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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 24, 2017 5:12:39 GMT
Oh the fun when players just ignores the rules of engagements ! mine were at least trying to talk the bugbear into not killing gundren. of course the warlock was inside and speaking while telepathically telling other players to prepare for ambush. but when they tryed to get their plan in. a voice from behind a little openned door came out and a drow told the bugbear, they are preparing an ambush. at which point initiatives hapenned. unfortunately for them, the bugbear rolled pretty high on init and they rolled low. so gundren was knocked unconscious and dieing. with two death saves from the blow. a morning star really isn't a good weapon to slash a throat. still they were able to save him, thanks to the healer of the group and a well timed holy word.
must say that, even though i dont like pre made adventures because they feel too much like they are too linear in their stories... i will say the satisfaction and role playing are much better when you actually have a script.
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Post by Meph on Jan 31, 2017 1:26:35 GMT
Session 10 - Wave Echo Cave pt. 2So this week we picked up where we left off. The players had just fought a tough battle against a room full of Ghouls. They were down but not out and decided they were going to take a short rest to use some Hit Dice and get some HP back. The group looking at their maps assumed that the north east hall leading out of this room led to the same forge room that they had seen the Flaming Skull in. They hatched a plan for a 2 prong approach with half the party head through that hall and the other half going back up the stairs and entering the forge from the west. As they approached the forge they again saw the floating skull on the opposite side of the room and decided to move in. They stepped around the corpses on the floor and moved towards the skull. As the players got into the room the corpses rose up and initiative was rolled. The shit hit the fan fast with every party member engaged. They decided to focus on the zombies in their faces giving the Flame Skull the chance to start attacking the party. The first attack the Flame Skull did was a 1st level Magic Missile at the party Wizard. I think this put their fears at ease thinking the skull would be a pushover, but ultimately almost screwed them. They stayed focused on the Zombies, whittling them down and the Flame Skull started to use its two Fire Eye attacks per round at 3d6 damage each! This quickly got the parties attention and those that could started to focus on the Flame Skull. 2 rounds of those Fire Eye's and then on the 4th round, as it was taking significant damage, the Flame Skull cast an 8d6 Fireball centered to hit 4 members of the party. Ultimately the party wont the battle but was completely out of spells with 2 party members at 0 HP making death saves. Given their current condition the party decided to back track to the room that the Hobgoblins had barricaded in and hold up there for a long rest. They barricaded both doors and held up for the night. They kept 2 hour watches and during each watch noticed a light under the door from time to time. They made a plan after their rest to go out and attack the "scout" which they assumed was the source of the light. They left the room and saw the light ahead in the Forge room so they decided to rush right in and attack it. Much to their dismay they ran back in to find the Flame Skull completely regenerated and intact (they smashed the skull once it died). They all rushed the skull so it opened its attack with another Fireball which really worried the party. It managed to get one Fire Eye off but they focused all of their attacks and killed it quick but not without using a bunch of resources (spells & healing potions). Next the party moved up the dry channel that feeds the water wheel to the chasm to the north west. Unseen to the Bugbears, the party came across one Bugbear on the opposite ridge overseeing 2 Bugbears in the ravine moving rocks. They decided to fire off their ranged weapons at the opposite ridge while the Paladin wanted to climb down and engage the Bugbears below. Of course the Paladin missed his athletics check with a critical fail, fell 20 feet and landed prone. He took 2d6 damage and both bugbears were on him fast. Another battle that just didn't go well for the party. The bugbear on the ridge was joined by a Drow with a crossbow and they attacked the party. As the party killed the 2 Bugbears in the chasm the 3rd Bugbear dropped down to engage while the Drow (doppleganger) ran off to warn Nezznar the Black Spider. This leads to the final battle of the night, Nezznar the Black Spider. The party found the Dwarven Altar room that Nezznar was using as his base of operations. Nezznar had been warned by the Doppleganger and they hiding in the room waiting for them. 4 Giant Spiders were in the room on the walls and ceiling, waiting for the party to enter. Of course like expected, 2 of the party members when not seeing anything immediately inside decided to "charge" into the room. Now to backtrack a little bit, 10 week into our campaign and there was one aspect of 5E that I had completely ignored. I had never awarded a single inspiration point to anyone in the game so prior to this battle I addressed that issue. I grabbed 6 