New DN rant -- The Faithless

[Ace32]

Why not just let him do his thing? I mean, the guy is clearly set on doing something "original" (*insert sarcasm there*), and he knows a whole hell of a lot about Krynn and Dragonlance and the like... why not let him be from Krynn? I mean, we all know that most of the basic dragonlance PC races are identical to the ones on Faerun as far as he has to know, so, let him be a Human ___ or an elven ____ from Krynn. Toril has thousands of portals to all sorts of places, including alternate material planes... i believe even Baldur's Gate II had instances of things from other planes (a ninja-to from the scarlet ninjas in Oearth, some knights (something with an S) from Krynn.. bla bla) .. I dunno, a good comprimise might be to let him be from Krynn, as long as he follows the rest of the D&D rules. He'd be at a disadvantage, because he wouldn't know most of Faerunian culture or have any relationship to any organizations or deities.. but he doesn't know that stuff *anyways*, so he'd be able to play the game from a point of view he knows.. which is probably a good way to wean him onto D&D

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

He could have undeniable proof of the power of beings who allegendly call themselves gods, but that is not the same as proof that they are divine. I find it very easy to believe that individuals in the D&D universe would disbelieve in the divinity of gods.

[/i] [/B]

Yeah, if Jesus himself appeared in my cubicle and started morphing my coffee into an alcholic beverage while multiplying my bagel, I'd still think I might be on TV, on drugs, or an extremely powerful alien just landed on Earth. But then again, maybe I'm nuts...

 

[Sammelsurum]

It just bothered me because of why he chose that route for his character -- not even necessarily for his own religious beliefs, but because he was told that most characters have patron dieties. It set off an alarm or something in his head that said, "Ooh! I gotta be different than all those people!"

Im quite sure that if you had played cool at that moment and just said, "sure, whatever you want", he would have lost interest.
It´s just like with parents and kids, the more the parents moralise, the more the kids will defy.
You blew it big time

 

[Storm Raven]

Yeah, if Jesus himself appeared in my cubicle and started morphing my coffee into an alcholic beverage while multiplying my bagel, I'd still think I might be on TV, on drugs, or an extremely powerful alien just landed on Earth. But then again, maybe I'm nuts...

Of course, in the D&D universe, individuals exist who can spontaneously throw balls of fire at their enemies without calling upon the power of any deity. That seems to me to be an element of reality that would tend to diminish the impact of divinely inspired miracles. Like I said before, why is it all that impressive that Charles the Cleric can call down fire from the sky to smite his enemies when William the Wizard can shoot lightning bolts at his opponents with no divine aid at all?

 

[Zappo]

Storm Raven, I agree 100% and a character who doesn't believe the powers are "real gods" is what I suggested in the first place.

 

[Hejdun]

Educate him on FR. I know next to nothing about the Forgotten Realms because my DM is a nazi about us knowing anything. He has forbidden us from looking at the history or anything on FR. The only thing I know about the Forgotten Realms is from the Baldur's Gate manuals.

He might be somewhat like I am. He just doesn't know enough about the Forgotten Realms to have an understanding of how FR works. When he says he wants to be athiest, explain to him that gods used to walk the earth. When he wants to be a minotaur, explain to him that they aren't the same on FR as they are in Dragonlance. Once he understands more, he'll get a hang of it, hopefully.

 

[CWD]

My personal mantra is let the players do what they want, as long as it doesn't step on the toes of the other players.

Let him not believe in the gods. So maybe that makes him a little nutty. So what if he's stealing the idea from Dragonlance? Big whoop.

Let him play a "minotaur", and give him the stats of a Half-Orc with horns that do 1d6 piercing damage (half-orcs are underpowered anyways IMHO) and allow him to take the scent feat as explained in the DMG. He'll never know the difference if he hasn't played D&D before. You can even say to yourself that he's the unfortunate result of a randy drunken orc at a cow tipping party (if you want to discourage him from playing one, you could even tell him that that's where minotaurs come from in the Realms). Now when he starts insisting he's from the Minotaur Empire, you might have a problem...

Or (my personal suggestion), let him play a plane-hopper. Taladian minotars aren't nearly as strong as a "monster" minotaur. Sure he'll think it sucks when the townspeople attack him, but so be it...

 

[The Dungeon Nazi]

Educate him on FR. I know next to nothing about the Forgotten Realms because my DM is a nazi about us knowing anything. He has forbidden us from looking at the history or anything on FR. The only thing I know about the Forgotten Realms is from the Baldur's Gate manuals.

He might be somewhat like I am. He just doesn't know enough about the Forgotten Realms to have an understanding of how FR works. When he says he wants to be athiest, explain to him that gods used to walk the earth. When he wants to be a minotaur, explain to him that they aren't the same on FR as they are in Dragonlance. Once he understands more, he'll get a hang of it, hopefully.

No, it's not about not knowing enough of the setting. It's all part of that "I know better than you" attitude -- DL is better than FR because that's all he's read, and he exhibits fierce, stubborn devotion to Krynn because he's made up his mind. And it *is* like dealing with a child -- once you suggest a couple of FR novels for him to check out to get a feel for the uniqueness of Faerun, he'll go out of his way to explain how much better Raistlin is than "that Elminster guy," using reasoning like "because Dragonlance is better."

I remember reading a post way back about how in White Wolf's Werewolf game, the nature of the PC's beast is determined by what phase of the moon said PC was born under. The poster went on to say that they couldn't stand it when a new player was told this and then exclaimed, "Well, *I* was born during an eclipse!" This is the same thing. When my player was told that *just about* every PC has a patron deity, his response was, "Well, I don't *want* to worship any god!"

Nonetheless, he's playing a Faithless character and that's the end of that issue.

As for the minotaur deal, he just wants to play one because "minotaurs are k3wL". Do they fit into a party of first-level adventurers living in an abandoned farmhouse in Shadowdale? Of course not. "But I *want* one." The only reason he's in my game at all is because he's a longtime friend, and he's never had a decent gaming experience. He has grudgingly accepted a human barbarian as the closest he'll get to playing a minotaur in my game, but he'll never let me forget that minotaurs are k3wL.

So the bottom line on that issue is that he's playing a human barbarian.

 

[Squire James]

Maybe he can play a human barbarian that's under some delusion that he's a minotaur from Krynn. Or perhaps even an actual Krynn minotaur who was permanently transposed in body with some poor human schmuck in Toril. He still has to deal with where he is, and that whole "I wanna be Worf" attitude may wear off after a while.

 

[Henry]

Maybe he can play a human barbarian that's under some delusion that he's a minotaur from Krynn. Or perhaps even an actual Krynn minotaur who was permanently transposed in body with some poor human schmuck in Toril. He still has to deal with where he is, and that whole "I wanna be Worf" attitude may wear off after a while.

Brainstorm! Let him be a minotaur -- he got lost from the original "tribe" or wherever minotaurs come from in FR, but due to malnourishment and mistreatment while growing up, he only has the stats of a half-orc, and is only 6 1/2 feet tall. He'll still be intimidating, but he will have his own bucket of problems to deal with -- like the fact that even orcish communities would turn him out on his butt because of what a horrid aberration he is.