If this is in the wrong place, I apologize, but it is an actual play summary.

Aug 31, 2004

"Tabletop" Role-Playing Games. Yes, some of my friends actually got the urge again and so we played, of all things on god's green earth, Dungeons and Dragons. It WAS the new 3.5 rules so we all decided to give it a go, plus the guy that was running it (I hate saying Dungeon Master) has like ten thousand old modules from old AD&D so it was hard to argue, though he bought the Stargate RPG but hasn't had time to put anything together for it (they don't DO modules for it) - it uses D20 rules anyway so plegh. I personally could run Call of Cthulhu if I had some modules or other material, and I would like to run Feng Shui, but they're rpg nazis and won't even try it. Now that I have tried the new D20 system, I can honestly say from EXPERIENCE that I STILL hate D&D and the d20 system sucks and is WAY too complicated.

The players were myself (31 years old), Dave (32) the DM, James (45) and James' two nephews Jake (14) and Cody (17).

Anyway, on with my story.

The group arrived at 6:30pm Saturday night and got started about 7:00pm. We all had to make characters, thats 4 of us. So about 11:00pm I think we managed to start playing...maybe. Even though it was 4 of us, still, I think thats way too long to make characters, especially for 3 experienced gamers (the other 2 were the nephews). But I digress, I'll express my hatred for TSR, D&D and D20 elsewhere.

Anyway, James made a female elven rogue. Jake and Cody made a female elven Cleric and a female elven Sorcerer (all sisters), I made a Dwarven Paladin and Dave DM'd. We decided I had nobly offered to journey with and look after the band of women to keep them out of harm's way, even though they were self-styled adventurers. Sure it was a cheap party cohesion clip but it worked.

We wandered around in a town we conveniently arrived in for a bit, hired a thief and a fighter to accompany us to a nearby town full of bad guys, and the next day promptly left an hour before we told them we were going, and went the OTHER way with a different NPC that we decided was offering a better deal. A wizard who wanted nothing but whatever scrolls we found. Being all first level characters and having a cleric who already had about the best cleric spells he could use, and a sorcerer who didn't use scrolls at all, we decided agreeing to this wizard's terms that he got all the scrolls from this wizard tower he was leading us to seemed like a no-brainer.

At the moathouse, we found it deserted and ruined and rotting. I waited til everyone else had cut down saplings and stripped them and tied them together with our pack straps to make a serviceable light bridge, then made them all shake their heads by charging and leaping onto the already open drawbridge (trying to span the 10' mote), but landed on the rotting wood and fell straight through to the bottom of the moat. Luckily there was only 5 feet of stagnant water in the moat and I was able to just climb forward and up into the moathouse door. Jumping seemed like a good idea at the time, what can I say?

Once inside, I began what became my traditional mantra of "check for unsafe construction, then for strange stonework, then detect evil". Basically it never worked but I got to train the DM to expect it. We entered a tower room where a giant spider dropped out of the ceiling and attempted to eat my face, while Cody, our mage, dragged silver coins out of the room one by one using the Mage Hand spell and presumed "man I got a lot of money". After his uncle let him in on the harsh reality of a "party loot", he was less inspired but contributed a little better to party endeavors. We dispatched the spider and I realized since I had the best armor and most Wounds, after the rogue checked doors for traps and picked locks, it was going to be mostly up to me to stand directly in the doorways and open them and take the brunt of whatever horrendous trap or monster happened to be on the other side, just so we could proceed through the game at as quick a pace as we could. This also marked the beginning of my "combat narcolepsy" episodes as I came to regard them, as our sorcerer would constantly cast sleep spells on enemies we were fighting, and since all elves are immune but dwarves are not, I was always making saving rolls against magic, from my OWN party, WHILE fighting monsters. This would be a recurring theme.

