This is the bragging I received from a couple of schmoes who've been begging me to run D&D for some time now. I haven't run a game in years, and it's bloody likely I'm gonna miss something at some point.
Why would they tell me this? That kind of behaviour is not going to make me WANT to run a game for them?
Anybody else run into schmucks like this?
Out of context it's a bit difficult to understand. They could be just kidding and hint that they prefer a comedy type of game. But yeah it doesn't sounds like the best way to start a brand new game.
Quote from: shalvayez;272479This is the bragging I received from a couple of schmoes who've been begging me to run D&D for some time now. I haven't run a game in years, and it's bloody likely I'm gonna miss something at some point.
Why would they tell me this? That kind of behaviour is not going to make me WANT to run a game for them?
Anybody else run into schmucks like this?
Yes.
It was a fund-raising 1st Edition d20 Star Wars game. The FLGS owner had medical problems and was forced to sell the store in order to pay for treatment. So we got together and I ran a pay to play game ($1 per PC level per character) in order to raise some money for the owner. I declared that anything published by WotC for the game could be used in the adventure.
Two teens decided that this was their chance to prove that they were the Alpha Gamers in the FLGS and came in with the goal of pissing off every other player at the table. They succeeded, with some of the most broken and twinked out PCs I have ever seen. So after figuring out that their goal was to fuck things up and piss people off, I just blatently killed their PCs whenever the two of them showed up and kept their money.
We raised over $400 for the store owner, about a quarter of that came from the teen twinks.
Later, when the two of them bitched about getting shafted, I let them know that when your idea of fun is pissing everybody else off then shit like that is going to happen.
PC kills came to mind when these guys were talking (one of which is a dear friend, but I digress), but that seems to come off as too obvious. I think they want some realism in the game (such as being able to cap a more experienced NPC with a reasonably explained attack), but in a system that just does not allow for that w/o major tweaking.
If I WAS to run a game for these guys, I would probably have to split the NPC's hps into body parts, and adjust accordingly.
Jeff, I hereby award you:-
(http://www.mcphee.com/pixlarge/M5717.jpg)
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;272485Jeff, I hereby award you:-
(http://www.mcphee.com/pixlarge/M5717.jpg)
One of these days, I'm gonna buy myself a Viking Hat.
And I shall wear it with pride.
[rant]
I was a complete asshole to those two twinks and do not feel any guilt over that. The game was our nerdly way of saying goodbye to The Gaming Connection and those fuckers wanted to spoil that for their own fun.
And I'd screw them over again if it happened!
[/rant]
I don't know why kids think that's cool.
I have to deal with that now and then.
No mercy, man.
Hangin's too good for 'em.
Burnin's too good for 'em.
They should be torn into itsy bitsy pieces
And buried alive.
Of the kids I've met from this gamer sub-type, only one has ever proven to be the kind that will eventually learn to play well with others. I think it may have to do with computer etiquette kids learn today, or just a congenitally flawed understanding of play.
I don't know . . .
Quote from: jeff37923;272483Two teens decided that this was their chance to prove that they were the Alpha Gamers in the FLGS and came in with the goal of pissing off every other player at the table. They succeeded, with some of the most broken and twinked out PCs I have ever seen. So after figuring out that their goal was to fuck things up and piss people off, I just blatently killed their PCs whenever the two of them showed up and kept their money.
I've always felt that problems
outside of the game shouldn't really be solved by
in-game solutions. For example, if a character does something stupid, then the character dies. But if the
player is a fuck-knuckle, then the
player dies.
So really, you should have stabbed the guys with a mechanical pencil.
It's harsh, but fair.
I like the cut of your jib.
I like to get them to playtest my games.
-clash
Quote from: flyingmice;272561I like to get them to playtest my games.
-clash
So....your games are unbreakable?
Quote from: shalvayez;272667So....your games are unbreakable?
I attempt that. The only way to test it is to let some of these kids have at it.
-clash
Quote from: shalvayez;272667So....your games are unbreakable?
No, so they
will break his new game six ways from sunday.
This way he will know what to adjust/fix, to make his games less prone to munchkinism.
Having someone specifically set out to break your system during playtesting is a good way to uncover game -breaking flaws - because if there are any there, they will find them.
.
Quote from: Jaeger;272679No, so they will break his new game six ways from sunday.
This way he will know what to adjust/fix, to make his games less prone to munchkinism.
Having someone specifically set out to break your system during playtesting is a good way to uncover game -breaking flaws - because if there are any there, they will find them.
.
Exactly, Jaeger!
-clash
Quote from: flyingmice;272685Exactly, Jaeger!
-clash
Oh Shit! :D
Life is too short to run games for asshats, so I don't.
To clarify:
I don't even attempt to munchkin-proof my games. That entails cutting back on player freedom and creativity too much. Like the poor, munchkins will always be with us. What I actually try to do is make the system self balancing, so that munching a character organically creates so many flaws and vulnerabilities that no-one wants to play it. Whenever a new player - one who has played before - comes into my group, where I alpha playtest all my games, they invariably try to munchkin a character out to the max, seeing as there are no apparent brakes on this. I let them. Then, after a few weeks of play, they come back wanting to drastically tone down their characters, because they are so optomized - usually for combat - that they can't do anything else.
My son Klaxon is a veteran munchkin, and loves to push the systems. If I can get him building just well-designed characters, as opposed to fire-eating monsters, it usually means the char-gen is working well. Other break-points are discovered by characters in play, whereupon I make them balance themselves. When I see that most of the characters are doing the same thing, no matter what the characters ostensibly are, I immediately suspect a break-point. That's what playtests are for - to discover flaws in the system before it goes out to the public. The more unprincipled and gleeful they are about pushing the system, the better.
-clash
Quote from: flyingmice;272704That's what playtests are for - to discover flaws in the system before it goes out to the public. The more unprincipled and gleeful they are about pushing the system, the better.
Yup!
Giving permission to the playtesters to bend everything to the breaking point and beyond is a must. The only method to balance is to find the imbalances and adjust accordingly.
But it is important that the "balance" fits the game theme. In the game I am currently writing, the katana is a far better weapon than everything else in the game...but one potential in-game theme is about becoming a samurai and the number of hoops the player must jump through to attain katana-using status are notable if they choose that path. So the katana's imbalance against other weapons becomes a reward for other in-game sacrifices.
However, if I am not playtesting something, I do not tolerate the "we like to break games" attitude. It happens at conventions occassionally, but I halt most of the nonsense with pre-gen characters. Also, I can cast Power Word No! as an at-will power.
Quote from: Spinachcat;272777However, if I am not playtesting something, I do not tolerate the "we like to break games" attitude. It happens at conventions occassionally, but I halt most of the nonsense with pre-gen characters. Also, I can cast Power Word No! as an at-will power.
Agreed! I don't tolerate willful game-breaking behavior outside of playtests.
-clash