Friendship is Dragons
Updates Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Page 549 - Down With the System
Author Notes:
Notice: Guest comic submissions are still open until this arc is finished! Guidelines here.
(Pop-out)
44 Comments:
"Growing out" of a bad RPG habit? Well, my players in the campaign I sometimes run helped me by getting me to quit making so many unnecessary corridors in my dungeons. If you're going to make a maze it needs to be for the right reasons.
My old group from years ago started with the notion that touching another's dice was considered a cardinal sin. They eventually grew out of that and even shared dice pools with one another.
Dice can be ridiculously serious business.
Dice can be ridiculously serious business.
HHIIISSSSSSSSSSS GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF MY DICE, SCUM-
Oh, er, sorry about that. Old habits die hard.
Oh, er, sorry about that. Old habits die hard.
Heh, they really do. :)
A lot of players cling to old dice rituals to try and get their rolls to be high.
A lot of players cling to old dice rituals to try and get their rolls to be high.
I grew up in a gaming family. My sister once decided to "roll the ones out" of EVERY. DIE. IN. THE HOUSE.
Nah, just kidding. My little archaic tradition is to roll my d20s a couple of times to see which one likes me the most and then use that one. Only lasts for a couple of rounds before I either swap them out or stop caring altogether and pick one at random. And no, I don't actually do that with any of the other dice I have, just the d20s.
Okay--Excuse me while I come out of lurking to mention that I chuckled madly at this comment!
My brother's the same way, except that if his dice misbehave more than a few times, he hurls them in contempt to some far corner of the room.
Actually, both of my brothers have done that, and we still haven't found that D20, either...
Actually, both of my brothers have done that, and we still haven't found that D20, either...
I threw one off the top of a ten-story apartment building once. To be fair, it had just rolled three 1s in a row. For saving throws.
Well, a short while ago our group had been collectively girding its loins for a showdown over who would rule our new nation. My character and another in particular had their hackles raised and were spoiling for a fight. Once we got to the part where me and another claimant were "campaigning" his character started pressing the buttons of mine and my character kicked him right in the honor. The result was a loud IRL argument that we'd both clearly been preparing for since the campaign started. It almost led to a duel to the death. On the one hand, it was uber tense and the whole room was dead silent while we went at it. On the other, the rest of the group gave us a round of applause afterwards for the roleplay. It was glorious
First time posting on your comic, this and FD are always good ways to wake up on the way to work.
Hmm... Well the only bad habit in my group(that we know of)hasn't backfired yet. lol
We like to put our magic users on the frontline and let them cast before the fighters rush to the front to fight.
Hmm... Well the only bad habit in my group(that we know of)hasn't backfired yet. lol
We like to put our magic users on the frontline and let them cast before the fighters rush to the front to fight.
Heh. Putting the mages in front reminds me of a game I was in ages ago. The most powerful empire in the region was based on the Roman Empire, and like the Romans at their height, the Emperor had put a little thought into how his legions were going to tame the uncivilized world.
He required all of his soldiers to begin their career with a level in magic-user, before going on to learn all the other fighter levels. This was because they would all learn to read and write, could understand and pass on intelligence, and were at least reasonably knowledgeable on basic Imperial law, and know the most commonly used languages.
Oh, and they could all cast Magic Missile once, as well.
Every. Single. Legionnaire.
Think about it.
He required all of his soldiers to begin their career with a level in magic-user, before going on to learn all the other fighter levels. This was because they would all learn to read and write, could understand and pass on intelligence, and were at least reasonably knowledgeable on basic Imperial law, and know the most commonly used languages.
Oh, and they could all cast Magic Missile once, as well.
Every. Single. Legionnaire.
Think about it.
That's one way to get around the spells per day limit.
And many citizens of such an empire might compare barbarians to the darkness ("lacking the light of civilization").
And many citizens of such an empire might compare barbarians to the darkness ("lacking the light of civilization").
Well wellw ell.... I will use this in one of my Campaigns, thank you for the Idea! ^^
Ah yes, the magic missile volley. They're going to be dreadfully disappointed the first time they fight the drow, or anything with a significant amount of SR. Other than that, though, yeah. Can't go wrong with magic missile.
