#90lbs FineCoal

[trpg-dingusmaster]

3 hours of NOTHING then suddenly a rooster and some mustard

the last dnd game I played was two weeks ago? 

it was 90lbs FineCoal and we had a full group +2, I brought a friend who is supposed to be in my online group to give her maybe not a good example of how dnd can be played but an easily met and exceeded example of it-- and I’m not sure where the other guy came from, I think he knows the DarkSun dm? or maybe they just have the same shitty attitude I dunno.

not much happened in the game we spent several hours arguing and debating what things are possible in the setting (I shit you not it took 3 hours), and the DarkSun dm and new guy put an unreasonable amount of effort into going out of their way to break this dms game and ruin/derail his story (she literally told us this was exactly what she was doing and it was her intention to do anything and everything that would lead away from the dms story). I recognized the look of despair, frustration, and resignation in the dms face when no one would liten to him and tried as I try to in any game we play get it back on track.

but apparently I’m an asshole for suggesting that a group of characters who are almost entirely illiterate and have no understanding of life outside of the forest or the city slums, some being of severely discriminated against races or only recently liberated from child labor factories... MAYBE these characters would not be so concerned about WHY the country is walled off from the rest of the world **just yet**, MAYBE they wouldnt have the understanding that its weird the nation has cotton when cotton isnt native to the area especially since they’ve had access to it REGARDLESS for longer than most of them have been alive. MAYBE they’d be more concerned about immediate issues that will directly impact their lives right away and possibly determine if they will survive another week more than the more meta issue of international economics? MAYBE the dm is going to get to that LATER but we need to go through some plot first? Yes we should be curious about all that BUT do our CHARACTERS have any reason to be right now when they have all of these other issues? I’m not saying lets not investigate that ever but maybe we are supposed to find out about it later or in a different way? its not like we havnt been offered quests that take us to say, the wall? before so maybe next time lets do that quest instead of the one that liberates another factory? 

but no, I’m just an asshole and was quickly silenced because obviously I’m wrong, how could I be right? I don’t have a degree in anything unlike the DarkSun dm? The current dm seemed to appreciate my attempt and all of my non combat rolls (all of the rolls I made that day) were auto success- gathering supplies, building things for the group, repairing things. OR it was just to speed things along because we spent 3 hours doing nothing so there was no time to waste on bullshit rolls.

the gnome with the chicken, that guy, got bored of paying attention to and trying to participate in the argument and noticed the dm wasnt paying attention to anything asked if he could go back to the casino for some combat. the dm perked up again. most of the arguing parts of the group didn’t even notice right away this was starting. once they did three left until it was over and made a big show of doing so. it was a fun sequence and that gnome has now decided to become an animal rights activist and rescue the animals from the pit fighting rings. Also we have a monster rooster to go with out monster chicken, and we who stayed and paid attention got a look at some possibly important npcs for later.

when it was over, both the pit fights and the arguing, it was decided that mustard gas is a thing we can make and use and a couple other questionable explosives and we fucked up what had to be a city block. I’m not sure why? but I’m pretty sure it wasnt any of the things the dm had laid out for us though he did try to reel it into the plot. this included the only blacksmith that the one handed girl had a real shot at apprenticing with but the building was mostly intact just... full of poison right now... so later she can try and work with it. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

The plot was actually furthered! And a new character joins the party.

I missed a few sessions, not sure how many. Time isnt real.

anyway. a week or so ago, maybe two? The dm for the evening was running 90lbs FineCoal, though nobody knows I call it that.

a few things happened since I was there for this campaign.

- the new guy in the group (who I met during Bassun on the Sea) is playing a gnome pyrotechnic in this game

- the gang/faction we are most at odds with blew up a children’s hospital in what I assume was retaliation for liberating their sweatshop and stealing the rights to the land it was on but I’m not sure.

-new things were added to our base of operations but none of those were new bedrooms or a kitchen upgrade so its still cramped and weird like theres like 6-9 people living there but only 2 bedrooms? I assume this is what my character was doing while I was gone. 

this session, as we went into town to restock things and sell stuff we noticed a new faction running around putting up fliers and standing on corners looking official while giving an announcement.

“By the decree of the Templars in one week all citizens will be reporting for a mandatory community meeting. We will be patrolling the streets until then to be certain that everyone attends and that no trouble is caused. Nonattendance is punishable by law.”

we did some investigating on who these people are and found out that they’re pretty basically the military police? they are I think supposed to answer only to the highest authorities but its possible they may not be in full cooperation but maybe thats just me thinking too far ahead. They may also have, or at least at one time had, some kind of agreement with the gang the party is against the most. Rumors say they are probably the reason magic no longer exists in the walled up nation.

time passes and we head to the meeting, the gnome is dressed up and disguised to look more like a child in hopes he’d be able to sneak around and investigate further. Hugo supplies him with some booze, coal, and sawdust/wood scrap to assist in any explodey shenanigans he might need to get up to.

He is however captured, somehow they know right away that he was in disguise. Based on how the dm described the encounter its not clear  if its because of the rolls the gnome and healer made to craft the disguise OR if they had some other means, perhaps some magical means, to see through the disguise. 

they load him up in an armored wagon to pick up other stragglers to the meeting and he gets a view of just how numerous and well armed the templars are. the gnome, wanting to stall some of them from being at the meeting or maybe bringing them to a trap says that he knows of a factory where the children are still working and are being withheld from the meeting.  The templars say theres no time but would like to go there later and arrest the factory workers or something so he did the only reasonable thing and set the wagon on fire from the inside, eventually the wagon stopped and the doors were opened and he weaseled away to rejoin the party at the meeting.

mean while the oh so important address the templars wanted to give was a strange one.

-several books are now banned possession and reading of these books is punishable to the full extent of the law. some of these books were: the complete writing of alexander graham bell, the notes and diaries of nikola tesla, the legions, the crystal eye, history books from this year to this year, historical writings from these authors,  

-all crystals, precious, and semi precious gems are now outlawed, ownership and use of any is punishable to the full extent of the law

-immediate search and seizure would begin, no back aly, mine, sewer, or forest would go unchecked

this was an odd because most of the citizens and even the players themselves are unable to read in the first place and are much too poor to own any crystals or gems.

never the less how dare they and Hugo threw a bottle at the speaker. the gnome caught the tail end of this and he, the healer, and the healers sibling set to starting a riot. claiming that these new regulations were going to raise taxes and the seizure of the gems was literal out right theft from people too poor to probably have any of worth anyway, it would disrupt businesses and the searching would be more like ransacking and vandalism. 

hugo, the one handed girl, jamie, and the gnome then head off to the library once the riot seems to be getting going and the templars were all distracted. the healer- wearing a stolen high ranking gang uniform meets up with some lower ranking members if that gang  and convinces them that increased templar activity would mean without a doubt a crack down on their criminal activity. Sooner or later whatever hold the street gangs have over the people would no longer suit the forces that allowed them to gain so much power. these people spread that word. the people are in a full on frenzy now. 

