(Win pdf books!) Week 1 complete. Click in first post for link to the week 2 thread.

[mythusmage]

This has possibilities. A returnee may gain something emblematic of his god. Say a vague resemblance to the god's totem animal. Or be the target of some sort of low level animosity from adherents of his god's adversaries. Nothing worth fighting about under normal conditions, but in times of stress ...

Speaking of which, those who worship the god he does may well tend to see him as more trustworthy, more reliable than others. By the same token, his god's totem animal could see him as more trustworthy, and be more inclined to treat him as 'part of the family'. Picture a wizard who, every time he casts Summon Monster of any type gets cats. A swarm of house cats, each swarm of a size equivalent to the monster or monsters he should've gotten. (If you think cats are basically harmless creatures, try being in the same room with one going through the 'evening crazies'. ) Even in ordinary circumstances representatives of his god's totem animal could gather around him. In Irish myth The Morrigan's totem animal is the raven. A PC in your campaign worships The Morrigan. He dies and is brought back via a Raise Dead. While he is recovering ravens begin gathering about the house where he's recuperating, doing all the things ravens do, getting into all the things ravens get into. (Ravens are nosy parkers.)

Now consider what the neighbors are likely to think.

An Odinist returnee who keeps attracting wolves in cattle or sheep country ...

I think you get the point.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

...back from the dead with animal fun...

Good followup of my humorous post (I was going for the college football meats the underworld angle)...

In addition, the animals affiliated with the entity (or in some cases magical beasts and monsters) would be more agressive than normal. A raven may actually land on your head or a wolf may walk in your front door. You see, these animals believe that you are their property, much as the entity believes that your soul is its property.

This would in turn increase the odds of alienation, as people would have a couple reactions to this. Some would see you as being cursed and would not want anything to do with you in order to keep themselves safe. Others would see your predicament as evidence that you are back from the dead and would be jealous, because they may not get that second chance (or a loved one who died recently didn't get a second chance).

Once again, we have multiple levels of roleplaying opportunity at our fingertips...

This is fun.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

That may get you a three day pass to the land of the living...

Speaking of which...

D&D has the evil undead, and the "just like you were" resurected characters, but where is the Crow type undead which is sort of a three day pass to finish some business before you accept your death? What if instead of coming back permanently but at a lower level, you came back with some perks and some drawbacks but for an explicitly limited time frame?

hmmm... maybe you could get a will save modified by your charisma bonus plus a bonus determined by the DM based on the story elements, and with a success you stayed around with an undead template until a specific short term goal was met. (This might be a little Ghostwalk, I never fully looked into it)

 

[RangerWickett]

Once again, I come in late to say, "Time for a new topic!" and "I'll send out pdfs tomorrow!"

So tomorrow's topic . . . hmm. Based on my discussions tonight with lonely drunk gaming friends:

"Talk about friendship, love, and the party and how it affects games. The characters on an adventure have to deal with each other all the time. How does friendship work into this."

 

[mythusmage]

Nothing really substantial to say on the topic at this moment, other then to point out that love and friendship has lead to some of the worst things, as well as some of the best. Just remember, Josef Goebbels loved Adolf Hitler.

 

[demiurge1138]

Love in D&D. This sounds like time to share a few anecdotes.

The problem with love in D&D is that it's a sensitive subject, especially when it comes to players. A DM, after all, can just say that the rescued princess falls in love with the knight who rescued her, and the players can accept this fairly easily. After all, the DM wears all the hats at the table and plays all of the PCs - they know he doesn't really want to kill them when he's playing the villains, so they know likewise he doesn't really love them when he's playing a romantic interest. But a player only plays one role - his or her character. The emotions of the character and the player can easily become blurred.

This is what happened in my longest brush with romance as a player - lines were crossed between in character and out of character. What happened was, a game had started up, and one of the players, by the second session, had convinced his girlfriend to join the group (she had wanted to play anyway - he really more encouraged her than anything else). He was playing a halfling druid named Samwise (yes, yes, it gets worse), so her character was a halfling bard named Rosie (I told you it got worse). She was introduced to the party, and their characters began flirting. It was obvious at this point that an in game romance was going to blossom as well as an out of game one.

