Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Failed DM Experiements
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 1253437" data-attributes="member: 5435"><p>I always find that the more interesting the NPC, the less likely they are to survive. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile :-)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></p><p></p><p>In an old Fantasy Hero game I developed an alchemist character who was, if not insane, definitely getting there. He wasn't playing a major role in the plot or anything, but he was fun to role-play and I was hoping to use him from time to time to give the party quests in exchange for juicy rewards.</p><p></p><p>Their first quest's reward was to be a potion that increases one of their stats permanently, but I was very careful to play the NPC so that he was clearly unbalanced and promised only that such potions were one possible reward.</p><p></p><p>When the party got back, he gave them a modified prisoner's dilemma, taking them into a room one by one and giving each the choice of white or black stones. If you chose a white stone, you would get a potion for every black stone chosen by the party. If you chose a black stone, you would get 500 gold for every white stone chosen by the party.</p><p></p><p>Well, they griped and grumbled but submitted to the game. All of them chose white stones up until the last player, who thought a little more deeply and selflessly and picked black. The result was that she got a lot of gold and everyone else got a single potion; I also intended for the more selfless players to get favored status with the alchemist in future encounters.</p><p></p><p>The intent of this game was to foster some interaction and bonding experience between the PC's, put a spotlight on their character, etc.</p><p></p><p>The result was that as soon as the party got their potions, one of the PCs drew on the alchemist and killed him with a called shot to the head. I was shocked and appalled; the alchemist had no combat skills or defenses to speak of. The action was certainly in character for the PC (a viking type with a temper), and I pulled a death curse out of my ass for that character (the blow wasn't quite hard enough to knock him out instantly). The rest of the party was also rather surprised, but didn't make too much fuss; and I think the event overshadowed any interparty bonding that I was hoping to foster.</p><p></p><p>Lesson learned, however: NPC's should know better than to deal with adventurers without backup.</p><p></p><p>--Ben</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fuindordm, post: 1253437, member: 5435"] I always find that the more interesting the NPC, the less likely they are to survive. :-) In an old Fantasy Hero game I developed an alchemist character who was, if not insane, definitely getting there. He wasn't playing a major role in the plot or anything, but he was fun to role-play and I was hoping to use him from time to time to give the party quests in exchange for juicy rewards. Their first quest's reward was to be a potion that increases one of their stats permanently, but I was very careful to play the NPC so that he was clearly unbalanced and promised only that such potions were one possible reward. When the party got back, he gave them a modified prisoner's dilemma, taking them into a room one by one and giving each the choice of white or black stones. If you chose a white stone, you would get a potion for every black stone chosen by the party. If you chose a black stone, you would get 500 gold for every white stone chosen by the party. Well, they griped and grumbled but submitted to the game. All of them chose white stones up until the last player, who thought a little more deeply and selflessly and picked black. The result was that she got a lot of gold and everyone else got a single potion; I also intended for the more selfless players to get favored status with the alchemist in future encounters. The intent of this game was to foster some interaction and bonding experience between the PC's, put a spotlight on their character, etc. The result was that as soon as the party got their potions, one of the PCs drew on the alchemist and killed him with a called shot to the head. I was shocked and appalled; the alchemist had no combat skills or defenses to speak of. The action was certainly in character for the PC (a viking type with a temper), and I pulled a death curse out of my ass for that character (the blow wasn't quite hard enough to knock him out instantly). The rest of the party was also rather surprised, but didn't make too much fuss; and I think the event overshadowed any interparty bonding that I was hoping to foster. Lesson learned, however: NPC's should know better than to deal with adventurers without backup. --Ben [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Failed DM Experiements
Top