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Rules Lawyering and Decision Making

Our 3rd session of my real-life game is this evening, and I’m excited. I wanted to make a post about a couple things before the session. One’s a flaw I’ve noticed in myself, while the other is just a musing on our playing group.

First off, I’ve realized that, unless I reign it in, it’s incredibly easy for me to be a rules lawyer. I’ve always been a big stickler for knowing and following the rules in any game I play, and I’m usually the one keeping score when I play sand volleyball or ping pong. In some cases, this can be good. We need rules, right? But other times, it can be harmful.

I wasn’t called out on my rules lawyering either of the past two sessions, but I realized that I was basically “backseat DMing” with the game. I’d be quick to note when we as players provoked an attack of opportunity, or when the rules would or wouldn’t allow someone to do something. While I think it’s good that I’m aware of the rules, when I think about it, what I was doing is really the DM’s job. If he either doesn't notice, or doesn’t care, that’s up to him. If I feel like the rules are being completely disregarded, I can talk to him away from the game about it, but for now, I shouldn’t be the one to recite rules to the detriment of my fellow players.

However, I do feel like it’s not bad to bring up a rule if it aids my fellow players. For example, if both my sister and the DM forget that moving a goblin away from Seven will provoke an attack of opportunity, I don't think my bringing that up is a bad thing. I do need to be careful not to overdo things, though. Hopefully, as I develop as a player, I’ll learn how to let go of my rules lawyer-y tendencies. Being in my more RP-heavy, rules-light Roll20 game will hopefully help.

The other thing is decision making. We had a big debate at the end of our second session about what to do with a goblin (Jonathan) who had surrendered. G and J (we were arguing in-character, but I’m using everyone’s real-life names) argued we should take him back to the castle to be punished, since he was part of the group that kidnapped the prince. I agreed with them, initially. My sister, meanwhile, argued that he should be set free, and my cousin N was just kinda “whatever” about it (if I recall correctly). I feel like, with that initial vote, we should have taken him back to the castle, but we continued arguing about it. I felt Titus was conflicted about this: he desired to see justice done, but he also didn’t want to kill Jonathan, and it seemed likely the king would do just that. I ended up changing my mind, though two things tipped me over on it: Dunnfore mentioned that the king had a tendency to boil people to execute them, which seemed terrible to me. Also, I rolled Insight, and found Jonathan to be sincere in his promise to never attack us or come near us again. When we went around the table and asked everyone, N said that, for whatever reason, I should be the one to decide. So I decided to set him free.

Honestly, though, I feel like this wasn’t the best way to handle decisions. I’m thinking that, in the future, we should put things to a vote, and if we have a majority of 3 or more who support a decision, we do it. If not, then we each roll a d20, and whoever rolls highest gets to decide. I don't know if this honestly would work; I’m thinking of proposing it to the group tonight. However, I do think we need to make sure we aren’t debating things forever and going in circles. We need to be able to make a decision and have everyone stick to it, even if they don’t agree. Hopefully, we can do better about this in the future.

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A sketch my sister made of Titus carrying Doug, from our 2nd session. It's ridiculously adorable.

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Hey, G, remember when you made a Lawful Good character? That was fun.

J (from my real life group), after G again suggested doing something against his paladin's alignment

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Roll20 Session 1: No Combat, No Problem

I had my first real Roll20 session (not counting character creation), and boy, it was a lot of fun! It was actually all roleplaying, with the only combat coming in a pit fight that was essentially a professional wrestling match. It was really enjoyable playing with a DM and players who were into the RPing. Some highlights:

- I love doing different voices (even though I’m AWFUL at it), so I decided that, of course, my dwarf paladin Amber would have a Scottish accent. It then turned into the most inconsistent Scottish accent in the world, as I traveled all throughout the United Kingdom (and possibly other places) during our campaign. I hoped it wasn’t too annoying to the other players; I enjoy it, even if it is terrible.

