Player with D&D Game Problem - Advice requested!

[Corsair]

Don't be so quick to blame the DM guys.

If I'm a somewhay [Evil] spellcaster, and I just got interrogated by a paladin, I'd sure as heck wait until the paladin and her party left town before I attacked it too! Heck, the paladin should be thrilled I didn't have my demons attack her and her party FIRST before laying waste to the town!

 

[Jubilee]

I think my Paladin would rather have been attacked by the demons first!

It was not my intention to create a GM bash. At this point I just want to figure out what to do about it and how. No use in crying over spilt milk, as they say..

/ali

 

[Umbran]

As a player, I feel angry and upset that the GM forced us to get to know and like this town so he could blow it up and kill everyone inside. It feels like a cheap trick.
...snip...
Any other suggestions? Want to help me put this in a better perspective? Which option would you pick, and why?

My suggestion is to turn that emotion into character motivation.

It isn't really fair to think of it as a "cheap trick" by the DM. He didn't force you to like the town and its people - you did that on your own. You make it sound as if, in an adventurer's life, the things the adventurer cares about should somehow be safe. But one of the biggest motivators in fiction is personal attachment. People act because they care.

So, the DM has given you something you're suposed to really care about. Have your characters act like they care! Do you care about the Lake of Steam or Calimport? To heck with this trip to do a wizard's bidding! You are a paladin, and there's justice to be done, backed by personal righteous ire to boot! So, go do some booting!

If the evil-doers are already dead, good for you! But, obviously there's still some guilt residing in you. You must atone. Taht means quests and good deeds, and perhaps a late delivery for your poor wizard...

Never throw away an excuse for good drama in a rpg, I say

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Jubilee,

My advice would hinge on two things:
- Don't take anything personally; in campaign events should never overflow into out of campaign relationships (perhaps easier said than done but certainly most important with your husband being the DM).
- Stay true to the character. If this means that they stay out of the game for a while, it's a bummer but it's what you do. I'm a firm believer in keeping the integrity of the character and it sounds like you are too.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Sigurd]

Its not black and white

I can empathise with your situation.

I don't think it is necessarily a cheap trick to have the curse come down on the village after your party leaves.

1. If there were massive magics in place that could decimate a town its not great role playing to simply be blasted from the sky by something you cant stop, understand, or fight. Allowing you to leave has the adventure continue.

2. As others have mentioned, if you party has any reputation the badies would probably wait to spring their trap until you left.

I would share your dissatisfaction with the DM. But then I would look to get even.

1. Its the best way of saving and rebuilding the town you care about.

2. If you told the bad guys about a wizard they were looking for you may have helped them and thats not good.

Expressing some of your feelings through your paladin might bring them into balance. Perhaps a period of prayer and fasting. Seek visions or guidance from your deity about what to do with the situation.

You might have to evacuate the town - or the remains thereof - if you can't build it up enough to survive a winter raid by the orcs. Look for a way to bring strength back to the town but also to weaken its enemies to give it a fighting chance.

See if you can arm and train all the survivors in some sort of defense. Offer to build them a temple to your god and get them as much support as you can through your religious order.

You might get some help from this wizard if you can protect him from the baddies.



You may not have found the destruction 'fun' but give the DM & the game the benefit of the doubt.


Sigurd

 

[Geron Raveneye]

I can only second Crothian on his answer. Turn that event into your character's motivation. You care about what happened, so let your paladin act the same way. At the very least, let him stay behind and help the village some more, as long as there is no more pressing evil to fight. Create an interim character for the next adventure, if the rest of the group doesn't share the sentiment, but make it clear that getting at that Halruuan wizard is top on your paladin's list of priorities, so they know what they deal with when they return to pick him up. Your DM has created a wonderfully motivating event, so run with it. It's one of those things that many players write into their characters' backgrounds, you get the chance to see how it forms a character "live", so to speak. Even though I agree with you that I usually play D&D not to "experience rotten un-realities", you can turn this one into a glorious event. Think about how many times you see something ugly in real life and wish you could change something about it. That's one chance you also get with this story...the chance to set it right again and make those responsible for it face justice. And if this sounds cheesy...hey, we're still talking D&D, right?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

My suggestion is to have the character move on, but never forget. Have her send money to the town to help with the rebuilding. Have her take the Leadership feat and send loyal soldiers there to defend the town against the winter attacks (which no doubt will continue, even though the town is weakened--especially because the town is weakened.)