Its also worth noting that a particular new npc was pointed out to us more than once during all of this: a very burly bald and beardless man well over seven feet tall but has otherwise only human features.

the group at the library find several books to steal but not quite enough and certainly not all the right ones. with further searching a secret door doubling as a book self hiding a spiral stair case is found and the one handed girl- being the one who can read the best of the lot is sent down to investigate. the rest stay upstairs waiting to hear her scream for help and to defend their position. the one handed girl finds several more books that the templars had listed as illegal but ALSO one that had a solid black binding and hundreds of blank black pages. upon picking it up she feels a powerful connection to it.

several templars enter the library and a fight begins, but it is quickly ended by the new oddly specific but unnamed npc. the group escapes, calling bruce the cabby to gather the party, drop three of members, healer, healers sibling and gnome head to the ruins hospital to loot. since there would be no one around to stop them what with the mayhem and murder happening. on the way the healers sibling witnesses and exchange between a templar and a higher ranking gang member, an exchange that suggested if the the two factions had any sort of agreement it was probably over/off the table now... but another interpretation could be: shut mouth don’t talk about that where someone could hear/see you. we don’t know yet. 

heres where I got confused because the prty split up, at some point during the looting the healer found a strage door that the bombing had uncovered? or made easier to access because it wasnt hidden anymore? with the gnomes help they enter leaving the sibling to continue to loot. there was a long tunnel? and then a strange chamber with strange device that when described was probably a tesla coil. There was also an unusually large person guarding the room about 8 feet tall and very burly. there was also a book in there. I’m pretty sure he was guarding the book, which I assume was the writings of tesla based on context. they gnome and healer question the guardian trying to figure out what he was and why he was there. for some reason a fight begins? the tesla coil is part of some kind of trap system that does some clever stuff but I didn’t catch it. the two kill him and loot his body we didn’t get a description of his face i’m pretty sure it was too messed up from the fight? or maybe I just missed it, but I cant help but wonder if he too was bald and beardless? 

when the group that headed to the cabin arrived, the one handed girl had begun investigating the books and discovered a note: unfortunately the note was a prop and the only one who could actually read all of the dms handwriting was me but HUGO cant read for shit, I’m not even sure he knew what books were until that day. but I don’t think the bits I picked out that others couldnt read were that important. 

what it amounted to seemed to be that, something happened and it might happen again and they- the templars we assume -could not let that happen. I’m pretty sure I read a bit that said like- ‘we cannot allow ‘them’ to rise again,” but I wont know if that particular bit is important until the rest of the books are examined but even if it is I think think the group will be fine.

there was also a very old bank note worth over 200 coppers but probably needs to be appraised, at least to figure out how old those books are/how long they were in that secret room? idk but I’m sure theres something important there... surely its not just because the dm is concerned the party will starve to death in winter and thought to give us extra money to survive with.

the three who went to the hospital got back to the cabin, I’m pretty sure they stole a wagon.

the plan is, to examine the books a bit, then wrap them in leather and seal the leather in wax to bury them where we will be building something, then also having some decoy holes dug/filled in? and if a templar is like wtf is all this- we explain that were in the middle of construction or something and thats where we’re building stuff? 

but I sort of suspect that have some magical or supernatural means of detecting things? so it might not matter... but if winters coming we probably need to have some weapons and defenses anyway because hungry wildlife is an issue we’ve been told.

the only book not getting buried is the black one- that is staying with the one handed girl. to what end? I’m sure we’ll find out.

Hugo is down to 44lbs FineCoal- the cabby requested payment in furs and meat instead of coal and copper this time around. 

the ruffian, the noble, and the nobles guard were not present again, I’m pretty sure they just don’t like showing up to these campaigns with the weird rules. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

new things

i guess I forgot to update about last wednesday

the group seems to have split in half, very good I think for the inexperienced and easily frustrated dms 

90lbs finecoal has been replaced not with a resource management game but with a regular adventuring type game based more fully on 5e like actual rolls are made for things and they make sense.

everybody already made new characters for it but there wasnt time for me to do that so I just used one of the sheets I had with me: Solya the Cleric, former pit fighter. though I was in some kinda weird mood because even though shes neutral good I kept playing her as lawful evil. maybe the character I make for that game will be based on that. I’d like to use my aasimar warlock for that but I was told by the dm to avoid magic user classes except cleric or paladin  because he just doesnt like magic, which explains this other campaign setting

It seems silly for a fantasy game to me but whatever, I just assume its because like... he isnt sure how it works exactly because of never reading the manuals? and likely doesnt trust some of the players not to try and pull any shenanigans on him.

but there is a teifling cleric character I kinda wanted to try out. I dunno. the game went well. it was mostly chill except one player who is often a wienie and always trying to metagame and complain his way into getting rerolls when he should just accept the shitty rolls when they happen and always pulling nonsense that he doesnt tolerate others doing in his own game and doesnt recognize it when he does it... you know.... therewas an issue with that. there always is BUT after storming off he did eventually come back and apologize for overreacting which was a nice surprise.

and I was told darksun ended with more or less a tpk, I doubt my being there would have helped. but that dm starting a new game which should be much less demanding for her and easier for us to understand as some of the older rules in 2e darksun were pretty difficult for a lot of us. although after having such a long week it was difficult for me to fully grasp what I needed to do to fill in the character sheet because we were not given any rule books to reference while doing it and its a weird looking/sounding system, I feel like I’ve seen it before but I cant place it yet or maybe its just dejavu. I thought maybe on past days there was a book and she just didnt bring it that time but no. I think she just doesn’t want the metagamers to know what shes planning too soon and just brought generic and very vague print outs for us to work with.

because of my confusion I’m not really sure what I’ve ended up with, I just picked skills I thought nobody else might have picked?  I’m told I made good but very strange choices? and because of rules I didn’t know about concerning somefiddly bits in the process unless I play it right or give the right sort of back story I might have to change some stuff she has to check. but I KINDA thought that because she made some weird faces when I gave her my sheet... so I gave her some alternate options for what I wanted? and she could pick which ever works best/is easier for her to deal with? but even those apparently were odd. we’ll see I guess. so far all we know for sure is that its a modern story/setting, but its either modern fantasy or like... some kinda supernatual occult-y type thing I THINK because I put some skill points in that stuff and I was told “Hey wow, *your* character might *actually* know whats going on.”

it should be interesting.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

convos with 2 wednesday dms

last week after DarkSun I went over to my brothers house and, my brothers girlfriends brother- the 90lbs FineCoal dm was over too, I think he lives there now? at least temporarily because family stuff?

he confirmed he was planing on canceling his campaign for pretty much exactly the reasons I suspected. he mentioned he had some ideas for a replacement game focusing on the parts of 90lbs that the group seemed most invested in, territory expansion and base construction, but the twist would be that the group would be divided in half and as well as fighting npc factions we would be fighting each other. Which is the thing *I* always felt was what the group was most invested in.

