Playing it Fast and Loose

I run a loose game.  There are several times during a session you'll hear me tell the players, just tell me what you want to do and we'll figure it out.  I'll set an arbitrary difficulty rating.  The player can chime in and debate it down and if the point it valid, down it goes.  Or I'll come up with a 'you get this bonus if you succeed or this penalty if you fail.'  I try to keep resolutions simple and fast paced.

Initiative is a simple matter for me.  Group initiative and then I take in dex modifiers after.  If the initiative monkey rolls a 3 and someone has a dex mod of +2 then they go one segment 1.  If the monkey rolls a 1, all can rejoice and go at the same time and slaughter the innocent monsters whose homes they have invaded.

I don't worry about 'you shoulds' when I play.  From the blogosphere you here many opinions on how things should be or how things should be played.  pppffffttttt.  Only requirement is having fun.  Drance over at Once More Unto the Breach!  is doing the A to Z challenge and his C is for Campaign entry spurred this post on.  I read some posts about a game report and think how boring it would have been to be included.  Some GMs just have a stranglehold on what should and shouldn't be happening.

Now I'll be the first to admit that my loose style gets me into trouble sometimes.  As I get older I have a hell of a time remembering where we left off.  I always have great intentions of taking notes and most sessions my notes of the beginning are great, but the farther I get into the game I find I get wrapped up in what's going on and forget to note things.  Luckily I have players that are more organized than me and can usually tell me where we last left off.

My prep for a game in minimal in most cases because I allow the players to drive the story.  But there will be situations going on that occur beyond the players control that often steers their actions.  Example, a war with a neighboring kingdom and the eastern iron ore mines were taken over by a small army of the rival kingdom.  All of a sudden weapon and armor prices triple and those lowly bandits along the road are now organized military ambushes.  Do the players have to do anything about what's going on, absolutely not, but they can if they choose to.

I guess with the weird convergence of reading Drace's post and watching The Hustler, Eddie Felson playing it
fast and loose made write this.  It railroaded me.  Yeah.  That's it.  I was railroaded.  And I didn't mind at all.

 

This one is mislabeled as the final pool game.  It's not.  This is part of the first game vs. Minnesota Fats.  If you haven't seen this movie or haven't seen it in a while, it's on Netflix.  Great movie.

How do YOU rate as a GM? (Only your players know for sure.)

This little test was inspired by DeAnn Iwan's article in 81st issue of Dragon Magazine of the same title. Well, replace the GM for DM and then it's exactly the same. She wrote a 43 questionnaire for players to rate their GMs. This is a variation of her test. Circle which number best describes the way your GM plays. So all you players out there grab your favorite writing utensil and know that your GM is not permitted to peak at your answers. You information and identity protection is my highest priority unless you write a comment then the gig is up. Remember, there are no bad GMs only ones that suck before they get good.

Does the GM challenge you?
1. Not so much. Everything is too easy. There is no penalty for being stupid.
2. Everything is impossible. Everytime I return home the GM makes me roll a lockpick challenge. I have the fricking key!
3. The challenges are balanced and fair. Just don't touch his slice of pizza or demon lords happen to appear.

How often do your characters die?
1. Die? I've waded through an army of titans and came away unscathed. I am immortal.
2. I've got sores on my hands from rolling up new characters.
3. Frequent enough that I run away when I see an army of angry titans.

How much treasure do you get?
1. I own at least one of everything in the treasure section. If Vecna had any more body parts lopped off I would have them.
2. I'm a 7th level fighter and I have holes in my shoes and wield a dull scythe I got from a farmer.
3. The party members and I have a pretty good stash of loot to help us take on what is thrown our way, but man I would love to get my hands a Girdle of Giant Strength.

How quick is the level progression?
1. I have attained godhood in three different classes. I am a god among gods. I'm very bored.
2. Forty-three sessions in the campaign and I've finally reached 3rd level. Never laugh at a GM's haircut or touch his pizza.
3. I'm progressing well. I got a nice bump of experience points after the last adventure.

Is your GM creative?
1. Ahh, he developed his own language for sentient bovine that have fled their native plane. I won't even go into culture of vegetables he gave us a handout on last session. Hint, don't eat the turnips.
2. My shoe has more ideas. I swear he bases each session off the most recent episode of Heroes.
3. Yeah. Keeps me guessing. Never assume a magic item or monster is going to react like its written.

How does the GM run NPCs?
1. All of them are nice and helpful. Even the mean ones apologize.
2. All of them are dicks. Even the nice ones would rather die than give us directions to a tavern.
3. Lots of variety. Although he tends to favor old characters of his, but if you know that ahead of time your good to go.

Does the GM favor any one class?
1. He likes non-adventuring classes. Last session we got a twenty-three page hand out on the particulars of a cobbler.
2. Any class his current NPC is.
3. I don't see any favoritism. Certain situations make one class shine over the others, but we all seem to get into the spotlight.

