Characters returned from across The March with orders to hit Streckhorn and report there for mustering out. On their way, they were to report to a temple of Baccob that a squad of Ogres were headed in that direction. The characters found the temple silent and showing signs that, not only had the ogres already arrived, but that they had taken over the temple. The characters attacked a Worg pen on the side of the temple (a recent construction) and then headed through a side entrance into the temple itself.
Most of the doors and mechanics of the Boccob temple were steam powered so that many of the traps in the place involved releasing large clouds of vapor. The characters learned later that the steam also acted as a deterrant to some of the temples less corporeal guardians.
Once inside the temple, the characters encountered zombie versions of the ogres they expected. Evidentally, before their arrival, the ogres had been defeated and re-animated, but there was no sign of the Boccobites themselves. The characters were then threatened by an army of Grieg who were attempting to rescue their princess from "the rat king".
The party was led to another room which seemed to be the last hold out of live ogres, whom the party killed and in doing so rescued the last member of the Boccobite temple: a gnome cleric of Boccob named Blenbury Knox. Blenbury claimed to be a graduate of Krimfolet--the gnome engineering university. He also claimed that the Boccobites had abandoned the temple because of some disaster they had foreseen, that it was his job as low man on the totem pole to summon the temple's guardain once everyone had left, and that he was in the process of this summoning when he was captured by the ogres. Thus, the guardian is in a volatile and unbound state. Thus, Blenbury urged the characters assistance and led them into the ground level of the temple (the characters had come in on the second floor).
Once down, the characters discovered that the front door was solidly shut and trapped. Detect Evil revealed strong emenations from beyond the door (outside). The characters then met a steam mephit that offerred to help the characters to open whatever doors to the temple that they so desired, provided they would shut down an interdimensional anchor and kill the other two mephits who shared in the responsibility of controlling the steam system of the temple. The players refused and Blenbury offerred that he thought he could take manual control of the steam system provided he had time.
The players left him to his duty only to find out that Blenbury was actually going to perform the mephit's will without the characters. Deciding to chase down Blenbury, the characters fought their way through a large chamber where, high above, Grieg fought against rat men in an epic battle. Blenbury set up creatures to fight the characters and then made it to the dimensional anchor just as the characters arrived. He shut the anchor down and disapeared allowing the mephit free reign over the doors. The mephit opened the doors allowing a fog of wraithlike spirits into the temple.
The Grieg offered to help the players by leading through steam tunnels to their destination (the guardian whom the characters still assumed was a danger). As it turned out, the steam pipes stopped the fog so that the characters were safe from the wraith beasties that were filling the temple. The characters learned that under the temple was a menagerie of very bad things which the rat men were setting free. The Grieg forces were battling the rats so as to stop everything in the undertemple from being let loose. The Grieg called upon the character to rescue their princess by stopping the summoning of a monster. Putting 2 and 2 together, the players realized that the monster was being summoned to kill the princess and set off with the help of a Grieg guide to save the day.
Along the way, they ran into a giant rat monster, were attacked by a chain monster, killed a mephit, and watched the last remaining mephit attack the rats with the help of four demons it had bound into service.
The characters found the summoning chamber only to find out that the princess had been keeping her attacker at bay through Ottiluke's irresistable dance. Anyone entering the room had to face off against it. Meanwhile, the summoner, Blenbury, waited invisibly inside a zone of silence for the princess to run out of endurance. The room was guarded by three zombie ogres.
The characters managed to kill the ogres and to pull back the lid of the princess's well-like cell only to see the monster below waiting just at the edge of the ethereal plane. Sensing that he lost the day, Blenbury jumped down to be taken to the ethereal by the beast, but the characters killed the monster while Blenbury was half way between the planes. Trapped thusly, he made his escape, not wholly in one world or the other.
The princess was saved, the Grieg celebrated, the characters rested. The Grieg explained that the wraith fog were the spirits of ancient Grieg ancestors angered by the kidnapping of the fey royalty. Her release appeased them and they dissapated. Later that night, the characters discovered another Blenbury who claimed to have been unconscious throughout the whole ordeal. He had a gem on his forehead that registered some kind of telepathic magic. Thus, the characters are led to ask, is this the real Blenbury, the same Blenbury, some clone, some dream version, etc.?
The characters left the temple of Boccob with the wraithstorm having become not but a thunderstorm and off they headed back to Streckhorn...
Showing posts with label game play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game play. Show all posts
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, December 28, 2007
common role playing situations- Earthmoon
I’m writing a kind of overview of some role playing situations that your characters are likely to encounter based on your race, alignment, and class.
So...Earthmoon.
First off, the dnosaur is probably not going to be accpeted except in the most "anything goes" parts of large cities (places where they might sell animals like dinosaurs). Everywhere else in a city, the animal is likely to be confiscated by the authorities. The dinosaur's recption in rural areas is likely to be more violent. Farmers will probably not appreciate the presence of a large carnivorous and poisonous lizard near their livestock. Needless to say, walking around with such a lizard marks you for suspicion.
On the other hand, you are exalted, you golow with goodness. You are a holy paragon of righteousness whose mere presence makes evil uncomfortable and whose touch causes a physical reaction to evil. Some people will turn to you as a prophet of divinity beyond a priest or church. They may seek your absolution. Celestials, devas, and archons will think of you as an ally. You are marked with goodness beyond the simple confines of virtue but manifest it, instead, as a quintessential force. Most evil people will avoid you, or deal with you through intermediaries. Your presence anywhere near agencies that they control will cause them to become either cautious or downright aggressive. Earthly authority will see the authority that you wield as a threat.
So...Earthmoon.
First off, the dnosaur is probably not going to be accpeted except in the most "anything goes" parts of large cities (places where they might sell animals like dinosaurs). Everywhere else in a city, the animal is likely to be confiscated by the authorities. The dinosaur's recption in rural areas is likely to be more violent. Farmers will probably not appreciate the presence of a large carnivorous and poisonous lizard near their livestock. Needless to say, walking around with such a lizard marks you for suspicion.
On the other hand, you are exalted, you golow with goodness. You are a holy paragon of righteousness whose mere presence makes evil uncomfortable and whose touch causes a physical reaction to evil. Some people will turn to you as a prophet of divinity beyond a priest or church. They may seek your absolution. Celestials, devas, and archons will think of you as an ally. You are marked with goodness beyond the simple confines of virtue but manifest it, instead, as a quintessential force. Most evil people will avoid you, or deal with you through intermediaries. Your presence anywhere near agencies that they control will cause them to become either cautious or downright aggressive. Earthly authority will see the authority that you wield as a threat.
common role playing situations- Gringulia
I’m writing a kind of overview of some role playing situations that your characters are likely to encounter based on your race, alignment, and class.