- Our fighter, Roland, took part in the aforementioned match, and played up his celebrity by peddling his gear afterwards. This started as a one-off joke, but it turned into part of his character: he has a 30,000 gold debt to the fighting pit manager, Booker, and he has to pay it off to not be owned by the man anymore. It made me feel better about having Amber buy one of his headbands, which she now proudly wears.

- That Booker became my favorite character. The GM played him as a Danny DeVito-esque shady businessman, with emphasis on shady. He gave Roland advice, followed by, “That’s what my Pa always said... before I stabbed him to death.” His random, absurd admissions of violence had me laughing incredulously. The character really went places.

- By the end of the session, though, Booker didn’t own the fighting pits or the fighters within -- our Tiefling cleric, Plague, did. Our party was making a deal with Booker to get Roland to accompany us as a bodyguard for our eladrin witch (it’s a long story). He pulled out his ring to stamp the contract, but an Arcana check revealed the ring was an infernal object containing what was essentially a demon’s soul in it. Our Tiefling cleric ended up getting it and transferring ownership of all contracts to herself. Booker was not happy, and swore revenge. So... yeah, now one of our party members owns the fighting pits. That was unexpected.

All in all, it was a fun, unexpected session, and everyone contributed to it. Honestly, I felt a bit like the weak link in it, being new to D&D, but it was still a right good time, and hopefully I will improve my roleplaying as we go on. I hope the next games goes just as well! 

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Session 2: More Highlights

Like I mentioned a few posts ago, I was a bit bummed after our second session. It seemed like a couple players were out of it at times, and I worried that our campaign would start to lose momentum. But I’m also totally prone to overreacting to things, so a lot of it’s probably in my head. And the second session was fun! Here are some more highlights:

- I made a carrier for Doug. I had a roll a check (I think Nature or straight-up Dexterity), but I was able to fashion a nice little “backpack” to carry Doug in while we traveled. I could even switch him to the front if need be! It also produced some cute art from my sister (which I’ll probably share sometime soon).

- We Intimidated a bear. A snowstorm came on us, and we had to find shelter for the night. We were unsure if the nearby cave was safe, so I volunteered to check it in Stealth. I... rolled a 1 (it was my second crit failure of the game; my dice still have problems apparently). Thankfully, it somehow didn’t wake up the bear, due to the mercy of the DM. We decided to instead Intimidate the bear (or whatever was in the cave), with Simon lighting my character’s two torches on fire, and Seven Intimidated with us assisting. We apparently did well enough on the roll that our DM had the bear run out of the cave in fright (knocking Dunnfore over, but thankfully he was unharmed). Intimidation success!

- We crossed a river. This was very stressful for Titus. I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but Titus almost drowned as a child. While he did learn to swim, he takes a -2 on all Swim checks and all Acrobatics/Athletics checks made near deep water. However, it really wasn’t a problem. We managed to get a rope across and then all scuttled over, with Doug carried over by Simon’s Mage Hand. The only one who really had trouble with Dunnfore; he had trouble getting into the river the necessary 5 feet to cross with his Fey Step teleportation, but he managed to make it... minus some gold that washed away.

- And we killed Karl Malone. The wolf, naturally. Karl had escaped our first session, but he and his new pal John Stockton attacked us after we crossed the river. It honestly wasn’t too tough of a fight. I managed to get a few arrows in, and LeBron James helped by taking some damage. We managed to win, killing both wolves. Well, truthfully, we knocked them unconscious, and then debated whether we should outright kill them. Dunnfore thankfully ended the debate by incinerating the two. I tried to shield Doug’s eyes from the scene... but then Simon used his Mage Hand to make sure Doug saw it. Said he needed to witness it since he’s going to be a ruler someday. So much for the innocence of youth!

I have a couple more updates for session 2, but thinking back on it, it was fun. We’re nearing session 3, so I’m starting to get excited again.