Oooh, especially don't use that against the Tarrasque, what with his missile-reflecting carapace.
Oooh, especially don't use that against the Tarrasque, what with his missile-reflecting carapace.
Not to mention that half of their potential recruits can't even cast first level spells. Unless they're at least 4th level overall and can put stat points into INT.
So they wouldn't recruit soldiers with below-average INT. An army already has reason to turn away those with below-average STR, DEX, or CON; this just means that instead of only one in eight making it through "training" (testing to make sure their stats meet the minimums), now only one in sixteen will. (Or, accounting for training accidents, "one in ten" and "one in twenty" respectively.)
Over the years, I've learned to not solve all the problems. With a little thought and creativity, I can typically worm a group out of any situation short of a cut-scene or GM monorail. While there's efficiency in just letting me handle it, sometimes you need to step back and let other people be the hero.
This is vital for new (and younger) players, as it helps them learn to solve problems, and deal with consequences.
Of course, now that I'm GM, I'm the *source* of the problems.
Well, most of the problems.
At least half.
This is vital for new (and younger) players, as it helps them learn to solve problems, and deal with consequences.
Of course, now that I'm GM, I'm the *source* of the problems.
Well, most of the problems.
At least half.
That's happened to us...
in at least 3 separate games now...
The GM of a Pony game I'm in has admitted we've inspired most of the plot. Waking up ancient spirits? We did that. Carnival games of doom? Our PCs built them. Questing to find the Tree of Harmony? Our PCs' idea, entirely. "Borrowing" an airship (with two of our PCs singing a modified "A Man's Gotta Do" as their plans collide)? All us.
It takes the right group to pull this off, and the GM still has to provide some guidance, especially at first.
It takes the right group to pull this off, and the GM still has to provide some guidance, especially at first.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/299/8/9/mlp_comic__we_are_many_by_killedbyunicorns-d4e079g.jpg
(I did have to look that up, but at least I knew what game to look up)
As much as I've complained about my early DnD experiences, there was one point, about half way though, where everyone in the group stopped getting upset with me over not knowing how to play the game and realize that maybe they should actually teach me how to actually play the game. It was after a couple of them finally left, so that might have had something to do with their sudden realization that I was the only one among them that didn't grow up playing the game. Granted, I still died in ludicrous ways, but we all had more fun after that moment and things were generally better as a result.
As for something more recent, when my current group started playing Dark Heresy, one player had a nasty habit of cutting me off whenever I tried to talk to other npcs. This basically continued until after our first Star Wars session where I mentioned something about my leadership skills kinda sucking and this player agreed. At that point, another player (who thought I was doing an excellent job) verbally backhanded him by saying "Well of course he can't lead, you won't let him say anything!" I haven't been cut off since.
Finally, there's the ongoing battle of trying to keep my DM/GM on track, as he has a nasty habit of grabbing any tiny little comment and running off with it. I don't think we'll ever "grow out of it" but it has been easier lately to get back into the game. Helps when no one takes offense to your attempts to get back to the one thing everyone was here to actually play.
That reminds me of an Exalted group I played with for a while, that was split on whether the campaign should be a combat fest or narrative. I was in the latter camp, as I didn't know how to optimize for combat. Eventually I pointed out that my PC might not suck so much in combat if I could get help with my build, and that certain other PCs could use this help too. (Afterward, the ST said he was surprised that I didn't take what he considered to be basic combat abilities - but he never said a word about it until I asked for help.)
For those who know Exalted, by this point the ST was forced to toss around DV 10 mooks, and higher on the true threats, to balance against the combat-optimized PCs. In D&D terms, this would be "you can only hit their AC on a nat 20, but your team mates can hit their AC on a 6 or better, despite being at the same level". This meant the combat-unoptimized PCs basically sat out any combat. (We looked for things to do other than attack, but nothing else was useful. High Int+War doesn't matter if no ally will accept a coordinated attack, magic stealth doesn't matter if all important enemies automatically see through it, environmental hazards were a drop in the bucket when they weren't completely negated by Hardness, and so on.) Once the build problems were fixed, the still-slightly-unoptimized PCs were able to do something other than miss every turn.
