I've been involved in setting up and running quite a few games online on roll20 over the past few months. The trends I have seen is startling. The D&D 5e players are generally nice, appreciate getting a spot in a game, they are respectful of the GM, and they generally are good players. Pathfinder players mostly have become the opposite -- bratty, min-maxing, disrespectful. It is startling to me, because Pathfinder use to have a solid player base. Has 5e sucked up all the good players?
Thinking about the anecdotally-backed trend I have noticed, I think back to when Pathfinder was the newcomer and 3.5 was the old game. It was very similar in attitude, at least in that 3.5 drew in the power gamers. It really upsets me that I can't hardly run a decent Pathfinder game now with all of the min-maxing attitude.
Worse yet, making Pathfinder playable in a balanced sense is becoming harder and harder. In my latest Pathfinder game, I had to restrict the players to Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Race Guide. Even then players were pushing the envelope trying to break the rules.
I feel lucky now that I found a few good players for my game, but I fear getting my usual 6 players might be near impossible. Today I had a player that wanted me to go track down his sign-up posting for my game, because he had closed the tab. WTF? Like I don't have better things to do.
All of these brats wasting my time just burns me out instantly. I am usually GMing a couple of games a week, playing in a game or two, plus dealing with real life. I regularly get Pathfinder players that join up, complain, ask tons of questions, half-ass build a character, and then drop right before or after the first session. The worst part is that they are rude about it to me, like its my fault. I kid you not, that I have had players drop because they don't like the game, during the week they were supposed to email me what they wanted in the game. This after one session of level 1/2 "get to know the party" encounters at the beginning of a campaign. What do players expect?!
Somewhere in the back of my mind is the old man curmudgeon who wants to start screaming some nonsense about millennial expectations and how MMORPGs have ruined so many table top players. The truth is that every player should know how to behave, no matter how old they are or what their excuses are. This is why, every single player that acts like an ass or wastes my time on roll20, gets permanently blocked by me. I never want to see them in my games again.
Life was simpler when all the games were in person. Where is my gaming group when I need one?
Thinking about the anecdotally-backed trend I have noticed, I think back to when Pathfinder was the newcomer and 3.5 was the old game. It was very similar in attitude, at least in that 3.5 drew in the power gamers. It really upsets me that I can't hardly run a decent Pathfinder game now with all of the min-maxing attitude.
Worse yet, making Pathfinder playable in a balanced sense is becoming harder and harder. In my latest Pathfinder game, I had to restrict the players to Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Race Guide. Even then players were pushing the envelope trying to break the rules.
I feel lucky now that I found a few good players for my game, but I fear getting my usual 6 players might be near impossible. Today I had a player that wanted me to go track down his sign-up posting for my game, because he had closed the tab. WTF? Like I don't have better things to do.
All of these brats wasting my time just burns me out instantly. I am usually GMing a couple of games a week, playing in a game or two, plus dealing with real life. I regularly get Pathfinder players that join up, complain, ask tons of questions, half-ass build a character, and then drop right before or after the first session. The worst part is that they are rude about it to me, like its my fault. I kid you not, that I have had players drop because they don't like the game, during the week they were supposed to email me what they wanted in the game. This after one session of level 1/2 "get to know the party" encounters at the beginning of a campaign. What do players expect?!
Somewhere in the back of my mind is the old man curmudgeon who wants to start screaming some nonsense about millennial expectations and how MMORPGs have ruined so many table top players. The truth is that every player should know how to behave, no matter how old they are or what their excuses are. This is why, every single player that acts like an ass or wastes my time on roll20, gets permanently blocked by me. I never want to see them in my games again.
Life was simpler when all the games were in person. Where is my gaming group when I need one?
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