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Session 2: The Most Stressful Roll of My Life

Obviously, I haven’t played much D&D, so I haven’t had many super stressful rolls. Yeah, there’s stress with every major roll, particularly when I wasn’t hitting anything at the start of session 1. But nothing was too bad in Session 1. I honestly had yet to have a roll that made me grit my teeth, bite my nails, and spend way too long shaking the die in my hand before rolling. That changed, though, at the start of session 2.

I had to roll for baby.

Basically, we had saved Prince Doug, and I (having decided that Titus was enamored with babies) volunteered to carry him. Our DM said that was fine... but I had to roll to pick him up.

It was a Dexterity roll, and I have high Dex, but still, I was terrified. What if I dropped him? I was so scared, I asked Seven to assist me, which she did. I even told the group it was the most pressure I’d ever felt on a roll.

Needless to say, I breathed a hefty sigh of relief when it turned out good. I scooped Doug up, and we went on our way. (Though not before pilfering some tennis balls the goblins had left behind.) 

I know I’ll have stressful rolls and important rolls in the future. I don't think I’ll have one stress me out more than that though for a long time.

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Session 2: A New Adventurer

My real-world group started our second session by welcoming a new adventurer into our party: my cousin’s older brother (so, my other cousin; we’ll call him N). N had initially been interested in joining our group, but he’s a busy guy. After our first session, though, he was interested in joining in, and the group was okay with it.

Honestly, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it came to N and tabletop RPG’s. He had been one of the three players in my failed Star Wars game years ago (which actually lasted two sessions, not one as I had believed, but that’s neither here nor there). I always partially blamed the game’s failure to keep going on N, because he had lost interest. But I had to grow up and get over it. We were all teenagers (or younger) then, and while my memory’s fuzzy, I doubt he’s to blame for much of the game not continuing. And it was years ago! I would be petty if I harbored a grudge after all this time. As long as N was in and wanted to play, I was cool with it.

Thus, N’s character!

Dunnfore, eladrin warlock: Dunnfore is a Lawful Evil (don’t see this being a problem!) character who’s good at dealing damage... if he manages to hit anything. Not much is known about him at this point.

As we were returning Prince Doug to the castle (more on that later), we ran into a castle guard, who assigned us a couple companions to help us get to the castle. One was LeBron James (the basketball theme was firmly cemented by that time), and the other was, well, Dunnfore. Seven was suspicious, so my sister rolled a Perception check to see if Dunnfore was really a guard.

Our DM said, “You can tell that all the guards view him as a friend, and like one of their own.” Which means that no, he’s not actually a castle guard. 

What’s his deal, you ask? I’m honestly not sure. I think we established by the end that he was basically a mercenary for the king, but yeah, I’m still not sure. I don't know if N knows exactly either. But it was fun having him along, and I thought N played with the group well. I don’t know if 5 players will make our group unwieldy, but for this session it worked... well enough.

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probablychadrpgideas may just be my favorite rpgideas blog of them all

Use only Nietzsche’s quotes when your villain speaks. Also works with other philosophers. 

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A Different Kind of Online Game

I had my first session with my Roll20 group yesterday. All in all, it went really well! There’s 5 of us total, including the DM. We’re playing 4E (part of the reason I applied for the game, because I didn’t want to buy another player’s handbook/learn a different edition), and I’m playing a dwarf paladin.

The first session was just character creation and world building, but it was nice. The other players all seemed friendly, if tired. Our game is early in the morning for most of us because our DM is in Tokyo. It was kinda neat going from being one of the more knowledgeable players in a group to being the new guy. The DM made sure I knew what I was doing when I was making my character. I almost wanted to say that I probably knew enough to be okay without the walkthrough, but I appreciated the effort, and despite my pride in my “knowledge,” I am still new to the game and could really use all the help I can get. We went with a point buy/point array for our abilities, so I just picked the array for my dwarf (it’s 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10; 4th edition really does not like you having negative ability modifiers, apparently). I was honestly glad to do this, because I didn’t want to get a bad roll and be forced to put a low score in Intelligence, one of my dump stats as a paladin. This was from a RPing perspective: my character’s not the smartest person, but I didn’t want her to be unintelligent either. In all honesty, it would’ve been more challenging to play her as a bit dumb, and that could’ve been fun. Maybe I’ll get to do that with another character in the future.

