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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5587905" data-attributes="member: 386">A while back the PCs in my game captured a kobold.  A day or two later on they came across a town that was being raided by a nearby wight lair.  They were short on time so they decided to throw up an Undead Ward around the town, then come back later on.In order to get the components for the Undead Ward the Wizard sacrificed the kobold.That was just something that happened, not a "Sit up, pay attention now" moment.  We were more concerned with the allocation of resources than the morality of the issue.In a more recent game the PCs were in a gaming den/whorehouse.  One of the PCs engaged a well-connected NPC in a game of skill and lost; he had to buy the NPC time with a haughty courtesan.  One of the PCs had reason to speak with the prostitute, and when the PC went to see her, she discovered that the NPC was abusing her.The PC attacked the NPC to protect the haughty courtesan, even though the consequences were dire.That was just something that happened, not a "Sit up, pay attention now" moment.  We were more concerned with the possible consequences of the PC's actions than any moral stance taken by the PC.It should be noted in this situation that I, as DM, decided on the fly that the haughty courtesan was the NPC that the PC was looking for.  This made sense; the PC was looking for an Eladrin to sacrifice (again, a moral issue we give only passing thought to), and who else but a haughty courtesan would an Eladrin spend time with?  I was using AD&D's harlot table, so it's unlikely that there was another more suitable prostitute. That being said - I made the decision because I knew the player gets invested in exactly that kind of situation.  While it's easy to say, "That makes sense", that wasn't the reason I made the decision.  I did it to press the player's buttons and to see what kind of decision she would make.  Would she risk upsetting this NPC - who represents a powerful guild the PCs were dependent on - to stand up for a prostitute she doesn't even know? I broke my own rules by making that the basis for my decision!  I was no longer being impartial; I was guiding play toward that theme, even if it was in a way that made perfect sense in the game world.  If I used that same criteria to make all my decisions about the game - things that make perfect sense but also push specific player buttons - the game would be totally different.It's a matter of why you are playing the game; what kinds of decisions - both your own and those of the other players - do you want to focus on?*As for the DCC game's spellburn and patron rules, out of context they can fit any creative agenda.  As a part of a greater whole I'm not sure, I've only skimmed the document.  It's similar to my Warlock Pact stuff; that could easily be drifted to Story Now play, but in the context of the game as a whole it's Step on Up.</blockquote>

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