Dark elves are mean.

Ever consider that maybe every Dark elf acts just like that popular kid who seemed out to get you?

Short post...looking for work taking up all my time atm.

Unforgetable quotes.

Me  "All the monks are alive except for the dead ones."
Sometimes you can blurt out the oddest lines.

Sorry short post this time.

Evil Parties

Had a chance to run an evil game this last weekend. If you have ever done an evil campaign you understand. No matter how well you tie the group together in an evil game they will not play nice.
The evenings game went well enough, no one killed anyone else, in the party. However the party did trade jibes and death threats.
There must be a psychological reason that as soon you are given the lable of evil people start to display homocidal tendancies. Not even five minutes into the game the the murder threats began.
I know of psychological studies showing how behavior changes with a label. The Stanford experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment  gives us a glimmer of the role of lables on the human mind.

Not sure how long the game will run. But the minute it devolves to player versus player i am going to scrap it.
It has been a number of years since i ran a game like this and the players of this group have never had the chance to play evil. I guess i will wait and see....

Fresh starts

Starting a fresh campaign tonight. A drow underdark game. It has been along time since i allowed evil characters. They are starting at first level. The underdark can be cruel and unforgiving. Hopefully they will remember sometimes its best to run away and live.

Will post the cast as soon as i have a full list.
Characters are either Drow or slaves and i encouraged everyone to role up two characters since it will be a small group (4 players).

My campaign is heavily based on http://drowtales.com/ very good reads.

Olass Plendaas  (Darkness take you)

Silly voices

A few blogs around the net have posted lists of subjects most bloggers never talk about.

I found the use of silly voices while gaming to be the most interesting to me.
Usually when I DM a dragon or large creature i drop my voice to a more bass octive and slow my speech. Lithe sprites and pixies and simular get a fast and high voice. My dwarves to sound scottish. Flambouyant knights and sword swingers tend to the french ala Three Musketters.
Voices and accents have been a big part of my DMing style years.

Voices go hand in hand with posture and facial expressions. Dramatic npc's require dramatic gestures. When i want a villian to seem more menacing i stand and try to get into my players comfort zones. If i can make the players remember an NPC i did a good job.

I know voices arent for eveyone. I just happen to think they are indespencable to me.

Treasures from the past

I got a chance to dig through a couple local curiousity stores this last weekend. Neither deals in rpg stuff except for vintage stuff that turns up in the storage lockers they buy. Armed with a couple extra bucks and two good friends we delved the Imaginarium in Omaha NE (both stores one down town one in my neighborhood). 

The first store was looking like a bust untill I inquired after rubber monsters. The toy bin i was escourted to preduced ....5 of the 8 LJN mini AD&D figures.
Missing Strongheart,the good cleric and the 1/2 orc assassin. For 2$ i got the that lot plus a nice 1980 ral partha wizard painted ..(not shown)

Talking with the owner he told me the downtown store had "alot of rpg stuff in the basement".
Well.... he wasnt exactly right. It turned out to be one box of stuff. 4 boxed games starfrontiers alpha dawn, ghostbusters and two versions of the star trek rpg. But...also inside were a few AD&D hard backs and modules.

Oriental adventures in good shape...the spine is unsplit. I have 2 other copies of this with split spines, lucky break for me!

A seriously roached out Tome of Magic, eh it was 2 bucks. I didnt have one, now i do.

This module is in very good conditionalong with the other two also in good to very good shape...

Lastly one boxed expert set in fair to good shape. the contents are good the box is fair.

All added nicely to my growing horde.
This coupled with the thrift store find one of my friends found last may have me with a nearly complete set of pre 2nd ed modules.
Now i need to find the beginers set to go with the expertset....

Looking high and low

I remember being fascinated by the give and take of the caller and DM in the example of play in the DMG. Every game seems to have an example of play. Yet, actual play never seems to mirror these examples.

Now roughly speaking i have played...
16-18 9 months year everyday at lunch 450 games plus summer time 3 times a week times 3 months 36 games and then one friday night a week for those 3 years thats 150 more...
graduation to 19.... 9 months 5 times a week 180 ish... army 1 weekly game for 6 years state side. 300 or so.... trips home every three months 6 games a week end... 24 more games a year... korea... 52 weeks friday and saturday night 100 plus 6 months playing 5 nights a week... 120... last year of service 30ish games..
First 2 years after service 4 games a week for 2 years...400ish  from 96 to 2011... once a week plus or minus... 560 ish... so total roughly

450+150+180+300+100+120+30+400+560 = 2390 gameing sessions in my life so far. aprox 30years.
In that entire time i have never seen a game that ran anything like those examples.
Most plays will take any the the DM says at face value. If the DM says the room appears empty they accept that and move on. No one ever seems to examine anything closer. The only time players check ceilings is shortly after being ambushed from above.

I have seen a lot of debate about the old school/new school way of adventuring. Many old schoolers decry the type who want to make a skill check for searching as bad/wrong fun. Honestly I think its just lazyness. Most gamers want to get to the meat and skip all veggies and salads.
Can it be fixed? I dont believe it can. I think a DM can train his players to search the way he wants them to. In the end however i believe they will fall back to old habbits as soon as they are allowed.

Whats your prefered method of gaming?
Let the dice fall where they may, for me!