Player drops the DM Bomb

Old friend and current player Terry dropped by on Monday night this week to play video games as she often does (Champions of Norrath, Baldur’s Gate, etc.) when she has a dance practice on the West Side.

Handed her a Fat Tire Ale, we horked a shot of Tequila, and before we got to the game she talked about the game regular player Big Ben ran last week that I missed. I had a hell of a busy week preparing for the final blowout weekend of the Northern Ren Faire, and had also just bought a new car (a nifty black Jeep Compass), so I was just feeling a little too stressed to run one of the last games of my two year Night Below campaign. But hey, I wanted an alternate D&D game going besides my own for just such an emergency. That way, I don’t have to feel like I HAVE to provide a game if I am not feeling up to it.

Anyway, out of the blue Terry mentioned that she would not mind doing a little DM’ing. I was not too surprised; early this year while liquored up in the Mirage Casino suite while we were listening to tunes and taking a break from the slots, I brought up the idea that she might try it again. You see, in a way I feel I owe her that.

Around 1993 or so Terry declared she wanted to run some D&D. I had three major campaigns going on at the time with the group; AD&D 1st ed, Call of Cthulhu, and Champions. So we had plenty to do, and by that point in life I had already decided that I wasn’t cut out for the player experience. My joy came out of providing a setting and some challenges and watching the proceedings bloom like a flower. So there were in fact good reasons to not have yet another game by somebody else going on. But on the other side of the coin we did manage to find time to play long sessions of Talisman at the time, so I guess another D&D campaign was not out of the question. So it was like “sure Terry, go for it.”

Terry bought some books, and of course by that time it was 2nd edition they were selling. That was the first thing that got my goat. I would be playing the new version of D&D. Another thing that I was worried about was that despite her having a lot of acting and performing experience I wasn’t sure Terry was aggressive enough to run D&D. OK, it was one of my misconceptions of the time (remember, I was still in my dumb ass 20’s then) that somebody had to be very outgoing and outspoken as I was to run decent games. Terry is often sort of reserved. Don’t get me wrong, she can be a firecracker. Get her mad and you are getting yelled at. And when we are fighting a boss in Baldur’s Gate and she keeps getting killed, her shouts of frustration have me worried the neighbors will think I am killing a hooker in the workshop or something (that’s more of a Saturday night thing).

But in retrospect Terry set-up a decent setting with a fairly clever campaign in mind (adventurer’s coming to a new frontier continent with no civilizations known of), and there was plenty of room for role play among the characters. I came up with a character I loved, Micah, a big tanned sun-worshipping barbarian from some tropical island local (I used the great Conan figure available at the time).

We had a few games over time, but two things frustrated me. One, Terry didn’t seem to have studied the rules very well (something that I could be called guilty on a time or two in my Gm’ing career), and because they were different enough from AD&D I could not be that much of a help (plus I had house ruled so many things away in my game I wasn’t sure I even knew 1st ed. that well anymore). When Terry had to look something up during play, it was often a 20 minute deal. I know, I counted. Later I would realize that the skill of just winging it over spending nose-time in the books is something that you eventually learn as a DM, but Terry didn’t have that yet. So at some point we were in one game where our travelling overland to get to some location spilled over from the previous game. That game had ended with us fighting wolves. Then this game started with us fighting…wolves. Then a few hours into this game we were still travelling and fighting…wolves.

So I made pleas to Terry to just ignore the fucking wandering monster tables and either give us something different to fight, or just get us to the damn location. But I was unheeded. She was determined to go by the book. So some time in the 5th or 6th hour of the game, and maybe 12 beers in, I sort of blew my top. Fellow player Planet Janet and I had already talked a bit on the side about how the games were going, and she was frustrated too (Terry had her boyfriend playing the games, but he wasn’t really into games anyway so he was of the opinion of just being supportive of Terry’s efforts).

But when it came to the zero hour, I was alone in my confrontation, but I felt an intervention was necessary. We were putting hours into this thing every few weeks, and she was taking zero player input (another skill that has to be developed) about how it could be more fun for us. At that time, these were cardinal sins to me. Plus I was having a very broke year then, and I didn’t have wheels for a few months. I was taking three buses over two hours + to get to The Hollywood Bowl area from Venice, and for that you want to be rewarded with some stellar gameplay, no?

So I just told Terry the games were sucking big donkey dick (paraphrasing), it wasn’t fun, and that I was done with it. In a nutshell, that was it. Terry didn’t like it, she dropped out of my games altogether, and we didn’t even talk for almost three years until the mid-90’s when I had a big group in full swing and asked her to come play again. We stayed friends ever since.

But now you see why I maybe owe Terry another shot. She has supported my return to gaming after several year hiatus by being an important part of this group, and that is another reason to let her have a go. But of course, I would want there to be a caveat that she would be more open to player input on the games. Sure, I don’t always have that kind of sympathy for my players, but I have around 35 years of experience, and half my players are shameless power gamers (compared to Terry anyway, who is about as low maintenance a player as you could ask for), so I try not to cut too much slack or they’d eat me alive.

So sure, what the hell. Let’s have Big Ben continue to do his alternate 1st edition a bit, and maybe into next year before too long we’ll let Terry have a go. And of course it will be 2nd edition. But that is OK, I kind of look forward to posting about playing another edition (and one that isn’t 3rd or 4th). This will free me up to do Star Wars KOTOR, Champions, and Call of Cthulhu that I am chomping at the bit to do. But the group was started to do D&D, and we need that going on too. I have to admit, after a two year campaign I’m ready to rest up on the D&D DM’ing a bit.

So sure Terry, you have my vote. If the other guys are up for it, then go for it. Just, uh, go easy on the wolves, eh?