Author Topic: Sode #13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming  (Read 12913 times)

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Meg

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Sode #13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« on: May 12, 2008, 12:57:57 PM »
Thank you Carlin! 

This podcast is about what not to say at the table and why.

We also examine what these hot button words really mean.

Drama Queen/Rigmarole Player, Powergamer, Rules Lawyer, Munchkin, Metagame, Railroad, Realistic, Fair

« Last Edit: June 23, 2008, 10:45:49 AM by Meg »
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Josh

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2008, 03:48:00 AM »
The post was not bumped to the top when I moved it.  So here it is.
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Nox_Noctis

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2008, 03:56:48 AM »
Thank you Carlin! 

This podcast is about what not to say at the table and why.

We also examine what these hot button words really mean.

Drama Queen/Rigmarole Player, Powergamer, Rules Lawyer, Munchkin, Metagame, Railroad, Realistic, Fair



Taking public transportation in the land of Oz to attend an annual carnival and performing arts awards ceremonies is out of the question altogether, huh?  :couch
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Kai

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2008, 05:00:08 PM »
Very good episode...had me laughing my ass off quite frequently.

I liked the ice breaker too...though since we're only playing Star Wars Saga at the moment the only thing that came to mind was our (the players) childish delight in getting jobs on the outer rim. :D ...although one of the characters is named Seck and at least once a game the GM will say "it's Seck's turn" and one of us will gleefully exclaim "it's time for sex!" but that's entirely specific to our game.
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Meg

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2008, 05:02:13 PM »
Oo, good one!  That would really apply if you were playing a Firefly game... A job on the rim = Rim Job?

I still think my rapier comment was a moment of pure evil/ brilliance. 

That was totally unscripted by the way  :D
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logan9a

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2008, 12:28:25 AM »
Although I disagreed with the metagamer definition (you can get into a chat with me on it some time if you want) I very much enjoyed this episode.  I also thought the show quality was excellent.  Don't know what you did differently from the previous show but I very much enjoyed it.  My only complaint is that shows are not made often enough for me.  I want more. 

I wrote up a brief review on the HC boards at http://tinyurl.com/6hbqyr  [Note:  If someone can't get in because they don't want to register, I'm sorry.  It is our anti-spammer/idiot measures.  They work.
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Josh

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2008, 01:23:40 AM »
What is your definition of metagame?
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logan9a

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2008, 01:35:07 AM »
In general (without too much typing - I'm a skyper, not a blogger) it is using information one knows outside of the game to influence decisions made within the game.  Note, that this is a very subjective term.  Example;  You fail your spot hidden roll.  Your character doesn't know he failed his spot hidden roll, he just sees nothing outside of the ordinary.  But then you (since you failed your roll) ask others to come in and do spot hiddens after the GM has said that you see nothing out of the ordinary.  Another example:  Someone else says "I'd like to make X skill roll to see if my character knows anything about Y."  If the player says 'Oh, I want to make that roll too!'.  That person would have NO way of knowing that the first character was making said roll or contemplating X.  That is using 'cross the table chat' (ie talk to the GM) to influence your decision.  In brief, that's a bit of my definition.  I invite further discussion over skype if you wish and have the time.  (If enough people are on tomorrow, perhaps we will get a gamer talk going Josh.)
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clarkcd

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2008, 01:54:29 AM »
I view the others chiming in when someone brings up a skill check more as the one player reminding the other player that he has an ability and not the player using out of character knowledge.
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Josh

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2008, 04:29:48 AM »
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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2008, 09:41:40 AM »
Oo, good one!  That would really apply if you were playing a Firefly game... A job on the rim = Rim Job?

I still think my rapier comment was a moment of pure evil/ brilliance. 

That was totally unscripted by the way  :D

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Meg

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2008, 12:22:33 PM »
Ok, so maybe it's a word that only nerds use as a dirty word?   :plot
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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2008, 09:36:19 PM »
The "railroading" discussion reminded me of one of my first gaming groups.  We were just figuring out how to manage effective exposition and get the party together and moving in the same direction.  Many, many, many of the first few sessions in a game were accompanied by the players repeatedly making a vocal imitation of a squeaky marker on a whiteboard with pantomime of an arrow being drawn.  When asked by the 'new guy' of the week, we'd let them know that this meant "Plot This Way!"

