[D&D 3.5] World's Largest Dungeon: "Gamism lite&quo

[arxhon]

I am in a group of 4 people, including the GM, and we're playing through the World's Largest Dungeon from AEG. This isn't going to be a critique of the dungeon itself, or the book, though i really have to get one thing off my chest: saying web doesn't work in the dungeon for no reason at all is just plain poor design, smacking of "I just don't like the web spell."

'm having a good time, and i'm just wanting to put some of my thoughts here for the minds of the Forge.
The rundown of the players:

GM: Jay. Self described as a "Let's roleplay!" kind of guy. Prefers emphasis on story, and from what i understand, plot development and so on. He is a member of this board, and will hopefully come by for some comments. He has also designed a few games, found at www.zobiegames.com  He stated right up front that he wanted a "light hearted dungeon crawl" kind of "Poof! Poison trap! you're dead!" and the player saying "Yeah? Well check this characer out! Ha!" sort of game.

Tory: Jay's girlfriend. Loves Changeling, and is very familiar with Storyteller games. Her characters seem to gravitate towards stealth oriented types, with a heavy dose on combat. She's also the best twink in the group. Her character is a half elven thief.  

She does get a little upset sometimes after periods of poor rolling, and she doesn't like her character getting beat up so much, but i think that's more of a character identification issue than a "Wah! You're a big meanie! Stop picking on me!" thing. It does have an effect on the group, however. Everyone is more into a game if everyone looks like they're having fun.

Andrew: Probably the least experienced member of the group in gaming overall. Mentioned he likes mysteries and solving puzzles. Fairly quiet guy, but participates fully in the game. Playing a dwarven cleric, with an emphasis on up front combat. He's mentioned he likes paladins a lot, and you can see similarities in his chosen character (good, healing type, fighter type).


Me (Chris): Probably the most experienced gamer in the group. This is the first time i've touched any kind of D&D in about a decade, but old skills never dull. ;-) I'm usually the GM when gaming, but i'm a player role for a change, and enjoying it thoroughly. Playing an elven wizard specializing in evocation and buffing his companions. On my third character, due to some poor luck and poor decisions on my part. I'm action oriented and prefer plot driven gaming with a mix of challenges, meaning i don't like getting bogged down in interminable dice rolling and math, or long "pointless" roleplaying scenes ordering drinks from the bartender.

My biggest weakness is actually interacting with other players in a "playing my character" sense. Go figure.

The evolution of our game thus far:

All three of us seem to have unconsciously approached WLD with the same mindset; to create the most powerful characters we can with our concepts.

Andrew said his concept was a really tough dwarf. He succeeded admirably.

I'm not sure about Tory, but she's mentioned taking some levels in barbarian later on, probably to beef up her character's fighting abilities. Her thief is an effective fighter, however, and she seems happy.


My concept is a dude who can cast lots of spells (i've got a soft spot for magic).

I would like to say there is no "GM's girlfriend" favoritism, as i've heard of happening from time to time on rpg.net, for which i'm glad.

There isn't much character development at this time, nor is there likely to be, i'm imagining. There are some minor roleplaying moments, but they are generally more of a sidebar to the actual task of exploring and slaying.

The first couple of sessions were kind of a "testing the waters as a group", with a lot of independence between the members. We explored as a group, but there wasn't a lot of hardcore teamwork. The most that occurred was some "Since i've got no enemies facing me, I attack the giant demon rat attacking Freya" or "I cast cure light wounds on the wizard".

I missed the third session, but things seemed to be pretty much the same when i came in for the fourth. Andrew and Tory may have developed some combat strategies; i'm not sure. They did get themselves into some trouble, that's for sure. :-)

With my third character, i decided to take a couple spells that would buff up the cleric for fighting like enlarge person, just for kicks, and because i thought it would be a good idea. After a couple fights that were easily won because of buffing spells like bless and enlarge person, i think there will be more tight knit teamwork evolving in the future. We also managed to survive an ambush from some really tough orcs, more through bad rolling on the part of the orcs than anything.

Jay, the GM, is playing monsters intelligently, which is good. He's also presenting the dungeon effectively, and not "fluffing" things to make them easier or harder in any way, really, as far as i can tell.

So, why the Gamism lite appellation?

Our general style of play seems to fit Gamism fairly well, if incompletely. There are the occasional bragging contests like "I've got a +6 on my roll for Spellcraft." "Well, i've got +9!" "Wow, that's sweet! You know what? I can cast 11 spells a day" "Cool!"

They're good natured, and, i think, more of a way of saying "My character is pretty tough, see?" and affirming to ourselves that we like the path we are going on, rather than a way of tearing down the other player. Our "My character is THIS cool" conversations are, imo, a productive means of competition.

We all have fairly defined roles, with some minimal overlap. Everyone can fight, but nobody is as good as Andrew's dwarf at killing, plus he has the medic role and some minor buff spells, and nobody can find traps except Tory's half elf. I see my role as artillery and front line support.

We're not "competing" with Jay so much yet, but he is definitely not pulling punches in any way. I'm hoping that as our character's levels increase, so does the difficulty.

There is the "twink" factor happening, constantly. Nobody is unhappy with the minmaxing. It's mostly role related at this time, but there is definitely some "Well, we're in a dungeon, so i need high Search skill to find secret doors and stuff".

Finally, we're increasingly using a battlemat approach to combat, with wipe off markers on a whiteboard. Combat initially started out with the abstract imagination approach used in most games, and which i'm used to, but the demands of making good tactical decisions as well as the D&D miniatures oriented system pretty much make it a necessity. This actually works fairly well, though the markers unfortunately stink quite a bit and cause headaches. I'm considering snagging some minis for our characters to help lessen the impact of the markers on our group. The "tactical gaming mindset" that some folks decry fits our current playing style for this game.

I'd say currently the play is highly functional, and looks to become even more functional as time goes on.

[greedo1379]

It sounds like a good time (I'm pretty heavily gamist myself).  

You talked about miniatures- just as a suggestion, be sure to look at the "clix" stuff.  I've heard that many hobby shops have a "clix bin" or some such that's full of cheap commons, etc.  I have ordered a bunch of stuff online.  At 25 cents per figure you can get a good selection of stuff for really cheap.  They aren't the prettiest but being pre painted for 25 cents really can't be beat.