The Next Game Master Pt. 03

He pointed at the ground at the bear, "What killed his horse! You are talking two to three days to smoke all of this. We got the deer before the bear attacked. There were twelve and we got five including the buck." Marshal came riding up, "You shot the ranger?!"

He looked at him, "You mean the fighter who calls himself a ranger. Yes. First, I told him he did not want to hunt off to the left but the right because he was upwind of his prey. Didn't listen. Then he tied off his horse and I had Brandi ride back and told him to never tie off a horse out here.

Didn't listen. We come back after taking down 5 deer and hearing screaming to find a bear had killed his defenseless hose. Brandi found him at the bottom of the hill in a gully on the left side smashed against a tree with wounds on his sides and several broken ribs.

I took the fighters down here and clean the kills and go back to check on them. This was after riding back and getting a cleric and two fighters to come and help. Then one of the fighters told me, 'Let me guess. Splinter he likes to hunt with a two-handed sword.' I got back as they make it to the road.

I asked about his weapons. His bow was 30 feet off the road leaning against a tree. His sword was found halfway between where he ended up and the dead horse. I then told him to gut the horse. He told me it was 'women's work.' I told him not anymore get to gutting the horse or I would gut him.

I drew my bow on him. He told me I would not shoot him. Didn't listen. I shot him in the foot. I told him he was a fighter with a dirt clod in his head and that Myssara should strip him of being a ranger. He flipped me the bird. He must have heard that part! He just got the answer wrong!

I shot his hand, I could have taken his finger off at that range, but I did not want anyone wasting a regeneration scroll so he could flip me or somebody else the finger. If he does not want to learn, take advice, pay for his mistakes, then he has no business being here. I left him with Lirana and told her about the 'women's work' comment.

We will need that hide and right here is your camp for the next 2-3 days minimum. You cannot smoke all of this meat in the portable. We could have set up in two wagons and had one hell of a dinner tonight for everyone with just the deer. The bear threw that out the windows as it came after we got the deer. You will get a kick out of this. He is a fucking 'dragon hunter.' Let me count them off for you,

1. I told him where to hunt and where not too.

2. Sent word back with Brandi that he should not tie off his horse out here.

3. He went hunting with a two-handed sword and left his bow behind.

4. He attached said bear solo with a two-handed sword and nearly got himself killed.

5. Refused to do his part of the labor that is going to be needed to set up a fixed smoking area for all of this meat.

6. Told me I would not shoot him. Got an arrow.

7. Gave me the finger. Got an arrow.

I spoke with Myssara about him and she told me if she had been running a second edition campaign system, she would have stripped him of being a ranger a long time ago. I told her to send him the images of our taking care of the forest dragon. She did. He was a bit sullen at that point. She had told him he was fucking with the wrong person when he fucked with her champion. Go ahead tell me bad ranger."

The fighters laughed.

Marshal tried to stay straight-faced. He could not hold it together. He started laughing and rode away. Raven followed. "Raven scout camp."

He looked at Marshal, "I want to talk with all of the new people."

Marshal nodded, "Might be a good idea."

They got everyone together. He got his original party cracking on setting up a smoking tent. I looked around, "You will notice I have everyone who is new to this group here. We had some trouble with this hunt. The first thing you should know is if I bring you hunting and you do not know how to hunt properly ask to be taught or express no interest in that task.

As it is, we will not be hunting for days! While Brandi and I took out 5 deer Splitters horse got killed and he got mauled. There is a right way to hunt. Bows, spears, javelins, snares, spiked pits if you are going after the big and dangerous game. A sword, hammer, flail, etc is a method of LAST resort.

If the words 'melee weapon' is all you know do not go hunting. The next thing is stealth. I signaled Brandi to move back toward the road. Brandi "What did I do?" She laughed, "He dropped a buck and then started setting off explosives to drive the fleeing dear into range so we could take them out with bows. He got three and I got two."

He looked at her, "The bear?"

