What are y'all up to these days?

[Raleel]

This suits me fine as I dreaded the slog we encountered playing both 4e and 13th Age in the more recent past.

yea, i love both of them, but they do have a marshmallow problem at higher levels. 13th age I had to skew things much harder at the higher levels. I think both could do with less escalation of hit points at higher levels. 4e got that with MM3, but I didn't see anything towards that in 13th age. Higher ACs, more abilities to mitigate damage, etc, and you don't need a lot more hit points.

On the downside, and it's a debatable downside, the system didn't really grip or excel in any particular way; like I said sometimes a system that just does a job can be seen as a strong point so I'm not going to moan about it. I'm not sure whether there's enough there to drag me back anytime soon unless players make some strident requests.

this is in the space of how 5e is for me. It's serviceable. It's polished. It's just not... interesting. It does its job, it does its job well, it brings in new players, it's easy to learn. Those are all not bad things, but it's hard for me, 40+ years into the hobby, to get too excited about it. It's very Starbucks of RPGs to me.

 

[Ragr]

The problem we had with 13th Age was the accumulation of things to think about especially on the player side of things. Remembering miss damage, to add the Escalation Die, monitoring ongoing effects, rolling for recharges and looking out for odd or even rolls and which triggers what and when. I had it quite easy on the GM side but even a short skirmish would take 30+ minutes and that's a big turn off for me and the rest of the players. The fact that its intention seemed to be to shunt you towards violent encounters without much connecting tissue didn't help. I can admire as a game on paper though.

 

[Fenris-77]

I admire many games on paper that I'm loath to actually run. I call it Burning Wheel syndrome.

 

[Nemesis]

I ran a live OSE game last night for three people. It was a blast. One girl, who's experienced in 5e, said she enjoyed playing with the OSE rules because it's a lot more streamlined. We won't get to play again until the new year, but I'm floating the possibility of doing play-by-post in between live sessions.

 

[Paragon]

This is always a thing with systems with exception based design; you can have mechanical detail and nuance or you can have ease of play and memory. Pick one (or an intermediate case, but that often just ends up still being too slow for some people while not supplying enough detail for others).

 

[Bunch]

I'm not feeling it this week. Sorry all but I'm running low on time and energy due to the holidays and the kids having no school this week and everything so while I'm in no way depressed I'm just not up for much other than a silly comment here or there. Sorry for the various games I'm in but I just don't have it this week.

 

[spittingimage]

I'm not feeling it this week. Sorry all but I'm running low on time and energy due to the holidays and the kids having no school this week and everything so while I'm in no way depressed I'm just not up for much other than a silly comment here or there. Sorry for the various games I'm in but I just don't have it this week.

Sometimes you've gotta let the well refill before you can draw another bucket.

At least, I think that's how wells work? I guess some tap into underground streams, in which case the water is constantly refreshed, but that makes a poor metaphor for tiredness.

Ooh, I got it! Sometimes you gotta let the cow chew cud before you can milk her again. Be good to your cow (which in this case is yourself), Bunch.

 

[Certified]

#Patreon Early Access: Playing Jacks, Page 9: Back To The Beginning

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Patreon Exclusives

[Spoilers] Steel Aces, Extras: War Dogs in Metahumans Rising

With today's conic update the comic and game meet again. #Patrons add the War Dogs to your Metahumans Rising campaign!

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Behind the Panels: Playing Jacks, Page 9

Enjoying the Steel Aces Comic? Check out Jake Perez's newest video!

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#Metahumans #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG #Comic #SteelAces

 

[AsenRG]

I knew I shouldn't have said this to the players between session: "Considering we left off mid-battle, if you have the time and inclination, it's probably worth your while to re-read the Combat chapter."

They did, and they did a much better job of using Tests and teamwork than they typically have in the past. Which actually makes me really happy. But it made for a short battle.

But it's going to be a boon for the future sessions, so you should definitely be happy.

Part Time Gods looks pretty good. . .and is loosely based/heavily influenced by both American Gods and the Almighty Johnsons.

Part-Time Gods 1e or Aeternal Legends would be my choices as well.

Or, of course, Mythras, but I think it's the default option by now!

 

[Raleel]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

Really, it was a pile of little things that finally all added up. I am running them through a scenario. I am running a scenario because I've been told, by the group, sandboxes don't really work for them. I've also been told that they need a plot and they need quest bubbles. So, what do I provide. Literally an urchin leads them to a quest bubble, from the queen herself. Queen wants them to bring back a priestess who went rogue and needs to stand for her crime of calling down a god and causing an earthquake. Said priest also hired them for one mission 2 months (game time) ago, which took them 48 hours and ended in the capture and execution of three people who were doing treason against the city.

what do they do? they try six ways from sunday to not do the fucking question, despite several of them having loyalty to the queen. no, don't fucking do the quest bubble.

so they finally go off and they go to find the priestess, no problem finding her. no rolls even. and they try to convince her to come back, because shedding blood in the temple would be bad. good, because shedding blood in the temple brings down a fry-you-instantly lightning bolt. They start metagaming like crazy. they want to know about the justice system. suddenly they are concerned they are bringing someone back for execution, though this literally never came up before. Suddenly they want to know who is her representative. Not a one of them has law training. Suddenly they want to know everything about the god and the city's relationship, because you know, they all had the option to take that god, and all passed on it because they didn't read the fucking document I spend 5 hours writing up for them. So, they are asking me to invent the legal system on the fucking fly. THEY BROUGHT 3 PEOPLE BACK FOR EXECUTION LAST TIME AND DIDN'T ASK ONE FUCKING QUESTION. No passions for the lady. No nothing.

