The Judge’s Notes

Pulling back the veil…

I don’t blog. It’s not that I’m against the practice. I have three blog sites ready in case I ever decided to do it. It’s just that I haven’t felt like I wanted to make the daily investment required to say what’s on my mind.

Instead, I thought I’d contribute to this thread. I haven’t stickied it because it’s not really essential to the campaign. It serves as an opportunity for me to make observations about the campaign, our gaming sessions, some of my prep work, etc.

I’m not revealing any secrets that will give player-readers an edge over others. For those of you that run your own campaigns or are curious about the decision-making that goes into this one, perhaps you’ll find some of the comments interesting. You’re welcome to add your own thoughts.

…and if it turns out not to be a popular thread on this forum, I’m not really concerned. I’m writing because I need to express these thoughts. If they’re read, more power to you.

In case you couldn’t tell, I love recruiting players to our campaign.

I like that feeling of getting people excited about a new game; of going through the character creation process and seeing what results; of being exposed to new ideas. And what imaginations you have!

I’ve purposely used an open door policy regarding accepting new players to this campaign for a couple of reasons. The first is practical.

I’ve learned that online gaming commitments can be…fluid? …tenuous?...easily interrupted by real life? The reason doesn’t really matter, but it’s no sure bet that you can get a great group of players together that gel. After all, we’re a collection of strangers.

And even when you think you have a solid, core group of players, other things rightly compete for a player’s attention and they’re gone—sometimes without warning or explanation.

So, I’ve decided to allow (almost) everyone to sign up and join the fun. The result has been a small explosion of new players, which is personally satisfying, but potentially overwhelming for the Judge and disappointing for the players. It makes me nervous to host a party and then never get to mingle with the guests.

I guess the second main reason for gathering such a large group is to expand my own ideas of what good, creative gaming can be. If I only associate with people who think like I do, I’ll get into a rut. I’ll be predictable and stale. That’s not good for any of us.

Going forward, I predict that we’ll have a few more players than is strictly comfortable until the core group develops—though even then I won’t stop looking for a few more good men and women.

In my first online campaign, once we got the core group, we started carefully recruiting and selecting new players. Most of the guys had a ‘tryout’ of one kind or another (usually as an NPC) before they were invited to join full time. I think one of the reasons we’ve continued to game together is our shared perspective and ethic towards role-playing. That’s been both informative and satisfying.

In this campaign, I didn’t want to be too restrictive in the beginning about players needing to follow my setting ideas too closely. Of course, I’d love it if everyone shared my perspective from the beginning. But I know that if I’m too dogmatic at the start, good, open-minded players might not try out what’s on offer. And what’s the point of having a ‘pure’ campaign if nobody plays it?

Being exposed to more players with a variety of role-playing backgrounds has helped me get a better sense of who I like as role players and as 'people'. I don’t have any illusions about being real friends with my online gaming buddies, but I do like being able to call players by their real name, for example; to know something about their work or where they live. You know, things like is gaming an escape from other commitments?...a misunderstood passion?...part of a well-balanced life?

I like players who tend to honor their commitments; who are communicative and respectful of other players; who like adventuring in underground locales; who are resourceful in playing their role, no matter what their character’s abilities are or what their class is called.

I appreciate the players who are grateful for the effort I put into the campaign. Even more, I appreciate those players who make their own effort to contribute to the collective fun we all have.

Life’s too short to be in a game you don’t enjoy.

A really long combat encounter took up most of our last session. It still surprises me that fighting can take so long to resolve. I'm also a bit worried in case the players get bored with round after round of stating their actions, moving their tokens and rolling initiative. They haven't dominated their opponents in many of these fights and several popular figures have begun to fall.

I'm learning a lot about how this group of players fights and it's giving me some insight into the necessity of elaborate PC backgrounds (next to none), the usefulness of class abilities and the importance of tactics. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts here in case anyone is interested.

1) I'm still amazed at how frequently players fight to the death even when it seems their character might not normally do so. For a few characters, I could understand this as a point of honor or adherence to a code. For most other classes, though, it doesn't make sense to me. Self-preservation in the face of a superior enemy would seem to be the better option.

Is there an unwritten RPG rule that says, 'If one falls, we all fall'? I ask, because nobody ever talks about this before the start of an adventure, even in role-play. 'Hey Sundance, if the big guy takes me out, kill 'em.' 'You got it, Butch.' Without stating it, almost everyone joins in the death pact. Very strange.

We've had some notable exceptions and I respect those characters' decisions to run for it and use the info they've gleaned to adventure another day.

If players are going to have their players fight to the death so easily, it sure makes creating elaborate backgrounds a bit irrelevant.

2) I don't begrudge players wanting to get into fights, even when they are a bit overmatched. In that case, I'd expect them to use superior tactics to defeat superior foes. Unfortunately, I don't think I've seen much PC discussion on this point BEFORE combat is engaged. Once in action, characters act on their own with little coordination.

Perhaps this lack of tactical forethought and discussion may be normal when you get a group of strangers together at a virtual game table. It's possible that players don't feel comfortable yet asserting themselves.

3) I've told the players that I haven't balanced the encounters to suit their level and skill set. They are what they are. Adventuring is a deadly business. There have been moments where players used resourcefulness and cleverness to get out of tight situations. I'd love to see more of that when it doesn't look like brute strength will carry the day.

I've also been reminded that I don't like helpless PCs. I much prefer PCs that are doers. Even characters who are not combat-oriented need to have some cunning tricks up their sleeve to help their allies, distract their foes, etc. We want to see action (even if running away) to passivity.

4) Many class abilities are going unused in situations where it might make sense to use them. I'm beginning to suspect that there are too many class abilities for players to keep track of in combat. I may have to think about reducing the number, but give players options to activate more as they advance in levels.