Urto karbardah!
I've been running a game of D&D over IRC since October. It originally consisted of myself (as DM,) my wife (LadyEtaine,) our mutual friend Dylan (ii,) and my somewhat eccentric friend David (who is, obviously, dumbvid.) The lineup's had a few changes, of course - David went to Japan (and came back after many adventures) and the game (for a while) was down to two. Recently, though, David returned and disappeared again, and the esteemed wife of sir Dylan (her LJ is, I am told, clock) joined us. There were growing pains (she hadn't RPed at all before ever not once not never, and so we all kind of talked over her) but now she's kicking ass and taking names.
Right the party is (on average) about a third of the way through third-level. Dylan plays a ranger/fighter, Alessia plays a Swashbuckler, and Elise is running a Sorceress. They're all really quite tolerant - the last four games have been (in order) a dinner party, dinner party, night at a bar and night at a bar again. The exposition's really rather nice, and it seems quite a lot as though the high points of the game come when I'm not expecting them.
In any case, this is probably the best game I've ever run, and among the best I've ever been involved in. The characterization is great across the board - each of the players has a very good idea of who their character is, even Elise - which is doubly grand because the character's existed for all of two short play sessions. And - not to be a braggart - for the most part my own portrayal of varying things has been spot-on.
One thing I'm slightly concerned about is the speed at which characters grow more powerful. I'm using standard experience tables and a (fairly) ordinary awards system, but all the same I can't make up my mind whether the characters are crawling along or going much too fast. It's kind of a hard call to make, really - I hate high-level play, because I'm a curmudgeon. There's very little I like less than running a group of 18th-level characters because - in all honesty - it strains the suspension of disbelief that anyone could feasibly become so powerful and still have a steady supply of enemies. In my campaign setting, the number of beings above 16th level at any given time can be counted on one hand, so it's kind of hard to justify.
I have enough material to run the game for at least a year longer without needing to brainstorm more material. I'm really looking forward to the next arc in the story, because (again) it's one of my best ideas ever. The temptation to truncate the current leg of the journey is omnipresent, but fortunately it's a little bit too fun to want to move on.
- And then there's the matter of Gribby, which - as anyone who's involved with the current game knows, is an odd little fellow. I don't think they've guessed yet! Current theories are that he's a Slider, and his true motive is to recover his timer. This is probably not correct.
The players themselves are also getting really invested in both their characters and the world. Dylan's actively looking for things to work on (for instance, he's convinced me to actually develop a language for the kobold tribes. His madness matches my own!) and my wife continues to demand more and more cultural notes so she can complete the thesis-esque monstrosity that is her character's biography.
The material that I've accumulated for my setting is becoming revoltingly staggering. I start to understand why Samwise (corduroybard) was never able to really teach me enough about Tiala to make my running a game in the setting feasible - there's just too much stuff there, and it doesn't come through in a glob of digestible size.
Speaking of, the aforementioned Samwise is half-correct - D&D3.5 is a horribly overpowered game. Of course, first and second edition were just as bad, I'm finding, and the trick is to enforce your own sense of balance over the whole. I've nerfed a couple feats that made the game stupidtastic, and houseruled in a couple tricks I picked up playing with the man. Notably, I've cut Run considerably - no longer can a monk run a football field to deliver a devastating stun-nausea kick. I'm also using a new concept I've come up with called unstackable bonuses - which are just that, bonuses that do not stack with others of any type under any circumstances. That alone has made the landscape much better.
As far as magic items are considered, well - there practically aren't any. The party is so far below the DMG3.5's suggested wealth-by-level it's not even very funny.
In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing where this game goes. And somehow, though I'm surely mad - I'm looking forward to the game that comes next, because we can all only get better. And really - who doesn't want that?
-KA (WT)
Right the party is (on average) about a third of the way through third-level. Dylan plays a ranger/fighter, Alessia plays a Swashbuckler, and Elise is running a Sorceress. They're all really quite tolerant - the last four games have been (in order) a dinner party, dinner party, night at a bar and night at a bar again. The exposition's really rather nice, and it seems quite a lot as though the high points of the game come when I'm not expecting them.
In any case, this is probably the best game I've ever run, and among the best I've ever been involved in. The characterization is great across the board - each of the players has a very good idea of who their character is, even Elise - which is doubly grand because the character's existed for all of two short play sessions. And - not to be a braggart - for the most part my own portrayal of varying things has been spot-on.
One thing I'm slightly concerned about is the speed at which characters grow more powerful. I'm using standard experience tables and a (fairly) ordinary awards system, but all the same I can't make up my mind whether the characters are crawling along or going much too fast. It's kind of a hard call to make, really - I hate high-level play, because I'm a curmudgeon. There's very little I like less than running a group of 18th-level characters because - in all honesty - it strains the suspension of disbelief that anyone could feasibly become so powerful and still have a steady supply of enemies. In my campaign setting, the number of beings above 16th level at any given time can be counted on one hand, so it's kind of hard to justify.
I have enough material to run the game for at least a year longer without needing to brainstorm more material. I'm really looking forward to the next arc in the story, because (again) it's one of my best ideas ever. The temptation to truncate the current leg of the journey is omnipresent, but fortunately it's a little bit too fun to want to move on.
- And then there's the matter of Gribby, which - as anyone who's involved with the current game knows, is an odd little fellow. I don't think they've guessed yet! Current theories are that he's a Slider, and his true motive is to recover his timer. This is probably not correct.
The players themselves are also getting really invested in both their characters and the world. Dylan's actively looking for things to work on (for instance, he's convinced me to actually develop a language for the kobold tribes. His madness matches my own!) and my wife continues to demand more and more cultural notes so she can complete the thesis-esque monstrosity that is her character's biography.
The material that I've accumulated for my setting is becoming revoltingly staggering. I start to understand why Samwise (corduroybard) was never able to really teach me enough about Tiala to make my running a game in the setting feasible - there's just too much stuff there, and it doesn't come through in a glob of digestible size.
Speaking of, the aforementioned Samwise is half-correct - D&D3.5 is a horribly overpowered game. Of course, first and second edition were just as bad, I'm finding, and the trick is to enforce your own sense of balance over the whole. I've nerfed a couple feats that made the game stupidtastic, and houseruled in a couple tricks I picked up playing with the man. Notably, I've cut Run considerably - no longer can a monk run a football field to deliver a devastating stun-nausea kick. I'm also using a new concept I've come up with called unstackable bonuses - which are just that, bonuses that do not stack with others of any type under any circumstances. That alone has made the landscape much better.
As far as magic items are considered, well - there practically aren't any. The party is so far below the DMG3.5's suggested wealth-by-level it's not even very funny.
In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing where this game goes. And somehow, though I'm surely mad - I'm looking forward to the game that comes next, because we can all only get better. And really - who doesn't want that?
-KA (WT)