Thanks, Craw. Actually, we fly over on Wednesday, so things are crazy busy right now! I’ve been meaning to log into FG one Wed night just to say bye “live” to everyone, but it hasn’t worked out. There have been some nights when it was around 9 PM EST, but I was reluctant to interrupt. Please give everyone my best and tell them I’m looking forward to some gaming when I return.

…..poor Heimidall….after such an expectation about the truth about Indomitable, all the provocation and bravado and the big fight….in the end it seems he never had a good swing against the fiery “dream” creature..ehehe….what a shame….and even though I had the best of reason for not attending…I still feel sad for missing the final session of our game…..
Well done everyone and Penlin special Thanks for running such a fun and enjoyable game. I will miss Heimidall…
Have Fun in Europe, if you ever stop by Paris I have a very good friend from Brazil(also former college roommate and DM…lol) that lives there.

I like the ending summary! Thanks so much, Peter, for running the Burning Sky for us over the last year. I enjoyed it immensely. Kudos for a job well done and giving me an entertaining game every week.

I’m in.

Once again, I have class first. I might only stay for the first 2-3 hours and call it an early night. Not feeling the greatest

Ok, let’s plan on 8:30 EST / 7:30 EST as the safe start time for having a quorum. I might be there a bit before that, however.

I will be able to make it (about exactly on time). I will check with Tamela now to see if she is intending to be late at all.

Tonights the night I finally get to see if the schools firewall-y things let me through to get on fantasy grounds! Meanwhile the prof will go on about effective listening or something. I’m not sure. I wasn’t paying attention.

Sorry guys…not making tonight….house is going crazy with relatives and preparations for Annie’s arrival Next Monday…if not sooner….Wish you guys all the fun tonight, maybe I can stop by later when everyone is on their way to bed….“wishful thinking”.
Craw if you play Heimidall, don’t forget his fierce “guardian instincts” and his Battle Rager talent that let him get temps (Con = 4) every time he hits with a melee attack and even more if it is an Invigorating Keyword attack (At will Crushing Surge and Enc Hack and Hew) and due to feat he gets extra 2 (so 6 temps on a miss and 10 temps on a hit with Invigorating powers)

Don’t tell him that, CJ. He’s a Prof. He’ll dock you xp for not paying rapt attention in class.

No problem. No game tonight then. See you all next week. I will run Burning Sky this Wed. 8 PM EST.

Looks like it depends on Dom & Tamela for Thursday. If they both can make it, I will run a session. Otherwise, it’s Wed night if one of the other GMs wants to do something.

I guess that was actually Mik’s Friend, Travis.

I’m still out for Thursday or Wednesday.

What a night you should see how Craw was using your character…for one moment I though you were going to be killed!!! but in the end you barely survived with 1 surge and 1 hit point…hopefully you can make it to the battle with the big boss….My prayers will be with the Weirdo elf “May he have a honorable death!….by Heimidall….the grumpy old dwarf!”..lol
Just to let you know this has nothing to do with me blaming you for Taz death in Craws game, will be just a coincidence that I will be using your character when you die gloriously in the heat of the battle executing the Vengeance for your God!!

I’m having a couple rough weeks here but should be good for 8 or 8:30..just very tired. Sorry for the delay posting it.

I’m in, and that is all that matters!

Reminder: Burning Sky, game on, tonight at 8 PM EST. The server is up now and should be up all day for PC maintenance/levelling needs. Looks like Lant cannot make it. If anyone else cannot, please give a shout.

Both. I’ll send them to you.

I should be home by 8 and joining you on time, if not seconds late.

We are playing tonight, aren’t we?

Magic item wist lists:

I have decided that one of my least favorite parts of being a GM is planning magic item distribution – especially poring over the candidate items and picking ones that are your PCs will want. At this point, I could use an update from just about all of you. Upcoming items are in the level range 7-10, but feel free to go a bit beyond. If you want a surprise, that’s fine – just say so but don’t expect my choice to be very inspired.

