Reverb Gamers Day 25
If you game enough, you’re bound to run into someone being an ass. What’s the most asinine thing someone’s done in a game with you? How did you react? Did that experience change the way you game?
I’ve never ran into a really asinine player, yet. I chalk this up to the fact that I have been exceptionally lucky. I’ve played plenty of games at cons and when you sit down at a table with strangers you never know what sort of players they might be.
Reverb Gamers Day 24
Have you ever been to a game convention?
Oh yes! I love going to cons! I look forward to each one I manage to get to.
What was it like to be surrounded by so many other gamers?
It is like coming home. If you have not been to a con I cannot describe to you the awesome feeling of being surrounded by your tribe. Go, go soon, go often, just go and find your people.
Reverb Gamers Day 23
Have you ever experienced Total Party Kill (TPK), or been close to it?
Oh yes, Several times! Never in a game where we were trying to do a campaign. The module that has ended parties most when I’ve been playing or running is the Fourhcore adventure Revenge of the Iron Lich. I love that adventure even though, as a player, I have never finished it.
What effect did that have on you personally? On your group of players?
Most of my TPKs occurred during oneshots so very little. None of us really invested much in our characters so dying wasn’t a big shock.
Have you ever used retroactive continuity (retcon) to save yourself? Why or why not?
Hasn’t happened yet. There really hasn’t been a need.
Reverb Gamers Day 22
Describe the worst game you’ve ever played in. What made it so bad?
Oh this one is hands down the easiest question I’ve answered this month. It was a Werewolf game at a con. The GM had psyched herself out about having to run the perfect game because she was in a GMing contest. Her nervousness was blindingly obvious and we only made it through two scenes before she said it was no good, packed up and ran away.
Did your fellow players help, or make it worse?
I had never played or read anything about Werewolf before (still haven’t) and so I was taking my cues from the other player and he was doing his best to hold the game together but there was only so much he could do.
Reverb Gamers Day 21
What’s the best bribe you’ve ever given (or received as) a GM? What did you get (give) for it?
Huh, the further along this month gets the more I wonder at just how dysfunctional most gaming groups are. Each question, by itself has made me think and for more than a few I’ve had to really reach back into my gaming history to find stories to tell. As a whole though, if these are experiences that all groups should have, the general feeling I’ve had is that I’m glad to no longer play games that way. Bribing the GM is one of those behaviors that tells me that the social contract at the table is completely broken. Open and honest communication is what every group needs to succeed and bribery, to me, is evidence that the lines of communication broke down a long time ago. Bribing your GM is a desperate, end of the line maneuver that is last ditch effort to make the GM see that you have a need within the game that isn’t being met.
Unless you are playing the dWayne system. But then you are not so much bribing the GM as you are bribing the dice.
Reverb Gamers Day 20
What was the most memorable character death you’ve ever experienced?
I know I have had characters die but none of them really stick out in my mind as epic deaths that meant much to me or the game. I did have a player who’s character died in one of my games that was memorable. He had a gnome rouge and the party was fighting off a mad druid and his sentient tree companion. The party was getting beaten and thrown around by the tree’s roots and things did not look good. My friend’s rouge had managed to climb up in the tree, taking a lot of damage on the way, and jumped down out of the tree onto the back of the druid. That was the final blow needed to end the druid but in the next round my friend’s rouge got hit with a branch and killed. Two rounds later the tree was hacked to pieces by the party’s half-orc and dragonborn and they decided to build a funeral fire for their fallen comrade with it’s branches.
Reverb Gamers Day 19
What’s the weirdest character you’ve ever played?
The weirdest character would have to have been the five armed alien I played in the game I talked about earlier this month where I played with a kid. It was some kind of insect with a large head with it’s arms sticking out all around. I played it a bit off kilter as I imagined that a being who’s perspective was constantly changing would have a fairly ephemeral grasp on reality.
How did you end up with him/her/it?
There were six options and five players and I chose last. It was a choice between the alien or a fairly bog standard human. Seeing as everyone else was an alien I figured what the hell and took the thing with five arms. It just seemed to fit!
Reverb Gamers Day 18
Have you ever “cheated” on a die roll/random chance outcome, or looked up a quest solution on a fan site?
In a boardgame or RPG, never. I know some DMs will fudge rolls but thats not for me. I roll all my dice out on the table and let them fall as they may. Part of the fun is not knowing and letting the dice decide.
I did however buy the walkthrough for Riven when it was out. There were things in there that broke my brain but I was so far into the story I had to know how it ended. I feel no regret about that decision at all. Those guys are too damn smart for me.
Reverb Gamers Day 17
What was the best reward you’ve ever gotten in a game?
I don’t really remember all that well. Things in games aren’t really why I play. I think the coolest thing was collecting the bits of the Rod of Seven Parts becouse each part told a bit more of the story behind it. The only problem was we never got to finish it.
How much do you need tangible rewards (loot, leveling, etc.) to enjoy a game?
As long as there is awesome story I could care less about mechanical rewards.
Reverb Gamers Day 16
Who was the most memorable foe you’ve ever come up against in a game?
The most memorable villain any of my characters ever fought was a half-demon pirate by the name of Baltin. Baltin showed up several times before we finally defeated him and he actually helped us save the world once. The thing that made Baltin great was that he started off small and grew with us and each of us had a reason to want him dead by the end of the campaign.
How did you beat him/her/it? Or did you?
We ended up shattering Baltin in two with a feather from the First Angel’s wing. We couldn’t kill him as he had wedged himself in a crack of reality and if he died all hell would be unleashed. Breaking apart his human and demon halves kept him pinned between reality and what was outside, sealing the rift. All in all it was pretty epic.
At the Table 