High Level Games
High Level Games
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures

Welcome to the High Level Games Blog, News, and other stuff to take your games to the next level!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

4 Ways To Become A Worse Gamer

22/6/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’m sick of all those positive energy pissing contests and helpful advice regurgitation-fests that get candied on every screen, page and billboard, trying to improve the way we look, sound, perform, or seem. Those washboard-abs, white teeth, unicorn shit ads make the rest of us look bad, and for those with a conscience, I hear that they feel pretty broke up about it too. That’s why I’ve decided to do the gaming world a favor. I’ve compiled a list of 4 ways that anyone can become a worse gamer. You’ll be happy to note that this list is, well, shorter than most, and if nothing else, I promise it’ll be far easier to achieve than those ubiquitous positive, self-help listicles.
 
1. Be fashionably late
Nothing gets under the skin of punctual people like being that gal (or guy) who stumbles into your dimly lit, antediluvian, geek cave 15-20 minutes after the bones have started to roll. Sure, your sun-shy sidekicks will understand the odd bout of tardiness- I mean traffic and life happens. But if you want to be a worse gamer, make a habit out of being slothful. A few side effects to note with this approach are that your amigos may start to make some pointed passive aggressive remarks at your expense. Further, you’d be surprised at how quickly “out of game” habits affect “in game” shenanigans. As the min-maxer saw goes: “character-knowledge and player-knowledge are meant to be blended”.
 
What do you mean the party voted while I was gone for Percival the Unwilling to distract the landshark?
 
2. Ask for experience points constantly
​This is a great one for interrupting the flow of a gaming session. Sure, you could wait until the end of the gaming session to ask, but if you want to be a worse gamer, ask for (and assume you should get) experience points just about every time you do something in-character.  You can make casual comments about how many bandits you intimidated off the road, how well you thought you role played getting beds for the night, or wonder aloud how many XP should come from swatting all the damned mosquitos in the swamp. Gamers at the table are suspending their disbelief to play a fantasy game together for a few hours, and bringing up self-serving mechanics helps bring everyone crashing back to the real world, and become aware (again) of the classical conditioning your DM is constantly subjecting you all to.
 
Ring, ring goes the bell…who’s hungry?
 
3. Focus on electronics instead of the game
Playing the latest web-based game, or updating your status on your phone or tablet reminds everyone else at the table just how little you care about their characters and the story (outside of your narcissistic contributions, of course) and how paradoxically shallow, yet full (of self-importance) you can be. I want to be clear that I’m not talking about the odd text message, phone call or any other electronic event that can happen in the time it takes for clearing the latest barrage of last night’s enchiladas out of the ol’ system. Life happens, and my girl/boyfriends/wives/ husbands/bosses/clan members can get pissy if you leave them hanging, waiting on your answer. However, in order to be a worse gamer, you need to practice a sustained, 10-minutes-or-longer-screen-stare-of-no-real-life-application with the odd glance up to make eye contact with the DM and state what your character does. You’ll know you’re doing it right when people start to make comments such as: “are you’re even playing with us?” or  “can you put that away?” (Actually, this could be a great way to get back at the tardy boy/ girl in #2) One thing to mention with this little chestnut though- if you want to go next level, you simply justify your continued digital obsession as though your need for constant and instant gratification isn’t the problem. This ensures a special kind of self-enforced isolation that not only ostracizes you from the group, but also entertains you while doing so!
 
Being a hermit isn’t all that hard once you reach level 7
 
4. Make it all about you
That’s the reason we role-play, right? We develop an artificial character to respond to fantastical situations, do heroic deeds, save the day, and all the rest. If you want to be a worse gamer, you need to assume that the character you developed is more complex, layered, interesting, inherently powerful, and useful for developing the plot than anyone else’s. Even if they are those things, to truly be the worst, you need to share that message with the world. Sing it from the mountaintops! Talk over others as though their attempts at role-playing are “cute”. Feel free to tell the table how much better your character is than theirs, and (if they don’t kill him in his sleep), they just may start to forget to care and nod blankly. Keep this up long enough, and pretty soon you can start your own player/DM solo campaign. Good luck!
 
Fortunately for me, my characters are always the most layered, interesting and powerful! Right guys? ….Guys?
 
So there you have it, good reader. Follow the above advice and you will be on your way to devolving into a worse gamer. I can’t guarantee it will make you popular, or even that you’ll be invited back to gaming sessions, but I can guarantee that others will find your new habits annoying.
 
 Until next time, keep up the temper tantrums.
 
 
Dustinopolis is actually a fairly nice villain. He enjoys walks on sharp-rocked beaches, eating rare and disgusting things, and traveling the world on a budget. You shouldn’t follow him on twitter (@devourcheese) as his posts really aren’t that interesting, and following him will only serve to inflate his ego.
 


Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, and Fun! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    All blog materials created and developed by the staff here at High Level Games 

    ​

    Picture
    Click here to support our community for as a little as $1.00 for exclusive content, free downloadable stuff, and even discounts on role-playing game items.

