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Overlard
2007-08-01, 05:50 AM
Our group needs a couple of players more than we've currently got, so we advertised. The first guy to answer came down last night and joined our game.

We're in the middle of a level 5 game. The party consists of:
- a druid
- a beguiler
- a warblade
- a cleric

We've got all the basic roles covered, so just told him to come along with anything he wanted to play and not worry about having to fill a gap in the make-up.

He turns up with a barbarian/rogue. Cool, sounds fun. We sit down to start the game, and he peeks at someone else's character sheet.

New Guy: "Huh. What's a beguiler?"
Beguiler's player: "Oh, it's an arcane caster. Basically it's like a sorcerer who specialises in enchantment and illusion, but has some roguish abilities too."
NG: "What? Why don't you just play an Arcane Trickster?"
BP: "Because I don't like the abilities of that class, besides you lose caster progression."
NG: "But it's core."
BP: "So?"
NG: "What is everyone else playing?"
Cleric player: "I'm a cleric."
NG: "Good."
Warblade player: "I'm playing a warblade."
NG: "What the **** is that?"
WP: "Uhh, it's kinda like a fighter. It's from The Book Of Nine Swords."
NG: "I've heard of that. Why aren't you playing a fighter?"
WP: "Because I like warblades. They're more fun to play."
NG: "Right, OK, sure."
Me: "I'm playing a druid. Is that OK with you?"
NG: "They're overpowered, but they're core, so that's fine."
DM: "Anyway, let's get started..."
NG: "Hang on. Now what we have here are three players using classes from the PHB, and two who are not."
DM: "Yes, why?"
NG: "Well, seeing as the PHB players are the most numerous, I guess this'll be OK. I want the beguiler to rebuild his character as a sorcerer/rogue and head for arcane trickster, and the warblade guy to change to a fighter."
DM: "What?!?"
NG: "Well, I only allow core books in my games. If everyone but me was playing something from one of the splatbooks, then I would have just played this session, and then let you know I wasn't coming back. But as we outnumber the non-core guys, then they can change."
DM: "This isn't your game. This is my game. I say what's allowed."
NG: "I'm just helping you guys out here. It'll be a better game when we change to core-only."
DM: "I have no plans on changing to core only. We like the game as it is."
NG: "But I only have the core books anyway, so they can't play things from other books. It'll only take a few minutes to change their characters. I'll even help them."
DM: "They can't use their books because you don't own them? What the hell?"
NG: "I can't tell if they're cheating if I don't have access to their ****ing rules!"
DM: "That's not your job. I have access to their books, and I trust them anyway."
NG: "I don't have the books. I don't see why we're still arguing about this. We should be core-only! They can just change their ****ing characters and then everyone's happy!"
DM: "Well, we're not changing the game and all future games to suit you. If you can't play as we do, then this isn't the right game for you."
NG: "The others will back me up on this. They probably would prefer a core-only game, and to stop you allowing stupid ****ing books in your game and ruining it for real players like me! Let's have a vote."
Beguiler player: "OK. Who votes that the new guy should leave now?"
*everyone raises hand apart from new guy*
NG: "What the ****? I was gonna make your game so much better, **** the lot of you!"
*leaves*

From his entry into the room to his departure took less than five minutes. A new record perhaps? I certainly think he's near the top of the most arrogant people I've met.

Zincorium
2007-08-01, 06:00 AM
Well, I will say the superiority of core-only, or any other style is only personal preference. Trying to 'improve' other people's games, whether it's increasing the amount of what you consider to be roleplaying, efficiency of character creation, or whatnot, isn't going to go any farther than they're willing to take it.

That said, good riddance. Sounds like the guy was so stuck in the rut of DMing for a specific audience that relaxing and learning to compromise just wasn't on the list of things to do. Hopefully you'll find a more appropriate player and he'll find an audience who appreciates the same things he does (although it sounds likely he got booted from a previous group for his inflexibility).

Ikkitosen
2007-08-01, 06:02 AM
That guy sounds like awesome fun!! Unless he was serious, in which case :smallsigh:

Jimorian
2007-08-01, 06:02 AM
O.M.G.