I told him it sounded fine and I understood his frustration, I offered that so long as he thought he could manage something that complicated sounding I was down to try it out and that I was sure the group wouldn’t object. He had his doubts on that part but I think he’ll figure something out. “I’m sure whatever effort you put in will come through.” We talked a little about the other games that happen on the other wednesdays of the month and there I learned that Bassun on the Sea was not ALWAYS a kingdom hearts fanfiction and it WAS in the beginning an actual high seas adventure but the dm just wasn’t able to reign in the story or theme well enough to maintain it and so a lot of his current obsession bled into the story. 

That friday I went to another mtg draft tournament and lost spectacularly, but I still had a pretty good time and I got some good pulls **I** think anyway. we had an odd number of players so every round somebody had a by. In the next room there was a group playing dnd with some wild ass sounding role play going on. it sounded amazing, they were SUPER into all the voices and camp it was great. MY by round in the tournament was the last round so I spent that time wandering around the rest of the shop looking at paint and minis and seeing if they had some specific game my friends have wanted to play.

as I was considering the paints the door to the second room housing the dnd players opened and out popped the Bassun on the Sea dm. we greeted each other and I was hoping that was the end of my social obligation but no. a conversation... though I use the term lightly, started. mostly he was just looking to have somebody listen to him talk and vent which is fine but all I ask is you be upfront about it? Dont ask me questions/for advice if you dont actually want me to answer you? I dunno maybe thats just me.

He talked about his campaign and complained about the players other dms in the wednesday group. He complained about the other dnd group that kicked him out. He complained about the bad dating advice his dad gave him that caused the break up between him and his  former gf. He talked at length about warhammer. he asked my thoughts on stuff for his campaign, which I havn’t been able to make it to yet. At nearly every turn where I was prompted to give some kind of response I was cut off. 

what it boiled down to was: he has a problem with how other people play but simply cannot see that he is doing exactly the things he hates. “I’m just playing my characters they are always chaotic neutral! I can have them be as crazy as I want!” No, you are being difficult and trying to find a petty excuse for the group to be ok with it, also.... I’d like to have a discussion with him about mental illness, I think thats a conversation that needs to happen because I’m getting a little offended. The thought of cooperating with the group for the sake of the story and balancing character and individual choices with actual playability within a group occurs to him but only enough to make up excuses and place blame on other people. He wondered why this bothered the groups.

I told him it was his play style (being a weenie and trying to make excuses for it). How he chose to use his characters doesnt fit with every group or every game he’ll ever encounter, sometimes you need to adjust for the sake of group cohesion. I told him I didn’t always like his play style and character choices, though they do have their place and can be very fun and interesting choices, but I deal with it and react as I do to his choices because he’s young and still learning table/social and roleplay etiquette and styles, still finding his voice. I understand he’s a teenager who is still building up experience and has all that messy teenager shit going on. So for the sake of understanding what teenageness was like and for the sake of group cohesion its important to pick your battles. MY play style doesnt always mesh either and I too need to adjust, its part of being in a group. Its as much about fun as it is learning for everyone. 

his response was: I already have my voice and have been role playing for years! ...well... whatever I guess.

I learned in his new campaign that the group rolled on a random table to determine their characters home and family life, married? children? are any dead? kidnapped and enslaved?

he asked my characters gender but at the time I couldn’t remember, he had me roll anyway and I got ‘husband- living, missing; children- living, ensalved at X location’ he said if my character turned out to be a guy then gay marriage would be a thing in that world rather than change it to a wife. in truth I found out my character was a girl BUT I’m changing it because if I can be responsible for gaying up the campaign world you bet your ass I’m gonna do it.  

unfortunately, my work has lost two people and I wont be able to get off for next wednesday which is when that campaign will be running I think. unless it gets changed to today but I THINK Official Event is running tonight? we’ll see. It MIGHT be the replacement for 90lbs. I’m not sure when I’ll get wednesdays free again. I know I was considering leaving that group ANYWAY but other days there are dnd games running at the shop I’m either busy or that group isnt accepting new players and I still cant find an online game that looks nice to be a player in.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

I missed two weeks of play and it sounds like those were days nobody showed up except maybe 3 people. Or last week for sure. This included the dm for that day which is a bit of a bummer I guess but also nice since I didn't miss any xp. Also it sounds like 90lbs FineCoal is going to be canceled because the group was just too unruly and players were making things too difficult intentionally was just too much. t’s a shame, I was pretty curious where it was going. The dm is changing his game to something more manageable. The group will be split in half and playing against each other in a more resource management game than role playing game.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

NEVERMIND- where the plot was replaced by a chicken

Everything, more or less, that happened in the last adventure in 90lbs FineCoal was retconned. 

I’m not sure why though, I’m pretty sure he wanted these things to happen later and but the parties antics screwed up the time table, but what I do know is that the dm of OfficialEvent was just eating up the utter chaos that ensued. “Now you know what it feels like!” he exclaimed quite joyously at one point.

So, what the event was replaced with was this:

-a town meeting meeting but not mandatory, rather than outlawing this that and the other it was just a royal decree that that a curfew would be put in place starting at the end of the week, giving enough time for everyone to make arrangements to comply with that. 

---what about people who work late? they better call a cab or their employer better have a room set a side for people to crash in until the morning/designated time

---what if you are a cab driver? you’ll have a licence to be out late which will be checked and you better have it.

---what is all of this for? because the party and also their rival gang have blown up A LOT of things, nobody knows it was us for sure but thats probably part of the problem. we’ve had lots of opportunity to have stealth missions but so far have turned all of them into a bloodbath, turns out that has repercussions. and also i guess those feral children that we released from a textile mill we never did go round them up. so who knows what they got up to

after the meeting bruce the cabby came up to the party and asked us to do him a favor: get schematics for a ‘battle wagon’ and bring them to him. He told us where to go- some sort of  wainwright factory? and we were hoping for a smash and grab but the dude we met at the who I’m pretty sure was a templar? I never saw the insignia that the party leader was shown so I only have the reaction she gave when she saw it. but I’m like, 99% sure based on that, and also the fact that they knew a bunch of stuff they had no reason to know.

once the party leader realized that the people we were dealing with were out of our league they tried a different approach.

