Remedial Mage
You guys ever try playing Risky Settlers: Knights and Allies of the Lords of the Dominion of Earth (Pandemic Edition)? If you’re reading this comic, you probably have (at least in a metaphorical sense). These games we play are stupidly complicated. The rulebooks bear a suspicious resemblance to textbooks, and even simple mechanics have a way of disappearing into the vast sea of text known as “The Combat Chapter.” No matter how clever you are or how much of a grognard, you’re bound to miss a step or two. I think that learning to live with that is as much a part of the hobby as dice or Mountain Dew.
Now all that said–and I mean this in the nicest way possible–I will come across the table and bludgeon you with my dice bag if you ask “which one do I roll?” one more time. Yes, the game is complicated. Yes, we all make mistakes. But at some point it’s on you as a player to know the basics. This is the difference between forgetting a step in the grapple flowchart (understandable) and forgetting how a sword works (less so). If it’s the thing that your character does over and over every turn of every combat, you should probably jot down a note-to-self about to-hit and damage. If it’s a spell, you should probably have it bookmarked. The rest of the table will thank you for it.
Of course, all of the above gets a bit complicated in practice. If you’ve been playing with the same group for over a year and Andy still can’t remember how to make an ability check, I think that’s Andy’s problem. But if Betty is new to the game, or has a learning disability, or gained a new power last session and is just now trying to figure out how it works, maybe cut her some slack. Nobody likes hearing “What do you do?” followed by an exasperated sigh and an eye roll after five nanoseconds.
So what say we hash this out in the comments? Where do you guys draw the line between, “Learn to play!” and, “Dude, can I have a second?” When does the burden shift from GMs needing to be patient to players needing to learn the game? Let’s hear it down below!
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I have a problem with a player who has aspects of this. She’s new to the game, and picked a Bard (Not a class I’d start with, even if it’s one of my favorites) and insists on sprinting pell-mell into melee combat with her rapier every time, despite having a very weak strength score and being a spellcasting style bard. I had to build her character, list out her spells, and essentially walk her though every single step of class creation, which is forgivable when it’s their first character, but in the year she’s been playing she’s shown no signs of improvement whatsoever.
It’s especially frustrating when two other players who were also brand new joined around the same time as her, and have improved immensely at playing. One of the two has a hard time remembering all the rules of her rogue, so she writes whole spreadsheets and reads dozens of online guides on how to play, and keep up. The other went with the most bog-standard human fighter possible, and is learning the game as we go. The bard? Still has a blank look in her eye when we ask her what to do every single turn.
Lastly, because her character continuously underperforms, the problem player’s started wandering off and looking at books in the comic store we host the game at, making her problem even worse. Even when we have encounters tailor-made for her, she’s too distracted and absent to take advantage of her chance to shine. We’ve even offered her a chance to change her class to something easier to learn and play, in hopes that she’d pick something that would actually maintain her interest, but she completely turned that all down, inexplicably. I know this is a super long comment, but I had to vent, considering that the topic’s hitting quite close to home. TL;DR: Player refuses to crack the book and learn how to play the game, but plays a difficult class and refuses to change or step down from a playing role.
I keep going back to the Manyfold Glossary in my head:
https://sites.google.com/site/amagigames/the-what-i-like-glossary
It sounds like this person plays for SOCIABILITY, which is not a playstyle that cares about rules. The trouble is that “find a different group” doesn’t always work. The realities of social life mean that we’re almost always going to play with a grab bag of people rather than a perfectly in-tune table, and figuring out how to make that work is one of the big challenges of the hobby.
You could confront her about it, make her some flowcharts, or simply put up with it. But if it makes you feel any better, it does sound to me like this is her problem more than yours. “Distracted” and “absent” is not the first set of qualities I look for when choosing my party.
Personally I’m a big supporter of the philosophy that the GM has ultimate veto power of who plays what in a game. If something isn’t working out for whatever reason, you gotta be willing to put your foot down and say “Look, your playstyle isn’t meshing with the rest of the party. For the good of the group, something has to change.”
I know some game-shops have rules about not excluding people if you are using their space, but then you gotta find another solution. The multi-arc, world-spanning campaigns are great for character investment, but there are other game-styles.
