RE: [DL] What's a death spiral? -- was: deadlands D20 (barely)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

 >As far as I play, all NPCs are disposable.  If there
 >comes a time when the NPCs become more important than
 >the players, are the players really needed?

Well - not all NPC's should be disposable.  The recurring villian is an 
oldie, but still a goodie.  That's why I build an escape route into 
appropriate scenarios for the smarter bad guys.

But I know what you mean - I've been under GM's where, even though we were 
all over the "escape route", the GM bent over backwards to have the guy 
escape, effectively nullifying our efforts.

And if the PC's actions don't count for anything. . . all you are doing is 
watching the GM act out a script - and that's not role-playing.


 >Sorry, been soured by too many GMs who make munchkin
 >NPCs (or as they see it, their PCs), and the whole
 >game becomes a moot exercise in the GM stroking him
 >own ego.

I actually had a GM tell us that we were running behind schedule for the 
storyline ?!?




-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

Sure, it's going to kill a lot of people, but they may be dying of 
something else anyway.
                 -Othal Brand, member of a Texas pesticide review board, on 
Chlordane.