Anons, share with me the things that time has changed around your table that you wish maybe it didnt. Ill start.
>Simpler goals I miss when our enemy wasnt some nebulous entities that we couldnt get info on no matter what we did. Some times its nice to have tings as clean cut as go to X and deal with Y, instead of spending several hours mulling over how to deal with something or gather information about something we know something about.
>Simpler times Yeah, as we progress, things get bigger, but i also miss the times when we were literally nobody, exploring because we wanted, where we wanted, not really being bound to someone or someplace.
>Playing more often I miss when we could play every weekend, instead of bi-weekly, as we have it now, or even rarer, but i can completely understand why we cannot, as it puts alot of stress on our Gm and that people actually have to get there and maybe not make other plans.
>That guy Surprisingly enough, i miss our that guy. The guy was a pants on head retarded guy that we rarely agreed with, or understood at all, but i miss the guy. Me and his characters had beef, and it felt like we could fly at eachother at any time, but it turned into some form of rivalry instead. In the end, my character died because i refused to let him kill himself, but thats fine, she could have had worse deaths.
>Simpler Goals I have players who thought they just wanted BIGGER, and I was dumb enough to give it to them, so now instead of doing a favor for a friend, or seeking out individual goals, we're talking with gods, and the endgoal is to overcome concepts personified.
I miss the kobolds.
Joseph Stewart
I miss when players gave a damn about the game. They played characters and roleplayed with the NPCs. Now that they're more familiar with the system all they care about is the crunch and going from one combat encounter to the next.
Jaxson Brooks
>concepts personified Please elaborate, this actually sounds pretty interesting
What happened that led them to stray away from the role playing? In my opinion, that's the best part of the entire game
Lucas Jones
One of my friends got really into the mechanics of the game and started trying to find ways to min/max his character which led to him trying to get from one fight to the next with little to no regard for plot, puzzles or roleplay. The other players got tired if it and stopped trying.
Any attempt I made to reinitiate roleplay, or talking to the problem player didn't really workout so most of my games ended early as I started to burnout from putting in all the extra effort.
Jose Brooks
One example in particular is they were in a dungeon and got a to a room with a massive mural that had significance to the dungeon and the quest line they we're following at the time. The That Guy I guess I'll call him walked into the room, looked at the mural, said "eh, I don't care," and left to go find the next group of enemies to fight.
Juan Rodriguez
Im sorry, it genuinely breaks my heart to hear that. Probably gonna sound pretty dumb but have you mentioned this to your players, the min-maxer in particular?
Oliver James
I miss when I was still 14 and I still had people from school who'd play with me every week, and then I squandered it over being stupidly teenage-depressed and constantly anxious about my campaigns being not good enough and ultimately going nowhere.
Now I have absolutely no one to play with because everyone's busy or gone from my town. I've been in this hobby for 10 years, and I never had a campaign for over 4 sessions because people would either leave or I would not want to get out of bed or my work ethic was shit because I figured that it doesn't matter what I make, it will still be not good enough.
I just wish I could change that one thing. I could do anything. I would suck a dick for a bog-standard campaign in any system. Just for an excuse to play. I'd play the most generic 3.5 meatgrinder at this point just to be able to have an honest, genuine try instead of all this shit I utterly fucked up.
I probably ruined RPGs for everyone else that remained because they figure board games are easier to set up and less of a hassle.
God I'm stupid.
Juan Robinson
don't be sad qt. why don't you try to search some randos for a group?
Yeah I've talked to all of them about it. Min/maxer tries to get into it more and does well for about a session before going back. I haven't run any games since then, but he has GMed a bit for his college friends since then so I'm hoping he's learned a bit more from having that perspective. I'd like to run games for that group again tho cuz they were great players before things started going downhill.
Cooper Davis
You put all that energy into doing something that matters a lot to you, that's a lot better than some DMs I've played with. Try finding an online group for 3.5(or another system you're comfortable with) and run something like a premade campaign, and limit yourself on the work you do on it. That's what got me into Veeky Forums material in the first place.
Lucas Turner
Yeah I totally fucked my campaign doing this. The bbeg is like an elder god and the players have another god on their side and are stuck in a war between the two and it's a total clusterfuck.
No idea how to pull out and go back to a. More 'human/mundane' centric campaign where interesting things can happen.
Cooper Howard
Because at this point I don't believe in myself being able to do it because of the anxieties and I have a bf who doesn't play, but with whom I'd rather hang out most weekends rather than isolate him for an awkward session over roll20 with randos in our tiny apartment.
I sometimes play at conventions, but those are hit and miss. I'd be mostly content with my life at this point, I just miss this hobby and feel like I've missed a massive opportunity in my life to expand my creative horizons and create cool memories. I haven't seen a character above level 2 or its equivalent in any fantasy game.
Like, I just feel robbed by my stupid brain chemicals and stupid decisions.
Sebastian Nelson
I know this feel, it was me a few years ago when is was in-between being a novice GM and being more experienced.
Idk if this would work for you but I used to "run" encounters and campaigns in my head to get myself more comfortable with the ideas I had and try to predict how any potential players would react. It did help a bit with confidence I guess tho I still have some anxeties thinking that some ideas or encounters I have are just stupid.
Grayson King
How long has it been since you played with them? Maybe you should try to get in touch again, if ya really want to play with them again?
Christopher Jackson
Maybe about a year? I've been getting into 3.5 again recently (shame on me lol) and have been wanting to run something so I may get in touch with them.
Nicholas Garcia
There is no shame here mate.Im playing pathfinder so i dont think i have a say in the matter anyway. But yeah do that. Get in contact with em dont wait! The sooner you do, the sooner you will get response
Dylan Perry
Yeah I think I will. Thanks my man, it was good to actually talk about that with people who aren't my players
Landon Rogers
It stopped existing. I was foreverGM, didn't have the time to spend hours preparing sessions anymore with uni getting more demanding, and I got tired of having to coordinate people from 3 time zones for sessions. It's been like 4 years and I still haven't convinced any of my IRL friends to play, and even if I did things have gotten fucking busy. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Luke Hughes
Hey, that was sort of the idea behind this whole thread. Sometimes its nice to get stuff out and chat. I might be a fag, but sometimes people need to be fags.
Have you considered to check up on the gamefinder threads that sometimes pop up? If you want to break the GM curse you could probably check here, find a suitable group in a suitable timezone and just enjoy life and games if time allows it?
Nathan Rodriguez
It hasn't worked out in the past. I'm from Europe, wanted to play on weekday evenings. Allowed some NEETs from the US into the group because they were free all day so could play when it was noon where they lived. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that people who can't get their shit together to find a jobs and piss away their time on an Indian carpet weaving forum aren't very reliable when it comes to showing up to online gaming sessions.
I'm just tired of unreliable people. People cancelling shit at the last minute, people never showing up without explanation (and then 6 hours later they msg me saying they smoked a bowl and fell asleep, whoopsie xD). So now I lift weights on my own and ride motorcycles with people who are successful and punctual, and shitpost / lurk here when work isn't busy.
Daniel Baker
Where in Europe? Chiming in from Norway here
Anthony Robinson
Germany.
Evan Harris
Hm. Bummer. Dont think i can be of much help then, sorry mate
Jose Robinson
No worries. It would be nice to be able to play PnP with other people again (or make music with other people again, which always fails for the same reasons) but hey, I have other hobbies too.