A group I played with in college did a lot of one-shots, because getting the same 4-6 people to have consistent schedules when we could all reliably be free for a few hours at the same time every week had a DC on par with tickling the Tarrasque to death. These one-shots were great for testing out a lot of different classes and tactics.
Now, I admit that when someone is already struggling with one set of rules, throwing different ones at them might not seem like the best idea, and that’s partially true. That might in fact be part of the reason your player doesn’t want to change- she thinks that whatever else she tries she won’t be any better, and may be worse.
The key here is to approach it as a learning opportunity, and make your player(s) understand that it’s OK to not do so great at first, but it won’t matter because it’s a less serious type of playing anyhow. The point is to cycle through a bunch of different stuff to see if anything leaps out at you.
Start out by saying to the group something like “I need more time to prepare next week’s chapter, so we’re going to do a brief intermission; I’ve prepared a random selection of characters for you to choose from of the appropriate level.” And then work it into the rotation- if you game once a week, then once a month skip the next chapter of your campaign and a do another one shot- mandate that every time everyone has to pick a class they’ve never used before. It’s a great way to break people of the habit of always just going with what’s comfortable (There was a person in that college group that always played Divination-specialized Wizards; all the time. He wasn’t bad with them, but it started to get real boring to me to just be on the same team as him real fast.)
The barbarian’s player in my games has this problem. He pretty much has 4 attacks he does in combat: normal attack, power attack, enraged attack, and enraged power attack. His character doesn’t even charge and yet he asks “What do I roll again?” every one of his turns. The weird thing is that he said he had it written down and one of the other players made him a macro for it in roll20…
sigh Deep breaths… patience is a virtue…
How often do you guys play? I’m wondering if a long gap between sessions can contribute to this sort of thing.
It was every week, but as schedules got changed it became once a month. Ya know, it just might be the gap…
How long has this been going on? At some point I have to wonder if groups don’t enable this sort of behavior because in any single moment it’s less stressful than confronting the issue directly. And then the group falls apart in the long run because no one is willing to be briefly be the point of the spear. Don’t mistake patience for an unwillingness to address a problem- I’ve had to many personal experiences where people change nothing and hope things will just work themselves out, and instead they keep getting worse forever.
Next time your player asks what dice to roll, respond “you tell me- it’s your character”. Obviously you gotta judge your audience, I admit, but sometimes people need that little smack to get them moving, and they stop being lazy once you STOP LETTING THEM be lazy. If that’s too subtle, you can try “if I’m playing your character, why do we need you?”
If it’s actually an issue with learning the game, then maybe offer to run a 1-on-1 session with them; when there’s nothing else to distract someone and they are always on deck, they might pick up on things quicker. But people also sometimes surprise you when you start demanding more of them than the minimum effort. They just need a little TLC*.
*Tough Loving Care
Based on my experience, I see another aspect of this matter.
I have been DMing the D&D5E group for about 2 years, and here was that problem player. He was passionate about roleplaying, and very kind person overall. But even after 2 years he have had very hard time understanding and remembering the rules, even for the simplest actions in-game. He was trying all the possible game aid, like flowcharts and notes, but still kept doing a lot of mistakes, or getting confused. Of course it caused a lot of stalling, and some negative feelings. He himself openly admitted being… umm… not the sharpest arrow in a quiver, and I understand and acknowledge he cannot help it. What brings me to my point.
We all say and hear that TTRPG is very inclusive hobby, including, i presume, people with learning/thinking disabilities. After all, it is not their fault they are this way. Do you, fellow gamers, think it is right or wrong to exclude the player because he is not clever enough to understand the rules? And what if it is making the game less enjoyable for other players (and DM)?
I failed to solve this situation meaningfully, just carrying on until our campaign paused for life reasons.
To be honest, this extends to the general question of how to handle people with learning disabilities. It’s true that it’s not their fault, and punishing them for something the can’t do anything about is a dick move. But it’s also true that we’re only human and don’t have infinite patience either.
So I wouldn’t blame any player that doesn’t want to play with someone who can’t learn the rules to save their life (both figuratively and IC literally). If worse comes to worst, I’d maybe consider two seperate campaigns, one of them involving the slower players, players newly joining the group as well as the ones that can deal with both of those (and want to play every week, as opposed to every other); the other involving all the experienced players, including the ones that don’t enjoy playing with some of the former group.
