Troll Lord Games

I envision many C&C fans are former DMs burnt out on D&D. Let's see what the C&C demographic really is.

I put CK. But not from lack of wanting to be a player. As the years roll on I find if I want to play I have to run it. (And send a lot of emails, and a few phone calls.. Dude where are you??? We are starting, everyone is here. )

Technically I'm mostly a CK these days, but when the esteemed Jyrdan Fairblade and I game together, he is typically the main CK/GM/DM for our group, only letting me occasionally run the show.

Mostly CK. Try to play if there is a game run by others.

Mostly I DM C&C or D&D but I also play when I can. The other main DM in our group is a school teacher now so he has lots of homework during certain parts of the year. He is currently running a short Ravenloft campaign with C&C on a part-time basis but with school coming up it might be up to me to DM everything again soon.

Mostly neither as we're not currently playing C&C. When we did, it depended on the time of year -- throughout winter, primarily a player and the rest... a Castle Keeper. The game du jour for us is Deadlands and I am the Marshal. Fitting.

We just ended an Earthdawn game and the next one up, should we get to it, will be a combination of Toon and Call of Cthulhu; I will run it.

Right now I am 50/50 between playing and running C&C. When my Tuesday group gets back to C&C, I'll be mostly a player.

I'm mostly a ck. I run games at cons, and a weekly game in the backyard. Would like to play, but presently I'm having trouble getting into any game.

My stereotype is sooo correct.

It's hard to find people who are willing to run games. I am one of those that likes to run, so I get asked to run quite often. I don't mind it, but I do believe that it is good for a CK (or DM or GM or Referee, or whatever you prefer to be called), to play in a game once in a while so that you refresh your perspective.

The Forums tend to be a place for CKs to gather, we don't get a lot of player oriented discussion for many reasons.

I usually CK when I have a group. Though the last group I was in I was a player for a change.

Aergraith wrote:The Forums tend to be a place for CKs to gather, we don't get a lot of player oriented discussion for many reasons.

Hmm...

Yep. Players don't generally hang around and post on RPG forums, unless the forum's purpose is to discuss character builds. There not much to "build" on a C&C character, so I would be surprised if the poll results show anything other than a large majority of GMs.

slimykuotoan wrote:

Aergraith wrote:The Forums tend to be a place for CKs to gather, we don't get a lot of player oriented discussion for many reasons.

Hmm...

Yep.

Also I'm 50/50.

R-

I asked this once before:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12088&p=185716

I play as much as I can at Gary Con, but otherwise I am the CK for the rest of the year.

I wonder then, does C&C appeal more to GMs than to players? If so, can this be remedied? (with new products, etc.)

Every CK I have ever spoke to about C&C likes running C&C more than other D&D games of the past eras. To run C&C is just flat out easier than most other D&D and D&D-like games.

I play or run in a few different groups but the amount of time I CK is more often then I play. About 60/40 CK/play I'd say.

~O

slimykuotoan wrote:I wonder then, does C&C appeal more to GMs than to players? If so, can this be remedied? (with new products, etc.)

It appeals to those who like old school style "D&D". All of my players really didn't like 3.x

slimykuotoan wrote:I wonder then, does C&C appeal more to GMs than to players? If so, can this be remedied? (with new products, etc.)

One of my favorite things about C&C is the lack of player-facing material. I am still not sure about this Adventurer's Backpack. I am still feeling burnt from my players bringing all of these books and coming up with "builds", each with their own new set of rules, to the point where I was advised to not bother keeping up with them because the players could be trusted to adjudicate their own actions.

I understand that makes me sound like a grumpy out-of-touch old fool protecting his DM throne. I am convinced though, that fewer rules make a better game and that 13 classes is just about enough.

I understand that some players want Pathfinder. From my point of view, they should play Pathfinder and I wish them well.

This isn't to say there shouldn't be more ideas and tools to bring in players, but I have a hard time anymore imagining what those would be now that I have seen what can happen. A rich game, free to go where it needs to, agile and indeed player empowering (without being player-run) seems to me to have more material on the DM side of the screen, and very optional at that.

I understand your sentiment, and the math is depressing in any case; players must certainly outnumber CKs in the wild and sure, they could do more than collect PHBs, character sheets, and dice. Adventurer's Backpack is one step in that direction. I hope this is handled delicately. Once a player comes to my table and tells me the rules say they can use some other book and I am playing wrong, I'll feel like my escape was too short-lived.

For most of my gaming career I have been the DM/GM/CK. I am really wanting to start playing more and I am hoping I get time to be a player now that I have found a few AD&D games that I have been invited to.

It's a real pleasure to play in a game with people who also CK. These people know what it's like to prepare and run a game, and are ready to accept a ruling and roll with it. Or enthusiastically discuss the possibilities and history of the ruling for an hour .

Aergraith wrote:It's a real pleasure to play in a game with people who also CK. These people know what it's like to prepare and run a game, and are ready to accept a ruling and roll with it..

That has been my experience for most RPG's. Players who are GM's tend to want to play when they are playing. Not write "Case law". Kinda like an aeronautic engineer that is allowed a rare ride in the fighter plane he just helped design...

My hope with my store game is that I find someone to start a second C&C group and play in that game. Even if it is not C&C being a player in an AD&D game would be great. I have found that the few times I have played has helped with my creativity as a CK.

As mentioned, mostly been the DM/GM/CK/Storyteller since we picked up that old red box so long ago. On the rare occasions I get to just be a player, it’s a rare treat.

When I am running the game, I find that the difficult thing isn’t coming up with ideas/ The great thing about fantasy is that you don’t really run out of ideas as you get older and more experienced, if anything else your imagination gets better. Litzen I’m sure remembers when I ended a campaign with pretty much just a “I can’t come up with anything to challenge you guys anymore, so it’s time to retire and roll up new characters.” These days I couldn’t imagine doing that.

No, I think the real hard part of running the game as adults is keeping the games going when everyone has their own busy lives going on. For a long time, scheduling was a bane, until I just set standing dates for gaming each month, and if you’re not there we’re running the adventure without you.

Litzen Tallister wrote:Technically I'm mostly a CK these days, but when the esteemed Jyrdan Fairblade and I game together, he is typically the main CK/GM/DM for our group, only letting me occasionally run the show.

Jyrdan Fairblade wrote:No, I think the real hard part of running the game as adults is keeping the games going when everyone has their own busy lives going on. For a long time, scheduling was a bane, until I just set standing dates for gaming each month, and if you’re not there we’re running the adventure without you.

That is very true for my experience as well. My game was going nowhere last year with lots of cancelled sessions due to player unavailability. I finally decided to just schedule the games when it's convenient for me (generally, every two weeks on Saturdays at noon) and play with whomever shows up, even if it's just one player. That got things back on track. I typically have 2-3 players for my game sessions now.

Yeah, my face to face group is harder to get together than the online groups. I am not saying that there haven't been any "unreliable" gamers online, but once we find the reliable players, they show up far more often than not. I think being able to game from your own home helps with that.

It looks like I'm 'aby normal' ... I just play now (even in the SW D6 group I just left). Back in the day I was a go to DM/GM for various games. but that was a long time ago.

I used to run games more regularly. These days I am playing in online games. It's a nice break.