A New Adventure, A New Campaign

[avisarr]

An old buddy of mine came to Seattle for a 4 day visit. He hasn't had the chance to role play in many years and he requested that we game. So, I hurriedly prepared a single "one shot" adventure... the kind of thing that can be run in about six hours. It was a rush job, I threw the whole thing together in about 8 hours and honestly I wasn't satisfied with it. But it would do. We sent word out to see if we could get a few other players and, much to my surprise, we ended up with five.

So we rolled up some fourth level characters (3.5 edition) and went out it. Overall, the adventure went pretty well. I always feel that just a little more prep time could have made things better. But everyone seemed to have fun.

I'm going to write up the notes and post them on the site in the Adventures section. It's a short adventure, but it was a fun one. Coincidentally, this sparked interest in another campaign. So, if everyone maintains their current level of interest, it looks like we might be starting a new campaign in a month or two. It'll probably go slowly as we are only going to get together once per month to play (that's what happens when everyone has busy schedules). I've noticed that the older we get, the busier we are and the tougher it is to get a group together. But anyway, once a month is fine by me because that means that I'll have an entire month to prepare each session. I've never had that much time before and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I might even start doing the "session summaries" again which were so popular years ago. Heck, I might even post a few of them here on the site if they turn out well.

Oh, and this new campaign, if it happens, will be played in the new Fourth Edition of D&D. I have not yet seen anything of fourth edition, but I will post comments and reviews here in the forum as I prepare the new campaign.

So, that's all. Just wanted to let you know that a new adventure will be posted in the next couple of days and a new campaign might be launched later this year. Stay tuned...

[tanis]

Yaya!!!

I love it whenever there are some new adventures! Your hooks are extremely well designed.

And a new campaign?

Haha course that'll just add to the backlog of work on Khoras.

Such as The Warriors of the Mark? 

Haha I'm just giving ya a hard time David.

But seriously, a new campaign would be really sweet man. Hope y'all are able to go through with it.

[avisarr]

Warriors of the Mark is coming. It's high on the To Do list. I've had multiple requests so I do plan on getting to it sooner rather than later.

[avisarr]

Ok, that single-shot, one-evening impromptu adventure that I threw together the other night has been posted. It's entitled "The Last Gate" and it's now under the DM Tools - Adventures section.

Enjoy.

Now I need to get to work on the Warriors of the Mark. That's going to take a while... different game system, different world, written almost 20 years ago... yeah, it's a mess! It's going to need a complete and full rewrite before it's digestible by the public... 

[tanis]

We've waited this long David, we can wait a little longer.

Just get it out when you can and we'll be happy with whatever you give us. 

[avisarr]

Of Rules, Players and the Upcoming Campaign

Well, preparations for the next campaign are under way. I am writing it and planning some of the big elements, maps, graphics and such. The players are figuring out what they want to play.

I am a little annoyed and frustrated with a few things though.


The Power Gamer

There are five players. Four of the five are experienced, one is relatively new. Also, of the four experienced ones, one is new to this group.

All of these players are very different types of players. I've got one player in particular who's a bit of a thorn in my side. I shall refer to him only as "Power Gamer". After having gamed with him through many campaigns and seen him operate in different game types, I'm beginning to figure him out.

It turns out that he is only happy when he is LOADED with firepower and can easily mow down the enemy. He doesn't want to enjoy a moment of beauty or indulge in subtlety or pause to appreciate the tiniest nuance or shade of grey. For him, he wants to race to the end of the game (no matter what the game is), crushing everything as fast as he can and amass as much power as is possible. It's a race to the finish line with him.

Power Gamer is ONLY interested in combat. He is ONLY interested in maximizing his firepower. Interestingly though, he doesn't want a challenge. He wants a quick, easy win followed by huge rewards. I think he would be perfectly happy if he got to play a 40th level wizard wearing powered combat armor and wielding a dazzling arsenal of weaponry. His opponent... a single wounded orc armed with a stick. Yes, this would be his ideal encounter. Once he dispatched this "foe" he would want the treasure to be 800,000 platinum pieces and a very convenient bag of infinite holding. Yes, I think POWER GAMER would love this encounter and would see nothing wrong with it. The problem is... there's no challenge here at all. But that's what Power Gamer wants... a VERY easy fight, no challenge, HUGE rewards.