“we want schematics for a battle wagon, how can we make this happen?”,very civilized and straight forward, novel for us. 

the probably templar gave us these choices: buy it for 400 coppers, buy it for 100 coppers and the deed to some land we stole from another gang, buy it for the deed and manual labor assistance when they build... whatever they are going to build there.

mind you- my character didn’t go to the town meeting and probably didn’t go to this either, Hugo stayed home and worked on gathering supplies and materials for the various things everyone wants to do but cant because I have yet to build the things they need so I probably should have stayed quiet, and mostly I did, but when the party leaders player asked the group for thoughts out of character I chimed in a bit.

mostly nobody wanted to take part of any of it beyond, A- steal it anyway even though BAD IDEA, or B- do other jobs and get the money to pay for it because the deed is probably worth more than this offer for some reason.

however some of us reasoned that if they really wanted that deed they would get it and maybe we shouldnt make an enemy of these guys just yet. 

the leader reasoned we should take the third offer- help build the thing the templars want to build and pay nothing, because were poor and need money to survive. 

the one handed girls player complained about the disussion because none of it mattered, that faction was getting the deed no matter what so why bother discusing? this interaction was meaningless and served only to fix something the dm did wrong. I think he was just being a weenie because his character wasnt getting any spotlight and he and the dm had gotten into an argument earlier that day or something. He didn’t really have a preference to which offer we took just was salty in general about everything and seemed to really want everyone to know he wasn’t into any of this.

I agreed with the party leader: we should take the third offer, but for different reasons, if we help build the thing we’ll know more about it. well have seen the blue prints have walked the rooms and hallways and that should give us a pretty good idea about what its for and how to get in and out later. the gnome/new guy agreed.

the one handed girl player, argued? but wasnt really arguing? they were just restating what I said but really passive aggressively? as if what I said was wrong and different from what they were saying? but it was the same thing? I dunno, dude was just being a weenie I think because he didn’t think of that first? but also kept saying how this whole thing was pointless and dumb? but party leader is a face character they pretty much were built for healing and talking, they can fight but thats not what theyre good at so... come on let them have some action.

I dunno if the party leader or anyone else heard any of this exchange but either way, thats what the offer we took. it was descided that the two characters whos players dont show up because they dont like these rules loose games will be doing the construction mostly. the rubble from that property would be delivered to the cabin within the week because they dont want it anyway and we were going gather it off screen ourselves anyway to build shit with.

after, the gnome and... jamie? went to sneak into a casino to rob the place, but it didn’t really go down like that. gnome got on jamies shoulders and I gave them one of hugos long coats so they looked like one normal sized but terribly proportioned person and they went off. which begs the question, what IS jamie? we just don’t know.

they learned the layout of the first (slots and roulette), second (cards ad dice) and seventh floors of the casino and discovered that floor seven had dog fighting.... which lead to the gnome- who had his ears cut much like elves do- arranging an agreement for a child to fight the dog champion Mama Fluffy, win or loose payment would be given to jamie to bring back to the party (there was concern that gnome might die either from the dog or from the casino security) because “holy shit this gnomes gotta fight that dog and win thats my goal”, said the new guy. 

the contract was signed and he and jamie revealed their selves, gnome successfully passed himself off as a child, and the fight commenced, mostly naked gnome vs angry hungry dog. it went pretty well but he lost the fight he did get a whole gold piece for the effort though. as a joke the dm mentioned that if they had stopped on the fifth or sixth floor  (I forget) there would have been a chicken fight. so the gnome player10000x more excited about this encounter payed to get himself healed and signed up to fight a “monstrous chicken”. which may have been more like a cassowary but with coloration like a chicken? the party leader ooc commented that a chicken matching the description the dm gave wasnt a thing and was probably not possible  so what is it doing in this setting? just comic relief? why was this happening? his only explanation was a that look dms give, “hush pls I know what I’m doing, just go with it in time you may understand” and just carrying on with the encounter. we suspect comic relief but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some sort of mad science-ing. we may or may not find out.

the gnome tamed the chicken, during the course of the glorious battle and rode it home, he didn’t pick up his winnings though he just left right way and they may have been forfeited because of that. it has taken over our kitchen table. if his character dies the chicken is to be willed to Hugo because I agreed to build it its own house.

the dm had actual plot for after the deed was signed over but we never got to it.

the one handed girl went to the library all day to learn about black smithing? instead of trying to apprentice at a black smith? where actual interactions and things could happen? or trying to find ways to take advantage of the skills he already has for his character? and the player left the table but stayed at the shop when gnome and jamie went to the casino figuring I guess his character wasnt getting any screen time this adventure? i dunno. he sure did miss a pretty great series of events. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

the guy with an INT score of 7 tries to tinker and start a child labor revolution

So, Huntsman Josiah Hugo and friends? Were at the cabin he and… Jamie? Live in when everyone realizes this is probably the best safe house for the group- so far only the cabbie knows its location, but it’s too small. So construction must be done. Supplies are gathered over the course of a few days and we begin building a workshop. Extra bedrooms or a kitchen upgrade is what everyone else wanted but i knew that everyone wants to also do a lot of potentially dangerous or at least delicate crafting. And Hugo just really wanted one and as one of the only ones able to build stuff like this no one argued much. The one handed girl who has requested that Hugo make her a new hand, if possible one with a hidden compartment or weapon. Without a workshop I doubt even as a professional woodworker he with his Int of 7 could do that. Even with the shop it was difficult and some pieces were broken now and then in the work but it did get done… it’s not great but it more or less does what it’s supposed to. Vaguely able to grip and there is a hidden blade in it though the spring mechanism is probably wood and not exactly reliable for long term use.

I kept asking the dm during the planing and various checks- this is a great idea but are you sure I can do this? Like? Hugo isn’t exactly… smart. He knows wood I guess but? im guessing that’s all? So I guess based on what I observed this means the difficulty of the check is adjusted based on whether or not you can argue the check falls within your skills in general rather than modifying your roll with with skill and proficiency points, I’m not sure if stat mods are calculated into the roll but don’t think they are either. So, about 6 days went by and the hand and workshop were completed. There were some trips back into town to scavenge for extra supplies, buy some things, sell some things. Pretty uneventful. Jamie went out and hunted for a lot if that time. 

 Day 6 one of the characters, who is learning to be a healer officially and on the side is working to destroy the child labour/slavery racket is approached by a friend and buisness associate. They have the blue prints to a mill, one that the one handed girl in the party used to work in before she escaped, and the security rotation schedule for the rest of the week. They also have a ‘delicate package’ (bomb). These things are left with the would be healer and the one handed girl to do with as they please. Another party member is approached in with the transport route of a carriage full of supplies headed derp into a powerful gangs territory- the same gang we had a poor encounter with on day 1. The informant didn’t want anything but to inconvenience the gang and a cut of the supplies so they said. The group gets back together at the cabin and on the way the cabbie sells the party a box of misc parts, scrap, and old tools that was cluttering up his house. everyone discussed the options and it was decided that. We’d rescue the children at the mill. The likelihood of the enemy following the stolen carriage and the group back to the cabin was too much. There was a third option but I font remember what it was. Hugo and Jamie take positions at high ground in a nearby building stealth killing a couple guards who were there first. The one handed girl has the bomb. The healer hired the cabbie to pretend to be her personal chauffeur/body guard as she pretends to be a potential buyer for the mills product and services. It goes reasonably well. Once the bomb goes off dropping a chunk of the ceiling onto some of the machinery in the work room the jig is up and combat begins. Even this goes reasonably well, until suddenly the dwarf falls for no reason anyone on the ground can see. Was it another gtoup of guards over seeing the mill from another building? 