Burning Sky – Behind the Screen:

Here is a little meta-discussion about what goes through my head in preparing and running a session. Think of it as a geeky, D&D version of MTV’s Behind the Music. If knowing this stuff ruins the mystery for you, let me know, and I’ll keep it to myself. On the other hand, it might help you read in-game signals or give you a chance to express where you think I should handle something a bit differently.

1) The point of the last “river ambush” encounter was not to kill all the monsters but to hold them off long enough to get the raft dislodged and going again. That was the main reason I kept sending more reinforcements – eventually, you would get desperate and decide to flee. (Granted, there are lots of other good and fun reasons to add monsters in later rounds). At first, it was 2-3 extra minions per round and eventually it was another water ogre. As combat turned out, there was a natural lull where your attention turned to dislodging the raft.

2) There was no plan for Crystin to die, but it might have seemed that way. After all, an extra ogre came near the end of the combat, made a beeline toward her and took her out. But, in fact, it was the natural result of adding reinforcements, having them attack the nearest thing and how the dice fell.

3) Honestly, I’m glad she’s gone. There are too many darn NPCs following the party around in this campaign. It gives me the chance (maybe) to add some plot wrinkles – maybe her father is ticked off at the party now or … I might have other ideas. Plus, as a GM sometimes you feel like you know too much about where the story is going, so I love the surprise “plot twist” either from player imagination or random flukes of the d20. And now I get to see how much/little the PCs care about getting her resurrected.

I’m not a big fan of session reports (I figure no one reads them), but I might do more of these if you find them interesting/helpful.

1) Going Well:

• General combat flow: For the most part, things seem to be moving along and combat is holding my interest. This is quite the feat in an online game and has not been the case for many that I have played. Keeping the initiative tracker moving makes a big difference to player involvement.

• RP balance: I have enjoyed most of the RP sections. They have been relatively brief and meaningful. It’s good to engage some of the NPCs in dialogue that has some impact on the game or reveals some interesting information about the setting. We have not felt forced into RP for no apparent reason. I have not felt rushed through RP, forced to RP for too long, out talked or like I was out talking anyone else. In short, the RP seems to have struck a good balance.

2) Possible Improvement:

• Last session’s cottage combat: I am not quite sure what it was about the combat, but things felt a little bit off. It may have been the complicated terrain, the party split or the composition of the encounter. I was having a bit of difficulty following the action in what looked like an interesting setup. It’s hard to say if it was the fault of the encounter or if I was just having an off night though.

• Increased skill challenges with increased impact: Skill challenges can be quite larger than a simple map check along a road or discussion with an NPC. I am not sure how much leeway there is in the module, but I like to see more involved skill challenges. If the challenge is going to be a major feature, it helps to have a few things going on at the same time. This way characters with opposing skill sets have something to contribute. Maybe there is a boulder blocking a cart path. The major part of the challenge could be finding a way to remove the boulder, while the minor part could be engaging the caravan to get some useful information or assistance. If the boulder is not moved in time, maybe there is an ambush or we miss a deadline. The trick there is that the reward for success has to be as great as or greater than the reward for defeating the failure encounter. I like to see a skill challenge that is possible to fail and has some interesting consequences for success or failure.

3) Motivation:

• Loyalty to companions: Faegan still feels guilty about leaving the last war early. He realizes that he has to be able to trust his companions and they have to be able to trust him. Without that, their chances for survival are low.

• Perspective: There is a war on, but the people are most important. Things are never so big that you can not stop to help those in need. In the last war, the Dassan army let a lot of villages fall, because it was not tactically advantageous to protect them. Faegan experienced that first hand and wants to ensure no one else has to endure that.

Since Lant was so happy to point out how my character is ignored…..(I hope it was the character….sniff sniff) Now I want to change and make a super charismatic one…just kidding.

1) I like the way your are setting up the story and the NPCs being part of it…I was alwasy a big fan of alwasy having at least one NPC to help steer directions when the group stalls. Plus I do like when you call to combats that are past their “peak moment” and will be meaningless, good to save time…. Favorite Moment so far….Last game!

