Game Breakers

One of the guys that hangs out at my FLGS is pretty well known for finding ways to legally "break" any game he is playing.

A recent case in point involved the following: During a planned, published adventure, buying an ox from the supply table, killing/sacrificing it, and then re-animating it so as to have a Zombie Ox for use in combat. (And rendered the fighter of the party useless in the works.)

His alignment and diety situations were such that this was all totally legal and in no way affected his moral standing nor his ability to gain XP for the adventure.

He liked the idea so much that he did it again in another adventure in the same system (because you don't keep equipment from session to session in the organized play league).

He also formerly ran a droid in one of the Star Wars games where he bought skill chips for any possible scenario, and left all the other PCs twiddling their thumbs.

Sometimes this type of behavior is funny- and the group loves it. Other times it is truly annoying and makes playing NO FUN. Most of the time, it's the response of the GM that bothers me.

The mentality of "well, it's legal so I must allow it" really aggravates me. I like games where GMs and players work together to make things fun, and I don't mind an occasional "here's why I think this might be appropriate" kind of good natured arguement. But when it comes to rules, whether something is allowed, or making the game a sham of what it should be, I'm firmly in the "I'm the GM and I say NO" camp.

Some folks are not good at saying no to other people. Others are so intent on "let's have a good time" that refusing something that is legal (but potentially game breaking) is out of their mindset.

I played with a guy recently who was unintentionally coming close to breaking the game we were in. He kept trying to use OOC knowledge in character and kept justifying it off through very shaky reasoning. The GM in question called him on it several times in very subtle (but effective) ways. The player continued in some of this behavior by asking questions that he really should not have been asking to another player in the game. The other player was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the questions, but my character found the whole thing creepy and told off the offending character.

I knew this player would be a little problematic. He's young and just learning the social aspects of gaming, and still hasn't outgrown the "look what I can do" mentality. He really has not had a lot of opportunity to roleplay (most of his experience has been in miniatures) and so many of the lines between personal knowledge and character knowledge have yet to be drawn. Despite all this, he's a good and willing kid, and I don't mind helping him learn - other people helped me learn when I was in his position.

The difference between these examples, I think, is intent. The first guy INTENDS to to find ways to break the system- and in many cases, takes pleasure in it. The second guy doesn't know better.

There's also a difference in response- the first guy has gotten away with quite a bit because of GMs who don't want to say no, or feel they can't. The second guy has a GM who is not afraid to tell him "stop doing that; it's annoying".

I actively look for GMs that will say no, and avoid the known game breakers as often as possible.

Uh-oh It's; Every Little Thing She Does; A Kind of;

Yes, I got sucked back into the world of Magic: the Gathering.

I don't play seriously or competitively. I play with a couple people I like and enjoy, and I play to pass time or have a fun evening. I actually kind of like putting decks together (even though I am truly bad at it) and I don't mind learning new ways to be defeated. (It happens a LOT.)

One of the guys I enjoy playing against most is a guy that a lot of people have a hard time dealing with. He's high functioning autistic and his 'special area of focused interest' is mathmatics. He understands the combinations, stacks, interworkings and otherwise fairly intricate nature of the "high end" of the game excessively well. His decks are usually well built around a single premise or card and he KILLS with them.

He's also completely fair and very patient. He never gives me difficulty for not knowing or understanding some of the more complicated rules or card combinations. He's a good opponent for me to learn from, because he explains EVERYTHING. I often learn more about a single card or combination through him than just by reading them or asking questions.

Another guy I play agains whenever I can is our local MtG Guru. He's forgotten more about Magic than I'll ever know- card names, colors, casting cost, effect, best ways to use them, etc. He's also one of the nicest, coolest guys ever. He loves the game and wants everyone else to like it too. He doesn't do jerk plays or in your face stuff. He saves competitive play for competitions; and even then he's a good-natured guy.

I have a small collection of cards, and I'm slowly learning how to use them. I'm having fun and enjoying myself.

"I can quit any time I want, Honest!"

Promoted?! CRAP.

I play one of those online resource management games on FaceBook. I'm pretty terrible at it- I routinely make dumb mistakes, don't know what to do or when, and often have to correct for something insanely dumb I did yesterday.

I just got promoted to officer status in my alliance- which means that I am supposed to be knowledgeable, willing and able to help new players and be a resource in case of wars etc.

I asked our "Boss" if he was kidding. I can tell you honestly I still contend that I am being Punk'd.

I am SO bad at this game- I have no right or reason to be telling anyone what to do or offering advice of any kind. But the Boss says no, I deserve this "honor".  Crap.

I suppose starting a random war is out of the question.

Blog Inspiration and Campaign Setting:Wonderland

I have bandied about the idea for a campaign for a long time, but really only had one idea. This one idea is pretty serial in nature, and when the plot arch ends, the campaign is over. That idea has me reluctant to start a game- knowing that for sure, it would end within so many runs. So I've tabled the idea and held off for a long time.