Gringulia will be persecuted in human society at the drop of a hat. Human civilization watches half-orcs waiting for them to do something that will justify rounding them up and killing them. That's always a danger for half orcs in Aversill. Larger cities are better but even there, in most large cities, there's a lawless ghetto where half orcs are expected to stay, and areas of the city where half orcs are refused admittance.
Gringulia, on her own, will be ostracized or even attacked. Her presence will sour reactions from humans against her friends and allies. Even the less civilized regions of human civilization will treat the half orc differently than they treat all other civilized races.
As a citizen, Gringulia can expect a certain elevation in respect especially in urban environments. She can own property. She is protected under Stumgort imperial law from aggressions by non-citizens, and is allowed to sue for imperial prosecution against those who break the law against her. How well such cases fair is another story of course, but at least, at that point, there's a possability of getting some kind of grudging justice.
Outside large urban areas, imperial citizenship carries less weight. In such cases, if the villagers are rounding up torches and pitch forks, it's time to move on.
Gringulia will be persecuted in human society at the drop of a hat. Human civilization watches half-orcs waiting for them to do something that will justify rounding them up and killing them. That's always a danger for half orcs in Aversill. Larger cities are better but even there, in most large cities, there's a lawless ghetto where half orcs are expected to stay, and areas of the city where half orcs are refused admittance.
Gringulia, on her own, will be ostracized or even attacked. Her presence will sour reactions from humans against her friends and allies. Even the less civilized regions of human civilization will treat the half orc differently than they treat all other civilized races.
As a citizen, Gringulia can expect a certain elevation in respect especially in urban environments. She can own property. She is protected under Stumgort imperial law from aggressions by non-citizens, and is allowed to sue for imperial prosecution against those who break the law against her. How well such cases fair is another story of course, but at least, at that point, there's a possability of getting some kind of grudging justice.
Outside large urban areas, imperial citizenship carries less weight. In such cases, if the villagers are rounding up torches and pitch forks, it's time to move on.
common role playing situations- Emord
I’m writing a kind of overview of some role playing situations that your characters are likely to encounter based on your race, alignment, and class.
Interestingly, the reace most like humans are dwarves. They’re obsessed with craftsmanship and gold. They believe in war and suffer from xenophobia…just like humans! Unfortunately, the xenophobia they share is also a force that drives them apart from other races. The dwarves see humans as a bumbling race content to leave on their leavings up at the surface. A human in a dwarf city is seen as a friendly diplomat from a country that could easily become an enemy. Dwarves living among humans often see human problems as trivial. They deign to deal with the surface dwellers only as needs be. Humans covet dwarves for their riches, for their secrets, and of course, for their military presence (the size of which is always an unknown factor for human governments). Human government desires military and trade pacts with dwarves. On occasion, such pacts are made, but never in perpetuity. Dwarves are shrewd.
On the other hand, the average human sees the average dwarf in the same way they’d see anyone else. They may expect more structural knowledge from a dwarf, but other than that, there isn’t a strong predetermined reaction. Humans have little problem accommodating dwarves living in their settlements. The reverse is not true except in extraordinarily rare circumstances, and even then there are stipulations.
For Nicki, the real role playing challenge will not be playing a dwarf but playing a lawful good cleric of Moradin. Moradin is the dwarven god of justice and war. He is devoted to finding the dark monstrosities of the world and ringing them out into the light where they can be dealt with. This is also the goal of his followers. That means that when Emord sees things amiss he MUST do something. That’s his religion. Plus, he’s lawful good which means that Emord must avoid deception and criminality as he attempt to help those around him/save the world.
This is not a “hey Emord, why don’t you leave the room for a second,” kind of situation. That’s just bad role playing. People who want to do sneaky stuff are going to have to be sneaky about it. Basically within the party, Emord’s going to have to be worked around lest the characters become adversarial towards each other. I repeat, if characters do stuff that is in opposition to Lawful Good, they should expect to have to deal with Emord. If he knows about what the characters are going to do before hand, he is likely to forbid them doing so. Asking Emord to give up his staunch ethics should be akin to asking Earthmoon to torture small animals for fun.
Emord may elicit a number of reactions from N.P.C.s. On one hand, he’s the cleric of a god of justice and war. On the other hand, it’s a dwarf god. Some humans will treat Emord as a roaming fighter of evil and professional do-gooder. For others, the prospect of a dwarf telling everybody what to do and claiming divine authority is intolerable. Keep in mind, humans worship Moradin as the father of the gods and as the god of craftsman. Humans have Kord for war, Pelor for Justice, and Heironeous for valor. They don’t understand Moradin as a god of these things and may not feel comfortable conceding to Emord on issues of orthodoxy (though some may…it depends heavily on the strength of the craft guilds and the proximity to dwarf kingdoms).
One advantage Emord has, as a dwarf and a cleric of Moradin, is that human authority will recognize Emord as an ambassador. He will, at the very least, be tolerated by human authority. They may be reticent to arrest or harass him (though his companions will probably not share this immunity).
Interestingly, the reace most like humans are dwarves. They’re obsessed with craftsmanship and gold. They believe in war and suffer from xenophobia…just like humans! Unfortunately, the xenophobia they share is also a force that drives them apart from other races. The dwarves see humans as a bumbling race content to leave on their leavings up at the surface. A human in a dwarf city is seen as a friendly diplomat from a country that could easily become an enemy. Dwarves living among humans often see human problems as trivial. They deign to deal with the surface dwellers only as needs be. Humans covet dwarves for their riches, for their secrets, and of course, for their military presence (the size of which is always an unknown factor for human governments). Human government desires military and trade pacts with dwarves. On occasion, such pacts are made, but never in perpetuity. Dwarves are shrewd.
On the other hand, the average human sees the average dwarf in the same way they’d see anyone else. They may expect more structural knowledge from a dwarf, but other than that, there isn’t a strong predetermined reaction. Humans have little problem accommodating dwarves living in their settlements. The reverse is not true except in extraordinarily rare circumstances, and even then there are stipulations.
For Nicki, the real role playing challenge will not be playing a dwarf but playing a lawful good cleric of Moradin. Moradin is the dwarven god of justice and war. He is devoted to finding the dark monstrosities of the world and ringing them out into the light where they can be dealt with. This is also the goal of his followers. That means that when Emord sees things amiss he MUST do something. That’s his religion. Plus, he’s lawful good which means that Emord must avoid deception and criminality as he attempt to help those around him/save the world.
