Post by Admin on Apr 2, 2012 10:35:53 GMT -5
If you tell us during the event, we can fix it. If you tell us after the event, it’s too late for us to do anything.
Anyone who has played in this chapter for very long is probably really tired of hearing those words from me and Jay. In many ways, they're our mantra.
But those words don't just apply to plot issues and boredom. They apply to everything. We want to fix your problems. We want to give you a fun game. If you have an issue, we want to correct it. But we can't help you if you don't talk to us.
From Bud's post (thanks for bringing it up) and from conversations I had with a couple PCs after the event, I now know that there were a lot of problems that people had with NPCs. These problems led to lots of discussion among PCs and rose to the level of a general beliefs that:
1. "the NPCs just wanted to kill us and weren't there to make the game fun for us."
2. The NPCs would roleplay their parts until combat and then ignore roleplaying once fighting started.
3. The NPCs were swinging too hard, intentionally trying to hurt people.
Having lived with these NPCs for a weekend, I can tell you that these beliefs could not be farther from the truth. So how did they come about? How did so many people come to believe these negative things about our NPCs?
PC A thinks NPC A is a jerk and trying to hurt him. He tells other PCs, including PC B. PC B, believing PC A, spreads the word to other people. The next thing you know, lots of people believe this, all stemming from PC A. But PC A never comes and tells us the problem that they're having, so it just stagnates and gets infected amongst the players. The other PCs don't tell anyone who can do anything about it because they don't feel like it's their place to tell. After all, they aren't the ones who experienced it.
This creates a culture of negativity and drastically decreases the fun of the game for everyone. As one PC pointed out to me after the event, "When I go into the tavern, I want to hear stories told about adventures and the plots going on, not bitching about how bad the NPCs are."
We can fight against this undertone through three methods, depending on how you learn about it.
1. You're the one experiencing the problem. If you have a problem with a PC or NPC, you bring it to Jay or me. You tell us what is going on and we can address it. Complaining about it to your fellow PCs instead only makes the issue worse, because they cannot do anything about it.
2. You hear someone talking about the problem. If you hear someone talking about a problem, you should direct them to Jay or me to address it. After all, their complaints are hurting your enjoyment, I would imagine. Also, if their complaints are valid, you could be the next victim of the offending behavior.
3. You hear someone continuing to talk about a problem. You should bring it to the attention of Jay or myself. If they're still talking about it, it means that Jay and I either don't know about it and haven't corrected it OR we have corrected it and the PCs are just needlessly feeding into the culture of negativity.
I know that some people aren't comfortable coming to us with problems, but it is really the only way to make things better for everyone. So, if you hear someone complaining, please take it on yourself to help us nip it in the bud by either talking to them and convincing them to talk to us or talking to us yourselves.
It's the only way that this thing we all love can work.