module.
As a DM - I've had a few games i've run that died because people didn't leave their baggage at the door. They had work or home life stress and took it out on others. As soon as something doesn't go their charcters way, they attack one of the other players (verbally as players and actually as characters). Players don't want to deal with it and leave. I've had two campaigns die from this, and the other players don't want to keep going-they vote for restart. As a DM I found it's best to say Hey anyone want to talk about anything? before we start, gauge player stress level, let them de-stress/share cool news about a movie etc first, then get into it.
The two most memorable games both had strong themes. First one-I told them they were secret agents for the king, covertly working against evil cults in evil lands. The players decided they would be travelling musicians as a cover, so they all chose a perform skill. The alternating between both of their jobs/lives was so great. Second one - All members of a small caster guild, so they were all spellcasters. They were competing against larger guilds for power/quests etc, so their guild was like a goal/motivation, something to make better, like their own business.