This is not a “hey Emord, why don’t you leave the room for a second,” kind of situation. That’s just bad role playing. People who want to do sneaky stuff are going to have to be sneaky about it. Basically within the party, Emord’s going to have to be worked around lest the characters become adversarial towards each other. I repeat, if characters do stuff that is in opposition to Lawful Good, they should expect to have to deal with Emord. If he knows about what the characters are going to do before hand, he is likely to forbid them doing so. Asking Emord to give up his staunch ethics should be akin to asking Earthmoon to torture small animals for fun.
Emord may elicit a number of reactions from N.P.C.s. On one hand, he’s the cleric of a god of justice and war. On the other hand, it’s a dwarf god. Some humans will treat Emord as a roaming fighter of evil and professional do-gooder. For others, the prospect of a dwarf telling everybody what to do and claiming divine authority is intolerable. Keep in mind, humans worship Moradin as the father of the gods and as the god of craftsman. Humans have Kord for war, Pelor for Justice, and Heironeous for valor. They don’t understand Moradin as a god of these things and may not feel comfortable conceding to Emord on issues of orthodoxy (though some may…it depends heavily on the strength of the craft guilds and the proximity to dwarf kingdoms).
One advantage Emord has, as a dwarf and a cleric of Moradin, is that human authority will recognize Emord as an ambassador. He will, at the very least, be tolerated by human authority. They may be reticent to arrest or harass him (though his companions will probably not share this immunity).
common role playing situations- Neri and Feldon
I’m writing a kind of overview of some role playing situations that your characters are likely to encounter based on your race, alignment and class.
Elves are pretty much considered friendly by humans in Aversill—mainly by human authority who’ve had their bacon saved many a time by nice elf armies who’ve shown up with powerful magic and well trained archers. Essentially tha’s when humans like elves best…when they show up to help and then, afterwards, leave. When they stay behind and move in, human reactions towards elves changes a bit.
First of all, elves are stand-offish and foreign. They worship different gods, they don’t sleep, and most of them can do magic. What elves reside in human society never really feel welcome or at home. The reaction isn’t the prejudice that half-orcs face, it’s more like suspicion and superstition. Most humans believe that elves are naturally wizards and that the presence of elves alone can cause arcane problems that the elves, themselves, cannot help but attract. Storms, draughts, strange occurrences—all will be blamed on elves by some portion of the human population. But this same portion is likely to commit any real acts against the elves—they’re afraid of retaliation by cosmic forces to which they see elves belonging (or at least attracting).
Human government sees elves as indicative of problems or concerns that they know nothing about. This ignorance puts them at risk of not knowing how to solve the problems that arise—thus making them look like they are not in control. No Baron wants to consult the elvish community to find out what’s going on.
So, Neri, you all by yourself will probably be treated by humans with awe and respect, but also fear and suspicion. Civil authority may question elves for their opinion on some difficulties and then think them secretive for not saying all that they know (or all that the human authorities assume they should know). People think elves know secrets about nature, magic, the universe, etc., especially elves that actually are wizards. They may ask. They may be afraid to ask.
As far as lawless elves go, there is nothing scarier to humans. If elves represent arcane power that humans cannot comprehend and against which only elves can protect, then a lawless invites danger from unknown sources and offers no guarantee of protection when that danger manifests. Whatever stories humans have heard about “dark elves” they associate with chaotic and evil elves they’ve met. A chaotic elf can expect to be under some kind of surveillance there entire stay within a lawful human society (and afforded a great deal of respect in the more lawless areas of human society).
Elves are pretty much considered friendly by humans in Aversill—mainly by human authority who’ve had their bacon saved many a time by nice elf armies who’ve shown up with powerful magic and well trained archers. Essentially tha’s when humans like elves best…when they show up to help and then, afterwards, leave. When they stay behind and move in, human reactions towards elves changes a bit.
First of all, elves are stand-offish and foreign. They worship different gods, they don’t sleep, and most of them can do magic. What elves reside in human society never really feel welcome or at home. The reaction isn’t the prejudice that half-orcs face, it’s more like suspicion and superstition. Most humans believe that elves are naturally wizards and that the presence of elves alone can cause arcane problems that the elves, themselves, cannot help but attract. Storms, draughts, strange occurrences—all will be blamed on elves by some portion of the human population. But this same portion is likely to commit any real acts against the elves—they’re afraid of retaliation by cosmic forces to which they see elves belonging (or at least attracting).
Human government sees elves as indicative of problems or concerns that they know nothing about. This ignorance puts them at risk of not knowing how to solve the problems that arise—thus making them look like they are not in control. No Baron wants to consult the elvish community to find out what’s going on.
So, Neri, you all by yourself will probably be treated by humans with awe and respect, but also fear and suspicion. Civil authority may question elves for their opinion on some difficulties and then think them secretive for not saying all that they know (or all that the human authorities assume they should know). People think elves know secrets about nature, magic, the universe, etc., especially elves that actually are wizards. They may ask. They may be afraid to ask.
As far as lawless elves go, there is nothing scarier to humans. If elves represent arcane power that humans cannot comprehend and against which only elves can protect, then a lawless invites danger from unknown sources and offers no guarantee of protection when that danger manifests. Whatever stories humans have heard about “dark elves” they associate with chaotic and evil elves they’ve met. A chaotic elf can expect to be under some kind of surveillance there entire stay within a lawful human society (and afforded a great deal of respect in the more lawless areas of human society).
Thursday, December 27, 2007
20 Questions
Okay, here’s the difficulty: you are not your character. You don’t exist in the same world, you don’t have the same skills, understanding of ethics, etc.. For instance, you know, right now, how far away the nearest big city is. You would know to react to a guy walking down the street with an ax. You know what sorts of things you can reasonably expect to find in someone’s house when you go for a visit. You know where you are, who you are, how to act, how to react, what’s weird, what’s not, and in some senses you know what to do on a day to day basis.
On the other hand, you have no idea the etiquette behind the use of invisibility in city limits, you don’t know how to judge between Claymores in terms of quality, you don’t know how to make friends with the forest creatures, you don’t know whether it’s a toga or a robe that’s proper attire for a night at the theater in Starfell. In essence, you don’t really know much at all. At any point during our game play, you’d be at a loss to know how long your characters even been awake that day. See what I mean?
What’s worse is that this is fantasy which means that there really isn’t a frame of reference at all. Is the world like Camelot or Conan, Middle Earth or Xena, Warrior Princess. At least in a game set in ancient Egypt, there are books you can look up. There’s a wikipedia entry. In the Dungeons and Dragons world, there is no such wikipedia, nor any other reference material.
So, what do you do?
The solution to this problem is a kind of re-imagining of the game as to what it is you’re trying to do as a player. In some ways, your character sheet and the rules of the game give you a basic guideline of what you can do at any moment in time as far as game mechanics go. But keep in mind, the mechanics are just there to support a role-playing environment; they’re the game part of the role playing game. What I’m talking about is getting you to concentrate on the role playing part of the role playing game.
To do this, I want you to think of Dungeons and Dragons as a kind of grand esoteric version of twenty questions. I’m serious. The people who have the most fun playing Dungeons and Dragons are the people who ask the most questions. In the same way, the longer a person has played, the more questions they ask. Really, aside from trying to figure out what your character will do (and deeply related to that), asking questions is the quintessential part of playing a role playing game.
The best part is you can ask about anything. You can ask about customs (is that guy’s hat normal?), physical space, race relations, the normal attitude your character might have about something, backstory, history. I’m serious. You as a player can ask about anything. It’s the D.M.’s job to sort of immerse you in the game world, but the job is complimentary: you have to ask the questions for this to work.
Now, it never hurts to give the D.M. a bit of a background as to why you think you would know the answer to the things you’re asking. Some stuff is common knowledge, but if you’re asking something like, “does that guy’s hat have anything to do with the Thieves guilds of this city?” it’s always nice to remind the D.M. that your character’s been working with the city watch for ten years.
Sometimes the D.M. will relate your question to one of your character’s skills, and so, it’s always good to remind the D.M. if the question you’re asking is related to a high skill (say +5 or more). So, if you want to know what kinds of relics are likely to be found in the area, it’s good to mention that your asking as a person with a +6 in appraise, local knowledge, profession: historian, or profession: merchant, just so the D.M. knows where you’re coming from and how much you would know.
On the other hand, you have no idea the etiquette behind the use of invisibility in city limits, you don’t know how to judge between Claymores in terms of quality, you don’t know how to make friends with the forest creatures, you don’t know whether it’s a toga or a robe that’s proper attire for a night at the theater in Starfell. In essence, you don’t really know much at all. At any point during our game play, you’d be at a loss to know how long your characters even been awake that day. See what I mean?
What’s worse is that this is fantasy which means that there really isn’t a frame of reference at all. Is the world like Camelot or Conan, Middle Earth or Xena, Warrior Princess. At least in a game set in ancient Egypt, there are books you can look up. There’s a wikipedia entry. In the Dungeons and Dragons world, there is no such wikipedia, nor any other reference material.
So, what do you do?
The solution to this problem is a kind of re-imagining of the game as to what it is you’re trying to do as a player. In some ways, your character sheet and the rules of the game give you a basic guideline of what you can do at any moment in time as far as game mechanics go. But keep in mind, the mechanics are just there to support a role-playing environment; they’re the game part of the role playing game. What I’m talking about is getting you to concentrate on the role playing part of the role playing game.
To do this, I want you to think of Dungeons and Dragons as a kind of grand esoteric version of twenty questions. I’m serious. The people who have the most fun playing Dungeons and Dragons are the people who ask the most questions. In the same way, the longer a person has played, the more questions they ask. Really, aside from trying to figure out what your character will do (and deeply related to that), asking questions is the quintessential part of playing a role playing game.
The best part is you can ask about anything. You can ask about customs (is that guy’s hat normal?), physical space, race relations, the normal attitude your character might have about something, backstory, history. I’m serious. You as a player can ask about anything. It’s the D.M.’s job to sort of immerse you in the game world, but the job is complimentary: you have to ask the questions for this to work.
Now, it never hurts to give the D.M. a bit of a background as to why you think you would know the answer to the things you’re asking. Some stuff is common knowledge, but if you’re asking something like, “does that guy’s hat have anything to do with the Thieves guilds of this city?” it’s always nice to remind the D.M. that your character’s been working with the city watch for ten years.
Sometimes the D.M. will relate your question to one of your character’s skills, and so, it’s always good to remind the D.M. if the question you’re asking is related to a high skill (say +5 or more). So, if you want to know what kinds of relics are likely to be found in the area, it’s good to mention that your asking as a person with a +6 in appraise, local knowledge, profession: historian, or profession: merchant, just so the D.M. knows where you’re coming from and how much you would know.
Friday, December 21, 2007
What Would Neri Do?
The real question here is what constitutes success in a role playing game. Is it killing a monster? Finding a trap? Making your Search roll? In some senses, yes. But that’s all quite mechanical.
I want you all to think in terms of a different kind of success: a success that is based around playing your character the way that character aught to be played, reacting to situations in a manner that you feel is appropriate for your character, and in general playing your character rather than playing the game. What does that mean?
Well, the truth of the matter is when you play your character, you may actually be doing things which are not solving the crisis. You may, in fact, be causing the crisis. By playing your character correctly, you may be making things complicated, you may be getting in the way, you may be doing things that you’re not supposed to do, or which, in the grand scheme of things, people don’t want you to do. When you’re playing the game, you’re every consideration about your character’s actions revolves around the health and success of the party, the ending of the adventure, and the gaining of treasure. In essence, you put who the character is on the backburner so as to consider these other factors. But this is a role playing game. Playing the character correctly in order to make him or her come alive is not only a hell of a lot more important, it’s also a lot more fun.
So, how is it done? Well, it's actually a lot less complicated than its made out to be. It involves asking the question that titles this bit of writing: what would your character do? Of every situation the character is in, ask yourself that: what would your character do? You’ve met a group of humanoid monsters that want to lay down the sword and join the human empire, what would your character do? How would your character feel about such a prospect? You’ve met up with a group of Halflings traveling through a war-torn land with children. What would your character do? The Halflings believe in casually thievery and taking people in confidence schemes. How does your character react to this? You find a town completely abandoned or you see people by the side of a battlefield looting fallen soldiers. These are not simply moments for you to listen to the story. This is not scenery. These are moments for you to add to the story line by playing your character.
In the end, Dungeons and Dragons isn’t really a story told by the D.M. to his or her players. There is a story, but when it is good, it is as much created by the players as it is by the Dungeon Master.
And that means you need to be prepared for your character to disagree with the other characters. That means that you need to be prepared to make your character do things that aren’t in the story line or to do hold on to information that they don’t think everyone in the party needs to know (or that they know will cause some members of the party to do the wrong thing). This goes for good characters and not so good characters. If it’s something that the cleric would do, then the cleric should spend the rest of the week attending to the sick, and if the Barbarian wants to move on, well, that’s just too bad. Same thing in reverse. Everybody wants to go to bed, but the thief wants to go robbing houses.