They argue with her and fail to convince her. 5 failed rolls, when 4 failed was enough, but I was feeling generous.they convince the guards near by they need to stand down that this is an internal matter. they do (miraculously) and go to grab her. She invokes the god, puff of dung smoke, and there is a cow there. What might you think? Shapechange. Seems obvious. it's in the divine spell list. Nope, we are not sure this is the priestess, so we need to telepathy her. Telepathy, but she's not willing to talk, so they get nothing. They are convinced that for some reason she's teleported away and left a cow. Certainly, because the mind link didn't work. So they finally get around to reading their spells and get to the one that says they can look and see the aura of someone and get that figured out.

So they take the cow and head off across the landscape, opting to the shorter and more dangerous route. Omen time - there is a line of dead cows across their path - a line 50m wide and hundreds of meters long. wtf is that! let's scout - good. get up there, I realize that this challenge is really hard for them, so I put in a bit that might make it a little more fun and doable - it's not just diseased dead cows, it's diseased dead cows with diseased cow spirits causing the actual disease. This gives the priest the chance to use his spirit block, but no, didn't look at it until after the party turned around and went back. Tries to ret con, I'm just like no, you've made your choices. By this point I'm super irritated that the time I put into making the damn cult is functionally ignored and the basic fucking spells are not read.

they get back to the city eventually and are suspicious. Now they don't want to bring the cow to the queen. Mind you, 5 of the 6 are loyal to the fucking queen at least mostly. But no, we are going to preserve this cow-woman over her, even though we have no relationship at all with her church and only know her from one single fucking job they got paid handsomely for AND committed a capital offense on. Everything they can fucking do to prevent the cow from being taken. every goddamn thing. We spent near an hour at the front fucking gate while they try to stop THE MAIN FUCKING PLOT LINE. no, we don't want the quest to continue. we want to end it, because of reasons.

Anyhow, they finally, after 4 fucking hours, get the cow in there (seriously, 4 hours to go and fetch a cow, no random encounters at all). and yes, the cow is going to be killed, but not by the queen. by the evil influences over the queen who she didn't know about. and big fight. Scene ends at big fight because they spent four hours getting a cow and not reading the rules. mind you, THIS IS THE FUCKING PROLOGUE. THEY ARE NOT IN THE REAL EVENTS YET. Goddamn.

My anger over it is sort of a culmination of things that the group has done over the years. It bothers me to no end, and I'm just broken now.

• making your own characters - chronically bad about this. Don't want to do it. This time, I made 5 of the 6 characters.
• showing up on time. it's been at the same time for a decade. I get asked what time every time.
• distractions during the game. Online has been brutal about this. web browsing, game playing. I can see your eyes and know when you are not engaging. It was bad with the phones before but it's much harder to hide.
• one guy refuses to tell us if he is making it until the day before. He can schedule. He gets an email a week before with a date that was put there at his request more than 5 years ago, and ever single one since. then he doesn't make half of the games. Why bother.
• the players don't try to figure out what their characters are like together. It's ALWAYS a couple of guys who just want to thug and one guy who wants to play an entirely non-violent game. ALWAYS. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME. "your adventurers" "I want to be a politician!" "your locals" "I want to be from out of the area!" Any fucking thing they can come up with to not be in the fucking story.
• and lastly, reading the rules. We have been playing mythras for more than 5 years at this point. I'm the only one who has read the rulebook. I'm one of two who have read the folk magic section. Most folks haven't read 3 paragraphs of combat. None of the skills. None of the cultures. Nothing.

I'm deeply frustrated and angry and I can't even stop being angry to pull my shit together and fix anything. I'm tired of putting in hours upon hours of work for folks who can't even pick up the rulebook and learn how their character works or make their own character or pay attention during the game or show up on time or know what time the game is or have any kind of cohesive theme. Writing this all out was almost cathartic and then it comes back again.

I think they want a video game, and I'm not here to make their fucking video game.

 

[soltakss]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

I feel your pain.

When this happens to me, I basically throw away the plot in the scenario and just wing it to react to what happens. Whatever they do just tells a story and opens up new opportunities.

Sure, it isn't what they asked you to do and isn't what they wanted, but if they enjoy it then great.

However, if it annoys you or upsets you or makes you not want to run a game then that is a shame.

