Chapter One: Bronce (metagaming)

Begin Rant

Yes, I railroaded you . . . get over it!

I have a fairly simple philosophy when it comes to playing games: have fun! While I can appreciate your concern or aggitation about the way the campaign began . . . sorry, that's the way it is. I want to present interesting challenges and situations for your characters to overcome. I want everyone to get into the spirit of this campaign and enjoy the epic storyline that's going to unfold. I do not want to spend hours trying to figure out how to cater to each character's personal likes/dislikes and such. There will certainly be opportunities for each of you to pursue personal goals on occassion. These personal goals will not be the focus of the campaign.

The time and effort required to bring a group of diverse PCs together to engage in an epic campaign just isn't worth it to me at this time. I play Dungeons and Dragons (and any other game) to have fun. Yes, I enjoy role-playing a well-conceived character with personal goals and history. Yes, I like the possibilities of inter-party intrigue and conflict. Here's the deal though: I have a pre-published campaign that I want to play. This pre-published campaign requires the PCs to cooperate and get along and to be heroes. Please do so. I'm not ever going to force you to do anything again . . . but there will be times when you have a very clear choice before you. Make your choice and enjoy the game that is prepared for you.

You will not survive if you engage in petty bickering and and arguing among yourselves (as players and characters). You will not succeed if you don't work together to discover what's going on and why. Please find a way for all of you to get along and enjoy the game. There are opportunities for everyone's character to shine. I will not allow anyone to hog the spotlight. You don't have to push your "character personality" on the game to have fun when it's not your turn in the sun. Just be patient, and you'll get your chance.

End Rant

Begin Advice/Guidance

Work together. I don't care what it takes, figure out a way for your character to accept all of the other characters as friends and comrades. You were brought together for a purpose. While that purpose is not entirely clear you do have goal: find the sword of Starkweather John. Pursue your goal. Accept that a "higher power" is at work.

Be heroic. Again, I don't care what it takes, but you need to be the good guys. I think I was pretty clear before the game started, but if I wasn't I'll try again. Your characters are destined to be great heroes of destiny. You're not villains or anti-heroes. You are the good guys. If you don't want to play a good guy and "save the world" then you need to make a new character or drop out of this game because that's what this campaign is about.

Have fun. This game is not a competition. It's not you against me or you against another player. The entire campaign has tons of appropriate level challengs for your characters to overcome. I will adjudicate them fairly. I'm not going to kill your character although your character might die if s/he's not up to the challenge. If you have an idea that you think will work . . . try it! Don't over-analyze the game. Don't try to find a way to "win" because it's not necessary. Do what you do and have fun.

Wait your turn. No one at the table should do anything to take away from anyone else's fun. We have warriors and wizards and clerics and skill-monkeys. We've got all of the standard slots (except bard) covered. Everyone should have a chance to do his/her thing. When it's someone else's turn to take the lead then let them do it, please. Don't compete with each other. No one at the table is superior to anyone else. Don't try to be.

End Advice/Guidance

Begin Request for Comments

I have a pretty thick skin. I'm also a conceited, arrogant bastard with a monstrous ego. You are incapable of hurting my feelings by criticizing my DM style.

Please tell me what you did and didn't like about the first game session. I want to know what I can do to make the game more fun. If you tell me what you liked then I will know to do more of that. If you tell me what you didn't like I will work to avoid that. If the pacing was bad, let me know. If you feel like I didn't "manage" the game and the players appropriately, tell me about it. If you want me to be more forthcoming with riddles and information, just say so. If you don't like the toys and technology or you don't like how I used it, speak up.

If you have a criticism I would appreciate it if you also offer a proposed remedy for the problem.

This is absolutely not an attempt to fish for complements. If no one says anything then I will assume last night's game was perfect, and I'll keep it up. I happen to know it was not perfect, so I'm going to make a few adjustments with or without comments, but I would prefer to do things you want me to do to improve the game so that everyone has fun.

End Request for Comments

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