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<blockquote data-quote="ParanoydStyle" data-source="post: 7625804" data-attributes="member: 6984451"><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">"When I sit down to roll up a character, I like to think about that character's death. It sounds morbid, but I think that picturing a dramatic last stand is a good way to define a PC's heroism." </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">I am glad I'm not the only one although I only think about this very occasionally, not every time I sit down to roll a character. I think I thought about it most during the Dragonlance War of the Lance reboot campaign I ran in 3.5 because I was radically reshuffling which characters died when and how from the novels. (Ironically, while I didn't finish that campaign, it ended with Sturm being one of the only characters that DIDN'T heroically sacrifice himself (I understand his death caused quite a kerfluffle among fans back in the day). I also gave Flint Fireforge a much more appropriately badass death then him dying of old age in the novels which was lame. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></span><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">I mean, I had to balance all of the above with my philosophy of letting the dice fall where they may and that occasionally caused a problem, like when <s>Joseph Smith</s> Elistan fell off of a bridge while frozen into hot springs which caused him to shatter into a million pieces because </span></span><a href="https://www.quora.com/What-happens-when-you-pour-hot-water-into-a-cold-glass" target="_blank">https://www.quora.com/What-happens-when-you-pour-hot-water-into-a-cold-glass</a> and those pieces float away making resurrecting him effectively impossible. I told Margaret Weis about it at GenCon and she was like (in her own completely not vulgar and much more polite way) "well you're party's pretty f**ed without a cleric" lol.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Likewise, poor sexy Tika Waylan got straight up spit-roasted by Kitiara doing a dragon-mounted lance charge. Confirmed critical hit while charging with a lance can very easily equal 'you're dead' in 3.5 and it did take her from full hp to exactly -11 in that one hit. I remember narrating Kit's dragon barbecuing poor poor poor Tika since she was conveniently spitted on the lance right in front of his flamethrower mouth.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Caramon was a much darker and more tragic character after that, descending into alcoholism and needless violence and sullenness, dealing with deeply deeply conflicted feelings about his stepsister Kit who he still kind of loves but also totally needs to kill. Ultimately, I wanted the whole campaign to lead up to an epic confrontation between Raistlin and Caramon, with Caramon trying to stop his brother's ascension. (Canonically as well as in my campaign Raistlin teleported himself out of a sinking ship and left the entire party to die there, which is a real friggin' dick move (hence that's when I had his robes turn black), so Caramon has a damn good reason to be pissed at his bro. Caramon is also intelligent enough IMO to understand that Raistlin is up to SOMETHING extremely bad, even if he couldn't fathom the complex threads of Raistlin's plan to ascend to godhood.) It's my instinct as a dramaturge that Raistlin should have to sacrifice something for his plan to work, and in my mind the most dramatically interesting thing would be being forced to sacrifice his brother. I had every intention of running the fight as a totally fair no-fudging "let the dice fall where they may" between an optimized 12th level fighter and an optimized 12th level black mage with PC(s) able to jump in on either side. But considering the relative power levels of "Fighter" and "Wizard" in D&D 3.5, I think that unless Caramon won the initaitive and got real lucky, Raist probably would have dispatched him easily. Both outcomes interested me in the way they broke the Dragonlance canon. A tearful reconciliation through roleplaying would ahve been cool too.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">We were in Neraka and just a session or two away from that Brother on Brother confrontation that the whole campaign had been leading up to (this campaign was three years in the running and the originating inspiration for it was how much I wanted Caramon and Raistlin to have that fight). My only regular PC (occasionally friends passing through would play different random characters) who was also my fiance, doing double duty as Laurana and her OC, picked that moment to take both of our pets and GTFO of my life forever while I was sleeping (for very understandable reasons). </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Obviously, D&D was the last thing on my mind after being dumped by the love of my life who I'd been with for 11 years (!!) and losing my doggo and kitty, but now that trauma's that's a couple years in the past...man it sucks we didn't finish that campaign before she dumped me! We were at the Temple of Neraka! </span></span><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">We were so effing close!