Dice Were Rolled

This past Sunday the gaming group I play in (not the one I GM) got together after a hiatus of...well, I can’t remember exactly. A long time, at any rate.

Again the party stayed one step ahead of the law, getting a wrongly accused noblewoman (strong on giving orders, weak on helping out) to another city where she had a safe-house. What are our motivations here? If we were after money, a detour through a dungeon solved that problem. Loyalty to the noblewoman’s cause? Doubtful--at least for the thorough-going rogues among us.

I suppose, our motive was: adventure! And that we got--though sometimes in a Keystone cop kind of fashion, admittedly.

A few highlights: A brawl on a train with Agnar (our fighter) bluffing a mercenary with a ridiculous tale, just as my artificer was blasting another mercenary in the face with a Melf’s Acid Arrow, only a few feet away. A Warforged monk dropping from above unto two mercenaries with a cry of “Moon Knight style!” Discussion of how formal wear could be modified to hide weapons, and a female halfling thief complaining about wearing a dress. Bargain-hunting for weapon and armor upgrades in the city.  A foiled assassination attempt in a burning ballroom.

A few times during the gaming I found myself thinking about all the theoretical discussion that goes on in the blogosphere and forums about how things "should" be done, and measuring the conduct of our game against those various, often well-argued ideals. 

Ultimately, none of those concerns, interesting though they are, really mattered--not in the moment and at the table. No one was confused about our goal--enjoyment in the context of a game--and GM and player’s were of one mind in that regard. Dice were rolled and--whether an action succeeded or failed--everybody won.