4/25/14
3rd Group D&D met last night. We had missed a few months of sessions, for
various reasons, so it was interesting to try and pick up where we left
off. I felt like I had a decent 6
Encounters, at least, worth of adventure planned out. With the Shards in play, the way I sort of
let 4E be even more ‘overpowered’ than it already is, and the inventiveness of
the folks who play in my games I endeavor to make the combat
Encounters
difficult to say the least.
Lately I’ve been making a concerted effort to try and plan
ahead, to stay out in front with my prep, and to leave less vague areas in my
game so I can keep a sense of continuity, avoid issues, and make the month long
gaps between easier for myself and the players.
I finally got of my chubby Ginger kiester and knocked out a version of
the Shard chart, the Renown chart, and the Infamy chart. I’ve got most of my next few months for each
group planned out in fact, which is a huge deal for me. So I have sort of hit a creative stride of
late.
Proactive work like that are what make some of the things
that unfortunately go on sometimes extremely disheartening as a DM. D&D never trumps real life. Ever.
People have their actual lives and they aren’t always easy, they aren’t
always fun, and if someone plays at a table where I am behind the screen then I
want that to be a good time. It should
be an escape. I spend a LOT of time working
on the sessions we play, a lot more than I probably should. Be it painting miniatures, spending cash on
things we use, writing unbelievable large amounts of information, or spending
time creating new variations on monsters to challenge the players. That is all time and effort that I exert to
not only stretch that creative muscle that makes up such a large part of who I
am, but also to hopefully bring some joy, some fun, and an escape to the people
who sit that table with me. It is my
creative outlet, the only thing I can point to and say “I made THIS”, and truly
it is my escape.
When folks, myself included, have a rough go of it and let
their mood, attitude, frustrations, or whatever it may be suck the fun out of
the room it bothers me. It bothers me
when I do it, so you can imagine it bothers me when others do it. We had a bit of that last night. Things will not always go the way we want it to. The beauty and the floating turd of a social
game like D&D is that sometimes the other people will do things you DO NOT
want them to. As a DM I just expect that,
it is inevitable. I expect the players
to try and put me in a box built by the rules of the game while at the same
time they are trying to push that box to the point of rupture with their cool
and interesting ideas. And they ALWAYS
want to get away with it, and they SHOULD!
Hell, it’s what I would do, and if you ask Zack it IS what I do.
The thing is we can’t anticipate what the group will do as
individuals. Last night’s session felt
like there was a lack of communication by the party on how they wanted to
attack a nasty little hindrance and that seemed to really frustrate some
people. Out of that real or perceived
frustration a vibe seemed to manifest that left me just wanting the session to
end. I wasn’t sure how I could have
redirected or refocused things to alleviate that. I felt like I was trying, and failing in epic
fashion. In fact I can’t even go back
and objectively judge how I did as a DM, because I can’t seem to wrap my head
around how I put the group in that position which caused such a palpable frustration,
which in turn has left me a scratching my head in frustration.
Let’s be honest, I personalize things. One of the only things I create and share
with the world are the imaginary worlds that float through the ether that is my
imagination and congeal into reality around a table of people I call Friends
where we tell stories and roll oddly shaped dice. Running games means a lot to me, and no game
I run will ever be as good, as smooth, or as fun as it should have been in my
mind. Giving that to people is giving of
myself to the people around my gaming table.
So, when there is that sort of vibe that sort of ‘failure’ on my part to
somehow facilitate fun bothers me. It
eats at me. The worst part is I can’t
figure out how I could have done anything differently in order to have avoided
that negative reaction. And that reaction,
that hurts me.
Believe it or not I am a sensitive guy and not just to the
sun. When I pour myself into something
and it obviously doesn’t go well it sticks to my craw. I let it eat at me, I wish I didn’t. I spent last night when I should have been sleeping
trying to wrap my head around it all, and I’m at a loss. In writing this today I’m trying to process
and hopefully let it go. In the end, all
I can do is hope that I do not have the same issues this Sunday for 2nd
Group. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.
GAH! I hate feeling
that way. H-A-T-E it! There is no point in dwelling on it. I just need to find a way to make the next
game better, and the one after that even better and the one after that better
than the one previous, and so on. Today,
today I just have to let this go. I
suppose I’ve blabbered on and on about it how about we knock out some…
RANDOM CRAP!
