Deleted
Deleted Member
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School
Jun 24, 2015 4:35:42 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2015 4:35:42 GMT
Oh man.... I'm going back to school after 15 years, classes started Monday. I'm only two days into it, and already I'm like... WHERE THE HELL DID ALL MY FREE TIME GO???
That's okay, I've been sitting on my arse for too long anyway. Anyway, back to the books!
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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School
Jun 24, 2015 4:52:41 GMT
Post by Samuel Wise on Jun 24, 2015 4:52:41 GMT
Great post... If anybody wants to give advice on balancing School with Gaming I am all ears. Fall semesters are almost here and I doubt I can juggle D&D, School, and Warhammer. Due to money I'm afraid that my wargaming is going to slow down to the rate of a disembodied undead in concrete mixture.
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School
Jun 24, 2015 8:26:36 GMT
Post by joatmoniac on Jun 24, 2015 8:26:36 GMT
I went back to school after only 6 years away and it was rough. Kept a full time job, and had the unfortunate experience of having a daughter born four months early in the middle of that. I had to cut one group loose, but the one that mattered the most I made time for. I was even the crazy fool who kept running said games. I would try not to overdo it by attempting to schedule too many sessions. If all else fails you could go to D&D Encounters at your FLGS, and depending on your rapport with them you could potentially run those games. I have ran a few and the material is easy to digest and run in the given time frame, and if you were comfortable enough with a certain module you could run it several times more easily and enjoy the variance based on the groups that show up. One offs are another great way to still play while busy as can be. Hopefully you can figure out what works best for you, and keep on Dungeon Mastering and the great DM Mitch would say.
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School
Jun 24, 2015 14:27:30 GMT
Post by DMC on Jun 24, 2015 14:27:30 GMT
Good on ya, Nevvur! What's the major?
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Deleted
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School
Jun 24, 2015 14:54:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2015 14:54:13 GMT
I'm just working on a transfer degree at a community college right now. I went to Oregon State University for biochemistry in 1999-2000, but dropped out after the first year. Between college level classes taken in high school for which I received credit, and that first year at OSU, I'll be done by the end of Winter term, so I need to figure out what I want to do pretty quick. Still not sure, but I'm leaning toward something in computer science.
Before this week, I was already a player at a FLGS Encounters, and the DM for their Expeditions. Plus a home game DM. Despite my initial optimism for the home game, the social dynamic never really worked for me. The short version is, I received an invitation to DM by a player I met while running Expeditions at a different store than I go to now. He and his friends were looking for someone to run a game for them, and that's exactly what it felt like. I never felt like one of their friends, just a guy who showed up and did the rules. I thought it would get better over time, but it didn't. I'll be dropping out as a player for Encounters, too, but I get a group of regulars at Expeditions who I do feel genuine camaraderie with. I'm not thrilled with the restrictions of the Adventurer's League, but I enjoy DMing for these guys, so I'll stick with that. Plus the time/weekday we play fits nicely into my schedule.
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School
Jun 24, 2015 23:10:12 GMT
Post by Tesla Ranger on Jun 24, 2015 23:10:12 GMT
I've tried going back to school a few times since I separated from the military (trying to use up that GI Bill) but the schools I'd tried were all pretty disappointing so I didn't stick with them very long. It can definitely be a challenge to hold a full-time job and go to college, especially if you're the only student in your classes in that situation.
My first experiences with playing D&D were at tech school but that was in the military so it was a bit of different situation. We had a few groups that would get together in the "fish bowl" (basically our rec room) every Saturday afternoon to try playing D&D 3.0. Only two of us had ever played before so it was pretty kooky, but it was a good way to take a break from the military side of things for awhile.
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School
Jun 25, 2015 13:52:11 GMT
Post by friartook on Jun 25, 2015 13:52:11 GMT
My first experiences with playing D&D were at tech school but that was in the military so it was a bit of different situation. We had a few groups that would get together in the "fish bowl" (basically our rec room) every Saturday afternoon to try playing D&D 3.0. Only two of us had ever played before so it was pretty kooky, but it was a good way to take a break from the military side of things for awhile. I've been amazed and impressed with how many military folks play D&D. I had a pretty narrow set of assumptions around D&D growing up; probably due to the fact that I was the only kid I knew who played. Those assumptions have since been shattered by reality. So much the better.
