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Gaming stuff, not explicit, unfiltered
Last night was the first session of the first actual campaign I've played in at school. (There was Sundered Realms last summer, but that somehow didn't feel like a real game.) Steph and Dan, this is certainly no fault of yours, but part of me was subtly disappointed, for several reasons that I think I've found.
The largest groups I've felt comfortable in were groups of five or six players. Any more than that and it gets disjointed and hard to follow - the DMs, however, were doing a damn good job of keeping track of exactly who did what when, so it was helped. It didn't help that several people, instead of shutting up on anybody else's turn, were being ooc chatty and not paying attention.
Maybe I'm arrogant and elitist, but I felt like Arthur was trying to play his sheet rather than his character. Most notably, when I was about to attack a unicorn in a rage, rather than trying to stop me as his character, he asked the DMs if he could roll a Diplomacy check or the like to calm me down. He didn't seem to understand the concept that if he said something to me, I would interpret it as his character talking to my character and respond in kind. I was guilty of the same thing when I started playing, yeah, but I think I got the idea of talking IC into my head pretty quickly. Also, it really bothered me when - without asking - he leaned over and looked at my character sheet.
The party balance is also just plain hideous. Two arcane casters, a druid, a rogue, and four fighter classes. The first thing to notice in this is the distinct lack of cleric. I might still be convinced to remove Tom and play a cleric, but I came into this game wanting to try something new, and I've never played a distinct tank before. Barbarian is very much new territory for me, and I think it'll be fun, but I don't feel right trying to convince other people to change. Also, two of the last three characters I've played with high school friends have been clerics, including one that went all the way up to epic levels and another that may still be active if that game finds time to play; barring that it'll pick right back up this summer. I suppose that after playing the stomp-cleric and the creepy-evil-cleric it still leaves the support-healer-cleric to play, but... well... I dunno. We'll see how the next session goes.
Are there people interested in a game of Illuminati Brainwash tonight? I vaguely want to go into a large and intricate game of it, but I don't want to advertise on Schmack for fear of attracting people that wank instead of playing The Way I Want. But maybe I'm just too picky.
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The largest groups I've felt comfortable in were groups of five or six players. Any more than that and it gets disjointed and hard to follow - the DMs, however, were doing a damn good job of keeping track of exactly who did what when, so it was helped. It didn't help that several people, instead of shutting up on anybody else's turn, were being ooc chatty and not paying attention.
Maybe I'm arrogant and elitist, but I felt like Arthur was trying to play his sheet rather than his character. Most notably, when I was about to attack a unicorn in a rage, rather than trying to stop me as his character, he asked the DMs if he could roll a Diplomacy check or the like to calm me down. He didn't seem to understand the concept that if he said something to me, I would interpret it as his character talking to my character and respond in kind. I was guilty of the same thing when I started playing, yeah, but I think I got the idea of talking IC into my head pretty quickly. Also, it really bothered me when - without asking - he leaned over and looked at my character sheet.
The party balance is also just plain hideous. Two arcane casters, a druid, a rogue, and four fighter classes. The first thing to notice in this is the distinct lack of cleric. I might still be convinced to remove Tom and play a cleric, but I came into this game wanting to try something new, and I've never played a distinct tank before. Barbarian is very much new territory for me, and I think it'll be fun, but I don't feel right trying to convince other people to change. Also, two of the last three characters I've played with high school friends have been clerics, including one that went all the way up to epic levels and another that may still be active if that game finds time to play; barring that it'll pick right back up this summer. I suppose that after playing the stomp-cleric and the creepy-evil-cleric it still leaves the support-healer-cleric to play, but... well... I dunno. We'll see how the next session goes.
Are there people interested in a game of Illuminati Brainwash tonight? I vaguely want to go into a large and intricate game of it, but I don't want to advertise on Schmack for fear of attracting people that wank instead of playing The Way I Want. But maybe I'm just too picky.
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Yes.
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I'm not so attached to my character that I couldn't be convinced to play a cleric... it just seemed like this wasn't really the type of world I'd want to play a cleric in. Really, I'd like to try paladin, which would also provide a good battery of healing, but from what Dan and Steph said, the theology of this world doesn't encourage holy warriors so much... oh well. I could definitely see playing a cleric, though, especially if we're going to have the problem with healing that we've been having already.