-
- Still no news on the New Job front. *sigh*
I have an odd feeling I’m going to hear something today. I also think I’m going to get offered
something, perhaps not what I wanted, but something. It was nice last night to hear again how they
really liked me and were impressed, but it only serves to make me even more
flustered over not hearing anything in a week plus. Silence stinks, like stale fart.
-
- Beer Cheese Soup, or a Gluten Free alternative
is desired before it gets to warm.
-
- Movie-A-Thon TONIGHT! The only thing I KNOW we are watching is
Cassandra’s demand of the Rifftrax of Cyborg Cop 2. Sorry Elyssa.
Otherwise, I think we’ll be making our other two film choices out of the
100 Sci-Fi movies box set that gave us the beauty and the wonder that was
Future Hunters at a previous Movie-A-Thon.
Either way, just hanging out with our Friends, having some snacks and
beverages while ‘enjoying’ some fantastic cinema is always wondrous.
-
- Kenny Powers is a gawd damn ‘Merican Hero!
-
- For all my issues with last night’s 3rd
Group D&D session I was really blown away by some of the game play. Magic Mike’s absolute devastation of the
Cadaver Collector with some great use of Slowed and specific damage effects,
THE Karl’s really inventive and sneaky as hell us of a power to get a free
teleport off was genius, and Cassandra’s pushing the boundaries of using a jump
to avoid a terrain effect was some great out of the box thinking. Add in how Elyssa became Bird Queen of ALL
Snipers (KAW!) with some really just smart tactics, Peter’s wonderful use of
his Warlord abilities to buff allies, Spence’s talent for stringing together
Powers in nasty combos, and the walking, sparkling, teleporting death machine
that is Kedrin’s PC and they have become a REALLY difficult group to build
challenges for, and that, THAT is fun for me.
Hopefully next session I can give them even more of a fun and
entertaining challenge.
-
- Chocolate covered coffee beans should be
illegal.
-
- I finally got around to watching the Total Riff
Off National Geographic (**** out of 5) stuff that the Rifftrax guys put together. It was good, but not great with the exception
of the Demon Bat stuff. The Rifftrax
trio NEVER ceases to entertain and to get a laugh out of me no matter what they
are riffing on. On a side note of
interest, I read a blurb somewhere that Joel Hodgeson wants to get MST3k up and
running again. All I can say in response
to this is…YESPLEASENOWCANWEGETTHISNOWPLEASENOW! As you might be able tell this news has my
attention.
-
- Napping is so wonderful.
-
- Unfortunately, I only finished two miniatures
this week, and one still needs a tiny touch up.
Now I started a few others, and granted this week was massively insane
scheduling wise, but I didn’t make my goal.
I’m thinking next Tuesday night I’ll sit down in the basement and get
back after it. Hopefully, Cassandra will
find the time and the inclination to knock out some eyes so I can start DIPping
the ton of minis that I finished this last winter.
-
- I really want to have another Fire Pit this
weekend.
-
- I’ve realized that dickish Heel Brian
Danielson/Daniel Bryan from Ring Of Honor is truly amazing. “I have until FIVE Referee!” Watching these matches on a series of great
compilations that James and his SUPER Sweet Beard loaned me has brought me
nothing but joy. Thank you, The Beard
for sharing those.
-
- Maybe it’s just the stomach flu/stress pooping I
had all week, but I lost more weight this week!
-
- Magic Mike has been giving me some really
amazing ideas regarding running the ’99 Rooms Of the Blind Pharaoh’s Palace
Tomb’ mega dungeon that I’ve almost completed constructing. I think I am going to go with building the
PC’s myself, then finding some way to have the PC’s ‘bid’ or play some type of
mini-game before the session to get their characters. I also thoroughly loved the idea of giving
the PC’s some specific ‘tasks’ that may or may not coincide while being in said
mega dungeon. That will build in the
Role Playing that marching through such an exploration/hack n’ slash
mini-series would lack. Good stuff.
-
- I think I could listen to Electric Six’s ‘After
Hours’ song every day all day for a month or so and never get sick of it. No song gets me more jacked up to get through
a work day.
You know I think that is all I got…
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