What I Played Today: January 9

Mage

At roleplaying group today, I realize that my goals in a given campaign are way different than the goals of the rest of the party. Everyone else likes to punch people really hard and goof around, my character wants to sit back and handle the problem with finesse, or barring that, fail to handle the problem in an entertaining way. Unfortunately, a lot of roleplaying games are written to feature a lot of fighting, especially those we’ve been playing, so I spend approximately 20% of the time we play completely useless. I’m not sure how to reconcile this; especially considering how much I favor Fourth Edition D&D, which is all combat. I supposed I like it because it knows what it is and goes all out, mostly untying roleplaying and non-combat from the game mechanics (not completely, though, and it’s specifically those parts I don’t like. Non-combat utility powers bother me, and skill challenges are often boring). I guess my problem is when we are playing a game like Mage, in which 70% of the book is devoted to fluff and nearly all your points are going towards non-combat skills and off-the-wall magic use, I think we shouldn’t be fighting at all, but rather exploring and investigating. It’s that part that interests me about roleplaying at the moment, and I wish there was a system that would just divorce itself from combat as thoroughly as D&D 4E divorces itself from roleplaying.

Aside: This is not meant to imply that I think roleplaying is inconsistent with a D&D 4E experience. I rather think that you don’t need mechanics in place to force roleplaying and exploration. When you have to decide at character creation how much you will lean on either combat or being good in combat (or, as 3rd edition required, having your class determine just how useful you’ll be at a given time), it just feels like there’ll be a major divide that will rip at the party if everyone in the party doesn’t lean the same way. What I like about 4E is that it makes the decision for you; here is what you will be able in combat, which will inevitably come up. You can make your character act however you want, but it won’t sting if you don’t want to act like a barbarian. You’ll still be useful. Same to you, barbarians. You’ll be good at climbing and screaming when there isn’t a bugbear about. Let your DM know. Now have fun, and I hope you have some table space.

Anyway! In terms of the game that we played, I finally was told the huge mystery that they had been taunting my character with for a month. It was, drumroll please, they stole a car and kidnapped a guy. Oh, and they recruited the two new players, who are kinda insane. Okay, one is very insane, the other balances him out. It wasn’t completely shocking, but it did set up the impetus of the session, mainly, hiding the kidnapped guy, so I rolled with it.

We tried to heal him, which didn’t work too well, and we walked him to my home to hide him. (I’m started to take real issue with the DM’s 1 minute driving equals 10 minutes walking, because a) he’s taking his estimated time driving from Google Maps, which exaggerates driving time on city streets to account for stop lights and stuff, and b) in no possible way would it take 2 hours to move 2 miles. That’s unreasonable. Heck man, you’re on Google Maps anyway, just hit the walking directions button.) After a night sleeping, I send all the other party members off in a car, pretending they are moving a body, while I stay behind with the unconscious kidnapped man. I used my magic (because I’m a fucking wizard) to dive into his subconscious and try to convince him through the power of dream that I was a friend of his. As far as I knew he’s never seen me, so it might have worked. I really enjoyed this bit, diving deeper into his subconscious, following some animals and going into a really creepy cave and finding him in his quiet place. My attempt to really trick him failed, but it was fun doing some exploration stuff.

Then some downtime as we tried to figure out what everyone was doing (if the answer is nothing, they just move on!) and then we see a really creepy bird, so we pack up and move the body to a basement library that we had access to, in hopes that no one would find us. Unfortunately, a robot cat found us (robots cats in the Mage universe have the power to go anywhere and tear information right out of your mind, and they are also adorable, according to the book). A cave opens up and a bunch of dicks ran out, and we kill them, but they manage to wake up the guy we kidnapped and he somehow knows how to teleport, so he’s gone. We almost had another hostage though, but she started to teleport away and one of the players shot her in the head the exact moment she was leaving, which backfired and apparently caused her to explode it was really gross.

It’s becoming slightly frustrating that all of my plans to avoid confrontation always go awry because if they ever worked, then there wouldn’t be a combat encounter that session, but I understand why it has to happen, it just makes me want to contribute less so that I don’t feel like every action I suggest is absolutely useless. Of course we’re going to have to fight someone, despite my character’s complete reluctance to let it happen. He doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, he just wants to get these punks out of his town and run his club already. But it’s a roleplaying game, where shit goes wrong often. I just wish it wouldn’t go wrong in a way that completely invalidates my decisions.

What I Played Today: October 11

Mage: The Ascension

This was not a very good session of roleplaying. We had a quorum, at least, with three players, but the problem was that it really felt like the GM didn’t know where we were going. My character woke in a hotel, where he was staying because he assumed that people were trying to kill him. After some screwing around, we find out that the club that had been the driving point of the game had been closed somehow, and so it was a matter of finding out who and how.

The only problem is that my guy was not a fighter. He was a talker, and after some research, we discovered that the people who had targeted us are not talking types. So…I let my comrades lead the search. We went to the zoo, saw some of the members of the cult that was after me, and…watched them. Eventually some people who were scary and had terrifying guns…so naturally we didn’t walk up to them. We are smart. So…after the party breaks up and mysteries abound, I went back to the hotel, because screw this, while my comrades followed a hobo for three hours only to watch up fall asleep under a tree. After this frustratingly stupid turn of events, we went to a gambling boat (don’t know why), and tried to sleep.

