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Does anyone have advice as to how to convert D&D 3.5 into a more strategic/urban plotting and scheming role playing game rather than a hack and slash? Also, to add to realism and tone, I'm wanting to use d20 Call of Cthulhu insanity charts for dealing with things like Planar Powers and Mind Flayers. Is this a bad idea? I'm a new DM, and have more experience playing Shadowrun and similar style GURPS campaigns. But D&D is the system my players know, and they are open to more of a thinking-man's RPG so I'm running that. I'm starting the campaign in the Forgotten Realms city of Saerloon if that helps.
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Dec 31, 2012 07:34
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Jon Joe posted:I'd suggest using a different system for a strategic/urban plotting and scheming game. Try PDQ, it's really simple and allows for all sorts of flavor. Maybe I'm misrepresenting my question. We are using D&D 3.5, hands down, as it's what people know. Any advice on running a strategic urban campaign for a thief heavy party in D&D? I've watched Spoony's stories on Thieves World already, after the players rolled up a Tiefling thief, an acrobat thief, a bard, a barbarian, and a drunken monk, and expressed interest in running a gritty campaign. Edit: I mean, when I introduced the idea of a D&D game the girl who's playing the tiefling thief, she made her character essentially a drug cook and then the bard, he decided to make a street dealer. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Dec 31, 2012 |
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Dec 31, 2012 09:33
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Babylon Astronaut posted:The problem is that you're going to basically be rebuilding 3.5 D&D to make it do something it is legitimately bad at doing. I guess my advice would be don't put any undead, constructs, plants, full-casters, or oozes in encounters. Also, halve the suggested challenge ratings. If the game sucks I can always just send em to an adventure module I guess. In the Forgotten Realms setting, there's a big planar rift that transported the city next to theirs, so I suppose the rift growing is a good excuse to say "gently caress you, you wake up in Ravenloft, or on Sigil."
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Dec 31, 2012 10:55
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Thanks for the tips. The idea of making heads of factions virtually unkillable monsters, at least at first, is a great one. So is making them come up with a plan, act out the plan with skill checks, and then seeing if it works or doesn't, will add a lot of suspense, especially if a threatening fight and possible long term consequences are around the corner if they fail. Messing with the the reputation of the PC's and reactions of the NPC's will work to my advantage as well.
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Dec 31, 2012 22:31
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I had an idea for high-stakes gambling in my game. The players can give up 1 magic item to enter a game room. In this room, there is a timed puzzle where they are given no instructions. If they win, they get a second magical item. If they lose they lose both. The first game parlor was Pacman. A maze with yellow pellets on each square. Ghosts that chased them, who would be destroyed by picking up fruit. The puzzle is completed when every yellow pellet is obtained. Any other ideas for more?
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Jan 23, 2013 11:46
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Project1 posted:I guess this is a bigger problem than just running a game, but as this is where it's come up, I'll post it here. Read up on Haitian Voodoo. Loa's. Nganga's. A secret society of "ignorant 2nd class" house maids, cooks and beauticians who run a secret cabal based on information and blackmail. Veve patterns. Gris Gris. Zombification drugs. I mean, imagine a stuffy British scholar finding one of these creepy rear end things.  Voodoo really is the way to go. British scholars taking a trip to Haiti and then into late 19th century New Orleans would be perfect. I'd recommend going to the library, getting a dummy's guide to voodoo, listening to Dr. John's first album, reading a bio on Marie Laveau and downloading Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father off GOG.com for inspiration. Then there is NE India. Which has the Agorhi's. Followers of Shiva the Destroyer who drink their own urine, blood, eat dead humans, and basically acting like GG Allin on stage to gain their animalistic enlightenment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpJdHS1pV0 Then in NE India, you also have worshippers of Kali. Back in the 1800's they were quite feared by the British colonists, and for good reason. 
