End of an era (in a microcosm of nonsense)
So last night I ended a D&D campaign(read pathfinder, cause its fucking better) for the group i play with on tuesday nights. I've been gaming with these twats for over a decade and i'm pretty sure not one of them even said thank you. Now don't get me wrong, this campaign has only gone on for a little over a year I believe, and I'll be totally honest, its probably one of the weakest things I had ever written.
We have been ebb and flowing for a long time. Scott originally ran the group when i joined it, and did so for a few years, shawn took over and ran for a few. Then i took over. I ran for about three years, dealing wirth their nonsense and tom fuckery all the way. I was forced out of the group for personal reasons for a while and shawn and scott took over. Since my return, i have been running. i have tried different games, different settijngs, all kinds of shit. They just fucking sit there. 1-2 players in a 7-10 man group depending on the game will get involved and integrate themselves into the story, but thats it. You describe elaborate rooms to them and a minute later at least 2 ppl ask what the room looks like. Generally they suck. It's not that they are dumb, they are just incredibly lazy. When i joined the group it was all about how cool the character was, now its about optimization. to the point that they really dont think or move beyond it. It's frustrating, no its fucking bundies to quote a few friends of mine. Just absolutely fucking ridiculous. And to top it off the 2-3 times someone has suggested maybe we just get together bullshit and play video games on those nights, the consensus is "No, we want to game"
It's been eqating at me for a while, the state of my players. So much so that i total party killed them once, cause they basically told me flat out that i couldnt kill them. so minor tacticts and one npc and i killed 7.5 out of 9 (so much for evasion, huh raven familiar!), and have straight up just ended running a different campaign for them because they were doing what they normally do and i thought my story deserved better than that. in the interim kato ran an ebberron game for 2 months before they all told him it sucked and made me run again. It did suck. I offererd to help him, but he knew he was doing ok. So in a day i came up with this whimsical end of the world story line. It wasn't great but it had a strong plot a ton of supporting characters, secrets to uncover. Shit you would expect in a typical d&d game, and they utilized none of it. Every clue, every task every next step had to be spoon fed along the way. so much so that the players actually asked for gates to towns that were less than 3 miles away, the mile hike over safe terrain was too much strain for them.
I have 2-3 real players, but the problem is the group internally is fragmented...my greatest player asset (Interms of helping progress the story and evolve the world) Tom (Punkass). Thats right. Him. its like im in the fucking twilight zone. I love tom to death, and he has been doing a great job, and seems to appreciate what I've been doing. but his characters are all asses you say? well youre right, they all are, asses who help the dm with the game. I had to yell at the group last night that as the GM its not my job to tell you what your skills do. You used the spell, you figure it the fuck out.
So all this bullshit for all these years...and not even a thank you. Now in fairness scott and shawn werent there, and they appreciate what the dm does, cause they have dine it, and really dont want to do it again. And I know it sounds whiny, i didnt DM because i wanted admiration and praise, i wanted ppl to enjoy my story as much as I did. About two months ago Tom came to me and said he had a campaign idea he wants to DM, and he wanted me to play it. I was kind of honored by that, he said some other very nice things and sid he could tell i wasnt feeling it anymore. I told him he was right. Taht the group just sucked the life out of me. So he and I discussed that i had a few weeks left of material and then regardless i was done running for a while. About two weeks ago a post on our fb discussion board pops up about character creation rules for toms game...posted because a lot of players were asking for it. Whatever, character creation is fun, finding new ideas, running with them. Hell at this point i have 5 characters written up to play. I love them all, I am really excited at the prospect of being a player.
So last night there were 6 in the room. I described some really cool things, put them in a ridiculously overmatched position, actually put them in a room with a goblin swarm. It's probably one of the neatest encounters i have ever devised. they just sat there. some people reading books to work out character ideas for toms game, one of them was on the internet. no interaction, no roleplaying.....it seriously almost broke my heartt. 1000 goblins streaming into a 75x70x10 ft room. a crushing throng of green carnage. and not even their characters flinched. two people did mediocre acts last night, and i roleplayed what every one saw, because they didnt. a paladin made a jump check to cross a 15 foot chasm. and no one noticed. then the final scene of the encounter. no combat involved. i dont even think half of them realized what was happeneing until i told them it was over. Nothing to fight? why are we here? no treasure save for an ancient evil artifact that someone is going to come after us for? no platinum or magic items in there with it are there?
So i end the group i thank them for playing, and i am really trying to be sincere, i did everythign i my power last night not to be mean, yell snap at george, nothing. I just wanted to end on a positive memory. we werent done 4 minutes and they were already asking tom questions about his game. I swear to christ i feel llike lodge. so much time & effort put in for these fucking ungrateful munchkins.
So now i have these characters. In one of my favorite settings of all time, with a system that i love, with a DM who can be great (yes tom actually can tell a decent story, he just needs some practce) with one of ym best friends (Which is never good for the dm) and i am so uninterested i might cry.
