In this issue
I describe my gaming group from the perspective of me as a Game Master.
This is from DunDraCon when we were discussing who are the best and
players for each GM. Now, just because I don't like you as a player in
one of my games does it mean that I don't like you personally and vice
versa, though there may be some corollaries.
Top tier players: David Woo and Billy Filios. I love Billy as a friend
and as a player in my games. I've only run him in my BattleTech
campaign but he totally got it. As a player, he has fun with the
universe the same way I have fun as a GM. One of the big problems is
when the player and GM have different views on the universe. Billy and
I were in sync.
In much the same way, Woo and I are in sync with the DC Heroes
campaign. Almost everything his character does is dead-on to what I
want in my campaign, hence I don't have to worry that he's going to do
something that I will regret. He's a guy that I can throw weird/funny
subplots and he'll go along, for example the Star Trek TNG campaign
where his character was the Captain's boy toy.
Second tier players: David Sweet, Donald Kubasak and Eric Fulton. Dave
is my best friend and yet when we're playing role-playing games we just
clash, which is unfortunate. He's very enthusiastic and tries really
hard, which is great. But in all three of my campaigns his view of the
genre and universe is skewed compared to mine. We see different ideals
in the genres and he'll stubbornly stick to his ideals.
Fulton is quiet. He seems to enjoy the campaigns and what I throw at
him and he seems fine with not having the spotlight. Much like Woo but
there's just something missing, that little extra that Woo puts in to
make him a top tier player.
Much as I hate to admit this, Donald is the worst second-tier player.
He's very enthusiastic and loves my games and I like him playing in my
games. His biggest problem is not so much what I would call a munchkin
as that he likes to try out new skills and powers. Especially in a
super-hero game it gets trying at times because I have to say "no" so
much. And I have to give him something because he gets bored easily.
Therefore we winds up being more work than other first and second tier
players.
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Lately I've
noticed that Donald tends to misread his rolls. I don't think it's on
purpose. I think he just wants it so bad that he actually sees a three
as a five or whatever in order to roll doubles and get to roll up. Not
his fault so I stay quiet, but I really should start sitting farther
away from him because it's damn annoying to me.
Everyone else: Shannon Appelcline, Eric Rowe, and David Pickering. All
three of these people I'm intimidated GM'ing for. Shannon is probably
the best pure roleplayer of the group. I've done things like have his
character be possessed without telling the other players and he's
played it brilliantly. The only guy in the group who I could give
Sorcery 25 to with instructions like "don't ruin my campaign" and he'd
be able to pull it off.
Unfortunately, because he's that good I always feel stressed running
him. It's like I have to raise the bar of my GM'ing much higher than I
want and if I don't it's like I'm letting him down. I'm sure he doesn't
mind but I do.
Rowe is much like Sweet. He sort of gets my take on the genre but it's
still off enough to be annoying. And he's also pretty set in his ways
once he's settled on how he's going to play a character. What makes him
more annoying to GM than Dave is that Eric is too logical. He just
can't deal well with opponents and NPCs that act on emotions and
illogic. Suspension of disbelief is not really in his vocabulary and
that makes it hard because my campaigns are very "ignore the illogic
and concentrate on the genre" play styles.
Pick is my least favorite player to GM. Our group has pretty much
always played scavenger-type games. We go around collecting stuff and
using other people. And Pick excels at it. I've often described him as
treating every game like a Post-Apocalyptic universe where you go
around screwing people and taking their stuff.
DC Heroes (and Star Trek TNG before it) is a polar opposite to that
credo. You go around helping people for no gain. They're both games
about ideals and being Good. Pick doesn't do that and that creates a
lot of friction that I have to deal with. I'm not denying that there
are no mortal people in those genres, but that's not the atmosphere I'm
trying to run.
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