God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 12:38 on Jan 24, 2013 |
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Jan 24, 2013 12:24
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I recenetly set a party of 5, against an equal, but different, party of 4, that happened to have one baddy who was a 6th level Dustman/Tiefling sorcerer. The 5 players were at level 2. My squad was I lev 3 mon. 3 level 1 fighters. And 1 6th level Dustman sorcerers, who had stuff like Gas Form, magic-missile, summon undead and sleep based spells. Darkness, was of course a racial trait for my baddy. The fight was fair and balanced. But... It lasted 12 hours. But resulting in 1 player death and 2 player stabilizations. In the end, the players won by a thread. My question is.... Is there a better way to put on a grueling, epic, balanced and memorable fight without it lasting 12 hours in real time? How do you present an equal challenge and avoid a 12 hour fight when DMing a boss fight? God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 12:58
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Zereth posted:I don't think there's any edition of D&D where a fight containing something 4 levels over the party (particularly at level 2) can accurately be described as "fair and balanced". It was 3e. No. It was a perfectly even fight. 1 - Two of the players are playing Level Adjusted planar races. 2 - They already have magic weapons. 3 - Some of them have some strategic power-gaming bonuses using obscure items they bought with their starting gold. (IE- A Dwarf Ranger playing as an exterminator who goes around with a Sprayer filled with bug poison. 4 - One of these players honestly rolled a Tiefling thief with a natural 18, and two 17's. This player, she of course, had two +2 bonuses. So this is a level 2 character with a game-breaking 20 dex, 19 intelligence, and 17 Constitution. So yeah, I feel justified in making the players fight a level 6 Tiefling caster. The only player death in their party of 5 happened towards the end, and he was quickly stabilized by a health potion. The other "death" was a riding dog owned by a player's critical fail. The level 6 caster was a challenge, but was set up to be beatable. (She was a Dustman Tiefling, her spells 2 magic missile, 2 sleeps. A few stat lowering rays. She also had ghoul and vampire touch. 2 gaseous forms. 2 levels of summon zombies. And 1 animate dead.) There was also a player-saving NPC that was there to save the party if they were about to be TPK'd. However the NPC, a higher ranking Dustman Sorcerer, just cast Hold Mass Undead whenever the baddie cast Animate Dead raising the skeletons on her baddie party members. It was her only 4th level spell. However, it was an act of cowardice when she was about to lose. You see, philosophically, she cast animate dead, which stole her Dustman commrade's chance at obtaining the true death. She cast it as she was running in panic from the death she was supposed to covet. Both of these things are considered sacrilege by members of the dustman faction. So this pissed off Deus Ex Machina NPC offered to take the caster out, to which the party replied, "gently caress THAT WE ARE KILLING THAT BITCH." To Effectronica, the phased battle ideas, and simplifying the HP of monsters to numbers of hits is a good one. The Sorcerer boss, though, she had like a constitution of 8 and like 18 HP. I just wanted a chance to try to fight them to the death with what is like, another player-controlled party, instead of a monster. Unfortunately, this lead to a loving 12 hour fight. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 03:49
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Zereth posted:Level 6 sorcerers don't have fourth level spells? I believe they can have 1 at level 6 provided they have a +4 cha bonus and a plus 5 int bonus. But I might be mistaken. In which case she will drop a magic item that would let her. gently caress it. I believe that sometimes players need to fight something truly threatening. That fight, while it lasted way too long, is going to be one those players will remember for the rest of their life. They are going to remember grappling with zombies under a spell of darkness. They are going to remember trying to dogpile a woman who then turns into a vapor and travels through a keyhole. Then breaking into the room to find that she's summoned more zombies. They are going to remember shooting her as she was about to open the front door of a mansion to escape them. Surviving that. Winning that. That win. That win is going to mean something. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 04:00
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Zereth posted:... I'm pretty sure sorcerers get no benefit from Int to spellcasting, that's wizards (who get no benefit from Cha). No, they do not prepare their spells. BUT They do have a limited number of spells they know at each level. I made a mistake explaining what she had by confusing it with what she cast. I'm looking at the text doc right now. The Int was simply based on how I fought the party with her. I fought her smart as I possibly could.