Unfortunately it didn't last for long. One of the combat optimizers had complained enough to cause another player to leave, and then prepared a raft of complaints about my character. When I asked for help in resolving those, said player chose to continue arguing and insulting. The ST would not eject the player who had cost him one player and was about to cost him another. Further, it came out that said player had a problem with narrative - for example, when we investigated a city in a modern-ish setting, he was unable to imagine the potential existence of things like a city hall and restaurants unless the ST explicitly said those existed, not even to ask the ST if those were around - and the ST had been catering to that. I left the group at that point, but at least the lack of effectiveness had been somewhat fixed by then.
For those who know Exalted, by this point the ST was forced to toss around DV 10 mooks, and higher on the true threats, to balance against the combat-optimized PCs. In D&D terms, this would be "you can only hit their AC on a nat 20, but your team mates can hit their AC on a 6 or better, despite being at the same level". This meant the combat-unoptimized PCs basically sat out any combat. (We looked for things to do other than attack, but nothing else was useful. High Int+War doesn't matter if no ally will accept a coordinated attack, magic stealth doesn't matter if all important enemies automatically see through it, environmental hazards were a drop in the bucket when they weren't completely negated by Hardness, and so on.) Once the build problems were fixed, the still-slightly-unoptimized PCs were able to do something other than miss every turn.
Unfortunately it didn't last for long. One of the combat optimizers had complained enough to cause another player to leave, and then prepared a raft of complaints about my character. When I asked for help in resolving those, said player chose to continue arguing and insulting. The ST would not eject the player who had cost him one player and was about to cost him another. Further, it came out that said player had a problem with narrative - for example, when we investigated a city in a modern-ish setting, he was unable to imagine the potential existence of things like a city hall and restaurants unless the ST explicitly said those existed, not even to ask the ST if those were around - and the ST had been catering to that. I left the group at that point, but at least the lack of effectiveness had been somewhat fixed by then.
I had a similar combat-optimization problem in an Exalted game that I played! It wasn't quite as bad, but that's not saying much. One player had really duel-optimized his character - he'd mulch any single opponent, but he was rubbish if there was any tactical complexity to the combat. This became a huge issue when we came up against the antagonist and his elite guards, as he used a charm that put his character in a sort of 'rage' and rushed straight for the boss.
Turns out the boss (an Abyssal) had a slew of debilitating attacks that one of our party members was supposed to mitigate with his defensive charms. The berserker was all by himself for 10-15 ticks, though, because he could fly way faster than any of us could follow, so he ended up with a broken arm, broken leg, and gouged out eye by the time anyone was able to help... still functioning because of his 'rage' status, but it was still pretty awful. Even once we got there, things didn't improve much because a couple of us got held up dealing with his guards - the ST later told me that his intention was that the boss was planning to let his guards have a go at us before he entered the fray, but the flying, raging berserker who immediately attacked him forced his hand. So we had to split our attention between the guards (and they took a while to whittle down; heavily armored, lots of health levels, and a perfect defense) and the boss. Oh, and the boss had a very high DV in order to properly challenge Mr. Duelist, but still appropriate for the rest of us *IF* we were able to make full-party coordinated attacks. Problem being that until the guards were all dead, the party was split, and even after that it was still only full-party-minus-one since the 'raging' state prevented the combat-optimizer from participating in coordinated attacks.
Out of combat, Awareness was pretty much his only worthwhile skill, but we didn't mind covering for him. We had another guy who consciously refused to develop combat skills, but since we knew ahead of time we worked around it. Eventually we ended up splitting the Circle into two groups working on complementary but separate missions.
