A Rant on Communication

This is something I have wanted to say for a long damned time, and as my posting has been quiet this month it makes sense to use now as the time for saying what needs to be said:

IF YOU DECIDE TO NO LONGER PLAY IN A GAME GROUP OR HAVE NO INTEREST IN A GAME GROUP TELL SOMEONE IN THAT GROUP THIS IS SO.

This also goes with not wanting someone to continue to play in your group.

I get it I mean I do.  People are passive aggressive wusses who are too afraid of any form of confrontation ever.

So doing things like just not responding to scheduling emails, or when someone talks to you about a game and you aren't interested you just delete the message and act like the game never happened, or if someone is a complete tool you do the RPGnet approved "Lie and say the game isn't taking place" because that can't ever come back and cause more trouble than your chickens(*& self thinks you are avoiding by rightfully telling someone they are being a douche and you don't want them there any more is what everyone does.

(Its not just gaming.  Its why "I'll call you" in dating circles really means "Thanks for the sex but I never intend to talk to you again but I am what I just got out of you last night and can't be honest with you".)

This is enormous jerkfacery of the highest level and its GOT TO BLOODY STOP.

If you are interested in a game but upon hearing more details and it doesn't sound like its your bag its OK to say "Sorry, its not my thing.  Good luck and I hope you have fun".

This is both POLITE, and nice.  You can in fact think its the worst idea for a game in the history of ever but its not like you have to say that.

Just letting the person know you won't be participating is good enough.

But nobody does that do they?  As I mentioned, RPGnet even ENCOURAGES this sort of rude, wussy, passive aggressive handling of things.

Instead all you really do is waste other people's time as they prepare for games they won't be playing in or have people show up for, which is VERY GODDAMNED RUDE.  These days it seems like we all have less and less free time.

Your bitch ass deciding to in the middle of the game claim your wive/husband/dog/ect needs you at home and you run out never to be seen again is the height of dickery.  Outside of the most mentally unbalanced person, who is gonna care if you say "Sorry I don't think this is working out" and then leave?

Or if you are that afraid of personal confrontation about pretend Elf and Space Marine games, just finish that session, and make a phone call or email the next day saying you will no longer be playing.

IS THIS SORT OF COMMON COURTESY THAT FREAKING HARD?

I've seen so much of it over the years both as a passive and active participant in someone else's inability to be polite.  I refuse to engage in it.  If I think a game sucks and I am quitting?  I almost always let the group know as I leave for the day so they know not to waste any more of their game time on me.  The few times I just leave after a game?   I STILL make sure someone in the group knows I am not coming back ASAP.

Even if I utterly loathe the game or people I now know to avoid at all costs I still respect them as human beings and show them basic decency.

The game groups where I see this sort of behavior constantly done always end up terrible and its usually a sign to run like hell.

So show respect to your fellow human beings and if you aren't interested in playing or continuing to play a game you have already started interacting with take that whopping 2-5 minutes and make a phone call or send an email saying so.

Heck, if you have enough gusto to (respectfully) say why you are leaving/don't want someone else to play?  They may learn from their actions and correct bad behaviors, if not with you, possibly in the future.

But this is me hoping people show common courtesy and respect for each other and that's just silly talk.  All you have to do is see cigarette butts and garbage strewn all around, or shopping carts laying about in parking lots as opposed to the minute it would take to put them in their proper places to know we as humanity don't have any courtesy whatsoever.

And that is terrible.

Bad News for 4e D&D and Other Ponderings

Over at the Something Awful forums there is an over 1300 PAGE thread on their Traditional Games subforum to the normal Games forum called Grognards.txt.  In general its a bunch of smug 4th edition D&D fans bashing anyone butthurt over 4th edition.  "Nerds angry at nerds angry at D&D" is what I call it.

Yet...

There is a LOT of good game theory and plenty of examples of terrible RPG players in that thread.  (And its not the two times I have been uncredited quoted as being a grognard either.  I'm on page 1 and in the 1130s.  Neither quote is particularly good or bad really.  When you read the thread and some of the sheer creepy, horrible, and just plain WRONG things gamers on the net say and talk about their campaigns me at my most anti 4e aint doodly squat.  This depresses me greatly.  People never disappoint at disappointing..)