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Jan 29, 2013 04:09
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Tardcore posted:Yea, A 6th level sorcerer couldn't have 4th level spells, they'd need 2 more levels I beleive. Cool. I broke a rule and gave her a single 4th level spell, which was used as a plot point as her fatal mistake. (Animating her fallen dustmen.) She'll drop loot accordingly.
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Jan 29, 2013 04:11
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Yeah, I think that's it. I'll avoid using multiple conjuration spells against the players, that made the fight too loving long. Doing an epic battle of attrition once is fine, and I'm proud of the design I made as the fight went over extremely well with the players. It was designed to be a grueling fight from an old Gygax module. I watched that Spoony video about playing through Dungeonland. Then I started reading old Gygax modules. That said, I am never, ever running a fight with a cowardly conjurer who flees, conjures, and strikes, ever, ever again. 12 hour fight. I kept trying to say we'll finish it next week, but they wouldn't have it. If you thought I was a killer DM before, you'll probably hate me more when I tell you that the party of 5 players had no magic user of any sort... And I made them roll fortitude saves against disease, and will saves against having to make d20 Cthulhu insanity rolls on getting bit by zombies in darkness. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 08:26
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So, one of my players stopped me and told me that I missed a big opportunity to add flavor. What I'm wondering is, is it my place as a DM to tell the players how they feel emotionally to what is happening around them? Here's the scenario. We had a new player. The other player characters didn't trust her PC at first. The whole night they are trying to exploit her. Making her dance on tables for Harmonium Officers. She roles over a 30 and scoops up almost 20 gold for the party in her bardic performance. But they still are barking orders at her, and keeping her on a short leash. At the end of the session the party runs into a reoccurring villain who's a crooked guard/monk of Shar. The new PC, she rolls an 18 on initiative, so she's going 2nd. So the PC who's up first gives her instructions for his turn. She's up next. She walks up to him and blam, gats him through the reoccurring villain through the eye with critical. The other guards, naturally, start Rodney Kinging her rear end. So finally another PC, she steps up and backstabs a guard that is pinning the nw PC. Killing her attacker instantly. I said nothing. Another player pulled me aside and told me I should of told the new PC that this action was a big deal. This was the first time any member of the party stepped up to protect her. My question is, is it my place to tell the PC's how they should interpret what is happening around them? Sure, it would of made for better storytelling, but doesn't it violate a certain principle?
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Feb 4, 2013 06:32
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LordMazza posted:No, it isn't your job, and your existing players sound like arseholes. How did you respond to the other player's statement? That it's not my job, I'm the DM. That he could tell her that in character if he likes. But it's her job to roleplay her character, not mine. Two of the players are best friends, who have previously only played D&D with one another, or at most 1 DM and 2 PCs. The game I run has 5 regular PCs. 6 last night. So it appears that though these guys know the rules, they have no idea how the game is usually played. These two, they're like Bizarro players. They seem to become uncomfortable unless they're railroaded. And they think being a DM means being, first and foremost a storyteller instead of a facilitator and world populator. Besides this, they are good at roleplaying their own characters, knowledgeable about rules, and are fun to have as players otherwise. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Feb 4, 2013 |
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Feb 4, 2013 11:57
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QuixoticQuotation posted:Words. I'd recommend doing it in the flesh. Skype gaming sucks. Just forget about it. Just play a computer game if you're going to be staring at your computer screen. As far as which game system you should play, you pick it and ask them before starting. If they say yes, you're golden. If they say no, well then... You choose yours anyway. If you want to run GURPS and they don't, then you should lead them into believing their character sheets are important and then BAM surprise, you're playing Paranoia. Then you kill them all within an hour for being treasonous commie mutants armed only with ham sandwiches and a Beta fish. After you slaughter them in short, soul crushing order, then pull out your GURPS book, return their character sheets to them and say, "I'm just loving with you, we're playing GURPS." They'll be happy. Happy that they are playing GURPS and not Paranoia. And hopefully they'll be happy that you are willing to devote the time to GM a game for their sorry PC asses.
