Roleplay Rescue Nordlond DFRPG One-Shot

     Last night I got to play in a DFRPG one-shot run by Che over at Roleplay Rescue. Thanks Che! I had a great time. Here are Che's thoughts on the game. From his statements it is clear that it wasn't an entirely satisfactory experience for Che, which is a shame. I must say that it feels like my experience was almost diametrically opposed to that of the GM, although that wasn't clear to me at the time.

    I have been thinking about Che's key take-away points from the session (go read them at the above link, if you haven't already), and I will add my own responses below, from both my direct experience as a player in the game, and I guess my perspective more broadly as a GM.

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    Let me start by start by saying that I had fun! I also felt and appreciated the "positive energy and intent" which you mentioned. For me it was great to be part of a team where every player was bringing a high level of engagement. It felt like all the players were there to actively participate. That was awesome!

1. Personally, I felt you did fine. Perhaps the threat level of the combat felt a little high to me, but on the other hand I'm sure that when I am GMing that my players sometimes feel the same way. Balancing challenge to party can be difficult at any power level, although of course the more complex the characters the more there is to consider. So maybe you would have felt more comfortable at 62 points, but as I say, to me you coped fine.

2. I enjoyed being able to participate in the combat, including what you call the "Rules-immersion". 

    Until recently, when it came to GURPS, I was almost always the GM and not the player. I am playing in one other DFRPG game currently, but there my character is an academic wizard built on 62 points, and (almost) wholly unsuited to combat. To be clear, that's fine too (it was after all my choice!). 

    So for me, being immersed in the rules of combat from the player side (rather than GM) was a pleasant and relatively novel experience. For example, as the Heroic Archer, having to make those choices such as whether or not to fast-fire at extreme range, or take the second to ready the bow to obviate the to-hit penalty - choices I did not always make correctly, I might add! So yes, I did enjoy that.

    On the other hand, I think the range of the engagements did not disadvantage my character as much as some of the others. Of course, being fairly well versed in the GURPS rules, had I been playing a melee fighter I like to feel that I would have been aware and accepting of the realities of the situation. But it is certainly something for a GM to consider, especially when players might be used to games with mechanics which are more divorced from plausibility than is GURPS. 

3. By "Otherworld-immersion", you mean character roleplay and interaction with the world around them? For me, armed conflict will have a tendency to interrupt conversation, both in GURPS and in the real world. I would also argue that the tactical choices made in combat, are as much interacting with the Otherworld as they are with the rules: Do I shoot from here at a high penalty to hit due to the range? Do I look for cover from the enemy archers? Do I try and get closer for a better shot? Etc, etc...

    So for me, there isn't the disconnect here. It's just that during combat, all those meaningful aspects of the Otherworld now pertain to matters of tactical consideration first and foremost. Sure, conversation becomes difficult when turns in combat are divided into 1-second increments. But I feel it is entirely believable that once combat has started, the conversation is over until both parties agree to a pause, or one party can enforce it. 

4. I disagree with your self-criticism. I enjoyed the roleplay of the characters meeting in the logging village, and the enemy attack (despite the disadvantage we were under), and then having to pursue the bad guys back to their holdout. While starting at the dungeon door would have been a perfectly valid choice considering this was a one-shot, the fact that you did not, was not a "mistake".

    I feel that had we started the session outside the cave, we might have gained more time inside the dungeon to explore, but we would have lost some of what you would might call the "Otherworld-immersion". As it was, each member of the party had a rudimentary understanding of their peers, and a greater appreciation of a joint sense of purpose between the characters, due to the initial social encounter and the adversity of the attack on the village. While that could have been narrated to save time, it would have become something understood by the players, rather than felt, and so by doing so I think that something valuable might have been diminished (if not lost altogether).

5. It was something close to what I would want, I think. Certainly I enjoyed the experience. I feel that I would like to have a better understanding from you about the kind of fantasy game that you would want to play in... and try to understand where the disconnect between what you ran and what you thought you were going to run, happened. Perhaps we can have that conversation at some future point.

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So to summarise:
It was a great night, and I hope that Che can reflect upon it and find some more positive things to take away from the experience.

5 arrows out of 5. 
Axel would definitely take pot-shots at long range, only to have the bandits' armour stop the hit, again. :-)

Thanks once again, Che!