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    13th Age
    2d20
    2nd Edition
    3.5 Edition
    4th Edition
    5th Edition
    7th Sea
    Acquisitions Inc
    Actual Play
    AD&D
    AdventureLookUp.com
    Adventurers!
    Aether Sea
    A+ Fantasy
    After Collapse
    Alignment
    Amazing Tales
    Amazon
    Anima: Beyond Fantasy
    Anime
    Apocalypse World
    Atomic Robo
    Australian
    Award Winning
    Basic Fantasy
    Belly Of The Beast
    Big Eyes Small Mouth
    Black Void
    Blades In The Dark
    Blood Pangea
    Board Games
    Book Of Exalted Darkness
    BrigadeCon
    Burning Wheel RPG
    Call Of Cthulhu
    Capers RPG
    Casual Roleplaying
    Changeling: The Dreaming
    Character Arcs
    Character Creation
    Chris Spivey
    Cinematic RP
    Classics
    Comic-books
    Conventions
    Corvus Belli: Infinity
    Crawl
    Critical Role
    Cthulhutech
    D100 Dungeon
    D20
    D&D
    D&D Beyond
    Deadlands
    Defenders Of Tokyo
    Degenesis
    Detako Saga
    Discord
    DMsGuild.com
    Dnd
    Dndbeyond
    Doctor-who
    Double-cross
    Dread
    Dresden-files
    DriveThruRPG.com
    Dr. Who
    Dungeon Crawl Classics
    Dungeons
    Dungeons And Dragons
    Dungeon Slayers
    Dungeon World
    Dystopia Rising
    Encounters
    Era: The Consortium
    Era: The Empowered
    Esper Genesis
    Evil Hat
    Exalted
    Faith RPG
    Fandom
    Fantasy-age
    Fantasy-flight
    Fantasy Grounds
    FATE
    Fate Accelerated Edition
    Fate Core
    Fate Rpg
    Fate-rpg
    Final Fantasy
    Forgotten Realms
    Fragged Empire
    Free League Publishing
    Furries
    Game Design
    Game Lore
    Gencon
    Ghosts Of NPCs Past
    GMTips
    Golden-sky-stories
    GoodmanGames.com
    Grognards
    GUMSHOE
    GURPS
    GURPS Lite
    Halloween
    Harlem Unbound
    Harry-potter
    Hero Builder
    Heroes Against Darkness
    Heroes-unlimited
    HERO System
    High Level Games
    Historical Fantasy
    HLG Con 2018
    HLG Reviews
    Homebrew
    Humble Bundle
    Indie
    Interface Zero 2.0
    Interview
    Invisible Suns
    Japanese RPGs
    JRR Tolkien
    Kickstarter
    KoboldPress.com
    L5R
    Lankhmar
    LARP
    Lasers And Feelings
    Legendlore
    Legend Of The Five Rings
    LexOccultum
    LOTR
    Low Magic
    Mage
    Mage: The Awakening
    Magic And Steel
    MAID
    Mayhem
    Mazes And Minotaurs
    Meikyuu Kingdom
    Mekton Zero
    Mental Health
    Middle Earth
    Mighty Narwhal
    Mini Six
    Modern Adventures RPG
    Modiphius
    Monarchies Of Mau
    Monsterhearts
    Monte Cook Games
    Morra
    Mummy: The Curse
    Mutants And Masterminds
    Mythender
    Narrative Games
    Nechronica
    Night's Black Agents
    NPC
    Numenara
    Odyssey Of The Dragonlords
    One Shot
    Online Gaming
    Orun
    OSCRIC
    Osr
    OVA
    Palladium
    Pathfinder
    Pathfinder 2.0
    PbtA
    PDQ
    Pire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
    Play By Post
    Player Tips
    Podcast
    Powered By Apocalypse
    Power Outage RPG
    Preview
    Promethean: The Created
    Pugmire
    Pulp
    Puzzles
    Ravenloft
    Ravnica
    Red Markets: A Game Of Economic Horror
    Research
    Review
    Review Article
    Rifts
    Risus
    Role Play
    Roll20
    Romance Of The Perilous Land
    Ryuutama
    Satanic Panic
    Savage Rifts
    Savage Tokusatsu
    Savage Worlds
    Seeds Of Wars
    Setting
    Settings
    Settlement Building
    Shadowrun
    SIGMATA
    Snowhaven
    Social Combat
    Social Systems
    Solo Play
    Standard Roleplay System
    Star Trek Adventures
    Star Wars
    Storytellers Vault
    Suited RPG
    Summerland
    Supplements
    System Design
    Table Top
    Tabletop Simulator
    Tales From The Loop
    Tales Of Equestria
    Talislanta
    Tariffs
    Teenagers From Outerspace
    Ten Candles
    Tenra Bansho Zero
    The Dark Eye
    The End Of The World RPG
    The Great Long Dark
    The One Ring
    The Very Important Task
    Titan Effect
    To The Temple Of Doom
    Trial Of Cthulhu
    Trinity Continuum
    TSR Marvel Super Heroes
    Ttrpg
    Twitch
    USTR
    Va
    Valiant Rpg
    Vampire: The Masquerade
    Video Games
    Villian
    Volo
    Vs Ghosts
    Warhammer
    Warhammer 40K
    Werewolf: The Apocalypse
    Westbound RPG
    Wild West
    World Building
    World Of Darkness
    Writing Tips
    Zweihander

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly