Using dreams to influence character's roleplaying of alignment
JiffyPopTart
Bree-Yark
I had a situation similar to this. A player was playing a Drow cleric of Elistraee (the only good drow goddess, whos mission is to make the Drow be accepted in normal lands). The players "mission" was to act as a goodwill ambassador by doing good deeds for the population and show that drow aren't necessarily guys to run from screaming.
On one particular adventure, the PC's came upon an abandoned temple. Kneeling on the ground in front of the temple entrance was a figured in robes, bent over. Hiding off to either side behind columns was (the PC's noticed after a spot check) a couple snakelike figures with bows.
The combat started and the drow filled the robed figure full of arrows immediately. Only after they won the combat did they find that the robed figure was a human female slaved chained to the ground as bait to expose people advancing on the temple.
The cleric missed a PERFECT opportunity to spread some good deeds by slaughtering the robed person instead of saving her.
That night he had a dream sent to him by Eilestraee. In the dream he was in robes and chained down and couldn't move. When he looked up he saw a figured bearing his own face charging at him, swords ginzuing away. Then it cut to a face of a beautiful drow female face, with tears running down her cheek.
Simple two second description of his dream, but it got the point across.
After several more incidents of fire first and ask questions later, the character and Eilestraee parted ways.
On one particular adventure, the PC's came upon an abandoned temple. Kneeling on the ground in front of the temple entrance was a figured in robes, bent over. Hiding off to either side behind columns was (the PC's noticed after a spot check) a couple snakelike figures with bows.
The combat started and the drow filled the robed figure full of arrows immediately. Only after they won the combat did they find that the robed figure was a human female slaved chained to the ground as bait to expose people advancing on the temple.
The cleric missed a PERFECT opportunity to spread some good deeds by slaughtering the robed person instead of saving her.
That night he had a dream sent to him by Eilestraee. In the dream he was in robes and chained down and couldn't move. When he looked up he saw a figured bearing his own face charging at him, swords ginzuing away. Then it cut to a face of a beautiful drow female face, with tears running down her cheek.
Simple two second description of his dream, but it got the point across.
After several more incidents of fire first and ask questions later, the character and Eilestraee parted ways.
JiffyPopTart
Bree-Yark
The player was fairly new and was incapable of non hack-and-slashism. Since we are both there to have fun, we just went ahead and let him pick a different diety without much of a fuss. I wouldn't give him a hard time for not making the best choice for his style when I basically threw the Faiths and Panthoens book at him and said "Pick one that looks cool".
Now if he was an experienced player, then I would have some fun with him by making him change domains to ones more appropriate to the dieity that picked up the slack when Eilestraee started to ignore him. I probably wouldn't even tell him WHO it was and incorporate that into the campaign.
But its was mostly moot, because the first adventure after picking a new diety the drow drowned while on his way to Maztica.
DS
Now if he was an experienced player, then I would have some fun with him by making him change domains to ones more appropriate to the dieity that picked up the slack when Eilestraee started to ignore him. I probably wouldn't even tell him WHO it was and incorporate that into the campaign.
But its was mostly moot, because the first adventure after picking a new diety the drow drowned while on his way to Maztica.
DS
I had some reasonable success with this sort of thing, one upon a time. This was about twenty years ago, so the details are somewhat hazy, but here you go ...
The party was low-level, and all neutrals except for one good character. (Not a paladin, naturally.) They'd captured some cannon-fodder (goblins? kobolds? I'll say kobolds) in the dungeon and had hit on the idea of using them as Polish mine-detectors. They'd kick open a dungeon door, throw a bound kobold inside, and see what happened before heading in themselves ...
At the beginning of the next session, I handed the player of the good character a note describing his nightmare. They'd lost one of their kobolds to an ettercap, and the PC had dreamt that night of the situation as experienced by the unfortunate kobold. Lying helplessly tied up on the ground ... the stench of the spider-creature approaching ... the sharp pain of the sting ... being bound in webs and slowly eaten alive ...
He put his foot down about the strategy after that.
The party was low-level, and all neutrals except for one good character. (Not a paladin, naturally.) They'd captured some cannon-fodder (goblins? kobolds? I'll say kobolds) in the dungeon and had hit on the idea of using them as Polish mine-detectors. They'd kick open a dungeon door, throw a bound kobold inside, and see what happened before heading in themselves ...
At the beginning of the next session, I handed the player of the good character a note describing his nightmare. They'd lost one of their kobolds to an ettercap, and the PC had dreamt that night of the situation as experienced by the unfortunate kobold. Lying helplessly tied up on the ground ... the stench of the spider-creature approaching ... the sharp pain of the sting ... being bound in webs and slowly eaten alive ...
He put his foot down about the strategy after that.
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