That is a classic. Loved the vote. :smallbiggrin:

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-01, 06:05 AM
You know, I just don't have words here. It's arrogant AND stupid. I mean what, you just kind of randomly choose those characters without realizing that... err what's the problem here again? Oh right, it's new to the new guy.

And the way he just casually expects everyone to play to his liking. As though there isn't any question about this. And he asks for a vote of all things. Right. Go through five levels with each other and now when pointed out with... the fact that this guy doesn't know these classes they're going to want to change? So he can know if they're cheating or not?

Oi. You made the right call in voting against him playing. That guy would have just kept dragging the game down.

banjo1985
2007-08-01, 06:10 AM
Hehe, this beats our shortest player tenure by ten minutes!

All I can say is wow, what an arrogant SOB. I mean, I prefer playing classes from out of only a few books, and might even make my preferences known before playing, but its poor stupidity to go into someone elses game and throw their weight around like that!

I'll file this under my "players not to join up with" draw...

Overlard
2007-08-01, 06:21 AM
I was just sitting in stunned silence for the most part. The way he was talking made it sound liek we were the ones being entirely unreasonable by not simply going along with what he wanted. I did get the feeling that he was either normally a DM, or is used to bullying other players into playing his way.

Kurald Galain
2007-08-01, 06:24 AM
The guy is an idiot, who should be forced at wand-point to learn all the rules from Hackmaster by heart until he can quote them in his sleep. Backwards. That'll teach him "core".

banjo1985
2007-08-01, 06:28 AM
Oh gods Hackmaster...that word still gives me shivers......yuck

Zeta Kai
2007-08-01, 06:55 AM
Core-Only snobs tend to argue that the core books are somehow superior to anything & everything that has come afterward. I'll be the first to agree that some splatbooks aren't worth the glue that they're bound with, but some supplemental material is of such a high caliber that it elevates the game beyond what is truly possible with "Just Core."

Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, & many others at WotC are excellent game designers, but they are not infallable gaming gods, incapable of flawed balance, mathematical oversight or typographical error. They're human, & the efforts, as well-designed & well-intentioned as they may be, are imperfect.

Just like non-Core material, they did their best to make as good as ruleset as they could, but to limit one's self to just that is backward, ignorant, & sad. I'm sure that the New Guy hadn't tried most of the splatbooks out there. He probably got burned reading one or two bad ones, or he skimmed through one & immediately turned his nose up at it without giving it a chance. Either way, he's a fool who's condemned himself to a small world of gaming, a lonely island in the ocean.

The Core books are great, & without them we wouldn't have a game at all. But those 3 books are just the basics, a generalized starter kit that's not meant to cover all situations. It would be impossible for them to do so. Otherwise, non-Core books would be obviously redundant.

bigbaddragon
2007-08-01, 07:16 AM
You know, I just don't have words here. It's arrogant AND stupid.

Xuincherguixe my good friend, you just made up a new and completely applicable alignment : AS (Arrogant Stupid) :smallbiggrin:

Any ideas to expand it to "ASS"? "Simpleton" maybe?

Saph
2007-08-01, 07:32 AM
:smallbiggrin:

That's hilarious. Great story.

We've had a few fast departures, but they were nowhere near that funny. I think the quickest I've ever seen was one hour, and that was me in a new group.

I was introduced to the other players, the DM asked if I knew the rules, I said I did.

DM: "We mostly play core, with a few of the Complete books."
Me: "Okay."
DM: "There's a sorcerer NPC who just joined the party, do you want to play him for today? You can make your own character next week."
Me: "Sure, that sounds fine."
DM: "Great. He's a humanoid with a giraffe's head."
Me: " . . . what?"
DM: "Oh yeah. All characters in this setting have animal heads. It determines your social class. The lower class have cow heads, the soldier class have dog heads, the merchant classes have horse heads . . ."
Me: ". . ."
DM: "Anyway, this guy just got captured and rescued by the party, and you've just come ashore."

The game then progressed and I discovered two things:

a) The sorcerer was four levels behind the rest of the group, had no equipment, and an awful spell selection. I think his highest-level spell was suggestion.

b) The early part of the game revolved around hanging around a bar getting drunk. Two characters then got involved in a drinking contest; specifically, a party NPC (with a dog head) and another NPC (with a bull head). So the DM was holding a conversation with himself and rolling both sets of dice. The players seemed to find it hilarious. I just sat around watching.

