DM seeks help in 'touchy' situation

[Bugaboo]

How do you respond to someone making strong sexual advances toward you during the game when you're the DM? And I'm not talking about just "flirting;" actual sexual references were made.

The situation is this: During our weekly Wednesday night game, I introduced the party to an ol' grumpy dragon suffering from the munchies. In short order, he ate a so-called "diviner" who, ironically, didn't see the end approaching. The rest of the party escaped mostly unscathed and promised to revisit the dragon some day soon when they're stronger.

Well, during a break between "story arcs," the ex-diviner's player left the house to get more drinks. (We usually play at his house, but chip in for goodies.) In the interim, his wife and I were chatting in the kitchen alone. Nice gal; very pretty. We've known each other for a little more than a year now.

As we're cleaning up some of our foodstuff mess, she asks me, point-blank, "Is there anything special I can do to convince you to bring (name withheld)'s wizard back?" She's saying this as she gently puts her hand on my neck near the back of my earlobe, and looks at me with this quirky little grin. "You know, I'd hate to see him upset so badly that you guys stop playing D&D together."

She then stretches up to whisper in my ear something the moderators won't let me repeat here.

Someone came into the room just then, and the moment was lost. The rest of the night went well -- the gang spent most of their time strategizing about how to take down the dragon and/or get the wizard's body parts back.

I guess I'm looking for feedback: What's a good way to bring the wizard back to life? And how can I legitimize the manuver so that he's not a "specialist" diviner anymore (but he's got all of his other standard mage stuff)?

(Background bits: party is sixth level average ... campaign has medium magic flow with high-level wizards and clerics at the larger cities ... party has five (other) members, including fighter, ranger, cleric, cleric/rogue and sorcerer/barbarian. ... no major artifacts on hand ... gold budgeting is usually not an issue; we're flexible ... dragon's home is up in a mountain in the ruins of a long-forgotten dwarven city)

 

[Zhure]

Dave? Is that you?

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Sorry to make fun, but ...

"Dear Dragon Forum, I never thought this could happen to me, but ... "

 

[Wicht]

I am surprised at you Bugaboo, giving in so easily without even trying to fight temptation. If it was my Diviner I would hate to find out years later that the only reason I got my beloved PC back was because the DM was, well... Let's just say that whether we gamed together anymore would be the least of your worries if you know what I mean.

Inform the lady in question you are above that sort of thing and convince the guy to roll up a new PC.

 

[sigfried]

Dude

#1. Stop the mental masturbation and focus. Don't F wtih another mans wife, no matter how hot or sexy she is. If she wants to F around let her get divorced first. You wouldn't want your GM puting it to your wife so don't do it to someone else. Dosn't matter she made an advance, it takes 2 to tango. You should tell her you don't fool around with married women.

#2. This game is doomed. Unless they have an open marriage or some such there is trouble ahead.

#3. If you want some non-resurection way to rescue the Diviner you can have them travel to the lands of the dead (say the dragon has a treasure that might allow this.) THere they can fight for their friends soul, and his spirit could guide them to where they are torturing his body or some such. He loses his desire to see into the future because every time he casts a divination the visions are so horrible he passes out.

 

[kengar]

hee hee, nice troll Bugaboo! the responses should be good

 

[incognito]

If your were a RBDM, you would get "biblical" with the wife, and still not raise the wizard.

counter-trolling is fun too!

 

[Henry]

Private eyes
They're watching you
They see your every move
Private Eyes
watching you
private eyes
watching you, watching you, watching you, watching you


Remember these words. Live them.

 

[Zad]

Two sides to this issue - first is the . . . offer of services (let's call it that) in exchange for considerations for the dead pc. The other is the dead PC.

As for the <ahem> offer, I'm not sure I even want to touch that. Personally, I'm just fine with bribery, and I know a lot of folks with open marriages, but there's just too much situational stuff to want to monkey with here. I'd just laugh it off like it was in jest and move on.

The real question (in my mind) is how do you want to handle death in your campaign. Some DM's like harsh consequences, while other DMs buffer their players from them. Some will kill PCs if they dice say so, and others will only do so if the PC was tragically stupid. Some will kill PCs but make resurrections easily available, while others make coming back from the dead very rare.

So start by figuring out what you want your game world to be like. Given the clerics you mentioned in major cities, I think you could make the magic for a raise dead available in your world easily enough. It could turn into an adventure hook - "Sure we'll raise your friend, but we want you to do something for us..."

Was the PC really dumb or just unlucky? If unlucky, I personally would be more forgiving and get him alive without a lot of hassles. But that's just my two bits. The idea here is to have fun, and dead players don't tend to have much fun. You still want consequences in the game world of course, so using it for an adventure hook is a neat play. It could even be a "you owe us one" thing to hang over their heads for later.

If you want him to ditch being a specialist, I guess the question is "Why?" and does the player want to ditch it as well? If it's being a problem for game mechanics, ask him if he'd consider setting it aside.

Game justification is not too hard - the player's god (or some other god) is peeved he didn't see his own demise coming, and strips his diviniation specialties away. Your goal here as a DM is to not leave the player weaker so if you take something away, give something in return.

Combine both elements, and a god says "You ain't much of a diviner if you didn't see this coming. I will return you to life for another chance but you must set the specialty aside". If the character agrees, give him a true resurrection so he avoids the level loss, and everyone wins.

 

[Ziona]

"You know, I'd hate to see him upset so badly that you guys stop playing D&D together."

I think if the diviner knew his wife was advancing on you in such a way you wouldn't be playing D&D together anyhow!