Regarding the rules, I use a mix of Revolution D100 and RuneQuest. It has skills and a little bit of magic, but I pretty much ignore the other rules. They roll 1D100 and see if they Fumble/Fail/Succeed/Advantage, quite often they roll first and work out their chance afterwards if it is important. Maybe rules come out more in combat, but only if they roll an Advantage. Everything else I handwave, so I don't need them to know the rules and I don't need to know all the rules.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

Really, it was a pile of little things that finally all added up. I am running them through a scenario. I am running a scenario because I've been told, by the group, sandboxes don't really work for them. I've also been told that they need a plot and they need quest bubbles. So, what do I provide. Literally an urchin leads them to a quest bubble, from the queen herself. Queen wants them to bring back a priestess who went rogue and needs to stand for her crime of calling down a god and causing an earthquake. Said priest also hired them for one mission 2 months (game time) ago, which took them 48 hours and ended in the capture and execution of three people who were doing treason against the city.

My anger over it is sort of a culmination of things that the group has done over the years. It bothers me to no end, and I'm just broken now.

• one guy refuses to tell us if he is making it until the day before. He can schedule. He gets an email a week before with a date that was put there at his request more than 5 years ago, and ever single one since. then he doesn't make half of the games. Why bother.
• the players don't try to figure out what their characters are like together. It's ALWAYS a couple of guys who just want to thug and one guy who wants to play an entirely non-violent game. ALWAYS. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME. "your adventurers" "I want to be a politician!" "your locals" "I want to be from out of the area!" Any fucking thing they can come up with to not be in the fucking story.
• and lastly, reading the rules. We have been playing mythras for more than 5 years at this point. I'm the only one who has read the rulebook. I'm one of two who have read the folk magic section. Most folks haven't read 3 paragraphs of combat. None of the skills. None of the cultures. Nothing

I think they want a video game, and I'm not here to make their fucking video game.

YES and YESSSSS. Your experience has been mine for the past 3 or 4 years. And I have been attributing it to running for newish players. I have had players use video game terminology, so you might be onto something there.

Your players say they don't want a sandbox, but they clearly want a sandbox. Maybe they don't know there are gray areas?

I have had players not read the rules (Fate of the Norns) accuse players who have read the rules of having unbalanced/overpowered characters. It seemed that way to them only because they had no idea how their characters work. They are ALL bad asses.

And non-traditional character types for any genre is the norm. Actual examples:

• Fate of the Norms: "I want to be a craftsman who is trying to design a better sail. Possibly a better type of rope."
• Western: "Could I be a hardware store owner who is trying to build a franchise of hardware stores through out the Southwest?" and "I want to be the town barber who knows some dentistry." Me: What happens when bandits ride into town?? Them: We call the NPC marshal!
• Warbirds/fighter pilots: "I want to be a biologist." and "I'll make the journalist who covers stories of the pilots."
• Superheroes: "I made an alien who is trying to blend in and make new neurotoxins." and "I want to play a despondent superhero who refuses to fight crime or use his powers ever again."

I was frustrated more than angry, and at this point I know what they want to do and the last couple of games (John Carter of Mars and Symbaroum) were actually fun. I've just had to lower my expectation and let them explore. They do really well in sandbox games.

 

[Certified]

Poll: Dec Adventure Seed
It's that time of year again, sleigh bells ringing, the Nazi's are scheming, and the Krampus's eyes are gleaming. Help support indie roleplaying games by becoming a #Patron & vote for your favorite tory idea!

Option 1: Stille Nacht II: Holly Has Fallen: This adventure follows the events of Stille Nacht with the Eisenreich's new plan to coopt Christmas into a sign of Nazi superiority. Using their Iron Sleigh led my a cybernetic monster thought to be long dead, the Eisenreich will unleash terror across the world. For those who want to catch up, here's a link to the original adventure: http://housedok.com/stille-nacht-the-iron-santa-initiative/

Option 2: Naughty!: For years the power of the Krampus has been contained, but he has stolen brother's sleigh and will soon bring justice to the world, for there are no good children left! If the heroes cannot stop Krampus, every living being will be caged, thrashed, and cooked down into coal.

Option 3: Unholy Knight: While people around the world celebrate, the Queen in Red has other plans. Crafting a ritual that taps into the spirit of the season, the Queen will open a portal to the Outer Realms, resurrecting Mordred, the Hell Knight once more and warping the lands around them to their image.

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#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #RPG #Superheroes #Superheroes #TTRPG

 

[Winterblight]

I am running them through a scenario. I am running a scenario because I've been told, by the group, sandboxes don't really work for them. I've also been told that they need a plot and they need quest bubbles. So...

Had this exact conversation with my group several sessions ago. The openness of the game was causing them to try and follow too many leads at once and never really get to the end of any of them and there were too many unsolved mysteries. They wanted to know more about what is going on up front, so we switch playstyle mid game.

They are hired by an aristocrat on the recommendation of some folks they interacted with in a previous session. The aristocrat tells them the plot. "Here's what I think's happening. Here's who I think's doing it. Help me prove it! Here is three small missions, complete them in any order and return with the findings. In the middle of the first mission the realise the aristocrat is likely 100% correct. Yes, there is a Skaven plot to enslave the city - suddenly they are back in the sandbox trying to save the city from the Skaven and chasing leads left, right and centre. Luckily I didn't have to deal with all he other crap you did.

