Maintaining Grim and Gritty Flavour!

[Moe Ronalds]

My campaign does have friendly, high level NPCs, but there's always some reason they can't help the PCs (can't commit an act of violence, can't control their power without dangerous results,etc... etc...) if the group ever needs a resurection or something, that's just fine with me. But it always happens when the NPC's church is in the red, and needs to request full payment. Other than that, I tend to have some grim n' gritty adventures, mostly accomplishing this with the most demented things I can think of that would be in-character for whoever's responsible (example; a gnomish necromancer who hacks off half of his victims bodies (removing forearms, shins/calves, stomachs, necks and the bottom jaw) and sews the rest together so that they have proportions somewhat similar to his) But, I have to keep the grim 'n gritty-ness to a controllable level so that my parents don't start to worry about me.

 

[Desdichado]

Wow, this is interesting! Usually these types of threads focus more on mechanics, and nobody has mentioned that yet!

These are great ideas, but I'm interested in how the "superheroic" mechanics of D&D are handled to get "grim and gritty."

 

[Hand of Evil]

DEATH - You have to make it real in a grim and dark world. It has to be there, in the shadows, following everyone around waiting.

World view - Description of the cities, the people. You have to show that hope is beaten down. That life is cheap. That evil wins more than good or at least not defeated.

Hard Choices - Give players moraly changing choices.

 

[Oberton]

Don't tell them what they're facing. Describe what they're facing.

Its not a Death Knight and a couple of sword wraiths.

Its two insubstantial looking warriors, with faintly glowing eyes, clad in dark plate armor, bearing swords, large steel shields & crossbows, moving with unnatural quiet. Unsettling in appearance, but inconsequential compared to the figure standing between them. A charred, near skeletal remnant of a man, with the hellish light of infernal flames radiating from his eye sockets, and visible plumes of steam accompanying every breath. Exuding an almost palpable aura of fear, carrying himself with the practiced ease of a master warrior, seemingly little less than a physical manifestation of death itself. His blackened full plate, large shield and bastard sword all of scorched by flames.

You are so correct in saying this. I run a ton of RPGA rounds and the players always get upset when I DESCRIBE the creature instead of telling them it is a Troll Barbarian with a hint of outsider showing through...

It is so funny when players listen to your description and think they know what they are encountering... Anyway, describing the encounters versus telling the players what they are encountering is the trick...

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Greetings!

Hello Yuan-Ti I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Hey, Shark! I expected something like that. I was joking about it being exactly Warhammer, but the influences were clearly there -- I just like saying it out loud: WARHAMMER!

Like others on these boards, I was thinking, as well, "Damn, I wish Shark was my DM."

Keep up the good work and spread the Warhammer faith!

YT

p.s. Got any Skaven (or Slitheren) in your campaign? Maybe don't tell me... it would make the longing worse.

 

[Desdichado]

It wouldn't be hard to do skaven. You can use either the ratmen from Creature Collection or Nezumi from Oriental Adventures. I've thought about adding them in myself.

 

[Forrester]

I have to concur with what has been suggested above.

In essence: Don't let the PCs know exactly who or what they're f*cking with. When players can't do internal CR calculations to determine the best tactics or likely outcome of a battle, things get that much more interesting. And scary.

 

[Grymlorde]

Grymwurld d20 Game Mechanics

All,

I believe that best way to keep your campaigns grim is to use non-game mechanics to convey mood, feeling, etc. Most importanly, you must know your players and learn how to push their buttons.

However, there are times when game mechanics come in helpful. For example, in Grymwurld:

1. Critical Hits do Temporary Con Ability Score Damage and are not multiplied.

2. Body armor does not add to AC. Instead is it applied as DR to critical hits.

3. All healing magic is empathic. Clerics tend to be reluctant to heal people when they themselves become injured in the process. On the other hand, those that do heal are typically the LG Martyr-types. And of course Raise Dead is extremely rare, since the caster would sacrifice their own life to raise the other. It is also possible to use unwilling (or willing) victims as scapegoats.

4. Detect Evil and Detect Good magics do not exist. This leads to the authorities confusing Law with Good and Chaos with Evil.

For more information, see www.grymwurld.com. BTW, Grymwurld is celebrating 24 years of "grym phantasy."

 

[alsih2o]

grim 'n gritty

grim 'n gritty can often be found with the inclusion of the things that cause a strong reaction in the real world....roll up that siamese twin fighter/mage with a misplaced eye that drools constantly from his mis-shapened mouth.

also remember that the baddies are probably just as evil in their leisure time as in pursuit of p.c. treasure and hides, is that drunken giant against playing william tell with his igre helpers, no matter how many times he screws it up?

and remember that all badness doesn't have a goal, when han solo was brought to the prison cell after being tortured on the cloud planet he says, shocked, "they didn't even ask me any questions"

 

[Snoweel]

Include wicked peasants. This sets the groundwork for a disturbing society.

Homosexuality. Sure everyone professes to be pro-gay these days, but you'd be surprised how supposedly open-minded players are unable to deal rationally with homosexual NPC's.

Paedophilia - nobody likes a rockspider. Want your players to hate the Royal Wizard? Give him a 9 year old boyfriend.

IMC, the (extensive) wilderness is the domain of vicious faerie spirits who hate humanity and civilisation.

Druids are the feral priests of this realm and are likewise hateful toward civilisation. Obviously PC's can't be druids.

My worldview is that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and therefore, 99% of powerful NPC's are wicked and hedonistic.

I guess one can't avoid imposing their own morality onto their gameworld.