Friendship is Dragons
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Page 544 - Voice of Treason
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I usually leave my social encounters flexible enough that the players can come up with logical solutions, even if they're not ones that I had in mind. I find it makes such tags easier.
Really I'd call that a necessity. Sure there are some where the GM has to put their foot down (as in 'you let them massacre those protesters and burn the neighborhood, that's an instant drop into Evil') but when it's trying to reach a situation where everyone's okay, there are so many different possible responses that it can overwhelm the player.
Of course you can always use some of those later. So you pushed the noble to let the princess carry out the ceremony here as part of a multi-religious event instead of barring it? Well in a later campaign some priests have gotten angry enough that they're preaching rebellion and a lot of people have joined the cause just to avoid being the next target of the mob. Congratulations!
Of course you can always use some of those later. So you pushed the noble to let the princess carry out the ceremony here as part of a multi-religious event instead of barring it? Well in a later campaign some priests have gotten angry enough that they're preaching rebellion and a lot of people have joined the cause just to avoid being the next target of the mob. Congratulations!
Any social challenge can be solved by a sufficiently large explosion.
What if your problem is "all of existence was destroyed by an enormous explosion, past present and future are coloring, and We're all trapped forever in a brief moment of existential agony"
Believe it or not, I actually considered that one. I won't claim any particular expertise, but I strongly suspect that a subsequent explosion of sufficient magnitude could solve it.
Tell us a time when doing the "Wrong" thing ended up being the "Right" thing.
Example - instead of not trying to terrify people you are supposed to frighten them because it's the Halloween spirit.
Example - instead of not trying to terrify people you are supposed to frighten them because it's the Halloween spirit.
The adventure had the party essentially blackmailed into assassinating a prominent leader. We snuck in weapons to his place but not with the intent to actually kill him. Instead we found out that this leader made some powerful enemies who wanted him dead so those smuggled weapons helped in DEFENDING him. :D
We were playing Runescape II and our group was hired to either kill a pirate lord who had taken over a important coastal city, or capture him and take him to the capital to face judgement.
After some hijinks, few great fights, two crazy plans to capture the pirate lord were one of them didn't work (stupid pirate ship not having an anchor chain) and another involved a barrel full of water and my awesome dire wolf -pet, we managed to capture him, took all his stuff, tied him up like a Christmas turkey and put him in a bag. Mission accomplished, right?
Unfortunately, on our way out of the city, one of our team's bounty hunters who was wearing a high quality armor from a member of another pirate crew whom we had killed earlier, got recognized by other members of that crew and we were brought before their captain on their ship, who also happened to be one of the pirate lords lieutenants.
We didn't manage to talk our way out of that, since he wanted to know what was in the bag, which led to a short fight with him until he bolted, which led to our healer acting like a dirty coward and me using the bagged pirate lord like a battering ram to push my way through about 50 pirates to get out of the ship.
Unfortunately, me and our second bounty hunter got captures by the pirates, while our healer and other bounty hunter managed to escape, but not before I did my best to maim, kill and murder the pirate lord (turns out he beat Death in a game and became an immortal...Hax).
The pirate lord of course wasn't happy with that, but since we still had all his stuff hidden away (including some very powerful magical items and his pistols, which were the only gunpowder weapons in the setting) so, he made a deal with us: one-on-one duel between him and my hunter. If I win, we can go free and he and his cohorts leave the city.
We dueled and I won (I ended up smashing his lower jaw off) and he honored his end of the bargain leaving and we went back to the capital to earn our reward. It was only after the game was over that GM told us that the pirate lord wanted to get captured in order the get to the capital and kill the head of the nation. So, basically we did the right thing by failing.
After some hijinks, few great fights, two crazy plans to capture the pirate lord were one of them didn't work (stupid pirate ship not having an anchor chain) and another involved a barrel full of water and my awesome dire wolf -pet, we managed to capture him, took all his stuff, tied him up like a Christmas turkey and put him in a bag. Mission accomplished, right?
Unfortunately, on our way out of the city, one of our team's bounty hunters who was wearing a high quality armor from a member of another pirate crew whom we had killed earlier, got recognized by other members of that crew and we were brought before their captain on their ship, who also happened to be one of the pirate lords lieutenants.
We didn't manage to talk our way out of that, since he wanted to know what was in the bag, which led to a short fight with him until he bolted, which led to our healer acting like a dirty coward and me using the bagged pirate lord like a battering ram to push my way through about 50 pirates to get out of the ship.
