Overthinking or Underthinking

I have come to realize that I over think decisions in this game when they should be simple and I under think things that require just a bit more thought. I am so busy trying to figure out the freakin' mechanics, I miss great opportunities. I am hoping that as I learn the game more, the mechanics will get easier for me. Until then, I think I'll just drink a martini.

Races and Classes

Its time to tell you about Races and Classes. Creating a character is almost baffling if you're new because there were so many choices for races, sub-races, and classes. Its not like just choosing between being Black, Latino, Asian, or White. These are physically different races so its like choosing among Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Wookies, Menbari, and Centari. Within each race, there are sub-races. For example, you'll generally know elves from the LOTR trilogy and other fantasy books, movies, or games. But did you know there are Wood Elves, Sea Elves, Dark Elves, Shadow Elves, High Elves, Winged Elves, Star Elves, Sun Elves, and more??? Neither did I until I sat down to make a character. They all have different abilities and limitations according to their sub-race. The base D&D races are Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half Elves, Half Dragons, Warforges, Half Vampires, and Half Orcs. There are tons more races you can play, all with specific details and head-spinning racial abilities. Needless to say, I turned to the GM for help. I'm glad the GM loves me...

There are also four different base classes, most of which are self explanatory. Warriors, Mages, Thieves, and Priests. The classes break down into sub-classes as follows

• Warriors - Barbarians, Fighters, Rangers, Monks, Samurai, Hexblades, and Paladins
• Mages - Wizards, Sorcerors, Beguilers, War Mages, Duskblades, and Warlocks
• Thieves - Rogues, Bard, Scouts, Mariners, Ninjas (DAMN THEM!!!!) and Spell Thieves
• Priests - Clerics, Druids, Dragon Shamans, Favored Souls, and Mystics

Is your head spinning? Mine was too when I sat down to develop a character. Needless to say I am not explaining all these in detail and just thinking about trying to do that makes me want a drink. Is that wrong at 11:00 AM? Moving on... Despite the fact that this is all complex gamers love their races and classes. They will discuss the pros and cons ad nauseum. A new gamer will inevitably miss the nuances of race and class in character development and then will inevitably have a tough time when adding alignments on top of all this. Its enough to drive me Winehouse or Spears or even Dickinson. While I'm moving toward batty, gamers are developing stronger characters, with specific development goals do achieve specific attack abilities. There are several discussion boards dedicated to achieving unbelievable characters with sensational attacks. I can't and I won't. There are some things I have to let go and let goddess...

The GM is setting us up

On Sunday, we had a nice, calm day. Our characters all helped deliver some freight to a city north along the river. Nothing major happened and we had the opportunity to leave our boat to learn about the little city. I followed and NPC named Anna and learned about these black obelisks which are situated throughout the valley. It turns out they are all magical and help control the weather. (These things would be crazy valuable in Texas since if you don't like the weather here, you just wait 5 minutes and you'll get the exact opposite. Except in summer, when you boil in humidity and fry in the sun at the same time. Back to the story...) Nothing special happened and no one even approached us - even though there are gangs in the city and everyone knows we aren't 'from around here'.

Now as anyone knows, there is always calm before the storm and the GM will always lull you into complacency before laying the smack down. Next week, will have our asses handed to us - properly, likely on a silver platter! Check back and see how this plays out. We may all be rolling new characters...

N-G Update
Rolling characters - In D&D, your character has six main ability base stats, which control all other abilities. These are:

1. constitution (Con) - how healthy and tough you are. A sick person has a low Con is low and a healthier person's Con is higher.
   
2. intelligence(Int) - basically your IQ and reasoning ability. Dumb criminals have low Int. Ghandi had a high Int.
   
3. dexterity(Dex) - your agility/balance/hand-eye coordination and overall nimbleness. Elephants have low Dex. Monkeys have high Dex.
   
4. wisdom(Wis) - intuitiveness, judgement and will power. Children have low Wis. Most adults have higher Wis, but then there's Justin...
   
5. strength(Str) - physical strength including endurance and stamina. Boxers have high Str. A pregnant would generally have low Str.
   
6. charisma(Cha) - your physical attractiveness and persuasiveness, basically your personal magnetism. Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, and Boris Kodjoe all have crazy high Cha. Flavor Flav has the lowest Cha possible.
   

Traditionally you rolled 3d6 to determine your stats. Now there are also point-buy systems in which you have a total number of points to allocate among your stats however you choose. There are also tons of feats and abilities such as disguise, use rope, swim, etc which have +/- modifiers but we'll get to those later. Some GMS make you roll, some prefer point-buy, but its all called rolling a new character. Its not difficult to do, but if your character dies and no one can resurrect you, you have to roll a new character. That disrupts game play so its a pain either way.