The Gaming Den

PoliteNewb wrote:I've never argued that D&D characters need to be nice, or like each other. All I have argued is that D&D is about character cooperation, and I still hold that it is.

So, superficial cooperation is all that's necessary? I agree completely.

Yes. What we recognize as society is still completely incapable of mattering to any high level dude. Other high level dudes still matter of course, and they very definitely exist. But the crap covered peasants don't mean shit. It's all so subjective... or is that the point? I think I'm getting term...

If Conan and Elminster don't get along, why the fuck have they teamed up to storm the Lich King's castle? Why are they working together to find the Lost Ruby of Ankara? A good DM will give them a reason. Conan wants the Lost Ruby of Ankara because it's worth a lot and he can trade it for a Kingdom....

The players don't need to be completely cooperative and loyal to each other, but if they weren't interesting in cooperating toward a mutual goal, why are they an adventuring party? The whole point of D&D is "you and some other dudes get together and do stuff". How is that not cooperat...

D&D is cooperative at a player level as in the players are cooperating together to tell a story. It doesn't need to necessarily be cooperative at a character level (and I find that the games where it isn't to be some of the most fun). There is a big difference between the two and people get it c...

D&D is heavy and metal. Fuck yes. Exactly. I would recommend Kamelot, Rhapsody, and Tenacious D for music that gets me in the mood for some Dragon Slaying. For reference, two of Kamelot's CD's revolve around a guy on a quest to learn the secrets of the universe. First, he turns to drugs; then h...

I'm not sure about that. Certainly, DnD posits a universe where a badass can be more powerful than society locally. I mean, you can just be a badass and it doesn't matter if you wear the chief hat in your village because there isn't shit that the actual mayor and his guards can do to you. ... I don...

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. I think with both scenarios you're assuming that there is only the given plot hook, whereas I'm assuming that there are multiple plot hooks available in addition to the option to strike off into the wilderness. So, whether or not I ignore a specific plot hook, or wrap ...

My underlying point is that using published modules as a ruler for what is and isn't broken, especially when it comes to knot-cutting, is an inherently wrong and inaccurate tool. Saying "name a module that can't be broken by using teleport" produces roughly the same list of "problem&...

by their very design, adventure modules are meant to be plug-n-play. In all practicality, modules are written for those who are otherwise unable to come up with their own stuff -- either due to time-constraints, drive, or competence level. either way, these people aren't all that concerned with the...

And other high-level characters can stop the balors or the Necromancer King. Logically speaking, if characters of level X support agenda A, then other characters of level ~X will exist that support agenda B. Not necessarily. Logically speaking, if the Agenda A guys have been hunting Agenda B guys i...

See, from my standpoint, those are essentially the same thing. Just because we, as players, rejected your evil necromancer threatening the town adventure doesn't mean we don't want to play D&D. It just means we don't want to do that particular adventure. Hell, we probably didn't even know that ...

Your players are not participating in the game because their characters want to, they're participating because they want to. As MC, you must keep the players involved. Nobody is going to suck it up and participate in a game against their wishes otherwise just so Moonshadow the elf will find her tru...

But you're still wrong. The characters can always kill themselves. ... So unless you're going to hold a real gun to a player's head, there's *always* a way out of a module that breaks said module. And you're still missing the point. Your characters killed themselves out of the player's desires to p...

I'm saying that is the ultimate escalation of players wanting to skip content and being frustrated, neutered, and railroaded into it at every turn. See, there's the disconnect. I still don't see how any of that pertains to the thread. If your players are making logical decisions that result in skip...

Hold on. Let's go over this again. Scenario 1: I agree to be a player in Red Hand of Doom. In the course of playing, I get a Flying Mount. I fly straight to the final dungeon and murder the big bad. I do this because there is no logical reason for my character to not take the fastest path to the obj...

But my Ravenloft adventure IS interesting. It is interesting and if you don't understand why then it's obviously not for you. *Hands on Hips* But seriously, it's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is Players playing your campaign but skipping content. If your players don't want t...

the only thing that sets expectations is how the DM handles it. ... So, the mere existence of XP doesn't set expectations -- precedence set by the DM does. I agree with you in that I've long since changed to a system where characters level up upon the completion of a major quest or story arc. I jus...

What the fuck are you even talking about? Are you seriously arguing that 3e rogues don't get feats and can't buy magical items? Or that 4e options are better? His First point is simply saying that 4E rogues don't need to invest any resources towards being able to sneak attack everything in the game...

Do you own a DMG? It clearly says "Judge the difficulty of an encounter on its own merits." It also says "An encounter so easy that it uses up none or almost none of the players resources shouldn't result in any XP award at all." This is not a computer game. XP awards are always...

Whoops. Alright, fine. Level 9 Chicken Killer then. That's still pretty silly.

And CR goes up by 2 when you double the number of things you fight. I'll admit that it's been a while, but I remember that specifically.

Shouldn't. By RAW, 3K Chickens is a CR19 encounter.

Why are you trying to run a pirate campaign when your player obviously don't want to be pirates? Seriously, why? Devil's Advocate, because none of your players want to be DM and you want to run a Pirate Campaign. Could you give me an example of a module which can't be skipped? Because this sure sou...

Let's see... he'd be a CR 18 monster. So, level 18, technically. Two of them is a level 20 encounter.

That could be a fun fight.