arcade tokens and laid them in the center of the table. I explained inspiration, how it works, and how it's awarded. I told them since I had failed to award any of the last 2 and a half months that these 6 inspiration points were party points to use as they see fit. I am not sure exactly how they are supposed to be used by the book but I allow them advantage on ANY roll. Attack, Save, Damage, Hit Dice, etc....anything but they must be declared BEFORE rolling. They aren't to be used for a reroll, the have to be used before the roll for a better chance. Now back to Nezznar.... So they tried rushing into the room. The spiders began to web the players, then bite and poison them. The Doppleganger moved in to attack while Nezznar stayed hidden for the first round. The party moved into positions the best they could, some got webbed up, some poisoned. Lots of damage was sustained. Nezznar popped out and began with a Magic Missile, using a 3rd level slot firing 3 missiles at the cleric, 2 at the wizard. Chaos ensued. The paladin dropped and the two main fighters dropped. The party managed to kill the spiders and injure the doppleganger but their major damage (fighters) were gone and their Ranger was webbed and engaged by the Doppleganger. There was talk at one point in the fight of the CLeric and Wizard running but ultimately they stayed. Now I really could have killed the party on this encounter but I gave them a big break. The Doppleganger only attacked once per round instead of twice. So when all was looking lost the Wizard decided to go for broke and cast Scorching Ray on the Nezznar. Scorching Ray shoots 3 rays, each requiring an attack roll for 2d6 damage. With immediate approval from the group he picked up 3 of the 6 inspiration points and used them for his attack rolls. With advantage he was able to hit with all 3 rays hitting for a total of 20 damage. Nezznar only had 27 hit points so after suffering that attack he immediately cast invisibility and made his escape. The party was still preoccupied with the Doppleganger who had taken next to no hit points. Between the Wizard blowing his last magic missiles, the cleric attacking, the ranger attacking they managed to get the Doppleganger low enough to flee. Even with his attack of opportunity the Ranger was unable to take him down and he escaped. Now while this was going on we had 2 Fighters and a Paladin down making death saves. The Paladin and one Fighter saved, but the strongest fighter of the group had one failed save when he rolled a critical fail, killing him instantly! While the party was sitting there in disbelief of what had just happened the Cleric stepped forward with the scroll they had found a couple weeks ago, Revivify. The rest of the group had no idea what the scroll he had found was and there was much rejoicing when he raised the Fighter from the dead. So the party had no potions left and a single cure wounds spell. They got the other Fighter up leaving the Paladin still unconscious. They decided their only chance was to head straight for the entrance hoping they didn't run into a random encounter, the Doppleganger, or Nezznar. I did make one roll for a random encounter and they held their breath as I did so, but they made it out safely. They found a safe location, took a short rest for a couple hours and waited for the Paladin to awake, then they made their way straight for Phandalin. That is where we left off for the night. Now my initial concerns before starting this campaign about 5E being too "easy" on the players and death being hard have been laid to rest. Playing with another DM we saw how the system falls apart with a DM that doesn't play NPCs to their potential but I have seen no such problems. My 1E/2E campaigns were always gritty and dangerous. Death was always a possibility and resources were at a premium. I think I have found the balance here by tweaking my major encounters enough that the party is ALWAYS on their toes. I am really enjoying this system right now and the players are really liking all the options they have now that weren't available in 1E/2E. The party has yet to finish a major encounter in this campaign. Glasstaff escaped from the Redbrand Hideout, Venomfang the Green Dragon fled when they got him low, and now Nezznar the Black Spider has fled. I guarantee they haven't seen the last of any of them yet. Next week is the Superbowl. Given that none of us are Patriot or Falcon fans I said I would run our game if they wanted. The 50" TV sits right behind me and I would have the game on either way. Two of our party absolutely wont play because they have plans but it looks like the other 4 want to play. Since they are back at town I said we can roleplay their town activities and I will come up with a small adventure for the 4 of them. I am thinking next week may be the return of Glasstaff, we'll see. Here is a pic of our game this Sunday. The guy taking the picture is our Fighter that died. Next is the other Fighter and last is our Paladin. Sucks when your first line of defense gets KO'd And in case you missed it in my Game Prep thread, here is the 3D printed Flame Skull I made for this weeks game. It was well worth the effort and my party is sufficiently scared to hell of Flame Skulls.....little do they know that after killing it twice, it rose again an hour later. The party still has half of the dungeon to explore and they will need to go through that room yet again.