There was a drink break an hour in, and I made an excuse and left. I think I could have put up with everything else long enough to give it a try, but the animal-headed characters pushed me over the edge.

- Saph

Ethdred
2007-08-01, 07:41 AM
Wow.

Just, wow

Oh, and an appeal for you to give us some idea of your geographic location, so we can know whether we're in danger of ever meeting this guy

Thurbane
2007-08-01, 07:43 AM
Shortest player tenure we had was way back in 1E days, and I brought a guy from school along to our already crowded game (we had about eight players and one DM). He hadn't played D&D before, but was quite into fantasy literature and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

Anyway, as you can imagine, each combat round was pretty slow considering the number of people involved, so this guy was already lossing interest quick. Then, when his character (an archer type class from a Dragon magazine) gets to go he shoots some arrows at a bandit fleeing on horseback. He hits, but not enough damage to drop him.

"What the hell? I hit him, don't I get a chance for him to fall out of the saddle?"
"No, D&D isn't like that, you need to bring his hit points to zero or below before it has any effect."
"D&D is retarded then. I'm leaving."

:smalltongue:

Overlard
2007-08-01, 08:18 AM
Oh, and an appeal for you to give us some idea of your geographic location, so we can know whether we're in danger of ever meeting this guy
Central London. He might still be out there somewhere...

psychoticbarber
2007-08-01, 08:20 AM
Central London. He might still be out there somewhere...

For the Ontarians in the audience, please dear God assure me that you mean London ENGLAND. :smallbiggrin:

banjo1985
2007-08-01, 08:20 AM
Oh dear I'm in Birmingham...that means there's not even any water between me and the crazyman....I'm moving to Canada immediately!

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-01, 08:26 AM
Saph
The animal heads thing sounds awesome actually. But the rest is just stupid. Well I guess so is the animal heads thing, but that's awesome stupid. (Another new alignment?)

Kurald Galain
2007-08-01, 08:34 AM
Saph, are you sure you weren't in a theatre rather than an RPG? :smalleek:


My shortest game (although I did complete the session) was best characterized by this. 1st ed, my character is a cleric of about 8th level IIRC, and we're walking in some dungeon somewhere.

DM: Your leg falls off.
Me: What?
DM: Well, your leg falls off.
Me: Er, do I get a saving throw? Or what armor class does it hit? I have pretty good armor and a displacement cloak?
DM: Ah, so you displace. In that case, your arm falls off.
Me: Wtf???
DM: Hey, be glad it wasn't your head...

(apparently he was rolling 1d10, 1-2 = left leg, 3-4 = right leg, 5-8 = arm, 9-0 = head)

The other players were rather surprised that my character's reaction was to scream in pain and sit huddled in the corner for the remainer of that encounter, rather than to keep fighting because I had barely lost any hit points.

It turned out we had met a bunch of spiders that spun monofilament webs, so if you walk against them, they neatly cut off a random appendage of your body, no save. I wasn't even taking point, but he apparently rolled randomly for a character to affect, or perhaps he picked on the new guy.

Well.

Citizen Joe
2007-08-01, 08:42 AM
When I saw this thread title, I was going to bring up that in some editions of Traveler (scifi) game, your character can die in character generation. But in this case, the player got booted before even starting to make a character.

Saph
2007-08-01, 08:43 AM
Saph, are you sure you weren't in a theatre rather than an RPG? :smalleek:

It would have made more sense that way, wouldn't it?

I'm sure there was some reason behind the animal-heads thing, but in combination with the rest of the session, it just flatlined my enthusiasm. I ended up watching an Exalted game with another group for the rest of the session. Weird things often happen when you're looking for a new gaming group.

- Saph

Overlard
2007-08-01, 08:45 AM
For the Ontarians in the audience, please dear God assure me that you mean London ENGLAND. :smallbiggrin:
Don't worry, he's in the real London. Not too far from the real Windsor. :smalltongue:

Saph
2007-08-01, 08:47 AM
Don't worry, he's in the real London. Not too far from the real Windsor. :smalltongue:

Oh great. Please tell me you didn't refer him to our group.