This worked most of the time until I decided I would take advantage of my size and dive through the door way and an Ogre's legs and let the rest of the party pepper him with arrows - well, he got a critical hit that took me immediately from 12 HP to -8. James argued and rule-book lawyered that the Ogre, whose weapon was a Glaive, couldn't POSSIBLY have struck me while rolling between his legs, because polearms can't be used in close range, to which the DM replied that if thats the case, it wouldn't possibly have been wielding a polearm and instead said it was a longsword, which required a new damage roll. Well, this time the damage would have killed me twice over so we reverted back to the old damage roll but the DM insisted the weapon was now a longsword, to which James snidely commented that after we kill the Ogre we wanted to look at this amazing shape-changing so-called Pole-Sword weapon. Heh.

Anyway, I was knocked through the thing's legs into his room but the other players killed it and restored me. So much for trying to do something cinematic and cool, back to hack and slash. I hate D20. In the Ogre's room was a door HEAVILY barred from OUR side, which we reasoned must have something BADASS mean in it if the OGRE barred the door - we vowed to not open it until we were much higher level. Turns out after we finished the module that was the larder and we let 6 people starve to death. Hindsight sucks.

So it went like this for hours and hours, and we would occasionally barricade ourselves in an empty room and camp and regain spells and health, and sometimes go back to town and resupply and sell things until finally we got 600 xp and broke for food about 1:30am. We got back and Dave just flat out GAVE us 400 more xp because "you're going to need to be Level 2 to finish the rest of this". Ominous? We knocked on the door of our friend the wizard, who didn't answer for three days. Talking the innkeep into opening the door up to our most deloved dear friend (yeah right), we found him on the bed, dead, with his own dagger buried in his chest, poison on the blade. Ruling out suicide (he was so very happy as we got closer to finding the scrolls he was wanting), we still couldn't (and can't) figure out how someone got into his room, took his dagger while he was asleep, poisoned it, and killed him, and left the room, locking it behind them. Oh well. We shrugged, talked the inkeep into letting us have all the wizard's stuff, and burned his body outside and went back to the caves, a few coins and gems and a wardrobe richer.

Ah, Green Slime how the old-school module writers loved thee. One dropped right by me, and from running a game for friends years back in school, I remembered that it dropped from the ceiling and landed on people's heads and began secreting acid that would eventually turn them into a slime - then the DM asks if anyone is looking up. Bad, bad situation. Always remember to immediately put your shield over your head. James, playing along, said he did and PLOP, green slime over the head. We spread oil on the floor and set it alight, killing one slime and then grabbed James' character and held him head first into the fire, doing him half damage each time but finally killing the slime but leaving his female elf bald and blackened and in a rather snippy mood for the supposedly carefree spirit he was supposed to be playing.

We came across groups of bandits, a giant tick, some orcs I think, a couple of other random things that we dispatched, and began to find storerooms of food and such, so we knew we were getting close. All the while we rested now and then to heal and regain spells and my combat narcolepsy episodes continued, though I always managed to save and stay awake. We found a room full of zombies that quite honestly were about to hand us our asses for the last time as we were all at low single digit hit points and the zombies just kept pouring into the room - the wizard we were questing with suddenly pulled out scrolls and zombies started bursting into sparks and being slammed into the ceiling. Oddly, we had detected magic on the party about 5 minutes before and no magic items were detected, so the DM obviously (and uncharacteristically) fudged in some rare items to save our bacon. The Cleric's Turn Undead ability failed all 4 times he used it, which was disheartening.

On our next foray deeper into the caves, we came across 9 gnolls who were close to our match, and in fact, one by one, felled all three of my companions (after I had yet another episode of combat narcolepsy), as they themselves felled gnolls, until when James dropped, it was down to one on one, me versus the remaining gnoll. Having a 17 armor class, I was fairly certain I could best the gnoll, and was right, though he did take a chunk out of me before he did so. I was lucky enough to find, among the loot the gnolls had, three healing potions, which I suspect the DM fudged again, since I had already used my Lay On Hands ability and so no one was going to heal if I wasn't able to get our cleric back to positive Hit Points (thank goodness I had managed to stop everyone's bleeding). I dragged three people, ten feet each time, about four corridors back to where we had holed up the day before, until we were all recovered again, and the clock on the wall told me it was 4:30am.

We found a tunnel leading out into bright blessed sunlight aboveground, miles from the moathouse, but giving us encouragement that we knew where escape was if it was necessary.