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Feb 8, 2013 04:29
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QuixoticQuotation posted:Wow that's a lot of solid advice and opinions. Thanks, guys. I think I'll do a session or two in person to make sure I have at least a core of players that are familiar to the rules, and to give me some room to play around and make sure I've got everything down. Then I'll open the floodgates and start my first 'real' campaign online (which, if we're not feeling it, I'll have no trouble exchanging for another). I started my Pathfinder/3.5 open source amalgamation of a game by having the players fight a never ending stream of guards in an unarmed combat sequence that would only end in the players going to jail. It was a dick move, but it worked by doing a few things. 1) Each rear end in a top hat cop the players took down gave them 1 reputation point to the underground organizations in the city. 2) It was a good way to teach all the new players, or players who haven't gamed in years, like me, how to run combat. So it was a good tutorial. 3)I was able to take away all of the players stuff, so they have an immediate goal of getting back all of their stuff. And 4) It started the game off by the players getting out of jail, and set up the adversarial nature of them versus the law. So yeah, a tutorial scene that opens the game on conflict, and sets up the tone of the game is something I recommend. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Feb 8, 2013 |
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Feb 8, 2013 06:46
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When they killed the guy who beat them, arrested them and stole their stuff at the end of the third game session, it was worth it.
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Feb 8, 2013 21:29
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Alright, I ran a timed search challenge with very deadly repercussions today. Found no rules for an encounter like it online or in the books, so I suppose I'll share it here. Surprisingly it went very well and I recommend giving it a shot as a break from standard D&D or Pathfinder encounters. The players had to enter a large museum map, patrolled by Balors, Glabrezu's and other high level demons capable of absolutely TPK killing them within a couple of rounds. Inside the thrashed museum, they had to find a scheduling book that was somewhere within. The four players had invisibility and a greater protection from evil cast upon them. The invisibility would last until they made an action like opening something, or throwing a rock in the presence of the demons, and the protection from evil would last until they touched one of the demons, or otherwise provoked it into an attack. The spell effects lasted 20 minutes. I started the timer after the mission was given and the spells were cast. Once they became visible to the demons, they would try to engage them in conversation, or otherwise block their path. The trick as the DM in these encounters is to try to waste the players time, getting the player to bite, or getting the player to make a dumb move. Basically, you try to trick the player into getting into conversations, or touching a demon. You can do this by blocking them in certain areas, as a failed tumble check would result in contact, and become grounds for the demon to kill that player. Succeeding in the mission was finding the book, which was locked away at the front of the museum, and remembering one line of information in it. The mission however, only ends once the players get the gently caress off of the map. Whenever our thief read the book a demon grabbed it from her to further taunt the players into acting. A distraction of a "librarian" inside that needed safe passage outside was also in the museum, to further distract the players into wasting their 20 minutes. The players didn't bite on the succubus, or make any bad decisions during the encounter so everyone lived. By just the skin of their teeth. The players finished the mission with 16 seconds left on the clock and afterwards said they loved it, for whatever that's worth.
