Escaping the madness

[Admiral Squish]

Okay. This is how it goes. I play D&D, as well you'd assume. Specifically, I'm a 3.5e DM, but I still take a turn in a the other chairs from time to time. Lately, I joined the navy, and have been trying to find players. The problem starts thusly. My roommate wants to learn to play. He says he played ages ago, but has somehow forgotten all the rules from ground up. He's impatient, and refuses to hear any kind of detailed explanation about a class or feat, or power, or skill before he makes up his mind. He plays World of Warcraft obsessively, and is currently trying to make a 'warrior with dark magic powers, who's chaotic evil who serves a more powerful character, then turns on him.' Also known as, a death knight on paper. The current draft is a half-fiend changeling hexblade, with an ECL of 5 (Despite the warnings). He won't even look at the magic items list, telling me to just make his sword bigger if he's still got gold. Which he doesn't, he refused to listen when I told him what he was demanding (Frost, flame, and ghost touch greatsword) was too much for a character of his level to afford, and he wouldn't be able to cast in combat with a two-handed sword anyway. Now he wants me to make him a campaign, and I can't bear to do it. How can I turn him down without making the next six months of forced roommate-ism completely abysmal for the both of us? Or better yet, is there some way to make this guy learn how to play in a way that will satisfy the both of us?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Neverwinter Nights, or push him over the railing and get a new roomie. .

[poxjedi]

Point him at WoW.

[Admiral Squish]

Interesting responses, but not especially helpful. He already plays wow, addictively, as mentioned above, so pointing him at it is largely pointless.

[Kol Korran]

the rules aren't the problem, you can always bend them your way. the problem is that you two seek two different kinds of play. i'd suggest you explain it to him, explain to him the experience you're looking for and used for, and "sadly" regret that your interest don't match.

yep, there is no way around it- just talk to him as diplomatically as possible. (besides, if he plays WoW so avidly, D&D realy wouldn't suit this guy).

hhhhmmmm just thought of another option, which might help things- design the beginning of a campaign only (focusing perhaps also on a "training session" to get him familiarised with the basic rules). run a few sessions, YOUR style. he will probably become dissatisfied, you'll explain that's how you run games and you realy don't know any other way, and you'll "grudingly" decide to part ways. just make sure it doesn't suit his desires enough.

a bit of an overhand approach, but it might work. i still vote for the "jsut talk to him" idea, the other one is just too much work.

hope this helped.

[kamikasei]

My roommate wants to learn to play.

...refuses to hear any kind of detailed explanation about a class or feat, or power, or skill before he makes up his mind.

...He won't even look at the magic items list, telling me to just make his sword bigger if he's still got gold.

...he refused to listen

The first sentence and the other three don't seem to match up all that well.


Now he wants me to make him a campaign, and I can't bear to do it. How can I turn him down without making the next six months of forced roommate-ism completely abysmal for the both of us? Or better yet, is there some way to make this guy learn how to play in a way that will satisfy the both of us?

How to turn him down without souring your non-game relationship? That's not really a question we can answer. You can only say "look, I run a certain style of game which it doesn't seem interests you. I need my players to learn the system, which doesn't seem to interest you. I think we'd both end up frustrated playing together" - and try to be diplomatic about it.

I would also point out that it's probably a bad idea to run a solo campaign in this kind of circumstance.

If you can find a few others to give it a go, I would emphasize that the game has particular tropes and traditions and that they should take it for what it is rather than using it as a medium to recreate some other setting or story; and especially emphasize that it's about the social aspect of playing together and having a laugh as much as anything else, and much more than it's about having an awesome kickass character with a Dark Past. It might help if you went with an established setting like Eberron so that you can give them a world to read up on and find ideas in without as much temptation for them to demand you include the Vampire Sovereign and his Icy Crown in your homebrew world.

[Tsotha-lanti]

So he doesn't actually want to learn to play. Tell him you can't be assed to waste your time.

[AslanCross]

Yeah, it's odd that he doesn't want explanations despite "wanting to learn." I think it would be best to just say "I'm sorry, I can't run a game for you in this state." and leave it at that.

[Prometheus]

I agree with the above posters with regard to D&D. However, this guy might be the perfect (okay not perfect) player for a rules-light style RPG (he doesn't want to learn very many rules and has a very specific idea in mind for his character). While it isn't the D&D that you are used to, you might enjoy yourself and occupy him if you can snag some extra players. There are other members of the board much more knowledgeable about those sorts of games than me, but Wushu and FATE (based on FUDGE) come to mind.

[Blackfang108]

and he wouldn't be able to cast in combat with a two-handed sword anyway.

According to Wizards, you can cast spells while using a 2-h weapon, as taking your hand off and putting it back on is a free action.

So you must be using your own house rules regarding weapons and casting, then.

OK, good to know.

[Admiral Squish]

According to Wizards, you can cast spells while using a 2-h weapon, as taking your hand off and putting it back on is a free action.

So you must be using your own house rules regarding weapons and casting, then.

OK, good to know.

Huh, I didn't know that. That makes his idea slightly more plausible, then. Good to know.

[jeek]

Huh, I didn't know that. That makes his idea slightly more plausible, then. Good to know.

Don't weapons interfere with Somatic components?

[AslanCross]

Don't weapons interfere with Somatic components?

Nope. Only shields and armor have arcane spell failure percentages listed.
As long as you have one free hand, you can cast a spell.

[Grail]

Your first mistake was starting him off with an uber-stupid character. You should have started him off at first or 2nd level. There is a reason for the low levels, it teaches players about their characters.

You could have done that and then let him build his character up.

If he refuses, you've got to explain to him that DnD =/= WoW. Alternatively, you can get the WoW d20 PDF and run that for him.

[Draz74]

His attention span won't be any better for actually playing the game by the rules than it is for building the character by the rules.

As I see it, you have three choices.

(1) Give up on him and just kind of let the idea drop. He probably won't bother you too hard, since he'd obviously rather be playing WoW.

(2) Let him get frustrated with the level of detail in the game and quit. This doesn't require you to do anything different than what you're doing. It does require some patience (and lowered expectations) on your part to suffer through "madness" of DMing until the inevitable arrives.

(3) Instead of real D&D, just play a more freeform "D&D Lite" with him. Never look up rules; just make them up as you go along. Fudge any that would actually require him to focus or concentrate.