The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Malmuria]

A: I can't stand the modern coffee shops for getting coffee!!

B: Is it the cost? The quality? The taste?

A: It's that there are too many extra things I could get with it! Frappe, caramel mocha, it goes on forever!

B: Do they not sell plain black coffee!?!?

A: They do.

B: So what's the problem?

A: They make me ignore that I could have bought the extras I didn't want!

It's true that I find a 600 calorie coffee milkshake to be a bit excessive, but what I really judge are the workplace conditions and pay

 

[prabe]

I love the usual tone policing on certain topics.
And, yes, you should be detecting sarcasm in that statement.

Oh, good. I just got my sarcasmometer back from the shop.

 

[trappedslider]

The biggest problem with D&D is everyone else.

 

[Scribe]

The biggest problem with D&D is everyone else.

I dont know about everyone else, I think its just That One Guy.

 

[prabe]

I dont know about everyone else, I think its just That One Guy.

And That One Guy--I'm positive about this--isn't me.

 

[Scribe]

And That One Guy--I'm positive about this--isn't me.

Of course not, this is esteemed company.

 

[Mad_Jack]

And That One Guy--I'm positive about this--isn't me.

Of course not... It's ME.

I admit it! I'M That One Guy everybody talks about.
It's all my fault - and it's all part of my Fiendish Plan ... Muahahahahahaha!


Well, okay, not really. I'm just bored, and screwing up everyone else's fun is entertaining. (Sort of...I mean, I wanted to go around setting everyone on fire, but apparently that's illegal.)

Of course not, this is esteemed company.

How dare you, sir!!! I'll have you know that I am one of the lowest examples of scum and villainy on this forum, and I've worked very hard to become so...

 

[J.Quondam]

Velvet Hammer
Ingredients
A pint of your favorite vanilla ice cream
A bottle of your favorite blended whiskey

Instructions
Put two scoops of ice cream into a blender.
Add "enough" whiskey.
Blend until smooth.
Pour into a frozen pint glass.
Garnish with grated nutmeg.

Crack an egg into that and voila! Breakfast!

 

[CleverNickName]

No, no, it's all MY fault!
FOOLS!! It was ME! I'm the one who filled out that Wizards of the Coast playtest survey with all the wrong answers! Ha!
And I WAS THE ONE who wrote that house-rule you hate, then printed it out and sent it to all of your players and the game developers!
You thought that you could just play D&D however you want? You were WRONG! If it's in the books, it's the law, and I'll have you arrested if you play it any other way! HAHAHAH!
I have been here, all this time, secretly pulling the strings to force everyone to play it exactly the way I tell you to! Nobody can stop me!!!

...or so you would think, judging by how some people act.

 

[RealAlHazred]

And the next couple sessions of the campaign involve just telling players they have to go on dangerous missions in the town as level 1 characters with no rest who have already weathered multiple encounters, when there's a castle full of other people who could instead, many of whom are trained guards who know the terrain. And then it railroads you into trying to fight the dragon when it's a dragon!

But I think the issue here is less that it removes player agency. The beginning of campaigns often have little in the way of agency, because they have to start somewhere. Had the scenario begun with the party staying in Greenest and it then being besieged by the cultists, trapping them, I'd consider that a strong opening and it has no more agency. The reason it's a terrible note to start the campaign on is that it requires a decision that goes against character for most characters (I think they also start as paid guards for a passing caravan, so their primary obligation is to protect the caravan not the town even if they somehow think they can take on an army and a dragon). It basically draws undue attention to the artifice of a campaign, by giving the players no motivation to do the thing it needs them to do, but then demanding they do it if they want to play the campaign. I'm fine with a campaign starting with a railroad, but it should be a railroad that makes character sense for most characters. The lack of agency in the opening scenes of a campaign isn't the problem. Forcing lots of inevitable arguments between the DM and anyone roleplaying worth a damn that end with "sorry, you have no agency and your character's personality isn't allowed to matter" is a huge problem.

At the beginning of the Rambo NES game it gives you the option to stay in prison rather than go on your mission. If you choose prison it just says "the game doesn't start until you say YES" to the mission. This is basically what our DM said when we played HotDQ.

Actually, I remembered my least favorite part of the adventure, and it is in the sequel, Rise of Tiamat. So, it's mid- to high-level in this section. Player characters have weathered many challenges to get here. Now they have to weld the disparate and squabbling factions of the Forgotten Realms into a unified force that can withstand Tiamat and the Cult of the Dragon. In fact, there's a chapter where the party has to go to Thay, to try to work out a compromise with the Red Wizards of Thay, the premiere evil organization on the continent, so that Tiamat can be overcome! What a great idea for a chapter! There's so much potential! And you get to depict a very alien culture, with a ton of interesting characters!

Except the module doesn't do any of that, it just tells the DM to play it by ear, or even to abstract everything to just the final negotiation.

What the actual hell? This would have been a great chapter, with interesting (hopefully) non-combat encounters and the possibility of interesting magics and ancient secrets -- those things have been hoarded in Thay since first edition! But no, we're just going to skim through to the next combat-oriented chapter...