Recently there has been the discussion of people saying 4e "ISN'T D&D" and a topic I have probably blogged about before on the lethality of classic D&D and how it sucks.  What follows is both a fellow I am quoting, and my own thoughts on both the lethality, and if 4e is D&D or not:
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Guilty Spork posted:

The one thing I have really and truly never understood about D&D is why the paradigm of ridiculously fragile PCs lasted more than a month or so. Having wizards who can't be scratched to death by a single housecat somehow equates to having totally consequence-free play like in an MMO that only exists in grognard's minds.

I honestly say this is what really killed RPGs. Not videogames being easier to get into, not MMOs.

It was kids and preteens in the 80s with thoughts of He Man, Conan, Thundarr, and Lion O in their heads. (And maybe a couple of girls with She Ra or Red Sonja)

Then they get to the table and bring their character into battle. Only to die in the first or second fight.

Ok fuck this let's go play Atari 2600 instead. (Even moreso with the creepy sex deviants who have been ruining everything ever. The Internet just gives sickos a group to talk about how they want to see Rainbow Brite having "group relations" with the Carebears or something. Human sexuality is a terrible thing.)

Its not the effort involved. Sure it might be a lot of work but if its your thing, you won't mind the work.

Some people love to fix and repair their own cars. You have nerds spending 100s of hours painting their wargaming minis. People who love sewing.

But when so many cards are stacked against RPGs as is, the sheer lethality of RAW TSR D&D is just a giant turnoff.

And even beyond the creepy players, what about the PVP parties who think backstabbing a fellow player is FUNNY? That sort of crap drove people away from online games like Diablo and Phantasy Star Online in droves. And basically the PVP flag alone is what helped Everquest beat Ultima Online regardless of what a few hardcore say. Even though in nearly every other way UO was tons more fun.

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Going back to IT IS ITS NOT D&D: Well, for a load of people 4e isn't D&D as they know it.

If people were happy about it, would this news have ever happened?
http://www.icv2.com/articles/markets/20743.html

D&D has pretty much always been the Number One RPG regardless of quality.

It keeps losing out or at the very least has shed marketshare.

Compare the style of game you played from 74-99 to 3 and 4e. It really feels completely damned different.

(As much as the 3e fans would like to say otherwise, it really is a transitional phase between TSR D&D and 4th. Its sort of a well intentioned mutt that got overdesigned somewhere in the middle. My least favorite version of D&D. 4th Essentials and a house ruled Basic are my go to D&D branded games, with a houseruled Castles & Crusades my preferred D&D game PERIOD, X-Plorers coming in a close second.)

Sure WOTC says what the brand is on, but ask any Godzilla fan what they think of the 98 movie and its creature is called "GINO" (Godzilla in Name Only), Deanzilla, Sh&*zilla, or similarly childish names. The Godzilla owners ended up calling it 'Zilla and having it get completely smacked down by a Godzilla closer to what people love.

Heck, ask horror fans about how they feel on the Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nightmare on Elm Street Remakes. They are almost universally rejected by the fanbase.

Doesn't matter if its good or not. With consumer products its the fanbase that has some control over the property.  (Though having seen the Halloween remake I can safely say its only slightly less terrible than Halloween 5 and 6.  But only the parts where its not trying to be an actual Halloween remake.  If they removed the remake bits it would actually be an interesting look into a child who murders most of his family and his inability to be rehabilitated in a mental institution.  Once the remake part properly begins it sucks ass.  Lots and lots of ass.  Epic Ass Sucking Time is what it becomes.  Apparently its sequel is even worse.  How you get worse than a movie whose Chud.com review scored it as a "F*&K YOU out of 10" I do not know.)

Change is good, but if you change too much too fast and don't keep enough of what people love it will get creamed unless you find enough of a replacement audience.

Games Workshop was lucky when 3rd edition 40K did a massive shift. Rackham games with the final version of Confrontation was not. WOTC is getting hammered similarly.

(I would say Transformers survives and thrives with constant changes in style and scope because it never really throws away the previous. Hate the idiotic Bay movies? Well IDW makes Generation 1 comics in a modern style and even reprints the old. Are a kid? Transformers Animated and Prime are right up your alley. Heck, they have a line and upcoming show JUST for the 3-6 year old set who probably would cry trying to transform the main line's deluxe class figures.  I've bought the Optimus Prime from this line for my cousin's 5 year old for Christmas.  Its so adorable I kind of want one for myself.)

