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Gaming angst
Mar. 15th, 2005 01:27 amOkay, this is in the realm of midnight complaints. When I referee a game for others, my intent is that I really want to present a story in the game-world that is fun, inspires some emotional responses, makes the players think and exposes them to a sense of danger and adventure. [remember that Bilbo Baggins called adventures nasty untidy things that makes one late for breakfast.]
All in all I think I do a good job of preparing the game, keeping things going without turning it into an IRS audit session because of the rules - while not ignoring the structure that rules do provide.
Unfortunately for a while now I have had the sense that I have some players who would rather be somewhere else. Like playing on the PS2 or GBA or playing cards or reading or sleeping, rather than paying attention to what is happening at the table.
Some of this is my fault, just because:
[a] = during a combat, even the quickest combat turn passes slowly when there are more than 4 players in a game and each has their turn, describing their action/rolling dice;
[b] = that my corrected vision causes me to now have to = look at set-up with glasses to see table/take glasses off to refer to facts on sheet/make rolls/take notes = for each of the baddies they are fighting, which also takes forever when there is more than one monster on the table being fought -- so combat turns just take a lot of time
[c] = so combat turns take time and interaction takes time because it's not just one-on-one talking to a single character and when it's shopping everyone wants to have full concentration for their shopping all at the same time.
But just WHEN did everyone decide that if I was NOT looking at them then they were going to go away from the table?!? Even if it isn't all about THEM at the time, why aren't they interested in what else is happening?
And then there are players who are AT the table who seem like they would rather ruin the game for EVERYBODY else just so they can cause trouble by questioning rules, bringing up rules, wanting to amend the rules and quoting rules from memory [at rare times, actually quoting the rules correctly] - just to make a point.
And I find myself wondering = why am I putting up with this?
Currently my Saturday game has 9 players in it. The Sunday game has 7 players. Some of the problem players are in both games and piss me off for different reasons. Inattention pizzes me off almost as much as the rule-bitching because it implies indifference to the game.
I'm getting really annoyed in both games. I've been doing really choice games with involved plots and getting complaints about how tough the stories are for both games [while the characters still are 'winning' in that they are, for the most part, surviving to accomplish specific missions]. And the Saturday host is driving me out of the house by blaring at high HIGH volume his TIVO'd shows during the dinner break. More of the Saturday players really don't put any effort into putting any kind of personality into their character - and there are some who make really ANNOYING comments that make problems for others and then claim it wasn't being said by their characters. Sadly, the worst rule's-bitcher is in both games and making MORE people than just me want to strangle him. Meanwhile a couple of the better players are also pissing me off by doing the card playing thing way too often. But then there are the players who ARE trying to put life into their characters and who DO pay attention. And some of them are driving a considerable distance just to be in my games.
I am like SO conflicted. What do I do? It's not like there's a convenient DELETE button to get rid of the problem parts of my problem players. When good, they do contribute to a better game and I personally like ALL of the players, when away from the table. It's just mounting problems that is making my sanity points dribble out of my ears!
All in all I think I do a good job of preparing the game, keeping things going without turning it into an IRS audit session because of the rules - while not ignoring the structure that rules do provide.
Unfortunately for a while now I have had the sense that I have some players who would rather be somewhere else. Like playing on the PS2 or GBA or playing cards or reading or sleeping, rather than paying attention to what is happening at the table.
Some of this is my fault, just because:
[a] = during a combat, even the quickest combat turn passes slowly when there are more than 4 players in a game and each has their turn, describing their action/rolling dice;
[b] = that my corrected vision causes me to now have to = look at set-up with glasses to see table/take glasses off to refer to facts on sheet/make rolls/take notes = for each of the baddies they are fighting, which also takes forever when there is more than one monster on the table being fought -- so combat turns just take a lot of time
[c] = so combat turns take time and interaction takes time because it's not just one-on-one talking to a single character and when it's shopping everyone wants to have full concentration for their shopping all at the same time.
But just WHEN did everyone decide that if I was NOT looking at them then they were going to go away from the table?!? Even if it isn't all about THEM at the time, why aren't they interested in what else is happening?
And then there are players who are AT the table who seem like they would rather ruin the game for EVERYBODY else just so they can cause trouble by questioning rules, bringing up rules, wanting to amend the rules and quoting rules from memory [at rare times, actually quoting the rules correctly] - just to make a point.
And I find myself wondering = why am I putting up with this?
Currently my Saturday game has 9 players in it. The Sunday game has 7 players. Some of the problem players are in both games and piss me off for different reasons. Inattention pizzes me off almost as much as the rule-bitching because it implies indifference to the game.
I'm getting really annoyed in both games. I've been doing really choice games with involved plots and getting complaints about how tough the stories are for both games [while the characters still are 'winning' in that they are, for the most part, surviving to accomplish specific missions]. And the Saturday host is driving me out of the house by blaring at high HIGH volume his TIVO'd shows during the dinner break. More of the Saturday players really don't put any effort into putting any kind of personality into their character - and there are some who make really ANNOYING comments that make problems for others and then claim it wasn't being said by their characters. Sadly, the worst rule's-bitcher is in both games and making MORE people than just me want to strangle him. Meanwhile a couple of the better players are also pissing me off by doing the card playing thing way too often. But then there are the players who ARE trying to put life into their characters and who DO pay attention. And some of them are driving a considerable distance just to be in my games.
I am like SO conflicted. What do I do? It's not like there's a convenient DELETE button to get rid of the problem parts of my problem players. When good, they do contribute to a better game and I personally like ALL of the players, when away from the table. It's just mounting problems that is making my sanity points dribble out of my ears!
