The Fearless DM

Hey all, DDXP ran great- I DM’d 8 slots and played in 3. I was literally gaming throughout every single slot except the very last one (we had to leave before the final slot on Sunday in order to catch our plane).

Here’s what I did: I played in 3 games:

1. Mark Bradley’s ‘Strangers in the Night’ 4e adventure (which was very good, and had an interesting riddle/puzzle in the conclusion that I really liked).My tiefling runepriest was envisioned as a sort of “Angela Lansbury” style detective with a wisecracking demon familiar (fact: You have to spend 3 feats to get a non arcane character a familiar- a multiclass feat, ritual caster, and then the arcane familiar itself). Very good adventure from Mark and I hope to see more of them.

2. Amanda Holdridge’s “I have no opinion About the Monkey”- which was a hilarious setup where the characters were employed at a fantasy-theme park known as the City of Wonders. My gnome illusionist was a park “theme character” known as Bimbo the Rabbit. This was reminiscent of some of the best humor-themed Basic D&D or Dungeon magazine adventures, if you ever get a chance and Amanda runs something like this again, I highly recommend it.

3. I got to play in the D&D Next demo, which was the Caves of Chaos..and it really was the Caves of Chaos, like we got to choose where we went, and eventually we got pointed in the direction of the owlbear and we killed it. We all had to sign an NDA to play it, so I can’t reveal much about the rules except this- it’s D&D!  I was excited to play it, and our DM was Shawn Merwin (who I have corresponded with off and on for years but never played with), and I had a good time. Shawn is an excellent Dm and was willing to tolerate my roleplaying shenanigans. I was playing sort of opposite from a dwarf cleric who was a very good roleplayer as well, and the game itself was quite fun. I guess I can’t reveal much else. I do smell change in the air, and yet most of the things I really like from across the editions were there in the demo. I just wrote a few paragraphs and cut them because I’m still not sure whats NDA and whats not NDA.

4. I personally ran 3 slots of SPEC4-2, with a bit of alteration. During this adventure (spoiler alert) the characters are attempting to assault the floating city of Xiphu. I added a significant section about what happens after the city crashes, and restructured some of the sequences to make it more dramatic and descriptive..  a lot less grindy. I’m not sure how other tables handled SPEC4-2, but this is just me as a DM.

OK, let me talk about this for a second.

I want to say, I was reflecting on all of the things I do to an adventure to make it work like a real D&D adventure, and the RPGA-format to me is bonkers. Last night someone linked this post to me, which is a serious critique of the Slaying Stone, and it outlines all of the problems I have with the layout and format of 4th edition adventures. I have made multiple attempts by this time to reach RPGA with this same message, and Zak S kinda puts it out plainly in a way I can’t. I’m too close to the problem I realize. Considering that I rewrite everything I run for the RPGA and refuse to play in anything LFR unless I trust and know the DM — I wonder aloud if it might be time to quit organized play. The wrong people have entrenched themselves, there is a serious skills disconnect in the DM corps, there’s a very weird disconnect between the people who actually do the work (admins and the best DMs)  and who Wizards of the Coast’s representative seems to want to be part of it (bloggers? Although not me), and the format itself is rigid and unyielding, presumably to control a minority faction of players who see the entire thing as a glorified lair assault/boardgame type of experience (how did we end up with those players in the forgotten realms campaign?), leaving the rest of the players- the overwhelming majority forced to optimize or be left behind, which just makes more problems. I fought so hard against the notion that “WOTC killed roleplaying”- because they didn’t kill it for me, for our groups- it’s not the rules at all- I played an Angela Lansbury-esque tiefling detective with a wisecracking imp, for gosh sake!. But at some point you have to look around and acknowledge that the optimizers are largely running the show now. And they are ruining this for everyone. They are damaging public perception and appreciation and here’s all your problems, right here, WOTC. This is not going to run like Magic:The Gathering. Also: You don’t want it to. Stop telling yourself that you do.

I hope this isn’t an NDA spoiler: In 5e, I predict the optimizers are fucked.

I already did my Martin Luther bit and described how I would fix Organized Play (it ain’t going to ever run like Magic:The Gathering, bro), but I’m not here to offend people, and really, if any of it gets fixed and none of my suggestions are used, I’d still be happy. I want this to work.  But if I quit, I can’t help, and further, I’ll miss out on positively influencing the transition into the new set of rules..

I’m perplexed.

Oh wait, the best part: I ran 4 slots of 1st Edition AD&D, and sold out every single slot. Actually oversold because I let people bump in up to 8 persons per table and it worked fine. I also ran a 4th Edition Isle of Dread adventure that went off brilliantly. One of those AD&D slots  (saturday night) had some no-show players but I went back and confirmed and I had indeed sold out every ticket. I ran Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and Dwellers of the Forbidden City twice each, and they were both pretty awesome runs. Met some great players as well! I’ll have more on my AD&D runs and my stab at a 4e take on the Isle of Dread in a future post.

Questions I ask myself: If there’s a hunger for AD&D, if I can sell out games, if I can get players based on my reputation alone, if I see frustration and even anger all around me, but not at my own games, …how can I be wrong about what it takes to be a good DM?