I, however, was determined to not let it get off that easy. Maybe I was annoyed with how Samwise's player was acting (really over-the-top, very distracting from the game), maybe I wanted to get them to actually think about roleplaying this more than "of course they should get together! They're both halflings, and we're dating!". So my character, Thanatos the warlock, takes Sam aside and mentions that he's taking things a bit fast. Back off, spend more time wooing and less on animal passions, ask her father for permission to wed, that sort of thing. And the wooing was better, and the DM began rambling maliciously about inbred cannibal halfling fathers or whatever. That would have been fun.

But then real life intervened. The people playing Sam and Rosie broke up. And Sam and Rosie themselves drifted apart. Never mind the fact that the characters were fairly close already, and mentions of their engagement and the proper gifts for such were muttered by Sam and Thanatos when the rest of the party wasn't paying attention. Rosie was all of a sudden more interested in spending time with Thanatos. Never mind the fact that he was twice her size. The two of them grew close. What worried me was that after a game, she thanked me for helping her through her rough breakup. D&D is many things, but therapy? It was starting to get a bit uncomfortable for me.

What made it worse, though, was another of our players. He rarely attended sessions, due to the constant demands of his own overbearing girlfriend, but it was all for the best, because he was overbearing and obnoxious. He was also a constant flirt, and decided to take the opportunity to hit on the emotionally vulnerable Rosie. And her player. Simultaneously. Creepy, "Phantom of the Opera"-esque mentor sort of thing Needless to say, both I and Thanatos put our feet down on that one. That is to say, my character put his foot down to stop his leering advances, since he was clearly only interested in her sexually (I know not whether to say "character" for either of their cases, sadly enough), which is just wrong for a half-elf and a halfling.

Fortunately for my sanity and comfort levels, he stopped attending sessions with any regularity shortly after that. And once the overbearing lout was gone, the closeness resumed - still rather uncomfortable, but I could handle it. By the time that game ended, it was an unspoken understanding between the two of us that our characters had reached something not unlike love. Which worked, because a purely platonic relationship was firmly established out of game. The boundaries between the real world and the game world were affirmed and all was well, despite some thinning of the fourth wall along the way.

Unfortunate coda to that story is that the overbearing jackass is now currently involved with poor Rosie's player, and I just know that he manipulated her emotionally, just like he did in game. Leaves me feeling icky. Very icky.

Demiurge out

PS: I still am fond of EN Bestiaries.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

The Dynamic of Feelings in the Campaign

Feelings...hmm, this one is tough to handle for a few reasons. First, some players don't want to worry about that aspect (it doesn't make them comfortable and isn't fun). Second, you need a certain maturity level (not age level) to handle this properly. Finally, when the pieces are in place, you must take care to avoid derailing the campaign due to the consequences of certain feelings.

So, we will make the assumption that bringing feelings into the game (love, hate, friendships, enemies, etc.) can add an additional level of enjoyment for all of the players. I will now attempt to address the three reasons that I have defined above.

The first reason that feelings are hard to handle is that some players don't want to have this aspect added to thier game. For this player, you would want to identify why the player doesn't want this. If the player is uncomfortable dealing with emotional situations in a roleplaying environment, then an answer would be to bring emotions into the game very delicately. Focusing on fear and hatred would be a good start, as those are easier to roleplay naturally ("we run away", "we attack"). Once the player is more comfortable with his fears and hates, it will be easier to bridge those to the reasons for the fears and hates. Perhaps family and friends are pawns in an infernal game. The player hates and fears the demon prince because the demon is targeting those he cares about. You don't have to go that far, or place a PC's friends/families in danger, but involving them would help the player roleplay the relations. Love would be best left to the player to bring in, because it is a tricky emotion to deal with in game and an uncomfortable player may be scared away.

