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| I've heard of the May pole...but what are these guys doing? Happy bludgeoning? |
So here we are and it's May 1st already! For the last few months (since about February) I've missed my Wednesday night games at the FLGS, due to the fact that I was taking a class and had other work and family commitments.
And, I had a new job opportunity drop into my lap (I'm here to tell you that LinkedIn is awesome, folks). I'm happy to report that opportunity has panned out quite nicely, and I'm going to start my next career adventure in a couple weeks! One of the best parts of the new gig: it's still within driving distance of my FLGS, so Wednesday game night shall live on!
Even though I've missed some Wednesday night roleplaying, I've managed to keep getting together with a group of guys (who were originally friends of friends) with whom I'm playing Pathfinder (I'm a half-orc rogue). Let me tell you, the game gives me a headache and causes frustration. There seems to be way too much dice rolling and time spent on all sorts of feats and other junk. And don't get me started on the friggin' attacks of opportunity! Oy vey!
Yes, I knew going into it that Pathfinder was more crunchy than, say, Castles & Crusades and the "OSR-approved" rules. But I thought I could get over the crunch. But I don't think I can. It's not that I couldn't learn and grasp them. I just find myself resisting the learning process. There's a very vocal part of my mind that bluntly states "Not interested!" And I guess I'm okay with that. It really leaves me yearning for the older rules, you know?
But hey, the way I see it, it's still roleplaying! You know those old sayings about pizza and sex, right? Even when they're bad they're good?
Anyway, have a great May Day kids!
Yup, definitely feel you on the Pathfinder thing. I really tried to make the system work for me, first as a GM, then as a player. In the end, I just didn't care for all that crunchiness. Crunch is not why I play, and I also found the mechanics tended to take over and drive player decisions and role-playing, even to the point of countervening previous character-based actions.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, I decided that if I wanted to invest the time to learn a system with a lot of crunch (which I don't), I'd spend my time learning an all-in-one universal system like GURPS. But I find that at the end of the day, even a more open system like GURPS that lets you make any kind of character you want, too much crunch just gets in the way of imagination and role-playing and completely changes the tone of the game.
Oh, and I'd add a corollary to your thought about bad gaming still being good. It is possible for bad gaming to be so bad it's BAD, but, like pizza and sex, when it does get that bad, it tends to become the stuff of legends. ;)
Yeah, I have to tell you, that crunch is a crutch! The guy running the Pathfinder games is a good bloke, but I feel like, when I try to roleplay instead of roll the dice, things sort of break down. And I don't feel like that's the GM's fault. I know that sounds weird, but... it's almost like Pathfinder "forces" you to depend on dice rolls, if that makes any sense. If you immerse yourself in a system like that, dice rolls become the default activity, instead of the other way around (i.e. roleplay first and then some dice rolling as needed).
DeleteAnd good point about the pizza and sex thing!
Those guys are Morris dancing and if someone misses a beat, it can turn into happy bludgeoning indeed. See Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies for a great description of a Morris Dance that turns deadly indeed.
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