Taking Turns Meetup (Here are the rules)

OK we're discussing some new rules to make things work better.

This is a subgroup of the regular meetup who agrees to take turns DM'ing things for each other. We run longer adventures with more involved storylines and try for lots of character development. As a member you have to take turns DM'ing for the group. The adventures typically last for 3-5 weeks and then we start a new adventure. We usually prefer published adventures such as the paizo module "Carnival of Tears" (converted to 4th ed.), the Dungeon Magazine adventure "Last Breaths of Ashenport", or Goodman Games' adventure "Curse of the Kingspire" etc. etc. stuff like that.


Way it works:
1. We run things in cycles. We run adventures that last 3-5 weeks then start the next one. The whole group has to be on the same cycle. So the entire group will be running the same adventure. Example: two tables both running "Keep on the Shadowfell", both at around the same place in the adventure. Everyone gets to take part and no-one misses out on any part of the experience. If attendance happens to get messed up for one session, the tables can exchange members freely to compensate because they are doing the same thing at the same time.

2. To ensure quality we do the following: To join the group we ask new people to DM or have DM'd at least one adventure for NYC D&D Meetup group. We just want to see that people are able to DM and aren't wasting our time by trying to get to play and never giving back. Running an RPGA one-shot adventure would work great since a lot of us are members of the RPGA also.

3. We will meet on the same regular day of the week, like Wednesday. Attendance is crucial, if you sign up for an adventure you have to commit to finishing that adventure.

4. The start of an adventure is important. If someone misses the first session they should wait for the next cycle and next adventure to start.

5. The whole group votes on what adventure gets run. The DMs have to run the adventure the group picks. You can submit something you wrote yourself, but if the group doesn't vote for it it means we don't want to play it.

6. In order to join you put your name down on our schedule of DMs. It's kind of like a written commitment. We can't have holdouts! We have to enjoy DM'ing as much as we enjoy playing. When we're starting an adventure and we all decide to run an awesome adventure, we're all going to want to "play" in it. If we have 8 people then only one of us has to DM, if we have 9 people then two of us have to DM. We need to RSVP early so we can determine who is going to DM.


See a schedule of what's coming up here.


Our goals:

• Whole campaign arcs are much more rewarding than playing one-shots. We want a group where we will get to play longer adventures.
  
• We want people who show up regularly. It is very important to support immersion and keep the game going.
  
• It's important to have members that enjoy DM'ing. We don't want people who wander in, play a few times and never come back or try to get away with never DMing.
  
• We want players with a team mentality that will always give up their standard action to try to heal a downed teammate, and also not scorching burst their own comrades unless they ask if it's OK.
  
• We need a system that can handle a large enough group to support many tables playing and doesn't become one group of 6 close friends. (If we had that we wouldn't need a meetup) We need to be very open to new players, as long as they're good, and we need to be able to easily add the new players.
  
• The start of an adventure is extremely crucial! We need ways so that we can allow all the players to fully take part in adventure beginnings.
  
• We need to be friendly and accommodating enough to switch tables and play with everyone in the group. This also means we need good people so that all the people in the group get along well.
  

"We want players with a team mentality that will always give up their standard action to try to heal a downed teammate, and also not scorching burst their own comrades unless they ask if it's OK."

Hmmm.....interesting.......very...very...interesting.....


James, I think you got everything well-organized, I think this would solve the problem last time we had with shadowfell were people felt they could not get in the group because it was packed for 4 weeks in a row. Lets hope for the best!

On the subject of what's played and DMed:

I prefer Living Forgotten Realms Dungeons and Dragons games, as gold and XP that a character acquires in such games can be used in other Living Forgotten Realms games.

Until a few months ago, only prewritten adventures could be used, but with the advent of "My Realms" adventures, DMs can write and DM their very own custom-written solid story arcs. (Currently, "My Realms" guidelines have been released for the 1-4 and 4-7 level ranges; I hear that the 7-10 level range will get guidelines in possibly a couple months or less).

