2011-02-14: Rocks Fall...

[Imp-Chan]

Forrest, you should not DM for me, okay? That kind of out of the box thinking is EXACTLY what all our games turn into. Okay, maybe not EXACTLY... we're more likely to try to send an exploding arrow or uncooperative hostage up it than another player character, but still. Ideally, out of the box should still be inside the rules.

^-^'

[Sareth]

That wasn't out of the box thinking, that was crawling into one nasty, smelly box and doing really, really illegal colostomies thinking.

[Forrest]

I was just being deliberately confrontational as part of a running gag with Tuesday's thread (cf. collateral damage). In the (few) games I've actually GM'd, I tended to be a little too loose, if anything... I've carelessly let one player completely derail the mission that most everyone else was on board with and get all his friends' characters killed, by taking too much of a "sure, throw it in" attitude. (Then again that player was certifiable... probably literally... so with more sensible players interested in making the game fun for everyone, my looser style might have worked).

[Imp-Chan]

The looser style is actually why I'm discovering I love one-off games. No one is heavily invested in their characters or a particular outcome, so it really becomes a roleplaying challenge of making the most entertaining character you can out of what you're given to work with. I have a type of character that I do prefer to play long term, and while I do work to vary it, there's still a lot of similarities because that's the kind of strategy and long-term play that I like. When thinking only in the short term, though, I can have fun with a character that would make me crazy to play all the time. Sometimes, it's nice to take a break.

^-^'