[QUOTE=Dalndox;47105620]I have, yes.
Ultimately any push towards roleplaying becomes "what are you going to give me for doing thing?" even when their characters should, by their design, be doing it solely to help them. And that's even assuming they make a character that isn't "chaotic neutral fuck everyone I just want stuff", which is fine on occasion but not when it's basically every character in every campaign.[/QUOTE]
well, if your players wanna be mercenaries, I say just let 'em be mercenaries
set up something along the lines of 'this kingdom wants you to topple the king of that kingdom and will pay you shitloads of gold and magic artifacts' and watch your players rack their brains to get sweet loot
bonus points if they get betrayed by their employers after pulling off the job :v: nothing motivates players more than getting betrayed
They honestly sound like Shadowrun is more their thing if they just want to fuck people up and get paid for it, plot be damned.
[QUOTE=Rents;47105786]They honestly sound like Shadowrun is more their thing if they just want to fuck people up and get paid for it, plot be damned.[/QUOTE]
Dark Heresy. You literally go in an find and murder people and leave again.
[QUOTE=Oliolio;47105820]Dark Heresy. You literally go in an find and murder people and leave again.[/QUOTE]
But can you steal everything and sell it on the black market for guns?
I dunno. I'm big in to storytelling; it's what I love. So having a story, even prebuilt, just become cashgrab set pieces by the players really just turns me off from GMing.
The last time we played I was running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, and I felt like I was babysitting. Almost no one knows how to lead a conversation in-game, so I had to spoonfeed and lead them everywhere.
Who knows, maybe I'm just being selfish. More than anything I just want to play as a normal player so that I can have fun with tabletop gaming again.
Nah, wanting different things from the rest of the group is pretty normal, not everyone likes the same things about games.
[QUOTE=Dalndox;47105867]I dunno. I'm big in to storytelling; it's what I love. So having a story, even prebuilt, just become cashgrab set pieces by the players really just turns me off from GMing.
The last time we played I was running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, and I felt like I was babysitting. Almost no one knows how to lead a conversation in-game, so I had to spoonfeed and lead them everywhere.
Who knows, maybe I'm just being selfish. More than anything I just want to play as a normal player so that I can have fun with tabletop gaming again.[/QUOTE]
Take a cue from The Treasure of the Sierra Marde and make a 'greed is bad' story. Just make sure you drop massive hints that the treasure is cursed or whatever once they've set their sights on it so they can't complain.
[editline]9th February 2015[/editline]
Or maybe I'm just being spiteful.
[QUOTE=DiscoInferno;47105945]Take a cue from The Treasure of the Sierra Marde and make a 'greed is bad' story. Just make sure you drop massive hints that the treasure is cursed or whatever once they've set their sights on it so they can't complain.
[editline]9th February 2015[/editline]
Or maybe I'm just being spiteful.[/QUOTE]
You're always spiteful.
I'm gonna be relaunching my parties campaign soon and gonna be livestreaming it on Twitch if anyone is interested.
I'll be sure to let people know a week before I do.
[QUOTE=elowin;47105964]You're always spiteful.[/QUOTE]
You'll pay dearly for calling me spiteful!
Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
That would require a game to actually go on that long.
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
nah, i always abandon games long before that
D&D games at level 10+ are rarely a lot of fun in my experience
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
The closest I got was 12 or 13, and even that was stretching it a bit too long.
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
We got to level 18 in that campaign that lasted a solid year, but that was with the DM handing out levels at a rather advanced pace since he had the goal of us being 20 at the finale.
Closest I ever got was 11, in a Mythic game that started at level 10.
Besides that, we [I]did[/I] get from like 3 or 4 right up to level 9 in a game that ended a few weeks ago.
Granted, in both cases I was playing different characters when we started than when we ended. But that was only really my fault in the first game, because I tried to fly over a [I]magical[/I] barrier. The other one, though, I blame that on the GM having some sort of grudge against me.
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
No, but if you consider how you're basically Goku at that point you can approximate that it lasts about as long as Dragonball and Dragonball Z combined.
D&D isn't really intended for play at that high a level anyway really tbh
[QUOTE=Dalndox;47105867]I dunno. I'm big in to storytelling; it's what I love. So having a story, even prebuilt, just become cashgrab set pieces by the players really just turns me off from GMing.
The last time we played I was running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, and I felt like I was babysitting. Almost no one knows how to lead a conversation in-game, so I had to spoonfeed and lead them everywhere.