No. It was an unfamiliar hooded figure, so not the same as the previous suspicious characher, that only Hugo saw. Jamie went down to join melee and Hugo stayed to keep up ranged combat and watch for the arrival of any reinforcements. However when the cabbie Bruce suddenly got up and started wildly swinging his axes at anything within reach Hugo thought it best to head down. During the chaos of the berserk dwarf the healer and the one handed girl pilfered some bodies and checked around for the keys needed to set free some of the children and gave them the keys to free the rest. These two did take some damage from Bruce. Jamie and Hugo were not much help in that situation but the healers friend showed up in time to help knock him out and free the rest of the children who made short work of their captors. The friend dropped came by with a card and some back up and said we had only so much time before the property was getting leveled. Just enough time for both our group and the healers friends to loot though the friend got first run. The children ran off armed and angry. We assume this will end badly but arguable only for whoever sent those children to the mill, we hope. We plan to deal with that later maybe. 

 As Hugo loads Bruce and the spoils of victory into Bruces carriage we assume the police are on their way but what arrives instead are the real owners of the mill, the same gang from day 1. While there are three or four total it seems this one is the most wide spread. The healers friend says time is running out and they leave as flames bread out all over the mill and an explosion is head from tge other side of tge building. we stay to kill off the arriving gang members because… why not go the extra mile? When we kill them we find a blood stained deed to the land covering the mill and the building next to it. It’s pretty substantial lot for the party but hopefully not so much to its former owners. The witnesses who know we were there are the healers friends, Bruce if he remembers any of it, the now wild children, and the hooded figure. The healer examines what Bruce was attacked with and recognized what it was and possibly where it came from but was unable to fully identify it and what was needed to cure it. While the rest of the group took everything back to the Bruces shop because they aren’t great at driving a carriage, the healer went off to do research and came back with the cure later that night. When Bruce recovered we explained what happened. 

Evidence suggests the attack was about Bruce and not the mill. Huntsman Josiah Hugo has 45/90 lbs fine coal remaining. If I remember correctly. I don’t have his sheet on me today. Typed this up on mobile I'll edit more of the spelling and grammar later. The noble, his body guard, and the ruffian were not at this session.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

Day 1: first day in town is the best day to make powerful enemies

(Minus most of the derailing and the attempted inter-party murders and things that made the 1/2 hour of actual play take nearly 3 hours?) Huntsman Josiah Hugo was looking to sell some of the small adorable animals he trapped out in the woods he calls home, maybe get drunk, maybe start some fights? Maybe get a better paying job, when suddenly the shop keeper starts arguing with Jamie, the person? Sibling? Friend? Hugo lives with and came to town with. Hugo starts chanting for a fight to break out, a one handed girl comes in and joins the chanting. A gnome comes in and steals some shit, the shop keeper ignores Jamie and fires some warning shots at the gnome- it's the shop keepers "brother". This happens now and then. The three leave, Hugo looking for the cheapest bar in the area the other two just following. The girl talks to the bar tender asking about work bad if there's any scrap/ junk/trash outside she can remove/clean up for him (collect and sell). On the way a ruffian who was told to leave pushes and injurs her breaking the only valuable objects she had: clean glass bottles. A child helps the bar tender clean the girl up. Across the room an out of place noble and his body guard are speaking to a suspicious hooded figure seated at a table. Hugo and Jamie know that suspicious characters often have work that needs to be done, preferably by big burly strangers with no attachment to the locals, so they go over and get in on the job. Beat up this dude on a boat. Cool. Punching people is Hugos second favorite thing. The hooded figure also employees for this endeavor the child and one handed girl- to sneak in during the ruckus, and the ruffian. The party hires a cabby- who turns out to be the shop keeper from before, who seems have hands in many things, to take them to the marina. There they find out the "guy on a boat" is a wealthy tycoon of some sort on a well guarded (casino?) steamship. The group poses as the new cleaning crew. A street urchin sneaks on and tries to rob a party member? Hugo grabs the child and brings them to the guards hoping to gain further entry with the offering, like- hey i caught this thief sneaking in, reward me. the guards just toss the kid into the river. One handed girl forgets she can't swim and dives in to save the urchin. Party child and Nobles guard try to save them and narrowly succeed. Hugo furiously mops the deck, Jamie also mops. The noble is standing around trying to think of a better plan, the ruffian just stands around. The guards come out and say their boss wants to talk to some of the party. Hugo, the body guard, and the ruffian go in. the boss is totally shit faced and made a boozy mess of his cabin. They beat the piss out of him, but he's probably alive? and loot everything. Hugo finds a fancy watch and when he hears the guards coming to check on everything he crit fails jumping out a window and so it turns out it wasn't a window but a realistic painting of a window. The group says nothing is wrong and the boss just passed out but the guards aren't buying it so Hugo charges the door and knocks out one of the guards. The group gets the other and all three bodies are hidden behind the desk and the door closed. Mean while the one handed girl and the child have unmoored the boat and are sneaking into the storage room where the coal is kept and are working out how to steal it. They decide they need the group and stop by the kitchen for supplies. The child finds several vials of the tomato seasoning arsenic and knows a few better uses for it. Noble over hears that a buyer for the boat is on the way and intends to pose as him but chaos has already broken out by the time he greets the guard. The party reunites and makes their way to the coal room? And it's divided equally only because that's convenient for carrying. Each takes 45-50lbs of FineCoal. On the way out the party sees a strangely familiar suspicious characher sneaking off the ship with a paper in his hand. The party realized no one could steer the ship and they too just left. Abandoning it and tge left over crew to the tide and heading to cab to take them to the bar to collect what was due. The child asks if anyone found a watch, Hugo offers but the one handed girl steals it right out of his hand mid transaction. The suspicious characher shows up with some thugs and the girl hands it over to him when asked. Hugo tries to stop her, demanding payment first but the girl doesn't listen ( "I just want to test a theory I have!" "With OUR copper on the line as well as yours?" "Yes!"). Suspicious character then demands the coal and money on every character in exchange for their lives. ("I KNEW IT." said the player who lost the party 550copper.) It turns out the suspicious character is a member of one of the larger gangs in the city though I cannot recall his position, it was enough to cause the party some concern about their choices. Hugo notices the one hand girl trying to put her coppers and sack of coal onto him ( "I rolled a 19 +3 I definitely notice this, its 45lbs. what are you even doing this for?") , telling the suspicious character she has nothing and should be let go on those grounds. Hugo and everyone else, villain included stares in awe at the audacity of the girl trying to be "sneaky" about putting on someone a literal 45 lb sack. Hugo is insulted but mostly confused at the betrayal and intends to keep as much of those 90lbs FineCoal as possible. The girl is denied her request. She tries to take back the coal. Hugo threatens her, but the villain shoots her in the good arm. The child actually snuck off soon after the one hand girl took the watch, figuring the loyalty of the group was dissolved and their safety with the group no longer viable. The ruffian wasn't allowed in the bar again to begin with and just waited awkwardly outside. ("Hey? Bar keep? Can I come in? I need to get paid? Hey?? Can? Can I just come in my party is kinda?? Can you hear me? Can he hear me?") What's left of the group tries to negotiate, Hugo also attempted but ends up just hurling an ax at the biggest dude there. A fight begins but is shortly ended when the cabby/shop keeper comes in having heard the ruckus from outside. He makes a bold statement "you know who I am, you know what I can do. You sure you wanna do this?" And he tossed Hugo a gun. They don't, and the whole ordeal took long enough that the police were on the way. Everyone leaves. The police try to stop the party- abloody ax and gun was kind of a tip off that maybe they're involved. The group loads up on the carriage trying to be casual but the guards start attacking and Hugo and Jamie take some shots at the guards killing some and their horses. They are taken to the woods some distance from where Hugo and Jamie live. They give t h e cabby payment in coal for services rendered, and also for saving them from that gang, because h o ly cow there's a lot of coal. Why did they need all of that? Hugo didn't know and never asked. He still has 75 lbs. After paying (extra to) the unusual cabby, thinking it best to make a good friend of him.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

