Too weird for town....

F

Fauchard1520

Adventurer

• Mar 15, 2019

• #1

Suppose you've got a dangerous pet. Or that your character concept is "hideous monster." Or that you've chosen one of the races with an image problem, like drow or duergar. How do you deal with it when your PC is too socially unacceptable to go into town?

Comic for illustrative purposes.

 

Last edited: Mar 15, 2019

log in or register to remove this ad

aco175

Legend

• Mar 15, 2019

• #2

We had a ranger with a bear pet/companion that stayed out of town and the ranger would go out to stay with it overnight. Never had the problem of a PC being a orc or bugbear, let alone something like a beholder or dinosaur. It would change the type of game and how the basic interactions would work. There may be some roadside taverns that sell to anyone or shady stays in barns and trading with caravans after helping them with bandits.

You may need to talk with the player if all the other PCs are typical good races and classes to talk about team play and why he wants to go this way. If everyone is on-board, then fine, but it may disruptive if one player is trying to spotlight like this. Everyone needs to have fun.

 

Voort

Explorer

• Mar 15, 2019

• #3

Make it a part of the characterization. Maybe the goblin obsessively hides from all witnesses, or the tiefling insists on using illusion magic to pass as a human.

 

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

• Mar 15, 2019

• #4

As DM, I try not to set up scenarios like this unless it affects everyone in the party.

 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Staff member

Supporter

• Mar 15, 2019

• #5

Many of my “outlandish” characters tended to camp out when the party had to go into towns that wouldn’t tolerate them. The more like the standard races they were, though, the more likely some kind of disguise would be attempted.

At least one party used their covered wagon for overnighting less socially acceptable characters.

 

Hussar

Legend

• Mar 15, 2019

• #6

I tend to be a bit more pragmatic about this.

Do the other player's care? Has anyone said anything about it? Has anyone (other than the DM) made this an issue? If the answer is no, then, let it slide. It's not something they want to worry about and it's just easier to lampshade the whole thing than try to come up with all sorts of contortions.

I mean, by the time the party is walking into town with a dinosaur, they're likely double digit level demi-gods anyway. Known by townsfolk far and wide.

I currently have a player playing an intelligent skeleton in my Dragon Heist game set in Waterdeep. Other than the odd NPC asking if someone in the group has a license for him, I don't make an issue of it. It's just not worth the head ache and the player is having a blast with the character.

 

Sadras

Legend

• Mar 15, 2019

• #7

Fauchard1520 said:

Suppose you've got a dangerous pet. Or that you're character concept is "hideous monster." Or that you've chosen one of the races with an image problem, like drow or duergar. How do you deal with it when your PC is too socially unacceptable to go into town?

Click to expand...

I think much will depend on the setting as you or the table envision it.

WotC addresses this issue somewhat in two AP's that I possess (I'm sure there are more examples):

*Spoilers for Rise of Tiamat and Storm King's Thunder*

In RoT the representative for the Emerald Enclave, Delaan Winterhound, has a winter wolf, Loska, that remains on patrol outside Waterdeep, when he attends Council meetings.

In SKT, Harshnag is a Frost Giant who joins the party briefly. He has a long history with the North serving in a well-known adventuring party, but due to the recent ongoing giant attacks on the smallfolk he shies away from any settlements, keeping himself hidden. The only exception is Waterdeep and that's because he considers the city his home.

 

Last edited: Mar 15, 2019

B

Baldurs_Underdark

Hero

• Mar 15, 2019

• #8

Dangerous pets are really the problem of the players.
They often made the deliberate choice to accept this pet. So, getting that pet into a town will mean they need to succeed on a couple of rolls. However they can come up with their own creative plans, and the players can therefore influence which rolls they make (i.e. animal handling to make the pet look docile, or persuasion to convince the guards it's safe, or perhaps just intimidation or stealth).

I am a lot more lenient with the standard races of the PHB. It's a really stupid to allow a player to play a Dragonborn, and then to subject this player to constant blatant racism in the game because some campaign setting says that Dragonborn are rare and people are scared of them.

 

Hussar

Legend

• Mar 15, 2019

• #9

I'd like to echo Sadra's point. Waterdeep, for example, is seriously weird. There's all sorts of fantastic stuff all over the city. A pet tiger probably wouldn't raise so much as an eyebrow and a duerger likely wouldn't have any problems.

One of the issues, particularly in homebrew campaigns, is that many DM's don't account for just how weird a D&D world would be. Things that to us would cause our eyes to bug out would be any given Monday in many D&D worlds. I mean, seriously. When you've seen flights of dragons battling over head, would an orc in a bar really faze you? We think that someone walking into town with a bear or a tiger would cause the locals to panic, but, really, those locals have seen giants and trolls and demons. A tiger? Just a big fuzzy cat innit?

 

S

Shiroiken

Legend

• Mar 15, 2019

• #10

During session 0 I explain how "abnormal" characters are handled. For example, half-orcs are hated and feared among almost every single civilized area, but I've changed their appearance back to the 1E version (10%, including all PCs, can easily pass as an ugly human). Drow would be killed on sight, so they should disguise themselves (assuming I allow drow in the first place). If someone were to find out about the abnormal character, the PC is going to be in a lot of trouble, and the group as well for traveling with such a foul creature.

I've not had the issue of a dangerous animal companion entering towns. Usually the player will simply choose to remain outside of town, or at least instruct the animal to remain out of town, and if I know I'm going to have such a character in my campaign, urban adventures will be limited or non-existent.