She smiled, "We got our horses away from the bear went into the woods and fired at it from range. When it charged our position, he hit it with scorching ray and melted half of its head off."

He looked at them, "In neither of those instances did I put us in danger. When we hunt we do not want to be the ones being hunted. Wrong fucking idea! When out here in camp, behind a wagon on a string. A horse can and should be tied off. We have people guarding them!

You leave a horse on the edge of a road then put the reins under a small log or big stone. In the woods off road leave the reigns free. A horse has two mechanisms for survival. Flee and attack with its front hooves. You tie the head off you are hanging a 'come kill me sign' on the side of your horse.

You will notice those in my party all have things they are doing right now. Nobody is a lumberjack, but wood has to be collected, fires built, structures put together to smoke meat. There will be people attending the fires and smokers day and night for at least two days. Nobody here is a butcher, the barbarian being the exception."

This got a few giggles and Lirana smiled. "Meat has to be cut up into smaller sections, salted, seasoned, and hung." Meals have to be cooked. If you do not know how to cook you will learn. Especially if you do not hunt. Shia, Lirana, Brandi, and Trisa. Step over here. Anyone else in this group has four or more lives in-game?" He looked around and nobody moved. "There are eighteen with less experience in-game or with these gaming systems."

"He thought, "Half is a gross underestimation. I will be lucky to get a third of them through this next stage. Even with the killer gear or it would be less."

"Marshal leads and Trisa is his second. I was advisor most of the way through our journey to get to the first inn unless it was something that was 'my fight.' Like blowing up a Baron. If you track there will be times when I ask you, 'What is odd about these tracks?'

If you use knowledge nature, 'What is wrong with these trees, tell me about the damage you see.' In those two cases, we were in the middle of a damned druids circle. All the tracks went to the right side going deeper and came towards us on the left side. There was not a mark on the trees.

We were dealing with a huge to gigantic bear. Bears like to rub up against trees and mark them with their claws to show the boundaries of their territory. The thing was I did not tell them what was wrong. I asked them to look at certain things. Druids can pass without trace. A bear with the paws the size of a medium shield would be close to 3,000 pounds.

I will advise you, force you to use your skills, challenge you to assume roles, and REQUIRE you to do your fair share and be willing to learn and take advice. If you do not take my advice, I expect you to take responsibility when things go sideways because they will go sideways.

There are certain things that will set me off. One is being constantly ignored when I give advice, refusing to take responsibility and own up to your own mistakes, refusing to clean up after your mistakes. Things like 'that is not my job' or 'women's work.' Challenging me by saying, 'You would not shoot me.'

I sure as hell will if you are fucking up by the numbers. Give me the finger, I will respond. You saw the images of my roleplaying and snapping a guard's arm over my shoulder. I will do it to you out here because I do not want you to do it in a city and dying for it. Like the characters who died in the bar fight.

The one who refused to surrender to the guards after that. The one who was stupid enough to throw a fireball in a fucking inn. I have experience. I knew I could break that guard's arm and get away with it.

Kill him and they would kill me. I knew the extent of my boundaries. You are still feeling those out. It is ok to ask questions; admit you do not know or know how to do something. Everyone starts somewhere. Wanting to learn is not a crime it is commendable.

Refusing to learn is a shame. I have a no-death run going and I have been told I could lose a bunch of you just getting to the next inn. I was told when not if but when that happens to find replacements at the next inn.

I prefer to teach things once and not over and over again to achieve the same goal. Work with Marshal, listen to the advice and ask why? I will tell you why. NOT in combat, I expect you will do what I ask. Marshal, Trisa, Lirana, Shia, and Brandi will expect you to do the same. Ask, after it is over.

It could mean the difference between a party's success and a party wipe. Use those with knowledge because we want to succeed as much as you do. In some cases, more so. Myself, being in first life, never dying but being trapper for 20 years sucked.

If you want to know how picture our last encounter but being sucked into elven court life for 20 years. Not because I wanted it but because the Goddess of that world wanted to 'play house' with my character. That means go nowhere, bored to tears, and fucking all day long because you have no other forms of entertainment.