Now, I am not saying that you need to create nonstop tension in your party. Characters may be convinced to do something besides what it is there first inclination to do. The cleric might, for instance, be convinced that there are pressing matters at hand, but then that too is a place for you to play your character. What sorts of arguments will convince the cleric. What sorts of things has the cleric heard before.
Ultimately, you’re not playing the game to find the simplest path to some undisclosed finale. You’re playing the game to play your character.
Now, brass tacks. A lot of what you can use to determine what your character does revolves around your alignment, your class, and your character conception. Gringulia is a mercenary. She’s based her character on Jane from Firefly. Okay, good. Now, whenever she gets in a situation, she need only picture what it is that Jane would do and do that. She isn’t likely to stop to help people unless there’s a monetary reward. She isn’t likely to do things out of the kindness of her heart—that’s not her character conception.
As far as alignment goes, if you’re chaotic, then you don’t like rules that dictate yours or anyone else’s behavior. You don’t work well with people telling you what to do. This goes doubly for big structures. The chaotic neutral character isn’t necessarily an outlaw, but they don’t see the law as something that inherently should be allowed to rule people’s lives.
Lawful characters like order. They hold people to codes of behavior and decency and they don’t like it when things are amiss or out of the ordinary.
Neutral characters could care less really. They understand why there are laws but they also see why there are situations where people break them.
As for good and evil. Good people want the greatest good for the greatest number of people. They believe in the power of safety and what everyone to be healthy. Good characters are natural helpers.
Evil characters want power. So, good thinks of others. Evil thinks only of themselves, and neutral characters are willing to think of both.
The lawful good character wants to see the strongest parts of society rise up against tyranny and chaos to create peace and harmony. The neutral good character wants peace and harmony as well, but isn’t necessarily sure that it needs to be achieved by honoring arbitrary rules (though it might). A chaotic good character wants peace and harmony but feels that this can only be achieved if everyone is given their own ability to choose.
Which brings me finally, to class. If you’re a thief, you look at the world from a thief’s eyes. You want to steal stuff. You want to sneak around. You don’t want to be at the center of attention. If you’re a cleric of Moradin, then you pray to the god that sets the world to order. It stands to reason that you also must feel the need to bring order to the world. This isn’t a passive opinion that you share with others as you walk by scenes of human suffering and chaos; this is reason for you to get everyone else to stop. The Druid must be attuned to the balance of nature. If the Sentinel Plain has been swept by fey creatures from the positive material plain that have caused entire caravans to disappear, this is a good reason for an investigation by someone who seeks to maintain some kind of balance.
Lastly, the question has to come up: “Well, if we start playing our characters, wouldn’t we realistically just start heading off in random directions? Why would we even hang out together?” Good questions, but not yours to worry about. I will produce enough reasons to keep you working together as a team so as to keep you together even if you don’t always agree on the right course of action. But if it helps, let me forward this: you’re characters are returning from war to a world that is inherently alien (it’s human and you aren’t) and due to recent events quite corrupt. Your characters probably won’t know who to turn to except for each other. The way that the campaign is designed is that you will have to face off against disaster and, as you can’t trust others to do this for you, you will be forced to rely on one another to this purpose. This is something that you know as players, not something your characters necessarily know as of yet, but you will see it soon.
I want you all to think in terms of a different kind of success: a success that is based around playing your character the way that character aught to be played, reacting to situations in a manner that you feel is appropriate for your character, and in general playing your character rather than playing the game. What does that mean?
Well, the truth of the matter is when you play your character, you may actually be doing things which are not solving the crisis. You may, in fact, be causing the crisis. By playing your character correctly, you may be making things complicated, you may be getting in the way, you may be doing things that you’re not supposed to do, or which, in the grand scheme of things, people don’t want you to do. When you’re playing the game, you’re every consideration about your character’s actions revolves around the health and success of the party, the ending of the adventure, and the gaining of treasure. In essence, you put who the character is on the backburner so as to consider these other factors. But this is a role playing game. Playing the character correctly in order to make him or her come alive is not only a hell of a lot more important, it’s also a lot more fun.
So, how is it done? Well, it's actually a lot less complicated than its made out to be. It involves asking the question that titles this bit of writing: what would your character do? Of every situation the character is in, ask yourself that: what would your character do? You’ve met a group of humanoid monsters that want to lay down the sword and join the human empire, what would your character do? How would your character feel about such a prospect? You’ve met up with a group of Halflings traveling through a war-torn land with children. What would your character do? The Halflings believe in casually thievery and taking people in confidence schemes. How does your character react to this? You find a town completely abandoned or you see people by the side of a battlefield looting fallen soldiers. These are not simply moments for you to listen to the story. This is not scenery. These are moments for you to add to the story line by playing your character.
In the end, Dungeons and Dragons isn’t really a story told by the D.M. to his or her players. There is a story, but when it is good, it is as much created by the players as it is by the Dungeon Master.
And that means you need to be prepared for your character to disagree with the other characters. That means that you need to be prepared to make your character do things that aren’t in the story line or to do hold on to information that they don’t think everyone in the party needs to know (or that they know will cause some members of the party to do the wrong thing). This goes for good characters and not so good characters. If it’s something that the cleric would do, then the cleric should spend the rest of the week attending to the sick, and if the Barbarian wants to move on, well, that’s just too bad. Same thing in reverse. Everybody wants to go to bed, but the thief wants to go robbing houses.
Now, I am not saying that you need to create nonstop tension in your party. Characters may be convinced to do something besides what it is there first inclination to do. The cleric might, for instance, be convinced that there are pressing matters at hand, but then that too is a place for you to play your character. What sorts of arguments will convince the cleric. What sorts of things has the cleric heard before.
Ultimately, you’re not playing the game to find the simplest path to some undisclosed finale. You’re playing the game to play your character.
Now, brass tacks. A lot of what you can use to determine what your character does revolves around your alignment, your class, and your character conception. Gringulia is a mercenary. She’s based her character on Jane from Firefly. Okay, good. Now, whenever she gets in a situation, she need only picture what it is that Jane would do and do that. She isn’t likely to stop to help people unless there’s a monetary reward. She isn’t likely to do things out of the kindness of her heart—that’s not her character conception.
As far as alignment goes, if you’re chaotic, then you don’t like rules that dictate yours or anyone else’s behavior. You don’t work well with people telling you what to do. This goes doubly for big structures. The chaotic neutral character isn’t necessarily an outlaw, but they don’t see the law as something that inherently should be allowed to rule people’s lives.
Lawful characters like order. They hold people to codes of behavior and decency and they don’t like it when things are amiss or out of the ordinary.
