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Save the Goblin, Kill your Friend?
- Thread starter Technik4
- Start date
+5 Keyboard!
First Post
Funny story about lone wolf characters...
I had a new player joining my group. Let's call him "Dick". He creates a wizard (2nd level, I believe). The party is out in the hills, they're camped for the night and it's raining horribly. I bring the new guy's character in with the premise that he was caught out on the road during a rainstorm after dark before he could make it to the nearest town (I forget any other important stuff as far as background). He sees the welcome glow of a campfire a little ways from the road under the dry and welcoming shelter of a rocky outcropping. He sees sleeping men and women and one armed man sitting on a log by the fire standing watch.
I expect Dick will hail the character on watch and ask if he can share their shelter or something. The players all know a new guy is joining the group so they usually downplay their normal suspicions of strangers suddenly approaching their camp in the middle of the night to give the newbie a chance.
Nope. Dick decides to be sneaky, lone wolf guy. He sneaks up on the camp and starts checking out their gear, making note of whose sleeping, what the guy on watch is armed with, stuff like that. The rest of the players are starting to get a bit irritated out of character at this protracted method of "making new allies" Dick is using. The player whose character is on watch deserves some kind of Listen or Spot check at this point since this has gone on for so long and he rolls an awesome Listen check and I tell him he hears some kind of movement out in the dark above the sound of the rain. So, now he's on alert, but hasn't seen any reason to wake the others yet.
I think, "OK. He's going to make his presence known now since he sees this is leading to a bad place." Nope.
Dick tells me he's going to circle around the other way and get in closer since he can't get a really good look from where he's at. Dick succeeds and the other player is doing a good job of staying in character since he failed to hear him move around and closer.
Things go on like this, until Dick the wizard is close enough that the other player finally notices him. Dick has loaded his crossbow by now and is crouched behind some bushes or rocks or something. The other player, trying to give newbie Dick a chance to get in with the group even though he's acting like a skulk, calls out to him, "Hey! What are you doing?! Who are you?" Usually this player shoots first and asks questions later. I was very proud of him for trying to give the new guy a chance.
I think, "OK. Finally we can get on with things. Now Dick will say he's a lone traveler and wants to share their shelter or maybe say something about just being careful they weren't bandits or something before approaching." Nope.
Dick counters with, "Who are you?" (Anybody remember the scene in LotR when the riders of Rohan have Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas surrounded on horseback with spears pointed at them and when asked what they were doing there Gimli responds with "Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine" or some such BS?) And keeps his crossbow up like he's going to use it. Well, the other player had finally had it with this guy and tells him to put his weapon down. Dick refuses, roll for initiative, Dick gets shot with an arrow and is bleeding out. At that point I step in and tell the players they awake to the sound of bowstring twanging and discover the dying wizard and advise them that this area is rampant with bandits and the wizard looks drenched and may have been wanting to share their shelter, but been afraid that the group was bandits. They heal Dick the Lone Wolf. They then learn he's a traveling wizard, blah, blah, blah. It didn't get much better than that and I gave the guy the boot 2 weeks later. Luckily, I had a really good group at the time that were patient with Dicks. I wasn't so much.
Edit: I forgot to mention... There's a moral to this little story. Can you guess what it is?
I had a new player joining my group. Let's call him "Dick". He creates a wizard (2nd level, I believe). The party is out in the hills, they're camped for the night and it's raining horribly. I bring the new guy's character in with the premise that he was caught out on the road during a rainstorm after dark before he could make it to the nearest town (I forget any other important stuff as far as background). He sees the welcome glow of a campfire a little ways from the road under the dry and welcoming shelter of a rocky outcropping. He sees sleeping men and women and one armed man sitting on a log by the fire standing watch.
I expect Dick will hail the character on watch and ask if he can share their shelter or something. The players all know a new guy is joining the group so they usually downplay their normal suspicions of strangers suddenly approaching their camp in the middle of the night to give the newbie a chance.
Nope. Dick decides to be sneaky, lone wolf guy. He sneaks up on the camp and starts checking out their gear, making note of whose sleeping, what the guy on watch is armed with, stuff like that. The rest of the players are starting to get a bit irritated out of character at this protracted method of "making new allies" Dick is using. The player whose character is on watch deserves some kind of Listen or Spot check at this point since this has gone on for so long and he rolls an awesome Listen check and I tell him he hears some kind of movement out in the dark above the sound of the rain. So, now he's on alert, but hasn't seen any reason to wake the others yet.
I think, "OK. He's going to make his presence known now since he sees this is leading to a bad place." Nope.
Dick tells me he's going to circle around the other way and get in closer since he can't get a really good look from where he's at. Dick succeeds and the other player is doing a good job of staying in character since he failed to hear him move around and closer.
Things go on like this, until Dick the wizard is close enough that the other player finally notices him. Dick has loaded his crossbow by now and is crouched behind some bushes or rocks or something. The other player, trying to give newbie Dick a chance to get in with the group even though he's acting like a skulk, calls out to him, "Hey! What are you doing?! Who are you?" Usually this player shoots first and asks questions later. I was very proud of him for trying to give the new guy a chance.
I think, "OK. Finally we can get on with things. Now Dick will say he's a lone traveler and wants to share their shelter or maybe say something about just being careful they weren't bandits or something before approaching." Nope.
Dick counters with, "Who are you?" (Anybody remember the scene in LotR when the riders of Rohan have Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas surrounded on horseback with spears pointed at them and when asked what they were doing there Gimli responds with "Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine" or some such BS?) And keeps his crossbow up like he's going to use it. Well, the other player had finally had it with this guy and tells him to put his weapon down. Dick refuses, roll for initiative, Dick gets shot with an arrow and is bleeding out. At that point I step in and tell the players they awake to the sound of bowstring twanging and discover the dying wizard and advise them that this area is rampant with bandits and the wizard looks drenched and may have been wanting to share their shelter, but been afraid that the group was bandits. They heal Dick the Lone Wolf. They then learn he's a traveling wizard, blah, blah, blah. It didn't get much better than that and I gave the guy the boot 2 weeks later. Luckily, I had a really good group at the time that were patient with Dicks. I wasn't so much.
Edit: I forgot to mention... There's a moral to this little story. Can you guess what it is?
Last edited:
cougent
First Post
Directly on point to the OP, I see nothing "right" about this scenario.
IMHO, the DM screwed up letting this get started in the first place; your desire to play this scenario was if not wrong, then at least questionable; and the other player over reacting to the situation and killing you was the icing on the cake of this cluster.
You were wrong, but not alone in the wrongness cluster.
IMHO, the DM screwed up letting this get started in the first place; your desire to play this scenario was if not wrong, then at least questionable; and the other player over reacting to the situation and killing you was the icing on the cake of this cluster.
You were wrong, but not alone in the wrongness cluster.
TheAuldGrump
First Post
No, I am staring at a player who has just turned what could have been an interesting scenario into 'let's kill the idiot' - there were better, and much more cunning ways than the one you chose.Technik4 said:
The Auld Grump
Prince of Happiness
First Post
Nifft said:
A whole lot of points in my Cool Book.
+5 Keyboard!
First Post
Nifft said:
LOL!
Mine was just "Don't game with Dicks", but I like your's better.
And... umm... You win the thread!!!! Yay!
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Oh.Technik4 said:
Ummm... *shuffle*
Okay then.
Yeah, choices can seem a lot narrower when they are right in front of you, and it is easy to fix on the first that comes to mind.
The Auld Grump