Who knows, maybe I'm just being selfish. More than anything I just want to play as a normal player so that I can have fun with tabletop gaming again.[/QUOTE]
I have the same issue. I love the storytelling part, making the party a part of a larger world full of lore.
But my players? They just want to go to the next fight, they don't care why or who or how.
Most of the time I don't mind so long as keep quiet while I give dialogue or exposition to what's happening, but it gets frustrating knowing that deep down, none of them really give a fuck about what's going on further than the next combat turn.
If I could find a new set of friends that are more focused on RP'ing and lore and storytelling, maybe hardly ever having a combat encounter, I'd join them but this is the cards life dealt me in terms of friends :v:
There's me :v:
[editline]9th February 2015[/editline]
People at the [URL="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/"]Giantitp forums[/URL] are usually good at giving a shit about the story while still managing to have fun with the crunch, too.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47107610]I have the same issue. I love the storytelling part, making the party a part of a larger world full of lore.
But my players? They just want to go to the next fight, they don't care why or who or how.
Most of the time I don't mind so long as keep quiet while I give dialogue or exposition to what's happening, but it gets frustrating knowing that deep down, none of them really give a fuck about what's going on further than the next combat turn.
If I could find a new set of friends that are more focused on RP'ing and lore and storytelling, maybe hardly ever having a combat encounter, I'd join them but this is the cards life dealt me in terms of friends :v:[/QUOTE]
This is why I think it's nice to roleplay exclusively online. You're not stuck playing with the same people always, forever. You can join all kinds of different groups.
[QUOTE=General;47106400]Has anyone of you survived to level 20 in DnD?
If so how long did it take?[/QUOTE]
That's the unicorn, possible only with a VERY special group or done with friends in person over years
no one on the internet has the attention-span or the patience to reach that point, so dont even bother trying to find a game online that will get that far because it just wont happen
Finding a GM that can successfully run a good game with level 20 characters is rarer than the game surviving that far in the first place.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;47107610]I have the same issue. I love the storytelling part, making the party a part of a larger world full of lore.
But my players? They just want to go to the next fight, they don't care why or who or how.
Most of the time I don't mind so long as keep quiet while I give dialogue or exposition to what's happening, but it gets frustrating knowing that deep down, none of them really give a fuck about what's going on further than the next combat turn.
If I could find a new set of friends that are more focused on RP'ing and lore and storytelling, maybe hardly ever having a combat encounter, I'd join them but this is the cards life dealt me in terms of friends :v:[/QUOTE]
When making characters, I always try to give some sort of impetus to adventure and have that be the start of a story.
Examples. My winter sorceress? Want to contact her dead mother, but don't yet know of necromancy (in the traditional "talking to the spirits of the dead" sense, not the zombie making meaning) so when she's adventuring she'll follow a clue on how to contact the departed, amongst other things she wants.
Another example, a spear wielding fighter who joined another group of advertures to save her hometown, but was betrayed with the rest of the group by her own brother. Surviving the betrayal and her hometown safe for the time being she'll be looking for her brother, joining yet another party for safety.
I give a bit of set-up, and it's the GM who takes the story to where they need it to go. It's both personal and plays to what the GM can prepare. Simple stuff really. Even some of my more simple characters have a defined motivation, like a scholarly wizard who wants to study celestials or some other type of being and so would travel and be on the look out for anything connected to celestials. And if nothing is immediately apparant or is over their head currently, some more small-time adventuring can raise the capital needed for an expedition.
Bottom line, great storytelling needs great characters. In the best of cases, it's the players that are the heroes of the story. NPCs [I]could[/I] be the stars of the show with the PCs being the muscle of the story, but if the players aren't interested in them then no story can told at all.
I feel that creating a huge backstory is meaningless in the longrun for a character
The best thing you can do to make a great character IMHO is to flesh out their personality and their goals. Unless you plan on getting backstory elements shoehorned into the games plot, the past is irrelevant. Just focus on making a character you want to play and people like seeing played
[editline]9th February 2015[/editline]
Also don't worry about your numbers. A character isn't shaped by his capabilities, he's shaped by what he does with his capabilities.
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;47108457]I feel that creating a huge backstory is meaningless in the longrun for a character
The best thing you can do to make a great character IMHO is to flesh out their personality and their goals. Unless you plan on getting backstory elements shoehorned into the games plot, the past is irrelevant. Just focus on making a character you want to play and people like seeing played
[editline]9th February 2015[/editline]
Also don't worry about your numbers. A character isn't shaped by his capabilities, he's shaped by what he does with his capabilities.[/QUOTE]
I keep my backstories to an A4 page max (never reached that max) and never involve something above their skill level.