Turns out the boss (an Abyssal) had a slew of debilitating attacks that one of our party members was supposed to mitigate with his defensive charms. The berserker was all by himself for 10-15 ticks, though, because he could fly way faster than any of us could follow, so he ended up with a broken arm, broken leg, and gouged out eye by the time anyone was able to help... still functioning because of his 'rage' status, but it was still pretty awful. Even once we got there, things didn't improve much because a couple of us got held up dealing with his guards - the ST later told me that his intention was that the boss was planning to let his guards have a go at us before he entered the fray, but the flying, raging berserker who immediately attacked him forced his hand. So we had to split our attention between the guards (and they took a while to whittle down; heavily armored, lots of health levels, and a perfect defense) and the boss. Oh, and the boss had a very high DV in order to properly challenge Mr. Duelist, but still appropriate for the rest of us *IF* we were able to make full-party coordinated attacks. Problem being that until the guards were all dead, the party was split, and even after that it was still only full-party-minus-one since the 'raging' state prevented the combat-optimizer from participating in coordinated attacks.
Out of combat, Awareness was pretty much his only worthwhile skill, but we didn't mind covering for him. We had another guy who consciously refused to develop combat skills, but since we knew ahead of time we worked around it. Eventually we ended up splitting the Circle into two groups working on complementary but separate missions.
For example, our Star Wars game saw me playing a Noble. Now he was the party face and, because of the system, only good at being the party face. So when we were assaulting that death fortress I mentioned a few pages ago, I literally could do nothing. All the enemies were outside of my blaster pistol range and the one time I tried to use my special "make one person better" ability, I got KO by a stray shot. Lucky I got back up, but outside of calling targets for our sniper (with a set of binoculars my GM literally just gave me out of thin air) I couldn't do anything.
So, when some storm troopers ran to our trench (it was 14 of them versus however many was in the fort), I was allowed to use my diplomacy skill (roll was 23) to inspire them all to get back up and fight...which got them all killed. Apparently I missed my calling as a Commissar.
I did managed to hold the comm officer down and, with another diplomacy check (roll was 26 this time), got him to patch me to some unknown Imperial officer and convinced him to send reinforcements, since we were breaking the line. Considering it was just us (our Wookie was using home-made spider mines and grenades to blow up the enemy trenches, our Madalorian had a makeshift Tie-Fighter Cannon, and our Sniper was killing any officer stupid enough to stand) holding the line, it must of impressed them enough to grant my request. 501st came in after that and the battle ended rather quickly when our Wookie somehow snuck inside and blew up the reactor.
At the end of the day, our GM's policy is that everyone has fun. Even if the above story shouldn't have happened in any sane way, it was still awesome to be able to win the battle using what my character was actually good at and I'm thankful he actually allowed it. I think, at the end of the day, we just need to remember that an rpg is still a game at its heart. If you can't have fun playing it, what's the point?
In one Pony RPG I played in, I wanted to be the pony equivalent of Rorschach from the Watchmen - Theorycraft, a dark and brooding, paranoid detective pony that sees the 'signs' of darker times to come in everything and everypony around him.
I started out wanting to role-play a selfish buzzard who didn't have time for friendship and teamwork (I thought it would give lots of room for character development). The issue was that everyone else in the party basically had similar ideas with their characters (minus the character-development in some instances). We were a party of anti-socials who were constantly infighting (and who hated each other's guts).
As you could guess, that led to problems. We were fighting each other just as much (if not more) than we were fighting the villains (and the IC fighting was evolving into RL arguing).
I finally just decided that I (and my character) had had enough, and Theorycraft evolved into a team-player right then and there. I explained the change because even though Theorycraft was selfish and paranoid, he wasn't stupid - and he realized that the only way to beat the party's mutual enemies was to team up (because he had to finally just admit it - he couldn't save Equestria alone). For the rest of the campaign he tried his hardest to reunite the other PCs under one banner (even though at least one of them had still planned to stab him in the back).
Lesson learned: every party needs at least one "glue" character - a fairly likable character to keep the rest of the party tied together. Also, don't let IC arguments evolve into RL arguments.
I started out wanting to role-play a selfish buzzard who didn't have time for friendship and teamwork (I thought it would give lots of room for character development). The issue was that everyone else in the party basically had similar ideas with their characters (minus the character-development in some instances). We were a party of anti-socials who were constantly infighting (and who hated each other's guts).
As you could guess, that led to problems. We were fighting each other just as much (if not more) than we were fighting the villains (and the IC fighting was evolving into RL arguing).