2) Constructive criticism. What should be changed? Since our main issue with the whole game is Time, or better putting Lack of Time to play ehehe I do think encounter could be a little more complicated to give us some more “sweat”. I know we try to keep it under the rules given but maybe you could DME a little more adding some different things like changing the terrain to give more advantage to the enemies or add a trap like the Crystal cave. I disagree with lant the combats are taking too long, is just hard to do it with many NPCS, but one way to speed combat is basically exposure and we could actually have a Leader in combat for a change. In a real combat situation in general someone directs the group so maybe we should give a shot…not as a dictatorial type but just general directions….and in game the obvious choices are Faegan and Lex, ...which brings me to maybe we want to make Lant new PC to obey their orders in combat as we do not understand well what he is or looking for yet….lol

3) Tell me your “player motivation” Explorer!

MANDATORY FEEDBACK!

To help me plan better, I just want to know 3 things:

1) What is going well? Give me any scrap of positive reinforcement: a favorite moment so far, something that is working well, something you like about the campaign arc

2) Give me one piece of constructive criticism. What should be changed? Was there a session/encounter that fell flat? Somewhere you think the game bogs down? Any one thing that you would like to see changed is valid. Don’t be too shy – I have no pretensions about being an experienced DM. So long as it comes with a specific suggestion attached, I’ll be fine. As a professor, I get to read student feedback on my teaching twice a semester. You are all too nice to say anything worse than I’ve read.

3) Tell me your “player motivation” (see DMG p. 8-10). You must pick one! Saying a “mix” doesn’t help me. My goal here is to know “if I have a little bit of X in this week’s session, this person will be reasonably satisfied”. Alternatively, just tell me what X (one thing!) is for you if it doesn’t line up with one of the player motivations. I already have Lantfeust (ex Dante) down as “storyteller”, Craw (Lex) as “thinker” and Aerokii (Khael) as “instigator”, so they are exempt unless they want to change their answer. Mostly, it’s the newer group members that I need the info from.

By the way, even though I will solicit/require this every now and then, feedback is always welcome. Thanks!

Just because he’s gone and it never came up, I thought I’d share with you what I had written down for what Dante was wearing. Let me start by mentioning that Dante was colour blind. It’s written down in my notes and everything so it must be true. He was wearing bright purple boots with lime green laces. He had on bright orange pants with Blue stripes (Incidently that colour combination was my high schools colours. Our gym was painted in them and it was…well it made your eyes bleed). He had a pink sash around his waist. He had on a red shirt and a yellow vest that had blue buttons and brown stitching. He wore Green gloves. And he had a purple musketeer hat with a large white feather.

I checked and the email alerts for posters was under the forum section. I changed it to go to all of you. I also tried another test message from the comments section to see if that was affected. Let me know if any email alerts came through.

Dumb question: I get email alerts when someone posts to this Comments board. But I don’t get alerts when someone posts to Craw’s campaign. I’ve looked for the setting that controls this but cannot find it. Anyone know how I can set things to get alerts from Craw’s comment board?

FYI, the server is up … for all your PC maintenance needs.

I agree Penlin

I mean we all have real life things to take care. Also as we play more our group will become more knowledge about each others powers and styles which should speed things up.

It does make a certain amount of sense to bypass non-critical or non-plot advancing encounters and roll their xp into the encounters that we do have. That way we still get all the story and feel of the campaign and also level at the same pace the campaign expects.

I do agree that 4 years is a bit sobering to say the least. In the 2 sessions that I have played in, the game seems to have moved along quite well. It would be nice to see the campaign overall moving forward too. I think our session time is well spent; I like the formula.

I want to solicit some feedback about campaign pacing and advancement. We are nearing the end of the first adventure, which has taken us 5 months or so of real time. There are 10 adventures in the campaign, so we’re looking at 4 years to finish. That’s a bit sobering.

So, I’m considering changing the pace of advancement so that XP is handed out at 1.5x or 2x the normal rate. This means that we will skip ~30-50% of the published material. Since some parts are not as good as others, I don’t see a problem cutting out some of the weaker bits. It also perhaps limits my ability to squeeze in stuff customized to the PCs, but I don’t see this as a big problem.

Thoughts?