More bandits - combat narcolepsy hit me hard this time in the form of a roll of 3 on a D20 save against magic, as my eyes went from seeing the face of a grizzled miscreant, to the cold stone floor, to the back of my eyelids and blessed darkness. Next I knew I was being dragged to my feet and helped down the hall to our next encounter, stepping over piles of corpses of bandits who did not know with whom they had messed.

We opened a door that immediately smelled like a combination garbage pit and charnel house, with tattered rags and gnawed on bones littering the floor. We all looked at each other, looked at the corner ahead of us, and shook our heads and backed out, captioning this area "Antarctica - the place where no one with any sense goes, where you know you can't survive, where you know there's nothing useful, where there is only death", and stayed far away from it. We had only fought zombies so far and had had a lot of trouble - this was bound to be more powerful undead and it just wasn't going to be a priority unless we had no choice.

Finally I opened a door and three well armored bandit types stood there looking dazed, caught with their pants down, as it were (we managed to get the rare element of Surprise). I charged in and felled one, while the cleric's trusty bow took out the next, and the sorcerer dropped the third with a sleep spell - smooth as butter. We went on in but heard numerous heavy footsteps and crazy howls and battle cries coming around the corner.

Cautiously, we all backed up and spread oil all over the floor, while our rogue instead draped himself in the Cloak of Elvenkind (which gave him a whopping Hide base of 17, plus his 9 skill ranks - he was impossible to spot), and hid under a body as the next 3 bandits ran full tilt at us (not seeing him). As the brave warriors approached us, the cleric handed me the torch, which I nonchalantly dropped five feet in front of me, igniting the oil, which engulfed the surprised new arrivals in flames. Far in the back, we saw another bandit stick his head around the corner and gasp, horrified at our ruthless efficiency, and duck back out of sight.

Our rogue got up from the body under which he was hiding, and checked out what was going on around the corner. There was a bandit standing there, who looked up and saw the rogue looking at him, and, startled beyond belief that someone was standing right next to him, less than five feet away, turned a barrel of oil over and dropped the torch he was holding, in an act of pure desperation. Our rogue chuckled and chucked a flask of oil at the bandit's feet - the flask shattered and flame covered the bandit, the oil he had dumped over, and the barrel. Our rogue then dove onto the body of a still-sleeping bandit (the one the sorcerer had knocked out with his spell) and, with an exceptionally slick stone floor, "surfed" him all the way back to the rest of us, letting him take the damage from the flaming oil, before leaping to safety. We shut the door and went back up the outside corridor for a day or so, screams echoing down the hall as we departed.

We returned to the bandit corridor the next day fully healed and supplied, and looked at the still smouldering tar and stinking corpses. Realizing we couldn't just slog down the sticky corridor, and the rogue certainly couldn't sneak well, we scoured the previous areas of the dungeon for planks, loose stones and even barrels of dried meat and made a makeshift walkway across the tar, even taking doors off their hinges and arranging corpses like stepping stones, until we passed the tar-covered area of the corridor. The corridor lead about fifty feet back and ended in impenetrable blackness but also, from our judgment, a dead end room only twenty feet further back. We deduced there was a cleric that had cast Darkness and what remained of the bandit army was holed up behind the pitch black area, backs to the wall. Trusting his luck, our rogue had us tie a rope to him, which I, being the heaviest, tied to myself to anchor him - tugs on the rope meant we were to haul him out. He then infantry crawled into the darkness, crossbow drawn.

Although I felt no tugs, hearing "FIRE!" and arrows being loosed cause us to drag the rogue back out hastily. He reported a dozen archers posted at the back of the room, with a bandit leader watching for intruders. While we talked over hurling flaming flasks of oil into the darkness to just end the standoff easily, the enemy obviously realized that was exactly something we WOULD do, and called for Parlay. Cursing, the rogue admitted we had a Paladin in our group, when they asked - the bandits offered surrender . They wanted MY unconditional word that no harm would befall them if they dropped their weapons and armor and left the dungeon, leaving the jewelry they had amassed. Our party talked it over and agreed and over 15 defeated and frightened bandits filed out of the darkness and disappeared down the hallway, with the leader wordlessly handing us a large box full of sparkling jewelry.

