D&D General Drama In Your Dungeons?

[doctorbadwolf]

My wife watches tik tok videos, and a lot of it is D&D related. Some of the tropes used in these videos are very dramatic, and it makes me wonder about the games of folks around here!

For me, our games can be silly at times, because we are silly people, but the pathos is very real. What about you? Has your party rogue ever sealed themselves in with the BBEG when they realized they were leading the party into a TPK trap, sacrificing themselves so that their party could live to fight another day? Has the Paladin ever learned that their Paramour was working with the BBEG, and had to grapple with the conflict between love and The Quest in a way they never thought they would? Anyone ever had a character be the love, child, parent, sibling, or childhood best friend of the BBEG?

Hell, anyone has inter-party romance in their games?

I ask in the D&D forum Because other games are built for this sort of stuff, so I’m more interested in our games of D&D , which isn’t.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I ask in the D&D forum Because other games are built for this sort of stuff, so I’m more interested in our games of D&D , which isn’t.

Not in D&D, but in The One Ring, yes.

 

[Dioltach]

In one adventure, I gave all the Redshirts names and backstories. After they had been slaughtered by an ettin, the players decided to take all their possessions back to their loved ones: a love letter, a picture "for Daddy" and so on.

 

[Lanefan]

Inter-party romance is a staple of our games here - sometimes along with the attendant jealousies, crushes, rejections, rivalries, lovers' spats, etc.; and other times along with the attendant marriages, pregnancies, childbirths, and so forth.

We haven't really had the Spock moment often, where a PC nobly sacrifices itself to save the group - in 40 years I can think of it happening maybe once or twice - but I can think of several instances where a PC sacrificed itself to save another specific PC. Far more often we've had the reverse, where a party saves itself from deadly danger by hanging some poor schlub character out to dry - devil take the hindmost, and all that.

Drama arises now and then from unexpected reunions between (or reappearances of) PCs, occasional pranks both small-scale and large (and resulting fallout), intra-party conflict or cross-purposes, and ongoing differences of opinion regarding some in-fiction elements*.

* - these days this is most often Goodly Cleric PCs arguing with Necromancer PCs about undead and whether they should exist or not.

 

[Asisreo]

I remember, one time, a player had followed the BBEG's lieutenant into their lair alone, because they had this personal vendetta (the player knew he was going to die and made a new character beforehand). Well another, different player wanted to follow and save the first player. The second player also had a backup character sheet. Neither of them knew that the other was planning to die, but it was a dramatic scene when only they were in the lair, facing the lieutenant's wrath and being disintegrated. The rest of the party caught up, but when they got together, the lieutenant was gone and only the ashen remains of the party members and their equipment was left.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Hell, anyone has inter-party romance in their games?

At my current tables, no. In the past, most certainly.

 

[Larnievc]

My wife watches tik tok videos, and a lot of it is D&D related. Some of the tropes used in these videos are very dramatic, and it makes me wonder about the games of folks around here!

For me, our games can be silly at times, because we are silly people, but the pathos is very real. What about you? Has your party rogue ever sealed themselves in with the BBEG when they realized they were leading the party into a TPK trap, sacrificing themselves so that their party could live to fight another day? Has the Paladin ever learned that their Paramour was working with the BBEG, and had to grapple with the conflict between love and The Quest in a way they never thought they would? Anyone ever had a character be the love, child, parent, sibling, or childhood best friend of the BBEG?

Hell, anyone has inter-party romance in their games?

I ask in the D&D forum Because other games are built for this sort of stuff, so I’m more interested in our games of D&D , which isn’t.

The game I play in is very much like an episode of Rick and Morty or early Disc World stories.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

In a 3.5 game, a player whose character styled herself a courtesan took the skill Craft: Erection. Does that count as romance?

In 5e terms, she might have had tool proficiency: sexy perfume.

 

[Richards]

In a 3.5 game, a player whose character styled herself a courtesan took the skill Craft: Erection.

What was her PC's name? "Fluffy?"

Johnathan

 

[aco175]

One player wanted to have a PC that kept seeing visions of when he would die. The player explained the scene and I provided the opportunity late in the campaign where he could save the party and the town from the BBEG. The player was satisfied, but had to play one of the NPCs for the last few sessions.