Making my fellow adventurer pay.

[Dagger75]

Well seeing how I get to play a D&D game now


Maybe spoilers here for a Kalamar mod.








Its a Kalamar game, been pretty good so far.

Well we get tricked into helping out an evil priest kill a little baby dragon that seems to have taken up resident in a temple of some sort. The DM didn't have much to work with for the dragon and he is pretty nasty with them, we didn't walk through the fight but we did win. Well the dragon had about a 4000+ gp horde. Alright new toys for the group. Well we have to go explore a weird noise we heard.

Well 3 rounds later I am on the ground at -9 after failing a climb check and falling 60ft, Fighter is dominated by a powerful vampire and the Ranger is on the ground with a nice hefty -11 Con loss due some vampire blood drinking. Luckly we planned our little adventure at Dawn, sun rises Vampire flees before really hurting us.

We can get a cleric to Greater Restoreration the Ranger to full Con but its costs us ALL of the dragon's horde. Well we all agree to get him restored but my Cleric (C/N worships God of Thieves) wants his share back, the barbarian then wants his share back also. Comes out to 850 gold each. The other 2 party members don't want there share back. Now is this wrong? The ranger is not complaining but my Cleric wants a little something to hold over this ranger so he can help me rob some places. He is a Deep Wood Sniper wanna be and his services could prove useful. I know this can turn bad for me in the future but I am willing to take the risk. But is it not nice to make the PC pay me back? Has anyone else done this?

First we have been friends and gaming together for years so its not like I doing this to a newbie I never met before.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Sounds like your characters are not friends. Both are also being shortsighted in somehow thinking that these guys are going to help you when you are injured.

If someone lorded it over my character that a 'debt' was owed, then the moment the 'lord' was unconcious I would relieve myself of the debt and reimburse myself from the freshly dead corpse.

You should accept the fact that misfortune will visit all your characters, such a petty short term profit won't see your characters beyond the mid levels imo.

Such play breeds an unhealthy, canabalistic rivalry of winners and losers. Do you like that?

I am sorry if I come across an angry wiener but I have suffered this rot and it sucks.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm with FTS.

Party unity is pretty crucial in the low levels (if you are a higher level spellcaster, you can enerally get things done by yourself).

If the guy is a lawful alignment, or a good one, you might be able to get him to honor his debts, but otherwise, I think you are ensuring that he does zero to help you when you need it.

think on it.

 

[Squire James]

The Ranger can agree to take only minimal treasure for his upkeep and have the others take the rest until he "fails to take" money equal to that needed to pay back everyone else. This is probably the best way if the characters in the party are not terribly friendly with each other and are just in it for the money.

The party can also simply accept that there are going to be things that happen to their members that sometimes needs financial support from everyone. As far as I can tell, the Ranger suffered ability score damage from no real fault of his own. A group consisting of true friends would pool their resources to make purchases good for the entire group, like restoring or raising fellow characters.

I favor the first approach, with anyone willing to waive being paid back removing his share from the total amount. If you want to trade a favor for your waiving, you can, but you should probably not force the Ranger to do anything he considers immoral. Sure you can try, but don't expect it the Ranger to like you or pay for your Restoration if the next vampire decides he wants Cleric for his pre-dawn snack...

All that being said, the DM is charging an overwhelmingly high price for that Restoration, about 10-20 times what the DMG suggests. I've had Resurrections go for less than 4,000 gp! There may be a good reason for this, like Kalamar may charge much more for magic than normal. Of course, it may just be the DM going through extraordinary means to keep the PC's poor. If the players accept it as part of the game, no problem.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I know I changed how my character interacted with the group after something similar happened. I was turned to stone and the party had me fixed and took all of my share of the treasure to do it. We had received little treasure so far and now I had not cash.

Their mistake was, I was the cleric. Lets just say healing was no longer a priority and I used ALL my spell slots for personal buffing spells.

Edit: I think it is a bad idea.

 

[Michael Tree]

If someone lorded it over my character that a 'debt' was owed, then the moment the 'lord' was unconcious I would relieve myself of the debt and reimburse myself from the freshly dead corpse.

Sigh. Why is it that so many characters/players feel that the only way to deal with party conflict is to kill the other character? Are that many characters sociopaths? Look at movies and TV for how to make rivalry and conflict between protagonists interesting - continuously make snide remarks, play practical jokes, put each other down, and so on. It can be fun.

That said, I think it's fair to ask for your share back (not neccessarily nice or generous, but fair). However, treating a character like crap just because he owes you some money is a good way to alienate friends, or even make enemies.

 

[Bhaal]

Ask for repayment. Maybe not even directly, just drop a hint or say how bummed you are because you were going to spend the cash on such-and-such. Don't lord over him though, and when he gets some extra cash he'll most likely gladly give it up since you weren't such a jerk about the loan. He knows he owes you, and there are a lot of ways to extract favors back without making him feel like a loan shark is beating down his door.

Alternately, take your "repayment" preemptively. Talk with the DM in private and explain how you want to get to the treasure and "count" it first. Then tell him that, provided your character's not being closely watched, you want to skim 30% of the loot (up to X amount, since it's kind of hard to conceal an extra 8000 gold) before giving the official count. So if the party finds 3000 gold, you skim 900 (30%) when counting/collecting it, then in addition you take your cut of the remaining 2100 gold. Be nonchalant about "While they examine the dead dragon, I'm going to go see what treasure we have" letting the DM know you want to go skim, then the DM would announce "You find X gold...", and in reality there was more than X. Then when the time comes to help out a teammate, gladly give up the funds and you'll appear generous. Just don't get caught.