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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Gamer's Social Thread

Discussion in 'Archive: Games: RPG & Miniatures' started by Magellan_the_Cat, Aug 22, 2004.

  1. Rogue_Thunder

    Rogue_Thunder FanForce CR, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 7, 2003
    Best thing to do is just find something productive and repetitive to do. Something that you can just set aside for when you do eventually hit the wall and not feel obligated to finish.
     
  2. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Maybe Tetris? That's repetative. :-B
     
  3. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Started reading Neuromancer. That seems to do the trick. Seems to be one of those books like Ringworld: Amazing at the time, but pase' and dull now.

    On the gaming front, 3 more 1's, but slightly counterd by an area attack that scored 3 crits and a solid hit. OK, the pattern went "Hit, 1, crit, crit, 1, crit". First use of Solar Wrath. Wow! Radiant Servant paragon path is amazing. Mind you, these are the first characters we've had make it to 11th level, so no telling what we're up against yet.
     
  4. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    That why some of us prefer to sit behind the screen. [face_devil]
     
  5. KudosDas

    KudosDas Jedi Padawan star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 14, 2005
    I have to agree with Katana...sometimes I forgive the 1's I roll as a GM, and sometimes I savor the 20's... :D
     
  6. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    I like to call out Yatzee! from behind my screen, as the player(s) if they want to spend skill points, then raise the screen to show five 1's and a 3 or a 6.

    OK, sometimes it's five 2's

    :D [face_devil]
     
  7. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    We've got a big gaming group: 8 people. Usually everyone is there. Some of these people I've known for 15+ years, some for only about 7. Well, considering the number of people and, let's face it, gamer personalities, it's amazing we haven't had nearly as many explosions and fights.
    So far, every one has involved the same person.
    Unfortunately, this person is 1/2 of a married couple, so we can't get rid of one without losing the other. Personally, I don't see the problem, because the other half isn't that great/hasn't impressed me, but I'm not hosting. It's not up to me. I have left because of the trouble-maker, as have 4 others from time to time. Even the trouble-maker has stormed off from time to time--taking the other 1/2. For over a year the couple was gone, then came back.
    Now one is threatening to depart, but willing to allow the other 1/2 to stay (no, not awkward at all).

    Anyone else run into troubles like that?

    What have you run into for "ideal" RPG group size? Supposedly about 5 is best, but I've run a game with 2 players, and been in games with 8 that have been amazing. Seems to be a matter of personality and the ability of the GM to juggle and improvise.

    Any thoughts? Suggestions?
     
  8. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Well, married couple stormed out today. Made a big show of trying to make peace and try to be friends outside of gaming, but the whole thing felt like it was staged for someone else's benefit.
    I'll leave out the soap-opera, but the departure of 1/2 coincided with a venomous, petty, childish parting shot that removed all sympathy from the rest of us, and destroyed forever the possiblility of them being invited back.

    That 'discussion' ate up about 90 minutes. afterward we reacted for about 30 minutes while setting up, and gamed for another 5.5 hours. In that time, we ran a bunch of role-playing, 3 combats, and had a great time. (OK, we miss the +5 initiative bonus, and the action point hit&damage bonusses, but that's really all). So, in a way, we had either 4 combats or 3 with 90 minutes less time.
     
  9. Jedi_Dajuan

    Jedi_Dajuan Administrator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2002
    It's hard to kick half of a pair out of any group. It seems like just asking them both to go is the best bet. I doubt that if half stayed it would still be strained and awkward for all involved. Good luck with it.
     
  10. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Anyone want to discuss cats? I have 2 most of the time, and a ton&half of stories. Some of them involve gaming even (like the cat rerolling our dice or attacking the minis). Have a couple ferret stories too. How about me make it general pet stories? This is the social thread. Anyone?
     
  11. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    oooooh! Always had a cat (except recently). Had ferrets too, but they got sadly killed. Those things are a handful. I'm a big animal person, love em all. My dog is enough for now.
     
  12. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Well, my brother bought ferrets out of state and smuggled them into California--it's illegal to buy/sell them in CA, but not to own them or treat them if you're a vetrinarian. (???) One of them got up onto the gaming table somehow during the session, grabbed my dicebag from the bottom, and ran off with it. Of course, since the bag was wide open, and he'd grabbed from the bottom, by the time he was off the table the dicebag was empty, and the dice scattered across the table.
    Unfortunately, ferrets have very short lifespans (3-8 years or so).


    On other news, I've been cleaning house and selling unused stuff on eBay for the last several years (I had a LOT of stuff, and have been working on and off). My garage is mostly cleaned out, and I've been able to free up enough space to finally set my hobby table back up. This means I can go back to painting minis and building models. May have to find one of those magnifier/light arm things though--or to finally get glasses. Some of my fine detail vision isn't as good as it used to be. The down side is that after 5 years of nothing, about 1/3 of my paints dried up. I was using RalPartha paints, and they seem to be out of business, no now I have to experiment with other brands. Found one I don't like--paints don't stick to metal minis. But I found an online source for paints I may give a try to next month--after I've had time to really take stock and figure out what I need.
     