 

[The Butcher]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

Really, it was a pile of little things that finally all added up. I am running them through a scenario. I am running a scenario because I've been told, by the group, sandboxes don't really work for them. I've also been told that they need a plot and they need quest bubbles. So, what do I provide. Literally an urchin leads them to a quest bubble, from the queen herself. Queen wants them to bring back a priestess who went rogue and needs to stand for her crime of calling down a god and causing an earthquake. Said priest also hired them for one mission 2 months (game time) ago, which took them 48 hours and ended in the capture and execution of three people who were doing treason against the city.

what do they do? they try six ways from sunday to not do the fucking question, despite several of them having loyalty to the queen. no, don't fucking do the quest bubble.

so they finally go off and they go to find the priestess, no problem finding her. no rolls even. and they try to convince her to come back, because shedding blood in the temple would be bad. good, because shedding blood in the temple brings down a fry-you-instantly lightning bolt. They start metagaming like crazy. they want to know about the justice system. suddenly they are concerned they are bringing someone back for execution, though this literally never came up before. Suddenly they want to know who is her representative. Not a one of them has law training. Suddenly they want to know everything about the god and the city's relationship, because you know, they all had the option to take that god, and all passed on it because they didn't read the fucking document I spend 5 hours writing up for them. So, they are asking me to invent the legal system on the fucking fly. THEY BROUGHT 3 PEOPLE BACK FOR EXECUTION LAST TIME AND DIDN'T ASK ONE FUCKING QUESTION. No passions for the lady. No nothing.

They argue with her and fail to convince her. 5 failed rolls, when 4 failed was enough, but I was feeling generous.they convince the guards near by they need to stand down that this is an internal matter. they do (miraculously) and go to grab her. She invokes the god, puff of dung smoke, and there is a cow there. What might you think? Shapechange. Seems obvious. it's in the divine spell list. Nope, we are not sure this is the priestess, so we need to telepathy her. Telepathy, but she's not willing to talk, so they get nothing. They are convinced that for some reason she's teleported away and left a cow. Certainly, because the mind link didn't work. So they finally get around to reading their spells and get to the one that says they can look and see the aura of someone and get that figured out.

So they take the cow and head off across the landscape, opting to the shorter and more dangerous route. Omen time - there is a line of dead cows across their path - a line 50m wide and hundreds of meters long. wtf is that! let's scout - good. get up there, I realize that this challenge is really hard for them, so I put in a bit that might make it a little more fun and doable - it's not just diseased dead cows, it's diseased dead cows with diseased cow spirits causing the actual disease. This gives the priest the chance to use his spirit block, but no, didn't look at it until after the party turned around and went back. Tries to ret con, I'm just like no, you've made your choices. By this point I'm super irritated that the time I put into making the damn cult is functionally ignored and the basic fucking spells are not read.

they get back to the city eventually and are suspicious. Now they don't want to bring the cow to the queen. Mind you, 5 of the 6 are loyal to the fucking queen at least mostly. But no, we are going to preserve this cow-woman over her, even though we have no relationship at all with her church and only know her from one single fucking job they got paid handsomely for AND committed a capital offense on. Everything they can fucking do to prevent the cow from being taken. every goddamn thing. We spent near an hour at the front fucking gate while they try to stop THE MAIN FUCKING PLOT LINE. no, we don't want the quest to continue. we want to end it, because of reasons.

Anyhow, they finally, after 4 fucking hours, get the cow in there (seriously, 4 hours to go and fetch a cow, no random encounters at all). and yes, the cow is going to be killed, but not by the queen. by the evil influences over the queen who she didn't know about. and big fight. Scene ends at big fight because they spent four hours getting a cow and not reading the rules. mind you, THIS IS THE FUCKING PROLOGUE. THEY ARE NOT IN THE REAL EVENTS YET. Goddamn.

My anger over it is sort of a culmination of things that the group has done over the years. It bothers me to no end, and I'm just broken now.

• making your own characters - chronically bad about this. Don't want to do it. This time, I made 5 of the 6 characters.
• showing up on time. it's been at the same time for a decade. I get asked what time every time.
• distractions during the game. Online has been brutal about this. web browsing, game playing. I can see your eyes and know when you are not engaging. It was bad with the phones before but it's much harder to hide.
• one guy refuses to tell us if he is making it until the day before. He can schedule. He gets an email a week before with a date that was put there at his request more than 5 years ago, and ever single one since. then he doesn't make half of the games. Why bother.
• the players don't try to figure out what their characters are like together. It's ALWAYS a couple of guys who just want to thug and one guy who wants to play an entirely non-violent game. ALWAYS. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME. "your adventurers" "I want to be a politician!" "your locals" "I want to be from out of the area!" Any fucking thing they can come up with to not be in the fucking story.
• and lastly, reading the rules. We have been playing mythras for more than 5 years at this point. I'm the only one who has read the rulebook. I'm one of two who have read the folk magic section. Most folks haven't read 3 paragraphs of combat. None of the skills. None of the cultures. Nothing.