- Saph

psychoticbarber
2007-08-01, 08:47 AM
Don't worry, he's in the real London. Not too far from the real Windsor. :smalltongue:

*Sigh* I always knew the city I lived in was fake. Stupid Fake-Windsor. :smallwink:

Citizen Joe
2007-08-01, 09:09 AM
You guys should lure him into your groups and make it a contest to see how fast you can kick him out.

Lemur
2007-08-01, 11:05 AM
Overland, you're fully justified to make that guy into abuse sponge NPC in your game now.

Kurald, monofilament webs... damn. And I thought I had wacky ideas.

Ethdred
2007-08-01, 11:44 AM
Don't worry, he's in the real London. Not too far from the real Windsor. :smalltongue:

OMIGOD!!! He's out there, he could be right here now! Trust no-one...

I'm going to start talking very loudly about non-core and see who reacts. Hopefully my work colleagues will think I'm talking about apples

MrNexx
2007-08-01, 12:04 PM
Wow. I mean, as a DM, I can see some of his points... but that's when I'm being a DM. As a player? Especially a brand new one? Just wow.

valadil
2007-08-01, 12:31 PM
That reminds me of someone from college. I never gamed with him so I don't have any stories like yours, but he was the kind of person who would barge into your room and tell you you were indenting your C++ with the wrong number of spaces and then tell you why either 2 or 4 was optimal. He also yelled at me for owning unacceptable mustard.

Tormsskull
2007-08-01, 01:12 PM
Wow. I mean, as a DM, I can see some of his points... but that's when I'm being a DM. As a player? Especially a brand new one? Just wow.

My same exact thoughts.

psychoticbarber
2007-08-01, 01:52 PM
Wow. I mean, as a DM, I can see some of his points... but that's when I'm being a DM. As a player? Especially a brand new one? Just wow.

Even with that in mind, some of them are ridiculous. Like the assumption that everyone would prefer the game being "core only". I thought for awhile I would prefer core only, but now that I've got my hands on some splatbooks, I've realized that all it takes is having the spine to say no when you have to.

I just can't get it through my head as to why people would act like that and expect to keep playing. It's just...madness. Or Sparta.

Roderick_BR
2007-08-01, 01:57 PM
He was lost in the moment he said "If I was the only core player, I'd play this time, and would let you know I'm not coming back". That alone showed his stupidity before he demanded the others to change their characters and claiming that HIS way was better.
I bet he doesn't get many games to DM also. Not for not allowing non-core, but because of his shiny personality.

Fax Celestis
2007-08-01, 02:00 PM
You guys certainly made the right choice.

Flaming_Wombat
2007-08-01, 02:06 PM
That really is amazing that a person thought that they had the power to change a game they were joining mid way. I fear what they would have done if you allowed them to play. If he took that much offense to the classes themselves what about the spells the cleric cast? I was in a game a number of years ago when a guy who had gone away for school came back.

Group discussing Game:
Player walks in
Group greets him and makes a space in the room the player sits down.
Player: I attack Jimmy
DM:Ok roll
Jimmy: Why?
Player: Your look evil, turns to DM 18.
DM: Jimmy what is your AC?
Jimmy: 6
DM turns to the Player: You Hit roll damage.
Player: 10
Jimmy to DM: That puts me down to 2, are you kidding me you are going to let him do this?
DM: Yes, roll iniative everyone.
The group tried to defend Jimmy's character but as the game was the returning player out matched us and killed Jimmy the next round and all we could do was make him surrender and put him in jail. The character was excuted the next day in game
Player: That was fun, see you guys later
Player walks out.

The kicker to me was that the DM did not retun the game back to where it was 15 minutes before. Jimmy made another character and was forced to start at 1st level dragging behind the party. I left the game a couple of sessions later when another player killed Jimmy's character for the fun of it. The DM had good ideas but was not willing to impose any responsibility for the players actions.

For me that experience has always been an example of what a bad player and a bad DM can do to a good game. So you are better off with the guy never having even had a chance to roll a die or take offense over how another player was playing their character or even how you set up an encounter.