Neutral characters could care less really. They understand why there are laws but they also see why there are situations where people break them.
As for good and evil. Good people want the greatest good for the greatest number of people. They believe in the power of safety and what everyone to be healthy. Good characters are natural helpers.
Evil characters want power. So, good thinks of others. Evil thinks only of themselves, and neutral characters are willing to think of both.
The lawful good character wants to see the strongest parts of society rise up against tyranny and chaos to create peace and harmony. The neutral good character wants peace and harmony as well, but isn’t necessarily sure that it needs to be achieved by honoring arbitrary rules (though it might). A chaotic good character wants peace and harmony but feels that this can only be achieved if everyone is given their own ability to choose.
Which brings me finally, to class. If you’re a thief, you look at the world from a thief’s eyes. You want to steal stuff. You want to sneak around. You don’t want to be at the center of attention. If you’re a cleric of Moradin, then you pray to the god that sets the world to order. It stands to reason that you also must feel the need to bring order to the world. This isn’t a passive opinion that you share with others as you walk by scenes of human suffering and chaos; this is reason for you to get everyone else to stop. The Druid must be attuned to the balance of nature. If the Sentinel Plain has been swept by fey creatures from the positive material plain that have caused entire caravans to disappear, this is a good reason for an investigation by someone who seeks to maintain some kind of balance.
Lastly, the question has to come up: “Well, if we start playing our characters, wouldn’t we realistically just start heading off in random directions? Why would we even hang out together?” Good questions, but not yours to worry about. I will produce enough reasons to keep you working together as a team so as to keep you together even if you don’t always agree on the right course of action. But if it helps, let me forward this: you’re characters are returning from war to a world that is inherently alien (it’s human and you aren’t) and due to recent events quite corrupt. Your characters probably won’t know who to turn to except for each other. The way that the campaign is designed is that you will have to face off against disaster and, as you can’t trust others to do this for you, you will be forced to rely on one another to this purpose. This is something that you know as players, not something your characters necessarily know as of yet, but you will see it soon.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Getting a character conception
First off, you should know that you don't need a character conception-- a character conception flourishes over time. Through adventure and off hand comments, what begins as a catch phrase will turn into a full fledged alternate personality within the game world. If you'll indulge me for a minute, think of the characters on "Friends." After many seasons on TV, they have become memorable characters complete with personalities, prejudices, attitudes, histories, and personal places within an incredibly complex group dynamic, but what did the writers know about these characters when the show began? Chandler's funny, Phoebe streetwise, and Monica can cook. As the show progressed, these characters gained life. The same is true for you and your character. This then is less about making a full fledged conception and more about getting a beginning.
All of these methods work, to one degree or another, on playing with stereotypes. This is not to pigeon hole you. By seeing a type as something that can be played with, you can use these easy steps to imagine an original character.
Method 1, Art: There's a lot out there to just plain look at. Pictures of fantasy characters are great because they give you a visual presentation of the the kind of character you want to play. Well, why not simply go the whole nine and base your of your character on a picture you've seen. This will give you not only some idea of what you look like, but also what kind of circumstances you hope to find yourself in.
Method 2, Cool thing in the Game: A lot of conception start this way. A players says, "I want to be a total expert at potions," or "I want to play someone who trains war dogs." In other words, the character is an expert at some uncommon skill or has some interesting characteristic and they are conceptualized around this. This is a great way to begin feeling your character out because it generally involves a history of interest and also a guiding principal for the numbers on your character sheet.
Method 3, based on another character: Ever wonder what Angela Lansbury's character in "Murder She Wrote" would be like if she were an elf in a fantasy setting. Well, base your character on her. Take what you like, leave the rest. This is an especially useful tactic in picking the character's personality. You needn't by the way pick Bruce Willis's character from Die Hard. There's all kinds of quirky characters walking around the Dungeons and Dragons world. With this kind of conception, you get a pretty good idea of how your character generally acts.
Method 4, fandom: Some people like to totally recreate another character in a fantasy setting. You needn't pick a fantasy character for this necessarily. Instead, just try to think of fantasy analogs to whatever elements already exist in that characters world. You like the idea of Buck Rogers? Okay, instead of being a guy from the past thrown into the future to fight Ming the merciless, how about you're from another dimension and you're trying to stop an evil tyrannical wizard.
Method 5, get a gimmick: The Thing from The Fantastic Four began as a guy made of rock who said, "it's clobbering time." It really doesn't take much to make your character memorable and to begin the process of gaining definition. Consider the power of phrases like, "I'm not allowed in a lot of towns anymore," or, "that dragon circling overhead may be looking for me," or even, "who's up for a drinking contest?" One you know the situations your character is likely to get in, or what kinds of things set your character apart from the rest, a conception will begin to reveal itself. You can't hunt a man with six fingers for long before someone asks why.
Method 6, Start answering questions: Still working it out? Try these...
All of these methods work, to one degree or another, on playing with stereotypes. This is not to pigeon hole you. By seeing a type as something that can be played with, you can use these easy steps to imagine an original character.
Method 1, Art: There's a lot out there to just plain look at. Pictures of fantasy characters are great because they give you a visual presentation of the the kind of character you want to play. Well, why not simply go the whole nine and base your of your character on a picture you've seen. This will give you not only some idea of what you look like, but also what kind of circumstances you hope to find yourself in.
Method 2, Cool thing in the Game: A lot of conception start this way. A players says, "I want to be a total expert at potions," or "I want to play someone who trains war dogs." In other words, the character is an expert at some uncommon skill or has some interesting characteristic and they are conceptualized around this. This is a great way to begin feeling your character out because it generally involves a history of interest and also a guiding principal for the numbers on your character sheet.
Method 3, based on another character: Ever wonder what Angela Lansbury's character in "Murder She Wrote" would be like if she were an elf in a fantasy setting. Well, base your character on her. Take what you like, leave the rest. This is an especially useful tactic in picking the character's personality. You needn't by the way pick Bruce Willis's character from Die Hard. There's all kinds of quirky characters walking around the Dungeons and Dragons world. With this kind of conception, you get a pretty good idea of how your character generally acts.
Method 4, fandom: Some people like to totally recreate another character in a fantasy setting. You needn't pick a fantasy character for this necessarily. Instead, just try to think of fantasy analogs to whatever elements already exist in that characters world. You like the idea of Buck Rogers? Okay, instead of being a guy from the past thrown into the future to fight Ming the merciless, how about you're from another dimension and you're trying to stop an evil tyrannical wizard.