Our game’s in a homebrew fantasy setting where the eladrin empire runs things. We got talking about the different races and their places in the world. Dwarves aren’t super widespread outside their main city/area (which I’m calling “Dwarfland” for now, but will surely get a better name down the line), so my character stands out a bit. Then again, we all stand out a bit. We have a tiefling cleric, with tieflings being the race the eladrin ousted to establish their empire, and she is a good tiefling, in contrast to most of her race. We have an eladrin witch, who would quite probably be hunted down by other eladrin if they learned the truth of her magic. And we have an incredibly strong but not too bright human fighter (20 Str, but 8 Int), who left the farm to become a pit fighter. It’s an odd group, but I like that. 

We’re having our 2nd session next week, and I’m already super excited about it. I’m nervous, having never played a game on Roll20, and still having little D&D experience, but I’m excited nonetheless. I’ll probably share more about my Roll20 character as we get closer... unless I forget and stay inconsistent with updating, as I’m wont to do. 

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Session 1: The Finale

We finally managed to meet up for a second session last week, so I’ll be wrapping up session 1 today with a few final highlights:

- After defeating the goblins, we headed into a cave/dungeon and had a choice of three doors. We chose the one that led to four fire beetles (named John, Paul, George, and Ringo; I thought this was brilliant) who were honestly the toughest threat we faced. They managed to knock Simon unconscious, but my misremembering the death roll rules and Renlon healing him got him back to good health. We did manage to win, but it was a tough fight. I liked that, though; it was nice to lose some HP and see that we weren’t invincible, but we could also win when things were tough. I might be singing a different tune if one of us had died, but that didn’t happen!

- We made it to the goblin’s leader, the aptly-named Goblin King. He greeted us by saying, “So you’re the latest to attempt to save the prince.” We then attempted to engage him in conversation... but our DM informed us, “Hey, I really only wrote two lines of dialogue for this guy... you should probably just fight him.” So we did, and honestly, it went better than the fire beetles. At one point, he summoned some goblin minions. I was unaware that minions have 1HP, so I used my daily attack (Split the Tree) to attack two at once... and I obliterated them. After the fire beetle fight, it was a bit anticlimactic, but we did win, and at this point we were bumping up with my cut-off time, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

- We vanquished the Goblin King, and found behind his throne... a baby. He had a note: “This is Prince Doug. If found, please return to the castle.” or something similar. So, our prince was a baby! It was a nice twist for the end of the session. We had a discernible goal for next time: return Prince Doug to the castle.

All in all, I had a blast with our first session. It was fun, and stuff like Seven climbing the cliff and even our lack of accuracy early on were pretty memorable. I couldn’t wait to play again and jump back into the world we’d created.

Too bad it took two weeks for our next game. XD

But that’s for another time. I actually have my first Roll20 session tomorrow, so I’ll have stuff from that to post. Hope it goes well!

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Stuff Happening - An Update

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days; I’ve been busy as one of my summer classes came to an end (it ends tomorrow, thank God). I was also feeling discouraged and depressed for a bit, which made me not as eager to post (my emotions are usually pretty up-and-down). I had a couple more anecdotes to post from the first session that I wanted to put out there, but I also had a couple significant things happen.

