Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thoughtful Thursday #20

By the time D&D 3rd edition had been released, I had no interest in it. I had spent a lot of money on 1st Edition and when second and third came out, I felt it was too expensive. And by that time, I had played so much of 1st edition, that I had no real interest in D&D. It made it hard to find new groups, but I was able make my own group. A friend of mine was interested though. He ran a game and I was invited to play. I was hesitant. The last time I had played D&D, it was awful. I was psyched to play Beyond the Looking Glass (I still haven’t played it by the way). Once we got to the first room, a PvP fight broke out. That was the first time I was exposed to this (and I had hoped my last).
  After our 3rd Edition Adventure had gotten underway, the DM gave each of us a secret objective. After speaking with different players, I figured out that we were all at cross purposes. I did my best to arrange a deal where we would all work together until the end. I had a Druid and my wonderful DM had decided that my wolf companion could not survive if I did not feed it. I asked how it could survive in the wild and he insisted that wolves cannot survive outside their pack. We argued a little bit and finally I conceded. The adventure was fun. We found the McGuffin, got to do some team fighting and generally had a good time. Until we got to the end. We had to PvP, and I had been scouring my spells trying to find one that would give me an edge. I happened across “Summon Swarm.” At our level, the damage done by it would be devastating. I was able to win the final fight, but it felt awful. I didn’t like betraying my friends like that. But I didn’t feel like we had a choice. When I design my games, I try and make sure that the players are all working towards a common goal and that the characters all know each other previously. This does not guarantee that PvP will not happen, but it usually gives the players opportunities to go into it with eyes open.

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