Of course, this only works if someone who is both experienced and doesn’t mind slower players is willing and able to DM. Might even be great for that person if they can DM one week and play the other. Best of both worlds.
If you’re going to be running 2 campaigns anyway, might as well use a separate game system. There are plenty of things out there that are rules-lighter than D&D. The GM has to be confident of their ability to improvise on the fly a bit, but it might be better if you are running a game where they are no (or at least less) wrong answers.
Here’s a good example: http://www.leftoversoup.com/AndTheBeatGoesOn.pdf
That’s a game system that was mentioned in a webcomic I read, as being designed by the characters. And the author of the comic, who is also a gamer, wrote out the system and posted it for fans. You might not want the specific flavor, but the whole thing is only about 20 pages long and would make a great starting point for a homebrewed system.
When I wrote the script for today’s comic I was very much in the mindset of, “Learn to play, scrub!” As I started working on the blog though, I realized this is a more complicated issue than that, largely for the reasons you and SCL mention. I don’t feel qualified to weigh in on “inclusion in the classroom” issues, especially when you throw in the wrinkle of leisure time vs. publicly-funded education. It’s not exactly apples and oranges.
That said, I can at least throw out my personal experience since this happened in one of my groups recently. A father and his high-school-aged son joined a buddy’s home-game. The kid was a sweetheart, and he clearly put his heart and soul into RP. However, that manifested as shouting at the top of his lungs and getting down on his knees to beg the monsters not to hit him. Bless his heart for trying, but that’s some cringey behavior that I don’t want to deal with in my free time. That group broke up after a few short sessions, and I didn’t vote to bring it back. I still feel guilty about it though. :/
I think that there’s an important distinction to be made between on-the-spectrum folks and people like the woman in Gorthalon the Incredibly Magnificent’s comment. If you’re trying your hardest and are a generally cool dude to be around, I’ll swallow my impatience for as long as necessary. If you’re not putting in an effort then that’s on you as a player. Judging between the two isn’t an exact science, and that’s the really tricky part.
The numbers are the only thing holding his fluidity back, was the strong implication? In this case, may I suggest asking him if he’d like to hand his numbers over to someone else? It could be ‘the rest of the group’ if they’re cool with it, or even you as the DM. With someone else possessing a copy of his sheet, you can simply ask him to emote what he’d like to do, and then you and the Numbers People can go over in brief what it would take to do that. Bounce the end result off of him to see if it’s aligned with what he imagines, and then he rolls the dice you call out for him.
In example, Jinsoo the fighter/monk is trying to break up an ongoing fight between two villagers, but doesn’t know the first thing about describing it in Crunch terms. He expresses his intent, and you and Maggie the Sorceress who has his sheet conclude that the best way to do that is that he’s starting a diplomacy check while also using the charge action to intercept the fists of Villager A and B, which you decide is gonna be 2 opposed attack rolls at specifics-yadda-yadda. The player of Jinsoo listens dutifully (one hopes) while you discuss numbers and circumstance bonuses and whatever else there is to discuss. So, when you turn to him and say ‘You’re gonna try and talk to the guys, and you’ll roll attacks against -their- attacks, until they stop swinging and listen to you, right?’, he can say ‘Yeah, that works’ or ‘No, I didn’t actually want to get -into- the fight’ or some variation, then you can finish it with an ‘Alright, roll 3 d20s, the blue one is the diplomacy and blah blah blah.’ It’s 2 or 3 extra steps, but everyone is facilitated at their conclusion.
I have this issue with a current player. He’s not a bad guy, but he can’t remember pretty basic stuff even with notecards and electronic character sheets in front of him. There line between “ugh, learn to play” and “need help?” is intent. When he fumbles over his numbers after clearly getting distracted by his tablet, I groan and tell him to get it together. When it’s clear that he is putting in the work, i’m much more forgiving and encouraging. This changes from week to week.
Ultimately, whatever the reason, I find it an annoyance that doesn’t disqualify me from playing with someone. The player in question is a fine player otherwise; he’s a nice guy, he shows up every week (usually with food to share), and he’s always been a decent roleplayer who has gotten even better over time. Just… learn the freakin’ numbers, guy.
