[dungeoncrawl] Re: Thursday Morning Review
- From: Johnathan Detrick <jdetrick@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: dungeoncrawl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 12:43:43 -0400
Ok, I'm going to start by being honest. I have been debating how to
respond to Jim's e-mail, which may seem odd, since I am the cold hearted
bastard of the group and I usually have no problem being honest. My
concern is that I know that Jim is a superior DM, and I don't want this
taken the wrong way. That being said, I didn't enjoy last night as much
as I had hoped to.
I think the thing that really killed me was the second week in a row
of individual role-playing. It seems to be a common thread for us, and
I'm not sure how we became caught in the trap. Three weeks ago, before
the Riders fought Rig, Jim had brought the subject up with me. I had
advised against it. He decided to do it anyway, and he did some
individual role-playing with Ilana, Kilian, Valeria and the group. And
it went very well. Jim jumped from one player to another and kept the
sessions short. He had proved me wrong; individual role-playing can
work, and he went on to DM one of the best nights of D&D we have had in
a long time. He also left me feeling incredibly positive and excited
about the future. I believe, if Jim had suggested it, I would have
called off work, and told Brad I wasn't coming home, and then barricaded
myself in the basement for the next three weeks straight to see what Jim
had planned.
Then last week happened. We did almost all individual role-playing,
and it caused the night to slow down. I know that when I left last
week, my enthusiasm had dimmed a little, but I was still excited.
Unfortunately, last night was more of the same. I had hoped that Jim
would quickly gather the party and we could be off. Instead, each
individual character was gathered. It took almost all night. And I'm
afraid it drained my enthusiasm even more.
I'm still looking forward to where Jim is going with this plot. As
we saw three weeks ago, he can DM an adventure better than most, and
deliver us a great night of role-playing. But I fear that the last two
weeks have leeched some of the momentum he had going. It's going to be
more work on everyone's part to get us back to the fever pitch we were
in a few weeks ago.
Comments? Please? I don't intend to be overly critical of Jim. I
know how hard it can be to DM (I am the person that has had more than
one campaign that I put a lot of work into shot out from under me when
the players said that they weren't interested), and I know Jim can pull
it together. But the last few weeks just haven't worked for me.
jimkaren@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I don't know about everyone else, but I
> had a good time last night! It was an
> odd night, in a way, as only one player
> was doing anything at any given time
> for most of it. I didn't intend that
> at first, but somehow it worked.
>
> The gist was Magnus sent Mylena, his
> alternate-reality daughter (believe it
> or not, it all makes sense from a
> campaign perspective) to "capture"
> certain Riders who were imprisoned on
> the outer planes. If they left of
> their own free will, or knowingly,
> there was a greater chance of the gods
> becoming offended or realizing what was
> happening.
>
> And since the gods have no influence in
> the city of Sigil, and since Mylena
> technically never existed in these
> characters' version of the "realms", it
> seemed plausible that her activities
> could go unnoticed for a period of time.
>
> In the end, Mylena succeeded in
> capturing most of the Riders she was
> sent for after a very difficult
> struggle. She exhausted Rig, my now
> very-deceased evil 17th level
> gladiator, five powerful mercenary
> githyanki, and almost herself to do
> it. She used sheer power, treachery,
> luck, or whatever it would take to pull
> it off, and it was fun to see in action
> since I didn't have a definite outcome
> in mind.
>
> I thought about forcing characters to
> be captured last night, but in the end,
> I would be helping the Riders to win.
> And that wouldn't be fair. It may
> sound like a "yeah sure" thing, but the
> group's rivals (like Celane, the Black
> Legion, and maybe Dr. Klaw) all have a
> chance to succeed.
>
> So the Riders ended up prisoners of the
> Dustmen faction in Sigil's Mortuary (as
> Mylena is a member there - apparently,
> she's at least partly a necromancer).
> They were released simultaneously from
> gas-filled iron caskets, and proceeded
> to deal with their situation.
>
> In the end, Magnus got a core group to
> agree to his crusade. Some other
> characters offered to help Marnie (my
> swashbuckler) search for her husband,
> Surrote, who had gone missing on his
> own and couldn't be located by Mylena.
>
> Ambrosia preferred to remain retired,
> running her new inn, and the "lower
> level" riders that we used last week
> are still doing their own thing.
>
> And that is where we ended.
> Thoughts/comments?
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