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Feb 10, 2013 11:48
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SafetyTrain posted:This is a really cool idea! How did you handle describing the world and out of character questions? Did you ever stop the timer? I answered everything with the timer on. All description was done with the timer on. Most of it was me moving pieces around the grid and mocking/scaring the players. The demons also lied to the players, offering them incredible rewards, and gold for contracts to serve in the blood war upon death. They also threatened, bluffing as to know where the players live. One demon went as far as trying to pitch a made up adventure hook to the players, just to kill time. That's the thing. They have 20 minutes, period, end of story. Tell them this before they start. Plus, the players have to roll when searching. Little clues around the museum aided them in finding out where the book was. It was locked in an office in the front lobby/visitors center. If someone fails at a skill, they must be allowed to reroll on that same task for this to work. When they had questions as players, I had fun trying to drag out answers to their questions, and tempting them to do things other than scurry around looking for a book. They didn't bite, so they lived. A timer in combat would not work. *As a side note, if you want to, you could theoretically have the monsters they cannot touch try to do things like feint them, or summon other monsters and tell the monsters to attack them. The summoned monsters won't of course, it's all a bluff to get the player to unsheathe his weapon out and take an ill advised swipe. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 13:40
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Each town should have multiple factions, all willing to work with mercenaries in some manner. All towns might have competitions the players can take place in to win prizes. All towns might have crimes the players could solve. All towns might have political issues the players could place themeselves in the middle of. ALl towns have rich men. And all rich men have homes. All of these homes have valuables in them. All towns should have places to play games, gamble, drink. All towns need shops. All towns need places the characters can learn in, or train from. Towns should have organized fighting, like arenas. All towns should have secrets. All towns should, feasibly, be something the party could take over if so lucky and inclined. I like putting carnival style games in my towns. Little Smash-TV style dungeons the player can try their hand at by paying a fee. They cannot die here, only be removed from the virtual game. Many prices can be uncovered in these game-attractions. If you have a town, you'll need police - all would have adventure hooks. Rulers - With adventure hooks. Cults- with adventure hooks. Thieves Guilds with adventure hooks. As well as secret organizations like Zentharim or the Harpers, with adventure hooks. Now the players might want to bypass all that poo poo to find their one guy... That's fine. But if they're good players they will find their one guy. Go shopping. Then go to a bar and ask for rumors. These rumors should lead them on a path that there are plenty of things to do in this town.
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Feb 20, 2013 13:03
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Question about killing players. Everyone in the group is going into their 7th or 8th session playing. They are all level 5. I'm running the 1st edition Margaret Weiss/Tracy Hickman Ravenloft module, updated to fit, as best it can with Pathfinder rules. This isn't where the core of the game is set, this is a mission to get back a dumbass PC who got imprisoned by stealing a deck of many things and flipping through it. Now characters usually die in this module. Not all, but it happens, and makes sense... You get killed by being the prey of loving Dracula, or ahem... Strahd. Strahd Von Zarovich is an opponent worthy of killing a couple players in my book. But I have this one player who will just quit the game if his character dies... He's also the best role-player of the group in my opinion. I really enjoy having him and his cooking/cleaning Barbarian character at the table. Three of the players will just re-roll if their characters if they die, and they aren't in a position to raise them. And Ravenloft really isn't the best place to raise the dead. This one guy will quit entirely when killed. Should I let this stop me from killing the PC if the dice falls how it falls? Especially if it's to a powerful big-bad? Or should I use a work-around with JUST that player? Like have him transported back to the prime-material after the module is over, only now he's a vampire? God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 11:17
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Yeah, I'm gonna go with what the great Ivan Drago said... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDgcc5Sif3k
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Feb 27, 2013 12:43
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Why would I kill a player? The ability to lose is an integral part of the game. No one is talking about killing PC's wantonly and randomly. Though a cursory glance at a Gygax module would tell you that too is obviously part of the game's original intent. I said the reason for death here is dying at the hands of Strahd Von Zarovich, a very worthy and powerful opponent, who is the star of his own successful campaign setting. I'm not talking about feeding the PC's to worgs or goblins. I'm talking about them being killed by a dark lord, the first Vampire, an enemy that should not be taken lightly. Also, the players are only there because of their own mistakes. One of them choose to steal a deck of many things flip through it, knowing what it was, and one of them getting imprisoned. Death is part of the game hoss. It's not meant to be taken too lightly in D&D. If there was no chance of losing, there would be no point in playing. Why not stay home and listen to a book on tape rather than playing a roleplaying game? The question is what to do if the character is in a place, or a state where he/she cannot be raised. Not whether or not to play some horrible RPGA make-believe-session game where no player ever dies. That is a ludicrous version of the game I have no interest in running or playing, at least it is in my eyes.