I got to be a player!

i joined a dnd group at the game shop in my town, it has rotating dms as well as rotating campaigns.

I have gone twice now, but it was the same campaign and dm both times, I guess this is unusual but I’m not clear on why, it seems like everyone else knows something about it? but honestly I don’t care, if I need to know I’ll find out easy enough because:

my older brother is dating that dms older sister and we hang out as a group every week/every other week. (or used to until my work schedule changed)

I was hesitant to join because I was concerned I’d feel weird about being the oldest one there? but one is probably close-ish to my age and theres two others who are much older, though they didn’t show up to this game.

this campaign is vaguely dnd 5e, for the purposes of organization I’ll tag posts about this campaign “90lbs FineCoal”, its very homebrewed- which is fine but I wasnt told shit about the campaign before starting. Like when I made my character I wasnt even given a full explanation about what my homebrewed “huntsman” class is. I’ve just been playing it like a magicless-druid/rageless-barbarian? I’m only 55% sure my character is human, they might be a dwarf? idk.

what I now know is, the setting is fantasy victorian/edwardian “london”? but like, nobody ever bothered to actually look up a map of that? so??? anyway... There is no magic either, at least none in england that is any common knowledge though there may be some in other parts of the world. A giant wall has for some reason been built around england, cutting it off from the rest of the world- even its ties to ireland and especially scottland, presumably any and all foreign nation where england should have connection to in this time- there is none. At least none that any of our lowly characters would know about- who are all like, street urchins (4 of the characters) or simple simple trades folk just trying to get by- (my character Josiah Hugo and his? sister? brother? roommate? idk Jamie?) theres also a disgraced noble and his body guard. but I assume they werent important enough to know any of that stuff.

theres very little in the way of group cohesion, but one of the more antagonistic players didn’t show up this time so it was better than the first time I went. though theres still a problem with players not knowing the difference between being in character and being disruptive and derailing... or like.... actively hurting the party. again, it was better this time. and hopefully, when players behave badly the dm will manage them better or at least continue making them actually roll or do opposed rolls to do the thing they were trying to do. something that didn’t happen at all last time, resulting in a near tpk but deus ex machina dwarf rolled up and saved the day.

one of the stranger things about this campaign and why its only vagely 5e is that some checks and saves and whatever seem to function like the call of cthulhu set up where you must roll under a number seemingly arbitrarily picked by the dm not above, but I have yet to figure out how to tell what distinguishes when the roll is for one or the other. I don’t think anyone else knows yet either? I suspect ts an attempt to keep the players honest? But I have trouble imagining what could have happened where that’s needed.

Theres also a really big focus on resource management and base/territory construction and expansion. I think probably to help illustrate how poor the characters are and how desperate the state of the country is or its to make up for the near entire lack of roleplaying, which probably a good thing for now. Or its both I guess

and going back to the lack of magic in the setting, theres also in england anyway only 4 races- humans and dwarves being most common and pretty much as they usually are, gnomes- who are probably less common and more like how I see goblins portrayed as usually or maybe like gully-dwarves?  I cant really explain it that well, but I’m sure somebody gets it. theres also elves- no half elves, just elves, probably because they are very much looked down on and face extreme discrimination to the point where most of them must cut and reshape their ears to go through their day with any reasonable amount of peace. 

one of the players who rotates as dm is planing on starting a 2e dark sun game? the other runs a 5e high seas based game which had some extra rules but nothing major, I’ll tag posts about this game as Bassun on the Sea. another mentioned he wanted to run like... some sort of official event/game? but I wasnt really sure what that meant and didn’t bother asking. I’ll tag those posts as OfficialEvent.

I considered offering to join the dm rotation but I’m really not sure I’d be prepaired to handle a group that could be between 4 and 9 and I’d have no idea the exact number until I got there. I’ll have to think about it. its weird though that it seems like most of the players actually WANT to have a turn at dungeon mastering, I’ve never heard of that happening before. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

Last Wednesday

I sat down for dnd, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stay but I was. There was an older couple at the table, they remembered meeting me briefly at garycon, I only remembered seeing them around.

We played a home brew 5e game with the dm being The same as Bassun on The Sea. It seemed to be set?? In the distant future of earth? because he does not like to put huge effort into world building(edit- to be fair those were HIS words not mine)?? Numerous years after a natural disaster that flooded most of the world. Magic is there because it always was there.

I assumed I couldn’t play Bassun again so I pulled out an assimar warlock I made for AL a while ago but never got to use more than once.

The story seems to be based on like, people being reborn into the world as sentient weapons sometime after their death if they’re stories/legends/histories are important/powerful enough. If the weapon is broken/disenchanted the entity is released into the world as a living being/whatever they were when they died/whatever they were in the story?

We found 2 such weapons and released one of them. The other prefers to be in the weapon. The entity in that weapon wants his nation/people returned as a major world power and the faction my character works for is descended from that nation apparently? So sure I guess I’m down? And another character was just s huge fan of that entity’s legend do she’s all about it. Third character was not ok with it.

The oldr couple didn’t stay long they left an hour early, early enough to miss most everything because the first two hours was just... like a QuickTime event cut scene? We could do stuff but it didn’t actually effect anything? And most everything else that happened was just? More cut scene? A few skill and checks.