I finally just decided that I (and my character) had had enough, and Theorycraft evolved into a team-player right then and there. I explained the change because even though Theorycraft was selfish and paranoid, he wasn't stupid - and he realized that the only way to beat the party's mutual enemies was to team up (because he had to finally just admit it - he couldn't save Equestria alone). For the rest of the campaign he tried his hardest to reunite the other PCs under one banner (even though at least one of them had still planned to stab him in the back).
Lesson learned: every party needs at least one "glue" character - a fairly likable character to keep the rest of the party tied together. Also, don't let IC arguments evolve into RL arguments.
Aye; every party needs a heart. Though when the role is passed between the grizzled old soldier and the cheerfully psychotic sniper girl... Well, it [/i]was[/i] 40K. That team got along damn well, though, aside from the power-armoured hiver thug who quit halfway through the campaign.
I do enjoy a friendly OOC debate, or an IC argument, but OOC arguments... Just no. The only ones of those I've seen consisted mainly of bitching at the DM, and the players were seldom in the right.
I do enjoy a friendly OOC debate, or an IC argument, but OOC arguments... Just no. The only ones of those I've seen consisted mainly of bitching at the DM, and the players were seldom in the right.
My doctor in the Fallout: Equestria rp I'm in has the element of kindness and tries to be that team 'glue'. The poor stallion tends to have the worst luck too when it comes to social situations. He's the only stallion in a team of 6 and tends to get ignored or disliked by most bartenders for no real reason (or maybe because thus far all the bartenders prefer serving the ladies). :3
Heck, even my Oracle (whom I made solely as a tragic character and my second foray into having an LG character) seems like he'll end up in that role: He's in a party with people who are at each other's throats due to vastly different viewpoints. Yey...
But then again, that is only SOME of us, the rest are still making a parody of a parody.
First time posting here. Unhelpful RPG habits, huh? Well I know that recently the players nearly caused a TPK because of terrible role-playing.
So in a pathfinder game I'm DMing, the party has been invited into this minotaur clan's labyrinth as part of a quest to save this ancient relic from an evil cult (you know, the basic plot stuff).
Now the group very rarely takes things seriously. The problem rises with the fact that the minotaur (being prime targets for slavers in the region) are isolationist and distrustful of outsiders and are serious and humorless people. Here are a few quotes from the party:
Gunslinger: Hallo d*ck farmer!
Ranger: Are you guys isolationist because other races cause rapid aging?
But the worst offender? The barbarian, when the minotaur king threatened to have the offending party members thrown out:
Barbarian: F*ck off, cow.
So yeah, the party's antics have actually got them in serious trouble. The only reason the entire party isn't rotting in a cell is because they are currently needed for the quest and because the Fighter bonded with the king over killing slavers. But we nearly had a TPK because the players thought it a good idea to antagonise the Minotaur with 8 levels in fighter and his elite guard.
So in a pathfinder game I'm DMing, the party has been invited into this minotaur clan's labyrinth as part of a quest to save this ancient relic from an evil cult (you know, the basic plot stuff).
Now the group very rarely takes things seriously. The problem rises with the fact that the minotaur (being prime targets for slavers in the region) are isolationist and distrustful of outsiders and are serious and humorless people. Here are a few quotes from the party:
Gunslinger: Hallo d*ck farmer!
Ranger: Are you guys isolationist because other races cause rapid aging?
But the worst offender? The barbarian, when the minotaur king threatened to have the offending party members thrown out:
Barbarian: F*ck off, cow.
So yeah, the party's antics have actually got them in serious trouble. The only reason the entire party isn't rotting in a cell is because they are currently needed for the quest and because the Fighter bonded with the king over killing slavers. But we nearly had a TPK because the players thought it a good idea to antagonise the Minotaur with 8 levels in fighter and his elite guard.
I wouldn't say this was an unhelpful RPG habit but more of a story of superstition and friendship.
