Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sorrowdusk" data-source="post: 5388731" data-attributes="member: 96342">I'm just the opposite! I'd like to roll my knowledge Hist/Religion skills and see if I know any cool lore about the statue. Its pint sized so its probably a dwarf deity (not dwarven but dwarf like the egyptian god Geb or other deities) or its the god of cannibal haflings or something known to file their teeth. I'd figure that since the oranges are dried and at its foot, but not in a protective container they would have mildered if gotten wet or been eaten by rats or insects. So I would figure the obvious sacrifice could not have been made that long ago, probably by someone expecting to pass. If I could I'd try to do some tracking to see where people had been, as well as use Detect Magic on the door and the statue to see if there was anything unusual about the statue. If there was I'd be looking for traps, and still-I would even if it was mundane. I'd try the door next, and if it didnt open, I'd see about whether offering some more fruit or items to it might make it open or a UMD check.  And lastly, since the statue is so small, well, I'd try to pry it from the floor to salvage the 'artifact' on the way back out. I love being the forbidden loremaster, scholar-adventurer type. I love divinations as well, and working to gain that next scrap of information that adds to an ever unfolding picture. I dont just like examining things, I like talking to people too, writing letters, and poking around in dangerous places. I think a lot of CoC as I've experienced it has rubbed off of me, albeit I played PbP and DnD first. At the same time, I dont like pixel biching and 'lets play guess what the DM is thinking' which is very different actually. You have to be careful, because often what SHOULD be 'obvious' isnt, and what you think will be very tough will be figured faster than you think. PUSH come to shove, a PC might be smarter than the mundane playing them, so if you really need to-allow an Int or Knowledge check to help things along if its as simply as bypassing a door. Bigger campaign spanning stuff, and larger mysteries however shouldnt be so simple as a single check, unless you've just come to a point at which they've already recieved all the information and the conclusion drawn is critical to knowing where or what to do next or how to approach it. But ONLY if they cant reach a conclusion, now, if they reach an incorrect one-you could either make it so, and reward their creativity, or just roll with it and let happens what happens. What I CAN agree with, is the fact that you should talk to your players about what kind of game they expect first, and try to deliver something to everybody. I think 'what do you do?' and 'What do you want to do?' are extremely similar, if not the same. I do sometimes prompt PCs for a response, letting them know my narration or description is complete-but really when the PCs reach that statue, they should probably do what they wanted to do in the first place-even if that was only as simple as 'I find the statue slightly unnerving, but go ahead and try to open the door.' Ideally I think, players simply attempt do things and the DM tells them the result or consequence of their actions. On a side note-the statue COULD just be fluff or atmosphere, but Law of Conservation of Detail says otherwise (which is somewhat metathought). Its obviously important, or if the object itself isnt, its prescense or that of the oranges is important in that it means, implies, foreshadows or hints at something making it a device.<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLawOfConservationOfDetail" target="_blank">http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLawOfConservationOfDetail</a></blockquote>

Verification