I'm deeply frustrated and angry and I can't even stop being angry to pull my shit together and fix anything. I'm tired of putting in hours upon hours of work for folks who can't even pick up the rulebook and learn how their character works or make their own character or pay attention during the game or show up on time or know what time the game is or have any kind of cohesive theme. Writing this all out was almost cathartic and then it comes back again.

I think they want a video game, and I'm not here to make their fucking video game.

Pull the plug, brother. You’re nobody’s bitch.

I am not entirely indifferent to player feedback but I also don’t want to run a game that doesn’t interest me.

“Guys, this game is not working for me. Would you rather I run my kind of game, or does someone else want to try their hand at GMing?”

Any answer outside these parameters, you deserve a better group. No gaming is better than bad gaming.

 

[Raleel]

I have had players not read the rules (Fate of the Norns) accuse players who have read the rules of having unbalanced/overpowered characters. It seemed that way to them only because they had no idea how their characters work. They are ALL bad asses.

talk about one of the worst games to not read the rules. It screams for optimizers. I love it dearly, but it is such a giant bear to run. The new RGS helps, but still a lot to manage.

Fate of the Norms: "I want to be a craftsman who is trying to design a better sail. Possibly a better type of rope."

lol. The fundamental premise of the game is the opposite of that person.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

talk about one of the worst games to not read the rules. It screams for optimizers. I love it dearly, but it is such a giant bear to run. The new RGS helps, but still a lot to manage.


lol. The fundamental premise of the game is the opposite of that person.

Me: But there is an endless night winter apocalypse going down.
Them: Then my sails will REALLY pay off.

 

[Fenris-77]

Well, you don't seem to have even the minimum player buy-in. That's kind of sad. I'd be asking myself why I want to even run the game. YMMV.

 

[Raleel]

Well, you don't seem to have even the minimum player buy-in. That's kind of sad. I'd be asking myself why I want to even run the game. YMMV.

Kind of where I am at. No minimum player buy in. Frustrating. I’m going to take some time and watch other media and cool off. I have the sessions prepped. They will be fine if it co es up, but I’m going to wait for a bit and see who cares.

 

[Brock Savage]

And non-traditional character types for any genre is the norm. Actual examples:

• Fate of the Norms: "I want to be a craftsman who is trying to design a better sail. Possibly a better type of rope."
• Western: "Could I be a hardware store owner who is trying to build a franchise of hardware stores through out the Southwest?" and "I want to be the town barber who knows some dentistry." Me: What happens when bandits ride into town?? Them: We call the NPC marshal!
• Warbirds/fighter pilots: "I want to be a biologist." and "I'll make the journalist who covers stories of the pilots."
• Superheroes: "I made an alien who is trying to blend in and make new neurotoxins." and "I want to play a despondent superhero who refuses to fight crime or use his powers ever again."

OMG I have to admit I was laughing pretty hard while reading this. Not at you but with you because I have had to deal with this kind of thing so many times in the past. Usually there's only one of them in a group but it looks like you had of them at the same time!

 

[Fenris-77]

Kind of where I am at. No minimum player buy in. Frustrating. I’m going to take some time and watch other media and cool off. I have the sessions prepped. They will be fine if it co es up, but I’m going to wait for a bit and see who cares.

I might just be up front and ask them if they're in or out, with in meaning some level of buy in to the narrative that you're all trying to forge. Tell 'em that you're fed up and that, as is, it's not working for you. If you don't say anything nothing is going to change.

 

[Fenris-77]

To be clear, I don't suffer this shit at all from any player. I have better things to do. There's no need to be confrontational, but I'm not going to moon about wishing things were better. I don't hold my players to any different standard than I expect to be held to as a player in other people's games, which is to engage with the setting and story in good faith. If you can't do that, then get the fuck out of my basement.

 

[AsenRG]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

Really, it was a pile of little things that finally all added up. I am running them through a scenario. I am running a scenario because I've been told, by the group, sandboxes don't really work for them. I've also been told that they need a plot and they need quest bubbles. So, what do I provide. Literally an urchin leads them to a quest bubble, from the queen herself. Queen wants them to bring back a priestess who went rogue and needs to stand for her crime of calling down a god and causing an earthquake. Said priest also hired them for one mission 2 months (game time) ago, which took them 48 hours and ended in the capture and execution of three people who were doing treason against the city.

what do they do? they try six ways from sunday to not do the fucking question, despite several of them having loyalty to the queen. no, don't fucking do the quest bubble.

so they finally go off and they go to find the priestess, no problem finding her. no rolls even. and they try to convince her to come back, because shedding blood in the temple would be bad. good, because shedding blood in the temple brings down a fry-you-instantly lightning bolt. They start metagaming like crazy. they want to know about the justice system. suddenly they are concerned they are bringing someone back for execution, though this literally never came up before. Suddenly they want to know who is her representative. Not a one of them has law training. Suddenly they want to know everything about the god and the city's relationship, because you know, they all had the option to take that god, and all passed on it because they didn't read the fucking document I spend 5 hours writing up for them. So, they are asking me to invent the legal system on the fucking fly. THEY BROUGHT 3 PEOPLE BACK FOR EXECUTION LAST TIME AND DIDN'T ASK ONE FUCKING QUESTION. No passions for the lady. No nothing.