To a gamer that is called hell. Torture. However, you wish to term it. I did get really good at fucking but I would have rather been gaming at the same time!"

He got a few chuckles. He looked around, "That is all I have for you and I am sure Marshal and Trisa have tasking for everyone."

He looked over to Marshal, "I have burned through a few spells and all the meat is ready. Your team knows what to do with the mesquite already. I am going to rest now. I will be available for guard shifts later."

He nodded, "As we will be stuck here for a couple of days that is not a bad idea. Take Brenda and Trisa with you for now. He headed to the second wagon and got in back and laid out his bedroll. The ladies joined him and Brenda shook her head, "I burned up most of my healing on that one ranger today. I could not watch it when he said that. I knew you would."

He looked at Trisa, "Did he bring the other halfling ranger?"

She nodded, "He is hopeful you will straighten him out."

He sighed and laid his head down.

He just felt drained. He was out before he knew it. He found himself in the sanctuary. He saw her in the water. He just laid down where he came in at. She came over to him. "Ok, let me hear it."

He looked at her, "Do you not have any experienced gamers in this world? A 70% first life group. You cut the experience level of our 'party nearly in half. Then we have two bricks that I know in the ranger department. Mr. I don't ride and Mr. Elmer Fudd, I hun wida gwat swords. Hehehe." Now I know those two groups were 70 and 42.

Now tell me how many times each of those 2 has made it to the second inn and then died after that?" She laid down beside him, "Splitter has played a fighter, barbarian, wizard, sorcerer, and cleric which he played like a weak fighter. 407 attempts to get to the first inn. He is aware of it but this is the first time he made it to level 6. The other is on 207. Both arcane classes, cleric, druid, and rogue."

He looked at her, "Any other bricks in this pile?" She looked at him and cringed. "The ones you identified and 3 others. Including one of your son's ladies. The wizard."

He looked at her, "A wizard I can teach, they at least have intelligence in the character. Is this what I can expect? Twenty percent experienced players, the same in bricks and sixty percent first lifers. I am surprised you said half to make it through. Again, a third I might believe."

She looked at Raven, "I gave you every worst player I got in this one mercenary company. Well, not every but the majority."

He looked at her, "You set me up with these other two groups. They should never have made it. Not if they had faced what we encountered during the first 5 levels. You let them skate through the first 5 levels to get them here; they were a worse lot than my original group! You tried to sugar coat it by getting them there with fewer runs. Right off the bat, I can count on a twenty percent loss. That is not completely their fault. Part of it is yours."

She looked at him, "How?"

He looked at her, "Groups of this size are the exception, not the fucking rule. Your quest structure is completely ass-backward. You might like that because it is fewer 'groups' to watch but not the best. Your concept of sending them all back to level one is for shit.

Give them the option to start at level five. In fact, they should not be allowed to go back to level one until they have advanced a character to a life completion. Start planning out more parties of ten or fewer to get to level twenty.

There should be one raid maybe two like this in the ENTIRE world. You are leaving it to the players to crowd control a massive assault. Put a stop-gap in place. By that I mean you do not let anyone leave the world until they have a hundred lives or eighty percent is on their 15 life or higher.

You need to turn past lives on for everyone. Nobody is learning from their mistakes to have that many failures and that is because you are removing their mistakes from memory."

She looked at Raven, "What would do?"

He looked at her, "Get all the bricks together for a meeting with me when I awake. When this group reaches the next inn. The quests have been completed by another group. Set this point up as a recovery point for all who make it on this run.

Then it depends on how many we have left. Cancel all raids going forward. I might as well fall on my sword and go back to level 1 if you keep raids going. Nobody should be going on a raid without 20 lives under their belt.

People who know how to work in a party and can learn to work as a group. This is why your suicide rates are so high. On Earth, a group rarely makes it to level 20. It is the exception, not the rule.

