Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6268148" data-attributes="member: 4937">a) Savings throws don't exist in the game world.  Saving throws aren't part of the fiction.  The populace needs some theory in the fiction for why some people resist magical compulsion and others don't.   They notice that people with stronger will power seem more difficult to bewitch, and further those with stronger convictions are also more difficult to bewitch.  They therefore come up with the theory that people fail to resist magical compulsion because of some weakness in their makeup.  While we are on the subject, exactly what theory would you come up with where you inside the fiction and had only those available facts?b) Big giant D20's don't exist in the fiction, and don't rattle around and leave evidence behind them.  And while some members of the community might consider it all luck who is victimized and who isn't and who can say, many people in the society believe that things are happening for some logical reason and that there are some sorts of rules or laws that govern existence.c) As a practical matter, the average community of peasant farmers just simply doesn't have the means to investigate claims of charms, domination, and possession.  All they know is that Joe has gone berserk.  He's in court pleading that a devil made him do it.   Either he's lying about being possessed, in which case he is a monster.  Or else he's provingly susceptible to the influence of a monster and equally dangerous to the community.  Either way, Joe has to go.  "Sorry Joe, hope you can forgive us and understand why we are doing it.   If you really are innocent, I hope your next life is more pleasant than this one.   If we find your monster, we'll try our best to fight it and avenge you."As a matter of narrative, this is exactly the sort of complex question that I find satisfying to explore within my game.   A set up where a harsh judge condemns another for weakness of will, only to find himself the next victim is exactly the sort of difficult question I wish to pose in my games.   I'm not sure there is a right answer here, but rather than condemning my governments legal codes come up with a workable framework that doesn't depend on casting high level magics.   Keep in mind that the normal tools of magical investigation don't work perfectly well, and generally aren't admissible in court either (because who is going to watch the watchers?) .   What do you want them to do?  Trial by combat?  Trial by ordeal?  If its all random chance anyway, just a 'big d20 rolling in the sky', none of that would work.  They work with what they have.Essentially, yes.I claim it makes sense.  Whether or not it is just, I'm not prepared to rule on.  I've not been forced to live in a world where monsters and warlocks go around controlling men's minds.   I can say I'm certainly sympathetic to my peasants.  It's a brutal world to be a 1st level commoner in.  They are scared and they have every right to be.     The reason I brought it up was in general, most inhabitants of my homebrew would think a deity willing to forgive such behavior is far more forgiving than they would be in the same situation.   If anything, prevailing opinion would be that the forgiveness - and not the punishment - constituted injustice.</blockquote>

Verification