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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robertsconley" data-source="post: 9045607" data-attributes="member: 13383">That does clarify things, and it just so happens I have a relevant example that happened last Tuesday. [USER=6779310]@aramis erak[/USER] should be interested in this story as well, as the NPCs involved are part of <a href="https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/search?q=nomar" target="_blank">my Majestic Wilderlands take on Arthurian myth</a>. At this point, that region of my setting is entering what Pendragon called the "End of the Enchantment." Among the different regions of my Majestic Wilderlands, this region is in the top five in terms of campaigns.Rob's Note: I am not going into all the details, but if you have specific questions, feel free to ask in a reply.So, last Tuesday was the last session before everybody had to take a summer break. The campaign focused on the party having urban fantasy adventures <a href="https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2008/10/from-attic-city-state.html" target="_blank">in my version of the City State of the Invincible Overlord</a>. It used the full version of my Majestic Fantasy RPG rules, which is based on OD&D in the form of Swords & Wizardry. One of the players was a fighter who was also a Viking prince.In my take on Arthur, the realm is not fighting Saxon culture but a Viking culture. Because of a <a href="https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-sandbox-campaign-nomar-campaign-part-1.html" target="_blank">campaign I ran in the region</a> a few years back, Arthur won a complete victory with the help of PCs and united the realm. The prince's father was the king that Arthur deposed. When the group was generating characters, I asked each player what kind of background they wanted for their characters, and he picked Viking. Then, after kicking around a few Viking-related ideas, he asked if he could be an exiled prince. And I said, "Well, funny you should say that."The campaign has been running for a year and a half, and Tuesday was the 37th session. Sessions 1 to 30 or so were spent doing stuff in the City-State. The party ventured outside once during that whole time. However, during that time, the Viking Prince made a name for himself, and his uncle, who was a claimant to the throne, decided to have him assassinated. It failed, but some members of the Prince's family were killed, and revenge was vowed.The party ventured outside of the City-State and was successful in dealing with the uncle. Along the way, the player decided that his Viking Prince wanted the throne as well as vengeance and started to be more proactive. Before, he was more about living large and having a good time adventuring around with his pals. Glossing over the details, he crossed paths unexpectedly with Arthur's previously unknown heir, Constans, Arthur's son by his youngest half-sister, Morgaine.I am glossing over a lot of details, but at the time of meeting, the party had found enough clues to figure out who Constans really was. It wasn't an easy puzzle, but they figured it out.The circumstances were such that Constans trusted the Viking Prince, as the party had rescued his younger half-brother. Constans threw a feast in the party's honor, and during it, he revealed that he had to go to Nomar because Arthur died. The party also learned that Constans had Excalibur and its scabbard in his possession. The Viking Prince offered to transport Constans and his party to Nomar, as he had a ship, and it was the quickest way there. The group roleplayed the feast well, so Constans accepted.Once they were most of the first day into the voyage, out of sight of land, that is when the Viking Prince revealed his true colors. Behind the scenes, his player and the rest of the group cooked up an ambush to kill Constans and every member of his group, knowing that it would make civil war in Arthur's realm all but certain, and allowing the Viking Prince to raise a rebellionAnd yes the party knew that from the PoV of the legend, they were villains in the story and that idea just put a smile on their faces.So now that you have the context on to the relevant part. [ATTACH=full]287750[/ATTACH]The Magic-User in the party had a wish spell that he could use. When the ambush was sprung, he wished for Excalibur to appear in his hand. How I handle wishes in my campaign is that you can use them to wish for something that is normally not possible, but there is a cost. However, you are also allowed to wish for any spell in the book to cast, including being able to create a spell up to 9th level effects. There is no cost to do this, and it has a 100% chance of success. So, the magic-user wished for the sword to be teleported into his hand. While not an OD&D spell, it could be, and it is definitely a 9th level effect or lower, thus it worked.But what the magic-user didn't know was the below, which I wrote in my Majestic Wilderlands supplement in 2009 and published.[ATTACH=full]287751[/ATTACH]From the viewpoint of the gods Veritas and Dannu, the party was evil and acting towards selfish ends. As a result, Caliburn (Excalibur) shattered in the magic-user's hand the next round, leaving the players disappointed.Did they have to buy my supplement to learn that detail about Caliburn? No. While there are many false rumors about the swords of power in my setting, they are also well known to historians. If the party took the time, they could have gained most of the information mentioned above. However, because the ambush was an unexpected opportunity, the party elected to pursue it right away. They didn't have the time. Moreover, the players were allowed to use their real-world knowledge of Arthurian legends. I deliberately crafted the MW version so that they didn't have to metagame and "forget" what they knew from books and RPGs like Pendragon. As it turned out, two of the players mentioned during the planning of the ambush that Excalibur was a sword of power used by champions of good, but they didn't delve further into it.So, was I wrong?By the standards used by certain RPGs, I have arbitrarily robbed the Magic-User of an important narrative moment. However, the Magic-User's player was disappointed but also elated because their use of the Wish spell and later a well-placed lightning bolt were two of the three decisive moments of the battle. The third was when Zakhar, the Viking Prince, critically hit Constans, inflicting four times the maximum damage. (Note the above Roll20 graphics screen captured that moment. By my standards, the whole thing played out as if my Majestic Wilderlands existed, with the characters making the most of the circumstances. The players felt that the campaign went into hiatus on a high note, considering it a victory well earned. They knew that if they didn't plan well, a TPK (total party kill) could happen or some other similar fate that would complicate the rest of the campaign.Now, this post is quite long, so once again, I am happy to answer any questions, especially while all of this is still fresh in my mind.</blockquote>

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