Most groups will fall apart before making it there. Our getting from the first inn to the second was not bad but our mission should have been a simple caravan guard. The paladin should have been summoned to that town to pick up another mission that would take us close to the third inn. Off the beaten track to resolve.

Then to the temple or church in the third town. Something level appropriate with a boss who is level appropriate. You get to the second inn eighty percent of your population is children. That is growing. Tell me I am wrong Mother. I know you are listening to this."

Mother shows up and sighed, "Of course I am listening to you. Yes, that percentage is growing but suicides have started dropping."

He looked at them, "We are stuck here for another two to three days. Set up a more pressing quest. Send a rider or courier if you will to catch Marshal. Let him know the other 3 quests have been completed by another group that was ahead of us. We are being retasked to something between where we are and the next village. Reset first lives on this world to level 10. Category 'c' first lives.

They have to have 20 of those. Then have to use 10 of the 20 to run a quest series of level 10 to 15 first life 'category b'.

Then they have to run 5 of those 10 from level 15 to 20. Category 'a' lives. Those are minimum numbers by the way. They could run 100 'category c' first lives and 30 'category b' first lives but once the hit 5 'category a' first lives they graduate out. To another world with all of that knowledge; or a different part of this world where you run these kinds of quests two parties of eight merge at level five to level ten. The survivors of that get to the next inn and merge with another group of survivors to go after another target. Finally, this last group of survivors goes after the brass ring by themselves or merges and picks up players in order to balance out what remains of the group. This is where you bring non-player characters into the party if needed. NOT before."

Mother looked at him, "There is no precedent for this approach."

He looked at here, "Maybe not here, but on Earth you betcha. Red box life went to level 3 black box to level 5 second edition came out and they added layer upon layer of option onto the game to make it interesting and diverse but the thing that drove a lot of game masters was modules. Pre-setup quests for a level range. It was never designed for an actual life but the concept is the same."

Mother looked at Raven, "So they would have to restart after level 10?"

He shook his head, "If they have enough interest for a group to go to 15 then they do so. After two failures it is time to get lower-level experience build up a second character. Then get it to 10 that choose either character to try and get to level 15. The thing is, what is your goal here?

To create a lot of top-notch players right now? Or built up a base of players that can get your new first lifers up into 'category c' first lives?

You told me it would be a year before your next graduating class on this planet. Sooner if there was a growth spurt. That window of a year is going to get shorter with the population boom you have going on."

Mother looked at Raven, "We are projecting every three months."

He looked at her, "This is a sustainable model but you have to increase the number of players in this kind of training world if you will by a factor of 10-50 times. That was why I was saying taking raids out of the equations. Get them so many proper first lives and then move them to the advanced worlds you are talking about.

Running a character from 1-20, 5 or 10 times. Then to an epic world where they can take all of their level 20 characters and run a few through epic level gaming. Then switch them to a complex system like version two or send them to worlds which are strict versions and no supplements. In short tie their hands back, a bit and see if they can pull off the successes.

Keep it a challenge. Keep in mind you are not getting these kinds of suggestions because you have handicapped the players with the reincarnation rules. The player is not the character. Do not penalize the players' memories simply because they are starting a new character.

Keep player identities a secret so they never really know if they are running with the same player EXCEPT if they are running with the champion of the world. Then they know they will get schooled in the game and what they are missing. Yet another option down the road.

That is why I asked for Raven to be exclusive. Rathor seems like the big brawny fighter type. He could go by the BEAR or something that makes it know you see that name in your party you are going to get an education. Because we do not reveal that aspect of our name until the party's underway or the party is completely formed."

Mother looked at Raven, "Yet another proof of concept?"

He shook his head, "This should be done on 10 of your active worlds now to act as feeders into your other worlds. That number will have to grow. That means putting a champion or Gaming Grandmaster on those 10 worlds. Else on every one of those worlds if more than 10 worlds.

You have two now that I know of. You need to find your best players and finding out which aspects they venerate the most and which goddesses align with that. Get them in those worlds as game Masters. If they are a match you have found more champions.