How does your GM handle critical successes?
1. Any hit is a critical. I've lopped off more heads than a lawnmower in a field of dandelions.
2. I wouldn't know.
3. He has a homemade chart with some cool effects. Although my group seems to favor the pelvis shot.

How does your GM handle critical failures?
1. I wouldn't know.
2. I've lopped off my own head and another player's leg while just eating dinner. I failed my challenge roll for cutting a piece of ham.
3. He has a homemade chart with some cool effects. Okay, it is pretty funny when someone hits themselves in the pelvis.

How realistic is your game?
1. If I want it I get it. So not very realistic.
2. I caught a cold walking in the rain then had to hunt a cow and nearly died because I couldn't track it down in a fenced in field. (Yes Rob, that one is for you!)
3. Enough to make simple things a little more exciting, but not get bogged down with details for the more mundane aspects of the game.

Does your GM go strictly by the rules as written?
1. We don't have any rules. We make it up as we go.
2. We aren't allowed to have a copy of the rule books. We had to hand them over before we began. He didn't want to be bother by people arguing with him.
3. He goes with the flow. There is a definite framework in place, but a lot of home rules built in. And if we as a party don't like a particular rule the GM with change it.

What is the best part of the game for your GM?
1. To see his player happy and successful. There is no failure as long as we try.
2. Collecting all the characters he's killed over the years. Sick son-of-a-bitch makes you hand over your character sheet so he can add it to a folder that reads 'character graveyard".
3. Watching us struggle with one of his puzzles or watching us cheer on a fellow player to get a good roll so the party can survive.

If your score is very low you must have a GM from California who does yoga. If your score is in the middle then you have GM from Texas who works in a prison. If you have a very high score you must live in Pennsylvania with a GM named Rob (I've got a game tonight so I figure I can get some extra xp for blatant flattery). So concludes this test. There are many other questions that could be asked, but I don't want to ask them. So please feel free to add you own.

The Worst Player I Ever GMed

Zack on RPG Blog II wrote about his worst DM ever and it read like a horror story. My worst DM was one who had a PC graveyard folder. If you went through his dungeon(s) and died he wanted your character sheet. These days it's no big deal to give up a copy of your PC, but back then we had no copies. This DM was proud of how thick his PC graveyard was and would thumb through it and brag how he'd killed them. First time I encountered him we played and I had a half-orc assassin character I liked a lot. I believe he was 5th level. This GM slaughtered the entire party within fifteen minutes of game play by rolling a random encounter of ten crazed titans. He expect each of us to hand over our characters and told him no. This was a one shot deal this character was involved in another campaign. He told me I could no longer play that character. It was his. It was dead. I left with my character sheet as did the others. I'm not sure what happened to him, but I am sure he is still thumbing through his PC graveyard folder.

Now onto the worst player I ever had. Now this will be in two parts because it changed. The first worst characters I ever had were actually Rob and Dwayne. They couldn't get along well enough to complete a single session without wanting to or killing one another. It was one of the main reasons I stopped DMing for a long time. It's hard to DM when your players just want to disembowel one another. But I am happy to report that is long past.

The worst player I had was always trying to find new ways to cheat. The only reason I dealt with him was he was part of a new group Rob and I started to play with. All the other guys in the group were a lot of fun to game with. I shall name this player Butthead, but Butthead was always cheating. We were playing a GURPS campaign so it is a point based system. Everyone started out with 100 point characters. I believe after a couple of game sessions the players were 110 characters, but magically Butthead's character was nearing the 200 point total. After I checked his sheet he defended it saying I had given him the points, like he was trying to pull some Jedi mind trick. I told him to go pound salt and redo his character to the 110 point level.

During game play he would roll the dice and cover them with his hand so no one could see the result but him. So I had to take a box off a Trivial Pursuit game and said all dice rolls needed to made within or it would not count. He said it wasn't fair. He said he wasn't cheating. He said I was doing it just because of him. I told him yeah I am now shut up and roll. In the box.

I was not fond of him game play either. He was playing a holy warrior, paladin type, but every time a monster or NPC would go down he would be the first to start pilfering through the pockets even if a battle was still going on. He let two of his party die so he could get to an NPC's pockets first. Since he was not a true paladin he did not lose any powers, but when he went to the church he proclaimed to be a part of the healing spells would not work on him. Through the priests I explained he had angered the god with his actions. Butthead thought I was being completely unfair. That I was picking on him and wanted his character dead. When I told him his actions had consequences to roleplay it. If you want to be the bad boy of the church please indulge or if he wanted to storm out in anger and join an opposite aligned church and show them then please do. But he was more interested in arguing.

During the one of the final sessions he continued to cheat with his character by slipping in more points and equipping them with magic items he never had access to. Even through all his cheating and pouting he met his character met an appropriate death by the hands of the lowly city guard. He did not return to play with us again. He said we cheated. The rest of his group stayed on and we had a lot of good adventures together. So if nothing else, Butthead managed to introduce me to another group of gamers I would not have known.