[QUOTE=MeltingData;47107979]This is why I think it's nice to roleplay exclusively online. You're not stuck playing with the same people always, forever. You can join all kinds of different groups.[/QUOTE]
Call me a huge faggot if you want, but this is the good thing I've noticed about games on f-list, everyone there is interested in roleplaying and character interaction (and "character interaction", yeah, but not during the game) and it's easier to avoid the weirder people in games since you'll see them acting weird in the main RPG rooms if you lurk.
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;47108457]I feel that creating a huge backstory is meaningless in the longrun for a character
The best thing you can do to make a great character IMHO is to flesh out their personality and their goals. Unless you plan on getting backstory elements shoehorned into the games plot, the past is irrelevant. Just focus on making a character you want to play and people like seeing played[/quote]
IMO you should tailor your backstory/personality/goals to something that lends itself well to theme of the game you're playing well, assuming the GM gives you a rough idea of what the game's going to be about.
For example I had a gnome alchemist that got kicked out of an academy and was basically a paranormal investigator and spent the entirety of a campaign making research notes about the things we encountered, from the werewolf barbarian in the party (who she became bros with and got him interested in literature, he ended up with four ranks in linguistics), the ghosts in the first dungeon, the golems that kept showing up, and at one point hacked a bird, a bat and some weird flying eyeball thing apart to create a familiar.
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;47108457]Also don't worry about your numbers. A character isn't shaped by his capabilities, he's shaped by what he does with his capabilities.[/QUOTE]
Best advice about stats and shit; Be adequate. You don't need to be the best, things are most fun when all of the players are keeping pace and competing.
I will confirm that the numbers being huge isn't important
Much as I loved them as examples of min-maxing perfection, neither of my most game breaking characters (Being my Wind Dragon using Solar from Exalted, and my Archer Fighter from a PF game who did something like ~200 damage in a single round at level 10) were that incredible as characters
I still have great nostalgia for them, and want to do them properly (I've adapted said Solar into my current M&M character), but them being ridiculously OP honestly detracted from my ability to play them as characters
[QUOTE=DiscoInferno;47108405]When making characters, I always try to give some sort of impetus to adventure and have that be the start of a story.
Examples. My winter sorceress? Want to contact her dead mother, but don't yet know of necromancy (in the traditional "talking to the spirits of the dead" sense, not the zombie making meaning) so when she's adventuring she'll follow a clue on how to contact the departed, amongst other things she wants.
Another example, a spear wielding fighter who joined another group of advertures to save her hometown, but was betrayed with the rest of the group by her own brother. Surviving the betrayal and her hometown safe for the time being she'll be looking for her brother, joining yet another party for safety.
I give a bit of set-up, and it's the GM who takes the story to where they need it to go. It's both personal and plays to what the GM can prepare. Simple stuff really. Even some of my more simple characters have a defined motivation, like a scholarly wizard who wants to study celestials or some other type of being and so would travel and be on the look out for anything connected to celestials. And if nothing is immediately apparant or is over their head currently, some more small-time adventuring can raise the capital needed for an expedition.
Bottom line, great storytelling needs great characters. In the best of cases, it's the players that are the heroes of the story. NPCs [I]could[/I] be the stars of the show with the PCs being the muscle of the story, but if the players aren't interested in them then no story can told at all.[/QUOTE]
Don't get me wrong, my players do give their characters...character.
Session Zero, we have all kinds of personalities being built, back stories formed and desires and fears made.
But by session 2, it's all forgotten or thrown out the window because "hey, I want to try this new power I have" or "let's go against a dozen of creature x" even when the character actually wouldn't care.
Best example? My one friend has a bard. His personality is suppose to be swashbuckiling, high-on-life-and-probably-weed-too, Jack Sparrow-esque. Stats wise, his bard rather sucks in helping the party survive combat and do what bards are suppose to do, especially with getting us extra HP and buffing us. His solution? He wants to multiclass into a cleric. So with that description of a personality, could you really see Jack Sparrow suddenly turning religious for no apparent reason?
They only really care as much as to not annoy me while I DM in terms of story and character. On occasion, they'll say "You know...we ought to RP more," and then they all agree with each other, shrug, and continue as normal.
It's at this moment that I realize my friends really aggravate me with playing D&D and we're truly polar opposites in terms of game play. :suicide:
I created a two page backstory for a legendary half-orc hell bent on revenge in an undead campaign which never went through.
Still sorta angry about that tbh. Like, I put in a ton of work into making a backstory (which was mandatory), and it got cancelled before it even started.
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