Another type of character that would not want to add feelings to their game may be used to computer based rpgs and wants to hack his way through your campaign as well. If the player is comfortable dealing with feelings in a roleplaying environment, then a solution may be to force the action. Utilize the character's friends and family in game. While in the tavern, the character's mother walks in and reprimands her son. Later, when something threatens the village, the player may thinks about the fact that his character has family here that should be protected. If the player is also uncomfortable, then use some of the advice in the previous paragraph to guide the player.

The second issue that may need to be dealt with is maturity level. This one is both simple and difficult. The simplest solution presents itself when the player makes it abundantly clear that maturity isn't something that he wants to deal with. For this player, I will touch on three options that are available. First, explain to the player what your goals are and that if he wants to play he should give some effort. Second, run the "feelings" aspect to the other players with the hopes that this player will adapt or at the very least not become a disruption. Third, part ways.

If the immature player is interested in this aspect, but doesn't know how, the solutions may be more difficult. The easy part has already been taken care of, because the player is willing to try. The hard part is that you are now put in a position of teaching someone maturity (this could be an adult or a child). The best method would be for the player to watch the actions of the other players and learn from their roleplaying. If that is not possible, you will need to mold the player. This may not be something that makes you comfortable (or is appropriate), so should be handled carefully. Utilizing NPCs as models of roleplaying will allow you to show how the player's character should react to situations (in the case of immature powergamers, you may go through a couple of NPCs before the player catches on ). As with the uncomfortable roleplayer, negative emotions will probably be easier to work with at first (and depending on the age of the player, may be the only appropriate emotions to deal with in depth).

Finally, now that you have players roleplaying with emotion ( ), prepare for the campaign to be derailed. This is usually due to players roleplaying their characters' displeasure with another PC's actions. In order to keep the "realism" of the emotions, the players may be less likely to forgive and forget. In less emotional games, the party may make some crude comments at the offending member and move on in order to keep the game going. This can also happen with relationships that the party has with important NPCs that the part is meant to deal with. The best solution is to keep the campaign flexible and adapt it to the situations. You wanted to introduce these aspects to the game, so you must be willing to deal with the consequences. When it comes to intra-party strife, it may be best to take a time-out and hold an out of character meeting. Discuss options that would work for each player's character in order to keep the game going. Occasionally, the only option available will be for a player to start a new character.

So, when attempting to take a game to the next level emotionally, remember to keep a couple things in mind. Utilize care and other players to bring emotions into the game. Once you have your game of feelings, be prepared to deal with the issues that come with the territory.

I'll admit that this topic is not my "cup of tea", but it is still interesting to try to approach these subjects and try to add value...

Choice: Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth *if I was lucky enough to win yesterday, please reward someone else*

 

[RangerWickett]

Man, I loved this discussion. It has gotten me thinking about my own game, because for the first time in . . . well, I think ever, I had a PC brought back from the dead, a few weeks ago. He took a Nazi knight's sword to the heart, and went down, and then was up again 10 minutes later, surprised as hell. Since it's a modern game, he had no idea he could come back from the dead, and the NPC who brought him back really had no idea she could pull it off (it's Jenny Windgrave, one of the sample characters in Mythic Earth, and a character in the old Savannah Knights storyhour). The problem is, things have been so hectic in the game that I haven't had a chance to get a nice, quiet moment for the characters to discuss the ramifications of what has happened.

And now, my friends, I know how to provoke that. :evil: Ask me if you're interested in details.

I'm sending everyone what they asked for. However, the real winner was Hussar. I loved his immortal druid scheme. So I'm sending him something extra.

Obviously the emotions and feelings topic was not as much of a hit as raising the dead, but it might just be because it was a weekend. Still, I'm going to change topics.

Changing tacks a bit away from esoteric concepts, Monday's topic shall be, "Dragon fights. What sorts of dragon fights have you run/played in, and what do you think makes for a good battle against a dragon? What is the significance of a dragon as opposed to other monsters? "

I'm going to start a new thread for it, though.

 

[mythusmage]

My compliments to Hussar as well. I didn't think of the possibility he presented. Now extend it to the ongoing reincarnation of non-druids. What would society be like if the leadership was effectively immortal?

 

[RangerWickett]

By the way, check your email folks. Did I miss anyone?