  13. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    I used to try to paint those things, but my art talent/shaky hands/impatience made me give up. Then hobby stores kinda disappeared and I stopped picking them up
     
  14. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Having a cat in your lap wanting attention while you're trying to paint fine detail (like irises in a halfling's eye) is a bit of a problem.
    While I'm glad I can bash them together and step on them without hurting the paintwork, the plastic minis don't do it for me.
     
  15. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    today's game had a case of 1000 rolls of toilet paper. That's right: TPK

    I wasn't running this one.

    4th ed D&D.
    Fey warlock, swordmage, and goliath Barbarian.
    Had we rolled a little better, we'd have won the encounter, but we slightly underperformed. On the other hand, the GM was rolling a lot of low numbers to hit. And he forgot to powerdown one of the encounters to compensate for lack of players (most encounters designed for party of 5). And we had no healing.

    There's a lot of gripes about how ineffective Warlocks are. Mine seemed to do pretty well. Of course, I had the advantage of all the material published online & via Dragon Magazine to improve some of my attacks and skills. (Killing Curse is very nice)

    GM was complaining about how badly written the adventure was. Seems the RPGA screening wasn't very good. Several explitives and unnecessary crudities, typoes, missing words, mispelled words, incorrect words, as well as a general lack of thought (the door is boarded up: so do we break in through one of the windows or squeeze through the halfling-sized hole or get in through the back door? Why not pull off a couple of those boards? Because the guy who wrote the module didn't think of that) Skill challenges weren't very well written either. We need to find these 3 people to get the temple repaired in time for the ceremony. Oh wait, we also need you to find this person too. Why not mention that the first time? One of the skill challenges is to give a lecture to the orphans on some trade skill. As the person with the highest charisma, it fell to my character. He told them all about how they could become powerful by selling their souls to his Faery Godmother.
    Fun was had by all, even though an NPC had to come in and save us--we didn't get XP for that encounter since we failed that one. No one minded.
     
  16. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    how's they get TPK'd?
     
  17. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Two rat swarms with attack aura's and ongoing damage pinned down & flanked the barbarian and then sword mage. About the time Barbarian dropped, the Ocre Jelly arrived. Threw daily Crown of Stars at it and other things. Took it to bloodied where it split. both halves down to 7hp when the ongoing damage dropped my feylock.
     
  18. Rogue_Thunder

    Rogue_Thunder FanForce CR, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 7, 2003
    Man, I've been reading some of my old campaign write-ups and outlines, couple that with reading gaming stories on here and it's making me itch to get back into some good ol' P&P rpg. Too much WoW lately and not enough human interaction coupled with nostalgia will do that to a guy, I guess. I can even recycle some of my old ideas since the people I'm hoping to game with weren't involved in my last few campaigns. I'm going to meet up with some buddies I haven't seen in awhile and I'm hoping I can get the old gaming group back together.

    I hope everyone else has a good weekend. :)
     
  19. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Welcome Back to Reality!
     
  20. Rogue_Thunder

    Rogue_Thunder FanForce CR, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 7, 2003
    Thanks Koohii. :)

    Yeah I had an epic night. Met up with some old friends and they wanna restart the gaming group, so I'm going to be running a 3.5 ed SWRPG soon, I hope. :D
     
  21. KudosDas

    KudosDas Jedi Padawan star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 14, 2005
    I know the feeling RT. Now that I'm finally looking at being done with my degree at the end of my month I'm itching to get back in the GM seat and write again.

    Personally, I'm all for recycling story ideas, even entire story arcs, if only to see how different groups of players can screw themselves over in entirely new and innovative ways....
     
  22. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    I've used the same general adventure on 6 different starting groups. Stole the basic structure from a Molly Ringwald movie (can you believe that?) called "Space Hunter: (something) in the Forbidden Zone"
     
  23. KudosDas

    KudosDas Jedi Padawan star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 14, 2005
    Right now I'm putting together ideas for a story arc along the same lines as the "Vector" crossovers Dark Horse did a year of so back.

    The "Prologue" starts off with the characters being part of the Sith Empire helping to create/destroy a certain something during the time of Naga Sadow. The outcome of this mini-plot then dictates where this certain something is or is not at various points throughout the Star Wars time line.

    I'm drawing for a large group of players who have been in my games before, the kind of players who actually get excited about meeting the great-great-grandson of an old character for example. We'll see if I manage to get more than the first two arcs re/written...
     
  24. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Way back when, before even the Thrawn Trilogy, I ran a game set 80 years before ANH. About 5 years ago, I started a "classic" era campaign. During the 4th adventure, when the party was on a scavenge hunt, they ran into the grand-daughter of one of the previous characters, who ran a scrapyard on the homeworld of another character. Much laughter was shared by all.
    It really is fun when you can pull something like that off.
     
  25. Rogue_Thunder

    Rogue_Thunder FanForce CR, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 7, 2003
    I can't even imagine what it must be like to be involved with a gaming group with that much lineage I guess you'd call it. My gg formed only 5 years ago and we've had a grand total of maybe 5 gaming sessions. I got most of my rpg fix in my pbp message board games.