green slime
First Post
50/50? Not a problem.
What if your player wanted to make a bet?
- Thread starter Ry
- Start date
This is a rare occassion for a GM to add something special to the campaign. Actually, I would be tempted to do something beyond player's expectations.
Initially, there would be one correction to player's bet:
"If you win, your men stay with you gaining morale bonuses: +4 vs Fear, +1 to hit, while your opponents are penalized with -1 to hit and suffer -4 vs Fear" /Fear checks are used for morale test among NPCs in my games/
"If you lose, the opposite happens, and your troops must make Fear check the next time the enemies attack, to avoid fleeing."
Meanwhile, secretly (or, in other words, behind the scenes, in game...), a being of extraplanar type (divine or fiendish) takes an interest in the individual, taking steps to ensure preservation of the individual by adding a bit of its supernatural influence.
This influence may manifest itself as an unexplained stabilisation at negative hitpoints (Cure Light Wounds cast from Ethereal plane), mysterious untouchability (Mage Armor-like effect) or heroic prowess (Prayer-like effect).
Then, once the battle is over (whatever the outcome: if the tragedy occurs, the character could wake up in a middle of a heap of dead bodies; in case of victory, it could happen during sleeping hours), a tentative contact is made and an offer is put forward.
Go wild.
regards,
Ruemere
Initially, there would be one correction to player's bet:
"If you win, your men stay with you gaining morale bonuses: +4 vs Fear, +1 to hit, while your opponents are penalized with -1 to hit and suffer -4 vs Fear" /Fear checks are used for morale test among NPCs in my games/
"If you lose, the opposite happens, and your troops must make Fear check the next time the enemies attack, to avoid fleeing."
Meanwhile, secretly (or, in other words, behind the scenes, in game...), a being of extraplanar type (divine or fiendish) takes an interest in the individual, taking steps to ensure preservation of the individual by adding a bit of its supernatural influence.
This influence may manifest itself as an unexplained stabilisation at negative hitpoints (Cure Light Wounds cast from Ethereal plane), mysterious untouchability (Mage Armor-like effect) or heroic prowess (Prayer-like effect).
Then, once the battle is over (whatever the outcome: if the tragedy occurs, the character could wake up in a middle of a heap of dead bodies; in case of victory, it could happen during sleeping hours), a tentative contact is made and an offer is put forward.
Go wild.
regards,
Ruemere
delericho
Legend
It sounds like a cool idea, and I'd like to say I'd go for it... but no.
The problem here is not this bet, but rather that it opens up a precedent for game-breaking, in a manner that it is not possible to keep balanced. Next time, when another player offers a 'bet' with much less appropriate terms, and the DM says 'no', the DM will then be accused of favouritism. The fact that that accusation is baseless is largely irrelevant - it's very difficult to defend against.
The problem here is not this bet, but rather that it opens up a precedent for game-breaking, in a manner that it is not possible to keep balanced. Next time, when another player offers a 'bet' with much less appropriate terms, and the DM says 'no', the DM will then be accused of favouritism. The fact that that accusation is baseless is largely irrelevant - it's very difficult to defend against.
Ry
Explorer
Imp said:
Break them down into units, then roll d20s for each, giving bonuses for anything that helps one side over the other. Honestly, at any given time I'm likely just narrating based on what makes sense. As for interacting with the players, there's two colours of enemies; black-letter enemies are "scenery" - red are the ones the PCs interact with. All commanders are red, for example. Blacks outnumber reds of course, but they become essentially big moving dungeon walls. Players can say they want to engage black enemies (turning them red) at their peril, and of course I can turn black to red when I think it's appropriate, but I usually don't.
Phlebas
First Post
Wouldn't give them the 5 temp hit points unless he rolls a natural 20, but stay or flee based on a single roll sounds reasonable....
Just the sight of people pulling themselves to their feat and cheering might very well give some circumstantial modifiers to the enemy forces morale as well, but he doesn't need to know that
Why would I allow it, because as a DM you'd probably end up making a morale / fear roll to decide if they stay or flee anyway and at least this way the PC understands how / why it happens and saves you worrying about DC's etc
Can't really see a bad side to this....
Just the sight of people pulling themselves to their feat and cheering might very well give some circumstantial modifiers to the enemy forces morale as well, but he doesn't need to know that
Why would I allow it, because as a DM you'd probably end up making a morale / fear roll to decide if they stay or flee anyway and at least this way the PC understands how / why it happens and saves you worrying about DC's etc
Can't really see a bad side to this....
Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
I don't think I would like the way this was done, it is too specific and too constraining on me as DM. My reply would be, "Interesting idea, and I will consider what you would like to happen, but you don't get to set the DC and the specific effects on your troops. I will let you make an intimidate check against the enemy to try and rally your own troops, and I will let you know how it worked after you make the roll."
I would then probably work out a gradient in my head - Success by more than 5 is a smashing success, giving him almost exactly what he wanted. Success, but less than 5 over, rallies some of his troops and gives them a small morale bonus. Failure by less than 5 is no effect, by 5-10 the troops flee, and failure by 10 or more, several of his troops try to put an arrow into his throat to shut him up.
I would then probably work out a gradient in my head - Success by more than 5 is a smashing success, giving him almost exactly what he wanted. Success, but less than 5 over, rallies some of his troops and gives them a small morale bonus. Failure by less than 5 is no effect, by 5-10 the troops flee, and failure by 10 or more, several of his troops try to put an arrow into his throat to shut him up.
TheYeti1775
Adventurer
Best suggestion so far.ruemere said:
I would take the 5 temp hit points for the ones that could recover, not the already dead or unconcious ones, they couldn't hear it anyways. But for a Natural 20 only.
If the character has the Leadership Feat, this is what he is playing up. Think of this as the scene in Kingdom of Heaven where he is rallying them when the gate is about to be blasted open. Then how they stand there during the calm preparing to defend it again with him standing there defiantly.
Primitive Screwhead
First Post
I would allow it, with a twist.. instead of temporary hitpoints I would go the route of morale changes.... and two checks and an Action Point:
Diplomancy or Perform: Oratory to get his side up on there feat yelling.
Followed by an Intimidate check against the other army, modified by the above check result halved and -10
The intimidate check might cause morale issues on the other side..possibly to the point of a route.. but that would have to be a damn good roll. Lesser results would be a short duration penalty/bonus to the enemy armies attacks, similar to ruemere's method.
This stick relatively close to the normal uses for Intimidate, and the cost of an Action point makes it less worrysome as 'precedent'
I wouldn't bring in a supernatural entity unless the player had talked about going the route of a Chosen {my PrCish version of the Paladin}, in which case a good roll might result in some direct intervention...and the characters next level going into the new class
Diplomancy or Perform: Oratory to get his side up on there feat yelling.
Followed by an Intimidate check against the other army, modified by the above check result halved and -10
The intimidate check might cause morale issues on the other side..possibly to the point of a route.. but that would have to be a damn good roll. Lesser results would be a short duration penalty/bonus to the enemy armies attacks, similar to ruemere's method.
This stick relatively close to the normal uses for Intimidate, and the cost of an Action point makes it less worrysome as 'precedent'
I wouldn't bring in a supernatural entity unless the player had talked about going the route of a Chosen {my PrCish version of the Paladin}, in which case a good roll might result in some direct intervention...and the characters next level going into the new class
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