Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Room's set!

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Looks great, Uncle!

Originally Posted by Baron

My players are not enjoying their run-ins with the hluss. I have odd extruded constructs all over, many of which are organic traps of some kind. They also cultivate food of the ssu, and use shell-throwing nenyelu in pools as watchdogs. The party has also learned to hate pygmy folk, those hairy little back-stabbing con-artists.

And it looks like you're doing a great job Refereeing!
The best campaigns are those where the players learn to hate their enemies, I've noticed.

Speaking of which we weren't... in this case the battle of 3rd Mar...

Yeah, Phil tried to set us up. But, to be fair to him, once the dust settled my Legion was awarded a battle honor and the Glorious General received his third Gold of Glory. We may not have followed the script, but Phil acknowledged himself fairly beaten, for which he deserves credit.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Speaking of which we weren't... in this case the battle of 3rd Mar...

Yeah, Phil tried to set us up. But, to be fair to him, once the dust settled my Legion was awarded a battle honor and the Glorious General received his third Gold of Glory. We may not have followed the script, but Phil acknowledged himself fairly beaten, for which he deserves credit.

Oddly enough, we were talking about this kind of thing today during the game session. I had made a spectacularly bad set of dice rolls, and went with the result. People were a little surprised by this, as in my role as GM I could have 'fudged' the numbers, but I explianed that this was just not the way we'd played, or the way we still play in our circles. Phil wasn't very happy at having his plans thwarted, but he rolled with it and 'played it as it lies'.

The party advances into the Underworld, after discovering the stairway leading down...

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And starts to straggle right away...

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There was trouble in the corridors...

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But nothing they thought they couldn't handle...

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Game continues next Saturday, June 3rd, at one p.m.; lots of laughs and fun expected, if this game session was anything to go by...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Oddly enough, we were talking about this kind of thing today during the game session. I had made a spectacularly bad set of dice rolls, and went with the result. People were a little surprised by this, as in my role as GM I could have 'fudged' the numbers, but I explianed that this was just not the way we'd played, or the way we still play in our circles. Phil wasn't very happy at having his plans thwarted, but he rolled with it and 'played it as it lies'.

This is one of the things that still ghasts my flabber. The dice are the dice, and Dame Fortune is a fickle bitch. If a certain thing needs to happen I'll simply adjudicate it rather than roll. Don't roll the dice if you aren't willing to accept the results.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Don't roll the dice if you aren't willing to accept the results.

Exactly, The simplest thing ever to grasp.

Yes, this. We had a nice discussion about the way to adjudicate things in games, and I pointed out that it was based on experience and research. This, of course, led to the trotting out of some of the arsenal of sharp and blunt objects in the collection, for some visual aids.

Very, very interesting time, as I learned a lot about modern gaming, and they learned about ancient mayhem...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

This is one of the things that still ghasts my flabber. The dice are the dice, and Dame Fortune is a fickle bitch. If a certain thing needs to happen I'll simply adjudicate it rather than roll. Don't roll the dice if you aren't willing to accept the results.

Yes, and yet any debate about it always devolves into "my sacred GMing rights include using dice to help me Refereeing, not as a Mandate of Heaven", somehow.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes, this. We had a nice discussion about the way to adjudicate things in games, and I pointed out that it was based on experience and research. This, of course, led to the trotting out of some of the arsenal of sharp and blunt objects in the collection, for some visual aids.

Very, very interesting time, as I learned a lot about modern gaming, and they learned about ancient mayhem...

I'd say they won in the exchange, though I'd like to note that no, not all modern gamers accept fudging as a principle - case in point, me.
Whatever your opinion of modern gaming now, though, they won, because you didn't get to see any new props!

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Yes, and yet any debate about it always devolves into "my sacred GMing rights include using dice to help me Refereeing, not as a Mandate of Heaven", somehow.

I'd say they won in the exchange, though I'd like to note that no, not all modern gamers accept fudging as a principle - case in point, me.
Whatever your opinion of modern gaming now, though, they won, because you didn't get to see any new props!

Good points! I think that a really big and wonderful part of being a referee / GM is dealing with the challenges that the players throw at me. Yes, I've set my guards and laid my ambushes, but if they are smart enough and clever enough to get around and past everything I can throw at them, then I'm having a great time. It seems to work both ways; I got a lot of very positive comments on how cleverly I'd set up the game board, with lots of nooks and crannies to hide things in, and how I'd thought up a good solid back story to supply them with all sorts of Clues and Red Herrings.

It has been a constant in my gaming over the last three or four years that there's a big element of learning going on on the part of the gamers who visit. People come, game, and take away lessions that they use in their gaming. I had this last weekend as well, when my co-commander in an armored battle picked up very, very quickly some basic lessons about tank tactics. It was also pretty delightful to see our opponents learn the same lessons at my hands, and then apply them instantly in the game; they changed their entire approach in mid-game, and became much more canny and formidable opponents. We all had fun, and we've had a run of really good games over the past couple of weeks.

I did get to see a lot of old props again, though...