10 Rounds of Initiative: Dice Jail

There is just something about these polyhedral dice that stirs something deep within my nerdy soul. After rolling my first set during my first ever game it awoke a primitive beast with an insatiable hunger for dice, or at least thats how I justify buying every set of dice I see!

This blog idea came to me as I brought my last set of dice, no wait, I didn't mean last set a meant most recent set of dice, phew I panicked there for a second.

Some of you may have seen the dice I recently brought on Twitter (pictured right). I picked these up from my local game shop called Grinning Demon. 

While I was making my purchase and already deciding that these dice would be used for fire damage and red dragons, I began talking with the shops owners about dice addiction.

One of them argued that they were searching for their lucky dice. That their perpetual purchasing of polyhedral dice was a quest for that one die that would grant them the nat 20's they craved. 

The other owner immediately countered the remark with "theres no such thing as lucky dice"

This experience got me thinking a lot about the dice we buy and for some reason, love to look at pictures of? Yes I am talking to you! These funny shaped objects with numbers etched on them draw a lot of superstition and mystery. 

The two main people that I associate with dice reverence are Wil Weaton and Laura Bailey. Every tabletop gamer is aware of Wil Weaton's supposed dice curse and those of you that have seen it in action when he played Thorbir on Critical Role firmly believe in its existence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGaISHs2s7Q&index=21&list=PL7atuZxmT954bCkC062rKwXTvJtcqFB8i

It was a very entertaining thing to watch but I think I speak for everyone when I say, the moment Wil rolls a natural 20 all tabletop gamers will be living in fear until we know who the curse has settled on next. 

My second example, Laura Bailey is well known for her rather large dice collection and her pre-game ritual that helps her to select dice she will take with her into the game. 

She is also known for sending her 'unlucky' dice to Dice Jail. I personally love the idea of dice jail and I know a number of players that would use one.

I find the idea of searching for your lucky dice a great way of justifying the excessive amount of dice we dice addicts possess. 

This isn't the reason I buy dice however, although there was one time I brought a single d20 based on luck. 

I was at a gaming convention with my partner in crime Marshall and we were standing at a stall of steampunk themed merchandise and tabletop accessories. I picked up a purple d20 and admired its detail, it dropped to the floor as I went to put it back. It tumbled to the stand owners feet and landed on that magical number that makes us all twitch and squeal with excitement. The dice beast within me immediately decided that, that dice had to be ours, it was a lucky one. 

The real reason I can't top buying dice is, they are freaking cool! I love adding dice to my collection and I love bringing new players to my table and giving them a complete set to play with for a game. Even new players seem to have their own selection process when they delve into my collection, trying to pick out the coolest ones or dice that go with their character. 

Heres a couple questions for you, let us know your answers by tweeting @WisSave and send us pictures of your dice collection using #DiceFiend


Why do you buy dice?

Do you believe in lucky dice?


So it looks like we are out of initiative for this week, thank you for reading you all gain 750xp



Bonus Action:

I was interested to find out however that although there may or may not be such a thing as lucky dice, there is such a thing as biased dice. Click on the video below to find out how you check to see if your dice are biased. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI3N4Qg-JZM&t=119s

Pay to Play?

Firstly let me apologise I don't like to rant about anything to do with tabletop gaming, normally I'm full of love and hopeless passion regarding the subject but recently I've been reading a lot about people trying to get paid to run tabletop RPG's?!?

This notion just completely baffles me and fills me with despair; I understand people reaping the benefits of gaining viewers and subscribers on youtube and twitch playing DND as well as other games, but these discussions have been talking about being paid for private games. 

This conjures up many issues, firstly, it is a game that we play with friends or with people that share a passion for the game. I do not understand why people would seek out random people to play a TTRPG and hand over money just to take part? 

I would hate to sit down and add up how much money I have spent running my home games, I consider myself lucky if my players bring their own food! 
Don't get me wrong I love my current group, none of them have ever played anything like this before and nothing gives me more pleasure than presenting them with a deck of spell cards for their character or a new mini or even a set of dice. 
After I realised how into the game they were getting I brought and organised a folder for each of their characters; I just love every aspect about running a game for friends and what I get back from them is worth more than money.

That is why I cannot get my head around this idea of paying to play, it seems really impersonal and every aspect would become about the money. 

How much time would you spend prepping a game, would that effect how much you were charging? 

Would you cut a game short because the time was up rather than going with it until an appropriate moment?

 Would your rate be dependant on how 'good a DM you are?' How would you even quantify that? 

The whole situation just feels plain wrong, you couldn't justify how good you are based on your prep time or amount of years you have played, I know that GM's and DM's everywhere often spend a lot of time prepping for games and it can sometimes feel like your players don't appreciate the amount of effort that goes into it, especially if your players take a path you hadn't prepared for and end up throwing away a whole sessions prep, but when that happened to me, we had one of the best games we ever had! (I am a huge advocate for improv gaming but I'll talk about that another time). 

