Meta-gaming Player

[Aeolius]

sub-plots are your friends....

..I wouldn't let him carry into town the 9 light crossbows and 9 longspears that he had taken from some fiendish locathah ...

Perhaps the next town does not allow the open display of weaponry. All weapons are checked at the gatehouse of the captain of the guard. When the PCs return for them, perhaps with a local weaponsmith, to examine the goods for resale, they discover the gatehouse has been ransacked, the guards slain, and the only items missing are those taken from the locathah. The PCs would, of course, be detained for questioning.

I asked where and how he planned to get the paper and materials from. He said that they were common items and he should be able to find them easily.

Do not make the assumption that common ink and parchment may be used for the scribing of scrolls. Finding the right ink, quill, and parchment can be adventures themselves.

He also mentioned that he had converted his excess gold in 500gp each silver pearls!

Did he realize that carrying around such rare baubles would attract the attention of.... fiendish locathah!!!

However the background is that his wife was taken by slavers.

Keep that one in the foreground. Drop clues as to the whereabouts of the slavers. Let him catch up, only to discover the slaves had recently been sold to a band of dwarven miners. When he catches up to the dwarves, he'll find that many of the slaves had been abducted by mind flayers... etc etc etc

 

[VirgilCaine]

to scribe a spell on a scroll. The party is in the city of Freeport, a reasonably big place. He just wanted to cross off XXgp from his character sheet and then scribe the scroll. I asked where and how he planned to get the paper and materials from. He said that they were common items and he should be able to find them easily.

I agree with him--this isn't 2e, you can get normal paper and ink and scribe a scroll. He could get it from a paperseller, a temple of knowledge or a friendly wizard or whatever. What does it matter? Sure, you could introduce a plot by using the seller as a lead-in to an adventure, but couldn't you just ask him who it is when you want to do this? If I was playing once a month for 4-4.5 hours, I'd want to get to the adventure, not dilly-dally buying mundane items.

Perhaps the next town does not allow the open display of weaponry. All weapons are checked at the gatehouse of the captain of the guard. When the PCs return for them, perhaps with a local weaponsmith, to examine the goods for resale, they discover the gatehouse has been ransacked, the guards slain, and the only items missing are those taken from the locathah. The PCs would, of course, be detained for questioning.

That's ridiculous. If the PCs are untrustworthy drifters with no job prospects, sure. But if they have any kind of reputation or connections to civilized society, this is unnecessary. D&D is a dangerous world.

 

[Aeolius]

D&D is a dangerous world.

Dungeons - yes. Towns - not always. Most reasonably sized towns, especially those protected by walls, will most likely employ some form of local law enforcement. It is the job of the town guards, to protect the citizenry.

If you allow free display and use of weapons in a town, at the very least most establishments would prohibit their possession. No self-respecting tavern is going to allow a party of adventurers to carry in daggers, swords, axes, and crossbows.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Dungeons - yes. Towns - not always. Most reasonably sized towns, especially those protected by walls, will most likely employ some form of local law enforcement. It is the job of the town guards, to protect the citizenry.

If you allow free display and use of weapons in a town, at the very least most establishments would prohibit their possession. No self-respecting tavern is going to allow a party of adventurers to carry in daggers, swords, axes, and crossbows.

Yes, protect the citizenry from monsters, not crusading heroes.

Like the tavern could stop the adventurers from carrying weapons? Or want them not to be armed? I mean hey, these are heroes...or nasty outlaws. Either way, not someone to be trifled with.

 

[Aeolius]

Yes, protect the citizenry from monsters, not crusading heroes.

I suppose it depends on how humanocentric the campaign is. Nowadays, most adventuring parties are difficult to distinguish from your average band of "monsters".

Like the tavern could stop the adventurers from carrying weapons? Or want them not to be armed? I mean hey, these are heroes...or nasty outlaws. Either way, not someone to be trifled with

Which renders those "heroes" no different than bullies. A L10 Paladin will respect the authority of a 0-level guard, when deferring to the local laws. A PC who does not surrender their weapon when entering a tavern is asking for a night in the local lockup.