I want to play. I want to game like gaming should be. I think i might give this two sessions and then just quit all together. my characters are better than this group deserves, i really want to see tom's story, i just dont know if i can play with these ppl anymore.
Sorry this is so long,
We have been ebb and flowing for a long time. Scott originally ran the group when i joined it, and did so for a few years, shawn took over and ran for a few. Then i took over. I ran for about three years, dealing wirth their nonsense and tom fuckery all the way. I was forced out of the group for personal reasons for a while and shawn and scott took over. Since my return, i have been running. i have tried different games, different settijngs, all kinds of shit. They just fucking sit there. 1-2 players in a 7-10 man group depending on the game will get involved and integrate themselves into the story, but thats it. You describe elaborate rooms to them and a minute later at least 2 ppl ask what the room looks like. Generally they suck. It's not that they are dumb, they are just incredibly lazy. When i joined the group it was all about how cool the character was, now its about optimization. to the point that they really dont think or move beyond it. It's frustrating, no its fucking bundies to quote a few friends of mine. Just absolutely fucking ridiculous. And to top it off the 2-3 times someone has suggested maybe we just get together bullshit and play video games on those nights, the consensus is "No, we want to game"
It's been eqating at me for a while, the state of my players. So much so that i total party killed them once, cause they basically told me flat out that i couldnt kill them. so minor tacticts and one npc and i killed 7.5 out of 9 (so much for evasion, huh raven familiar!), and have straight up just ended running a different campaign for them because they were doing what they normally do and i thought my story deserved better than that. in the interim kato ran an ebberron game for 2 months before they all told him it sucked and made me run again. It did suck. I offererd to help him, but he knew he was doing ok. So in a day i came up with this whimsical end of the world story line. It wasn't great but it had a strong plot a ton of supporting characters, secrets to uncover. Shit you would expect in a typical d&d game, and they utilized none of it. Every clue, every task every next step had to be spoon fed along the way. so much so that the players actually asked for gates to towns that were less than 3 miles away, the mile hike over safe terrain was too much strain for them.
I have 2-3 real players, but the problem is the group internally is fragmented...my greatest player asset (Interms of helping progress the story and evolve the world) Tom (Punkass). Thats right. Him. its like im in the fucking twilight zone. I love tom to death, and he has been doing a great job, and seems to appreciate what I've been doing. but his characters are all asses you say? well youre right, they all are, asses who help the dm with the game. I had to yell at the group last night that as the GM its not my job to tell you what your skills do. You used the spell, you figure it the fuck out.
So all this bullshit for all these years...and not even a thank you. Now in fairness scott and shawn werent there, and they appreciate what the dm does, cause they have dine it, and really dont want to do it again. And I know it sounds whiny, i didnt DM because i wanted admiration and praise, i wanted ppl to enjoy my story as much as I did. About two months ago Tom came to me and said he had a campaign idea he wants to DM, and he wanted me to play it. I was kind of honored by that, he said some other very nice things and sid he could tell i wasnt feeling it anymore. I told him he was right. Taht the group just sucked the life out of me. So he and I discussed that i had a few weeks left of material and then regardless i was done running for a while. About two weeks ago a post on our fb discussion board pops up about character creation rules for toms game...posted because a lot of players were asking for it. Whatever, character creation is fun, finding new ideas, running with them. Hell at this point i have 5 characters written up to play. I love them all, I am really excited at the prospect of being a player.
So last night there were 6 in the room. I described some really cool things, put them in a ridiculously overmatched position, actually put them in a room with a goblin swarm. It's probably one of the neatest encounters i have ever devised. they just sat there. some people reading books to work out character ideas for toms game, one of them was on the internet. no interaction, no roleplaying.....it seriously almost broke my heartt. 1000 goblins streaming into a 75x70x10 ft room. a crushing throng of green carnage. and not even their characters flinched. two people did mediocre acts last night, and i roleplayed what every one saw, because they didnt. a paladin made a jump check to cross a 15 foot chasm. and no one noticed. then the final scene of the encounter. no combat involved. i dont even think half of them realized what was happeneing until i told them it was over. Nothing to fight? why are we here? no treasure save for an ancient evil artifact that someone is going to come after us for? no platinum or magic items in there with it are there?
So i end the group i thank them for playing, and i am really trying to be sincere, i did everythign i my power last night not to be mean, yell snap at george, nothing. I just wanted to end on a positive memory. we werent done 4 minutes and they were already asking tom questions about his game. I swear to christ i feel llike lodge. so much time & effort put in for these fucking ungrateful munchkins.
So now i have these characters. In one of my favorite settings of all time, with a system that i love, with a DM who can be great (yes tom actually can tell a decent story, he just needs some practce) with one of ym best friends (Which is never good for the dm) and i am so uninterested i might cry.
I want to play. I want to game like gaming should be. I think i might give this two sessions and then just quit all together. my characters are better than this group deserves, i really want to see tom's story, i just dont know if i can play with these ppl anymore.
Sorry this is so long,