This Bites, With A Happy Ending

[navar100]

This is more a rant and lamentation sharing grief but with hope and joy coming out of the rubble.

After over 10 years of good fun, my playing group has ended. Technically it's only "on hiatus", but the proverbial writing is on the wall. I can conjecture why it happened as some fellow players and I agree, but there is no solution as talking to the DM about it is part of the problem. To be polite about it I think that after 10 years where there is rift people just got on each others' nerves.

I hate it when a gaming group ends. It's happened few times before over my gaming years. Each group I think will last "forever", but alas something happens to end it. To be honest in some cases I was directly involved, but in others I was an innocent bystander. I know it's just a game, but it's also a social event. Hanging out with friends is part of the fun. When friendships end, it hurts.

It took a few weeks, but I found a new group. In actuality, it's one I kinda set up via Meet-Up.com. I didn't start the initial get together, but it was there that I got elected to volunteer to DM, i.e. I was the only one at the time who had any willingness.

Today was our second meeting. There was a nice crowd. A few told me they could only play for a few weeks, but that's ok. There were 9 players. A smaller group will be easier to handle. One player is from my previous group that just ended.

Now I'm DM for a Pathfinder game. Player advocate as I am I now have to walk the walk of all my opinions I've expressed in the Player-DM dynamic. I had allowed for DM privilege given his responsibilities, just don't be Il Duce about it. That's what I did. I allowed the players to play anything they wanted as long as it was non-Evil. The only DM veto I gave was no monstrous races, just PHB races. That was for my sanity since while I have DM experience it's not extensive.

I used the 27-25-23 creation method I've written about in other threads. I ignored the tiers. There is a paladin, fighter, and barbarian in this party along with a cleric and druid, and no one felt useless.

Now my concern is being able to maintain a campaign, as that has been my weakness in the past. I've ran one-shot adventures for gaming conventions that have been successful, but when I tried regular campaigns in the past I couldn't maintain the interest. This time I'm using modules to help keep me focused. The roleplay filler flavor text I can fill in. I need the modules for the crunch variety. I started with the free Paizo Pathfinder Society introduction module, and I'm glad I did. I never would have considered troglodytes and shocker lizards on my own.

When my previous group's campaign was put "on hiatus", in a later huff the DM said if you want to play D&D find another DM. I found one. Me. I'm not so sure if I will play should the hiatus end, despite the fun I had playing my Sorcerer. This new group meets on the same day.

[Hylas]

I remember learning about the 27-25-23 system on these boards. I didn't write down who I learned about it from, but it might have been you. I really like it and it's a lot of fun, keeping the randomness of rolling stats with the balance of point-buy.

The tiers aren't too big of a deal as long as people are creative and don't powergame too hard. You know, gentleman's agreement to make up for the flaws of the system.

I never really had a steady gaming group until a few years ago. I played with them for a year and then decided to take a break because my life was a mess, chemical imbalances causing depression, girls, etc etc. When I called my DM back a few months later I found out that the person who was hosting the bi-monthly game was moving out of state and since that family was half of the group there was no game anymore. Been a few years since then so I doubt we'll have a reunion.

[Dread Angel]

I hear you loud and clear. Happened a few times, I stopped gaming with my old group out of sheer frustration with the players (about four of them only ever played the same cookie-cutter character with no real roleplaying, just the whole I'm all mysterious and won't tell my background thing).

Recently ran CotCT pathfinder module with my girlfriend, my drummer, a friend of mine and one guy from my old group, out of desperation.

The American friend of mine literally ****ed off to America the day after I asked him if he'd be continuing playing with us and he said yeah of course.

And the other guy buggered off to the old group because my girlfriend's new character (Eldritch Knight, her bard died) beat his character up solidly when he challenged her to a 1v1. Not my fault he took levels in about 5 different classes, with nothing really complimentary, just to make him more mysterious etc.

I live in Germany, and finding English players here is brutally hard, especially ones with experience.

In desperation, I posted on about 10 different messageboards, all of which looked pretty damn dead, with one post every two months or so.

And lo and behold, I got an email from a girl here who's got four players ready to rock who desperately need a DM, and they're not 20 minutes away. I'm SO stoked.