Saximus1921
2007-09-30, 08:45 PM
Hey there all! I was hoping I could get some advice on what to do with an issue that has been bothering me and most of my fellow players. We all have a dilemma about what to do concerning a new campaign that was started that has since....well, stumbled. The problem is: we don't really like it.
A bit of backstory: one of the newer players to our group, Josh, decided a while back that he wanted to try out the DM reins as my latest campaign was coming to a close. He told us he had been working on it for a while, and he really wanted to do it, so we all got onboard.
He didn't tell us much about what the campaign was going to be about, except that it was in the typical D&D fashion, high-fantasy, medieval-style..."the basic stuff, the usual," as he said. Gestalted character to boot. He asked us to start writing up our characters, and so we all started to work on characters/backstory.
I decided to do something a bit different and play a Human Warlock/Dread Necromancer who was Lawful Neutral (we kinda dropped the warlock AL restrictions). I asked him about this and he greenlighted it. Other players chose an Orc Bard/Barbarian, a Human Ninja/Beguiler, and a Human Warblade/Wizard. He greenlighted everybody's character, and we fired it up.
Then things...kinda got weird. On our website, he started to talk about how his campaign had "no real story, just a selection of paths you guys can walk upon, with no designated end; the campaign will end when you guys want it to end. You can do some quests, or not, but it's totally non-linear, freeform, impromptu campaign. I'll have things prepared, but most of it will be off the cuff."
Added onto that, I had crafted a pretty lengthy backstory I had given to him a while back, and he then told me "yeah, I didn't think it would fit the campaign, so made a new one for you." This was, however, after he said my backstory was fine and said it wasn't any problem. He then proceeded to give me a new backstory that had nothing to do with character whatsoever, basically turning my character from an ex-doctor with an obsession with necromancy (kinda Dr. Frankenstein'ish, I know) into an ex-convict who can't enter towns without disguising myself. :smallyuk:
Also, he began to tell the character who was the Warblade/Wizard (again, after he said he had no problem with him being a Warblade) that he thought the Warblade was "really unbalanced," and handed him his own version of a totally nerfed Warblade. I never got a copy, but I remember when they, Josh and the War/Wiz, were arguing about it that he lowered the HD to d10, lowered their skills/skill points, removed most of the class features, and limited him to 6th level manuevers that he could use only, at max, 2-3 times per day at high levels. He managed to convince the War/Wiz to give it a shot, and after the first fight it was painfully evident the class stunk something awful.
This was all pretty hard to swallow because Josh is normally more than a bit of a powergamer and always, always, gives me or anybody else who happens to be DM at the time a very, very hard time whenever we restrict/disallow any class, race, etc.
The first few sessions we did didn't go so well. The War/Wiz was pretty cheesed off, and I admit I was upset how my backstory had been tossed out pretty much entirely, so we didn't enter the campaign in a good mood. On top of that it became pretty obvious fairly quickly that he wasn't really all that prepared. We basically just kinda roamed around, doing odd jobs (like killing some monsters here and there to rouding up missing cows), staying at the inn, repeat. None of the NPC's we ever talked to really had any names (Joe the bartender, Bob the farmer, etc.), as he said he had no storyline, and none of the quests we did ever had anything to do with...well, anything.
The last session we did, we got a bit bored and the War/Wiz and the Beguiler began to get into a lot of mischief and ended up robbing most of the town blind of their belongings. Josh got pretty mad and had them unceremoniounsly found and caught by the guards by total DM fiat, and we all got kicked out of town. We ended the session wandering around the forest trying to catch dinner. :smallconfused:
Since then, when we have asked him if when we were going to do his campaign, he basically just responds with a "meh." It's pretty obvious to me and everyone else that he feels like we're being a bunch of jerks and not playing nicely. Although he didn't tell us at the time, he had the idea that we were going to be monster-stomping, Good-Aligned hero types, and none of us are (we a mix of neutral and the beguiler/ninja is neutral evil). Since we don't fit that archetype (mostly because he never said that's what he had in mind), the campaign has stumbled, and the bad sessions I think soured his take on the DM's chair.
I'm now left with a dilemma of whether I should do. The problem is that since he's ambivalent about doing his campaign, we haven't played D&D for a few weeks now since we're still technically doing his campaign, which is starting to kill the rest of us. So, I ask, do I:
1. Attempt to patch things up and get his campaign running again, even though I, and the rest of our group, don't really like it?