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Post by margaret on Jan 31, 2017 1:42:22 GMT
There's a lot of damage potential in that tiny package!
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Post by Meph on Feb 3, 2017 0:27:09 GMT
Well we ended up taking this week off for the Superbowl so I have a couple weeks to prepare. I really want to move on to my homebrew world but I don't want to pull the players out of a campaign they are enjoying so for now I will continue. I want to spend my time working on my own world and house rules (which there are many) and less time preparing our weekly game right now so I am going to continue with published materials. I own Princes of the Apocalypse and just bought Storm King's Thunder tonight. SKT has an intro adventure to get players up to level 5 but mine will be right about 5 when we finish Lost Mine of Phandelver, so I might just run SKT. Going to enjoy throwing boulders at the players. =)
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 5, 2017 14:32:09 GMT
i just love a good fight, but my players hates it when they are always on their toes. they literally said they like to steam roll some minions as well. so im basically forced to let them steam roll a bit before going crazy on them. all that said when we first started with the starter set. my flameskull in wave echo cave openned up with fireball, so what they thought would be a walk in the park ended on first round when the flameskull got top init and just put both the warlock and cleric down to 1-5 hp. they both ran off making the fighter forced to run as well. didn't help they were down two players at that time as well.
overall, the starting adventure was a lot of fun, i never did anything with glassstaff though. can't wait to see what you do for your players next. also glad you like the 5th edition. one thing i always thought about D&D is that while things can get too powerfull for the players. if it is too easy for them, then its mainly the DMs fault. 5E isn't too easy. 3.5 was though. this is why i like 5e. its a cool mix of things.
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Post by Meph on Feb 12, 2017 14:45:09 GMT
So after taking Superbowl Sunday off we are scheduled to be back to the table tonight. We got dumped with snow here in NY and I blew the gearbox in my snowblower at the beginning of the season, so I spent yesterday shoveling about a foot of snow from my 200 feet of driveway. Last night my 9 year old daughter and I did the daddy/daughter dance and today I am tired. It's freezing rain now and they are projecting another 12 inches through the day, yet my group still says they are coming even when I suggested the week off. The unfortunate side effect that they just can't seem to grasp is that they are pushing me towards another burn out. Weekly sessions are great but the players only need to show up and bring their character sheets. When I have long week, a busy weekend and just need the night off, they don't get it. I am playing tonight. It's our final bit of Lost Mine of Phandelver and I might push DMing off to one of the players for a couple sessions just to get a break and get some material prepared. We'll see how this goes. I am honestly at the point where even my 6 man group is more than I want. I would love to get it down to a slim 4 man group. I feel the games run so much smoother.
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Post by margaret on Feb 13, 2017 16:04:55 GMT
That's one happy little girl!
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Post by skunkape on Feb 13, 2017 21:57:25 GMT
Good job with the father/daughter dance! If you're feeling burned out from running though, get one of the others to take over the DM duties till you get recharged, they'll thank you for it in the end.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 15, 2017 19:48:23 GMT
too much work is too much work... while i love D&D a lot. life always have to go before gaming, thats what i always say. you should explain to your players why you need the day off. its your table not theirs. if my players wanted to play so badly i'd tell them, go ahead play, by yourselves, i wont be there. thats what i would say.