</span></span><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"> </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ParanoydStyle, post: 7625804, member: 6984451"] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]"When I sit down to roll up a character, I like to think about that character's death. It sounds morbid, but I think that picturing a dramatic last stand is a good way to define a PC's heroism." I am glad I'm not the only one although I only think about this very occasionally, not every time I sit down to roll a character. I think I thought about it most during the Dragonlance War of the Lance reboot campaign I ran in 3.5 because I was radically reshuffling which characters died when and how from the novels. (Ironically, while I didn't finish that campaign, it ended with Sturm being one of the only characters that DIDN'T heroically sacrifice himself (I understand his death caused quite a kerfluffle among fans back in the day). I also gave Flint Fireforge a much more appropriately badass death then him dying of old age in the novels which was lame. [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]I mean, I had to balance all of the above with my philosophy of letting the dice fall where they may and that occasionally caused a problem, like when [s]Joseph Smith[/s] Elistan fell off of a bridge while frozen into hot springs which caused him to shatter into a million pieces because [/FONT][/COLOR][URL]https://www.quora.com/What-happens-when-you-pour-hot-water-into-a-cold-glass[/URL] and those pieces float away making resurrecting him effectively impossible. I told Margaret Weis about it at GenCon and she was like (in her own completely not vulgar and much more polite way) "well you're party's pretty f**ed without a cleric" lol. [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Likewise, poor sexy Tika Waylan got straight up spit-roasted by Kitiara doing a dragon-mounted lance charge. Confirmed critical hit while charging with a lance can very easily equal 'you're dead' in 3.5 and it did take her from full hp to exactly -11 in that one hit. I remember narrating Kit's dragon barbecuing poor poor poor Tika since she was conveniently spitted on the lance right in front of his flamethrower mouth.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial]Caramon was a much darker and more tragic character after that, descending into alcoholism and needless violence and sullenness, dealing with deeply deeply conflicted feelings about his stepsister Kit who he still kind of loves but also totally needs to kill. Ultimately, I wanted the whole campaign to lead up to an epic confrontation between Raistlin and Caramon, with Caramon trying to stop his brother's ascension. (Canonically as well as in my campaign Raistlin teleported himself out of a sinking ship and left the entire party to die there, which is a real friggin' dick move (hence that's when I had his robes turn black), so Caramon has a damn good reason to be pissed at his bro. Caramon is also intelligent enough IMO to understand that Raistlin is up to SOMETHING extremely bad, even if he couldn't fathom the complex threads of Raistlin's plan to ascend to godhood.) It's my instinct as a dramaturge that Raistlin should have to sacrifice something for his plan to work, and in my mind the most dramatically interesting thing would be being forced to sacrifice his brother. I had every intention of running the fight as a totally fair no-fudging "let the dice fall where they may" between an optimized 12th level fighter and an optimized 12th level black mage with PC(s) able to jump in on either side. But considering the relative power levels of "Fighter" and "Wizard" in D&D 3.5, I think that unless Caramon won the initaitive and got real lucky, Raist probably would have dispatched him easily. Both outcomes interested me in the way they broke the Dragonlance canon. A tearful reconciliation through roleplaying would ahve been cool too.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial]We were in Neraka and just a session or two away from that Brother on Brother confrontation that the whole campaign had been leading up to (this campaign was three years in the running and the originating inspiration for it was how much I wanted Caramon and Raistlin to have that fight). My only regular PC (occasionally friends passing through would play different random characters) who was also my fiance, doing double duty as Laurana and her OC, picked that moment to take both of our pets and GTFO of my life forever while I was sleeping (for very understandable reasons). Obviously, D&D was the last thing on my mind after being dumped by the love of my life who I'd been with for 11 years (!!) and losing my doggo and kitty, but now that trauma's that's a couple years in the past...man it sucks we didn't finish that campaign before she dumped me! We were at the Temple of Neraka! [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]We were so effing close![/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial] [/FONT][/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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