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Feb 27, 2013 13:05
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Guesticles posted:In the event of a wipe, why not give the entire party the option of rerolling or being turned into vampires and banished from Strahd's realm? Thanks for the advice Guesticles. I am playing a very Philip K. Dickian version of Planescape, but it is mostly is set, through levels 1-11 in a very corrupt big city in Faerun. So yeah, gritty urban environment meets reality bending magic. It's kind like we're playing a 1,600's version of Shadowrun really. Combat doesn't happen constantly, but when it does, it's memorable and difficult to the point where the characters are pushed into states akin to McClane in the last 30 minutes of Die Hard. Yeah, if they die in Ravenloft they'll just be resurrected after the mission is over. Only now they thirst for blood. Unless they want to re-roll a character. And I know a few of them would be open to that. But still dramatically changing and co-opting and shanghaiing someone else's character, is possibly worse than killing them in my opinion. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 20:59
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Yeah, I killed the ranger's familiar last game because they had it run ahead of the group in a forest full of worgs. The panther then proceeded to get down to -2 health. The party did not engage the worg that was killing their pet. The pet died next round via coup de grace. They argued for a chance to save the pet after it died. I told them they had a chance and didn't bother to take it. The worgs eat tonight.
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Feb 27, 2013 23:22
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You might want to open with a railroading tutorial fight with players brawling. Maybe it's a fight they can win. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a bar brawl. Maybe it's soldier training. Maybe it's a rival adventuring party. Maybe it's a prison yard fight. Who knows? You can use it to set up exposition of the story, or the players placement within the setting. The trick is, both the players and the enemies are doing non-lethal damage. So you'll have to remove the players from their weapons, or just not give them to the players right off the bat. Maybe they've got PVC versions of their weapons? If the players are new to the game, it'll probably help them get the hang of it before you send them into potentially deadly fights. I used this at the beginning of my current campaign with the players fighting a crooked town guard while getting jumped at the gate of the opening city. It wasn't a fight the players could win. They would get arrested at the end of the fight, no matter what. But to kick it up, I gave the players reputation points with the different underground elements of the city based on how many cops they knocked out or incapacitated before falling. Worked out pretty well. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Mar 2, 2013 |
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Mar 2, 2013 19:08
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Dear P.d0t. Nope. Just a bad poster. - Fenmore B. Buttercrunch. PS. Don't sign your posts.
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Mar 18, 2013 06:34
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How's the old Tomb of Horrors module? I'm thinking about running it once my players gain a couple of more levels. Have a major plot point artifact to introduce and figure the Tomb of Horrors would be a good place to put it, plus, running the old 1st edition Ravenloft module went over well, despite a couple of poorly designed puzzles... So I'm curious. Is Tomb of Horrors just going to TPK everyone? I'm using Pathfinder and 3.5 Monster Manuals to translate the game to Pathfinder as we play, it's not hard for me, but do you guys think ToH is fun? Or just an unfair, unfun, horrible horrible experience that usually ends in cheap deaths?
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Apr 3, 2013 03:21
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Nevermind. It's horrible. Absolutely horrible. But if I just want to torture players, should I use it?
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Apr 3, 2013 03:24
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I'll change it to Tomb of Whores. If they go in two of the three entrances, the party takes 5d10 in Chlamydia damage. Or, actually, I won't run it at all.