Cubey
2007-08-01, 02:06 PM
EDIT: This directed at the player OP described.
I am not a violent person, but SOBs like that should be punished physically.

Kicking into a huge, apparently bottomless hole in the ground sounds like a good idea.

EDIT #2: Actually, the Jimmy-slayer should be Sparta'ed like that too.

lukelightning
2007-08-01, 02:14 PM
Overland, you're fully justified to make that guy into abuse sponge NPC in your game now.

Make him Coron, the Evil Ranger, who is out to slay anyone who isn't playing by core rules.

Coron: "I am here to slay you non-core heretics! Fear my +6 damage bonus, because I took favored enemy: non-core classes."
PCs: "Uh, you do know that "favored enemy: non-core classes" is itself a non-core option?"
Coron: *self implodes*

I will grant him that it does feel like being at a disadvantage if you only have core books and everyone else has all these other options. If I were in that situation, though, I'd just tell the DM "hey, I am worried my barbarian/rogue might be overshadowed by the warblade" or something like that, so we could work out a solution (such as the DM suggesting good barbarian feats from other books, etc.)

tannish2
2007-08-01, 02:28 PM
From his entry into the room to his departure took less than five minutes. A new record perhaps? I certainly think he's near the top of the most arrogant people I've met.
you do not spend much time on the internet

the proper reaction would be taking all the other players into a diff room, maybe "ok lets go prnit out new character sheets, office is pretty small though, sorry, not enough room for you, but its ok, you dont need a new character sheet" then have them make characters tghat are as close to their current ones as possible, and then just copy curent character sheets and glue the copies to the back of the new ones. then play their new characters and if the new guy gets pissed.... well he would be too retarded to know the difference probably

Matthew
2007-08-01, 02:35 PM
Bloody hell, Overlard. What part of London were you playing in? The wackiest part? Where did you advertise to acquire this loony?

Sounds like you wandered into Pseudo Ancient Egypt the RPG, Saph, unless it was actually Spelljammer.

I have been involved in some crappy games before, but never anything quite this bizzare.

ALOR
2007-08-01, 02:42 PM
Wow, i'm glad i've never had an experiance with anyone that has turned out this bad.
I do love hearing all these "war stories" though.:smallbiggrin:

Rachel Lorelei
2007-08-01, 02:46 PM
I roll to disbelieve...

Curmudgeon
2007-08-01, 02:58 PM
I almost always play core-only classes, but wouldn't even consider playing in a core-only game. There are a lot of rough parts in core material that are smoothed over by material in supplements. I particularly like the alternate class features in Complete Mage, which provide more character flavor than the standard core classes.

I congratulate you on wasting so very little time in finding out that this New Guy was a poor fit for your group.

Deepblue706
2007-08-01, 03:02 PM
I must say, you handled that situation with New Guy rather poorly. You should have persuaded him to accept non-core with a swift punch in the face.

Kurald Galain
2007-08-01, 03:06 PM
I roll to disbelieve...

Okay. You find out that the lute in your avatar's hand is illusory. :smalltongue:

Gaelbert
2007-08-01, 03:07 PM
Is it wrong that I rolled on the floor laughing for five minutes after reading that story?

nerulean
2007-08-01, 03:12 PM
Wow, this guy is amazing. Seriously. You usually have to pay for that sort of entertainment.

Keld Denar
2007-08-01, 03:20 PM
Isn't that sort of stupidity illegal in most places outside of Canada? Where's Darwin when you REALLY need him, eh?

tainsouvra
2007-08-01, 03:30 PM
That's classic stuff there.

MrNexx
2007-08-01, 03:34 PM
Wow, i'm glad i've never had an experiance with anyone that has turned out this bad.
I do love hearing all these "war stories" though.:smallbiggrin:

How about this one?

I was home from college, with my normal gaming group. I'd played with guys for years, and they had a pretty good campaign going. I got a character set up... a dwarven priest, IIRC... and sat down at the table. DM provided me no hooks to get me involved, so I was left kind of struggling.

Me: I heard you guys have a mine.
Other Player: Yeah, but we've already got a mine supervisor. We don't really need you.
Rest of the party: *sits in silence*
Me: Well, ahh, ok.