Then the stupid happened. A half-an-hour before we had agreed to break up for the night, there was a knock on the door, and we stupidly answered it, there was a guy in a ski mask with a rifle. This is the third time when some guy showed up to try and kill us for what can only be described as no good reason. I was a bit worried that this would happen, and even had my character say, “Well, at least we’re far enough from their stomping grounds so the cult couldn’t possibly find us.” As if to say, “Please don’t throw a fight at us because you think you have to.” But no, here was a jerk attacking us for no reason.

So I hid in the bathroom, and waited until we were supposed to be done and left. I just don’t know what to do. The problem is the system. The fights are boring because everyone has, effectively, 8 hit points, and there are too many rolls needed to deal one. If you’re not focused on combat, you fail in it, and when you can’t do combat well and the system makes doing good magic impossible at the first level (or ever, the level up system SUCKS), and I’m just frustrated because there is nothing I can really do very well. So…I hope everyone gets bored soon and we move to a new system.

What I Played Today: October 3

Mage: The Ascension; Street Fighter IV, Worms, Mega Man 9

Today was RPG day, in which we were back in New Orleans, and I realized that my character is absolutely useless. Oh, he’s an intriguing character, with enough resources in the background to move the story forward, but he can’t fight, he can’t magic very well, and while he has some big ideas, he’s got no capabilities in the actual game. This turn, he spent some time dicking around, waiting for his contact to show up while he compatriot stole stuff, and said, “Hey, how about we use magic to find out who that creepy kid was?” So, instead of casting the spell himself, the other guy did, and I was there to watch. We went to the zoo, and the other guy snuck up and learned an important name, while my character watched. Then we went back to the club that I apparently owned, and then…I sat and watched as the my buddy got drunk (on my dime!) and chatted up some girl. Then, after much waiting and watching, some psycho walked into the club using his magic to get past the bodyguards that I had posted. Being a reasonable mage, I made sure the fight happened not in the middle of crowded club and got my friend, who actually had fighting skills, to help me take care of this guy. The fight was quick and terrible, and I contributed nothing to it. I swung a chair at him…which missed, I disarmed him…after he was already useless, and then I tried to get him to stop fighting…which failed. Then my friend stabbed him in the brain. So…my guy was super-cautious and got a room in a random hotel so that the crazies wouldn’t be able to kill him in his sleep, and we called the game. I really want to play again, but I hope more people start showing up so that my guy’s worthlessness isn’t so evident.

But, before that, I showed up to the place like an hour early, and the host and I played some video games to kill some time. We played some Street Fighter IV, and man, I still do not get fighting games. When I pushed as many buttons as possible, I win. When I tried to specific moves that are pretty famous, I lose. I’m sure if I had time to practice, it would be better, but as it was, I just flailed endlessly and then I either won or lost based on entirely non-specific terms.

Then we moved to Worms, which is the same game that it’s always been. The CPU is always awful, the game is inherently random and unfair, and I’ve got nothing else to say about it. It was a time killer.

And…because I’m a completionist, I spent about five minutes playing Mega Man 9. Because I don’t have a reason. I figured out that one point in the Splash Woman level that perplexed me (you can stand on the small bubbles for about a second), but other than that, I ran into a rough “Do it perfect or you die” patch later on and gave up. I don’t think I’ll ever pass that game.

What I Played Today: September 19

Mage: The Ascension, DDR, Minecraft, Secret of Monkey Island

I’ve suddenly been inducted into a roleplaying group of dudes I mildly know, and it appears we’ll be meeting every Sunday and just hanging out, and it’s a good thing that they all seem like pretty chill guys. We sat together for a while chatting and all agreeing that we’ll be willing to roleplay in pretty much anything, and so we started by rolling up some Mage characters and giving that a try.

I attached to the idea of the Cult of Ecstasy, the cult who awakened to their magic ability by doing something crazy, and made a bit of a sleazy music agent, who once was a musician but turns to the biz when his fear of drug addiction overwhelmed him. He seemed to naturally transition into a leadership role during character creation, and we played a session where my character basically walked around collecting the other PCs to join his cabal while being a bit of a dick. It was pretty fun, especially near the end where another mage overdoses in an alley and started dangerously bending reality. After confirming I could do jackshit to him with my magic, I hid behind a dumpster while another PC shot him in the head, then stepped up and immediately took credit for the situation. Luckily I had connections the “manager” of the club we were in allowed us to clean up the body quickly, and we called the session. I look forward to playing again, although I have concerns that some of my character traits don’t match up to how I play my character, and my tendency to try to do too much has hampered my character.

Also played some DDR. The quest mode in this game is really stupid, but I finally made some headway and earned a new song. So, hurray?

Also played some more Minecraft, and I think it’s neat, but man, I do not know what I’m supposed to be doing. I found a really neat cave, and found a way to get down into it, but it just keeps going, so I thought, hey, I think I’ll go build something neat on that island I started on, only to find out that I have no idea how to get back there without dying. So...

I also played some of the Secret of Monkey Island because I was apparently very bored. I was one of the self-named island when I stopped playing the game last, and so I was a bit confused on what to do next, so I wandered around the island for a while, and man I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I thought I figured out how to do something awesome when I pushed a rock, but man, it did not do a thing, so I ragequit.