And I do find it a shame because there is a LOT to like about 4e once you don't look at it as how you would TSR D&D. And its a load better than 3.x.

But I doubt the improvements of 4th will carry to 5th. Class balance, streamlining, pick up and play, not swetting the spergy details? These will all probably be ignored next edition and its a Cthulhu damned shame.

I'm enjoying the 4th ed campaign I am running, I enjoy Encounters when I get the opportunity to play, and I even have an open invite to a Friday game I will finally get to play in for at least one session soon.

WOTC dropped the ball, and a LOT of it has to do with changing too much too fast, hosing over Paizo during the change, and the suits (WOTC and Hasbro most likely) trying to sell RPGs to make Magic the Gathering profits. Which just can't happen.

And I doubt anyone outside of accountants wanting RPGs to sell on a CCG business model.

[D&D 4e Castlevania Campaign] The Myth Cycle Part 1

For every fantasy world with magic and divine powers, one ought to have a basic mythic history of the world.  Its nice to have a little background for these things.  For my Fantasy Earth this is mine:

IN THE BEGINNING:

In the creation of our universe 3 sisters were born of the Primal Father.  Locked in battle with the destroyer of the last, the Chaos Bringer, the One, they died.  Their deaths recreated the universe and the Primal birthed three children to make the new creation better than the last.  Yet the One had his way as well and spawned 4 brothers.

Our universe was truly created as the 3 battled the 4, eventually sending the Son of War, the Son of Death, the Son of Intrigue, and the Son of Decadence into another dimension, their punishment being to power and warm reality.

Upon having a source of power to create and bring forth life to this new universe the first sister, Celes, made countless suns to warm and bring light everywhere.

The second, Terra, made planets of earth, where her sister's suns would help things grow and life to bloom.

The third, Luna, brought moons to track time and to keep forces on planets in check, and to bring night so that there would be periods of rest.

Then, they slept while the worlds came to life, the beating of their hearts and the breaths of their mouths setting a pace to reality.

When the 3 awoke, they found countless planets bringing forth life.  It was then they brought forth their own children to help watch and protect them.

It was then that the 4 made their move...

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 24: Bend it Like Bauer.

Today I finish this project on time, on schedule with only a single week where I failed to keep it (not counting the hurricane week, which I caught up with, getting both installments out ASAP).

It is complete.  Yay me.  Boo game designers for slacking it.

My D&D 4e Castlevania Campaign Notes Part 1: House Rules

This is just going to be a series of writings based on both whatever dumb house rules I come up with (and possibly reports of how terrible they were in active play), and the history/cosmology of my campaign setting.

It looks like I am starting it up Tuesday, thanks to a bit of luck, and me being entirely too aggressive via the internet in roping people in.    If you can't get people to play the most popular RPG in the world (even if its taken a serious marketshare blow from Pathfinder) what can you get folks to play?

Probably nothing unless you have a large and openminded group of friends.

So here we go!

House Rules:


Healing Surges:  Normal Healing Surges(HS) can NOT be used.  Once per day as a Standard Action a PC may immediately recover ALL HP, have all negative status effects cancelled, and gain Defense and Resistance bonuses equal to their Level x 2.  Regular HSes may only be used through powers and abilities.

I kind of like more of an old school thing as opposed to having everyone rest up to max constantly.


Action Points: Gone.  However once per character level (and you can keep collecting them if you don't use them) you may spend a "Hero Point" to change the value of any die roll made by you or that affects you.  Any roll at all.

Don't like Action Points and keeping track of them is a tad odd.  I do however like the idea of a "Get out of doom free" thing.  Honestly I would say all PCs ought to save this for things like their final death save or if they find themselves in a position where if they fail a roll they are dead.


Death: For saving against Death a 19-20 takes you into safety instead of just a 20.

A little less brutality here.  Its kind of tough but fair, and this helps a bit.  I could go with "Add your CON bonus to the roll" but that makes death all but impossible outside of TPKs and the like.


Enemies: Enemies do NOT have Healing Surges or Action Points.  Also to speed gameplay and compensate for reduced PC self healing average monster HP will be reduced by a good 25-33 percent.  I am lazy so it will be me eyeballing it.   If things are really too hard or easy I can modify on the fly and who will know?  BWAHAHA.

