A Rewrite
So I have been having major problems with my post grad application. Mostly because it just seemed too lax and convoluted somehow. It seemed like I was using a paragraph to say something that could have been said in one sentence. In other words, I wanted to be more concise and to the point. Something that the application was seriously lacking
( Read more... )
Your GM doesn't sound like a very good one. You can't question him, you can't discuss game mechanics with him, you can't trust him to be fair, you always have to be on your toes. A good GM makes sure the players enjoy the game and have fun, treats players and characters fairly and is willing to discuss the rules and even tweak them if needed. Everybody should have an equal chance in gaining XP whether their character is combatant or not. There are so many other ways to gain XP than just fighting: staying in character, interaction, achieving goals, being innovative...
If you can't discuss these things with your GM and he let you made a non-combatant character while he knew that XP would depend on fighting he is a dick who doesn't deserve his players. Because what is a GM without players. Nothing, that's what. And it doesn't even sound like he knows how to run a game well. I've been on both sides of rulebook and I know GMing can be hard and requires planning and plotting and a lot of imagination to keep things fresh and smooth. You have to make sure all the characters have something to do and have a chance to play for their strengths. If not, the players get bored and pissed off and start babbling and doodling and then nobody has any fun.
And that is my point, roleplaying should be fun. Are you having fun?
(My current game doesn't even have XP. Or levels. Or character sheets. Or even rules. It's extremely free form storytelling type and it wouldn't work if the players and GM didn't together discuss and develop the world and the characters. There is practically no fighting and the emphasis is heavily on character interaction. It's brilliant. I doubt your GM would appreciate it though.)
Reply
Recently I have received heavy criticism on my way of conducting myself in a game and now I am not quite sure how I should behave and what is acceptable and what isn't.
The game I'm talking about used to be fun, the group is really great, we have wonderful payer chemistry and everything runs smoothly, there aren't any conflicts, arguments or disagreements that cannot be solved amiably and to a satisfying resolution. However, and this is a big however.
The game seems to be very player hostile and recently, more often than not, it seems to me that it is GM vs players, which is the type of gaming that I am not particularly fond of. In addition to this we seem to be encountering bigger and more setbacks all he time with little or no respite or even a possibillity to prevent them. Sometimes I feel like there are setbacks and losses just for the sake of having them and they do not serve any other purpose than to show, how little our chars know of the worl and the mistakes are due to their lack of knowledge.
It seems to also be a recurring theme that just when we are about to find out some important information, the source is somehow destroyed so that we gain very little if anything. I can understand this as an effect in a game, used in moderation, but when it happens again and again, it begins to feel frustrating.
I do not know the whole system he uses to give XP, but kills are a part of it, on my experience in his game and he way he wants us to solve problems, I would guess it's a significant part. I did not choose to make a non combatant, the GM gave us all parameters within which to make our chars and mine was brainwizz non-combatant. We all did have to take some fighting skills, but being able to fire one type of gun in GURPS does not yet a combatant make.
Reply
As to the question of fun, after all this rambling. i' not sure anymore. Most times the game seems more frustrating than fun, although I do enjoy playing with the group as a whole.
It has been pointed out to me on several occasions that I don't handle setbacks and failures in games very well, so I am not sure if I am completely objective as to the unfairness of the game. It could just be that I don't handle fallout well and am whining about nothing.
On the other hand at the end of the last session I did point put to the GM that he shows us things and then takes them away, before we have had a chance to use them. He called me yesterday and said he was insulted by this, because it is not the way he hosts games. I apologized and he explained that the reason that we have lost resources is because of choices we made and if we had chosen differently, it would not have happened.
I disagreed with him there because we did not make a choice where we would even have been aware that we were risking anything. We did not make a choice at all in fact and we were not aware that this resource, which we sorely needed could be taken away. I didn't say anything to him, because I did not want to upset him more.
The games i have been playing recently, expeting this GURPS have been more story driven and heavily character interaction based. This GURPS game does not interest me as much because it seems to be rule wanking heavy, (much heavier than when I last played GURPS in another goup) and more about what you can't do than what you can. That is a quality in a game that I have never liked. Why focus on what you can't do than what you can anyway+
The GURPS game is also very heavily focused on combat. Which could be fun, if it didn't always go the same way for us. Very little success, really difficult opponents, who do lots of damage and almost TPK nearly every time. In fact, I can't remember any combat in which three out of four characters were not almost dead or critically injured or maimed. When this happens there is always an NPC or other Deus Ex Machina that comes in to save the whales, I mean day.
The GM also mentioned that the challenges will be getting even harder, which is ridiculous, since we can barely manage the ones we face now.
So all in all, I guess I'm not having all that much fun, but I feel like I am not allowed to complain, considering what a bad RPer I am. Also I feel like I should be grateful that people want to play with me, despite my flaws as a player. I have recently lost all confidence in myself as a gamer. The group is very nice and the GM is a nice person and all, but as a GM, he seems inflexible, repetitive and of the player vs GM school of playing. It could be that our ideas of what the roles of players and GM are and what is fun are just different. But honestly I feel uncomfortable pointing a finger or criticizing someone, when I myself am a pretty awful player as has been pointed out to me, via constructive criticism. The term awful player is mine, not the people's who critiqued me.
Reply
If I were you I'd quit the game. Do you really need that shit? If you really are an awful player like you say but want to keep gaming, then you need a game that lets you grow and improve. Not every type of game suit everyone and you don't have to punish yourself by sticking to a game you don't enjoy.
Oh, and no wonder you have lost confidence as a player if all people do is belittle you and tell you how much you suck, no matter how constructively. (And I bet your GM wouldn't know constructive if it bit his ass.) Find a game that fits your style and that you enjoy and then start developing as a player.
Reply
I prefer immersive character driven games and this Gurps one just seems to be about all the minuses you get from just about anything, which bores me. I am too timid to tell the GM straight off that I don't want to continue, but when my character dies I'll quit.
Reply
Leave a comment