We mentally high-fived each other and found out we basically just cleared out the entire dungeon and now owned it. Antarctica contined 4 ghouls and some treasure, which we're going to get after wiping out the undead, and one more room lead to a pool with a large monster in it, which we're probably just going to leave there. 4:30PM and the DM sat back in his chair and sighed and got out the DM guide to award experience and tell us there were also 2 Warhorses in the dungeon - ROCK!

Finally he looked up at us, frowned and said "Everybody gets 5,999 experience points". This was a LOT more than the 600 we got the first time. He said that was all we were able to absorb - we had played so much nonstop without enough break in between to level up that he basically wasn't able to give us around 15,000 experience points we earned - we just slaughtered the monsters and went on, wasting the XP. Heh. Oh well - when we start back, we're gonna be asskickers with our own dungeon!

Dr. Velocity wrote: Ah, Green Slime how the old-school module writers loved thee. One dropped right by me, and from running a game for friends years back in school, I remembered that it dropped from the ceiling and landed on people's heads and began secreting acid that would eventually turn them into a slime - then the DM asks if anyone is looking up. Bad, bad situation. Always remember to immediately put your shield over your head. James, playing along, said he did and PLOP, green slime over the head. We spread oil on the floor and set it alight, killing one slime and then grabbed James' character and held him head first into the fire, doing him half damage each time but finally killing the slime but leaving his female elf bald and blackened and in a rather snippy mood for the supposedly carefree spirit he was supposed to be playing.

Okay, early on in the post you mention that having played d20/D&D 3.5, you find you dislike it, yet the overall tone of the post suggests to me you enjoyed this particular play session very much.

So my question is this: if the system was dragging you down, what aspects of play did contribute to your enjoyment?

Good questions.

I do dislike the D&D, er, d20 system (though its better than its previous incarnations), because its, for my tastes, a bit too complicated, but then I'm much more in favor of rules lite systems like feng Shui and such lately, so I admit that as a bias.

Too much reliance on pages and pages of charts and tables and value-assigned situational modifiers. For example, if I wanted to just throw dirt in an ogre's eyes to blind him momentarily, so I could slip past him, it takes one action, I have to make a hit roll and he probably gets some sort of a save etc etc - I mean how hard can it be to throw dirt in the general direction of someone's head and hit? I think a preponderance of rules for pretty much any eventuality not only makes the system cumbersome, but encourages people to play the rules and not the game, which I think should encourage a bit more creativity and the DM deciding an action would make for a good part of the story.

I enjoyed the play itself because of the other players, though we were playing an old AD&D scenario so it was effectively an old-school dungeon crawl (some of you might recognize which one it was), so it doesn't provide tons of opportunity for role-playing in the character quirk department. The DM isn't bad, but he is, to me, shortsighted in the way he runs an RPG, sticking to the book for anything anyone wants to do, necessitating we clear each room, be in a certain line of sight to do certain things (when you should just be able to peek around the corner, etc), and allow for some personal creativity that should be rewarded instead of required to succeed with an unskilled d20 roll.

I will fairly say that its not d20 at fault, overall, but its d20 in the hands of someone who has a set and rather unoriginal style and idea of how he always played the game, and the rules do nothing to dissuade the by-the-book approach, which is to me, really tedious, more than anything.

But as noted, the people you play with are what are important. We joked around a little but my role really consisted of nothing more than I described, we wandered from room to room, the rogue checked for traps and unlocked the doors, and I opened them and acted as the hit point pool for whatever variable monster or trap was behind them, so the other players hung back, undamaged, and responded with their own attacks. I mean, it worked quite well, but it was so rudimetnarily formulaic and repetitive, if it weren't for my own ability to just enjoy the other players doing their thing, it would have been boring.

Hi Dr. V,

I'm really interested in what points of comparison you'd make with Thomas (Lordsmerf) in Looking back and seeing yourself behind you, both similarities and differences.

Best,
Ron

Thanks for your interest, Ron, I'm surprised you found this post out in the boonies (relative to the main popular rpg forums).

Interesting post by LordSmerf, I can see some of the reasons you asked me what you did.