That’s an excellent summary of my feeling on the subject as well. I’ve been trying to implement the strategy of saying, “Bob’s up, Cindy is on deck,” in my games lately. I think it helps a little.
I think i’ll pass that along to my DM. 🙂
Before your turn, look up the spell you’re going to cast on your turn. It keeps you invested, makes you think aboot your actions, and keeps the game running.
Just played my 5th level Occultist / Variant Multiclass Magus in a Pathfinder game last night. At that level I’ve got all +1 weapon and armor enchants available, a bodyguard familiar, an undead minion, an arcane pool, mental focus points, and a list of spells to manage. Next level I gain access to all the combat feats. Combat has become nothing but furiously looking up my stuff between turns, lol. The playstyle isn’t for everyone, but I’m enjoying the heck out of all the plate spinning.
Intellectual disabilities notwithstanding, I think that it behooves a gamer to prep their action between turns. That’s a courtesy to your fellow players, and it does indeed keep the game running at a happy pace. 🙂
Oh, luckly most Players i play with know the rules (Unless they are new), and the new Players happen to pick up the rules rather fast. Lucky me i guess.
Though i once had a similar Issue with my High Lvl Wizard in a Oneshot. Which one of my motherfraggin Boatload of prepared Spells do i cast now? Which one is now the most helpful? Whlep better pick anything quick, thats better than Nothing. Well i did say gimme me a Minute more than once.
However since then, i got a bit Wiser. I am more of a Fighter guy anyway, and no matter how “boring” and it may be to other Players, a simple Power Attack, with lots of passive Bonuses has a simple elegance to it, and i don’t have to Crack my head open over that gigantic friggin Enceclopedia that calls itself a Spellbook.
The only kind of Magic user i occaisionally play is the One Spell Wizard, who has Exactly one Spell prepared X times. Either Fireball (Nuke), or Create Undead. (Minions!)
The real challenge is running casters as a GM. I appreciate the hell out of any adventure writer that will give me a nice “tactics” section to help with that mess, because learning a dozen complex spells for a single encounter blows harder than an elder air elemental.
There is quite useful resource with (RP-based) tactics considerations for D&D5E monsters http://themonstersknow.com/
For obvious reasons I found it especially practical for ultracasters, such as lich and archmage.
I stumbled onto that guy through Reddit not too long ago. I think it was the Archmage article. The project is all kinds of cool, and I love that he talks you through the theory. When I’m behind the GM screen however, what I really like is something like this:
As a DM, your Casters actually Live that long?! I usually perepare One or two Spells for them, because after the First Spell all Players gang up on the Enemy Caster. Rule Nr.1 No matter what System: Kill the Mage First.
Also thanks for the Link.
I think you meant to reply to Alexey rather than me, but here’s my take:
Casters are a bit like dragons. They go down just like any other monster unless they play smart and get a little prep time. In the case of the “before combat” section I posted, three of those spells are hours per level, so I can assume they’re cast without wasting actions. The second three buffs are either pre-cast (assuming the wizard knows the party is coming) or are his actions during the time stop. After that, knowing that the adventure expects me to lead with energy drain followed by chain lightning makes the combat much easier to run. If the dude lives to see the 3rd round of combat I can then react dynamically.
Oh, man, I had such a bad time with the whole concept of Fresh Archmagi. Nowadays I wouldn’t dare start a character with any higher than level 3 spells, and even then it’s kinda pushing it. You gotta grow into a caster, otherwise you’re gonna forget the exact spell you wrote down with the intent to deal with This Situation and it’ll hide itself amongst the other unfamiliar monikers on your sheet.
As a player, I’m constantly evaluating my spell choices over the course of the turn as character positions change, new enemies present themselves, and my allies hp values plummet. As a GM, spellcasters are generally a “high preparation” section for me. Low level casters are easier of course, due to the lack of options, but I made an entire text document for each of the several high level spellcasters in Rise of the Runelords. It’s all about dedication.
Which means it annoys me when I get things like:
GM: “Okay, the warlock snaps his fingers and a sphere of inky black darkness appears, centered here. (Gestures to map and draws with marker) You don’t see any other actions he takes, as the magical darkness has made your vision useless. (Druid), it’s your initiative, what do you do?”
