Friday, June 27, 2014

Ahhh....Life.....

So...the wife went and spent a week up in Kansas with her mother and family.  She spent most of that time as relief for her older sister who has had to be the caretaker for their mother.  Susan's mom was diagnosed back in February with Stage 4 lung cancer and it had probably metastasized to her hip and other body parts.  Rather than fight the disease with chemo or radiation, her mother said "I'm going to die anyway and I'd rather not be miserable".  The oldest child then contacted hospice and we've all been put into "waiting mode", which is a horribly callous way to say basically the truth.  The oldest is a school teacher and her husband has also been fighting prostate cancer.  Anyway, things are beginning to culminate now.  My mother-in-law has been pretty much bedridden for the past week.  She's lost a great deal of weight.  She sleeps almost constantly.  When she is awake, she is often confused by who is who and why she's where she is.  Based upon what I dealt with last summer, the end is near and it's tough watching it happen again to someone so close.

With this hanging over us all, the wife and I decided to steal away for a few days for a little bit of time just for us.  We took off to our time share in the backwoods of Arkansas and just rested.  We focused on supporting each other and strengthening our connection so we can better weather the storms ahead.  It was nice.

That being said, not much else was done on the gaming front.  I've been working on putting together a campaign as I mentioned before, mainly trying to get a good idea for a starting point.  In the old days, we all just wanted to loot dungeons and kill monsters.  Nowadays we need better and clearer incentive.  The last few games which have really stood the test of time had a common starting point.  The old kobold game had the group begin play as part of a kobold band.  The next campaign had us all starting off as kidnapped fishermen.  These were emotional hooks.  I've tried other ideas for other starts, but those all fizzled, mostly because I couldn't get the emotional buy-in that these other campaigns had.  So, I'm going back to an old, old idea from the beginning of my gaming days that worked then; the group is a soon to be "graduated" class of former apprentices facing their final exam.  They must survive a sample dungeon crawl to "graduate". 

The main problem with this start, though, is that the players need to show up at the table ready to play whatever the dice tells them to play and not try to start with a character already in mind.  This blank slate approach allows for more creativity when the character is being rolled up.  I would like to be able to feed a few ideas into the creation process to use for later adventures.  But such an approach is anathema to how a character is created in these later editions of D&D.  So, we'll see if I am able to get anything actually played.

Side Note:  I realize that I may sound pretty harsh when I discuss the later editions of D&D and it's spinoffs (like Pathfinder), but I really cannot fathom the long term interest in these systems.  I have had the epiphany that when I say that a system is "number heavy" or "unbalanced" or even "munchkin-esque", I am generally thinking of a different definition of these terms than others.  To me, the new systems require the use of a computer to make a "proper" character, in the sense that the number of rules makes calculating the hundreds of bonus and penalty modifiers is absolutely staggering.  This then allows for multiple rules lawyering discussions to break out, followed by the discussion of which computer character generator was used and the weaknesses and failings in each one.  The characters made with just the book and a pencil then become unbalanced, typically toward being weaker as some of the bonuses do not all get added in or all the penalties applied.  And thus, to make the "best" character possible, one needs to become the munchkin and find all the loopholes and gray areas.  Ugh...it's just too much work.  And if you enjoy that sort of game, more power to you.  I wholeheartedly support you as you are playing a game you enjoy.  That's the most important thing of all: Play what you enjoy and to hell with what anyone else thinks of it.

I believe that is the lesson I have learned through all this, be yourself and enjoy yourself.  Life is too short to do otherwise.

4 comments:

Flambeaux said...

I'm not sure of the value of what seems to be a contrived emotional hook. But I really do just want to explore the unknown, meet interesting creatures, fight if necessary, and, in general, get rich or die trying.

Neither the kobold game nor the kidnapped fishermen strike me, in the retelling, as particularly compelling although some of the shenanigans y'all got up to are amusing. And I'm sure that, were such an emotional hook thrust at me outside a convention setting, I'd find it an unpleasant experience.

But, again, perhaps I'm in distinct minority of a minority here. *shrug*
I'd rather just roll some dice and explore some place I can't get to physically. I'm not looking to develop an avatar or heroic persona. I'm not seeking wish-fulfillment fantasy or an opportunity to explore my (or someone else's) psyche. I just want to play a game that I find fun and people with whom I enjoy spending time.

What's wrong with "You're poor. You don't want to be poor. And there are rumors of mountains of gold in them thar hills."?

Flambeaux said...

For that matter, what's wrong with the intro to B1 or B2 or even T1 as set ups?

Balrog62 said...

I agree, Chris, that the "you're poor and you want to be rich" is often all one needs to get the game going. I guess I'm thinking more of the last 10+ years of gaming with the newer editions. Those tended to push specialization and character concept before the dice were rolled. Thus, if the DM did not specifically call for the players to create generalized characters, it was common for a few characters to be specialized for urban settings and then the game is all in the wilderness. Or vice versa. This often led to dissatisfaction with the campaign when the problem could have easily been solved by either a little more direction by the DM or by being able to create generalized characters. And that is one of my key problems with 3.0 and later.

But I have also found that throwing in just one little hook idea acts as a catalyst for the creation of interesting characters in our favorite versions of the earlier editions of the game. I am leaning heavily toward using "you're poor former apprentices, one of you stole this treasure map. Go." And then using either B1 or B2 or Caverns of Thracia or one of the dozens of TSR or JG modules as a starting point.

Does that make this clearer? I mean, technically, y'all had a hook with the Blackmoor episodes: you were part of the Union.

Flambeaux said...

Well...once we discovered the Union we wanted to join. But we weren't monsters. Conflict and madcap hi-jinx. :)

Until we discovered the Union and decided to try to join, we really were just generic treasure hunters out to loot the nearby ruins.

I know what you mean in terms of character "creation" or "builds".

It's very different from rolling up a character. I'm finding myself drawn more and more towards either 3d6 in order or 4d6 drop lowest in order (not arrange to suit) as the best way to help people adjust to that way of playing.

Thinking back to the Flashing Blades game I tried running I realize that it demands more of a "character build" approach as yet another challenge to running it well. Perhaps had we done more of a Fiasco-style "how are we all related" set-up Flashing Blades would have been a more successful game.

I think, for me, that if I'm going to play a game requiring backstory, etc., it's not going to be some form of D&D. Something like Pendragon or Flashing Blades supports the "character creation" approach much better than early D&D. And I've never had a positive experience with the newer versions of D&D or the more current games like Savage Worlds.

But that's probably a whole 'nother can o' worms. :)