Tuesday's D&D game was a better for me. I've posted before about how frustrating my dwarven cleric has been, but he seems to be getting better and I think there a few reasons for that.
1) I've changed the character's powers around so that he's able to keep up in combat (although my dice really aren't working with me on that front). I've checked through the Wizards forums on optimizing characters and while I generally find that approach to gaming as being lame and counter to what I really enjoy about roleplaying -- which is the actual role-playing of the character -- the tips there have helped me to get the character to a point where I feel like I'm contributing.
2) I and the other players have realized we work much better as a team when we're near enough to one another that Seth's warlod Valok and my cleric Rufus can use our powers to aid them. Sure, there are times when one of the characters needs to go outside our range, but they usually pay for doing it and/or shortly return to the group.
3) This last one bothers me a bit because it's very meta, but it's become more common for those of us sitting around the table to talk to the other players out of character to explain what we're going to do next and why. There are a couple of instances that stand out in which I told another player to either delay their action so I could set up a bonus for their daily power, or told them to wait until next round to pull out the big guns so I could get off an effect that would help them. Part of me likes the tactics that arise from this sort of communication, but the other part of me is bothered by the fact that such communication is necessary. Sure, I can rationalize it by saying the characters are barking commands and requests to each other, but the table talk that takes place between the players to set up this or that effect tells me that it would be impossible for the characters to communicate such concepts in the middle of combat.
Regardless, the game is going better for me. Wait, no, that's unfair, the game isn't; the game's been very good the whole time. Rather, my character is performing much better for me, so that's good.
Oh, and I finally rolled a natural 20 with my vicious warhammer, hit the big ice demon thingy, and did 20 or so points of damage. And killed the thing. Woohoo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
It is quite possible to get very meta with the gaming, but it's just as easy to take the meta and put it back 'in the game' by requiring in character discussions of tactics. And, of course, shouted instructions can be heard by the bad guys. I think the adventurer's Vault has rings of telepathy! =0 But Rings are fairly high level now.
Hey Kev,
Yes, you're completley correct, the "above the table" stuff could and should move back into in-character speech and I think it will. I think we're just dealing with how the game has changed and how it effects our play at the table. Once we all realize how the character classes and their powers work together we'll get more comfortable with not explaining ourselves.
Post a Comment