Druid: “I cast Bramblethorn.
GM: Pause “…I’m not familiar with that one, what does it do?”
Druid: “I don’t know.”
Beat
Druid: “It’s in the Spell Compendium…”
GM: Facepalm “Please look up your spell and see what it does.”
Druid: “Oh, it gives me a bonus to natural armor and all my unarmed attacks by covering me in thorns.”
GM: “…okay. Standard Action to cast?”
Druid: “Yeah.”
GM: “Anything else?”
Druid: “Nope. It takes me a Standard action to transform to my Aspect, so I can’t do that now.”
GM: “…Okay. Round 2. You hear a laugh in the darkness, and a blast of intense fire hits you. Take 23 points of fire damage and roll a reflex save to not catch on fire.”
This player had been playing 3.5 D&D longer than I have. I cannot say that I took no joy in his druid’s burning hellfire blast provoked death.
Isn’t the hellfire blast the one that kills you and then condemns you to Hell? Harsh.
3.5 D&D was just it converted your Eldritch Blast to fire damage and made the target make a Reflex save or catch on fire. The Warlock of 3.5 was more “I have this cool blast power that I can modify six ways to sunday and a few other powers” than the 5E “I have Spells, powers, class features and all the awesome flavor of every class in this game.”
^.^
Just had this problem last night with my 4yo son. I know I can’t expect him to understand everything but I will admit it is surprising that he hasn’t caught on to the fact that the d20s are the “do stuff” dice. We even play an ultralight homebrew system that only has d20s.
But now that I think of it, there are so many actions and decisions that a player can take in RPGs that DON’T (and shouldn’t) require rolls that maybe it’s not surprising at all that less-savvy players might want to confirm whether or not they should be throwing the dice.
I’m just going to throw this out there: If we ever have the opportunity to game together, I promise I won’t come across the table and bludgeon your 4yo son with my dice bag. That’s reserved for five-year-olds on up.
If I was feeling flexible, I’d let Magus conjure a pony in the air, falling on the opponent.
*puts on pedantry glasses*
Actually, “A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.”
Amusingly however, ponies are pretty legit flanking buddies at low level: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/horse/pony/summoned-creature-pony-horse
I once had a partymate whose solution to “the boss is fleeing by jumping off a cliff using Feather Fall” was to use Summon Mount on the cliff edge and then have us push the pony off so that it would land on the boss.
…We didn’t go through with that one.
Good call. The “dropping an object on a creature” rules are obnoxious too:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/environment/environmental-rules/#Falling_Objects
I knew there had to be some rule against it.
Your mouse-over text reminds me of what I think has been my favorite villain yet.
Jose the Biomancer was a villain in a peculiarly designed one-shot, and his signature strategy was using conjured horses as ablative armor. He built a raft from them to cross the piranha-filled river, used them to trigger all the traps in the dungeon that he’d gone through ahead of the PCs, and filled a spiked pit trap with horses who he then walked across.
I don’t think I’ve ever made a villain who was more memorable to the PCs.
lol. That trap clearing strategy is not unfamiliar to the Heroes:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/evil-summons
To be fair spellcasting is more often than not more complicated that swinging your sword/ax/club. You can look up your spells as the turns go by but then right before your turn someone moves or grapples (as in the comic) and you have to change what you want to do. Unintentional for the player doing so but frustrating for the spellcaster and others who have to wait.
But for general knowledge of the game, yes, that’s far more irritating. We’ve been guilty of it as we all started somewhere but after weeks or months of playing it’s to be expected that you should have at least some idea of what to do, with some leniency regarding psychological/mental issues.
I feel you on the magic issue. Everything is going just swimmingly until Sir. Charge-a-lot steps into your line of effect. Suddenly you’ve got to go to the playbook for another option. There’s probably another comic in that interaction now that I think of it….
As an aside, this may be why I like the 5e warlock as a class design. You only ever have to worry about 20 or so spells rather than the literal “every spell in the book” design of the 3.X cleric or druid. That’s been a nice change of pace for me in my Out of the Abyss game.
Eyy, glad to give you an idea for a comic. Be sure to credit me now, haha.