I will preface my response with a bit more info about the players. I hang out on rpg forums and have run and played in a few private forum-based RP sessions (not with my tabletop group), and (I say this humbly) have been the voice of reason in those forums, giving them some of the ideas and theories I've picked up about gaming and refereeing, etc.

I have played with James (my 4th cousin and one of my best friends in the world), and to a lesser extent, Dave (met him in high school), for around 10 years (not counting the years we never saw each other), usually with James running Runequest (I'm also not crazy about RQ because of its level of detail) or Call of Cthulhu or occasionally they'd try to branch out into Dark Conspiracy, Twilight 2000 or Shadowrun. Another player used to also play and run those (and I ran CoC a few times) and eventually the group moved to my house and players shifted and the new player, Rob, ran Warhammer FRP, which the new group enjoyed.

For my own personal preferences, I have to agree I felt a bit like I'm interpreting LordSmerf's original idea, that "gee, these guys are pretty rough, look at the primitive ideas they have about RPGs" and so I have attempted, over the last few years, to try to inject a little "difference" into their reportoire of games, and have always met with failure. My last attempt was as I again offered to run Robin D. Laws' Feng Shui, to which James kindly but exasperatedly blew me off, and Dave just stubbornly refused - I think it might have been "Pffft, heheh, NO".

James, when I pressed him on being "closed" about new games and new types of games, brought up when he had tried to run Ghostbusters and none of us understood what we were supposed to do (had something to do with the gadget skill I think, and someone was supposed to invent a device to do something); that wasn't really an answer but if he was digging down that far (years), he was against the idea enough to develop a line of argument against it. I personally don't understand this, as I'm playing d20 D&D (which even James swore he'd never play and I had my fill of AD&D) and probably Stargate, and played along with Runequest even though I hated the extremely detailed magic, healing and religion/rune aspects of it - I played along because it interested them and so I figured I could put up with it if everyone was able to participate in something at once, and of course it was fun mostly, though I was constantly silently cursing the rules.

So I wasn't, and am still not sure, what to do about the overall situation, and yes, though it sounds egotistical, I feel sort of venerable, seeing them play games in this fashion, using the systems they are, "being trapped" in the mindsets they are, which is also a bit frustrating (moreso than interesting).

As for differences with LordSmerf's observations, I know all these people quite well, plus there was only a small handful of us (as usual), and understand some of the game went the way it did because James' nephews (my cousins) are new to RPGs and weren't able to contrinute much, and take their lead from him. I certainly understand that, as he and Rob are the ones that "taught" me how to roleplay and I cut my teeth on CoC as my main training aid, but it just astounds me that its possible to ... "stagnate" at a certain level of gaming... development, I guess. On the looking back and seeing myself, I can definitely identify, but it doesn't make sense, as the people that helped teach ME to play are still there in what looks like the same position.

Maybe its just about being content or, complacent, but overall, I'm surprised that the way the games usually go, the two adults are pretty much satisfied with the way the game goes - sure we make progress and level up and all that but thats just mechanics. James was always a little better at keeping things interesting and creative when he ran a game, but was also more of a stickler for some things, like "if its not on your sheet, you don't have it", which he would vacillate on, so there are some character sheets with "toothpick, lighter, spool of thread", and some that simply say "basic equipment pack", which may include first aid kits and who knows what.

Also just as an aside, I really like and agree with all Ron's rules about gaming and friends - they make total sense, and I think should be applied to pretty much ANY social activity.

Heya Dr V,

so I figured I could put up with it if everyone was able to participate in something at once, and of course it was fun mostly, though I was constantly silently cursing the rules.

but it just astounds me that its possible to ... "stagnate" at a certain level of gaming... development, I guess.

Good points noon, I agree really with pretty much all you said.

No I have not given them the technical ultimatum of "ok I'll play that if you play this" because ... I have attempted to get them to play other games but as noted, they are concretely against anything that aren't their pet games (I say that matter-of-factly, not snidely, meaning the games they're used to and have lots of experience running and playing) - I *could* give them an ultimatum but I know exactly how that will turn out - they'll refuse, flatly. And then because we're gaming at my house, if I refuse to play, they won't be playing, since Dave and James are roommates and don't play now when they're both home, so it will be perceived as my fault, that I ended the game. I know thats not the case and also its not important enough to me that they play those other games, that I would require them to make such a choice which would stop them from playing games, which they both enjoy.