They argue with her and fail to convince her. 5 failed rolls, when 4 failed was enough, but I was feeling generous.they convince the guards near by they need to stand down that this is an internal matter. they do (miraculously) and go to grab her. She invokes the god, puff of dung smoke, and there is a cow there. What might you think? Shapechange. Seems obvious. it's in the divine spell list. Nope, we are not sure this is the priestess, so we need to telepathy her. Telepathy, but she's not willing to talk, so they get nothing. They are convinced that for some reason she's teleported away and left a cow. Certainly, because the mind link didn't work. So they finally get around to reading their spells and get to the one that says they can look and see the aura of someone and get that figured out.

So they take the cow and head off across the landscape, opting to the shorter and more dangerous route. Omen time - there is a line of dead cows across their path - a line 50m wide and hundreds of meters long. wtf is that! let's scout - good. get up there, I realize that this challenge is really hard for them, so I put in a bit that might make it a little more fun and doable - it's not just diseased dead cows, it's diseased dead cows with diseased cow spirits causing the actual disease. This gives the priest the chance to use his spirit block, but no, didn't look at it until after the party turned around and went back. Tries to ret con, I'm just like no, you've made your choices. By this point I'm super irritated that the time I put into making the damn cult is functionally ignored and the basic fucking spells are not read.

they get back to the city eventually and are suspicious. Now they don't want to bring the cow to the queen. Mind you, 5 of the 6 are loyal to the fucking queen at least mostly. But no, we are going to preserve this cow-woman over her, even though we have no relationship at all with her church and only know her from one single fucking job they got paid handsomely for AND committed a capital offense on. Everything they can fucking do to prevent the cow from being taken. every goddamn thing. We spent near an hour at the front fucking gate while they try to stop THE MAIN FUCKING PLOT LINE. no, we don't want the quest to continue. we want to end it, because of reasons.

Anyhow, they finally, after 4 fucking hours, get the cow in there (seriously, 4 hours to go and fetch a cow, no random encounters at all). and yes, the cow is going to be killed, but not by the queen. by the evil influences over the queen who she didn't know about. and big fight. Scene ends at big fight because they spent four hours getting a cow and not reading the rules. mind you, THIS IS THE FUCKING PROLOGUE. THEY ARE NOT IN THE REAL EVENTS YET. Goddamn.

My anger over it is sort of a culmination of things that the group has done over the years. It bothers me to no end, and I'm just broken now.

• making your own characters - chronically bad about this. Don't want to do it. This time, I made 5 of the 6 characters.
• showing up on time. it's been at the same time for a decade. I get asked what time every time.
• distractions during the game. Online has been brutal about this. web browsing, game playing. I can see your eyes and know when you are not engaging. It was bad with the phones before but it's much harder to hide.
• one guy refuses to tell us if he is making it until the day before. He can schedule. He gets an email a week before with a date that was put there at his request more than 5 years ago, and ever single one since. then he doesn't make half of the games. Why bother.
• the players don't try to figure out what their characters are like together. It's ALWAYS a couple of guys who just want to thug and one guy who wants to play an entirely non-violent game. ALWAYS. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME. "your adventurers" "I want to be a politician!" "your locals" "I want to be from out of the area!" Any fucking thing they can come up with to not be in the fucking story.
• and lastly, reading the rules. We have been playing mythras for more than 5 years at this point. I'm the only one who has read the rulebook. I'm one of two who have read the folk magic section. Most folks haven't read 3 paragraphs of combat. None of the skills. None of the cultures. Nothing.

I'm deeply frustrated and angry and I can't even stop being angry to pull my shit together and fix anything. I'm tired of putting in hours upon hours of work for folks who can't even pick up the rulebook and learn how their character works or make their own character or pay attention during the game or show up on time or know what time the game is or have any kind of cohesive theme. Writing this all out was almost cathartic and then it comes back again.

I think they want a video game, and I'm not here to make their fucking video game.

What's up with entitled players lately?

Also, I'd just plop your guys into a sandbox and tell them "you're not following the quest bubbles, so it's sink or swim now". But then I wouldn't have given them a way out of the sandbox to begin with, because I'm not as nice as you.

As for the rules thing, how about you tell them what their abilities look like, and you just handle what they tell you they're doing IC, just telling them to roll a d100?
I suspect you've been doing this anyway. So just embrace it, and go to your Mythras-powered FKR game!

Kind of where I am at. No minimum player buy in. Frustrating. I’m going to take some time and watch other media and cool off. I have the sessions prepped. They will be fine if it co es up, but I’m going to wait for a bit and see who cares.