Unfortunately, me and our second bounty hunter got captures by the pirates, while our healer and other bounty hunter managed to escape, but not before I did my best to maim, kill and murder the pirate lord (turns out he beat Death in a game and became an immortal...Hax).
The pirate lord of course wasn't happy with that, but since we still had all his stuff hidden away (including some very powerful magical items and his pistols, which were the only gunpowder weapons in the setting) so, he made a deal with us: one-on-one duel between him and my hunter. If I win, we can go free and he and his cohorts leave the city.
We dueled and I won (I ended up smashing his lower jaw off) and he honored his end of the bargain leaving and we went back to the capital to earn our reward. It was only after the game was over that GM told us that the pirate lord wanted to get captured in order the get to the capital and kill the head of the nation. So, basically we did the right thing by failing.
So, the characters in the story were led to a portal that took them to a place called Paradise, which they knew nothing about. The government captured them immediately when they portaled in, but then a mysterious girl with a Luxray and an Alakazam saved them and led them to the resistance. The group was suspicious of both the government, the resistance, and this girl, named Jenny.
Jenny decided to introduce the group to resistance operations by taking the group to a simple food mission. They went to a farm, talked to the farmers there, and were about to take the food back to the resistance when the group decided to knock out Jenny and try to make a break for it.
Unknowingly to the group, the government was already here, spying on this food transfer. They had placed trackers in the food, and were planning on following the food directly to the rebellion base. Upon seeing the group make a break for it, the government panicked and sent in the attack immediately. Their air force came, and should have taken the players back in to custody there, but a new character played by another player showed up just in time to rescue all of them.
After all of this, the players overly paranoid and suspicious actions of knocking out the rebellion leader actually managed to save the rebellion. This rebellion would later succeed and take over the paradise government with the party's help. Sometimes, being overly paranoid can help prevent against traps from people you don't even think are there!
So thank you Twilight, Pinkie Pie, for making me realize how much of a stupid idea it was to attempt to not scare children on a holiday completely devoted to scaring children. Sure, it doesn't quite solve the whole "who is smearing Luna" plot, but at least we can deal with the smearing more effectively now.
One group I'm with seems to have turned social puzzles into a combat encounter, where you just keep rolling your Diplomacy until you've succeeded enough times to "win".
It's really a bad way of doing things, so I tend to just not roll and come up with social actions that elicit the GM to think instead of simply assigning some arbitrary DC.
It's really a bad way of doing things, so I tend to just not roll and come up with social actions that elicit the GM to think instead of simply assigning some arbitrary DC.
I've had players roll a 20 on the Diplomacy check that follows doing something they've been warned was terribly stupid, announce that their modifiers bump that up to a 35, and look terribly surprised when the person they're trying to interact with tries to cave their skull in.
Sometimes, "The rules say--" must be countered with, "And the story/situation says--".
Sometimes, "The rules say--" must be countered with, "And the story/situation says--".
Basically comes down to Rule Zero, at the end of the day.
Yeah, cause there are times the players want to justify the most absurd things with a single die roll and if the GM doesn't step in to control that, it will end in fire. Lots of fire. D:
As I recall, he didn't even have a majority, but somewhere in the general vicinity of 30% (and non-compulsory voting, which tends to skew voting patterns towards the fanatics). However, this was enough to give him enough power that he could manufacture an "emergency" to get the rest of the way.
Puzzle too hard? Blow a hole through it and move on.
Diplomacy not working? Go for the hostage negotiation approach.
Can't find the hidden fortress in the forest? Burn it down.
... I hate my GMing experience so much.
They can't find the hidden fortress in the forest after burning everything down, if
A: the fortress is also made of wood and burns, destroying the stuff the party wants there
B: the fortress is invisible (might be detectable by the lack of wood ash and scorch marks in that particular spot)
C: the fortress is underground/in a hill and only its entrance is visible above ground
D: the "fortress" is a person who lived in the forest and got the F- out of there when everything burned (fortress-style plate armor, really tough fighter-type, or maybe a sort of social bastion position...)
A: the fortress is also made of wood and burns, destroying the stuff the party wants there
B: the fortress is invisible (might be detectable by the lack of wood ash and scorch marks in that particular spot)
C: the fortress is underground/in a hill and only its entrance is visible above ground
D: the "fortress" is a person who lived in the forest and got the F- out of there when everything burned (fortress-style plate armor, really tough fighter-type, or maybe a sort of social bastion position...)
I like option A. Consequences of one's actions! And a fortress made out of trees makes sense for camoflage. :D
The key to that kind of group is to make sure that there are consequences for their actions.
