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<blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 2169741" data-attributes="member: 28854">Obviously Superior Bad Ass things (OSBA's) are no problem.&nbsp; I mean, when the bunch of first level characters are out looking for their first dungeon and a Hill Giant comes lumbering past their campsite, the characters aren't expecting to fight it; if they're even slightly more intelligent than a yeast colony, they'll hide.&nbsp; But if the situation precludes that or the Hide Roll Dice aren't with them today, they'll find themselves talking for their lives in the face of an OSBA.&nbsp;This strikes me as a perfectly legitimate roleplaying situation.&nbsp;If the OSBA turns to them partway through the conversation and says, &quot;Well, in return for me not eating you right here and now, I require you to go through the Maze of Improbably Constructed Traps to the uttermost depths of the Cavern of Very Predictable Encounters, wherefrom you shall retrieve the Handkerchief of Doom upon which I desire to blow my nose&quot; - at that point suspension of belief fades away and hackles start to rise, because I just know that within a couple of gaming sessions we'll have met a mysterious dark hooded figure, which is a kind of Plot Event Horizon beyond which it is impossible for the adventure which results to be anything but total rubbish.&nbsp;You see, a defining characteristic of OSBA's is that they are more capable of doing this stuff than the PC's are.&nbsp; If they weren't, they wouldn't be OSBA's.&nbsp; There are a very limited number of possible reasons why the OSBA might need help from the PC's and they have ALL been used so many times that they've become extremely hackneyed and dull.&nbsp;A lighter touch is called for.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="PapersAndPaychecks, post: 2169741, member: 28854"] Obviously Superior Bad Ass things (OSBA's) are no problem. I mean, when the bunch of first level characters are out looking for their first dungeon and a Hill Giant comes lumbering past their campsite, the characters aren't expecting to fight it; if they're even slightly more intelligent than a yeast colony, they'll hide. But if the situation precludes that or the Hide Roll Dice aren't with them today, they'll find themselves talking for their lives in the face of an OSBA. This strikes me as a perfectly legitimate roleplaying situation. If the OSBA turns to them partway through the conversation and says, "Well, in return for me not eating you right here and now, I require you to go through the Maze of Improbably Constructed Traps to the uttermost depths of the Cavern of Very Predictable Encounters, wherefrom you shall retrieve the Handkerchief of Doom upon which I desire to blow my nose" - at [i]that[/i] point suspension of belief fades away and hackles start to rise, because I just know that within a couple of gaming sessions we'll have met a mysterious dark hooded figure, which is a kind of Plot Event Horizon beyond which it is impossible for the adventure which results to be anything but total rubbish. You see, a defining characteristic of OSBA's is that they are more capable of doing this stuff than the PC's are. If they weren't, they wouldn't be OSBA's. There are a very limited number of possible reasons why the OSBA might need help from the PC's and they have ALL been used so many times that they've become extremely hackneyed and dull. A lighter touch is called for. [/QUOTE]

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