And I totally counted.  For 75 minutes I was wondering why there were 8  :wall
« Last Edit: May 25, 2008, 09:50:15 PM by heffroncm »

brislove

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #14 on: May 26, 2008, 02:11:41 PM »
honestly I think you could have dropped fair. It's not as emotional of a word as the other 7. Fair is basically just whining, but saying "it's not fair" doesn't have the impact that calling someone a munchkin does.

Railroading: It's bad DMing, false options are still railroading. A mentally dominated king that chases you out of town is a railroad. My biggest problem with railroading is the fact that I'm being shoehorned into something. It's that as a player I go through this whole social encounter, or espionage ect, in order to convince someone that gave me the same reaction as if I had just shot his guards for fun.

Rules-Lawyer:
I don't think I'm a rule lawyer. I let a lot of shit go. I try to only point out things that are going to come up often throughout the campaign, or are going to grossly unbalance an encounter. I don't like to have a TPK because the DM doesn't know the rules...



 

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2008, 02:21:12 PM »
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=995900
 
Here is one with a player asking if he gets ranged sneak attack when two party members are flanking his target: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=998587
 
Here is one that tries to argue that the rules should allow ranged flanking, even though they do not: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1011489
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Josh

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2008, 10:39:40 PM »
honestly I think you could have dropped fair. It's not as emotional of a word as the other 7. Fair is basically just whining, but saying "it's not fair" doesn't have the impact that calling someone a munchkin does.
 

Fair was one of the first 3 words that inspired this discussion.  This is a problem for GMs because it can ruin the mood for the whole group.  You are in a big fight and one character is getting low in hp and then all of a sudden they say, "its not fair."  Then the game grinds to a halt. 
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heffroncm

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2008, 10:42:29 PM »
Had a character leave my 3.5 Ravenloft game for just this reason, a couple weeks before the Big Finale.  He's coming back to play 4e with us, but it was pretty emotionally tense at the time and honestly ruined the whole night.

honestly I think you could have dropped fair. It's not as emotional of a word as the other 7. Fair is basically just whining, but saying "it's not fair" doesn't have the impact that calling someone a munchkin does.
 

Fair was one of the first 3 words that inspired this discussion.  This is a problem for GMs because it can ruin the mood for the whole group.  You are in a big fight and one character is getting low in hp and then all of a sudden they say, "its not fair."  Then the game grinds to a halt. 

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #18 on: May 30, 2008, 02:39:18 AM »
I really liked the discussion on Rules Lawyers, especially the example about a guy going with Precise Shot + others only to find out that there's no penalty for firing into melee, I've been that guy before and it kinda sucks.  What I want to know is how you guys feel when a player knows the rules better than the DM, and points things out.  In my experience, it pisses the DM off, as it kinda undermines their authority, you know?  Any thoughts?
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Josh

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Re: Episode 13- 7 Words You Don't Say While Gaming
« Reply #19 on: May 30, 2008, 04:40:18 AM »
I really liked the discussion on Rules Lawyers, especially the example about a guy going with Precise Shot + others only to find out that there's no penalty for firing into melee, I've been that guy before and it kinda sucks.  What I want to know is how you guys feel when a player knows the rules better than the DM, and points things out.  In my experience, it pisses the DM off, as it kinda undermines their authority, you know?  Any thoughts?
I have had this problem in actuality, I also have had the same problem as ksbsnowowl, where a DM thought that a ranged attacker was flanking a guy if there was another ranged attacker on the other side of a target.  This gm also did not understand that not all d20 books were cannon.  He thought that if it was printed he had to allow it.  So one of the players had some Mongoose book where one feat turns sneak attack into d8s.  He was also really stingy with magic items and spellcasters(as in level 1 mages should adventure with level 10 fighters) so while this was broken it was the only way the party had to be effective.

I also had a friend who hated 3ed because if you rolled a natural 20 on a crit confirmation you instantly killed the target and he had had 2 characters die like that.  I pointed out to him that that was not actually a rule.  He got really mad at his DM. 

I usually know the rules better than the GM.  And I would like to tell you that there is a trick to deal with that.  But there isn't.

The problem is, you can be nice and ignore the problems, but that usually means just biting your lip and that is not fun.  I just try to be upfront. 
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