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School
Jun 25, 2015 14:02:43 GMT
Post by friartook on Jun 25, 2015 14:02:43 GMT
Oh man.... I'm going back to school after 15 years, classes started Monday. I'm only two days into it, and already I'm like... WHERE THE HELL DID ALL MY FREE TIME GO??? That's okay, I've been sitting on my arse for too long anyway. Anyway, back to the books! First, congratulations on returning to school! Its a hard thing for us old guys to have to do, especially at a "community college" or "tech school". I returned to school after a 10 year gap. My initial schooling was art school, paid for by my parents. I dropped out after two years when I realized that paying to go to school for art is pointless; you improve your art by creating art, not taking classes. I returned when I met my current partner. She already had two boys (the older boys I've mentioned on here are actually my step-sons, but I don't make a big deal of the distinction) and I'd been working food service and manual labor jobs for a long time. I returned to school at the local tech college with the intention of transferring to the local state university. I ended up staying at the tech college and earning an associate's degree instead. It worked well for me; I couldn't stand all the kids in the transfer classes, and I got a job within a week of graduating, a full three years sooner than I would have if I had stayed in the transfer program. I paid for this round of school with loans and my own money. During that time I held down three part time jobs and helped care for the boys. That was the time in my life I learned the definition of "free time": Free Time=sleep. All that is to say: Good on ya and good luck!
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School
Jun 25, 2015 15:37:54 GMT
Post by Tesla Ranger on Jun 25, 2015 15:37:54 GMT
[I've been amazed and impressed with how many military folks play D&D. I had a pretty narrow set of assumptions around D&D growing up; probably due to the fact that I was the only kid I knew who played. Those assumptions have since been shattered by reality. So much the better. I've heard of plenty of guys who'd play downrange when they could. Sourcebooks weren't easy to come by though (not the obvious sort of thing to include in a care package) so I've heard of a few groups that came up with some interesting solutions. One campaign rebuilt the whole mechanic to use generic playing cards (something that's included in every care package) while another campaign essentially re-invented D&D in the field from memory and imagination using notebook paper and pencils. The latter came back after their 4 years down range and just kept playing their own campaign. That's some shiny stuff!
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Post by DMC on Jun 25, 2015 15:39:42 GMT
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
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School
Jun 25, 2015 16:21:00 GMT
Post by joatmoniac on Jun 25, 2015 16:21:00 GMT
I've heard of plenty of guys who'd play downrange when they could. Sourcebooks weren't easy to come by though (not the obvious sort of thing to include in a care package) so I've heard of a few groups that came up with some interesting solutions. One campaign rebuilt the whole mechanic to use generic playing cards (something that's included in every care package) while another campaign essentially re-invented D&D in the field from memory and imagination using notebook paper and pencils. The latter came back after their 4 years down range and just kept playing their own campaign. That's some shiny stuff! I love that their solution was a physical one rather than simply getting digital versions of everything and going from there. Part of me thought that facilitating things through Roll20 or another virtual tabletop could go really well. What about dice? I would assume they also wouldn't come in a care package, well nothing besides d6s. I assume that the second example had a more streamlined set of rules, as I don't envision that someone would remember all of the rules. Then again we all know that guy who does, haha. Are there any rules that you remember being purposely cut, or weren't remembered in hindsight? Just seems like a really cool thing to see/hear about.
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Jun 25, 2015 16:52:48 GMT
Depending on where you were stationed you might have a computer area down range, but it's far from guaranteed and the connection wouldn't be exactly excellent. This was back in 2004-2006 too, so tablets and smartphones hadn't really proliferated. A lot of soldiers and airmen were carrying iPods but that was about it, and you couldn't count on being able to charge them.
If I remember right, the soldier who ran the second campaign had been playing D&D for a couple of years before deploying. He was familiar enough with the rules for 3.5 but he didn't have any of the stat blocks for monsters and traps and such. So he invented new monsters. When they had a question for a mechanic, they came up with their own answers. They wound up writing their own monster manual (and probably some sort of PHB) just on loose scrap paper. I don't remember if dice came up at all but the story's stuck in my head for years as a great example of the resourcefulness of military members downrange and the general shiny-ness that is D&D. These guys had a perfect way to relax and blow of steam that they can use everywhere they went.
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dmgrendel
Squire
Posts: 42
Favorite D&D Class: Barbarian on the table, Cleric at heart
Favorite D&D Race: Orcs!
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School
Jun 27, 2015 2:19:13 GMT
via mobile
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Post by dmgrendel on Jun 27, 2015 2:19:13 GMT
One of my best friends is in Air Force Intelligence, and he runs the best D&D game I've ever played. I guess it helps that his job includes organizing Red Flag, which is the military version of LARP...
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School
Jun 27, 2015 3:04:04 GMT
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Jun 27, 2015 3:04:04 GMT
which is the military version of LARP... It occurs to me that that could describe really any military excercise, of which there are quite a few. I'm just not sure why I didn't realize that before!
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dmgrendel
Squire
Posts: 42
Favorite D&D Class: Barbarian on the table, Cleric at heart
Favorite D&D Race: Orcs!
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School
Jun 28, 2015 0:17:41 GMT
via mobile
Post by dmgrendel on Jun 28, 2015 0:17:41 GMT
He ran a D20 modern variation for us, and at one point right before a big raid, he provided us with a complete briefing on powerpoint. It was the greater thing ever.
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