Greetings! I'm new here, just created this account today so that I could ask this one question. It's a description of a problem more than a question, I guess.
I was playing a character who was Chaotic Neutral. We were assigned to retrieve an orb for a General we had just met. There was a war on and this orb would allow the General to control some more troops who would be able to turn the tide of the war. Long story short, we finally get up to the tower holding it, and it's on the roof. There was a group of cultists chanting with a dragon on the other side of the area. He (dragon) hadn't noticed us.
My group began attacking the cultists but, I couldn't really tell why. They hadn't attacked us and … well… there was a freaking dragon there! I knew the DM wouldn't let us really fight it. We were level 1, it was our first adventure together. The group began hacking at the cultists, one went after the orb (it was sitting out in the open) while I approached the dragon.
I asked my group to stop fighting long enough to hear him out and they refused. The dragon said he'd stop the fighting if we stopped but, they wouldn't so … he didn't. Helet the cultists keep fighting (defending themselves as my group hacked them to pieces) and wouldn't order his armies to stop attacking the town.
The dragon summoned a special dagger and a horn. He asked me to kill the General who had sent us and then blow the horn. This seemed a) easier than taking the orb against the will of the dragon and b) safer than letting the dragon beat us allto hell. Several members of the group went after the dragon at this point and during the melee I grabbed the items.
The cleric of the group tackled me on my way to them and we grappled for a while. The dragon eventually picked us both up and began flying back to where the General was. The dragon ordered me to kill the cleric, but I refused. At that point he transferred me from one of his paws to the other and flung the cleric towards the ground (a griffon caught him before he landed on the ground.) I felt bad about this but, meh, he shouldn't have tried to stop my character. The dragon dropped me off a short distance from the General and I blew the horn - I wanted to see what it did. All of the “badguys” stopped fighting and retreated. Then I killed the General ..and ran like hell away from his army.
When the adventure ended, I was sitting in a cave with a dragon (he had used magic to summon me after I killed the general) and the group had the orb.
So that's the adventure … back in reality; it was weird playing a character chaotic neutral like that. I didn't want to blindly do what I was ordered and I didn't want to go along with the group just because they had a desire to kill people. I don't know how the relationships can be mended at this point because they see me as “the traitorous bard” while I feel like I'm the one paying attention to the scenes. I can see us being in a situation again where the fighter and paladin are hacking, the cleric's healing, and I'm wondering “is there a way out of this that ends well for me?” I'm not sure how, or if, we can be a group in this way and I'm wondering if, next time, I should just shut off my mind and mindlessly hack away at every NPC who isn't trying to sell me something. Or do whatever “the good guy” says to do because, clearly, he can be trusted or he wouldn't be “the good guy.” I'm not really interested in playing that way but, it would have made me one of the group instead of an individual.
I'm kind of a newb at pen and paper RPGs, any help with the group dynamic involved here is much appreciated.
I was playing a character who was Chaotic Neutral. We were assigned to retrieve an orb for a General we had just met. There was a war on and this orb would allow the General to control some more troops who would be able to turn the tide of the war. Long story short, we finally get up to the tower holding it, and it's on the roof. There was a group of cultists chanting with a dragon on the other side of the area. He (dragon) hadn't noticed us.
My group began attacking the cultists but, I couldn't really tell why. They hadn't attacked us and … well… there was a freaking dragon there! I knew the DM wouldn't let us really fight it. We were level 1, it was our first adventure together. The group began hacking at the cultists, one went after the orb (it was sitting out in the open) while I approached the dragon.
I asked my group to stop fighting long enough to hear him out and they refused. The dragon said he'd stop the fighting if we stopped but, they wouldn't so … he didn't. Helet the cultists keep fighting (defending themselves as my group hacked them to pieces) and wouldn't order his armies to stop attacking the town.
The dragon summoned a special dagger and a horn. He asked me to kill the General who had sent us and then blow the horn. This seemed a) easier than taking the orb against the will of the dragon and b) safer than letting the dragon beat us allto hell. Several members of the group went after the dragon at this point and during the melee I grabbed the items.
The cleric of the group tackled me on my way to them and we grappled for a while. The dragon eventually picked us both up and began flying back to where the General was. The dragon ordered me to kill the cleric, but I refused. At that point he transferred me from one of his paws to the other and flung the cleric towards the ground (a griffon caught him before he landed on the ground.) I felt bad about this but, meh, he shouldn't have tried to stop my character. The dragon dropped me off a short distance from the General and I blew the horn - I wanted to see what it did. All of the “badguys” stopped fighting and retreated. Then I killed the General ..and ran like hell away from his army.
When the adventure ended, I was sitting in a cave with a dragon (he had used magic to summon me after I killed the general) and the group had the orb.
So that's the adventure … back in reality; it was weird playing a character chaotic neutral like that. I didn't want to blindly do what I was ordered and I didn't want to go along with the group just because they had a desire to kill people. I don't know how the relationships can be mended at this point because they see me as “the traitorous bard” while I feel like I'm the one paying attention to the scenes. I can see us being in a situation again where the fighter and paladin are hacking, the cleric's healing, and I'm wondering “is there a way out of this that ends well for me?” I'm not sure how, or if, we can be a group in this way and I'm wondering if, next time, I should just shut off my mind and mindlessly hack away at every NPC who isn't trying to sell me something. Or do whatever “the good guy” says to do because, clearly, he can be trusted or he wouldn't be “the good guy.” I'm not really interested in playing that way but, it would have made me one of the group instead of an individual.
I'm kind of a newb at pen and paper RPGs, any help with the group dynamic involved here is much appreciated.
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