Sorry I had to leave. I had to get to bed so I could wake up before the sun, which is currently rising outside, mocking me…Regardless, What’d I miss? Did we let them go? Or do we suddenly have extra trail rations?

CJ We basically left the cavern and the Ragesian camp and ran into the mountains of Dassen. There we met Faegan, who served in the Dassen army with Heimidall and was assumed to be dead on the last big battle against the empire. Faegan is friends with Torrent and the Resistance. He agree to help us and lead us to a “shelter” for us to spend the night. In the middle of the night we had the “monkey fight party”. Dante got mad for sleeping in the open sky and then being awaken by the noise of the fight with his typical “pleasant” remarks and “motivational enthusiasm”...he even argued with Lex for a moment…and almost forgot the event of the nigh of course, I “screwed up” you character sheet….(BTW sorry you did not like the effect and the FG bug)...lol

Everything you guys have discussed the last couple days sounds good. There certainly aren’t major problems and it seems that everyone has a handle on the minor issues.

Online roleplay can be a bit difficult. I have really come to love the skill challenge for that reason, though I mostly like running them than playing them. Roll initiative and allow everyone to contribute something in turn (or pass, but it should be rare). It’s just important to remember that a skill challenge is not an exercise in rolling dice. Skill challenges should be a way to highlight what your character is capable of and not be lost in the background. I always modify the script of a skill challenge with the suggestions that players make on the fly.

Just like the non-plot essential combats, most skill challenges should be short and sweet. Maybe even running them on a much more informal basis. So long as everyone provides an in character description and reasoning with the die roll, I find that they work well.

I tend to lean more towards formality when playing online, rather than free form. It can be difficult to know when to speak or what to do while trying not to step on anyone’s toes.

Ultimately whatever the group is most comfortable with should win out.

Nah – don’t worry about missing the occasional session. I certainly have.

As for character sheets, I was trying to be too fancy. At the end of the session, they showed me where to find what I needed. Shouldn’t be a problem again.

The feedback on NPC interaction is right on – it is exactly like trying to multi-task 5 conversations. Something similar could be said about skill challenges. The “dibs” suggestion is a good idea – we should have something like that. Lag and/or everyone trying to talk on Ventrilo at once might be potential problems, but let’s give it a try. I think the key idea is that there should be one designated person “in charge” of sorting through suggestions from other players and saying what officially is happening or being said. That person can always “hand off” that duty to another. A variant might be to have people – at least those who want to take the lead in a situation – roll d20 (no modifiers) to be “in charge” of a situation?

Just wanted to say sorry about the lackluster and short session Thursday night. It’s not like I feel really bad about it (we all have off nights), but I do strive for better. And, there was some good roleplay and we introduced another player to the group, so the session had its good points too.

When I said I expected the encounter not to take so long, I certainly didn’t mean it as “you guys took too long.” I was just hoping to get to a different/better stopping point. Dom was right: there were 8 creatures and it was EL 4. So I should not have been surprised. It took just over 2 hours – pretty typical. I think we do normal combats in ~1.5 hrs and harder ones in about 2 hrs.

One miscalculation was that there was no big plot element to it. You were camping in the wilderness and ran into typical dangers. It was meant just to inject a bit of action. Probably I should keep these “plot-free” action encounters to normal ELs and/or bring in more story or other complications to the longer, harder combats. FYI, the Burning Sky campaign seems to lean towards fewer but harder encounters.

Also, I felt like the combat bogged down into a bit of a grind after 3-4 rounds. Probably that should have been a signal to me to bring things to a close by having opponents flee and/or die. Do you all feel cheated if I do this when it seems that the fight is basically decided?

A few miscellaneous items complicated things too. We were trying to run PCs we weren’t familiar with, and I was unable to read the PC sheets properly (my fault, fixed now). The last thing was that I was simply low energy after a busy week. Combined with the above, I felt mentally spent after the encounter. Probably I should have said “let’s take a 5 min break and reconvene”.

