
By the same author as Grand Line 3.5
15th Nov 2014, 5:52 PM
...Do I know you from somewhere? I'm pretty sure your name and/or avatar are familiar. |
2nd Dec 2013, 12:54 AM
I think we've all been in that place before, especially when we were new. The group doesn't have to be good at the game if it wants a punching bag badly enough... |
2nd Dec 2013, 2:39 AM
I think Nat was wrong about this being a group of DMs. I think even DM would find these people abhorrent. |
2nd Dec 2013, 4:13 AM
And DM has grown out of it; chances are she used to be worse about being like this. I've got a feeling Nat doesn't choose to spend too much time reflecting on this, normally... |
2nd Dec 2013, 4:27 AM
I joined a group kind of like that once. They were using an older version of a system I already knew, so although I was "the new guy" I actually had a better knowledge of a lot of things than some of them. (Though other things had been changed so much I didn't know them at all). The group also had their own interpretations of certain rules that just didn't make sense. (They banned neutral-alligned characters because "if you're neutral, then you would act against the party if they did something good, to try to balance it out to neutral"). They also equalized player LEVEL at start, rather than XP or ECL (So one player had effectively twice as much XP as another at start), and a few other things besides. All of that I was willing to put up with, but when one of the other players tried to attack me in character, over something as trivial as not speaking to him as if he were my master, I knew I had a problem. To the group's credit, another player did step in and draw his attention before he actually rolled an attack, but the player then attacked THAT player- so I stepped in to stop THAT, since no one else was going to. I cast a spell to knock him out temporarily, so that he wouldn't harm anyone. No damage, just put him out for a minute or so. THEN someone else finally decides to step in, and casts a spell of his own to put me to sleep for a couple hours. Then everybody stops paying attention, so the guy who attacked me gets up- somehow is aware that I knocked him out despite my having blindsided him- ties me up- which nobody interferes with, even though his character was not able to use a rope to effectively restrain someone. Then he throws me over his horse, and rides away to get me thrown in prison using his character's backstory to explain how nobody would question him if he said I needed to be locked away for life. Then I woke up, and since I was trained in escaping binds, and since he was not trained in binding people, I untied myself, and slid off the back of his horse- which he realized despite not seeing or hearing it, then he turned the horse around to charge me- and the GM decided that despite my skill at escape, and his lack of skill at binding, that even though I'd gotten free of the ropes, it would still take a couple rounds before I could finish freeing myself- and the player charged me, and miraculously missed, then he turned around again and charged me again, and missed again, then I was able to act- but he asked the DM if his horse could also have attacked me- so he was allowed to make two retroactive attacks with the horse, which added onto the damage I had taken before the whole fiasco which nobody had been willing to heal, meant I was dead. |
2nd Dec 2013, 5:21 AM
Wow. |
2nd Dec 2013, 10:11 AM
Yeah, well, retroactively applying things that a player forgot on their turn is something some of the GOOD GMs I've gamed with have allowed, but when you put it in context with all the other stuff that happened alongside it, yeah, not the best first impression. |
2nd Dec 2013, 6:07 AM
I hate that this is something that actually happens. |
2nd Dec 2013, 10:16 AM
Now, as long as we're clear; character optimization- within reasonable limits- is perfectly fine, and hack-and-slash type gameplay is fine if the group is on the same page. |
2nd Dec 2013, 3:45 PM
To be fair, I like to minmax, and I'm an asshole about it, but not the way these guys are. I have made a professional chef who can kill a T-Rex in one turn. As a commoner. Armed only with a paring knife. |
2nd Dec 2013, 10:05 PM
Exactly - and like DM versus Luke, if you've got friends doing it - it can be damn fun. The problem isn't minmaxing, or being in love with the rules, or knowing the setting better then anyone else - it's when people use these things as some sort of 'credentials' that set up a hierarchy with them at the top. |
7th Feb 2017, 3:50 PM"DM's character"
Heh, necropost, but since we still aren't anywhere near Robin's introduction, I can totally see that. |
3rd Dec 2013, 3:59 AM
Funny how much of an issue this strip raised. |
3rd Dec 2013, 11:41 AM
Metagaming, to a certain extent, is part of the game with most tabletops. Ever play Blood Bowl? If you don't take a fair step back from your role as Head Coach to look at the game from a strictly-rules-and-matagame perspective, you don't stand a chance. The same thing happens in chess, monopoly, checkers, poker. Part of playing a game is understanding the rules, and playing within them to the best of your ability- in a game like, say, D&D, this includes character creation and progression, and what decisions your character makes. |
4th Dec 2013, 9:54 AM
That's basically the reason I'm giving up on MtG for the time being. :/ I can't find anybody to play who isn't tournament level, and I'm too lazy and too broke to put in the time and effort required to be worth beans in a game. |
2nd Dec 2013, 3:36 PM
Worst I've ever had was somebody robbing my character while he was unconscious, but then again, I've only ever played Encounters. :/ |
2nd Dec 2013, 5:04 PM
I built a charecter for shadowrun that can move a couple hundred meters per turn. He's deacent at hand-to-hand but can do nothing else. I just wanted to play him to see how he handled, good backstory and everything. For some reason my GM wouldn't allow him :P something about being able to outrun nearly every vehicle in the PHb and crossing the largest mat we own in a simple action. |
2nd Dec 2013, 5:17 PM
New speech bubble colour! Perhaps Gordon will join the group at some point. Maybe the new Sanji. |
2nd Dec 2013, 7:47 PM
More likely to be Chopper, in my opinion. Someone who's newer to games would fit him better. |
3rd Dec 2013, 10:51 AM
I dunno! With that speech bubble color, shouldn't he wind up as Franky? |
3rd Dec 2013, 11:46 AM
Based solely on colour he seems like he'd end up as Sanji. Maybe Brooke? |
3rd Dec 2013, 12:45 PM
Given his name's Gordon, if he joins the group, the party would force Sanji on him simply because the voice Sanji's been given would make it hilarious to them. |
12th Jan 2014, 10:56 PM"I've seen this before, but not on a tabletop"
Instead, it reminds me of the meaner MMO players I've encountered. My wife joined a raiding guilt on Rift, and they were like this all the time. They didn't pick on my wife, but she got real fed up with them and joined another guild that wasn't so intense. We're both happier for it. |
13th Mar 2014, 8:53 AM"I'm calling it"
Gordon's Chopper. I mean, considering Nami's connection to Chopper, his nervousness around the crew at first, yeah Gordon's Chopper. |
17th Jul 2014, 3:12 AM"check the 'cast'"
not sure how relevant this is months later, but in the cast section it highlights Sanji in the same coloring. |
17th Oct 2017, 5:27 PM
Blue bubble? SO this guy will join them and play Sanji as his PC? |
DragonTrainer
1st Dec 2013, 11:00 PM
Had a hard time picking out an Anime / Show to base this flashback on. At first I was going to have Nat be the victim, but then decided... wait a minute, I could tie this in to another idea I had for a while! ^_^
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