After watching a few of their live games, what would you do to have Chis Perkins as your DM?
It would be cool just to see what it would be like, but I dunno. I've rarely had much of an answer for the "what would you do for (insert random thing)" questions. Not sure why, call it a quirk of mine perhaps. That and I already have 4 D&D campaigns going on outside of work, church, moderating, RP'ing, and more. Don't have time to add more unless it were for just a couple of sessions for fun.
I'm playing my first ever game of D&D on Sunday with some friends and we're all playing for the first time (apparently the DM we're gonna have has played quite a bit in the past). Got any pointers or general tips to having a fun game and starting out strongly?
Yes.
Have a character concept in mind, think of characters in movies/TV/games/books/etc you might want to draw inspiration from. Make the character your own just as you have for M here in the fed. Character creation can be a pain and takes hours to do but if you go in with a cool idea already in mind, it goes by so much faster.
True story: The "real" Theron started out as a very basic idea when I went to create the character. I had this Human Barbarian named Brutus 4 years ago who had Sheamus for an image rep minus the accent. Theres wasn't much more to Brutus than that. The "real" Theron began as an attempt to make a blonde Elven Fighter counterpart to Brutus. That was all I went into the character creation with. Little things got added to his backstory and concept after the first few sessions such as wanting him to have had his home village get destroyed by a dragon attack, he likes Falchion swords, he should be a fire elemental, has a love interest who is highly religious.... Short version is that I didn't go into it with the full in-depth backstory and character concept in mind. It came later. Character creation that day 3 years ago took HOURS. Like.... the entire day went toward us making characters. Over the years he has been around as a character though, Theron's actual counterpart evolved greatly as a character concept and now has more to him as a concept than every other character I've ever made from the past 12 years COMBINED. Sometimes an idea grows. And grows. And grows some more.
Example 2: Angelo Drake, my Dragon Disciple. I went into character creation with a concept in mind. It only took a couple of hours. I rolled his stats, picked feats, picked his race, gave him levels in Fighter and Bard to ensure he can prestige class into Dragon Disciple, shared my back story to the DM, and he was ready to enter an on-going campaign where I chose to retire another character. He joined the party that same day, when he as a character concept was only generated that morning.
Ok enough on character generation. Now, for gameplay.... If you do not already own dice, look for some at a local gaming shop. Pick out a couple of sets (no more than 4 if you're new, that should suffice) based on how much you like them and how they may fit the character(s) you will be the handler for. I picked mine based off character types. I have dice that go to my Fighters that are seperate from dice that would go to my Paladins or Clerics, for instance.
Once you have your character made and your dice.... Just have fun. Be the character. Ask yourself constantly. What would he/she do. Not what M (for lack of knowing your name outside the forum) would do. Silly voices can be fun, but use at your own risk. Some DM's hate this. Eat a big meal before playing if it's going to be a late night session. Maybe bring an energy drink. I like Dragon Fruit flavored water energy drinks that I buy from Wal-Mart to put in water bottles, personally it fits with D&D perfectly due to a pun with the name and it tastes great. That, or a Margarita if I'm not driving home that night. Go easy on drinks though, drunken D&D gets VERY weird VERY quickly whether you're sober or not.
If I can think of more I'll re-quote this but I think I covered the basics. Oh, one last thing. If the party already has a bunch of Fighter types, make a roguish type or a caster type. Same goes for if they have too many Rogues or too many casters. If there's too many non-fighters then you definitely want a Fighter, Barbarian, or a Paladin if no one else has one. Try to ensure that the party has some variety. If there are four handlers then if the 1st is a Fighter, the 2nd is a Cleric or Paladin, the 3rd is a Wizard or Druid, and the 4th is a Rogue then that is a very balanced group for example. It covers melee, healer, caster, and stealth all at once without all 4 playing the same thing.
What's the most moral situation you've encountered in D&D (either you did or saw)
Could you elaborate a little more on this one? Otherwise I will need to take some more time to think on it.
What's your favorite fantasy story? (not like Willow or Lord of the Rings, but kind of story)
Mine is the downfall of the hero.
It is a cliche among cliche's, but I have always had a soft spot for the heroic swordsman saving the attractive princess/damsel in distress. Whether it be from an evil humanoid or a dragon or any other creature/trap/situation. It never gets old to me.
If you could reinvent the big three races of fantasy, perhaps specifically in D&D (Humans, Elves and Dwarves), how would you do it?
If ever there were a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" in RPG's.... it's this. Humans are pretty neutral and average, it should stay that way to either encourage people to use them for multiclassing benefits or to encourage playing other races. Elves and Dwarves.... Elves tend to be better for caster types even though WZCW Theron as well as his namesake are the quintessential hero Fighter type. Dwarves tend to be better for melee and you just don't see a dwarven caster. I'd try to come up with sub-races for both to change this up some. I'm unaware at this time of Elves who excel at melee combat to the point where their preferred class could be Barbarian or a type of Dwarf who could be a Sorceror. Gladiatorial Elves and Magically gifted Dwarves as some type of new sub-race is probably the route I would go, alongside of course all of the existing sub-races already available.
What's the biggest flaw in D&D and Final Fantasy/RPGs?
The biggest flaw in D&D is random chance. The dice rolling is such an integral part of the game, but enough bad rolls can lead to catastrophic results. One time I had a party that ended up getting bad rolls for what the weather would be like for that day, when the original plan was to walk through a forest to reach an enemy fort. The bad weather roll resulted in a tornado. So we had to roll saving throws. Our Knight failed so he started flying away. Our Bard tried to save him with her whip and she made contact with him but she then began to fly into the storm too. Our Chain Fighter used his his left chain to tie himself to a tree and then throw his right chain out to the Bard and Knight. He saved them, but the tornado intensified due to another bad weather roll and the Chain Fighter died from being pulled too far in both directions. The handler of the Bard from that story still plays with us and we still give him a hard time about weather rolls, even texting him every time there's a storm telling him that he rolled a 1. All in good fun of course.
In RPG's the biggest flaw is dealing with having to level grind or earn money to buy more expensive items each time you come to a new town. This seems to come up in some way, shape, or form in every single RPG that I play. I can only do my 4 hour Dragonforce & 80's hair metal montage so many times before I need a break from all the constant battles outside town. It gets old.
If you were employed in a wrestling company, which role do you think you would be most suited to? Commentator, Ring announcer, Backstage interviewer, or Fake cop/Security?
Backstage interviewer out of those 4. Ring announcer is a no because I would get tired of just saying the names of competitors or results of matches. Security would be out as I'd rather be in a speaking role. Commentator could be fun, but I'll go with Interviewer so I'm constantly speaking to champions or contenders regarding the ongoing feuds.
