How would you feel?

[jdavis]

One player briefly talked to the DM. The impression the player got is that is that the DM is hoping not to get involved either way and that we can handle it with the player. He doesn't want to have to tell her no. The DM also mentioned if we all waited to do the backstorys together this might not have happened. Sadly I now have to agree...

This here sort of bothers me too, It's the DMs job to tell somebody yes or no on things that might adversly affect his campaign. Basically this says the DM is hoping not to get involved with his own game world. Why is everyone treating her with kid gloves? Are people afraid of her? Will asking her to change two lines in her background because they just don't work going to hurt her feelings? It's a good background, she just needs to change two sentences, why didn't he say:"That's real good but could you change this part about capturing them because it just doesn't fit?" I felt better when I thought he just missed it, it sounds like he is letting it slide either to prove some kind of point or because he is scared to speak up. The two sentences can be fixed in a few minutes but it seems that wasn't the actual problem here. It's his responsibility to make sure that everything works in the game he is running, for him to turn a blind eye to a problem he could of fixed in 5 minutes doesn't bode very well for the game.

Here as a example I'll fix the background, it will only take a second and will not actually change the feel of it.

I then devised a plan and set my traps. Of course the traps worked but alas why did I not think about the fact that a dragon would not come back to a town where no food or wealth was offered. Instead of a dragon I caught the self same party that Roger was so intimidated by.

I played "scared innocent orphan" for a while, just to be sure they were not about to ransack my town. Once I learned they were not there to loot the town I offered them a decent hot meal.

Over the meal I inform them of my plight, leaving out the bit about the thieving and all, I may be arrogant but I am not stupid, and they feel sorry for me and escort me back to Southfordshire with a promise to get this dragon which now has a taste for flesh. Well you won't believe it but these marauding adventurers actually overthrew my old guild and now the city is safe and boring and I am stuck here with nothing to do.

There it totally leaves out being captured and begging for food. No mention of how the group got out of the trap, it's just assumed they did, no mention of pleading or begging or the halfling having any power over the party at any time, I changed three words in one sentence and rewrote the second. It took less than a minute. Somebody please talk to the girl so she will understand that 1. Traps set for Dragons are completly different than traps set for medium sized creatures (how would you capture a Dragon with a non-magical trap? I can think of several ways but none that would also capture high level characters) 2. Most traps in D&D are designed to kill or maim not capture, she needs to describe her traps if she is going to use them and 3. At high levels (over 10) most characters would of either reflexed saved or easily escaped any non-magical trap, the story of capturing them just doesn't work well with the way the game is set up, aside from also being mildly rude to the other players.

 

[just__al]

Well, we gamed today. Before the session started we presented our concerns and explained that proper ettiquette is not to involve characters in backgrounds the way that she did without first asking.

She was totally willing to make adjustments and nobody had to get upset. The group is travelling away from civilization and the encounters started off real easy and have been getting a little harder so the DM seems to be slowly ramping us up to EL's closer to our level.

We'll see what happens from here, but I think it's all going to be good.

 

[Xeriar]

Well, we gamed today. Before the session started we presented our concerns and explained that proper ettiquette is not to involve characters in backgrounds the way that she did without first asking.

She was totally willing to make adjustments and nobody had to get upset. The group is travelling away from civilization and the encounters started off real easy and have been getting a little harder so the DM seems to be slowly ramping us up to EL's closer to our level.

We'll see what happens from here, but I think it's all going to be good.

Yay!

 

[Oni]

Well, we gamed today. Before the session started we presented our concerns and explained that proper ettiquette is not to involve characters in backgrounds the way that she did without first asking.

She was totally willing to make adjustments and nobody had to get upset. The group is travelling away from civilization and the encounters started off real easy and have been getting a little harder so the DM seems to be slowly ramping us up to EL's closer to our level.

We'll see what happens from here, but I think it's all going to be good.

Yahoo, common sense wins the day.

 

[Delemental]

Though it seems the issue has been resolved (score one for communication!), I'm curious as to how she plans to adjust her background.

To be honest, I think she could modify it without really changing too much of what happened. Looking at the problem part of the background:

then devised a plan and set my traps. Of course the traps worked but alas why did I not think about the fact that a dragon would not come back to a town where no food or wealth was offered. Instead of a dragon I caught the self same party that Roger was so intimidated by.

I let them stew for a while, just to be sure they were not about to ransack my town. After much pleading on their side and a few large and scary spells thrown my way I decided to let them out and even feed them as it seemed they could use it.

Over the meal I inform them of my plight, leaving out the bit about the thieving and all, I may be arrogant but I am not stupid, and they feel sorry for me and escort me back to Southfordshire with a promise to get this dragon which now has a taste for flesh. Well you won't believe it but these marauding adventurers actually overthrew my old guild and now the city is safe and boring and I am stuck here with nothing to do.

The problem is a matter of tone - as you said, the whole 'making you beg for mercy' aspect of her story. She could still do everything she said here, but change her attitude. She set her traps to catch a dragon, but instead caught a party of adventurers, the same ones that she'd heard were coming to clean up her town (maybe they were overconfident after some recent victory and weren't expecting an ambush in a town that had obviously just been destroyed by a dragon). Well, that's not good. So she lets them 'stew a while' - in reality she's trying to figure out a plan. Perhaps she tries to bluff the party into thinking she's this ruthless bandit lord at first, hoping they'll just leave, but when they start to threaten her back she realizes (being a practical sort) that she's outgunned. So she switches to something she hasn't used much - the truth.

Her character sounds to me like someone who likes to put up a good front; who 'talks tough' and 'plays by her own rules'. Someone who doesn't like to show weakness. This may be what influenced her original background.

Obviously, this is only one idea; she has to decide for herself what changes to make. But I don't think she'll need to rewrite her entire background.

 

[jdavis]

Yahoo, common sense wins the day.

The amazing power of speaking up. Most people respond well to polite communication. The girl who's history was in question actually wrote a decent background and the tone of it was of somebody that wanted to get into a character, it a definate "A for effort" situation, I'm glad it worked out ok in the end.