I do not worry that me not playing will somehow ruin our friendships or something like that, because we're all more mature than to allow that sort of thinking to take hold, but it is frustrating nonetheless. I could say "I give and give and they never make an effort to meet me halfway", but that would be really egotistical and I don't know what other variables and reasons and such that they have for not playing, so I'm not passing judgment, but yeah I still consider that as I watch them play and run a game now, its the same as "looking back at myself" for me.


Its not that I was wanting rewarded for the roll through the Ogre's legs, I was just hoping to be able to do it and it be novel and unexpected enough to warrant something besides the "same burger same fries" response of the Ogre getting an Attack of Opportunity since my attempt was not listed specifically in the rules in some sort of complex formula - it basically negated the entire idea of trying something different besides doing bowfire or hacking toe-to-toe - this entire thing (we played more tonight) has been, with little exception, nothing BUT this and tonight another player that played Warhammer fine with me and Rob for a couple of years, jumped a 10th level evil ranger that was working as a smith, just because it was something DIFFERENT - he died, naturally, and was unabashedly happy, saying "Well, at least THAT's over". In a weird sort of way, I understood his point.

I was about to rant on D&D and dungeon crawls but I'll just say again I think the system itself and someone running it that seems totally content with the typical old-school module dungeon crawls is NOT a good combination for people who have, even if they haven't played or ran, has at least READ about different playing styles. I can admittedly put this down, again, solidly, to my preference for a bit more cinematic and rules-light aspect of a system (including the system's modules).

Hello,

Dr. V, I just felt that horrid little "ulp" feeling. Before I point out the statements that prompted it, though, I gotta say that it takes courage to expose your feelings and situations of play on-line in this way. I do appreciate this, even if in a moment there might come a little ... sting.

These two phrases, separated in your text by the paragraph mark:

And then because we're gaming at my house, if I refuse to play, they won't be playing, since Dave and James are roommates and don't play now when they're both home, so it will be perceived as my fault, that I ended the game. I know thats not the case and also its not important enough to me that they play those other games, that I would require them to make such a choice which would stop them from playing games, which they both enjoy.

I do not worry that me not playing will somehow ruin our friendships or something like that, because we're all more mature than to allow that sort of thinking to take hold, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

... another player that played Warhammer fine with me and Rob for a couple of years, jumped a 10th level evil ranger that was working as a smith, just because it was something DIFFERENT - he died, naturally, and was unabashedly happy, saying "Well, at least THAT's over". In a weird sort of way, I understood his point.

Yesh! Yeah, that same paragraph lept out at me as well. I'll skip my look at the other play style, cause that's just a side thing.

Ron covered a lot, so I'll just throw in a quick practical idea. Now, if your all mature and everything, can't they play at your house...without you playing? Really I don't like how your in this 'I have to play this or they'll all not be able to play and suffer' noose, but if you haven't broken out of it I'm not sure I can help there. So can they play at your place...you could play the monsters and the rest of the time watch TV/do PS2 in another room. Or co-GM...that might end up being really healthy! Well, as healthy as you can get with a noose.

Whoa - Callan, man, back off a bit. You and I are not there. I appreciate the agreement (who doesn't), but let the man decide how applicable my comments are.

Best,
Ron

I ment by "covered alot" is that you'd covered a lot of things to think about and I didn't want to write on the same angle. For the benefit of readers (particularly Dr V), by 'covered' I don't mean that I think your right. And now sorry to Ron for looking like I gave him agreement when I didn't! :)

Hahha. Somehow I seem to have that kind of luck in my posts, I always seem to say the wrong things (or right things I guess) that always get misinterpreted.

