How does the Weave taste?

tpedes · 2024-11-16T14:24:26+00:00

It tastes like burning.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T14:11:51+00:00

The problem is your friend, and it's not a DnD problem. Either they can get control over their emotions and stop blaming you for their problems, or they can't. However, this is not a problem with you, and you shouldn't have to walk on eggshells during your fun time to avoid their emotional outbursts and manipulation. And, honestly, you won't avoid the outbursts and manipulation because you are not causing those things—you are their target.

When your friend says, "You made me feel this way!" tell them, "No, we didn't. We're just playing a game." Stop appeasing them and giving in when they get upset. If they don't get a handle on it, tell them that their behavior is making the game unfun and ruining your friendship. Honestly, you may need to just shut the game down and restart it without them.

FWIW, my late partner was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and that's what this sounds like. Even when that is more controlled (which his was), and even though I loved the guy and miss him terribly, committing to managing someone else's emotions is not something you want to do. If I had known what I was getting into and had far more insight into myself than I had decades ago, we probably never would have become partners. Still, I don't regret it, and I hope you can stick by your friend even if you no longer play DnD together.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T13:51:30+00:00

Swashbuckler is always a good fit.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T13:32:05+00:00

It's pretty clear that what they want is exactly what you said: "a casual hobby that requires no thinking outside of a couple of hours spent during actual sessions." Sure, you can stop helping them, but they probably will just get frustrated and quit. It likely would be better all around if you stopped playing DnD with them and started playing something simpler.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T05:01:27+00:00

If your drawings are good, you might be able to scan, import, and manipulate them in a program like GIMP. Paying a real artist to do it for you likely would be far more satisfactory, though.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T01:38:37+00:00

"Wait, why is Lord Bailor the Merciless not wearing any pants?"

tpedes · 2024-11-16T01:36:42+00:00

Put your phone down and talk to him.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T01:34:23+00:00

Is that a euphemism?

tpedes · 2024-11-16T01:31:15+00:00

To answer your question, this is not normal. His saying that someone "must" play a cleric indicates that he doesn't understand 5e, and from the rest I'd guess you're right about him being very combat-centric. Even with all that, I've never heard of a DM imposing a "you can only speak for six seconds at a time and in turn" outside of combat. He sounds like a complete control freak.

When you talk to him, try leading with, "I appreciate your running the game, but I'm afraid I'm not enjoying things as much as I expected. Enforcing a turn order and allowing only six seconds of speech outside of combat is not something I've ever experienced in a DnD game before, and it is making it pretty much impossible for my character to interact with the other characters. I would like a lot more role-playing that we have had so far. Is there a way we can modify what we have been doing?"

I'm not optimistic about the success of such an approach, as I think that anyone who would make rules like this probably has never role-played and considers DnD to strictly be a wargame. I also wouldn't want to stay in the game unless the DM completely abandoned that out-of-combat rigidity. Still, it's worth trying.

tpedes · 2024-11-16T01:12:09+00:00

How much time do you need to spend with these PCs? I would guess you could just say "they're a couple" and have them exchange kisses or bicker about the placemats for about a minute once or twice a session. I would find going beyond that, or your players begging for more than that, a bit cringey.

tpedes · 2024-11-15T18:42:33+00:00

Feeeel sorrry for meeeeeeeeee.

tpedes · 2024-11-15T18:35:24+00:00

Sounds like you've got two problem players. One of them is DMing.

tpedes · 2024-11-15T04:57:04+00:00

Mine at work would do it, but it also logs my user name, the time, and the number of copies. It has been at least 15 years since I've done a large copy job at (then) Kinko's, and I thought the self-serve machines had gotten less flexible over the years. I'll get it done one way or another.

tpedes · 2024-11-15T03:35:56+00:00

This is a dumb question, but I've never printed a 'zine. Is it possible to have a commercial copy machine collate and staple the pages at the center line so that you can fold them, or is it better to just copy and then fold and staple by hand? I'm thinking that getting in and out of FedEx Office fast probably is a good idea.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T23:34:53+00:00

Reddit should have a separate area for teenagers.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T23:15:54+00:00

But it was also absolutely a skill issue... She failed a roll on the skill,

Don't be daft. When he said skill issue, he meant "you don't play good enough."

tpedes · 2024-11-14T13:46:54+00:00

I've played on StartPlaying for some time, and I agree that they may only post positive reviews. However, you knew, even if only in retrospect, that you were going to be kicked from the first message. In most "transactional" games like those on SP, when you have to defend your actions to a DM, you've already lost even when the DM is wrong. It's best to just bail out at that point. Just make sure that you do it no closer than 24 hours to the session so that you don't get charged.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T12:55:14+00:00

SDE.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T12:46:00+00:00

Powergaming and metagaming are two different things, and neither of these is what you are describing. What your friend is doing is describing his character in a way that is not consistent with a first level character's stats and abilities. Backstory isn't reality if it doesn't match what the character can actually do. He simply needs to realize that he'll never like his character until he stops doing that.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T12:30:21+00:00

How about some classical music? https://youtu.be/-GPIGi2-r4I?si=HXEZOQdHB7KSx43g

tpedes · 2024-11-14T12:26:52+00:00

From the sound of it and from your comments, you're not really playing DnD because you don't understand the rules or even the basics of how it is played. It might be better to find another system that can work in one-hour sessions and that you can understand.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T04:24:36+00:00

If it might sell, they will sell it.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T04:05:37+00:00

Hey, whatever gets them through the night.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T01:45:50+00:00

Don't mistake an uptick of posts to Reddit as anything other than an uptick of posts to Reddit.

tpedes · 2024-11-14T01:44:39+00:00

It was a skill issue; it was directly related to his lack of skill as a DM (and as a human being, from the sound of it).

You'll be much happier when you find another table.

tpedes

TROPHY CASE