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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 2448923" data-attributes="member: 30001">Well, the backdrop of the adventure module is a mansion full of crazy magic-users. So, yes, I can see that it would seem silly compared to G1 or S1.  But take the example of the "boxing ring" encounter as described early on the link that started this post. When you look at how the DMs players responded to it, they were mocking the encounter with out-of-character information (eg. Rocky jokes). I can't see any reason why you couldn't believe that a magic user with questionable sanity and a flesh-golem-like-construct wouldn't set up a boxing ring and challenge strangers. I've had an offer to play 3-card-monty with a homeless guy - I'm sure if that dude were an 8th level magic-user his idea of fun could have been more bizarre. If one can't accept that an NPC could have a motive other than that of money or power - I'm not really sure how to bridge that gap. That all of these events (being stranded in the demi-plane, wacky encounters that are a challenge to overcome, the requirement of retrieving items) are "unlikely", but that's the nature of adventure - it really is a story told about an unlikely group of persons in an unlikely situation (and series of such unlikely situations). Even in a serious campaign world I think it's equally absurd to think that there is nothing silly or light-hearted - Tom Bombadill, for example.   To get this out of the way first - some people seem to be of the opinion that if they can't figure out why something is the way that it is, then it must make no sense and therefore is a poor design. This, to me, says more about how that person deals with unknown than anything objective about the situation.  For example, even with some "principles" of economics, there's no reason to completely dismiss the possibility that a village general-store has a suit of platemail for sale. In fact, saying that it's 100% impossible is probably more absurd IMO. I suppose, as you're saying above, that each person has their own tolerance level of the "unlikely". Some DMs probably have the general store of every 3rd village contain an odd item, while others play things more mundane so maybe only 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 sells something strange.  But there's nothing "wrong" with a world that assumes a level of whimsy that might be higher than an individual DM's personal preference. In fact, there's no reason to assume real world psychological or economic principles in a fantasy world - especially when you're dealing with non-humans, or humans with magic powers. And especially when people can't claim to completely understand those principles in the real world either!  We're talking about all possible fantasy world's here. And especially in a magical universe - where a sylph could have settled on a window-sill late at night, for no particular reason, and talked some wizard into a strange idea in his sleep. Consider also that the real world is full of weird circumstances and happenstance governing events. I also think of the things that my players have done in my campaign - and towards the weirder end of the spectrum, the deAmberville's would fit right in.  The last place I'd want to explore and adventure would be some mundane lair of creatures based upon some simple reading of ecological principles in the real world, with only the possibility of "plausible" and "likely" events occuring. I think an adventuring group consisting of a monk and a halfling and whatelse ought to look in the mirror before they laugh too much as the deAmbervilles.</blockquote>

Verification