2. Just start a new one and get D&D moving again?
3. Give him more time to get over his funk?
4. Or something else I haven't considered?
I have tried talking to him multiple times about this, and everytime he doesn't avoid the question he just shrugs his shoulders and says "meh." I'm at a loss. What should we do?
A bit of backstory: one of the newer players to our group, Josh, decided a while back that he wanted to try out the DM reins as my latest campaign was coming to a close. He told us he had been working on it for a while, and he really wanted to do it, so we all got onboard.
He didn't tell us much about what the campaign was going to be about, except that it was in the typical D&D fashion, high-fantasy, medieval-style..."the basic stuff, the usual," as he said. Gestalted character to boot. He asked us to start writing up our characters, and so we all started to work on characters/backstory.
I decided to do something a bit different and play a Human Warlock/Dread Necromancer who was Lawful Neutral (we kinda dropped the warlock AL restrictions). I asked him about this and he greenlighted it. Other players chose an Orc Bard/Barbarian, a Human Ninja/Beguiler, and a Human Warblade/Wizard. He greenlighted everybody's character, and we fired it up.
Then things...kinda got weird. On our website, he started to talk about how his campaign had "no real story, just a selection of paths you guys can walk upon, with no designated end; the campaign will end when you guys want it to end. You can do some quests, or not, but it's totally non-linear, freeform, impromptu campaign. I'll have things prepared, but most of it will be off the cuff."
Added onto that, I had crafted a pretty lengthy backstory I had given to him a while back, and he then told me "yeah, I didn't think it would fit the campaign, so made a new one for you." This was, however, after he said my backstory was fine and said it wasn't any problem. He then proceeded to give me a new backstory that had nothing to do with character whatsoever, basically turning my character from an ex-doctor with an obsession with necromancy (kinda Dr. Frankenstein'ish, I know) into an ex-convict who can't enter towns without disguising myself. :smallyuk:
Also, he began to tell the character who was the Warblade/Wizard (again, after he said he had no problem with him being a Warblade) that he thought the Warblade was "really unbalanced," and handed him his own version of a totally nerfed Warblade. I never got a copy, but I remember when they, Josh and the War/Wiz, were arguing about it that he lowered the HD to d10, lowered their skills/skill points, removed most of the class features, and limited him to 6th level manuevers that he could use only, at max, 2-3 times per day at high levels. He managed to convince the War/Wiz to give it a shot, and after the first fight it was painfully evident the class stunk something awful.
This was all pretty hard to swallow because Josh is normally more than a bit of a powergamer and always, always, gives me or anybody else who happens to be DM at the time a very, very hard time whenever we restrict/disallow any class, race, etc.
The first few sessions we did didn't go so well. The War/Wiz was pretty cheesed off, and I admit I was upset how my backstory had been tossed out pretty much entirely, so we didn't enter the campaign in a good mood. On top of that it became pretty obvious fairly quickly that he wasn't really all that prepared. We basically just kinda roamed around, doing odd jobs (like killing some monsters here and there to rouding up missing cows), staying at the inn, repeat. None of the NPC's we ever talked to really had any names (Joe the bartender, Bob the farmer, etc.), as he said he had no storyline, and none of the quests we did ever had anything to do with...well, anything.
The last session we did, we got a bit bored and the War/Wiz and the Beguiler began to get into a lot of mischief and ended up robbing most of the town blind of their belongings. Josh got pretty mad and had them unceremoniounsly found and caught by the guards by total DM fiat, and we all got kicked out of town. We ended the session wandering around the forest trying to catch dinner. :smallconfused:
Since then, when we have asked him if when we were going to do his campaign, he basically just responds with a "meh." It's pretty obvious to me and everyone else that he feels like we're being a bunch of jerks and not playing nicely. Although he didn't tell us at the time, he had the idea that we were going to be monster-stomping, Good-Aligned hero types, and none of us are (we a mix of neutral and the beguiler/ninja is neutral evil). Since we don't fit that archetype (mostly because he never said that's what he had in mind), the campaign has stumbled, and the bad sessions I think soured his take on the DM's chair.
I'm now left with a dilemma of whether I should do. The problem is that since he's ambivalent about doing his campaign, we haven't played D&D for a few weeks now since we're still technically doing his campaign, which is starting to kill the rest of us. So, I ask, do I:
1. Attempt to patch things up and get his campaign running again, even though I, and the rest of our group, don't really like it?
2. Just start a new one and get D&D moving again?
3. Give him more time to get over his funk?
4. Or something else I haven't considered?
I have tried talking to him multiple times about this, and everytime he doesn't avoid the question he just shrugs his shoulders and says "meh." I'm at a loss. What should we do?