Minor PC nerfing ought to have minor monster nerfing too.  Plus, as I said, speeds up the game.  Do you want to do math for 600 HP monsters all the time?  No.  400 is sillier but not AS silly.


Dead PCs:  If a player's PC dies their replacement starts with half the xp of their previous one provided they play either the same race or the same class as their fallen character.  (Could be a comrade from back in Wizard school or a relative.  Be creative here!)  Their starting gold is whatever level the new PC is times 150.
This CAN be used to buy their choice in magic items from the Essentials books or possibly Adventurer's Vault 1 and 2.  If a new PC only has the XP to be Level 1, they just start as a Level 1.

Adventure Cards:  If you build a deck, I get to draw one of your cards before play each session and may use it for the enemies.  Or I may use the card to cancel a card you play.  So your 8 card deck becomes 7.  Hope I don't take your favorite!

Game Table: Open table for anyone who isn't rude or disruptive.  First 6 players play (announcing playing ahead of time locks your slot in, though if you don't show up at least 30 minutes after play has begun it becomes someone else's slot), next person in line becomes the DM's assistant and helps move monsters and stuff.  The DM's Assistant gets 3/4ths the XP the rest of the PCs get and 1/4th the treasure.  It is assumed all the regulars and semiregulars are present each session but only so many can be handled by one DM.  So people are there but not really.

This makes it a far less restrictive game.  People don't have to be there every session if they can't make it, and it doesn't OH NO GAME IS RUINED every time one or two people don't show up.  If you can only play 1 out of every 4 times well that's fine.  Sure your XP gain is gonna suck and you might not want to play a front line fighter, but you can still show up and get some monster bashing in.  I seriously doubt I will have a 7+ player group ever much less constantly but I have given some thought just in case I do.


Campaign Restrictions:


Essentials ONLY classes and races.  Standard arrays from those rulesbooks.   If you really want to play some race not in it, do "Counts As".  You might be following the rules of an Elf or a Halfling, but you can say you are a Drow or a Gnome.  Good enough for government work!

While not restricted, it is HIGHLY recommended nobody play Dragonborn or Tiefling as the former are very rare in this setting, and the latter are generally despised.

Good and Unaligned alignments please.

Level 1 to start.

Essentials is what I have and what I like.  If there is that much outcry for non Essentials stuff I will probably just allow the PHB classes that are the same core as the Essentials, albeit with different builds.  So: Assassin, Fighter, Wizard, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, and Warlock.  Thanks to the D&D Character Builder online and my books it shouldn't be a big issue, but if it is I could easily see myself meeting folks halfway at least.


Character Level Cap:  The Cap for this campaign is Level 15.  From Level 1-10 XP costs are as usual.
The chart for level 11-15 is as such:
11: 50,000
12: 80,000
13: 120,000
14: 170,000
15: 230,000

I want to have a campaign with a semi set length, and I really don't want to go far beyond the Level 1-10 tier.  If there is enough outcry for me to continue the campaign past my end point I could do it, or I could either let someone else DM the next part as they choose to, or we could start a new game or new campaign.  But I want a campaign with less insane levels of power, and with a SET SATISFYING ENDING.  Even reaching level 10 should take a good 9-12 months given the schedule I am setting.


Schedule: 2 games per month on roughly a biweekly basis.  Long as we manage 2 games per month we are GOLDEN.  Due to my schedule and player desire we may have 2 games back to back then it could be 4 dead weeks before we play again. I will do my best to make it every other week however.

 If scheduling and player desire is so strong we play more than 2 I have no issue, but I generally want a schedule everyone can keep without being too intrusive.  Free time to spend with friends and family outside of playing imaginary Elf Braunsteins (go look it up kids!) is ALWAYS a good thing.  And hell, holidays and the like always make stuff a bear.






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Well this is what I have so far.  Hopefully everyone will enjoy it and the house rules will work smoothly.  If not I can always fall back to RULES AS WRITTEN, or even what the players wish.

Sure I might be the DM, and I have been quite beloved due to my loving tortures and terrors I put Players and their Characters through, but its EVERYONE'S GAME, not just the DM.  Gotta make it as fun for as many people as humanly possible.

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 23: Final Floor, Final Bore

Yeah I know this was supposed to be the last installment but its just too big of one so I am splitting it up into 2-3 parts.  Depends on how much effort I want to spend on my final thoughts on the game really.

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 22: Penultimate Dungeon of Penultimateness