Pen, Paper and Dice D&D--please help...

[Cerek]

Originally posted by Enwareth: From Cerek: quote: However, you DO need to explain to him that he can't just open the manual and pick out whatever equipment he wants. Give him specific amount of gold to start with and tell him he has to "pay" for any equipment his character gets. That way, he won't come to a game and suddenly have a Bag of Holding full of magical items and weapons he decided to give to himself (we had this happen with one of the players in our group). It will also give you lots of opportunities to send him on jobs around town to earn more money, or to go on short adventures that are relatively easy, yet rewards him with enough gold to purchase better items when he returns to town. The best advice I can give you is - BE STINGY WITH MAGIC ITEMS!!! You also will have a player getting "bored" with items that are "only +1" when they are used to getting better stuff. The bottom line is for you and the player (or players) to HAVE FUN! You do need to be restrictive on some things, but you also have to be flexible and allow the players to have some input too. Talk about what each of you wants from the game and decide what rules you should establish to accomplish this.

The thing is:
I'm afraid of going back into school monday, because he probably did borrow a book, open it up and pick anything and everything he wanted...and I know you can't do that, but I don't understand why he thinks he can...
In the campaigns my dad has run with me, I had to roll for the starting money and pick what I thought I needed, then I would go to a bulletin board (which were ever-present in towns) and find a "job" to earn money/XP.
I want him to have fun, but I don't want him to have +5 magical weapons, armor and equipment (@ Level 1) while going up against goblins or orcs, when that equipment would be better off facing, I don't know(really I don't)...a giant? [/QUOTE]This is one rule you definitely have to be FIRM on. He can NOT just arbitrarily give his character items he wants. He HAS to earn or pay for them. IF he is unwilling to comply with this rule, then I can tell you from experience that you might as well scrap the whole idea of gaming with him at all. Because he will argue with you over every item you object to and he will also argue with you any time his character takes any damage. Believe me, I've seen this type of player before. He doesn't want to roleplay, he wants to "power game". And that just isn't any fun for those who like to roleplay.

So you need to let him know that there ARE certain ground rules he will HAVE to obey, or he'll have to find somebody else to run his games - end of story.

I know it's very hard to take that approach with a friend, but I can promise you that the two of you will spend more time arguing than playing and your friendship will be strained anyway if he isn't willing to follow your rules.

[Enwareth]

I posted this topic mainly b/c I needed to vent after his "I want a rapier...blah, blah...end of story..." speech. Also, I wanted a few pointers on DM-ing and to see if anyone else has experienced such a problem. I'm definitely going to talk to him on monday about ground rules (nice easy rules--not dictator DM rules [img]smile.gif[/img] ). And we're going to discuss the issue where I'm the one that needs to buy all the dice, char sheets and manuals--that's a lot of $$. I'm pretty sure we'll come to an agreement and I certainly hope that our friendship doesn't end b/c of a game!
Thanks a bunch!

[Harkoliar]

good luck mate!

[Luvian]

I like to pretend like I'm really hash, that way they always expect hard time and are happy when good thing happen.

In truth I'm a little too easy on my players I think.

Of course I'm a good bluffer, they think I'm the hardest DM they ever had...