A cooldown period is advisable. I'm speaking from unfortunate experience here.
And then a talk about attitude would be in order, judging by said experience.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

OMG I have to admit I was laughing pretty hard while reading this. Not at you but with you because I have had to deal with this kind of thing so many times in the past. Usually there's only one of them in a group but it looks like you had of them at the same time!

I remember when there was always that one player (Me: Make paladins everyone! That one player: I'll make a wizard.), but now it's the group. The sandbox John Carter of Mars was perfect for them since they were all people from Earth in a strange land. Who cares if they are an accountant and court appointed therapist, they are on BARSOOM!

 

[AsenRG]

I remember when there was always that one player (Me: Make paladins everyone! That one player: I'll make a wizard.), but now it's the group. The sandbox John Carter of Mars was perfect for them since they were all people from Earth in a strange land. Who cares if they are an accountant and court appointed therapist, they are on BARSOOM!

Tekumel could also work there!

 

[Brock Savage]

The sandbox John Carter of Mars was perfect for them since they were all people from Earth in a strange land. Who cares if they are an accountant and court appointed therapist, they are on BARSOOM!

 

[Raleel]

Fate of the Norms

surprised they didn’t want to be a guy who sits in a tavern

 

[Picaroon Jack]

surprised they didn’t want to be a guy who sits in a tavern

And complain about all the adventurers coming and going, "Close the door!! It's cold out there!"

 

[Raleel]

I might just be up front and ask them if they're in or out, with in meaning some level of buy in to the narrative that you're all trying to forge. Tell 'em that you're fed up and that, as is, it's not working for you. If you don't say anything nothing is going to change.

There was a pretty high energy expression last night and this morning. I’m inclined to ship them all to monster island, fuck their armor, fuck their skills, Barsoom styley

A cooldown period is advisable. I'm speaking from unfortunate experience here.
And then a talk about attitude would be in order, judging by said experience.

Yea, some cool down today. I’ve had the unfortunate experience in other events. Despite my humor, I am not a particularly calm person. I try very hard, but the blood sings loud

 

[Picaroon Jack]

There was a pretty high energy expression last night and this morning. I’m inclined to ship them all to monster island, fuck their armor, fuck their skills, Barsoom styley



Yea, some cool down today. I’ve had the unfortunate experience in other events. Despite my humor, I am not a particularly calm person. I try very hard, but the blood sings loud

YES! BARSOOM (styley)!!!!

The side quest is getting the hell away from anything with more than two arms.

 

[Fenris-77]

I ship their asses off to the local high school Vampire LARP and be done with it.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

I ship their asses off to the local high school Vampire LARP and be done with it.

They have a local high school Vampire LARP in Nunavut?

 

[Fenris-77]

They have a local high school Vampire LARP in Nunavut?

They only occasionally have regular high school, so no. I was speaking more generally.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

They only occasionally have regular high school, so no. I was speaking more generally.

I see. They wait until the sun goes away and then pretend their in 30 days of night.

 

[Ronin]

I might just be up front and ask them if they're in or out, with in meaning some level of buy in to the narrative that you're all trying to forge. Tell 'em that you're fed up and that, as is, it's not working for you. If you don't say anything nothing is going to change.

This is what needs to be done. Also a bit of wisdom paraphrased from Lemmy Kilmister, "Dont give them what they want, give them what they need"

 

[K_Peterson]

Last nights game was a shit show, and it might have just broken me. I'm so mad I'm still mad and it's been 12 hours since we stopped and I sort of slept in the middle.

Rough stuff. Sorry you've had to go through this.

I've been experiencing some shit shows for about 6 months but that's been as a player, not as a GM. Been a part of some rough sessions of D&D5e and Cyberpunk 2020 that have led me to consider that maybe no gaming is better than bad gaming? I've tried hanging in there to be supportive of the GMs (who don't often run campaigns) - and I've probably been too passive about the experience - but it's been wearing me down.

What also stings a little is that between D&D5e and Cyberpunk, I proposed running 1 of 2 campaigns I had planned for a while. A Legend-based World of Xoth fantasy campaign, and a Cepheus Engine - Hostile campaign (dubbed not-Conan, and not-Outland). I think both would have been a ton of fun, and present some memorable gaming experiences. I presented some background material on the campaigns... and what did I get in response? Mostly crickets. One guy expressed interest in the fantasy campaign, but otherwise no one else said anything; no response whatsoever. And it pretty much sucked the enthusiasm out of me.

So, Cyberpunk2020 has been happening since then and it's been bad. Really bad. It's my first time playing CP2020; it's a nostalgia experience for the other gamers. And no one else seems to be batting an eye about the sessions. Leaving me to question is this how you guys played this Rpg 20 years ago? Is everyone else enjoying this and I'm the odd-man out? It's my fault for not speaking up about this, but I have a tendency to not rock the boat if others are enjoying themselves. But, I may be getting too old and tired of putting up with shit to deal with it anymore.

 

[Raleel]

Rough stuff. Sorry you've had to go through this.