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sgain
Cardboard Collector
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Post by sgain on Feb 16, 2017 8:32:56 GMT
you should look at Savage Worlds - way easier to DM than any of the D&D line of games. I got totally burned out of d20 based games with 3.5 and even though a few of my pals love 5th, they aren't running games with it, just playing. So they don't have to put all the work into the game that a GM does. I've savaged (converted) most games in a few hours and with the online resources kicking around it's pretty easy to convert any campaign to SW. Or, take a break, recharge and see if you're still into doing all the work.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 16, 2017 9:27:23 GMT
you should look at Savage Worlds - way easier to DM than any of the D&D line of games. I got totally burned out of d20 based games with 3.5 and even though a few of my pals love 5th, they aren't running games with it, just playing. So they don't have to put all the work into the game that a GM does. I've savaged (converted) most games in a few hours and with the online resources kicking around it's pretty easy to convert any campaign to SW. Or, take a break, recharge and see if you're still into doing all the work. a game is as much trouble as you want it to be. a system is not harder then any others. its hard only if you put way too much effort into making it perfect. something all DMs shouldn't aspire to do. i barely ever put 5 hours of game design on my friday game. thats how much i put playing the game once were there. if you need much more then that to create the stuff, then something is awefully wrong with your preparation. of course i happen to put more times per week then that, but thats just how dedicated and loving my job as DM. so i dont care. not to mention that work is not done on a whim since most of it go for my homebrew world. but session wise... i barely ever put more then 5 hours work on it per week. like mattcolville said... its not the job of the DM to know everything about the players characters. you dont have to know what charcaters can do, they do. not you as a DM. so do yourself a favor and stop putting all the rules on yourself. in the end even if the rules aren't right. the goal is to have fun.
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sotf
Advice Guru
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Post by sotf on Feb 16, 2017 18:29:40 GMT
you should look at Savage Worlds - way easier to DM than any of the D&D line of games. I got totally burned out of d20 based games with 3.5 and even though a few of my pals love 5th, they aren't running games with it, just playing. So they don't have to put all the work into the game that a GM does. I've savaged (converted) most games in a few hours and with the online resources kicking around it's pretty easy to convert any campaign to SW. Or, take a break, recharge and see if you're still into doing all the work. a game is as much trouble as you want it to be. a system is not harder then any others. its hard only if you put way too much effort into making it perfect. something all DMs shouldn't aspire to do. i barely ever put 5 hours of game design on my friday game. thats how much i put playing the game once were there. if you need much more then that to create the stuff, then something is awefully wrong with your preparation. of course i happen to put more times per week then that, but thats just how dedicated and loving my job as DM. so i dont care. not to mention that work is not done on a whim since most of it go for my homebrew world. but session wise... i barely ever put more then 5 hours work on it per week. like mattcolville said... its not the job of the DM to know everything about the players characters. you dont have to know what charcaters can do, they do. not you as a DM. so do yourself a favor and stop putting all the rules on yourself. in the end even if the rules aren't right. the goal is to have fun. Yep, games can easily be a lot or little work depending upon what you want to do and what you already have. Most of the time I've ended up taking a lot of time on things, that tends to be early in the campaign or if I need to provide a lot of aid to new players...or ones who want advice for fitting things into the campaign world. Of course, Campaign prep takes longer, but most of that isn't crafting but world building.
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sgain
Cardboard Collector
Posts: 22
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Post by sgain on Feb 16, 2017 21:46:19 GMT
5 hours of preparation a week!?
I put about 1/2 hour of prep per gaming session, most of that is getting my mini's out and organizing what things I want to put into scenes for the party. When I first set up my game I spent about 2-3 hours making sure I had all the NPC's set up, and reading through the scenario and making sure I had maps and such to show the players (that takes the longest time). I also spend time getting to know the personalities of the main NPC's and their motivations and goals. This helps me role-play them better and I usually work on some voices or other things for those characters.