So I actively had my character do... not much. Just pretend to help but actually do nothing.

I might change characters because I dunno if this one fits right? But who knows how long this will even go.

The older couple didn’t seem to enjoy the game but liked the company I think? They also tried helping the dm.... dm and offered some coaching and encouragement.

If we play this more I’ll tag it as MoreSeas no character name yet. Not one that fits anyway.

The Werewolf and dark sun dm mentioned that she’s either going to start another dark sun campaign once the werewolf story is done or just a regular 2nd edition set in a home brew world she used on her college group: earth but after a strange natural disaster 75-85% or so of technology failed and Significant levels of infrastructure crumbled allowing for magic to creep back in with nature. The full description sounded a lot like what 90lbs FineCoal was based on? And I got hints of it from the other games that the teen boys were running before they got weird and derailed or turned into obvious fanfiction.

I wonder if this will end up like that or.... i hope not, I’d really like it go well for everyone.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

Scenario 1: directly into the spine??

The issue of my characters class/background wasn't figured out, I'm thinking it's not going to be important for a while yet. Other people's characters also had some stuff not figured out but same deal it's not too important yet. 

 There was a new girl too, a friend of the 90lbs FineCoal dm. She was... well... she's gonna take some getting used to. She's very vocal about not being "PC" and having a problem with "special snowflakes" and said a lot of gross ableist stuff until the dm of the night spoke up and was like yeah no you need to stop I'm literally personally attacked and offended stop. Which was good because as much as I wanted to say something I always come off as an asshole bullying kindness into teenagers.

 The scenario for tonight went like this: My character was called to check out this guy who was recently returned from random South American jungle area. he was found at a local camp ground alive but vegetative.  He was seen earlier just stumbling around aimlessly people just thought he was drunk.

mean while on the other side of the camp a body was found dead and covered in human bite marks.

at this camp there is a shooting range where an assassin working for the fbi in a situation that sounds stolen right from a tv show was helping teach trainees on gun usage and safety?

the patient that I was called to look in on was then quarantined, because his brain was basically melting and there was no apparent cause but better safe than sorry.

several people at the camp started reporting getting attacked and bit by something, someone. 

while my character was dealing with the patient “Once he’s secured to the table I hold my arm just over the patients head. Does he try to bite me? Not really? I begin X sort of testing then.” the rest of the group was hunting down the person or persons who were biting people intending to bring them to me to examine or trying to evacuate the camp goers and staff who were obviously fine and transporting everyone else to a hospital for a closer look. 

days go by in game and mostly everyone at the camp was fine just “patient zero” and two others caught roaming around in the same way the first guy was seen as: aggressive then deteriorating  at various rates to vegetative. Family and friends of the patients were questioned by the other pcs and some vague clues were put together but not enough to answer anything.

most tests came back negative though there were weird puncture wounds on their spines checking those resulted in testing positive for jaguar?

so the party checked their homes for more clues and found some syringes testing on those showed jaguar dna and something else. searching the house my character found reason to believe that this was a failed attempt at some kind of ritual to absorb the spirit of the jaguar some sort of modernized version of an older ceremony. 

the ultimate cause of the brain death of the three patients and the failure of the ritual was that the particular jaguar they had acquired the blood and spinal fluid of (probably the reason patient zero went to south america) was infected by a rare aggressive fungus that somehow survived long enough in the extracted fluids to infect the humans who injected that shit RIGHT INTO THEIR SPINES.

at some point during all this one of the PC FBI agents asked if I could “Do Something” about the vegetative patients. I responded “I’ve been been told to... shall we say, not check patients out early or transfer their room to the basement? Besides, I’m pretty sure they have family who would be pissed and would much rather pay for the upkeep.”

[trpg-dingusmaster]

DarkSun

It was I think the second game for the group, but first for me.

It was weird but liked it. It was odd having some of the rolls needing to be low not high. I still don’t really get it but I did pick up a standard 2nd ed phb and dmg so maybe that will help me out.

The premise seems to be the group was being sold into slavery but mid way through the trip some elves with a bone to pick with the slavers showed up and freed us, but that wasn’t really their goal, now we’re on our own headed toward civilization.

The party is I believe: ½ elf rogue- bassun on the sea dm ½ elf clarity psion- me Goliath gladiator- 90lbs FineCoal dm Muul fighter- official event dm Metabolism psion- guy who plays the ruffian in 90lbs and wizard in official event Thrikreen ranger- plays Jamie in 90lbs Halfling water cleric - the new guy

The other psion wasn’t there

Where we started was we had camped out and the muul worked on making equipment for everyone and were heading to an oasis.

We stopped by a strange cave full of weird cacti.

We stocked up of some water for the day, killed a worm or snake? And took it to use a rope later because why not?

Continuing on we heard some squawking and buzzing and saw a giant wasp being attacked by some birdpersons. We killed the birds and the wasp gave us it’s water buckets. We harvest everything possible from the birds and followed more wasps to their hive. It was bigger than we expected to we just left.

As we left there was a strange thing in the sky following us. It left as the sun came up and I’m not sure if it was what attacked us next or if it was something else. But a huge flying snake/amphithere or maybe it was an actual worm? Not a wyrm. It paralyzed the Goliath and tried to wiggle off with him so combat happened and we killed it. For brevity we assumed if the other psion was present they would have carried the Goliath as we make our way to the creatures lair. Muul made stuff out of the creatures bits high quality armor and hides. most of us gathered silk because apparently it made silk. The halfling harvested the creatures poison sack. The Goliath just recovered.

At last we came upon the oasis. It was gross and guarded by a pair of giant lizards. Closer inspection one lizard was actually dead from no apparent cause. I checked the water for poison and sure enough. Deadly to everything that isn’t elven (and pissibky wadp?) even birds and lizards and shit like that. Because elves are dicks. I wanted some of tge poison water and the halfling wanted to collect various plants for poisons and restoration teas but the giant lizard wouldn’t let us.

The Goliath tries to tame the lizard but it fails. The thrikreen and rogue try seducing the lizard because I thought it would be funny to suggest and they just ran with it and it sort of worked. It was distracted anyway for us to do what we needed to do before leaving. As we left we ran into more of those elves that saved us. They were checking on the plants they put by the oasis to poison it and told us where their mixed race camp was and also where a dwarf village was but warned us that those guys participated in slave trade so we probably shouldn’t trust them.

Obviously we went toward the dwarves. We cane upon some children sent to gather water from the oasis. We tried to warn them but they didn’t believe us. Halfling filled their water magicly to protect them and they started escorting us to the village very suspicious of us and our intentions.

I’ll just be tagging these posts as DarkSun I think. 