And I leave. Because the rest of the party just sort of stonewalled me, and let the biggest genitalia run me out.

ALOR
2007-08-01, 03:49 PM
How about this one?

I was home from college, with my normal gaming group. I'd played with guys for years, and they had a pretty good campaign going. I got a character set up... a dwarven priest, IIRC... and sat down at the table. DM provided me no hooks to get me involved, so I was left kind of struggling.

Me: I heard you guys have a mine.
Other Player: Yeah, but we've already got a mine supervisor. We don't really need you.
Rest of the party: *sits in silence*
Me: Well, ahh, ok.

And I leave. Because the rest of the party just sort of stonewalled me, and let the biggest genitalia run me out.

that actully just sucks, i'm sorry that happened to ya

Seatbelt
2007-08-01, 04:27 PM
getting chewed out for improper mustard is completely justified, and I applaud your dorm-mate for correcting such a grevious error. He was saving you from poor quality hot dogs!!

Swordguy
2007-08-01, 04:41 PM
Jeeze, I thought the guy who grabbed one of our swords off the wall and demanded to go outside and fight because "combat doesn't work like that" and "let me hit your armor so I can show you a sword goes straight through it" was a douche.

You've got me beat by a good 30 minutes...

Larrin
2007-08-01, 04:50 PM
actually, up until he started loosing it, the Guy in the original Post was reminding me of Monk (as in the obsessive compulsive television detective) who often tries to convince people they should go through rediculous changes to fix some small problem that is bugging him (He's supposed to be neurotic...its his charm) I was just waiting for :

NG:Here's the thing....I think everyone would be much happier if we just all did the same thing....or we could get another new player to use non-core so we'd have 3 core and 3 non-core, that would be more balanced..

(appologies to people who don't watch the show and won't get the reference)

puppyavenger
2007-08-01, 05:06 PM
Isn't that sort of stupidity illegal in most places outside of Canada? Where's Darwin when you REALLY need him, eh?

Hey if it's stupid enough to be outlawed in texas and DC then it definetly ilegal in canada.

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-01, 09:17 PM
Isn't that sort of stupidity illegal in most places outside of Canada? Where's Darwin when you REALLY need him, eh?

Actually, that kind of stupidity is just decriminalized here. It's strongly discouraged though, and you can easily get kicked out of an apartment for it.

Belteshazzar
2007-08-01, 09:33 PM
I may think that there are way too many classes in DnD (this is why I see great promise in the customizing power of feats) but to try and force another player to play my whims on another DMs turf is just wrong.

I can sympathize with with his feelings of overwhelming classes but it's just bad business to go around screwing up the games of people you just met. It is especially bad to assume the everyone likes you style of play (some people actually need the word Pirate or Ninja in their class name to justify calling themselves one.)

Ranis
2007-08-01, 09:43 PM
Central London. He might still be out there somewhere...

Okay, imagining this with English accents makes it ten times funnier.

Tip o' the hat to you for putting up with the kind of people that I'm bound to end up *****-slapping at GenCon in two weeks.

*applause*

Overlard
2007-08-02, 05:08 AM
I roll to disbelieve...
You succeed and realise the internet is an illusion. You've actually been sitting typing things into the microwave. :smallwink:

Jibar
2007-08-02, 05:22 AM
You succeed and realise the internet is an illusion. You've actually been sitting typing things into the microwave. :smallwink:

Ooohhh man, I've been there.

Anyway, yes stupid player, unbelievable demands, now what would have made it funnier if he was struck by an Unearthed Arcana while exiting.
The perfect way to abuse his Coreality.

Evil DM Mark3
2007-08-02, 05:45 AM
This guy beats every player I have ever had exept for Williams.

I should explain. My group (and some other gamers in the general area via discussion) refer to players who sign up but never show up as Williams in honour of one particular player called William.

I got sent an email with 27 pages of material, character sheet, background, artwork, FAMILY TREE, sketches of equipment the whole shabang.

He never shows. Ever. I have still yet to see his face.:smallsmile:

ALOR
2007-08-02, 07:31 AM
This guy beats every player I have ever had exept for Williams.