Method 5, get a gimmick: The Thing from The Fantastic Four began as a guy made of rock who said, "it's clobbering time." It really doesn't take much to make your character memorable and to begin the process of gaining definition. Consider the power of phrases like, "I'm not allowed in a lot of towns anymore," or, "that dragon circling overhead may be looking for me," or even, "who's up for a drinking contest?" One you know the situations your character is likely to get in, or what kinds of things set your character apart from the rest, a conception will begin to reveal itself. You can't hunt a man with six fingers for long before someone asks why.
Method 6, Start answering questions: Still working it out? Try these...
Where are you from?
What makes you a good character for a fantasy novel?
Why is it that you willingly explore tombs of of monsters whose names are
unpronounceable?
Fight dragons or ride them?
Ever seen a demon?
Do you have a home?
What do people outside your adventuring buddies think of you?
If your in the capital city for a few days R and R, how do you spend the
fortune you've just liberated from the goblin king?
Is anybody likely to be hunting you?
Is there something out there that might come to your defense in case of
really bad trouble?
Any "strange" relatives?
Are you on a quest?"
Which of the characters do you fell closest to? Who furthest?
Ancient and forgotten temple of Elder god: "wonder what's in there"
or "wonder how we're going to kill it?"
Likely travelling companion: Elvin archer, Iron Golem, or Githyankian
Alienist from the infinite dooms of Limbo?
Excalibur, Tolkien, Conan, The Never Ending Story, Labyrinth, or M.C. Escher (or H.R. Geiger for that matter)?
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Slash's character, combat, etc.
Hi all-
This post is about combat in general but it's really in answer to Slash's question on the Q and A post from last week.
To sum up,
So...ahem, on point 4...YES. Two spell casters in the group is fine in that they have different spells and thus present a bit of variation of play. Not to mention that one of the wizards is doing double duty as a thief, but two 1/2 orc fighters armed almost exactly the same and with nearly the same feats is going to be redundant
But first let me say a few thing. First of all, combat in Dungeons and Dragons, even before dice are thrown, is an incredibly complex organism full of multiple variables. It is seemingly the most difficult part of dungeons and dragons to get a hold of and also elicits the greatest celebration when someone "gets it" (actual roleplaying is, I think harder, but also more rewarding). The problem is that their are different levels of getting it; combat in D and D is incredibly tactically complex. Take whatever you can imagine about simple swordplay (fencing is an Olympic sport after all), add to that all other martial weapons, and then just because it is isn't complex enough just yet, add in other variables, like magical attacks, magical augmentation, magical healing, and all other varieties of magical nastiness to boot. Oh yeah, and then stage the combat in strange locales like cramped dungeons, cliffsides, on the back of a Pegasus.
To reduce combat, then, to a "hit roll" and an "amount of damage," again even before dice are thrown, is extremely oversimplified. Problems are likely to come up, some already have. In thinking in terms of going toe to toe with the monster, you immediately put a strain on the cleric who has to use up the greater portion of their powers for healing. Giving up Monster Summoning for healing is a sign that something has gone wrong. Not horribly wrong, but wrong nonetheless. With this mentality in place, the wizard's list of spells becomes bottle necked. Why get anything that doesn't do direct damage? And continuing on in that thought process, why not just be a fighter? Who needs magic missile when you have a two handed sword?
But in this way of thinking, consider immediately your adversary. A group of fifth level characters can expect to meet 3 ogres. Last night, one such ogre nearly killed the barbarian. Bad rolls? Not particularly. If that ogre zombie had managed to survive one more round of fighting the entire party, you would have needed a raise dead spell. Imagine what would have happened if the two fighters, in attempting to chop down the ogre, had left two more ogres to go toe to toe with the two wizards and the cleric. Ogres hit for about 16 pts. of damage around...average.
And that was me playing the zombie ogre stupid (which it is). Imagine such a creature if it knows how to cleave, disarm, flank, or take advantage of attacks of opportunity.
Though every combat is, in essence, some variation of the "chop the monster down" tactic, relying solely on such a tactic is likely to become a bloodbath fairly quick--and for both sides. I think that's what happens when you make both "warrior characters" barbarians, or when you base all of your combat tactics on who can hit the hardest.
What do I recommend instead? Well, first of all, the wizards aught to notice that more than half of their spell list has combat applicability. By keeping a variety of spells, the wizard produces tactical situations for the party that might otherwise go overlooked (including avoiding combat altogether). At any given point from now on, the major battles will be won or lost by the wizards. If the wizards aim is to simply annoy while the fighters do their job, then you miss out on some of the truly heroic powers of magic. Personally, I like "web" with "fireball" at your level, but "monster summoning" plus "haste" is also nice." Play around a bit; I'm sure you'll find some nasty combination I haven't seen as of yet.
Second, though I think any "warrior character" aught to be able to hold their own in combat, I think that there are a number of ways to do this. You could be the hardest character to hit (using a variety of tactics to produce this affect such as super dodginess or big armor). You could have access to the greatest finesse; if you look at the combat section of the players handbook under Special Attacks, you'll see a variety of combat options of which a fighter, with their additional feats, is sort of designed to take advantage. You could master a kind of combat that forces your enemies to rethink their simple tactics by using an extremely long weapons, or by mastering ranged weapons. Lastly, you could work towards or take a prestige class to make your fighter more specialized and threatening. If the barbarian can rage, how about a character who can disarm or who can make enemies easier to hit when the barbarian rages. There's only so many bull's strength spells to go around.
And of course, I always recommend taking advantage of a good thief. A good thief can draw monsters into ambushes (yes, you can ambush the monsters too); a good thief can set traps to screw the monsters up; hell, thief...thieves steal things like weapons and magic items before the battle even begins.
Lastly, clerics are good because no matter what goes down, they can aid, and if their aid isn't needed, so much the better: monster summoning, arms and armor, cause light and moderate wounds. Plus, in the right circumstances, the cleric alone can stop the undead horde.
Here's what I'm saying in a nutshell. It's good to begin the game with an eye towards figuring out how to hit the monster and do damage, but you will eventually have to move into more complex ways of thinking about combat or the monsters who are better at this simple tactic will run you into the ground. I think a good way to prohibit yourself from this kind of thinking is to choose the simple route of big weapons that do big damage or obvious spells that always do damage (and which do nothing else).
And, of course, I'll say what I'm always going to say in this circumstance: what kind of character do you want to play? When the intrigue part of the game happens, where do you want to find yourself in it? What kind of character do you envision, because in the end, it isn't about combat at all but about having fun, and the more you like your character, the more fun you'll have.
This post is about combat in general but it's really in answer to Slash's question on the Q and A post from last week.
To sum up,
- Slash has determined that fighting with a weapon in each hand is not good.
- Big weapons do a lot more damage, but even a long sword would be better.
