D&D 5E Companion thread to Survivor:Backgrounds

[EzekielRaiden]

"This Contest is Taking Forever," says Reason This Contest Is Taking Forever.

I literally cannot properly read the list. Every time I attempt to do so, the words swim across the page and I lose my place. Once it becomes manageable (which should be in a couple weeks!), I will be plenty happy to speed things along.

I was using Notepad++ to get counts of things and a spreadsheet to add up the numbers. I can't parse a fifty-plus-item list usefully.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I have eliminated exactly half of the points on the board. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I have eliminated exactly half of the points on the board. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

And this time you won't have people travelling through time to reverse the damage.

 

[bedir than]

And this time you won't have people travelling through time to reverse the damage.

Orrr

Wizard

Wizard Class Details Clad in the silver robes that denote her station, an elf closes her eyes to shut out the distractions of the battlef...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Orrr

Wizard

Wizard Class Details Clad in the silver robes that denote her station, an elf closes her eyes to shut out the distractions of the battlef...

www.dndbeyond.com

Isn't he technically the "Sorcerer Supreme"?

 

[RealAlHazred]

I was using Notepad++ to get counts of things and a spreadsheet to add up the numbers. I can't parse a fifty-plus-item list usefully.

I promise you, you are spending over 100x the effort that I am. I try to clear my murky, muddy thoughts and focus. I find one option that irritated me that one time, and downvote that one; then I find another option that I used once and thought was cool, and upvote that one. Tomorrow, I will have forgotten which ones I chose, so I might choose the same ones or different ones, I don't know. If there's more than one, I close my eyes and put my finger on the screen and pick the one closer to it. Wouldn't surprise me if I pick two for upvote/downvote, and then later pick the same two but upvote/downvote the opposite way!

 

[Aldarc]

City Watch / Investigator 19 Discworld made fantasy cops cool

Sorry, but reality makes fantasy cops deeply uncool, especially in the context of D&D were problems are often solved by violence, assault, and murder.

 

[CleverNickName]

Sorry, but reality makes fantasy cops deeply uncool, especially in the context of D&D were problems are often solved by violence, assault, and murder.

The weird part is how folks want "city watch in a D&D setting" to be the same thing as "a police force in the real world." They can be so much better than that. It's fantasy, after all!

To handle sticky roleplaying situations like "violence, assault, and murder" in my games, I take a page out of Matt Mercer's book and ask, "How do you want to do this?"

Let's say the party is attacked in town, by humans. Without any reliable witnesses, this typically ends with the winner being arrested for murder...the classic DM "gotcha" trap. I'd like to avoid that trap, because it's dull, predictable, and annoying. So when the muggers/pickpockets/assassins/whatever are all reduced to 0 hit points, I announce that the enemy is defeated...and then I ask the players to tell me what "defeated" looks like. It's just a fancy way of asking "HDYWtDT?"

So the players tell me what the defeated enemy looks like. Maybe "defeated" means they are all dead, sure. Or maybe "defeated" means they are all tied up, Scooby-Do style. Maybe they're all unconscious with stars circling around their heads, maybe they were routed and forced to flee, maybe the party releases them with a message for their leader ("you tell 'em we're coming, and hell's coming with us!") Whatever. The players have full control over the consequences (within reason), so there's no "gotcha" nonsense, no need to track lethal vs. nonlethal damage, no hurt feelings.

 

[RealAlHazred]

The players have full control over the consequences (within reason), so there's no "gotcha" nonsense, no need to track lethal vs. nonlethal damage, no hurt feelings.

Wow. Just wow. Do you also hold their hands when things don't go their way, and mutter platitudes to take the sting out of the occasional "bad luck" they suffer?

I'm just messing with you, I do it this way, too. Few results in my games are black-and-white. Everything is a shade of gray, but that doesn't mean it can't go the players' way. Sometimes, they come to regret their previous leniency (or, alternatively, their bloody-mindedness) later on...

 

[Aldarc]

The weird part is how folks want "city watch in a D&D setting" to be the same thing as "a police force in the real world." They can be so much better than that. It's fantasy, after all!

To handle sticky roleplaying situations like "violence, assault, and murder" in my games, I take a page out of Matt Mercer's book and ask, "How do you want to do this?"

Let's say the party is attacked in town, by humans. Without any reliable witnesses, this typically ends with the winner being arrested for murder...the classic DM "gotcha" trap. I'd like to avoid that trap, because it's dull, predictable, and annoying. So when the muggers/pickpockets/assassins/whatever are all reduced to 0 hit points, I announce that the enemy is defeated...and then I ask the players to tell me what "defeated" looks like. It's just a fancy way of asking "HDYWtDT?"

So the players tell me what the defeated enemy looks like. Maybe "defeated" means they are all dead, sure. Or maybe "defeated" means they are all tied up, Scooby-Do style. Maybe they're all unconscious with stars circling around their heads, maybe they were routed and forced to flee, maybe the party releases them with a message for their leader ("you tell 'em we're coming, and hell's coming with us!") Whatever. The players have full control over the consequences (within reason), so there's no "gotcha" nonsense, no need to track lethal vs. nonlethal damage, no hurt feelings.

You say all this as if this will make once difference to me. The bottom line is that choosing to play a police force or city watch, regardless of the fictional backdrop or how "nice" you can make them, makes me and many of my players in my group feel icky.