I had (and still do but not nearly as much at the start) a problem understanding Warlocks. The automatic higher level and no spells slots threw me for a loop when I first read it. Had a good deal of trouble trying to work out how they worked. For people just starting D&D who use classes that have a good amount of detail in them it can be frustrating for everyone involved. That’s why while I love the idea of a magical fighter, like the Magus, I feel it can be even more complicated than spellcasters even with the idea of “If spellcasting isn’t optimal then just hit them!”. What if I can buff myself and then hit them? Should I cast a spell and then get in range? Should I use this AoE spell instead and leave myself open to the monster in frost of me?
5e is great because of how simplified it is compared to earlier editions but you can stumble if that’s what you’re used to and expecting.
DAMMIT, MAGUS, JUST HIT HIM WITH YOUR SWORD!!!
Kidding, mostly. I used to be a bit like that (taking a while on turns, not forgetting rules – though I always had a bit of an issue with calculating DCs). The fact that I tended to get engrossed in the other players’ actions (and was recording them in my chronicle, as I mentioned before) probably didn’t help. These days I seem to have a much better idea of what I’m going to do, probably from a combination of better system mastery, established combos and an understanding of how the party and I fit together.
This seems like as good a time as any to offer up my latest comic suggestion: something examining the deep philosophical quandaries of the difference between INT and WIS. High-INT, Low-WIS characters sort of make sense (Wizard is definitely one, and probably Magus as well), but Low-INT, High-WIS? I expect something along the lines of “You can’t fool me! I’m stupid, not dumb!”. Alternatively, low-WIS players roleplaying as high-WIS characters is truly a sight to behold. Especially if the character also has low INT.
Somebody pointed out to me that there’s a Charisma-based magus archetype. This thing:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/archetypes/paizo-magus-archetypes/eldritch-scion/
No idea what bloodline she took, but it does make sense that she dumped Int. Girl is dumb as a bag of hammers.
Eldritch Scion fits the bill. She’s useless outside of her mystic focus state and her player is no doubt confused by trying to play a Fighter-Wizard-Sorcerer-Barbarian-Bard as her first-ever PC. (Magus’s player being a rookie actually makes a lot of sense – she’s not expecting other PCs to lie to her, she’s always confused and she thinks roleplaying a Catfolk equals “acting like a cat stereotype”) Eldritch Scion also makes this comic even sillier – not only is she looking at the spellbook upside-down, her archetype doesn’t even use a spellbook!
As for bloodline, my money’s on Fey. It just seems appropriately flighty somehow.
I’m strongly considering writing up a Pretty Kitty Princess bloodline for her.
Sounds like she might be considering multiclassing into Nekomancer:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/5p1yp0/the_nekomancer/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/5nfk9l/the_nekomancer/
ಠ_ಠ
I said it in the Patreon and I’ll say it here but without the enduing comedy routine: “Like hell Conjure Pony isn’t a combat spell.” Never underestimate the power of putting disposable beat between you and a heavy hitting bad guy. Hell, a PFS player introduced me to the glory of using Communal Mount as the Wall of Horse spell.
But, back on topic. In my early days of playing the Summoner class, I was That Guy. You know, the one who took Augment Summons to call monsters with boosted stats and Celestial templates. The guy who Didn’t. Have. Printed. Stats.
Yeah, being That Guy isn’t fun. It was pretty embarrassing when my turns required me to do so much math on the fly. Moments like that have spurred me towards doing better preparation for my characters to make turns run smoothly. Nowadays, I can run a casting Summoner and his swarm of backup dancers at the same time faster than some people run a Greatsword Fighter.
I had a similar problem when I was first starting to run games, except it was with big monsters and the Power Attack feat. My players would occasionally hear phrases like “-3 to hit and…wait, that’s +9 damage. Oh my. And they don’t actually have his strength and a half on this…” and freak out. Pathfinder APs are kinda worse, as I occasionally have to stop and reverse engineer someone to figure out if they have pre-applied the buffs he casts in his “Before combat” block or not.
The one they fussed at the most was a certain Gargantuan White Dragon whose “Before Combat” buff list included Invisibility. It’s in the AP!
I’m amused by the idea of invisible white dragons. I imagine that they’re often mistaken for blizzards.