The reason for my saying I wasn't worried about the game interfering in our friendships is because I have seen other posts on these and other forums that dealt with that issue, and I even responded to a few of them, and that can be an ugly situation and I was trying to AVOID having people suggest that, but of course, the "he doth protest too much" adage comes out. At any rate, while I realize now it appears as if my statement about friendship came totally out of the blue, almost guiltily, I was basically trying to nonchalantly inform any other posters that I have already thought about this and see no indications in anyone, including myself, that this is even a remote possibility - the worst I could think of would be possibly a month cool off period of us not talking much, but that has really never happened in my life with anyone, so I'll win the lottery before that happens.

I like rpgs and all but I'm not as hot in the "must play" area as the DM, Dave, and I think James is a bit more of my mindset, he can play or not but its not a big deal - its fun to play and everyone be involved and its something to do, but if we don't play, its not a gigantic concern, we still talk or watch tv or use the computer or read or whatever, but Dave is ... eh, a bit on the er, abrasive side and isn't really very good at interacting with people, and really isn't interesting in just hanging out and talking, so he's much more hyped up for some social interaction, like gaming and such.

James' nephew, Cody, is actually the one that made the initial arrangements and set up the entire gaming idea, because he is young and really anxious to play and be creative and of course we all don't mind that, and its good for Cody and his brother to get some experience role-playing and using his brain and coming up with some interesting ideas, instead of just playing shootem ups on Xbox and such.

I have a couple more summaries, since we just played again this weekend, if anyone is interested?

Have you considered running a game just for Cody and Jake?

Well, there are a lot of variables and it would be difficult and pointless to go into them, but the current gaming is going on for the benefit of the two kids and their uncle James, so they can all be together, and Dave, so he can socialize, and myself, for whatever reason - James really only gets to see his nephews when he carpools with Dave, who comes to my hometown, and so on.

As mentioned, I helped Rob run bits of Warhammer in the past and Cody got to play in it (though he tended to intentionally fall on his sword and challenge high level NPCs to fights), so its not reall that thats the problem. I've been told that Rob may be starting up Warhammer again and maybe the old group, consisting of he and James2 and perhaps Cody and Jake and maybe some more of my cousins may play that, BUT it would involve the game coming here, and Rob only wants to come down on Saturday, which is currently when the other games are happeneing - in theory, James2 and I may be able to talk him into showing up on Friday. I swear, for being as non-social and inactive as I am and avoiding contact with people, it seems like I am constantly surrounded with throngs of people all clammoring to do things. Weird.

Hiya,

One thing I can now say confidently - you aren't looking for any advice on how to alter your habits or experiences of play.

You've described it (I quote) as tedious, repetitive, and boring. You've also pointed out that most of your decisions about playing are determined by other people's logistic or emotional constraints.

But it also appears as though you aren't interested in changing it. All right, I can accept that.

Given that, then, what are your goals for this thread? The play-account was an interesting read, certainly, but now that you've posted about play itself ... what do you want to discuss?

Best,
Ron

Honestly, my reason for posting the original post was just to share my own experiences and give people something to read and maybe see some examples of things they might recognize from their own lives, hence I put it in Actual Play, which I presume is for anyone to post summaries of Actual Play of their gaming sessions - the few derisive comments during the summary were really meant more as personal color and a little venting than as a cry for help. I just started answering questions as they were being asked =) Sorry if I somehow got something mixed up or mislead anyone or committed a faux pass, some of the posts on these forums are pretty heady and I have a little trouble from time to time figuring out where some posts should go. Anyway, yeah, I was just posting play transcripts, basically, and have two more if its permissible to post them.

Hi Dr. V,

Actual Play posts are very, very valuable things and I encourage you to put'em here.

But "... just a play transcript" isn't much of a basis for discussion. If you could provide anything at all for others to work with, then we will all benefit.

Some examples might include finding some element of role-playing theory which interests you and which you think has surfaced in this instance of play, or raising some point about role-playing which you think is helpful to others, or even discussing how a particular rule was or wasn't applied.

It might surprise you how even the most trivial-seeming decision during play ("do we or don't we use this posted rules-correction, and why") is grounds for a lot of powerful insight.

Best,
Ron

P.S. You seem very concerned, in this and in your original post, about whether it's all right to post. If you're really unsure, then just ask me by private message rather than posting and then apologizing all over the place about it.

Thanks much Ron, I understand your point about having at least a vague purpose of posting something.