As you can see, I’ve been thinking about how to pace our sessions. Four hours of online playing (slower than tabletop) every other week is not a lot, so I’m always anxious to make the most of it. Shorter combats and/or faster XP progression are things to think about…

Overall, I’m still very happy with the game, however. I just think it’s good to step back and reflect on things now and then. We’re probably ~4 sessions from finishing the first adventure in the Burning Sky campaign arc. That will be a good chance to get some more detailed feedback from you. So please think about what suggestions you would make.

To answer Mik’s question about Martial Power 2, my default rule is that any WotC product is fair game, so that certainly includes new supplements like Martial Power 2. Just observe normal rules about retraining, so that you phase in new material at the normal schedule.

FYI, I have a few misgivings about some of the Dragon content – I don’t think it’s quite as polished or playtested as the stuff in the books. Still, it’s in the character builder and is official WotC, so I will allow it by default. If anything seems weirdly overpowered or unclear, we’ll notice it in play and address it on an as needed basis.

You may want to let us download the new files today to send us some how so we can speed the download the changes you may have done due to the new ruleset on FG and stuff..not sure if is needed.

If you want to do it yourself is just open a 2nd window of FG using Local host and then after you download everything yourself as a player you can post the campaing.dat file for us to download it…if it is too big….

Game on this week Penlin?

I’ve decided that we will adhere to the official PHB rules that say you sell most items (except items that are specifically treasure: gems, art items, etc) for 20% of book value.

To answer Mik, I’m certainly not worried about anyone gaming the system, grabbing every little item and trying to get every little piece of possible treasure. And, I can see the argument that the armor is in good shape and might well be worth 50-80% of original value.

The flip side is that markets are less efficient in D&D (no WalMart, no Craigslist, etc), so it’s usually harder to find a buyer. A merchant takes a risk that he will have to haul the armor around for a while before finding a seller and therefore expects a good markup. Even now, anyone who tries to sell their used car to a dealer will see what I mean…but this is a minor point.

The more important reason is that this rule is part of a larger rewards system in 4E. If you have seen the DMG Rewards chapter, you will see what I mean. The system makes sure you have enough gold and magic items to keep things balanced, so you don’t need to sell your items for any more than what the rules plan for. And, the designers certainly assume that everyone picks up magic armor in the first few levels and will be selling their mundane armor.

If anything, deviating from the official rules runs the (small) risk of unbalancing the game (slightly). Really, we’re talking about very little gp here: 10 gp vs 40 gp for the plate armor, a difference of only 30 gp. Since you just got 120 gp and will be getting a similar amount over the next level, this rule has little overall impact.

And, when it doesn’t matter too much one way or another, I think it’s best to go “by the book”. I’m happy to “house rule” when something is jeoparadizing the fun.

Personally, if there is not a chance of character death, then I might as well go read a book. The story element of D&D is nice, but it is fairly slow to unfold. The drama of the combat and skill challenges is the real draw. Would you rather watch Florida play Alabama in football or watch them play Florida Atlantic. When the result is essentially pre-determined, it is not interesting. If my character dies gloriously, then I don’t mind so much. If I do something stupid with him and he gets killed, I’ll feel like an idiot. Either way, if there is a reasonable story reason to resurrect him, then sure, I’m for that. Otherwise, I’ll start a new character where the story allows.

The rez rules are fine. I thought there was a good explanation somewhere for the non-world-breaking nature of resurrections. If whatever killed you isn’t preventable before the rez, then you are just going to die again anyway. Old age, incurable disease, etc. make rez pointless. The eternal plutocrat problem is thus avoided. It also lends credence to the attraction of necromancy, as opposed to divine magic, as a path to immortality. Does it mean that the local noble can take crazy risks as a young man? Sure. Knowing that riding a griffon, while incredibly dangerous, is not permanently fatal would encourage that kind of behaviour. This is a good thing in a fantasy setting, however.

About death, unless is a whole TPK by some sort of rageous beast or creatures that would eat everyone it should be fairly reasonable for Penlin to figure some thing out to keep us alive (like Chloe options) but what is the Life of adventuring and dangers if we don;t face the real chance of loosing our PC!??? If we all die Torrent will have to find some new members to the rebellion to recover…”the box”!!

