(sighs ) ... Yes folks he's leaving... and I wish he wasn't, but ..
I'll be the first one to admit that my time management skills suck - having said that my 7 and 9 year old munchkins keep me SO busy that every moment of spare time I have goes into this campaign - don't get me wrong it's a labor of love I enjoy it ! But I lost out on some sleep, got up super early in the morning just to squeeze the time in to write a long message to Nestor (Forman's player) expressing my concerns on Forman's private forum.. I tried SO hard to be diplomatic, to reassure him, to tell him it was nothing personal and that it was a great character concept but that Forman wasn't just working out , I asked him if there was any way possible for him to run a different character... and no it has nothing to do with the whole PC debate over what happened with the hill dwarf leader and the brawl that ensued... here's the thing...
I'll be the first one to admit I have VERY high expectations of my players as a DM from the role playing point of view ... solardawn will tell you how I used to harass him on a routine basis
re: getting Serinda to interact more with other PC's ... some players I never had to bug to begin with - Draug, Rin and Zane all took the the RP'ing with other PC's in FG game sessions thing like a fish to water .... solardawn however didn't take it personally when I started bugging him - instead he adapted and started running Serinda in a way such that she'd interact more with the other PC's and far as I'm concerned he's doing great !
... I've been bugging Udyr the druid about this too and Udyr has been super graceful about it (thanks for that Udyr
) , I haven't seen him getting mad and leaving the campaign.
Forman unfortunately had a different reaction... even prior to Forman starting his first FG game session I let Nestor know that I had some serious concerns about Forman ... for one thing he wasn't willing to run a good aligned character but he wanted to run a monk.. ok fine that's understandable, I can see why someone would hesitate to run a lawful good character given all the restrictions a LG character has to abide by and monks have to be lawful.. but his personality as it was written up was really subtle when you compare it to the other PC's .. see, the other PC's have sort of a " handle" , a "gimmick" if you will that allows them to interact easily with the other PC's... Draug has the whole friendly-eager-dog-like behavior thing going on
, Rin makes jokes, Serinda looks down on people, Udry gets angry yells a lot and is generally grouchy.. Zane is the only PC without a particular "handle" per se but Zane is a veteran of many FG game sessions - and Zane's player, blahness98, writes fiction and short stories for fun - seriously no joke !
This gives him a big advantage in FG game sessions as far as being able to come up with stuff at a moment's notice to help him interact with other PC's ... normally he'd be at something of a disadvantage running someone with a more subtle personality like Zane in my campaign but those two big advantages not only let him RP but let him do a great job of it, much like the rest of you...
Nestor though had a few big disadvantages going in .. he's used to speaking what he does over skype not typing it into FG , he's new to FG in general .. and Forman's personality, believe it or not, is actually rather subtle compared to the other PC's, it doesn't have that "handle" , that "gimmick" that lets a PC easily interact with others unlike most of you.. his two big personality traits that he said he'd use for this purpose are 1) curiosity and 2) being odd..
The being odd thing .... like when he breaks out a bar of soap and starts washing himself.. yes great RP'ing but I think it leaves the other players at a loss - it's like " Ok, how do I react to THAT ? " ... In real life sure people would make comments but in FG there's so much going on already you practically have to have an "out there" personality to aid in RP'ing with others.. you can't see each other face to face to read the other person's facial expression, you can't hear their tone of voice to pick up on the emotion they're trying to express.. the only thing you have to rely on is your written - or typed rather - word.
Far as the curiosity thing I offered suggestions.. like when Zane starts to turn gold getting really excited and interested about it and opening Zane's mouth to see if he's gold inside too, asking Zane how he does that.. or when Udyr turns into a bear poking and prodding the druid much like a scientist would firing a million non-stop questions at him.. just suggestions, they were the only way I could think of him putting the curiosity thing "into play" in an FG game session so to speak, if he didn't like the suggestions I told him I was totally ok with that but he needed to come up with something else... and again folks I've harassed Solardawn (Serinda's player) and pirateking (Udyr's player) in this same way and they've both been really good about it ... I've even bugged darkalloy when I feel Rin's being too quiet in the occasional FG game session but darkalloy hasn't gotten mad and left the campaign. None of those players just up and left. I let nestor know that I do this with other players not just him, but it looks like he really took it personally and just.. left.
Also.... his backstory was a real challenge for me as far as working him into the campaign .. I hadn't realized on how much I rely on romance subplots until now and he said Forman wasn't really suited to that.. he had a wonderful idea about his monastary and how it worked into the greater scheme of things - but it was an idea that I just couldn't work into the campaign no matter how hard I tried... I told him I couldn't force him to run a different PC and I wasn't going to but.. under the circumstances was there any way he'd run someone different? In my initial e-mails to me he'd first offered to run a kender (MUCH easier to RP ) if Forman didn't work out.. then he sort of switched his mindset on it and even after I sent a few e-mails back to him saying I had reservations about Forman he kept sending e-mails back saying "not to beat a dead horse but " and going on to mention why he thought Forman would work out. I think he's sort of fallen in love with the whole Forman character concept.
I dropped the ball I'll be the first one to admit that ... I should have just stuck to my guns and just begged him to run the kender PC to begin with ... this is something that happens sometimes in other campaigns too I think, someone writes up a wonderful PC who just isn't right for the campaign, not a good fit for it, and you don't realize it until the PC is in play.. but my personal reaction would be " Ok, DM feels my PC isn't working out, I'll just write up another one".. I have more than a few ideas bouncing around in my head for different PC's I could have fun with, writing up another one would be no problem for me...
Again ... in my rather long statement to him in his private forum I reassured him over and over that it wasn't anything personal, that Forman was a great character but just not a good fit for the campaign, that I've bugged other players in the same manner I was now bugging him - and his reaction was, quote :
" well not really sure what to say
I thought i was doing alright with him
if it's not going to work out then ill cut my losses "
I didn't ask him to leave the campaign, I just asked if he'd be willing to write up a new PC given the problems with Forman from the RP point of view.. and again bear in mind it wasn't just the difficulty interacting with other PC's too (I look for how often you interact with other PC's on FG, not only quality but quantity - reviewing the chat logs after two FG game sessions Forman just seemed pretty quiet in comparison to everyone else - something that I was afraid would happen when Forman started the campaign to begin with) but also difficulties coming up with forum RP stuff from his backstory/background with the monastary and all ... and to sum up it he was pretty much like " see ya" and left..
So that's what happened folks.. sorry for all the drama
...