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I have bowed to pressure from our resident blogger and have agreed to write a guest post. In pondering my topic, I thought I would share my experience in becoming a devoted fan of table-top gaming.
Growing up, I had heard of D&D before, but didn't know much about it. That all changed when I met Husband. We had a love of sci-fi/fantasy in common and so, after about a month or so of dating, when he suggested I "come over and play a role-playing game with a few of his friends", I gave him the benefit of the doubt, instead of running for the hills.
I will admit to some bemused trepidation as he helped me roll up my character for our first campaign. It was set in the Buffyverse, using the Angel RPG rules. I will further admit to wondering what I had gotten myself into when, during that first session, the other two players (both men) used, respectively, a fake russian accident and b) the voice of a southern female.
Me (inside my head): Okaaaaay...this is weird.
All of that faded away however as the game got going. Husband is modest and would never tell you, but he is a marvelous Game Master. He is always calm, understands the rules but knows how to be flexible, concocts fantastic story ideas and manages to handle our most random actions in such a way that we end up convinced that they were his idea in the first place. I often joke that the real reason I married him was his skill at directing RPGs. That's only PART of the reason I married him. He is also useful at fetching things off of tall shelves. :-)
I was hooked after that first session. This was fantastic! It was exciting, funny and left you feeling exhilarated - all while sitting around a kitchen table with character sheets and dice. You could be creative and it gave you a chance to "be" something you would never experience in real life.
It can also be scary, if your director is so inclined. Husband, in that first session, created a truly creepy haunted house with a creature whose "voice" was so disturbing it kept me awake all night. That particular voice is now forbidden. :-)
We've now been gaming together for almost six years. We've done a year of Buffy/Angel, three years of Star Wars, a few months of Cthlulu and assorted one-offs. Usually, Husband is the Game Master, although some friends have also directed sessions (I've done a few myself). I can honestly say - this is just about my favourite leisure time activity.
I've even recruited a friend or two to try gaming and they've shared how much they've enjoyed the experience.
Usually, I am the only girl at the table. When I first started playing and had to buy my own set of dice, I made a special point of getting blue dice, so as not to highlight that they were letting a girl play. That has now changed. I'm comfortable as the only chick at the table (usually) and am the proud owner of a lovely set of extremely pink dice.
I think I hold my own pretty well at the table. I'm pretty good with the rules (though not as good as Husband or some of our friends) and I think I'm pretty good with the actual role playing. I know I bring a female sentiment that wouldn't otherwise be there.
In our Star Wars game, my character had a very "soapy" storyline (did I mention I am also a soap opera junkie?) and so shopping, childcare and romance became more prominent than they otherwise would have been. (Although since my character certainly kicked her fair share of ass, nobody better complain!).
To sum up, any one with the opportunity to try out RPGs should definitely take advantage. If you're creative and enjoy hanging out with friends and having a good time while "saving the world" - this could be the hobby for you.
3 comments:
Having a good GM is truly the most important thing you can have for a game, especially for beginners. A bad GM can ruin the experience for everyone and just flat out make it not fun.
I didn't get many opportunities to game with Jhaeman as the GM but he certainly has the tools one would need to be a good GM and I always enjoyed the times that I did get that chance. Perhaps someday I will again, but in the meantime I'll continue to read the recaps (though admittedly I'm missing the Star Wars ones and the Cthulu isn't as good for me as a fantasy setting would be).
I'm still playing with a Wheel of Time idea, though I don't know that I'd have the second most important thing available to me should I run it. That is of course good players... Still there are times when I miss playing quite a bit so maybe trying to get a group ... any group ... together for a few sessions would be nice.
This reminded me of a game I ran a long time ago (Jhaeman will remember this I'm sure). This will be one of those examples of a "poor job" by the GM.
I was running an adventure for a group including Jhaeman (the player and character) that eventually led them to a tower that had an old friend and foe in it. I had initially intended a chance for dialog and then some combat likely afterwards, and had some escape plans in place, however nothing went as planned really.
This was my first character that was the bad guy so while providing great opportunity for RPing he had also made enemies of the group. Things almost immediately broke into combat with no talk.
Things were going along fine until one of the PCs took an item that looked like a rook but when activated grew to be a full size tower and threw it into the middle of the room. I was caught completely off guard and lost control of the sense of combat. I had the wizard escape (teleport) and allowed the PCs to escape from the building coming down around them which could have realistically happened, however I did so breaking up the combat rounds and basically going to out of combat action. Poorly handled indeed ... and the rook took a round or better to grow in the rules, not immediately as I had it do in essence. (I don't remember if it could even be used in enclosed spaces such as that honestly so it may not have even worked inside to begin with.)
Afterwards the PCs were chased (these were high level characters) and magics were used against them and even turned one of their own PCs to destroying their items as the others slept (not mind control so much as persausion as the PC willing did so with some tempting). The group as a whole got extremely frustrated by an enemy they could not see and by the whole situation.
Had I taken the time to stop the game when the PC came up with a great idea and did a bit of research I could have proceeded in combat allowing all characters a chance to decide their actions and given them the chance to perhaps sacrafice themselves to try and stop the wizard from escape (though anyone left inside would have died).
There was also a ton of story that I never got to because there was no conversation before battle and I had not placed clues as I could have to the storyline. (For example, Jhaeman, did you know that the storyline would have reveiled that Bal had grown attached to a woman mage and that they had both created a special staff with retributive strike abilities among others (I'll see if I can find the stats on that)? You couldn't have because I didn't put the hints in and the two factions didn't really interact. I have no idea if it was ever learned that one of their own turned against them during play either...)
Long story short, and I will blame my youth, my inexperience, my poor storyline/setup, and not handling unexpected events well, this was a case of a GM handling things poorly and turning what could have been a great session and storyline into something much, much less enjoyable for all. It is important for a GM to have a good storyline, to provide the PCs options, to be able to react quick to the actions of the PCs and be able to step back if needed, etc... There are a number of things a good GM must be and I think I would be a much better GM than I was back then, and perhaps I'll find out before long.
Anyway ... hope you enjoyed my post. :)
I think you're being too hard on yourself. I remember that climactic fight as one of the most exciting moments I ever had in gaming, and the fact that the place started coming down around our ears during the fight was damned cinematic. I had no idea we missed out on so much of the plot and backstory, but given how old we were and who we were playing with, too much quality story-telling would probably have been lost on us anyway :) I *do* remember being frustrated at the disintegration of magic items, but I never blamed you--just the player who was having his character do it! (though on second thought, you should've let me catch him in the act so Jhaeman could've given him a taste of the Sun Blade!)
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