Most of my 'gaming time' is spent making stuff, trees, mini's, maps. I don't have to spend a ton of time making or checking the game stuff since it's easy to do on the fly.
When I look at some of the discussions on the forums here and I see people having to almost use a calculator to figure out initiative I'm blown away! SW has easy mechanics on all that stuff - easy to learn but if you want to get complicated with it you can, but you don't 'have' to spend tons of game time figuring out who gets to do what, when. It's simple and easy.
In terms of burnout - I've been running games since 1978 and the only time I got 'burnt out' and quit GM'ing was when I was doing d20 stuff - way too much preparation required, rules reading and re-reading required and general 'non-fun' stuff to run my games. I spent about two months not running anything until one of my gaming buddies showed me Savage Worlds and I spent the afternoon with him showing me the mechanic's. Since then I've run every type of game; fantasy, horror, modern, sci-fi, historical, etc. with the system and with a few adjustments and home rules have had awesome sessions.
Just some points for ease of DM'ing the games; Gridless - the system is designed from the start to use mini's - ranges, movement, spell effects, etc. are all done in inches. It's easy to figure out how far people move on the map and how big that 'explosion' was. Initiative - a card based system with edges that allow changes to the order (quickness, level-headed). It's fun and easy to do and changes every round, though you can 'hold' your initiative, say to cover a door way or for some other action. GM time - most of the time spent before a game session is just making sure I have a grasp of what is going on - critters and NPC's are easy to set up and run, I usually just preview them to make sure they 'fit' into the scene. I don't have to crack out a bunch of books and spend time calculating stuff (like those silly parcels for treasure, or the encounter level). It's easy to figure that stuff out on the fly.
So since we're talking about GM burnout - maybe Meph could tell us what's killing his fun and we could offer him some support ideas...
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2017 22:17:23 GMT
My prep time almost wholly consists of 3D Printing props, hand crafting terrain, painting minis, or printing maps and such. If I am running my own content I have an outline in my head and I run it mostly on the fly. If I am running published content I will usually print it out, read it though and highlight areas to focus on so I can run it pretty seamlessly. My burnout never comes from the prep time, it comes from playing every week all year. Sometimes I just want a week or two off to do nothing but I have a couple players that really take their game seriously.
I ran last week with 2 players missing (1 had Navy Reserve weekend and 1 skipped due to weather) and I had a good time. I do think my group of 6 wears on me. 4 players seems to be the perfect size to keep the game flowing nicely. Our group of 6 bogs down sometimes especially with one or two players that have trouble deciding what to do. After our small game last week I am in a much better mood about the game as a whole but I am already thinking about spring. Same as last year, I don't plan to run weekly Sunday evening (4-9pm) games when it's 85 degrees and sunny out.
Just for clarification though, I am not really sure how this got on the topic of making games easier to DM. I have been doing this for 30 years and really don't even enjoy "playing" a character. DMing is my thing. My problem isn't the game, it's more about the expectation of my players that I am always ready to go. Every player at my table has missed at least one game, some of them multiple since we started this campaign. I have no problem with that. I take the approach that life happens so if you have to miss a GAME, then so be it. My problem is that I don't get the same courtesy and that is going to change. I already told them last week that I was a bit sour about how things went down. Nobody else has the desire or experience to DM so if I don't make it, the game wont happen. I am fine with that and will be informing the players of that this week.
I appreciate all the input. Last week was really my chance to vent since none of my players read these forums. I have 6 players in my game now and turned away 4 others that I have played with for decades because the group was too big. If any of my current can't handle me taking a break once in a while, there are others waiting to play. =)
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sgain
Cardboard Collector
Posts: 22
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Post by sgain on Feb 17, 2017 1:53:45 GMT
I can well understand having too many players at the table. It does tend to make it difficult for the GM to have any fun since he's run off his feet just giving everyone some 'PC time'. With player expectations being unfair - again, I've had that issue myself and talked with them about it and did some changes.