I'd be a big supporter of "taking turns" for My Realms Living Forgotten Realms story arcs (although see below). But I don't prefer to play story arcs outside of the Living Forgotten Realms; writing and planning adventures takes a lot of time, particularly the "immersion" style (in which the writer researches down to the last detail possible, then fleshes the world out without contradicting canon, using characterful and colorful details, etc.)

Short version: Yes to campaign arcs within My Realms Living Forgotten Realms for me. I can write/DM, and happy to play in the same. No to anything else, though.

You can make 5,000 rules that could make the game better - theoretically.
At the end of the day, it boils down to having a good DM who gets things going, and players who have the spirit and come back and are committed. You can't enforce this. The best you can do is select good players, have a basic understanding of simple rules, like "everyone has to DM one day", and then hope for the best.
If you let random people in whom you haven't played with before, your long list of rules will be compromised all the time, and nothing can be done about it.

You can make 5,000 rules that could make the game better - theoretically.
At the end of the day, it boils down to having a good DM who gets things going, and players who have the spirit and come back and are committed. You can't enforce this. The best you can do is select good players, have a basic understanding of simple rules, like "everyone has to DM one day", and then hope for the best.
If you let random people in whom you haven't played with before, your long list of rules will be compromised all the time, and nothing can be done about it.

Yeah, I was going to mention something similar. But I think James's call was for players that WOULD have "the spirit", so to speak.

How about you, my brother? Do you have . . . THE SPIRIT?

Could I just ask... what happened to the meetups where people who were interested in D&D and tabletop gaming could show up and, oh I don't know... maybe just play a quick informal pick up game of Dungeons and Dragons, and meet some likeminded roleplaying folk? Roll some dice, kill some evil monsters and have a laugh, and a bit of fun...

Isn't this all getting a little "over-organized?"

I don't mean to sound bitchy about it or anything. I know you're trying to make the meetups work, but I think you might be in danger of putting a lot of people off turning up, or even trying the game out, because its kind of intimidating to have all these "rules" for how people should act out of game as well as in game. Even I'm intimidated by it all, and I'm an experienced RPG person.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I don't mean to be critical or anything. I just thought I'd say. I'd love to come to a meetup and run a 3.5 adventure, or a Star Wars game or something, or try a 4e game maybe sometime over the summer now grad school has calmed down for me. But with all this RPGA stuff and organized 4e play, I feel kind of not welcome! :)

The weekly RPGA meetup and the monthly sunday meetup do just that IMO.

Isn't this all getting a little "over-organized?"

Well, let me try to address some of these concerns.

1. Yes, there is a deal of organization involved, a lot of which I'm pushing for from the RPGA Meetup side. You didn't mention that, but I mention this in case that's what you were referring to - I know there have been plenty of RPGA events on the calendar.

From the way most Living Forgotten Realms RPGA events run, you know, DMs just run prewritten adventures. They can't do the worldbuilding that is something that many veteran DMs DM for. Even the "My Realms" Living Forgotten Realms adventures, although a huge step in the right direction, are limited as the published adventures feature much more powerful magical items than you can typically get from a "My Realms" adventure.

In part because DM is not as enjoyable for LFR RPGA events as it normally might be in another game, I've been tracking DMs and players, and giving priority to players that have DMed. Without DMs, we have no games for players to play.

2. Yes, there are "rules" for how to act out of game and in game, but those aren't hard and fast "rules". I think what James Leivers posted for - although, again, I don't necessarily know his intent - was that he probably wants a strong circle of gamers. You know, reliable, friendly, intelligent players with good hygiene. As opposed to players that cancel at the last minute that yell at you for not doing X (although they run 14 in their primary stat) that attack the king and try to intimidate the town guard who can, in the real world, kill a cow at forty paces with their awesome smell.

Don't get me wrong, now - it's more INTERESTING to play with some players, and I do enjoy the company of some people that are unreliable, or unfriendly, or not so tactically intelligent, or maybe even that don't shower a whole lot (although I tend not to get close to the last enough to really know). But then again, I have to admit, I do tend to prefer players that have more reliability and tactical acumen than not, you know. It isn't a "rule" I have; it's just a preference.

