Quote from: Ghost Whistler;492015How to be a lousy player: the Joker. I don't know what it is about gaming, perhaps people are just naturally insecure about 'let's pretend' or acting or whatever, but there's always a few players that piss about. Heaven forfend if you set, say an SF adventure, on the planet Uranus! A GM can easily be lured into the communal jokery lest they be seen as unfrioendly, uncool or a pariah.

I think that's a great subject, for a different (new) thread: how to deal with jokers.  Someone go start it.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;492015How to be a lousy player: the Joker. I don't know what it is about gaming, perhaps people are just naturally insecure about 'let's pretend' or acting or whatever, but there's always a few players that piss about. Heaven forfend if you set, say an SF adventure, on the planet Uranus! A GM can easily be lured into the communal jokery lest they be seen as unfrioendly, uncool or a pariah.

If making immature jokes about Uranus in a sci fi game involving Uranus is wrong I don't want to be right.

Quote from: Planet Algol;492273If making immature jokes about Uranus in a sci fi game involving Uranus is wrong I don't want to be right.

It is just too classic to pass up.

It'd have to be a pretty hard-sci-fi game to actually be set ON Uranus - after all, no human can survive the noxious gasses and crushing pressures that exist in the depths of Uranus.

Yep, Uranus is a shitty place.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;492015How to be a lousy player: the Joker. I don't know what it is about gaming, perhaps people are just naturally insecure about 'let's pretend' or acting or whatever, but there's always a few players that piss about. Heaven forfend if you set, say an SF adventure, on the planet Uranus! A GM can easily be lured into the communal jokery lest they be seen as unfrioendly, uncool or a pariah.

C'mon, playing in Uranus makes some people uncomfortable. You got to do a lot of prep to make it work.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David R;492334C'mon, playing in Uranus makes some people uncomfortable. You got to do a lot of prep to make it work.

You guys are too hilarious.

I'm sure if you're ready to stretch yourself, and put in some hard work, you'd easily find some players willing to conquer Uranus.

The mayfly

He always has the best idea for the most epic campaign. It's just that somehow they all seem to last only one session.

The CRPG

Your DM loves Diablo II so everything will be like Diablo II in all ways, he'll even do the voices. He runs things fast and know the rules backwards and forwards, but has systematically stripped out everything that makes a TT RPG different from a CRPG to the greatest extent possible. He'll even load up a CRPG in order to show you what your character's surroundings look like.

Quote from: Daztur;492441The mayfly

He always has the best idea for the most epic campaign. It's just that somehow they all seem to last only one session.

We have one guy who does this the most, but others, including myself, have been guilty of this in the past. I've overcome it mostly by toning down my often grandiose expectations and generally making campaigns less pretentious.

I kind of think of myself as an "enabler", when in GMing mode. But "referee" works too; I can see that.

Really hoping I'm not any kind of nightmare GM now. :confused: Food for thought, anyway. The players seem happy enough, I think.

Run Shadowrun 4e.

It seems as though it was designed to make good GMs bad and bad GMs even worse.

Quote from: David R;492334C'mon, playing in Uranus makes some people uncomfortable. You got to do a lot of prep to make it work.

Regards,
David R

I just white-wash it a little.

Quote from: PaladinCA;492913Run Shadowrun 4e.

It seems as though it was designed to make good GMs bad and bad GMs even worse.

How so?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;493072How so?

RPGPundit

I was kind of talking out of my ass, but it seems to be near impossible to accomplish anything in the game on a regular basis. You have to get fives and sixes to count as a success. Ones are pooled for potential glitches. A glitch happens when the entire roll fails and half or more of the dice are ones.

We just completed a series of this game. Combat drug on for hours, mostly because no one could hit anything. People rolling 10D6 or more and they can't get enough successes to dish out the hits or do enough damage. This is compounded by everything in the game having a second chance. You roll to hit and they roll to dodge. You roll for damage. They roll to resist damage. And you need fives and sixes to hit something and damage something. Odds are, you aren't going to roll high enough on both rolls to do much.

I'm a fan of systems that you roll to hit. If you hit you do damage. I don't mind having a dodge OR a resist damage factor in the mechanics, but having both..... BLAH!

The GM in question has always struggled to set appropriate difficulties in games, regardless of system. His creativity and enthusiasm usually make up for it. But Shadowrun just makes things worse. Even a moderate difficulty task can be a real bear to be successful at, due to the mechanics. So it makes GM arbitration harder for him, and thus worse for all the players.

Man, have I ever grown to loathe Shadowrun 4e.