Want to set the hedge maze on fire? Sure! Water appears out of nowhere to extinguish the blaze, followed by a reminder that this is a no-smoking section of the wizard's mansion. You've learned something!
Want to drag a hyena carcass into the elf village and demand they prepare it for you? Sure! They're too stunned by your sheer chutzpah to react... this time. Don't plan on making a return trip unless you want to be a pincushion.
Want to vandalize the temple of the lawful neutral goddess of beauty? Sure! You've been declared anathema. Roll Perception. Okay, yes, the sanctified rogues succeeded in kidnapping you in your sleep. Everyone else? They've announced that he's going to be hung by the neck until dead unless you can bust him out. The holy war he started should provide plenty of cover.
Want to set the hedge maze on fire? Sure! Water appears out of nowhere to extinguish the blaze, followed by a reminder that this is a no-smoking section of the wizard's mansion. You've learned something!
Want to drag a hyena carcass into the elf village and demand they prepare it for you? Sure! They're too stunned by your sheer chutzpah to react... this time. Don't plan on making a return trip unless you want to be a pincushion.
Want to vandalize the temple of the lawful neutral goddess of beauty? Sure! You've been declared anathema. Roll Perception. Okay, yes, the sanctified rogues succeeded in kidnapping you in your sleep. Everyone else? They've announced that he's going to be hung by the neck until dead unless you can bust him out. The holy war he started should provide plenty of cover.
For example, in our new Star Wars RPG game (the re-skinned DnD clone, not the new one), our group of mercenaries hadn't actually figured out what we wanted to do with ourselves and, in a fit of trying to justify my leadership role (because no one wants it and I did such an excellent job at it last time, so why not?) and in desperation to try and find something to do, I used my excellent gathering info skill in my attempt to find us a lucrative job doing whatever. A high roll of 26 lead me to the Imperial office and a nice easy mission to help the Empire establish themselves on the peaceful planet of Naboo. Fast forward to us being stuck on the back lines of an epic battle between the new empire and some rebels at their command outpost. Outpost apparently translates into "fortress of death" given the landscape, the AA cannons, and all the dead Imp bodies around. The only people making up the back lines was 16 storm troopers and us against 96 rebels and 8 AA cannons. I'm not sure how long we glared at our GM before he swore to us for the 5th time that he wasn't trying to kill us.
Personally, I viewed it as punishment for me mistakenly telling the recruiter that we'd take "any" job available.
I hope we get an Applejack-centric arc after this one. Twilight had the introductory arc, Fluttershy had the dragon, Rarity had the Diamond Dogs and Canterlot, Pinkie had the Pinkie Sense arc, and Rainbow Dash had the Wonderbolts. AJ hasn't had anything.
But your still right, we're still going to need one for AppleJack eventually (an probably an arc for Rainbow that wasn't improvised).
Strangely fitting, given the show's track record with her. She makes an excellent support character, helping the others through tough spots; maybe that's why they don't shine the spotlight on her too often.
But I will give your plan a shot because... I don't know, just don't be wrong.
(Must keep player knowledge from character knowledge)
Why do I get the feeling you have some experience at scaring small children?
Why do we all get the feeling he has some experience scaring small children?
Why do I get the feeling you have some experience at scaring small children?
Why am I afraid that you have some feelings about experiencing small children?
Why do I get the experience you have some children at small scary feelings?
I rather liked the Halloween short he wrote about scaring small children.
Scaring anyone is fun, but kids are special. Only thing better is wusses who shriek in terror before you even start getting serious about it.
Scaring anyone is fun, but kids are special. Only thing better is wusses who shriek in terror before you even start getting serious about it.
Many a face went green.
So, regal me with tales of when the situation, be it combat or social, went nasty. Or perhaps tales of when the party stopped and realised 'oh gods, did we really just do all that?'
I happen to like social encounters.
I've been in too many parties of characters that see violence as the only solution. Maybe not quite murderhobo-level, but refusing to see talking as an option. In my campaigns, I tend to increase the amount of socializing the players have to do. There often isn't even a right answer, they just have to come up with a compromise that works. They have continuously surprised me, finding a better solution than I expected.
I've been in too many parties of characters that see violence as the only solution. Maybe not quite murderhobo-level, but refusing to see talking as an option. In my campaigns, I tend to increase the amount of socializing the players have to do. There often isn't even a right answer, they just have to come up with a compromise that works. They have continuously surprised me, finding a better solution than I expected.
Anyway, here's some more Fallout is Dragons, finally putting us back on track.
Session 34 - After the End: Libsyn YouTube