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GuJiaXian
Sergeant
640 Posts
    
Roswell, GA
 | | 06/08/2007 8:59 AM |
| I'm currently DMing the Shackled City adventure path (and this post contains some minor spoilers). Last night the party started the fourth chapter, which begins with a fiendish umber hulk smashing its way through the city. The creature's intention isn't to kill as many PCs as possible; it wants to level as many buildings as possible. This created some interesting situations for the PCs, outside the usual realm of "kill the monster, loot its body."
The umber hulk managed to level a two-story warehouse, which collapsed into the street and also seriously structurally damaged the adjacent buildings, once of which was a three-story residence. In panic (and as a result of a failed save versus the umber hulk's confusion gaze), a woman on the residence's third story left her swaddled newborn laying precariously on the third-story windowsill.
Thankfully, the party's druid (a halfling with a strength of 5) was standing almost directly below the window when the baby fell. Unfortunately, I asked the player to roll a Reflex save to try to catch the baby...and he rolled a natural 1 on his save.
Now, let me say that I'm not a cruel DM. I don't think it's great fun to kill defenseless babies in my campaigns. However, the looks the other players gave the druid--utter horror at his terrible die roll--were priceless. More than any BBEG they had killed, more than any cool loot they had found, the players were so into this scene that they just couldn't handle the idea of the baby dying (even in a fantasy world where they could easily afford to ressurect it).
My wife, one of the payers, looked at me and said, "If that baby dies, I'm going to be upset" (we have a 19-month-old toddler, and I knew my wife meant it). Still, as the DM, I wanted the botched die roll to mean something. The halfling druid's animal companion was a bear (which he uses as a mount), and I allowed the player to roll the bear's Reflex to see if it could "intercept" the falling baby. The bear easily beat my DC and so I allowed the baby to hit the bear's back (still softer than hitting cobblestones after a three-story fall) and then let the druid snatch it up before it rolled off onto the pavement.
The long-winded point of this is that the players were really having fun. Not just killing stuff, but seriously caring about the fantasty world around them. Last night was one of the best sessions we've had so far in this campaign, and I'm really glad that they're having fun.
Anyone else have a moment--that one perfect moment--where all metagaming disappears and the players just really get caught up in what's going on in the game?
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"Clearly a case of too many hunchbacks and not enough mad scientists..." | |
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Oryan77
Sergeant
951 Posts
| | 06/08/2007 10:36 AM |
| It would have been funny if you let the baby hit the ground. Then when the players retrieve it, they realize it was a doll 
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GuJiaXian
Sergeant
640 Posts
Roswell, GA
| | 06/08/2007 10:37 AM |
| Posted By Oryan77 on 06/08/2007 10:36 AM It would have been funny if you let the baby hit the ground. Then when the players retrieve it, they realize it was a doll
See, if I had done that, I'd be posting from a hospital bed since my wife would have seriously hurt me.
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"Clearly a case of too many hunchbacks and not enough mad scientists..." | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 06/08/2007 11:07 AM |
| The best I can think of was not in D&D, which I've had a couple but still not the best, was with a Legend of the 5 Rings (L5R) game. For those who don't know, this is a fantasy oriental themes game with shugenja, samurai, oni, etc. Clans, honor, and rank are very important and each clan and martial style is very distinct and different from every other.
Anyways, we had premade characters that were flung back in time to solve a mystery. Each character sheet had a desription of how they felt and knew about every other characer at the table. My character was essentially an investigator who had been adopted by her clan and sometimes made glaring faux pas. My character's husband, from another clan, was always there to help me and was so understanding. She also had by her side she protege/best friend who I would help out in any way and was really close to.
At the end of the game, we read what each PC thought of the others. I found out that my PC's husband thought she was an idiot and honorless, only had married her to learn clan information and for status within his wn clan, and was having an affair with her protege. Everything during the game was done so well that it was like I had actually been cheated on and betrayed. I turned bright red at the table and was stammering, "My husband...my best friend!" for about 5 minutes, too. | |
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dagonet
Sergeant
439 Posts
| | 06/08/2007 11:13 AM |
| Posted By gss_000 on 06/08/2007 11:07 AM
The
best I can think of was not in D&D, which I've had a couple but
still not the best, was with a Legend of the 5 Rings (L5R) game. For
those who don't know, this is a fantasy oriental themes game with
shugenja, samurai, oni, etc. Clans, honor, and rank are very important
and each clan and martial style is very distinct and different from
every other.
Anyways, we had premade characters that were flung
back in time to solve a mystery. Each character sheet had a desription
of how they felt and knew about every other characer at the table. My
character was essentially an investigator who had been adopted by her
clan and sometimes made glaring faux pas. My character's husband, from
another clan, was always there to help me and was so understanding. She
also had by her side she protege/best friend who I would help out in
any way and was really close to.
At the end of the game, we read
what each PC thought of the others. I found out that my PC's husband
thought she was an idiot and honorless, only had married her to learn
clan information and for status within his wn clan, and was having an
affair with her protege. Everything during the game was done so well
that it was like I had actually been cheated on and betrayed. I turned
bright red at the table and was stammering, "My husband...my best
friend!" for about 5 minutes, too.
See, this is what happens when you marry a Scorpion. . . =)
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wicked cool
Underboss
2032 Posts
| | 06/08/2007 11:26 AM |
| | i probaly would have had same reaction as your wife. things change a lot when you have kids. ive had evil characters before too who have pillaged but not ra****. There just certian things that arenet done in a game oterwise they ruin the fantasy feal | |
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GuJiaXian
Sergeant
640 Posts
Roswell, GA
| | 06/08/2007 11:58 AM |
| Posted By wicked cool on 06/08/2007 11:26 AM
i probaly would have had same reaction as your wife. things change a lot when you have kids. ive had evil characters before too who have pillaged but not ra****. There just certian things that arenet done in a game oterwise they ruin the fantasy feal
Definitely. The day that one of my players tries to rape someone/something in-game is the day that they leave my house and never come back. Likewise, if for some reason I ever incorporated rape into one of my games I'd expect that my players leave. Even though roleplaying is, in fact, just a game, there are still bounderies.
Still, the falling baby scenario was an interesting one. I fully intended to have the baby be saved (if the players had done nothing to save it, I would have had some other bystander do so). It was really just a moral decision tossed into the game, mostly to see how the players reacted (the falling baby is also written into he adventure). Other players had ideas on how to rescue the baby, as well. The rogue (my wife) was wearing a cloak of arachnida, and could have scrambled up the front of the building to rescue the baby. The wizard even suggested casting web on the window, a messy yet very viable solution.
I know that when I roleplay I often slip into auto-kill-monster-and-loot-corpse mode, and sometimes it's nice to have a real-world moral decision tossed into the fray--something that even epic-level attack bonuses or insane Will saves won't make easier.
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"Clearly a case of too many hunchbacks and not enough mad scientists..." | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 06/08/2007 12:25 PM |
| See, this is what happens when you marry a Scorpion. . . =)
Yes it is. It's also why I usually choose Crab. The response to an insult like this is a lot more satisfying.
Glad to see another player. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
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