Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9837909" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I think the big concern that would descend from most of this is: You run the risk of the players deciding that nothing they ever hear is correct--ever. That it's all lies, all the way down, every time. When faith is repeatedly repaid with betrayals or brutal revelations of the true situation, the lesson that teaches is "faith is a sucker's game". That's....a dangerous lesson to teach your players, because it pushes them much closer to murderhoboism.I'm not saying this is guaranteed, or even necessarily likely. I do think it is likely if you don't head it off at the pass, but that's my biases talking. Regardless of those biases, the risk is definitely there--and even a small risk of such a thing needs to be taken seriously.If you're prepared for a game where the players view all authority figures as inherently corrupt, or at least duplicitous and suspect, then awesome, no precautions needed. But if you aren't, I would suggest making sure that there's a genuine mix of things that truly deserve a "roast", things that deserve way more than a mere "roast", and things which don't really deserve that harsh response at all even if they do still need to improve.As a good example of that, let's take a deity the party might interact with and consider how they could LOOK like a jerk, while truly being completely sincere about doing the right things for the right reasons, they just weren't perfect about it. I'll put my favorite on the chopping block: Bahamut. As a dragon, he's inclined to being acquisitive and protectionist, so maybe he tries to get certain groups "on side" by tempting them with investments into their infrastructure, with the expectation of repayment over time, but lenient terms etc. Unfortunately, he only vets the people who actually come to speak to him, not the actual leadership. So the party finds out that Bahamut has--from their perspective--given massive loans to Zhentarim shell companies that are using it to further their human-trafficking business. Looks pretty naughty word, right? What a defender of "Justice" and "Hope", helping further the cause of slavery! But the truth is, he was doing his best and simply overlooked checking the paper trail; he gave people the benefit of the doubt and they abused his trust. Having the players actually see Bahamut glowing with incandescent, righteous fury over being misled in this way would go a long way toward showing that the gods, even if they are imperfect, can still be relied upon to be good, if that's in their nature. That the gods, even when they err, are not inherently doing so out of malice, or laziness, or greed, or whatever else--but rather because they can make mistakes or get hoodwinked.Point being, be careful undermining the moral authority of EVERY figure or group of interest. You're liable to make the world look like grey-and-black morality, and that risks very corrosive effects on player investment and attention.</blockquote>

Verification