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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7379988" data-attributes="member: 29398">Frustrating, and at the same time realistic - sometimes things just don't pan out the way you want them to.And it's these times of frustration that makes times of success all the more rewarding.If the player's agenda is for her PC to get rich or to accumulate magic items then you're wide open to this sort of thing.Silly, perhaps, but legal by the letter of this narrativistic type of system where success on an action declaration cannot be denied.The whole idea of "treasure parcels" just makes it all sound so predetermined in the meta-game...do this much adventuring and you'll get this much treasure.  Kind of like a salary for adventurers.How dull.But I digress...Yeah, that Rod is always good for at least seven adventures to find the bits plus at least one or two more to use it.One question that's been bugging me about this example: where were the rest of the PCs during this sequence?  Or had the party not yet formed?One of the true appeals of RPGs is that as player you're (in theory) free to try anything, no matter how ridiculous.  There shouldn't be any system-based limits on the actions players can declare or have thier PCs attempt.  There should and must, however, be some limits on whether those declarations can succeed - in other words, the DM must be able to outright say 'no'.  The onus for maintaining consistency, genre-appropriateness, balance, etc. should be on the DM, not the players.Along with several boatloads of history, lore, and canon; and by extension a bunch of baked-in expectations from any player familiar at all with the Greyhawk setting.  When using a homebrew setting these all have to be defined and then narrated by the DM, as it's not all done for her and is not in the least familiar to the players ahead of time.A mistake I keep making with my own settings is that I don't find a way to do this; to put all the races etc. together in one reasonably compact area.Except, of course, for all the baked-in Greyhawk lore etc. as noted above.  The C+ H and Traveller ones seem more like no-myth; but this one really can't be.Any situation imaginable will let you play your character; and many situations will force you to think (in-character) about things other than those you listed.Your character seems an honourable sort, and one of his 'instincts' is to defend the innocent - this seems like a ripe opportunity for a DM to narrate (at some random time when you're en route to doing something else) that you see a slave being beaten, to challenge that instinct and see what you do about it if anything.  The DM here would be giving you a multi-layered choice: divert from one goal to another or not, and whteher that diversion will be temporary or permanent.On a more meta scale: the game isn't all about you; and the game-world or setting doesn't revolve around your PC.Lanefan</blockquote>

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