If your paladin is like mine, then she belongs to part of an established, hierarchical Church. Find yourself a priest and ask for Confession. Role-play out your character's anguish that she couldn't help the town she had come to think of as a second home. Have her express her guilt that she may not have been as diligent as she could have been, and that it cost innocents their lives.

In other words, milk it. Rather than looking at the tragedy as something depressing, try and view it as a beginning. Now there are many tasks your character will be passionately driven to complete. The restoration of the town. The future defense of said town. (You failed it once, and by God you aren't going to fail it again!)

And once the DM sees that you've made this incident central to your character's development, he'll likely start running with it himself. Perhaps your Confessor will agree that you were complicit in the destruction. He's received a dream, that the only way for you to atone for your sin is to forge from this tragedy a beacon of hope. Taking some of the ashes from the burned buildings (and people), you must carry them to the top of the Mountain of Sanctity and deliver them to the hermit Eilonwar, then bear the burden he lays upon you all of your days.

*ahem* I'm being inspired just thinking of the possibilities. If I were your DM, you'd wind up winning a Holy Avenger named Camber's Legacy, and facing down the Elder of Halruua in an epic conflict!

 

[Herobizkit]

Just an addendum...

If your DM is unclear as to what kind of game you'd enjoy, try running a one- or several hsot adventure for him using all the stuff you'd like to see - plots, characters, PC/NPC relationships, tone... all of that goodness.

And, if you're looking for a game that doesn't necessarily deal with a lot of combat and has a role-play heavy world in which everything is more or less "good", check out the Blue Rose setting by Green Ronin. Very nice setting.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

You're obviously a person who identifies strongly with her character.

Given that, I can only add my voice to those who suggest that you take your feelings of having been betrayed, deceived, or cheated in some way, and channel them into motivating your character.

It's perfectly understandable that your paladin would feel anguished that the town she defended was destroyed by a conspiracy that waited until she and her suspicious-of-the-conspirators friends left town. She would feel angry at herself for not doing more to uncover the plot, but more angry at the conspirators for what they've done to her friends and comrades in Camber.

Don't push your feelings away - use them! Maybe your paladin even feels cheated by her god, who could have done more to guide her to preventing the tragedy. Resolving the conflict between such feelings of betrayal and her paladinic faith and calling sounds like a great opportunity for role-playing to me.

I agree with those who suggest that the right thing for your paladin to do is stay in Camber, help it recover, and track down the conspirators to bring them to justice. This might mean that this character misses out on the journey to the Lake of Steam and Calimport - or it could mean another opportunity to stretch your roleplaying muscles and convince the rest of the party to aid you in your task.

On a metagame level, you shouldn't ever play a game of D&D if you're not enjoying it. You obviously play at least partially for escapism - and if unpreventable tragedies on this scale aren't fun for you to deal with, and you don't think you can get any use out of my preceding advice because you're just too depressed by what's happened, then that is something that you should have communicated - and definitely should communicate as soon as possible - to the DM and to the other players in the group.

Nearly every problem of this type could have been avoided if the group sat down and discussed the type of things they're comfortable with in a game and what they're not comfortable with - without judgement of any individual's preferences, mind you. If you don't want to have to deal with what amounts to a complete negation of the hard work you did to save Camber over the winter, even one you could have prevented, then the DM and the other people in your group should have known this from the start.

It's okay for you to feel that way! I might not agree with you myself (and in fact, the scenario you outline is one I'd love to play through), but everybody gets something personal out of roleplaying. This preference of yours is exactly as reasonable as, say, a given DM's preference for running parties without evil or chaotic neutral characters, or a given gaming group's preference for Howard-and-Leiber-inspired fantasy rather than Tolkien-derived tropes, or whatever.

The only hard fact you might have to face is that, husband or no, your DM (and the other players in the group, equally as importantly) may not be interested in playing on your terms. Incompatibility with a group you already play with is a hard thing to realise, more often than not, but if it turns out that no-one else has a problem with what's going on you might just have to accept that you can't have your ideal gaming experience in that group. Be prepared for that possibility.

 

[tonym]

I think you did a fine job of running your paladin. The 'mistake' of not asking the perfect question is not a real mistake. You did nothing wrong.

Likewise, neither did the DM.

I think you should relax a little, and keep running your paladin.


Tony M