Or pink unicorns.
Ventriloquism is a hell of a spell-like aiblity.
“Fighter! Come with me, Fighter! To a land of enchantment and wonder.”
“And you’re sure that you’re a unicorn, Mr. Disembodied Voice?”
“Of course I am. I would never lie to you, Fighter. Now close your eyes and prepare to fail your Reflex save.”
*24d4 cold damage*
The most munchin-esque character I ever played was a grey-elf Wizard specializing in summons; specifically elemental summons. My bonus languages where Ignan, Aquan, Auran, and Terran, and at any one moment I had half-a-dozen or more of the little bastards running around the field and my turn often took as long as everyone else’s combined.
It doesn’t matter if the DCs were crap- if someone has to make 6+ attempts to avoid being grappled every round, eventually they will fail at least one of them.
I got through the entire dungeon while taking almost zero damage- and then I decided that I hated it.
There is a critical difference between beating the game and having fun. Single companions are fun to futz with. Playing a squad of dudes is not.
I was in a game with a rather complicated system where you added like 3-4 different values before rolling a d10 and adding that to your total.
We had some players that would get a bit confused more or less every time a roll was going to be made.
My solution? Make a google sheets character sheet that adds all those values and has a a macro to adds that d10. It really did speed things up.
A little bit of savvy goes a long way. I make my characters in Hero Lab, but I like to run them from paper. It forces me to familiarize myself with all the bells and whistles, you know?
I do appreciate the nod to learning disabilities there, a non-zero number of my friends have them and it’s nice to hear someone acknowledging they exist
I think it’s easy to get into a headspace as a GM where, if the players are consistently forgetting rules, that means they’re “not putting in the effort.”
“See how hard I work on my campaign? How dare you not take it as seriously as me!”
That attitude ignores the player though, making the game all about the GM and glossing over the very real reasons players might have for mechanical misunderstandings.
Usually when the player does not show any clue they are even trying to improve after helping them.
On the part of disabilities, i suppose i am more understanding and less at the same time after being on both sides of it.
On one part i lived with a guy with disabilities on speech, so i learnt to sociallize after he got a bit angry with me.
On the other I am really bad at regaining focus after i lost it, and got through very bad experiences of people of not having much understanding of my situation, and complaining all the time which made me lose focus again, and we were playing games that required to think more than go through instinct. This left me with a character more prone to burst a blood vessel when meeting less collaborative people.
I think a lot of this is down to, “Relax. I’m just here to have fun. Why are you getting so upset that I’m not as good as you at this game?”
Meanwhile, guys like you and me are sitting here like, “This is a hobby that only works when everyone puts in the effort. This is collaborative creative activity, gods dammit! If you aren’t going to do your part, then you’re the guy in the group project phoning it in. And that’s a dick move.”
Trying to get those two mindsets to understand one another can be rough.
I know, and even invoked rule 0, but they are the typical players that got tunnel vision from being around or in the wh40k community for some time, where not being understanding/empathetic and insisting to others on what is right fun, without thinking it is bad because is what everyone (and it unfortunately usually is on wh40k) does, is common.
They were the only guys i had for a long time for playing a specific game, so I endured. At first, for several years, i even believed i was the only one at fault for being slower but moving to the other side of the continent for a few years and playing in many other groups proved it wrong (and got better with the rules). On the other side, they at least recognized after several years i was bad at regaining focus, and lowered their complaint rate (and because i stopped playing at the place where there was constant visitors, which was one of my main causes for losing focus).
But it did not go well for another reason: after more than ten years, with that information, and after some other escalating attempts on forcing me on their right fun and me trying to explain again how bad is trying to decide how others should have fun with a game ( i admit i lost my cool there and tried to explain things even after I realized they weren’t moving from their positions), i pretty much broke contact with them. They still not see how that could be anything bad so they tried to rationalize it was me saying weird and toxic things.
Reminds me of the recent case of a player i talked about on a more recent post here where i showed links to discussions about what to do with the Rogue taking part of the loot while exploring because i was concerned about what would happen to her is she were to do that on other groups too (it was fine in that group because there was an agreement), who reacted with ”i am not doing wrong, those players you are showing me are all toxic”.