I think its important to remember that DMing or GMing is a choice and although some of us take up the role because no one else would (like I did) I consider it a privilege to be able to share this experience with friends or even strangers that will become friends. The process of playing RPG's for me is discovering the heroes we all want to be (after we have gotten over being power drunk murder-hobbos) and I don't think that is something we should be paying for.    

I also don't like the thought of hearing peoples awkward experiences, which I am sure would go a little something like:

 'Last night just as we were packing up our character sheets and putting away our dice, our DM turned to us and said "just leave the money on the table on the way out," and I was like, erm...sorry I don't pay for role-play"





The whole thing just makes me feel dirty and in need of a very hot shower.

My other issue with this situation is how do you know what your paying for? If a new player decides to join a group and they are paying to play are they going to be expecting what they have seen on Acquisitions inc or Critical Role? if they are I am sure they are going to leave disappointed and not likely to play again. 

If there are any situations in which you think paying to play would work please let us know, the only way I think I would have payed to play is back when I was trying to find a group to play with; if I had the option I would have jumped at the chance to pay someone and just join a group, but would I have played long term? probably not, would I have given up and not explored this amazing hobby? more than likely, would I have been disappointed that it wasn't what I had hoped it would be? maybe.

Any thoughts on the issue? Tweet at us @WisSave and by using:

#IDontPayForRolePlay 



     

10 Rounds of Initiative: A Terminally Nerdy/GoblinStomper Special

Over this weekend some interesting discussions occured regarding the expectations vs realities of playing DND or other TTRPG's in a post Critical Role world. After reading the post by Goblin Stomper and watching Terminally Nerdy's video (links below) it provoked a lot of thought.

I couldn't agree more that the recent flood of actual play podcasts and content such as Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc etc. could potentially provide an unachievable expectation for new players and future DM's, but for me, without Acquisitions inc and Critical Role I wouldn't have picked up my dice again and invited my friends back to the table to re-kindle the fun we used to have.

Because of this game I see my friends more often than I used too, have made a bunch of new ones, explored new avenues of gaming and have found a community full of creativity and imagination. I agree it's difficult to accept that we may not become as good as Matthew Mercer or Chris Perkins but its still fun to try. As long as me and my players are having fun I don't mind how we get there, and the moment I realised I didn't need to worry about my 'skill level' as a DM happened after a few sessions into our new campaign with my group.

We were a couple hours into our session, the food had turned to crumbs and most of the drinks had once again landed upon our bards character sheet. We took a break to resupply and my group left the table to go outside for a few moments, I finished up with my notes and went out to join them. As I entered the conversation two of my players were halfway through getting our ranger caught up on the last session that he had unfortunatly missed. As I listened to the two of them describe the events with enormous animated passion it became clear to me that they were talking about it as if they were actually in the world that I had built and that they weren't just sitting around a table rolling dice but actually running around the goblin filled cave clad in armour and wielding powerful magic. I felt content that my job was done, I had been able to achieve what I set out to do, I sparked that child-like imagination that I loved about the game.

Playing DND and other tabletop-RPG's to me is the pursuit of emulating the experiences we had playing pretend as children. One of my favourite memories as a child was the time when my two brothers thwarted the giant red dragon spewing hell-fire from its mouth (me standing on a chair in the garden trying to spray them with a hose); but we never talked about the children playing in the garden.

Whenever we talked about it with our parents or anyone who would listen it was always and always will be the time when the fire encapsulated their shields (dustbin-lids) as they pressed forward towards the beast; the heat almost too much to bare under their heavy metal (cardboard) armour, forcing their way closer and closer until they could plunge their Vorpal swords (wooden sticks) into the dragons heart (under my arm) and watched in awe as the gigantic beast fell lifeless to the ground (I tripped and fell off the chair). Their heroic and brave actions led them to rescue the princess (a stuffed bear) from the tallest tower (climbing frame) guarded by the fiendish creature and they returned to the city victorious. The king was so grateful for his daughters return that he held a feast in their honour (we were called in for lunch).

My point is, whenever anyone talks about our games at the table we imagine how the game went in our minds not how it happened at the table and thats good enough for me.

If anyone has ever taken on the role of the DM/GM and I mean really sat in the chair and ran a campaign however large or small, published or home-brewed; you'll know how easy it is to criticise your own performance and to think back over your past sessions and say to yourself "Oh man, I should have said this...or done that". Just remember that your players can't see the mistakes you've made or what should have been.

What I am trying to elude to here is a message to all GM's and DM's, past, present and future; in your players eyes you are the Matthew Mercers' or Chris Perkins' of your game and no one can take that away from you. Play for the fun of the game and the love of this amazing community we find ourselves a part of.

There is so much more I want to talk about but I fear we have already exceeded ten rounds. So it appears we are out of initiative and until next time.... you all earn 500xp.

Thank you for reading!


Find the original article here along with other great content:

http://goblinstomper.blogspot.co.uk


Check out the video from Terminally Nerdy which explores the topic in a very emotional thought provoking 12m29s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmbLjNzlwI
     















http://goblinstomper.blogspot.co.uk