Let's hope things work out - and sorry if I took things off-topic.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 17, 2017 7:43:09 GMT
just so we're clear here... by 5 hour preparation i mean actually coming up with the story and prepping maps for it. Sgain, you talk with premade adventure in mind. i dont use those i create my own. i dont like reading a book and reading it to make it my own just isn't great. though i liekd playing that starter set when we first started on 5e. aside fromt hat i create my own adventures. that includes that i have to create my own maps. i have to create my own props. and hand outs. that takes a lot of time. figuring out the encounters and all. thats the 5 hours i take. thats not even counting what i did crafting wise. though i mainly dont have to do it anymore since i got pretty much all i needed.
also remember that i move around. something most of you dont do. we are playing pretty much an hour away from our home. well me its 10 minutes to go the gaming store. but some of my players literally have to travel 30-45 minutes to come to the game. i arrive about an hour before the game so my players who have questions for characters and all can have my time. i also take the time to choose my possible monsters for the session cause usually i dont know if they are going to go down that path but when i do. i prep for it about an hour before game time.
as for burn outs... 20 years of DMing and at a time, 3 game sessions per week with 3 different groups. not a single burn out. i'd play all week if i could. unfortunately between jobs and players not able to attend im stuck with 2 sessions per weeks and im fine with it. of course 1 of them is me playing the other is me dming. but yeah... never had a burn out in 20 years. white page syndrome, sure ! but burn out ? never !
all in all, as said before life > gaming. talk to your players, its your game after all.
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Post by Meph on Feb 17, 2017 12:23:24 GMT
Lol DndPaladin are we really comparing apples to apples here? I don't know anything about your life but I will tell you just a little about mine. I'm 42 and married. I have 2 kids that are 8 and 9 years old. My daughter currently is involved in scouts, band, and chorus....all after school programs. My son is involved in chorus and bricks4kids (lego architecture class), also both after school. I have 19 years as an Officer with the NYS Dept of Corrections. I get up at 5am daily and am at work at 6:45am for lineup. I rush home daily and get here by 4pm to get my kids off the bus at 4:05pm. I run around and pick them up from any after school programs, help with homework, prepare their lunches for the next day, and then make dinner. Wife gets home at 6pm, kids go to bed by 8:30pm. At this point I finally get a moment to breathe.
I have weekends off and usually a good part of Saturday is spent doing something with the family. I don't have time for long prep anymore, hence why I use pre-made materials for my base game. If you actually read my game threads then you would see that even with using pre-made I do a good amount of modifications to make it my own. Go back and read my 2E game threads and that was almost exclusively my own materials. Since 5E was a new system for all of us I elected to run LMoP and I am glad I did. From here on out I don't know what I will do. I have Princes of the Apocalypse, Storm Kings Thunder, Curse of Strahd, Kobold Press "Prepared Adventures" and "Book of Lairs", as well as many many 5E mini adventures or modules that have been released over the years. I also have many of the BX/1E modules that have been converted to 5E. I will probably cherry pick some of the outdoor Giant encounters from SKT, maybe a couple lairs from "Book of Lairs", a couple of my own mini adventures I have kicking around....no matter what I use I guarantee my players will have a great time.
Sunday is my day. My wife and I have an agreement that it's our decompress day. We might do something early in the morning but by noon on Sunday I am generally in my back room, TV on, setting up some things for our evening game. Now all that said, if you can't see why from time to time I get a bit burnt out and would just rather NOT spend my one free day telling a story for 6 others then I don't know what to tell you.