Now about the time on the city I do have a standard plate mail that could be sold plus the magic dagger could also be traded for something more useful to the group. also I recommend we get some potions to help on emergencies.

Penlin do we need to worry about rations and ammo? I mean…if we do please let us know but since standard adventures kit give you up to several days of food we should be ok… I hope…lol

If penlin kills the party, he risks losing the most long-standing D&D group he has ever been part of. Yup, I’ve never really played long-term, so this is new territory for me. Anyway, I really want to avoid a TPK as much as you do, but encounter balancing is an imperfect science. Accidents happen!

I hear you that most/all of you would be at least disappointed if you had to start a new character. That doesn’t surprise me at all – this is an RPG where you’re supposed to get invested in your PC. My default rule is that the player always gets a veto over his character’s death. If you don’t want to give up your PC, then we find a reason or a way to bring him back. It may not be easy, but that’s ok.

I agree with Mik that the default resurrection rules give a reasonable “penalty” for death, and I would throw in whatever story setbacks seem to make sense plus it might take some time to get your PC resurrected. At the same time, they make it almost impossible to lose permanently your PC … as long as you have some small piece of his body. This can lead to some morbid scenes: running into the midst of combat to hack off your companion’s finger to carry back for resurrection. Seems grim. Or, there’s the chance that you cannot reach his body, etc. Or, perhaps only 1 PC survives to flee the combat, and he will never collect all the necessary parts. I’m willing to waive the “part of the body” requirement.

I… would really prefer not to die. I’d be extremely unhappy with the loss of my character, but I suppose it’s no fun if I always know “Eh, I’ll probably be ok.” I’d prefer the story/treasure loss to full on perma-death, but whatever works best for you.

As for retreating I was close to doing that on the last battle, so you must be doing a fine job!

Death.

Too often, PCs forget that it’s a possibility. There are more strict and more loose ways to respond to PC death. It’s better to discuss them as a group and agree on ground rules before it happens. There should be some consequence. They can be mechanical (the lost treasure associated with raising dead plus the temporary penalties for being recently deceased) or story (you fail in current quest, need to rescue the fallen PC, whatever), or some combination. Most severe would be that you cannot bring your PC back, but story-based ones can be severe too. The really awkward situations are when there is a TPK or the party has to flee, leaving the corpse of their friend.

I’m open to a variety of options, but would like to hear from others. First and foremost, how bad would it be to completely lose your PC? Would it ruin the fun? Or just be an interesting twist in the story and a chance to try a new character? (I assume most players are in the “it would ruin my fun” mode).

So, here is my count of where things stand on escape routes:

In favor of sewers: Chloe, Aerokii and Mik (he said so at end of last session) Farmer disguise: Dante, Lex

So sewers wins – this is democratic. I know that Dante said “veto”, but I’m sorry that he doesn’t have veto powers. I was going to say nobody does … then I decided that I do. :)

I’ll try to keep it interesting to Dante and Lex as well.

This is a preliminary experiment/step towards allowing/encouraging you all to suggest directions that the campaign can go in that have some real impact (i.e. not a false choice where you end up in the same encounters, same consequences). This one is a little more “meta” than I would like (ahem, promise of treasure), but that’s a good enough starting point. I will make you work for it.

I wondered what that sound was in the bathroom this morning. And why you came out without pants. I didn’t question your motives at the time since I wasn’t wearing any either, but I WAS curious.

Is accidently flushingg your pants a problem you have? Cause if so, you might need a plumber. Or a tailor

those aren’t peasant clothes! They’d be cast offs from the homeless. And if even the homeless didn’t want them then I don’t either

Dante, with his rather flamboyantly coloured clothes and musketeer hat with large red feather may not fit in with the farmers. I assume someone will provide lice free clothes?

Since Lex proposed the farmer disquise in the first place, he likes that idea. “Khael, I’ve seen corn-fed farmhands who are nearly your size. Besides, most of the Ragesian observation will be from the air, where the differences will not be so obvious. If we need to pass closer scrutiny, I can cast some minor glamours that will make you look smaller.”