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Yeah, it's true. Sorry about that, but it's just kind of how the world evolved.
As for issues with particular players, talk to me about it and I'll pull them aside if it's needed.
The thing about character vs. OoC playing that really pissed me off was people actively trying to get Eli's character to drink the water. Not cool or funny.
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That said, it's a lot more fun to play IC as a rule; the sheet just helps a lot in some cases.
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Steve
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With two DMs, we'll be much more likely to have the group splinter a bit while being able to keep the game moving for most players. Also, I'll be shocked if all 8 players stick around. A couple in particular, I don't expect to see back after a couple of sessions, if that long. Just a hunch.
As for party balance, it looked great at the outset, but there were a few people changing characters at the last minute, plus a few who didn't *define* characters until the last minute, so there wasn't much that could be done. One nice thing, though, is that the fighters are at least somewhat different flavors. I don't know how well they'll diverge over time, but I expect that a few will travel along paths distinct from the rest of the party.
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Also, this party could be get more nicely balanced if, say, one of the fighters took a level of paladin or cleric. Would then stay a fighter, but be able to use magic items of healing, which I think would work better than the cheesy "find magic berries of Cure Light." (although this is more reasonable in this weird highly-magical forest) I mean, even with Goodberry, a magical spell, you only heal something like one HP/berry, and the spell only makes a handful of same. Also, people should definitely have bought some healpots (like Lori, especially, who should know better. ;) )
Also, one of the fighters concentrating on archery or the like would be sensible (maybe Jeff, being as he's probably more suited to it than trying to fight melee).
Or you could just let me be a mystic theurge. ;)
Steve
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Second, I can use magic items of healing. Amazing what a level or two of ranger does for you, no? ^_^ So no mystic theurge for you. Suck it!
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This said, the last 3 D+D characters i played were clerics cause the party needed them. Maybe its last 4, now that i think about it... excluding random silliness like the 20th level campaign or lori and steph's spring break campaign which lasted all of 1 week. Admittedly my 2nd clerics weren't much good for healing, but Eagle Feather's use of healing was abusive (esp involving Dan's character, ask him about it), and i had the most hp in the party, and was arguably the most effective in combat (Up until Steve's 'all magic missile all the time' mage, which is disturbingly effective). It was really when i realized i had to kill the party cleric in my campaign in order to have player death mean anything though that i truly came to realize how annoying clerics were for a DM. (I dont kill characters lightly, there's generally a reason, and i dont want them coming back if i do unless that is also part of the plan)
What i really want to run is a campaign of all fighter/thief characters at some point. Yeah, i dont see it happening either.
But so theres no cleric. Play smart, play careful, and let the other players lose characters to player (or in-character) stupidity. Its called natural selection. Adventuring is a dangerous business, it should actually feel that way to the players.
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Maybe if I make it to Northwestern, I'll play in the F/T campaign. Perhaps allow ranger or bard as well? They're not too far off the mark from F/T.
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I doubt I'd be up for any Brainwash; I gots stuff due tomorrow, and I'm still working out the finer points of vanilla Illuminati.
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As you probably know, the previous Mudd DMs (Nick, Steve, Brian) all played large-party (8-9 players) and so that became standard. Dan defined the 8-character limit, I would have gone with 6 but having managed to pull off the sundered realms campaign alone with only about the expected amount of severe disorder, I feel pretty flexible about party size. Nick put aside time for "the players will wank now" if I recall.
I suspect that gameplay will improve as Dan and I figure out how best to balance our skills, I get back into the swing of co-DMing after such a long stretch of DMing alone, Dan gets more experience DMing, and party gets more experience playing with each other. At least I know that personally as a DM a lot of my decisions are determined by knowing how players will interact with each other, not just how players will act individually.
I found the session more taxing than I would have liked, too. Partly for that reason I'm voting no Friday night session, especially since I need to try to pull Eye of Chaos back into shape.
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8+ party campaigns are not the norm, but more people play in them, and they generate more talk.
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In fact, i wouldnt be surprised if steve+my D+D experience (in years) > experience of entire play group that you have (but it may not be true, and i only know Brian is playing at this part, for all i know he has a fair amount, which is why i add steve's to my own. There are certainly groups in the past for which i've had more experience than the entire group or remainder of group).