I should explain. My group (and some other gamers in the general area via discussion) refer to players who sign up but never show up as Williams in honour of one particular player called William.

I got sent an email with 27 pages of material, character sheet, background, artwork, FAMILY TREE, sketches of equipment the whole shabang.

He never shows. Ever. I have still yet to see his face.:smallsmile:

now that is pretty funny

Charity
2007-08-02, 09:07 AM
That guy sounds like awesome fun!! Unless he was serious, in which case :smallsigh:

Don't try it bucko.

Subotei
2007-08-02, 03:54 PM
Central London. He might still be out there somewhere...

I'm just embarrassed to be in the same country as that guy

Tokiko Mima
2007-08-02, 04:39 PM
My first experience with BESM in a PvP tournament lasted exactly one round. I put up a wall of flame to block the only entrance/exit to the starting room. I was 30 feet away from the door when another player stabbed me and killed me in a single hit with his sword through the wall of flame. He was a darkness based character that was supposed to be afraid of and weak against light, but not (I guess) fire.

There were so many things logically wrong with that I umm.. learned to stay away from BESM.

Tengu
2007-08-02, 05:31 PM
BESM pvp tournament? The mind boggles... isn't this game even more imbalanced in this aspect than DND? From what I know, two characters created with the same number of points can have a huuuuuge gap in terms of power between them (one being able to shatter continents, the other one a good cook who is well-liked by girls) - which is (usually) actually in the spirit of anime.

Coffee_Dragon
2007-08-03, 09:07 AM
War stories rock!

My shortest tenure ever in a game was some three hours, two of them spent at the table. This was years and years ago when I was between groups, and joined a local gaming club in an attempt to meet new players. They had a basement where several groups were involved with RPGs, wargames, miniatures and so on. I went, paid the membership fee, and sat down with the only group that was running an RPG campaign at the time, a home-made low-magic fantasy game. The GM was friendly, introduced me to the system and helped me make a character.

The theme of the campaign was that in a war-torn country, the PCs were adolescent street urchins working their way up in the world and building a crime syndicate. As far as I could tell it was very much a sandbox game, where the PCs acted and the GM had the world react to them, rather than having plots and missions come down from above. The latest project of these juvenile masterminds was starting up a brothel. Uh-huh. The adventure was going to be about getting the prostitutes for that brothel. UH-HUH. The plan was simple: the PCs would go out into the war-torn countryside with a caravan of wagons and strongarms, seek out the beautiful peasant daughters that would inevitably be littered about, and either offer to "evacuate" them to the big city or simply knock them out and bolt them down. Once back in the city they'd be forced to go to work in the brothel.

Warning sign?

Now, either because they figured I wouldn't hang around for long, or because they thought it'd be too much of a revision to insert me into their closely knit group of childhood friends, or because they didn't much care anyway, I wasn't allowed to be part of the "inner circle" - in fact I wasn't given any significance or prominence whatsoever. I was literally one of the mercs hired for this one mission, a face among several others just like me, who could potentially earn the attention of the bosses if I managed my spear-carrying well enough.

It also wasn't until we actually started playing that things began to fall into place regarding the premise. My character was in the mid-20s (the GM had confirmed this to be appropriate); I eventually found out that the others were around 14-16. I mean, I can adapt to the imagery of kids bossing around supposedly war-scarred veterans of nearly twice their age, but it seemed strange that the GM hadn't told me, or otherwise made sure I made a character that could easily relate to the others. There was nothing about the setup that indicated I was going to be integrated into the party, or that anyone except me would be working towards that goal.

Warning sign?

The actual gaming started off with planning the mission, getting mercs, wagons, supplies etc. (all of which I was shut out from, needless to say, unless you count actually being one of the mercs), then heading out from the city. Then it happened... random encounter with bandits!

Of course, we had a contingent of some 30 armed soldiers, but they apparently thought it would make for a good challenge. Oh, and there were probably at least as many of them. In any case, I did what I was paid to do and joined the battle. A lot of things were happening, but at least I was looking forward to proving myself. I swung at someone and missed. I swung at someone and hit. Then I was knocked out. Uh oh, this won't look good on my résumé.

