OK, My friend is getting ready to wind down his D&D3e campaign for his homebrewed system which is based heavily on R. Talsorian's Mekton II/Z and Cyberpunk system, although it is a fantasy game (Willingham's Ironwood to be precise)

Anyway, have you as a GM ever done something like this: warn your players about certain disavanges or whatever and, by the way you give the warning it's pretty obvious that you don't expect anyone to take that disadvantage.

e.g. my friend said something to the effect of "If you take "Mute" I will make you play mute. That means no speaking in character during the game.

I must be a glutton for punishment because for his game I'm seriously considering taking a bug-guy race thing he's got for my character who is mute (bug language and all "clickity click click") and a spellcaster, magic in this game requires a lot of modifier juggling. And I thought I hated his D&D house rules.

So, basically I'm taking a race that if he weren't in disguise (like in The Mummy with robes & mask and a helper guy who speaks for me as a hanger-on NPC) would be killed on sight by most people, has a disadvantage basically designed to restrict a player's interaction with the game. (Did anyone here see Casino Royale with David Niven. Notice how Woody Allen played mute. Wasn't that funny?) And making this character a non-combatant (which is usually suicidal in this guy's games) and thus relies on overcomplicated spellcasting to give my character his "thing." (and if you care, I'm considering making this character female because it needs a twist)

Now, why I'm putting this here is to see what the Forgites can tell me. I think my enjoyment of this game will be limited anyway, so I'm not just picking a character type that'll be difficult just to give myself a hard time. I'm sort of thinking of it as making a statement. If it doesn't go well, I may wind up rolling up a new character anyway, but at first I'd like to make a statement about the playing style he sems to be aiming at...nobody. Maybe somebody, but I'm not sure who. (And please, no concern for my enjoyment. I've walked home five miles in the rain just to spite the rain)

Now, am I really making a statement here? Is there a better way to do it?

I may not take your advice because I am that stubborn, but I do appreciate it.

Jack,

You could just tell your GM that the play style he seems to be pushing for doesn't work for you. Tell him how his strictures cut down on the amount of fun you have playing, or at least how they fail to add anything you want to see. Then tell him what you do want to see and play, and maybe pitch a few character/scene ideas at him.

Creating a difficult character, just so it can die horribly to prove how "broken" the GM's style is, seems a bit passive-aggressive. Talking to him straight up has the advantage of not wasting any play time, so not annoying other players. It also keeps you from wasting your time. After all, if he refuses to make any changes, you know you'd probably have more fun playing with somebody else (or starting your own group) than forcing yourself to sit through and un-fun game in hopes it gets better, somehow.

Lon

Passive aggressive?? huh... Hadn't thought of it like that.

For what it's worth, I want to play this character because it sounds cool. I mean put typical fantasy world in fron of me where you could play human, elf, dwaf or creepy, creepy bug guys and I'll take the bug guys. That's just me. Were we playing Orkworld, I'd probably play one of those Orks who're tatooed black because of some disgrace, but he actually isn't dishonorable but he's a rare albino Ork, which is regarded as a sign of weakness. So his disgrace is being born with light-colored skin and he put himself in self-exile because of it.

...I digress, but you get the idea of what sort of thing I tend to look for.

In either case, I'll have to consider what I'm going to do fairly carefully now. Chances are, my best option is to leave this group and start my own but I know damn well I won't do that. Because of my work schedule, I hadn't gamed regularly for the last four years and I could easily just not play anymore if this were to happen. But, we'll see. SOmeone my wife works with apparently plays and they might make good "Wheel victems" as my wife said.

I guess what I'll do is see about getting a group going on the side and if that pans out, I'll probably leave the other group. As far as the whole character thing, I think I'll play what I want to play, which sure as hell isn't a freaking elf like everybody else seems to leaning toward. Whether I do the bug guy or not will take some heavy thinking.

Jack,

Hey, go with the Bug Guy. Maybe one of the reasons your GM is so heavy into the style he does is because he hasn't seen anyone do anything interesting with something different.

Then again, maybe he's just the GM equivalent of a "Mad Slasher" (to use Arron Allston's player types), and he does rules-clunky combat games to work out his personal issues.

Do his settings include lots of really tall towers? :)

Lon

Jack,

I'd say . . . explain to the GM *why* you want to play bug girl. Tell him what you think will be neat about it. See if he can get into it.

At least then, there's a chance he'll try and work with you rather than against you. Only a chance, but it's better than nothing.

Gordon

Uncle Dark wrote: Then again, maybe he's just the GM equivalent of a "Mad Slasher" (to use Arron Allston's player types), and he does rules-clunky combat games to work out his personal issues.

You really don't want to talk to him about it, do you, Jack? People keep on mentioning it, and you keep on ignoring the advice and hoping that you can come up with some other solution.

IME he has been he sort of GM who'd work with you on stuff like this. He just hasn't had many reasons to work with anybody lately since I wasn't there. Or such is my theory.

Mike Holmes wrote: Is he hard to talk to or something?

Hey Jack,

There's obviously some particular interpersonal issues here, so that makes "advice" a really tricky task. But I do want to point out . . . the issue you started off with, the "GM warns against certain disadvantages" thing, has *nothing* to do with a general communication with the guy about your character idea . . . unless you MAKE it about that. Which, given your description of his personality, would not be a good thing.

In other words, you don't have to "challenge" what he says/thinks/believes in order to talk to him about your character.

Good luck, however you decide to approach it,

Gordon

Gordon C. Landis wrote: But I do want to point out . . . the issue you started off with, the "GM warns against certain disadvantages" thing, has *nothing* to do with a general communication with the guy about your character idea . . .

I hate to ask this, but why shouldn't a GM insist that any disadvantages taken to gain points in a game be actually roleplayed out? If the character is mute and doesn't have some sort of gesture-based communication, he or she shouldn't talk in the game.

If everybody hates the bugs, then don't complain if a bug character who gets found out gets squished.

And, by the way, yes I have told people upfront the problems with taking disadvantages that they were contemplating (someone wanting to play an Athiest in a true medeval setting).

It's not so much what was said as how he said it that bothered me. See above post.

And, to be honest, if he didn't think playing a bug guy was really a viable option for any player, then he shouldn'te offered it because he knew damn we I would take it.

I don't know why I select character types like this, but I do. I just want something interesting . Not another damn elf. It's like he's going "here's something interesting to play" *dangle* *dangle* "Oops, you really shouldn't play that. Heh heh"

Jack Spencer Jr wrote: And, to be honest, if he didn't think playing a bug guy was really a viable option for any player, then he shouldn'te offered it because he knew damn we I would take it.

Mark D. Eddy wrote: I hate to ask this, but why shouldn't a GM insist that any disadvantages taken to gain points in a game be actually roleplayed out? If the character is mute and doesn't have some sort of gesture-based communication, he or she shouldn't talk in the game.