Sometime very recently, I came up with Wonderland. It's a group of about 10 cities spread over a semi-continent. If one were to connect the dots on the map of this not-quite-a-continent from city to city, they would be laid out in roughly a teardrop shape, but one on its side.

Wonderland is a place where everything is possible, just not at the same time. Magic, mystics, superpowers, steampunk, cyberstuff, horror/noir and several other themes are present in the world in one place or another, at various times. They also exist with varying degrees of reliability. Some places things always work, and others are a little more chancy.

The two main cities are Miracle City and Locaville, on essentially opposite ends of the shape from each other. Other towns include Magnifica, Dodge, Metropolis, and Junction. There are a couple I have not named yet. Information travels slowly and strangely from town to town, due to time being a very flexible thing outside of proper cities. Distances that look as if they should take a days' travel on a map have been known to take a week, and in some instances much longer. Singular travelers often leave, but never arrive at their destinations.  Most travelers go between towns in caravans not to prevent raiders, but to prevent becoming "lost" between places.

What is known is that each town had strange, but understandable behaviors. Psycics could reliably use their abilities in Magnifica, and Cyber ususally worked in Dodge. While the residents of Wonderland did not know why things were, they did know that things were such a way and accepted it that way.

Recently, something or someone has started to change the rules. Suddenly, superpowers work in the yet-unnamed town where only magic works (and rarely at that). Horrors escape into Metropolis (the quiet, mundane Suburbia) and more. No one knows how or why this is happening.

My idea for the campaign would be to put together a group of various types and set them to finding out how the Wonderland works and why it has suddenly changed.

I would most likely use Savage Worlds for this game, but I'm still working the kinks out of the idea. I still have to define what's outside of the "defined" areas, as PCs are notoriously curious. I need to come up with town structures, guilds and/or apprentice groups, NPCs, a money structure and a few other things. I also need to consider deities and prayers because those might be affected by this strange place as well.

I like the idea- a lot. It's interesting and allows me to make up the rules to my desires. It also lets me tell a PC "no, it doesn't work that way" if the situation calls for it. It allows for a great deal of "Wild West" style exploration, with dungeons, cyber ware and Lovecraft all for good measure. I am excited to get the idea more firmed up so I could actually run it!

Shameless

I have an inate ability to "convince" my friends to do things that I want them to do. Most of the time these things are pretty inane, and almost always, the friend in question was considering it (or not averse) anyway.

Last night I convinced a long time friend to join a game adn blow his birthday money on the newest edition of the books.

I was pretty blatant about it, but it was fun. 

Game night!

Tonight is HS6E, at least in theory. It sounds like this is a character creation/tightening session and things will get going full on in a couple weeks. I finalized everything for my brick, Diamond, and sent it on over to the GM. We'll see how long she lasts under his scrutiny.

HS6E

I am finalizing the last bits of my character for a HS6E game a friend is running starting next week. I'll be playing alongside my husband - which is always interesting.

Most of the time I enjoy it, but there are others when it makes me absolutely nuts. He has a very dominant personality, and sometimes he runs a little roughshod over other people in the game. The flip side of that is sometimes absolutely nothing gets done without him to push it forward, so it does even out.

I have to say that Hero holds a very special place in my heart- my first gaming experience was 3rd edition Champions. It was an absolute blast. I learned so much by playing Champs rather than D& D or some other fantasy-oriented game to start out. I clearly remember cussing (loudly and often) about the amount of math in the game.I was forced to learn multiplication, division, decimals & fractions, percentages and economy of points. I still failed at some crucial lessons; a very famous one involves my complete inability to do any operation involving "8"s.

I have to say that 6E is really frustrating for me, because I am so familiar with the old rules I have trouble adapting to the new ones. The change away from figured statistics is truly a hard concept for me, as is -BUYING- OCV & DCV. I was also very disappointed that they got rid of EC's.

I have a very specific way I need to learn new rules- it often involves a lot of paper and pencil, and about 80 drafts of the same idea. It took me well over a month of stop-and-start attempts, but I finally came up with a complete character that I really enjoy. It's not a new one (I've played this character very briefly in a 4th Ed game) but it's fully fleshed out, with all the points and so forth.

This is a big deal for me, because I usually write down a few key elements I want in a character. The I hand it over to my husband, and say "make it work". My husband is a rules monkey extraordinaire, especially Hero system. He knows so many tricks, has so many unusual ideas, and understands the flexibility of the rules so well, I almost always defer to him.

I did want to expose myself to the new rules and some of the new mechanics, so I forced myself to make my own character, with pencil and paper. I cannot honestly say I enjoyed the process- it was actually pretty frustrating, but I'm proud that I did it and I am proud of the result.