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Apr 4, 2013 01:43
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I have a character in town that is a Thayvian wizard named Turjan who can clone characters. Essentially, if they bring Turjan a piece of one of themselves, they can be cloned and effectively begin at the start of the previous character level. They can only be cloned 4 times before they lose all soul however. I was wanting them to go to the Petitioner town of Rib Cage. So I'll save the Tomb of Horrors for that. I was really looking forward to having suicide be the only solution to travel the planes at one point of our game. But I may have fun with it, and just send them to the Tomb of Horrors as part of the plot, to get them to Rib Cage.
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Apr 4, 2013 03:25
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Guesticles posted:Be careful with that: There are spheres of annihilation in ToH, and ways for characters to be separated from the party where body parts might not be able to be retrieved. And unless your players are very experienced, I think 4 lives is pretty low for ToH. Yeah... Should work. Lots of planar travel in my game. The party works for a Sigilian demigod of portals who's in job is to be charge of planar activity on Faerun. Take out their boss, trap them in Faerun, shut down all portals on Faerun, lead them to research how to get out, which then leads them into the Tomb of Horrors. The trick is, I'll lead them to believe the portal exists at the end of the dungeon, when, in actuality, only death inside there can transport them out of Faerun. Oh their tears will taste so sweet.
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Apr 4, 2013 10:47
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Guesticles posted:Do what every smart GM does: Kill the wizard first thing, every fight. Easy. Have them fight wizards. Also, bring back the spell "Silence."
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Apr 12, 2013 22:44
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SlayVus posted:So I'm DMing a Fallout d20 game and I really suck at role playing at story poo poo. I need some thoughts for a protagonist to give my players an actual goal. Run off of the lore. Have the protagonist who they are working for be a rival candidate to John Henry Eden, or Dick Richardson. Heh... Dick Richardson. Heh... Dick Dick Son. Or have them work for a candidate that communicates to them only through a happy robot Yes-Man that sounds like Dave Foley. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 11:09
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If you have an arena... You shouldn't be lazy and just use it for duels and waves of combat. No... You should put on fixed fights based on performance, showmanship and acting... You should have pro-wrestling matches. You should go all out and have a halfling announce table that is there to get broken. You should implement refs that go unconscious whenever they are lightly touched, cheating managers, pre-fight promos, steel chairs, and angry audience members throwing batteries and cups of urine. Have other party members run into the arena to cause interference. Go ahead. Go full retard with it. Let the players pick their entrance music. Try it. I just tried it. And letting the arena-fighting character become a wrestling heel went over extremely well, and was a lot of fun. Which was surprising so seeing that nobody playing likes professional wrestling. In D&D the rules for arena combat as performance are in the Dark Sun manual. In Pathfinder it's in Ultimate Combat. Don't do boring arena combat, change it up, do something glorious with it.
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Apr 21, 2013 10:59
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P.d0t posted:I told my players to come up with theme music, and only one of them did, and it was bland. One of my players picked the Duke Nukem theme, so well, I guess the point goes to me.
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Apr 22, 2013 08:55
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I have a strange player. For awhile I thought he was a good roleplayer. He gets really into the roleplaying aspect of his character, but over time, I've noticed this turns into him trying to dominate the game session. Now, and he puts this on me as a DM, because I've put his character through so much turmoil, he has decided that he wants to turn his character into a rapist. His rationale is that his character feels powerless having the knowledge that his life is on a small part of "the d&d realms," going to Sigil and finding out that some Sigilians use Faerun as a carnival ride was just too much for him. So he wants to fantasy rape fantasy people during our game. Nobody else really wants to play this type of game. There are no evil characters. On top of that, he intimated to me that had another player's character not died during a boss fight, he would of coup de grace'd him in his sleep. He'd been planning it for weeks. This guy... He was sexually molested as a child. Another member of the group, she was a victim of a sexual assault as a child as well, but not on the level he endured from what I heard. She isn't wanting to start raping NPCs though. My question. Should I simply say no, and if you do that you are not invited any further? Or should I say, no, and you are no longer invited? Is there any other way to respond to this? One of the other players said that our game reminds him of a Preacher comic. Could this be partially my fault for him thinking this okay in the tone of the game? Or a proper place to vent his demons/fantasize about rape?
