Auroxi
2016-11-27, 06:47 PM
Our group just wiped in the very first session of the "Way of the Wicked" adventure path for Pathfinder. We all have decided to try again later, but before that, i'd wish to get an outside opinion of what possibly went wrong and which precautions in general we could argue upon to prevent wiping the second time.
I have assembled this list of our actions after some talking (and yelling) at each other, which, as i think, hindered us during the session. Warning: minor spoilers to the adventure path.
1. One player claimed he had better ideas of what to do, but he could not tell them because of his in-penalty range mental stats.
1a. Poor judgement due to the low mental stats was also the reason why he knocked unconcious two party members, one of who was under charm effect. (However the IRL reason was because he got tired of the game in which he had to wait several hours before getting back up and by overall incompetence of our party)
2. Another player forgot about almost all of his racial and class traits, making him as effective as a buffed NPC class in hindsight. The most notable ones were how he forgot to add his Favored enemy bonus versus humans for the entire session and extreme case of selective deafness over the word "bow" in loot tally three times.
2a. In addition, since he lacked humanoid subtype, then, by the wording of the spell, he could not be charmed in a first place.
3. GM refused to tell what the magic item does after successfull spellcraft check, as he believed we can't determine that like so, which resulted in a mass panic among the players when one part did not work as they though it would, which in turn resulted in hastily improvised escape instead of carefully planed one.
4. Third player has been brooding about how he did literally zero damage in combat as an undead lord cleric. (Personally i think he did fine as his obscuring mist was a great help)
4a. To note, gauging the effectiveness of the PCs by how much DPR they do and their AC value.
5. Fourth player thought the things have went completely south and ditched the party to save himself alone (and he actually did it, through not for long), using the most of his spellcasting ability to do so while deliberately(yes, he said so post-session) holding back before.
5a. In fact, entire party got scattered after meeting a strong resistance from the guards, and most of the playtime the PCs were on their own.
6. A decision to heal a fallen party member to bring him back into the game was perceived as borderline-OOC because "we are supposed to be evil characters" despide repeaded warnings in player's guide that we should be working together after all.
7. General lack of in-game communication resulted in PCs not knowing what each of them can do.
7a. It was also the reason for a trouble with a certain magic item which led to a panicked escape.
8. Several players had trouble with desicion making, prolonging the game way too much. One in particular was so slow in it, he barely participated in team communication, as he could not think of an plausible for him desicion in time compared to others.
9. DM had confessed that he altered NPC placement to make things a bit more difficult for the group.
9a.He also noted how we lacked creativeness in our desicions and what it had hinderes us even further. Notably, by how we went guns blazing (figuratively speaking) at the content after we all though we grabbed all the attention after said magic item mishap.
My question is, which of these items in the list are simply instances of emergent gameplay or group style of play, which actually make the game more fun and personal and there is no need to worry about those, and which are the surface of a serious problems where we should focus our attention if we are to prevent wiping out in the next try. I understand that nobody but us can tell us for sure, but i think the feedback from other people will be helpful regardless of that.
Thanks in advance for advice and replies.
I have assembled this list of our actions after some talking (and yelling) at each other, which, as i think, hindered us during the session. Warning: minor spoilers to the adventure path.
1. One player claimed he had better ideas of what to do, but he could not tell them because of his in-penalty range mental stats.
1a. Poor judgement due to the low mental stats was also the reason why he knocked unconcious two party members, one of who was under charm effect. (However the IRL reason was because he got tired of the game in which he had to wait several hours before getting back up and by overall incompetence of our party)
2. Another player forgot about almost all of his racial and class traits, making him as effective as a buffed NPC class in hindsight. The most notable ones were how he forgot to add his Favored enemy bonus versus humans for the entire session and extreme case of selective deafness over the word "bow" in loot tally three times.
2a. In addition, since he lacked humanoid subtype, then, by the wording of the spell, he could not be charmed in a first place.
3. GM refused to tell what the magic item does after successfull spellcraft check, as he believed we can't determine that like so, which resulted in a mass panic among the players when one part did not work as they though it would, which in turn resulted in hastily improvised escape instead of carefully planed one.
4. Third player has been brooding about how he did literally zero damage in combat as an undead lord cleric. (Personally i think he did fine as his obscuring mist was a great help)
4a. To note, gauging the effectiveness of the PCs by how much DPR they do and their AC value.
5. Fourth player thought the things have went completely south and ditched the party to save himself alone (and he actually did it, through not for long), using the most of his spellcasting ability to do so while deliberately(yes, he said so post-session) holding back before.
5a. In fact, entire party got scattered after meeting a strong resistance from the guards, and most of the playtime the PCs were on their own.
6. A decision to heal a fallen party member to bring him back into the game was perceived as borderline-OOC because "we are supposed to be evil characters" despide repeaded warnings in player's guide that we should be working together after all.
7. General lack of in-game communication resulted in PCs not knowing what each of them can do.
7a. It was also the reason for a trouble with a certain magic item which led to a panicked escape.
8. Several players had trouble with desicion making, prolonging the game way too much. One in particular was so slow in it, he barely participated in team communication, as he could not think of an plausible for him desicion in time compared to others.
9. DM had confessed that he altered NPC placement to make things a bit more difficult for the group.
9a.He also noted how we lacked creativeness in our desicions and what it had hinderes us even further. Notably, by how we went guns blazing (figuratively speaking) at the content after we all though we grabbed all the attention after said magic item mishap.
My question is, which of these items in the list are simply instances of emergent gameplay or group style of play, which actually make the game more fun and personal and there is no need to worry about those, and which are the surface of a serious problems where we should focus our attention if we are to prevent wiping out in the next try. I understand that nobody but us can tell us for sure, but i think the feedback from other people will be helpful regardless of that.
Thanks in advance for advice and replies.