We had our second session on Wednesday. It was neat, and I was super excited to play. However, I started to feel some disinterest from some in the group. I worried that not everyone was having fun, and I especially worried that I was upstaging people with Titus. But our DM didn’t seem like he was too discouraged, so honestly I may just be overthinking other people’s responses. I do feel like I could ease back on my Titus role-playing, and see if I could do anything to get the other PC’s more involved. At the same time, ultimately the DM is the one establishing the adventure and the challenges we face, and I should let him be the one most worried about whether or not everyone’s having fun. Plus, continuing to have our sessions at 8am does make staying alert and excited the entire time difficult, so I can’t blame people for being tired. Hopefully, the next session will be an exciting one.

The other big event was that I joined Roll20 and actually got into a game! I was itching to do more playing after our first session, and Roll20 seemed like the way to go. I searched for a 4th Edition game, since I have the handbook, and managed to find one that’s RP-heavy and welcomes new players. I had an interview with the DM, which was nerve-wracking, but he seems like a super-cool dude and we hit it off pretty well. We’re set to play our first session on Tuesday morning, which will be character creation, and I’m psyched about it. I’ve talked with the DM about my character, and it looks like I’ll be playing as Amber Fireforge, a female dwarf paladin. I’m excited to expand my role-playing, and to see how playing over the internet works.

So, that’s that for now. I hope to go back to daily updates after my final tomorrow, and I have several anecdotes from the second session to share, and I’ll be sure to add updates about my Roll20 experience as well. The future looks bright! ... for now.

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Session 1: Dice Superstitions and Ranged Bros

I had my first dice superstition happen mid-session. I had bought two sets of dice, and my blue d20 was rolling terribly. This was the same d20 that gave me three natural 1′s in our combat test. So, I switched to my orange d20 (blue and orange are my colors) during our goblin camp encounter, and lo and behold, I managed to hit! Logically, I know that each has basically the same chance, but I felt better using the orange die, and my rolls were better for the rest of the session. We’ll see how things go for our second session; knowing me, I could be switching back right away.

Simon and Titus actually formed a pretty good team in our fight against the goblins. The duo, whom I now refer to as the “Ranged Bros,” alternated being accurate, with Simon first, and then me (following my die shift). We even did a freeze-frame high-five after one such accurate shot, so we’re definitely bros.

Also, there was this...

(Simon hit the goblin sharpshooter with a magic missile.)

Me: Titus says, “Great shot, Simon!”

J: Simon blushes.

Simon and Titus... OTP?

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Here's another pic of my sister's drawing, along with a close-up of Seven. SEVEN IS ADORABLE YOU GUYS I LOVE THEM BOTH SO MUCH Ahem. As I said, check out my sister's Tumblr at: bluphone.tumblr.com. Also, she does a webcomic! It's at kindlingeast.tumblr.com. It's super cool, and now I'm hoping that Titus and Seven will make a cameo appearance. This is my last sister publicity post for now. Sorry for the double post, but GOSH that art is so cool.

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OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS MY SISTER JUST DREW OUR D&D CHARACTERS I'M NOT NORMALLY ONE TO FREAK OUT LIKE THIS, BUT OH MY GOSH My apologies for the weird shadows, I'm not the best picture taker, but OH MY GOSH He even has merit badges for his trained skills and sandal boots YES I'm so excited right now Please check out my sister's Tumblr at bluephone.tumblr.com She's an amazing artist and deserves all your love.

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Session 1: The Climb

Our next encounter produced my favorite moment of our session, courtesy of my sister.

So, we found an opening in a cliff face, which led into a small valley surrounded by cliff walls. We could see a goblin sharpshooter ahead, though he couldn’t yet see us. We knew a goblin camp was coming up; the question was, how were we going to tackle it? Then my sister piped up: 

“Seven wants to climb the cliff.”

After consulting the rulebook, our DM set an Athletics DC of 25. My sister rolled, and what did she get?

25 exactly.

She managed to scurry up the cliff face, and lower down her rope for the rest of us. I don’t think my cousin expected us to do this, but to his credit, he allowed it to happen, and it gave us a distinct advantage against the goblin camp (there were four total, including the sharpshooter). 