 

[merelycompetent]

Perhaps the next town does not allow the open display of weaponry. All weapons are checked at the gatehouse of the captain of the guard. When the PCs return for them, perhaps with a local weaponsmith, to examine the goods for resale, they discover the gatehouse has been ransacked, the guards slain, and the only items missing are those taken from the locathah. The PCs would, of course, be detained for questioning.

First time it happens, my character is outraged and sets out to track down the thieves and bring them to justice, clear my character's good name, and get my character's property back.

Second time it happens, after my character's taken reasonable precautions, I talk with my DM to see if I'm getting jerked around or if this is part of an in-game plot.

Third time it happens, assuming it isn't part of an in-game plot, I quit that game becase the DM is jerking me around. I tell all my gaming buddies about my experience with that DM. And if I'm feeling particularly vitriolic, I post it on a gaming message board.

Do not make the assumption that common ink and parchment may be used for the scribing of scrolls. Finding the right ink, quill, and parchment can be adventures themselves.

Thank the game designers that this was done away with in 3rd Ed. Of course, if the DM has houseruled it back in, I better know about it before the game starts. Otherwise, as a player, I'd be justified in my aggravation about the sudden, unannounced change.

Keep that one in the foreground. Drop clues as to the whereabouts of the slavers. Let him catch up, only to discover the slaves had recently been sold to a band of dwarven miners. When he catches up to the dwarves, he'll find that many of the slaves had been abducted by mind flayers... etc etc etc

IMO, this is one of the basic ideas behind creating a campaign. It can, however, be taken way too far. If my character can't ever accomplish his goals because he's always a day late, getting robbed repeatedly, and can't stop it from happening, then there is no reason for my character to continue travelling with the party. Yup. Time to roll up a new character. (What do you think of Pun-Pun as a name? )

 

[Aeolius]

Thank the game designers that this was done away with in 3rd Ed. Of course, if the DM has houseruled it back in, I better know about it before the game starts.

To be honest, I haven't DMed a 3e game that used standard scrolls. They are less than effective, underwater. Infusions, however, make an acceptable substitute.

 

[Storm Raven]

Or try to get him to sell elven thinblades in a dwarven mining town... noit gonna happen, man.

Why not? If I'm a dwarf, buying the things cheap to resell (or melt down and forge into something else) makes sense even if I don't intend to use the thinblades.

 

[Storm Raven]

It's not like gems and jewels are as liquid and fungible as the coin of the realm.

Yeah, they are probably much more fungible than most coins.

In the pre-modern era, coins were notoriously lousy as a means of transaction. They were usually shaved, cut, dusted, and clipped. In many cases, they were made of diluted alloys. Just about every shopkeeper kept scales on hand to weigh the coins people brought in, which were valuable for their metal content, and not for the minted symbols in them. The "coin of the realm" was basically just a away to move silver around. Gems, being much harder to dilute and trim, hold their value pretty well in transactions.

In RPGs, the fact that coins for the middle-ages were such a pain in the rear end to use is handwaved away for convenience, and rightly so (playing out the headaches of daily life in such a society is not what I call "fun"), but if you handwave the difficulty of using coins, what justification is there to screw with your players when they use gemstones?

 

[deltadave]

I am bringing in a roleplaying award as of next session. It will be something along the lines of the GM scores each player from 1-10 each session depending on how well he played his character. This is then multiplied by 20(?)XP and their character level.

So a level 4 character (the party's current level) could get anywhere from 80 (1 x 20 x 4) to 800 (10 x 20 x 4) roleplaying XP each session.

I still haven't decided on how big the roleplaying XP should be (up to 800 XP per session sounds a little high for level 4 characters) but you get the general idea.

As for his wife, so far he hasn't shown any interest in following it up. Maybe if I remind him and give him some clues about it then I may get somewhere.

Olaf the Stout

I toss out poker chips with fractional CR values for good roleplay. This has two benefits - immediate feedback and I don't have to remember at the end of the night who did what and whether it was in character or not...

I think that I use white as 1/8CR, blue as 1/4CR and red as 1/2CR for XP purposes.

For rewards I try and split xp as follows - 1/4 combat, 1/4 story goals, 1/4 roleplay and 1/4 miscellaneous actions (solving in game problems, writing a game log, anything that enhances the game experience but isn't covered above).