It has been too long since I last posted. Much has happened in the game. The PCs traveled along the seaside cliffs, fighting gargoyles. The PCs were harrassed by a demonic ape, which stole the party's Handy Haversack and kidnapped Karyan. In a mountain pass, they came face to face with the ape and drove him away after defeating an ape mob and rescued Karyan. Back down into the jungle, they found themselves trapped within a magical mire. After discovering a demonic temple, they investigated it, destroying the ape demon and releasing the mire from the grasp of the temple. They freed the Nithian village and set about recruiting allies to fight the slaver's undead army. After fighting an enormous t-rex (which ate 2 of the party members), they secured the help of the phanatons and gather weapons from the rakasta temple, also finding the help of a couatl. They sailed around the Isle to help the deserted sailors and faced a kopru druid and his dino companion. They sought out the lair of a green dragon, bargained with it, and came away with some nice info and assistance. The PCs flew to the central plateau and fought the BBEG. The main baddie left in a hurry with the goods, but the party took down his lieutenants. 2 more pieces of the Hand of Quoad were recovered and the party was thanked in person by several Immortals. They have been asked to go save another alternate world before continuing to track down Bargle any further.
Within this time-frame, we've gained a new player (whose character is due to show up any minute now) and lost an original player. I'm up to 6 players and this suits me just fine.
I have a thought for this SotC: DM vs Player mentality
I don't see myself as an "Angry DM". I don't see myself as a "Nice DM", either. I see my job as providing challenges and an interesting story for the players. It is not "Me vs. Them". I'm not out to kill the party nor am I trying to make it too easy on them. I do realize that I reward the PCs with the same level of reward that I myself would want as a player. This can sometimes go into the realm of Monty Haul. Since I began using Erian7's character sheets, I have been able to more accurately track each PC's wealth and scale back the treasure as needed. Are the PCs powerful? Yup. Do they have some awesome gear? Oh ya. Do I have a hard time challenging them? Sometimes, but that is a topic for another time. I strive to give the players a moment or two of tension and some tough moral/ethical/tactical questions. I enjoy seeing them come up with solutions to my scenarios. I like being pushed to adjudicate options that I had not considered. Now, do I like it when one of my creations pushes them to the brink? Yessir. Do I smile when one of my players groans in frustration or despair? At times, yes. If the players come back for more, I know I am doing my job well. Or, rather, well enough.
When I first started DMing during high school, I wasn't always this fair and balanced. There were times that I would arbitrarily f' over the players. I had one rules lawyer that always argued with me, but we were the best of friends and this spirited debate only demonstrated how committed we were. This rules lawyer also was adversarial towards another player, whom the group as a whole did not interact well with. At one point in the game, the two players were arguing with each other and decided they wanted to fight each other. As an exercise in stupidity, I agreed and the rules lawyer's PC (a wild mage, if I recall correctly), was killed. In another game, I purposely TPK'ed the party in order to "rescue" them by a new character. I gave the players free reign over their power level, thinking that this was the only way to make them happy. Now, I realize that I should have reined them in and doled out the rewards a little more judiciously.
And, as a final note on this subject, I have come to realize that it takes time to the players and DM to trust each other. As the DM, I have an idea of how the story will unfold. Sometimes I have to do something that is heavy-handed. But, if the players trust me, they will go along with it (more or less). But I've found that if I give the players the illusion of control, they never see the heavy-handedness behind the scenes.
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