With that, our second combat advantage went much better than our first. I may post a couple more details from it later, but with Renlon and Seven dropping to the ground, and Titus and Simon raining fire from above, things progressed pretty smoothly. I even killed my first enemy! (The goblin sharpshooter, if you were wondering.) I was surprised things went so well. 

Little did I know, that wasn’t the last time I would be surprised this session...

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Session 1: Our First Encounter

We got off to a great start when G forgot his character sheet at home. Luckily, what seems to be the bane of many a D&D session was offset by technology, as he was able to get his brother to send him a picture of his sheet, and we worked with that.

As for our characters’ start, it was slightly more auspicious. We met in a bar, summoned together by the barman Kevyn Love, and given a job: Find the prince of the land, who had been kidnapped by goblins, and return him to the king. Seemed easy enough!

We set out through the Very, Very Dark Forest. (I believe it’s near the Very Light Forest and the Very Dark Forest.) I got to roll the first check of the game, a Nature check, and actually rolled pretty high (I honestly don’t remember what). That roll told us that the forest was dangerous, so we kept a watch at night.

Titus and Seven were keeping watch, while Simon and Renlon were snoozing away. Now, Eladrin actually don’t have to sleep; they just meditate for four hours, and are completely aware the entire time. But, uh, we didn’t know that at the time, so Renlon was snoozing away. Surely that wouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong! We were suddenly attacked by a pair of wolves, and we promptly rolled for initiative. Now, here’s where I took issue: Wasn’t I supposed to be keeping watch? Couldn’t I at least shout out that we were being attacked, waking up my companions? According to our DM, no, they were still asleep at the start of the round. I tried to assuage this by taking an attack of opportunity on the wolf that went for Renlon (Virgina Woolf; we called the other Karl Malone), but I missed with my melee attack. So the wolf got an attack with combat advantage against Renlon.

That rough start set the tone of our first encounter. We kept missing, and when we did hit, we weren’t doing much damage. Finally, Simon helped us out by casting Sleep on the two wolves. Either they both failed their saves, or just Virginia Woolf, but either way, it allowed us to get the upper hand. We killed Virginia Woolf, and sent Karl Malone scurrying away into the woods (carrying two of my arrows, unfortunately).

We were victorious! Sort of. My cousin later told me that he had planned for the wolves to flee back into the woods once we bloodied them, but the fight went worse for us than he had planned. It was a good lesson, though; the dice wouldn’t always fall in our favor. I only hoped the next fight would go better for us.

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Before We Start, Say Hello

With all the scheduling, character creation, and general nervousness out of the way, it was time. Time to begin our journey. Time to be the heroes we were born to be. But first, it’s time to introduce our full cast!

My cousin - the DM: The overseer of our world, one of in which things are often named quite literally.

Me - Titus Winchester, half-elf ranger: You know him already. He’s ready to kick butt with his friends! He uses a longbow, two short swords, and his winning charm.

My sister - Seven, warforged fighter fighting robot: You know her as well. She likes reading, climbing, and the sea. She uses a glaive, which is the closest thing to a harpoon in the initial Player’s Handbook.

J - Simon Chestwick, human wizard: He grew up in a wizarding school (definitely not Hogwarts). Was picked on, but decided to rise above it and become a skilled wizard. He has his spells (which I’m not entirely sure on as of this writing, but magic missile's definitely one), his wits, and... well, that’s kind of it. But he tries hard, and that’s what matters.

G - Renlon, eladrin paladin: Never knew his parents. Was raised in a town by a blacksmith (who I think was religious, hence the paladin part). The lord of the town was oppressive and didn’t allow townsfolk to wield weapons. Blacksmith sent Renlon away from the town with his trusted longsword, and now he’s finding his place in the world. He uses the aforementioned longsword, shield, scale armor, and his divine powers (when he remembers them). Also, I’m probably spelling his name wrong.

We had our heroes. We had our dice. Now, it was time to get started.