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Post by skunkape on Feb 17, 2017 15:38:19 GMT
Busy man there Meph, but I've got to say, from what I just read, you seem to be doing great things as a father for your kids! Also great that you can spend a day for yourself (Sunday). I wouldn't sweat having to tell your players that you need to take a break and not play. If they can't understand that occasionally, someone might need the time off, especially when none of them GM, then maybe you guys aren't on the same page. I'm actually involved with 3 different gaming groups, with one player who crosses over between two of the groups. About 50% of the players have played together, but due to family and work, they aren't always able to play together. That being said, most of the people in all 3 groups can GM. I was running 1 game every other Wednesday, currently playing in another game that meets on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month and run a game on the 4th Saturday of the month. One of my Wednesday night players wanted to step up to GM, his first time. So I'm taking a break on the Wednesday night game. In the 1st and 3rd Saturday night group, four of us rotate GM duty, running a story line to the end and then the next GM takes over. Main thing is, do what you like and if you and your players are having fun, no matter how much prep time you take, or what system you use (I've also used SW and like it, but also like Basic RolePlaying), you and your players are winning! That's the most important part of our social gathering we call gaming! Now, back to our regularly scheduled thread - Meph's Weekly 5E Game - Lost Mine of Phandelver!
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 18, 2017 6:16:44 GMT
Meph, you are mistaken, im not comparing your life to mine. tell me, where did i ever say your life was equal to mine. all i am saying is that if you get a burn out because of D&D then something must be done, because clearly thats not what D&D is all about. the only way i see for someone to have a burn out of D&D is to actually D&D for like 100 hours per weeks. now by your own sayings, its not D&D who makes you having a burn out, seems to me you just have too much on your plate. and like me and the others are trying to say to you. if your friends dont understand that much. then something must be done for them to understand it.
by the way... i have a friend who has 6 childs. all ranges from 2-16, 2 jobs and yet he still had time to pass 2 hours a day in front of the computer to play with friends. not saying its good for health but still. if he could find time, so can anyone else. but again, there is a such a thing as too much on ones plate. seems to be your case there.
so again... Life > Game, take some time off and fuck your friends if they dont understand that.
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Post by sgtslag on Feb 22, 2017 3:39:51 GMT
I game around once every 2-3 months, unfortunately. My group consists of four players, currently. I've run with five, but coordinating schedules is quite difficult. My ideal group size, is only four. The fifth player causes me difficulty in keeping everyone involved as much as we all would like. I would love to game once per month, but getting everyone's schedule to align, is quite difficult. My storylines require all of the PC's to be present, nearly every session, and with only four players...
I've had to take breaks, in the past, from gaming. My style is 90% ad-lib, off the cuff. I never know where the players will take the game. It is often as surprising for me, as it is for them, which direction the story goes. My sessions do not typically require a tremendous amount of preparation, but they take a toll on me, as I am, 'on edge', nearly the entire session -- I am mentally drained after our 4-6 hour sessions.
It seemed like my creative players pulled the creativity out of me, as we gamed. I ran out of ideas on where to take things, how to take their NPC relations in new, exciting, and challenging directions. I needed time off to recharge my creativity, to come up with new ideas, and new directions to take the game. I can understand needing a break, without a busy job schedule, raising young children (mine are all grown), a wife, a home to maintain, etc...
Gaming every Sunday? Wow! I could handle that for only a month, at most, before I put the brakes on: I have too many other demands upon my time, some fun, some chores, but ignoring them would lead to disaster (motorcycle season is very close, we live to tour on two wheels...). I would cheerfully invite my players to begin DM'ing, to fill the void created by my reduced schedule -- it is a solid investment (see below).
I enjoy playing as well as DM'ing. Currently, I game in one of my player's games. He is learning to DM, having spent decades as a player. Great DM's are created by players challenging them, stretching them, over long periods of time (I sucked for a lot of the early years...). It is an investment in him, to help him develop as a DM. At times, it is frustrating to watch him make mistakes I learned from decades ago. Slowly, the investment is returning a yield. It also is educational for me, as a DM: I am seeing things from the players' perspectives, and it helps me to be a better DM. Cheers!
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