Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Things I Learned From Watching Tapes of Myself DMing For Four Days

-When I announce any feature of the dungeon, there is a 90% chance someone will say "Gross."

-I don't know if all that group-dynamics social theory stuff about how women seek consensus is sure, but they sure do spend a lot of time deciding how to kill monsters.

-Smart monsters should know to take out the cleric first.

-No matter what's going on in the dungeon, if the party keeps following the monsters, the game will be about fighting monsters.

-I'm not bad at doing voices but I am bad at remembering which one goes with which NPC.

-The default voice seems to be a sort of Gollum/Yoda hybrid.

-You can tell Satine has been playing since she was 15--not only is she all: "I have a grappling hook!" "I have a rope!", she also will risk death to retrieve them after using them.

-I need a haircut.

9 comments:

vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...

you ever consider getting a vocoder or pitch shifter to put thru a stereo system?

gotta ask, the title of the show is ......____?

i ran out of popcorn, fingernails and hand, most of my arm wont fit in my mouth.

B. Portly Esq. said...

Omigod - I own an analog vocoder!

You could mark the slider positions for each NPC!

Plus heavy reverb for evil sorcerers!!!

BRILLIANT!!!

Anonymous said...

I wish you all the luck in the world, Zak. You really have a great blog and a great concept for a blog which is even better.

thekelvingreen said...

Was it strange to see yourself DMing on screen? Obviously you and your players have plenty of screen experience, but I'd imagine this is less of a performance and more of a documentary, so it could make all the difference to how you perceive yourself when viewing it.

kathulhu said...

I have to give you kudos for this. I think DM'ing is the hardest part of the game. If you're bad at it, you risk looking like a fool, esp. if you try to do the voices, etc. This is why I don't DM! Good luck! :)

Fran Terminiello said...

our DM would probably have the monsters eat us all up if we pondered for any length of time about destroying them. then again the only times we've had all female parties (2 of us) a lot of chat and decision making does go on. i find the guys tend to just wade in and confront the monsters, trigger the traps, get the action started

i have to ask - is it embarrassing watching yourself on screen?

Herobizkit said...

Here's a question that will be ironic...

Did you have any 'performance pressure' while being taped as a DM?

vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...

http://noisefx.com/product_details/sirkut_electronics_devils_horn_kj0028

the one guy that runs this site you can call up. he's got all kinds of ideas for voice effects. i have a purple DigiTech VX400 thing that does everything but make pasta vasool. most guitar shops have 'em. analog vocoders are tops tho!

Anonymous said...

As much as I hope this tv show is a hit, I hope you continue to post more of your gaming, designing, and DMing thoughts on here.

I mean this as an absolute compliment to your style as a old-school D&D gamer and blogger. Just to give you some examples: I loved your posts about martial arts and about showing random encounter charts to the players; fast, flavorful, evocative, and old-school. It is stuff like that which has gotten me hooked on your blog.

When it comes to the "-with pornstars" part of the blog, I like it also, but especially when it is about the development and introduction of new gamers, especially girls. Half the members in one of my current groups are females (all non-gamer backgrounds) and many of your anecdots line up with my own experiences.

I just want to beg you to keep writing about the game, mechanics, DM tools, monsters, etc, because you have a great perspective.