Laws of Nature

[Kuld]

How many people here, PCs and DMs, have their Players abide by the “laws of nature”?

By this I mean eating and drinking regularly, and most importantly, relieving themselves. I for one have a hard time fitting or remembering the latter in my games. I was just wondering who else does and how they handle it. Is it important?

The main reason I’m asking is because I am working on some ideas for an adventure and could probably use some feedback.

 

[Galethorn]

What ever you do, don't make the adventure focus on finding a magical toilet!

But, in all seriousness, I haven't had any trouble with those, uh, concerns; eating is just something that happens between bits of action, and, well, relieving one's self has only come up in one instance; a rogue with very low wisdom awakened a sleeping Black Dragon in a pitch-dark cave by accidentally peeing on said sleeping dragon's nose. To be fair, I try to include wash rooms and and toilets when I design dungeons and castles, but they have yet to actually come up.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Uhm...err...roll a dice?

How many people here, PCs and DMs, have their Players abide by the “laws of nature”?

By this I mean eating and drinking regularly, and most importantly, relieving themselves. I for one have a hard time fitting or remembering the latter in my games. I was just wondering who else does and how they handle it. Is it important?

The main reason I’m asking is because I am working on some ideas for an adventure and could probably use some feedback.

 

[Greylock]

How many people here, PCs and DMs, have their Players abide by the “laws of nature”?

Uhm, no. I don't play that game.

 

[Aaron L]

WEll, eating was always a big part of my characters. Id decide what kind of food they liked, and wether they ate a lot or a little. Ordering food at inns was always a fun thing for everyone in our games. (Stealing a bit from Caramon, my cleric Father Arloch was a large muscular man, and ate 3 times as much as everyone else at every meal) Relieving ourselves wasnt something we really talked about, just because we didnt think of it, but sometiems we would mention it when taking a break in a dungeon we were exploring, or something similiar. "we'll use this room to pee in" was pretty much about it.

 

[Sejs]

Oh they abide by them, they just generally abide by them off-camera unless it might be pertinent such as in a situation where supplies might run low, or if someone's waiting to ambush the party while they make camp.

 

[Shemeska]

We talk about food, sleep, and sex without any problems. Taking care of the call of nature, so to speak, however isn't something that I or my players have any interest in even mentioning in the game.

I'm not suddenly going to have PCs make fort saves to hold it in, or to suddenly have one PC die in agony in a spectacular reenactment of the death of Tycho Brahe, sans silver nose, if they didn't specify that they went to the bathroom at some point in the last X amount of time.

I've only seen one game where the DM went out of their way to literally micromanage just how much the PCs ate, drank, slept and relieved themselves, and to say that the game didn't take upon a 'who will the DM **** over next' tone would be lying. Micromanaging that really made the game too adversarial, too DM vs PCs to even be enjoyable most of the time. That sort of tone deserves to stay buried. Preferably up to its neck on a beach, waiting for the tide to come in. Or something malicious like that.

 

[mythusmage]

A then 9 year old Alex Gygax (the Col.'s kid) came up with a magical plant called the toilet tree. Had all the amenities, complete with charmin' leaves.

 

[WayneLigon]

I've long threatened to have a wilderness encounter that begins... 'OK, Bob was on watch with you and he went off to use the latrine y'all dug for the camp... and it's been several minutes now...'

 

[Anti-Sean]

How many people here, PCs and DMs, have their Players abide by the “laws of nature”?

When I'm hosting a game, they damn well better abide by the laws of nature - preferably in the room designed for it! As far as characters go, it's usually assumed that that sort of thing happens off camera.

ObHomerQuote: "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"