Getting the Game back together

[Chef Zomagic]

Originally Posted by The Final Door

Am I completely in the wrong here, or is the thing being shared not something the OP made, a questionnaire for his/her players??

...Oh he's giving the survey! Ahaha... okay just ignore me, I'm a dork. I didn't read too closely there.

NEVERMIND.

[Edges]

The survey looks great.

I also recently came out of nearly 10 years of gaming retirement to GM a new group. I ended up taking the time interviewing each person in advance. I just went on a 45min-1hr walk with them.

We talked about what kind of gaming style they liked, the types of genre they liked, if they had anything that they particularly didn't want to see, etc. I even asked them why they wanted to game. I straight out told them the gamer stereotypes I knew of, explaining as necessary, and asked if they related to any of them.

I asked how liberal I could be as a GM. Would you hate it if your character lost an eye? How about getting turned into a vampire? What if the party was teleported into another dimension or another time for an adventure? How about for the rest of the campaign?

A big question was what challenge level was suitable. I generally make adventures that are at the limit of challenge that the players can handle. Gauging that limit in advance is crucial.

I also wanted to know how dedicated and reliable they could be. Can you meet every week? At the same time? What type of commitments do you have?

And since, in the end, table-top is a social enterprise, I wanted to get a read on their personal social savy. In my head I'm thinking, "How well is this person going to get along with the others?"

It was all very friendly and informal. I found it quite valuable in selecting a group (there were about 15 people who wanted to play), in building a world, and in making suggestions for PCs.

It did take a little extra time but it's been worth it.

[rogersd]

Originally Posted by DAT

I think it is here:
http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/Fashion/...s-game-style/#

Just got back from my father's place and dial up. The quiz is very similar to what I have created, but mine includes questions about game systems, genres and character types, not just player type. I may ask them to complete this also as another source of information.

Thanks,
Dave.

[rogersd]

So I have three players. They filled out the survey that I had made for them and I took some time to tabulate the results. Which are interesting: I gave them 10 choices of genre and the top three were: Dungeon fantasy; space opera; and historic time period. The other seven were very far behind and time/dimensional travel finished dead last.

Of the game systems I presented to them, only one had played something other than AD&D, remember we are all over thirty and that was Battletech.

Of preferred character types I got elf, and balanced. One was left blank.

Of the 21 questions I used to create a basic understanding of their player type; I got two scoring average in nearly all categories; one that scored high in tactics and story telling; the only commonality was that they all scored average to high in the casual gamer category. 5-7 out of 9. There is a Voyager joke there somewhere.

So, we will meet next Monday night to make our characters and start our first adventure. Leading me to this final question....

Since we are all familiar with AD&D is this a good place to start, or should I look at something they are unfamiliar with?

And if I knew how or where to post my survey, after converting it to a pdf, I don't know what a UTF-8 file is. I'd be more than willing to share.

Dave.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by rogersd

So, we will meet next Monday night to make our characters and start our first adventure. Leading me to this final question....

Since we are all familiar with AD&D is this a good place to start, or should I look at something they are unfamiliar with?

My first inclination is to say, run something that:

1) You'll enjoy running

and

2) Your players won't hate playing

A brand-new system is not a bad thing, especially if all the players are new ... it can even become a time of discovery, if done right. What can cause problems is to play in a system that the players can't stand and will actively fight against (or that the GM is not inspired by and won't bring his/her full energy to).

If you like doing AD&D, more power to you. If you want to try something else, just be sure the crew wants to come along for the ride ... or at least, that they're not itching to blow up the tracks.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by rogersd

Since we are all familiar with AD&D is this a good place to start, or should I look at something they are unfamiliar with?

Don't rule out anything because they are not familiar with it. The most important thing is to chose a game system that the GM doesn't struggle against (I would struggle against any form of D&D, but you might not). Pick what goes smoothly with your GMing.

The players will have an easy time picking up a new game if you play frequently. It will be more burdensome and there will be more forgetting between sessions if you play infrequently. But the most important thing about a system is that the GM is comfortable using it for the genre and setting.

[rogersd]

In many ways my first preference would be Gurps Dungeon Fantasy. I have purchased several of the pdfs and really enjoy the material and its presentation. It would also allow me to move them onto something else and still use the same rule set. However, the lack of some defined and stated dungeon fodder, read orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, is a major deterrent, as I am busy with work and have two children under the age of five. Meaning lots of prep time is difficult.

AD&D has the advantage of a compendium of many hundred dungeon denizens to slay and balancing hit dice to character levels is quite easy.

Dave.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by rogersd

In many ways my first preference would be Gurps Dungeon Fantasy. I have purchased several of the pdfs and really enjoy the material and its presentation. It would also allow me to move them onto something else and still use the same rule set. However, the lack of some defined and stated dungeon fodder, read orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, is a major deterrent, as I am busy with work and have two children under the age of five. Meaning lots of prep time is difficult.

KMunoz' Natural Encyclopedia.

Mailanka's Easy Peasy Homebrew Monsters Thread.

KMunoz' (and various forumites') It Came From The Forums.

As Mailanka notes, orcs, hobgoblins, and all the other assorted nasty greenskinned fellows are in DF3, just slap an occupational template on the racial template. That said, if even that is too much, the above resources are readily available, and balancing encounters is really just a matter of looking at damage output, attack skills, and defenses. DF2 has some simple effective advice on this front.

[rogersd]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

KMunoz' Natural Encyclopedia.

Mailanka's Easy Peasy Homebrew Monsters Thread.

KMunoz' (and various forumites') It Came From The Forums.

As Mailanka notes, orcs, hobgoblins, and all the other assorted nasty greenskinned fellows are in DF3, just slap an occupational template on the racial template. That said, if even that is too much, the above resources are readily available, and balancing encounters is really just a matter of looking at damage output, attack skills, and defenses. DF2 has some simple effective advice on this front.

I've looked at the home brew monsters thread and just finished copying and pasting it into a word document to allow me to peruse its very useful and well written information.

I was unaware of the other two threads, so thank you for the link.

As it stand the group will be getting together every Monday night to play from 8 to 10:30 p.m. after the kids have gone to bed. So creating some familiarity with the game system should not be too difficult.

Though I do need to finish the first adventure, after deciding on a system.

Dave.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by rogersd

I've looked at the home brew monsters thread and just finished copying and pasting it into a word document to allow me to peruse its very useful and well written information.

I was unaware of the other two threads, so thank you for the link.

As it stand the group will be getting together every Monday night to play from 8 to 10:30 p.m. after the kids have gone to bed. So creating some familiarity with the game system should not be too difficult.

Though I do need to finish the first adventure, after deciding on a system.

Dave.

Two old D&D modules have been converted, if you'd like to use those.

White Plume Mountain was done in a thread on this board.

The other is In Search of the Unknown, again by KMunoz. The man is an animal. It's a PDF (as are all of the resources compiled by him) so it may be a little cleaner and require less digging through the thread to find everything.