I then leaned back and waited and watched everyone else make rolls and swing and hit and miss. This went on for half an hour with no end in sight, so, figuring I wouldn't really have anything to do even after the fighting was over, I left for a bite. Returning after a full hour... the same battle was still raging. It took another half hour to finish. Two hours had been spent on an encounter that was in essence irrelevant to the mission. Now it was supposed to be dangerous outside the city and maybe it was the only way the GM could think of to toss in an obstacle to the PCs plans, but it just didn't gel with my idea of why to play in the first place (which is of course PROSTITUTES! no, I kid).

The last half hour of the session was spent with the GM summarizing the (successful) completion of the plan, the return to the city, the noting down of things relevant to running a crime syndicate complete with prostitutes. My character lived and would remain in the employ of the kids, but guess what, absolutely nothing else happened with him.

I played in a few board game sessions (which was fun) to justify paying the membership fee, then left the club and never came back.

Nevar
2007-08-03, 09:49 AM
Wow that club sounds horrible. fortanitly I haven't had to many horror stories as of yet, I'm pretty good at finding a decent group (I tend to figure out personalities before I even think about joining a group and it's worked so far for me) Worst story I have was when I was living in Little Rock AR (The military stationed me there wasn't a choice) Had a guy join our group and he wasn't the brightest of guys. But it was more he did a lot of blunders which most of us just laughed at. Then one day he told us he heard voices... and he was serious... I now make sure I know the number to mental health every base I get stationed at.

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-03, 10:21 AM
Eh, hearing voices isn't that big a deal really. That's probably one of the easier things to deal with. Schizophrenics can have it pretty tough.

Now if the guy is actually dangerous, that's another story.

(Not going to bring reality into the discussion because as we all know the world doesn't exist ^_^)

Leon
2007-08-03, 10:36 AM
Wow, just Wow

That guy sure has a Tree* up his Ass


(* the atypical stick is out of its league here)

The mind boggles at the thought of a player (new to boot) demanding that the game be bent to suit him and his whims

Stephen_E
2007-08-03, 11:45 AM
The Shortest in any group I've been in was unfortunate in that it wasn't the player's fault but the DM.

We had a group which 3 of us have been playing together for over a decade, and another for about 8 years, + 4 other players have come and gone (moved city ecetre) after someone suggested that they were interested and the group agreed to it.

We'd had a campaign going from 4 to 12th level and we'd recently switched DMs. The DM railroaded us through a gate (at the end of the session - "guys, you can either chase the BG through the gate or the gate will swallow you up anyway). We get told we experiance darkness and then wake up in cells in another world with the magic users wearing anti-magic collars. Session ended.

As you can imagine there was considerable unhappy discussion amongst the player over the week to the next session. The mage players were seriosly pissed and one of the melee builds was working to an Elf Friend class that needed to be involved with elves, and now we were in some other world with no elves as far as the player knew. I was also pretty unhappy that my animal cohort/mount had been left behind.
Then the day before the next session the DM rang one (and only one) of the players and said he was bringing a new player along. The rest of the players found out at the start of the next session.

Basically it was the final straw and a player revolt saw that campaign end and the new player didn't get to play a single minute with the PC the DM and he had put together. The guy did nothing wrong, and if we'd been asked about it before we probably would've welcomed him in.

Whats worse was that the DM had used the gate to deliver us into an old world of his as part of intoducing this guy's PC, so he'd been planning to bring this guy in for at least a couple of weeks without a word to the rest of us.

In discussion with the DM later it turned out he'd built in various features to cover where the PC's were going, except for my mount cohort which he'd just forced be to abandon despite having had him from level 4, when he was just a Hv Warhorse, with 8 levels of considerable RPing and treasure invested in him (From a previous campaign by that DM I got the feeling that he either wasn't a fan of animal cohorts/companions, or at least not a fan of me having them). If he hadn't rammed us into the situation andmade some attempt to reassure us that he wasn't screwing over the campaign and PC's we'd put so much time into we probably would've tried out his campaign world.

As it was, his "it's the DM's game" approach killed the campaign and left the poor new guy in the posistion of turning up to a game to find instead of a friendly welcome he got an embarressed cold shoulder.

Stephen