3. Sorry if all the stuff looks intimidating. If you're referring to this message board thread in particular, well, I hope you won't worry about it too much and continue to have fun. If you're referring to the RPGA meetups, well, perhaps you can offer a few *specific* pointers on how to get the necessary points across while still keeping the messages brief.

4. Yeah, pickup games are nice. But I think the best way to get those games going in the first place is to find some like-minded players at a larger meetup, propose a smaller meetup, and, well, meet up! You don't need Meetup for that! But anyways, if that wasn't what you had in mind, please elaborate with the *specifics* of exactly what you would have in mind to try help out the community. Specifics are very good; we can work with specifics. (We're not trying to pin you down or anything, but if we don't know what to do, we can't do it!)

Well fact is many players just don't like sanctioned play like Living Forgotten Realms. Not much can be done about it. I'm sure I'll give it a try one day.

It's important that our meetup is not just either RPGA or "DM's taking turns".

I'm a DM myself and have run a couple of sessions in this meetup already. It needs to stay open for DM's just offering, and people just playing. I want to say that James is doing a great job by editing the tables and who's in it, without this it would be very difficult.

Look Jim, I'm really not interested in getting into a big argument here. I always think its kind of funny when us gamers get into arguments about these things because D&D is such a minority thing anyway, so few people play it, and the rest of the world thinks we're total geeks - I think we forget that we're actually on the same team here... we're both D&D players and we both love the game...

But on the other hand I do take a little bit of offense at the condescending tone of your post. For the record, I've been involved with the NYC D&D meet up since 2005, and I ran the group myself (on my own) for an entire year. Scheduling 2 meetups a month (one for gaming, one for just "meet and greet") and I DM'd homebrewed adventures at every single one of those meetings for whoever happened to turn up (in addition to running my home campaign also!).... - so please, don't talk to me about "contributing to the community" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be quite frank I couldn't give a f**k about your 4th edition RPGA Living Forgotten Realms, My Realms, Your Realms, His Realms, Their Realms, Whatever Realms stuff. I don't play 4e. And I certainly don't play RPGA. I have zero interest in it. RPGA is simply not my style of gaming. I don't understand the attraction of it. To me its not what D&D is about at all. Obviously, each to their own - if you're into it, great. But I have no interest in it.

And I think Volker hit the nail on the head in pointing out that the meetups should not "just be either RPGA or "DM's taking turns". - especially when the taking turns group is like 6 people... I visit this website everyday, and basically thats all I have seen posted for the last month or so (although I notice an August 1st Compleat Strat meet has been scheduled today)

Regarding the "quality of players" playing the game... Of course, I know how important it is to have nice people play in the games, and how horrible it is when you get a really annoying player in the group. Anyone who has played D&D for long enough has surely had that experience where there is that ONE idiot of a player in the game who spoils the fun for everyone. But at the end of the day, in a public group like this, you have to expect to meet some people who you won't get on with, either in terms of their play style, their personality, or whatever. It is after all a public group. ie: feasibly, anyone can come and join in and play. Hell, I remember when a 10 year old kid came and played - yes it was a nightmare, but its a public D&D meetup group in New York City - who knows what crazy folk might turn up? And that is the way it should be. It should be open to all. The kid wanted to play D&D, so I let him play. Obviously I wouldn't invite him to my home campaign... But for that one little game at the meetup it was OK, and everyone still had enough fun despite the kid playing.

I guess my point is, that by being too regimented, exclusive, and regulated by too many "rules" the meetup might end up alienating a lot of people, and will just end up being a handful of friends who get together each month and know each other already anyway, all playing in the same campaign together, or involved in tournament play... with everyone else being excluded because they don't apparently "fit in" with what is expected. Personally I think that would be very bad for the NYC D&D meetup group, and very bad for D&D in general...