- The best way to go with this would be a half orc 1st level barbarian, 4th level fighter.
- He's worried that the character would be too much like Lynn's.
- He's hoping to hear all of your thoughts on the subject of what the party needs.
So...ahem, on point 4...YES. Two spell casters in the group is fine in that they have different spells and thus present a bit of variation of play. Not to mention that one of the wizards is doing double duty as a thief, but two 1/2 orc fighters armed almost exactly the same and with nearly the same feats is going to be redundant
But first let me say a few thing. First of all, combat in Dungeons and Dragons, even before dice are thrown, is an incredibly complex organism full of multiple variables. It is seemingly the most difficult part of dungeons and dragons to get a hold of and also elicits the greatest celebration when someone "gets it" (actual roleplaying is, I think harder, but also more rewarding). The problem is that their are different levels of getting it; combat in D and D is incredibly tactically complex. Take whatever you can imagine about simple swordplay (fencing is an Olympic sport after all), add to that all other martial weapons, and then just because it is isn't complex enough just yet, add in other variables, like magical attacks, magical augmentation, magical healing, and all other varieties of magical nastiness to boot. Oh yeah, and then stage the combat in strange locales like cramped dungeons, cliffsides, on the back of a Pegasus.
To reduce combat, then, to a "hit roll" and an "amount of damage," again even before dice are thrown, is extremely oversimplified. Problems are likely to come up, some already have. In thinking in terms of going toe to toe with the monster, you immediately put a strain on the cleric who has to use up the greater portion of their powers for healing. Giving up Monster Summoning for healing is a sign that something has gone wrong. Not horribly wrong, but wrong nonetheless. With this mentality in place, the wizard's list of spells becomes bottle necked. Why get anything that doesn't do direct damage? And continuing on in that thought process, why not just be a fighter? Who needs magic missile when you have a two handed sword?
But in this way of thinking, consider immediately your adversary. A group of fifth level characters can expect to meet 3 ogres. Last night, one such ogre nearly killed the barbarian. Bad rolls? Not particularly. If that ogre zombie had managed to survive one more round of fighting the entire party, you would have needed a raise dead spell. Imagine what would have happened if the two fighters, in attempting to chop down the ogre, had left two more ogres to go toe to toe with the two wizards and the cleric. Ogres hit for about 16 pts. of damage around...average.
And that was me playing the zombie ogre stupid (which it is). Imagine such a creature if it knows how to cleave, disarm, flank, or take advantage of attacks of opportunity.
Though every combat is, in essence, some variation of the "chop the monster down" tactic, relying solely on such a tactic is likely to become a bloodbath fairly quick--and for both sides. I think that's what happens when you make both "warrior characters" barbarians, or when you base all of your combat tactics on who can hit the hardest.
What do I recommend instead? Well, first of all, the wizards aught to notice that more than half of their spell list has combat applicability. By keeping a variety of spells, the wizard produces tactical situations for the party that might otherwise go overlooked (including avoiding combat altogether). At any given point from now on, the major battles will be won or lost by the wizards. If the wizards aim is to simply annoy while the fighters do their job, then you miss out on some of the truly heroic powers of magic. Personally, I like "web" with "fireball" at your level, but "monster summoning" plus "haste" is also nice." Play around a bit; I'm sure you'll find some nasty combination I haven't seen as of yet.
Second, though I think any "warrior character" aught to be able to hold their own in combat, I think that there are a number of ways to do this. You could be the hardest character to hit (using a variety of tactics to produce this affect such as super dodginess or big armor). You could have access to the greatest finesse; if you look at the combat section of the players handbook under Special Attacks, you'll see a variety of combat options of which a fighter, with their additional feats, is sort of designed to take advantage. You could master a kind of combat that forces your enemies to rethink their simple tactics by using an extremely long weapons, or by mastering ranged weapons. Lastly, you could work towards or take a prestige class to make your fighter more specialized and threatening. If the barbarian can rage, how about a character who can disarm or who can make enemies easier to hit when the barbarian rages. There's only so many bull's strength spells to go around.
And of course, I always recommend taking advantage of a good thief. A good thief can draw monsters into ambushes (yes, you can ambush the monsters too); a good thief can set traps to screw the monsters up; hell, thief...thieves steal things like weapons and magic items before the battle even begins.
Lastly, clerics are good because no matter what goes down, they can aid, and if their aid isn't needed, so much the better: monster summoning, arms and armor, cause light and moderate wounds. Plus, in the right circumstances, the cleric alone can stop the undead horde.
Here's what I'm saying in a nutshell. It's good to begin the game with an eye towards figuring out how to hit the monster and do damage, but you will eventually have to move into more complex ways of thinking about combat or the monsters who are better at this simple tactic will run you into the ground. I think a good way to prohibit yourself from this kind of thinking is to choose the simple route of big weapons that do big damage or obvious spells that always do damage (and which do nothing else).
And, of course, I'll say what I'm always going to say in this circumstance: what kind of character do you want to play? When the intrigue part of the game happens, where do you want to find yourself in it? What kind of character do you envision, because in the end, it isn't about combat at all but about having fun, and the more you like your character, the more fun you'll have.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Character Conception
Your characters right now are made, but they are never really set in stone. I think it's good to tinker with the character as you get a better feel for who they are, what they do, their background, and their attitudes. As you get some idea of what you want, I encourage tinkering. Don't worry about the continuity of the story. We'll just assume that the character was like that all along.
Game Term Glossary
- Character Conception- This is the idea behind the character: your guiding principal about what the character is like, their place in the world, etc.. Strider’s character conception (from Lord of the Rings) might be: reluctant king who is shirking his responsibility and off wandering the planet. Conan’s might be: big guy who’d rather get drunk and kill then have a conversation. A character conception need not be totally formed (or formed at all) at the beginning of the game. Through the magic of revision, when you get one that you like, we simply rewrite what has come before a bit so that it seems like you’ve had your character conception in mind all along.
- Crit: Short for Critical hit. A critical hit is scored, in general, by rolling a natural twenty on the twenty sided die to hit. Some weapons crit more often. When you roll a crit, all damage done by you on that blow is doubled. As a rule for this game, monsters cannot crit against players unless the monster has a class level (a fourth level Ogre barbarian can crit, for instance; a regular Ogre can not) or the encounter is at the same CR as the characters. “Crit”ing a skill or ability check means automatic success regardless of penalties or difficulties.
- Fumble: A fumble is the result of rolling a natural 1. Fumbling is failure no matter what modifiers. Also, a fumble in combat may result in your falling down. It requires a Balance skill roll to stay on your feet.
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