OutofCharacter / 2009ResponsesAboutBOB
Responses about BOB
What are BOB's strengths that he brings to the game?
- Impeccable note keeping, organization
- Octavia
- Lots of ideas, wants to continuously improve the game, wants to figure out klooge to make it do more
- Lots of experience with roleplaying
- Willing to be there every friday. Has a good grasp of his story line and plot. Can be very creative when coming up with adventures.
What are BOB's weaknesses that hinder the game?
- Impeccable note keeping, organization borderlining OCD
- Refusal to stop rule abuses, allowing open rules arguments that linger, tendancy to provide NPCs that don't actually help unless you like obscure hints, reluctance to allow the players to guide the campaign, making SWEEPING rule reforms based on the actions of a few
- Too much crawling/encounters between opportunities to rp, tries to make the game too 'real' at times which hinders the ease of play and fun factor, wants to do too much with klooge
- Sometimes makes mistakes
- Loses the trees from the forest. Because he is so focused on the big picture doesn't do enough to make sure each adventure or NPC or monster is playing at it's fullest. Is unwilling to be wrong. If he makes a mistake he won't go back and correct it. Is unwilling to here complaints during the game from players, or fix problems in the game. Communicates poorly. Thinks he can communicate as well by typing as he used to do in his narrations. A perfect example of poor communication on Bob's part is a few weeks ago when he had a personal problem at home. Rather than cancelling the game, he left everyone on line for hours without telling them that the game was going to be delayed, or even cancelling the game. Finally people logged off after 2-3 hours waiting for him. He used to be really good at communicating but since he has been relying so much on "internet chatting", it is like dealing with a hormonal female..."Read my mind - you should know what I want you to know or what I want you to feel, or what I want you to think, or how I want you to act".
What is something that you like about BOB's character(s)?
- Typically the only characters I like are the ones who are supposed to be villains. The good guys are always asses.
- Quirky, unique, larger than life, adventure appropriate
- They make great butts of jokes
- Each character is different not the same npcs over and over
- Christy - the nicest, sweetest person in the game wants to kill all of Bob's characters...does that answer the question.
What do you like about BOB's DM style?
- Strong detailed world. Very realistic. Lots of flexibility.
- He's used his years of experience to create an amazing world and he is willing to entertain alternative opinions
- Very open ended, willing to let the players take the wheel and steer, allows a lot of freedom in character creation, very open to ideas and suggestions
- Can be fun and has lots of oppurtunities for roleplaying as well as combat
- The way he used to be.
What do you dislike about BOB's DM style?
- Too realistic at times. Wandering around and killing things as well as establishing home bases are usually emphasized over story, and rp. Treasure rewards are few and far between.
- See above commentary
- Can be too literal at times, doesn't often 'intuit' what the players want or desire, is too open ended-needs to be willing to lead the players by the nose at times to finish something, makes npc's all too often difficult to deal with
- Sometimes feels like hes trying to kill the players
- Rigid. Stories are to broad and far reaching sometimes. For example the current story line reminds me of the TV series "Lost" - literally and figuratively. It is so long and convoluted that it needs recaps and subheadings so people can figure out what is going on. You have to force yourself to get back into the storyline because it goes on forever. He changes the rules in the middle of the game at his own whim. This used to be "our game". We all decided what rules we liked and disliked. We were able to give our opinion on how rules should be interpretted. That is no longer allowed. For example recently Arylin had an attack of oportunity against a beholder. Bob changed the rule in the middle of the game so she wouldn't be allowed to do it. His definition he has now put up on the web site is totally against any rule for that kind of action and makes no sense. But was done to justify his decision in the game, and to hinder players. Rather than create realistic scenarios he is more interested in damaging players abilities. This is the 3rd or 4th time we have come across beholders. Rather than using them as they are meant to be played he punishes characters abilities. Beholders have several different "RAY" powers that come from their eyes. Rather than use the powers appropriately (disentegrate players, paralyze players, turn players to stone) he uses the wimpiest of abilities to negate the players magic. Then makes the eye powers of beholders no longer be "rays" since that gives them away. It isn't about hurting the players, but utilyzing the monsters to their fullest. If you think people would rather die by being cheated, then die because they failed their rolls, or because the monster made all of theirs that is a big mistake. People leave the game because they get tired of feeling cheated while playing. They return because of the comraderie with the other players and because they consider Bob a friend. Not because they like the game. This game has deteriorated tremendously over the past few years. People used to hate missing a session now they dislike logging on. The insistence of a "chat log" so others outside of our group can keep up with what is going on, isn't a good enough argument for the deterioration of the game. VOIP would add so much more. We would now be able to COMMUNICATE with each other. That was what was great about the old game. Also he wastes peoples time to often. It can be fairly evident when the combat is done. To keep people wasting spells and moving about for 30 min to an hour when the monsters have snuck away is a waste of time.