I've been experiencing some shit shows for about 6 months but that's been as a player, not as a GM. Been a part of some rough sessions of D&D5e and Cyberpunk 2020 that have led me to consider that maybe no gaming is better than bad gaming? I've tried hanging in there to be supportive of the GMs (who don't often run campaigns) - and I've probably been too passive about the experience - but it's been wearing me down.

What also stings a little is that between D&D5e and Cyberpunk, I proposed running 1 of 2 campaigns I had planned for a while. A Legend-based World of Xoth fantasy campaign, and a Cepheus Engine - Hostile campaign (dubbed not-Conan, and not-Outland). I think both would have been a ton of fun, and present some memorable gaming experiences. I presented some background material on the campaigns... and what did I get in response? Mostly crickets. One guy expressed interest in the fantasy campaign, but otherwise no one else said anything; no response whatsoever. And it pretty much sucked the enthusiasm out of me.

So, Cyberpunk2020 has been happening since then and it's been bad. Really bad. It's my first time playing CP2020; it's a nostalgia experience for the other gamers. And no one else seems to be batting an eye about the sessions. Leaving me to question is this how you guys played this Rpg 20 years ago? Is everyone else enjoying this and I'm the odd-man out? It's my fault for not speaking up about this, but I have a tendency to not rock the boat if others are enjoying themselves. But, I may be getting too old and tired of putting up with shit to deal with it anymore.

I feel your pain brother. I've been there. 5e just not my space anymore, and CP2020, while I still have a fondness, I have other systems that would satisfy me more and do the job quite well.

I would be all over your other two. I love our online Xoth game, and am hoping that I get to the mind space to get back to it.

 

[The Butcher]

I ship their asses off to the local high school Vampire LARP and be done with it.

Hey, don’t diss high school Vampire LARPs, I lost my virginity one.

This is what needs to be done. Also a bit of wisdom paraphrased from Lemmy Kilmister, "Dont give them what they want, give them what they need"

Rough stuff. Sorry you've had to go through this.

I've been experiencing some shit shows for about 6 months but that's been as a player, not as a GM. Been a part of some rough sessions of D&D5e and Cyberpunk 2020 that have led me to consider that maybe no gaming is better than bad gaming? I've tried hanging in there to be supportive of the GMs (who don't often run campaigns) - and I've probably been too passive about the experience - but it's been wearing me down.

What also stings a little is that between D&D5e and Cyberpunk, I proposed running 1 of 2 campaigns I had planned for a while. A Legend-based World of Xoth fantasy campaign, and a Cepheus Engine - Hostile campaign (dubbed not-Conan, and not-Outland). I think both would have been a ton of fun, and present some memorable gaming experiences. I presented some background material on the campaigns... and what did I get in response? Mostly crickets. One guy expressed interest in the fantasy campaign, but otherwise no one else said anything; no response whatsoever. And it pretty much sucked the enthusiasm out of me.

So, Cyberpunk2020 has been happening since then and it's been bad. Really bad. It's my first time playing CP2020; it's a nostalgia experience for the other gamers. And no one else seems to be batting an eye about the sessions. Leaving me to question is this how you guys played this Rpg 20 years ago? Is everyone else enjoying this and I'm the odd-man out? It's my fault for not speaking up about this, but I have a tendency to not rock the boat if others are enjoying themselves. But, I may be getting too old and tired of putting up with shit to deal with it anymore.

The way I see it, GMing is work.

It should be work that makes you happy because sure as fuck you’re not getting paid for it; you’ll be lucky if they chip in for pizza and beer.

My personal GMing philosophy, as an adult with a family and a full-time job is pitching only games I really want to run (of which there’s no shortage) and players can take it or leave it.

Life’s too short for half-hearted GMing. Or half-hearted players — the moment I realize everyone is dragging their feet, game’s over.

 

[K_Peterson]

My personal GMing philosophy, as an adult with a family and a full-time job is pitching only games I really want to run (of which there’s no shortage) and players can take it or leave it.

Definitely agreed. I only GM what inspires me, and I'll put a lot of effort into the prep because I enjoy that part of it.

Or half-hearted players — the moment I realize everyone is dragging their feet, game’s over.

I've wondered if one side effect of Covid is general gaming-ennui. So much internalization and distraction going on that enthusiasm is hard to find. (Not something I'm suffering from - I want to game more because the situation feels like such a wasteland).

Ah well. I'm going to be selling my house next year and moving in a more suburban direction. It may just be time to assemble a new gaming group after that and drop any expectations and involvement from the current group.

 

[Certified]

Steel Aces 9: Back To The Beginning
John Barrister, now in his other persona, investigates the missing metahumans, only to find himself in in a trap set by whoever is behind the kidnappings

Playing Jacks, Page 9 - House Dok Productions

Back To The Beginning It’s never as easy as it should be. As Ronin investigates the missing metahumans, he finds himself in Ballston-Virginia Square, only to learn that they have some interesting “tools” in their arsenal. This is the first traditional “tights and flights” style page and I’m so...

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