Yo..finally..lol

Not sure about the act thing on dragon….what do you mean by that.

Regarding equipment I really don’t think it would make sense for me to not had my armor before the one we just found…kind of cheating for me, so I rather just keep low on money and sell my normal armor later when we have a chance….now about Javelins…come on…Is a Dwarf not a human or sifter ehehe so no way I would have anything else besides hammers or axes…lol.

Now as it may be beneficial in number’s wise to go for the dagger it would be totally against it’s principles (and mine) to trade my nice self made Warhammer for a flimsy dagger…no matter how many pluses it would have….is just not Heimdal’s style….maybe on emergency cases but not as main….yeah he is not that strong I agree but hey, not every dwarf has 18 strength you know…lol is just a plus +1 on everything ehehe.

Now regarding to the marking yes it will be only one at a time until I get Spinning “capabilities” in a couple more levels but for now just either run or stay very close to me…there is also a nice feat that let me give +2 to all adjacent allies when my marked “prey” shifts or attacks someone else…future will tell…lol

FYI, as for magic item “wish lists”, let me elaborate just a little. For some, knowing what you’re getting may ruin some of the surprise and wonder of finding magic items. I totally understand. If you want some degree of surprise in your magic items, just let me know. Basically you can have any of the following options:

-give me what I want and only what I want -just surprise me; I’ll be happy with what I get -give me an X but let me be surprised with the rest -give me one of the following (i.e. surprise me from the following list or within certain guidelines)

Thinker. I’ll also ham it up given half a chance (which the DM needent bother to design around—it will happen by itself.) The story will obviously become more important as we progress. Last night was good combat, with the varied foes, terrain hazards and active traps. I was ready for a break in the combat and either some exploration or NPC interaction at the end. I’d rather not go a whole session without killing/overcoming something, though.

I want to get to know your gaming preferences better so I can tweak the adventure we’re running to satisfy them. The DMG lists the following player motivations, and I’ve added brief summaries of them. I want you to tell me which one you prefer.

What I don’t want is to hear “a little of all of the above” or “a balance of action and role-play” because those are too vague to be helpful. So, I’m going to force you to pick one and only one. This is about telling me what I should focus on providing. If you want to pick a second and/or add a little caveat (“I am mostly this kind of player except that…”), that’s fine and will help build a better picture.

Sometimes, there is a lot of “judging” about some styles being better than others. For example, “I play D&D for the role-playing. You’re just a hack-n-slash World of Warcraft type loser who should go back to video games.” That’s not meant here at all. All are valid choices and are not mutually exclusive. One of the great things about 4E are the combat mechanics and tactics, and it’s perfectly valid to like combat and action. I would prefer people to post their preferences here in public, but feel free to PM them to me if you’re worried about being “labeled”.

Actor: enjoys role-playing their particular PC’s personality and his/her interactions with others

Decider: Is mostly about the story and role-play (similar to Actor and Storyteller). However, for the decider, the emphasis is on open-ended choices that can take the campaign in widely different directions. Recognizes that open-endedness means that players share as much responsibility for determining story and plot as the GM. Willing to keep track of a variety of NPCs and factions to accomplish this. This one is not in the DMG, but I felt like adding it.

Explorer: wants to see new places and find out as much about the world as possible

Instigator: likes to make things happen, with no patience for careful planning or deliberation

Power Gamer: I don’t like the DMG term since “power gamer” is often used in a sort of derogatory way as a moron who has no sense of role-play. This is not what they mean really. They mean someone who likes gaining levels, power, treasure … someone who likes to feel the mechanical progression of their PC. This player prefers combat and likes to find the best powers and tactics.

Slayer: Likes combat and action, pure and simple. Similar to the power gamer but less obsessive about character optimization and poring over rules supplements.

Storyteller: Prefers the narrative of the game to individual character motivations. Wants to see where the story goes and what will happen next.

Thinker: Likes careful choices and finding the best way to overcome challenges. Likes to win efficiently, with the best tactics and minimal use of resources. Likes encounters that force careful consideration of tactics even if the game moves a bit slower.