I picked a pretty passive type character class because maybe interesting but mostly to let the rest of tge group take more charge of the game but I feel like it didn’t work out. I feel like I still took too much limelight and action. I gotta work on that.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

two druids and a bard almost ruin dm’s fanfiction, dm responds by being a weenie

I went to play dnd at the shop a while ago, again my friend who usually plays the unicorn in my game came with- this time there was room a the table so she joined the game. there were a lot of people missing but also one new guy? or at east one guy I’ve never seen before. he and I helped her build a character. he did most of the work since they were both playing druids anyway.

the dm this time was the guy who plays the one handed girl in edwardian/victorian england (90lbs FineCoal) campaign, and the tabaxi in the official event campaign. 

This guys campaign was, I was told, a High Seas themed 5e. I had made a character for this when I was first told about it i dunno a month or two ago? 1/2 orc bard, Bassun (like a bassoon) Drun. 

it turns out this campaign is coming to an end though so it doesnt matter. I had kept missing weeks this game was going on because of work and it seems like a WHOLE LOT of stuff went on between when I made my character and yesterday. heres a few few things, and getting even this ,uch was like pulling teeth to be honest. a lot of these details lead me to believe this is some kind of kingdom hearts fanfiction? but it was never explicitly escribed as such.

-characters all have keyblades? some more than one. each having a special ability of some kind though it doesnt seen to always correspond with the theme of the keyblade? like- mine is basically just a magical electric-keyboard-guitar? thing? but is special ability is to turn into a really big gun??? unless I misunderstood?? I thought it was weird though so I never used it.

-there are Nobodies- both monsterous and humaniod I think? But the humanoid ones might be called Shamans? (but the could be a different faction?)  which cannot be hurt by any magic or attacks not done with the keyblades. and several spells that probably we shouldnt have needed to make any rolls for we had  to roll to see if they effected them or something? I think someone said it was because they can become incorporeal nearly at will? and/or because they can shift into a pocket plain as a means of travel through the material plain?

-non magic using classes get 2 first level spells or 1 second level spell with dm approval they can cast through the keyblade only, these spells are attached to it permanently and cant be changed. these spells can be used 1/long rest. spells are taken from a class list that either fits the keyblade theme or some arbitrary choice by the dm im not sure

-magic user classes can cast either all of their spells through the keyblade or the same unchangeable 2 first level or 1 second level I’m not sure. but at the very least I  know I can cast shatter with it? 

-there are things called orbs? which are collected from defeated nobodies (I think?) and theycan be used to do stuff like- get new keyblades or to do something that sounded like buying spell slots but not quite? I’m not sure.

-there are god like entities in physical form that are just?? around?? but also somethat are not in physical form?? some of them have avatars that are around doing stuff?? both god like beings and their avatars are kill able? 

Theres something called the cursed lands which seems to be some kind of separate plain seeping into and corrupting the material plain? it seems to have some natural mind effecting abilities? and is where the main antagonists are hiding out? I get the feeling its based off of some end game locations in some kh game or another.

I’m thinking maybe if I was more familiar with kingdom hearts maybe I’d have some idea about whats going on? I’ve only played 1, 2, and chain of memories so....  I dunno if any of the weird stuff here is from the other KH content or what. I suspect the ‘Sea’ is actually SPACE/multiverse and the ‘islands’ are actually distinct worlds/universes.

Also, its not really very 5e? the way the game goes is very like how the 90lbs FineCoal is played but combat sort of resembles 5e where the other doesnt.

the game was very chaotic and confusing but this time it was basically no fun, like at all. my self, my friend, and the new guy were unfamiliar with the setting and its rules and no one felt the need to explain. nearly everything we tried to do ended up being not allowed either by setting rules or just because it was too far removed from the dms expectations and thus would ruin his narrative, I assume based on what things did work.

Which brings me to how the dm was being a weenie. Instead of just explaining to us you cant use this or do that and you don’t have such and such ability because game rules, even if it wasn’t true we wouldn’t have known or just honestly saying: I cant let you do that because it ruins the story I’m trying to tell, that would have been one thing, but what he chose to do was punish characters/players for doing stuff didn’t want us to do whether or not we knew what we were trying to do was allowed, with no explanation. this ranged from giving damage or curses to characters or destroying character equipment, and even going so far as to allow players to roll for actions or saves with crazy high difficulty but disregarding the roll entirely even if it was a natural 20 ift he result didn’t work with what he wanted to happen. this was a literal exchange between a player and the dm:

-can I roll to stop that?

-you can try hehehe

-natural 20!

-...I dont care... you still fail. (no, he wasnt kidding)

here are some things that were not allowed or deemed really annoying for... reasons? (even if what we were doing should have been allowed based on what we understood of the rules we were told, like- magic cast through the keyblade effects Nobodies... except when the dm doesnt want it to because it ruins the plot)

casting identify, casting locate object, casting warding wind, casting pass without a trace, casting wind wall, casting glyph of warding, casting lesser restoration, casting remove curse, leaving an npc behind for in character plot reasons also they were a distracting attempt at slapstick comedy (this npcs weapon of choice was a frying pan) which no one wanted to bring into the end game, having in character conversation while the rest of the party participated in the plot that only they understood, wanting to start changing character alignment for the better because plot, asking how big a space was, asking how far away things were, inspiring the party (my bards equipment was broken for this). asking for explicit approval before trying to take an action. 

one guy, whos been playing this campaign since it was started got so fed up with the dm being a weenie he nearly left. It seems this kind of behavior- punishing with out explanation or obvious reason, was common throughout and it really fits with what I’ve come to learn about this guy and how he plays these games. I can only hope he learns and grows out of it.

if youre going to run a railroading style campaign or adventure, thats fine and a perfectly valid way to run a game, but please be clear with the players- ALL of them that’s whats going on and such are your expectations for the game, also if there are weird homebrew rules you REALLY need to make sure ALL of your players have some grasp on what they are.

if my friend and I, I assume also the new guy, had known more about the setting and the dms expectations we would have chosen and built our characters, or at least played them, differently. Maybe we could have been a constructive part of the group instead of three annoying piles of dead weight everyone was frustrated with by the end of the session.

or I dunno, maybe don’t have three new people jump into the tail end of an unnecessarily complicated homebrew campaign with no real context.

we could have done something else, I could have run a little one shot  at another table or helped people make characters for the murder hobo game. if I’m there the next time this game is going I might do that, because i really didn’t enjoy this. The whole thing hardly even felt like a game? It felt more like we were just being lead through the dms fanfiction. He intends to start another campaign once this is done, to stay in the rotation, I’m not sure if I’m gonna do that one either.

 I might at least give it a try once, mostly to confirm my suspicion that even though he owns a copy of the PHB and possibly the DMG I’m not sure he actually read them. I mean, look, I understand being a dm is hard especially if youre still new and learning, I’m still learning too, but that’s no excuse to be a weenie to your players. You know? You have to communicate and yeah sometimes you gotta compromise sometimes you gotta improvise, thats like, a pretty big part of games like this isnt it?