You see back in my old days of gaming with my first D&D group during my first time of really trying RPG's I accidentally picked up and used one of my friends D20's that was nearby and rolled it recieving a Nat. 20 first try her face was in shock not because of the nat. 20 but she said she had never in the years of rolling that thing gotten anything higher than well a 15-16 at highest (along with very few times higher than that) she told me to try it for that entire session to test something out so I did I received crits near crits and pretty good numbers that entire night from what I remember. At the end of the night when I went to give it back to her she merely shook her head saying: it's found it's true owner. While I haven't gone back to that group in the longest time or seen them because real life has gotten in the way I always look at that D20 and it reminds me of great times shared with them.
You see back in my old days of gaming with my first D&D group during my first time of really trying RPG's I accidentally picked up and used one of my friends D20's that was nearby and rolled it recieving a Nat. 20 first try her face was in shock not because of the nat. 20 but she said she had never in the years of rolling that thing gotten anything higher than well a 15-16 at highest (along with very few times higher than that) she told me to try it for that entire session to test something out so I did I received crits near crits and pretty good numbers that entire night from what I remember. At the end of the night when I went to give it back to her she merely shook her head saying: it's found it's true owner. While I haven't gone back to that group in the longest time or seen them because real life has gotten in the way I always look at that D20 and it reminds me of great times shared with them.
Please, do not use rules lawyering to, by proxy, brag about your sexual exploits, and your sexual antics do not justify your character having a "breast stroke speed of 80". In addition, if you are going to use porn to justify patently ridiculous things like the ability to strip out of full armor and switch to a different set of armor in a single round, your character will die horribly when it takes him twenty rounds, minimum.
Do not show up naked(actually happened, dude was hungover as hell), even if you are female.
Leave your politics out of the game, within reason. Arguing for fundamental rights with an authority figure in game is okay. Trying to explain microaggression to a king will get you thrown out for wasting his time.
Please, for the love of crap, game time is not the time to shill tupperware, Mary Kay, candy bars, cancer ribbons, or anything like that. Especially stop taunting the guy who is desperately trying to lose weight to get him to buy your overpriced candy. Seriously, that is a dick move, don't do it. I swear, that guy was the second biggest ass I have seen in a session.
The table is not your dating service. I dont give a damn about what your orientation is, stop flirting with everyone. This goes for guys AND girls.
ANY form of physical violence at the table, even in jest, is forbidden. I have actually seen this more from girls, kicking under the table and smacking shoulders. Rare, but you sometimes do get the people who think this kind of thing is okay. A warning is usually sufficient.
Please, please do not engage in cutting while at the table. Seriously, that kind of biohazard is not tolerated. I manage my dermatillomania at the table. You can control pulling out a knife and carving up your skin for a few hours.
These are a list of basic habits and behaviors that I don't tolerate. If someone has an unbearable habit at the table, it IS okay to tell them to stop.
EDIT: Crap. I misread story time as just habits, not roleplaying habits. My bad.
SECOND EDIT: Nothing you say will scare me.
Cutting wasn't at my game. I was playing the pokemon card game when I overheard a commotion. Some kid was playing a warlock, and actually started cutting himself in the game store.
I have seen this one douche trying to help his kid's school candy drive, and this other dude was known for having a sweet tooth, and going through hell on his diet. Yeah, high pressure sales, including eating one of the bars slowly, and making happy moans as he described the flavor and texture in extreme detail. We stepped in and kicked that guy from the group. Never had a problem with him before, but the extent to which he was tormenting the dieting guy was pretty severe.
The sexual exploits thing gets tiresome fast. Also, had a guy argue for a one round armor change, based on a porn video with perhap the most violently jarring jump cut I have ever seen.
I have explained my problem with politics in games before. It's one thing to argue morality and ethics in political dealings. It's another to say that nobody's character can eat meat, or argue for hours on end about the need for feminism in a world where matriarchies are common, and female heroes are every bit as awesome as their male counterparts. Then there was the dumbass who tried to have his drow's backstory be that he was an escaped slave. That would work fine, if he hadn't also specified that the wood elves had a huge slave trade going, using the drow for forced labor. I convinced the DM to allow it in a private chat. The DM proceeded to explain that those slaves are the criminal population of the drow, forced to the burning, sunlit world, where their jailers were the most offensive thing to a drow. "Dude, you need to relax. Have some mud tea, and then we can make you join a drum circle and make poems about your happy feelings." Seriously, trying to insert modern political situations into a game is generally a very bad idea.