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May 4, 2013 09:53
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So I took a vote. Should this PC be able to rape NPCs and kill PCs? I asked the 4 other players. 3 of them said they were fine with it. One of them said yes, but it was dumb. My girlfriend said it was dumb but that she didn't give a poo poo. I am the lone person opposed. Now that I've thought about it, it is novel to have a character die like a despicable cowardly dog for his crimes.
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May 5, 2013 03:16
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Gazetteer posted:I'm going to set aside my gut reaction of "gently caress don't do that that's awful" for a moment. I'm okay with it if it's treated as a tragedy. If he's willing to roleplay the downfall of his character, I'm willing to facilitate it. If he takes any of those actions, killing a PC or raping an NPC, they will have an appropriate reaction. I am not okay with treating it as, "I rape this NPC," and then the other players having to feel hunky dory about continuing to travel with this scumbag. I would enjoy reigning terror and pain down upon any player that wants to commit the act of rape in a D&D game. You see, I enjoy the game Paranoia, so I would enjoy watching the party become severed. I'd enjoy watching one party member turn another party member in for his crimes. I'd enjoy powerful NPC benefactors turning on the party. And finally, I've always wanted to kill a PC using the Lady of Pain. Due to the storyline and setting, I'd have a perfect excuse to do so. I am already savoring the moment when I turn this on the player by telling him. "There's no chance of escape, there is no saving throw. A human head once decapitated can stay conscious for about 20 seconds after decapitation. You spend the first five seconds realizing that the flayed skin and entrails spread about the spires of the buildings in the Grand Bazaar are your own. The next five seconds, as the world grows dim, you realize that your teeth have been shattered as your mouth was impaled at the apex of one of those spires. The next fives seconds are your eyes realizing that the spire is a cathedral of some sort and that you are in fact, dead. The last five, as you attempt to utter a scream no one will ever hear, can be you praying to the deaf ears of gods that will take no pity on your weak worthless soul. The Lady of Pain hovers over the pieces of your body for awhile, and for a moment glares down at your former friends and compatriots. There are no words, no emotions, but the message is simple, raising or resurrecting this man will grant you a similar fate. Role a new character." So yes. Let's have a rape party poo poo-head. We'll see who leaves feeling powerless and violated. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 08:21 on May 5, 2013 |
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May 5, 2013 08:18
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| # ¿ May 19, 2024 20:43 |
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50 Foot Ant posted:Another point on the raping scumbags is a lot of people have weird ideas about the medieval ages. Like everyone's going to be hunky-dory with a rapist. Yeah. As a player, raping and pillaging would be fine if we were playing an evil campaign that we weren't taking seriously. I mean, I get it. I've played the GTA series and had fun running hookers over on sidewalks. Nothing wrong with an adult who is capable of distinguishing reality from fiction playing a game that lets them have stupid, anti-social catharsis. I think of Chevy Chase in Community, "As a free action, I rape the Ducard Family... Again." It's not right, or mature, but I found that line hilarious. This isn't that game. In this game undermining the parties goals will undermine some very, very powerful entities. And committing acts like rape and wanton murder will have very bad social and legal consequences. I thought that would be clear to the players, that this wasn't that type of game. In D&D video games like Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment, doing things like murdering NPC's or party members will pretty quickly turn into the player having very little hope of continuing the game. Have I got bored and killed a whole town before hitting reload? Yeah... But that's not the point of the game. And a computer's AI can't be griefed. A video game, the people you are griefing can't see you. There aren't any real social negatives that can come back to bite you as a player. In a person to person RPG, greifing the other players can get you kicked out of a house or excluded from that group of people.
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May 5, 2013 09:24
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