This style of gaming is so irritating to me and I honestly don't understand this type of mentality. The truth is that I want players who are going to enjoy a challenge. I want them to immerse themselves in the story, talk to characters and indulge in a richly detailed and creative world. I don't want characters just marching from fight to fight complaining that their arsenal of weaponry isn't powerful enough or whining that the bad guys are too tough or that there isn't enough treasure. Power Gamer is never going to be happy no matter how easy the game is or how much loot they recover. He always wants more. But my biggest problem with him is that he will NEVER care about the story. The other night, Power Gamer told me that he wants a dungeon. That's it. Just a dungeon. No story. No plot. No characters. And, as far as he's concerned, any skill or feat or character attribute that doesn't DIRECTLY augment his combat ability is a silly waste of time and not worth putting on his character sheet. Power Gamer is obsessed with making his character as powerful as possible and this obsessive behavior comes out in strange ways – like endlessly tinkering with numbers and equipment and strategy to try to squeeze out every last bit of advantage from every rule in the book.

Power Gamer just wants to march from room to room and FIGHT stuff. That's it. It makes me wonder: Why should I bother building a campaign, with plausible events, a logical storyline, engaging characters and awe inspiring locations, if he DOESN'T CARE? Well, the answer is that the OTHER four players DO care. So, I'm really building the story for them. Power Gamer will just be bored whenever there's no combat going on.


The Game System

Another issue is the big question of game system to use. Fourth edition is out, but I really hate it. Then there's version 3.5 and there's also the possibility of making up my own system. Well, the players don't want to leave D&D. I have nudged, I have prodded, I have argued. They don't want to budge. I think they fear change. The truth is that most of them are still suckling at the teat of WotC. 

Even though I think version 3.5 is better than 4.0, I'm still not a fan. It's still D&D and still has a number of serious problems that I would like to fix. I toyed with the idea of simply adding a series of house rules (rule modifications and additions) to "fix" version 3.5. However, spending my time tinkering with the system and trying to fix it AS we play just isn't worth the time and headache.

So, in the end, we're just going to run 3.5. I, as a DM, will be much happier without having to worry about fitting a square peg in a round hole. Trying to repair or replace D&D's structurally flawed system with a sound, logical home-brewed system (while a worthy goal) simply ISN'T what this campaign is about. This campaign is about the story and the players getting swept up in it.

I'm more interested in creating a great story and an awesome world. I'll put my energy into THAT rather than wrestling with the rules system. Because, when you get right down to it, D&D isn't just broken... it's SO broken, that it's just not worth fixing...

So THAT is why we're playing version 3.5. I'll be less stressed, the players will be happy and, ultimately, the story will prevail.

I am still planning on building my own RPG system. But now I don't have to rush it. There's no deadline and I can take my time. When it's ready, I may offer it up the group for some play testing and an adventure. For now, I'm content to tinker with it behind the scenes. I promise when it's finished, I will post it here on the Khoras forum for anyone to use.

[sid6.7]

i know what your saying, when you put as much into creating the game it gets lost on the slasher types.

i actually am a slasher type, i like killing things or blowing up things....

i am learning though how to game the proper way in a classic traveller campaign im in although
i sweat alot with all the brain work...

don't quit what your doing though dave sooner or later the slashers learn how to play
or just go away....so you win sooner or later...

[avisarr]

Sid and Bart,

I'm not totally against Hack and Slashers or Power Gamers. The truth is that mindless destruction can be fun. Combat IS fun. However, combat is just one part of the total role playing experience. So, I'm not down on all slasher types. I know plenty of gamers who enjoy it, but also know when to put the sword away.

I guess the problem I have with Power Gamer is that combat is the ONLY thing he cares about. He would never, ever, in a million years, put certain skills on his character sheet - like any of the knowledge, craft or profession skills. His character will never debate with a scholar or argue with a noble or win the heart of a fair maiden or trick an ogre with a clever ploy or solve a puzzle. Pretty much, if he can't swing a sword at it or nuke it with a fireball, he doesn't want to deal with it. He's a bit extreme and I think extreme hack and slashers who just want to blow things away would do better to stick with video games.

One of the things I love about role playing is that it's extremely versatile. If you've got a good game master, then almost anything can happen. The story can go anywhere and its very responsive to what the players do. It's something that RPGs excel at. And I think the power gamers and hack'n'slashers are missing out on one of the best aspects of role playing. I'm hoping that I can get the Power Gamer in my group to slow down a bit and try playing a ROLE rather than just rolling dice.

Ok. Well, enough of that. I should get off of this soap box.  I've been awfully preachy lately. 

[avisarr]

I've heard of Talislanta. I'm not familiar with it, but I have read that word in Dragon magazine and other places.

Yes, I would love to see it. I'm looking at RuneQuest, DragonQuest and would love to add Talislanta to my pile. I'm having fun looking at different systems.