What about in-character flirting? Is that legal at your table?
Interesting tidbit is that in the years my wife and I have gamed together, we've never made characters that flirted with each other. Not sure if that's just the play style we had within the group (PCs getting romance rping was rare) or if I should be concerned about something... XD
Interesting tidbit is that in the years my wife and I have gamed together, we've never made characters that flirted with each other. Not sure if that's just the play style we had within the group (PCs getting romance rping was rare) or if I should be concerned about something... XD
I don't care about it if they reciprocate, but if you make everything awkward for everyone, and people have to walk on eggshells around you, you're out.
Which leads me to another pet peeve, and one I recently encountered. "I misconstrue this innocuous thing as a personal attack on me, so I will lash out at everyone for it." Nobody knew he was mixed race. Nobody meant any harm. We had oreos available as a snack, and apparently that bothered him. One guy, not the offended one, had lost his minifig, so it was replaced with an oreo.
I would rather not recount the rest of the incident, as it was a misunderstanding, but things were kinda tense for a while.
On another note: Anyone who joins a group to prove a political point is generally not welcome. One example is a girl joining a group because it's all male, and she thinks that's necessarily bad for this reason or that. Sure, Nicky over there might mock your character and your mathing skills, but he does that to everyone because he's some kind of theoretical physycist and can easily calculate damage and all stats in his head to build an "optimal" character of any class.
But yeah, most of this boils down to don't be a douche, and try to be rational. If something bothers you, just tell us. We tend to be fairly accomodating. We're not going to have our game in a smoky cafe where goths are taking turns reading bad poetry, but we can be accommodating, as long as the requests are reasonable.
Players like the one who cut himself are the reason RPG have a bad name. If you are so into you character that you're willing to physically harm yourself because "that's what your character would do", you should probably see a psychiatrist.
Not to mention that, for a lot of people, mixing cutting and magic is suuuper sketchy. It's way too reminiscent of people who (legitimately) try to get power from Satan and pagan gods. Weather or not they actually get anything from doing it, it's still kind of terrifying.
Not to mention that, for a lot of people, mixing cutting and magic is suuuper sketchy. It's way too reminiscent of people who (legitimately) try to get power from Satan and pagan gods. Weather or not they actually get anything from doing it, it's still kind of terrifying.
Instead, the owner kinda freaked out seeing a person cutting himself in his store. He threw him out and banned him.
I mean, it's one thing to use a knife to open a pack of cards, or get through stubborn clamshell packaging. That's fine with the dude, long as you pay first.
Whipping out a knife and carving your skin up, however, is not acceptable.
I haver dermatillomania. I have an unconscious habit and obsession with reopening wounds and scars with my hands. I control this at the table, because, quite frankly, if I started tearing off my skin, I should be booted, at the very least until I have it under control. I don't have any bloodborne diseases, but that's no excuse for it.
Seriously, tearing open your wounds and bleeding in someone else's home or business? Pretty damn rude. I admit to being an ass. I create evil characters based on ideas from Cards Against Humanity. But come on, I would have to be a huuuuuge dick to choose to allow my habits to endanger others.
Point being, there are some things you don't freaking do. Self harm in someone else's place is right near the very top of the list.
... I miiiight have a self harm pet peeve. I hate seeing it, I hate people bragging about it, and I hate being lumped in with people who won't control their desires. I have a compulsion to pick at wounds and scars. I also take steps to prevent myself, and actively resist it because I'm not that kind of asshole.
They haven't really stopped completely, but the group are getting much better about not interrupting each other when they're trying to talk. I hate when someone is trying to do or say something IC and someone else won't stop making jokes/irrelevant asides/asking the person they're talking to a question/etc. Our recently banished 4th player was an ass in many respects, but he would not tolerate that stuff and he was absolutely right not to.
Do you have any stories about "growing up" out of unhelpful RPG habits over time? Either you, someone else, or a campaign group as a whole?