Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Breaking up is hard to do

I quit my Mutants & Masterminds game this past July after more than a year of reliable, bimonthly campaign play. I just wasn’t jazzed to play a superhero game any longer — and this ran contrary to the rest of the group’s members, who all wanted to continue M&M for the forseeable future.

So I quit — nicely, of course, but I still shocked the GM and a few players who didn’t know me quite so well. The rhetorical question I didn’t pose to them at the time was: What alternative would you have me do?

Do I stick with a game that’s just not my cup of tea right now, hoping that enthusiasm grabs me again? Do I bumble my way through the next few months of play, waiting for the GM to get the hint and start catering to me? In my opinion, that’s doing a disservice to the rest of the players — especially when they’ve expressed satisfaction with the direction the campaign is going and I’m the odd man out.

Luckily this wasn’t my only gaming group at the time, and I’ve since been able to play a bunch of new, cool games with friends new and old, to say nothing of my own impending fantasy campaign.

But what do you think? Is there some sort of unspoken gamer etiquette I trampled when I departed so precipitously? Would you have stayed?

3 comments:

Alex Schroeder said...

I would not have stayed. I would have made sure that I parted on friendly non-shocking terms, maybe send an Email, talk to the DM to get an appropriate exit scene for your character, and that's it. I also feel that these things can be debated ad nauseam, so don't do it. You didn't like it, and you find it hard to put it into words should be enough. This is not a marriage, it's just a game.

Anonymous said...

Seconding what Alex said about the exit scene, but other than that, you're in the right. It's unfair to expect the GM/DM to cater directly to your character, and it's unfair for them to expect you to stay if you are not enjoying yourself.

And one thing I have noticed about gamers, they HATE change groups-wise. And they like to reminisce about that "one perfect group/one perfect game" they had that one time. When it's time to move on, move on.

Patrick W. Rollens said...

Thanks for the comments, Alex and fatpinkhippo (can't believe I just typed that). I agree that gamers hate change...but we mustn't back down when it's the only option left. Such was the case here.