The Gaming Den

What are some superstitions (habits with no in-game direct cause) your characters exhibit in games you play in because of your past experience as a player in other games?

After playing a game with Virgil my characters tend to stab tables when they sit down at them for fear of them turning out to be a ninja disguised as a table.

So to summarize

In Shadowrun, I always headshot the unarmed secretary in the front lobby of whatever office we are attacking. Damned magicians are everywhere.

In DnD, I keep rope, pitons, marbles, flour, torches, poles, and various other adventurer thingies.

Also in DnD, I never trust the prisoner we rescued. Doppleganger/Rakshasa/vampires have taught me to never trust strangers during the adventure.

In Vampire, I always take Unbondable and Iron Will. Too many ways to put blood into your blood or mind-screw your badass vampire into a boot-licking blood doll.

In D&D I always carry a handful of chalk. Because some DMs love their nonsensicle puzzle doors.

In Deadlands I always stay at least 20 feet away from the guy carrying the dynamite. That and I always assume that someone's dark secret is the only way to kill them.

In DnD, I keep rope, pitons, marbles, flour, torches, poles, and various other adventurer thingies.

Totally. Along those same lines, I open nothing (doors, drawers, chests, etc.) before I search for traps, even if it is the door at the inn.

I never ride in modified vehicles in STAR WARS D6, and no NPC comes on my ship armed. I repair my own ship, even if it takes longer and/or is more expensive.

Game On,
fbmf

I always, always, shoot treasure chests before getting too close to them.
Cause this happened to me when I was new to the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJbZ2thxCaI

All my characters have a fear of snakes. I think this started as a gag where all my deadlands characters had that as a hindrance... one almost had a heart attack on the scairt table when we encountered a Mojave Rattler.

NPC interactions won't disappoint if you assume everyone is out to get you.

When given multiple directions always choose left-most.

I don't even touch unknown items until they've been taken back to a safe space and fully identified. I make other party members pick up anything unknown.

I never sleep in temples, occupied or abandoned.

erik wrote:When given multiple directions always choose left-most.

Actually, I have my own completely different thing on direction. If you are just grinding a dungeon for loot, always choose left unless some other direction obviously dead ends soon, but any time you actually want to get to a specific place, I roll a die and then have my character make up the "compelling" justification for why he will only go in that direction. This is because by making it random and making it obviously random to everyone at the table, the DM doesn't plan to fuck you by picking the direction to go as the bad one. Also, you can always roll the die, then just go whichever damn direction you wanted afterword.

Never have sex in a game. It doesn't matter how potentially awesome, advantageous, or offscreen it is. Unless your DM is explicitly requiring you to do so to enjoy the Nymph's Kiss feat, keep your pants fastened and your belt tightened. There are so many ways it can go wrong.

I almost always play characters who can produce a plausible motive and method to kill themselves if it looks like a good idea from a metagame perspective.

Until level 6 in D&D, my first response to a challenge is to assay whether I can make it easier by covering something in lantern oil and setting it ablaze. I'm very big on fighting stuff indirectly.

Keeping a line of retreat to safety is always important. I rarely go dungeon-delving without mining equipment in case a wall slides over the way out.

Avoraciopoctules wrote:Keeping a line of retreat to safety is always important. I rarely go dungeon-delving without mining equipment in case a wall slides over the way out.

It sounds like you might appreciate my Adventurer Class.

erik wrote:All my characters have a fear of snakes. I think this started as a gag where all my deadlands characters had that as a hindrance... one almost had a heart attack on the scairt table when we encountered a Mojave Rattler.

Dear God that sounds like it must have been an awesome moment. I once marshalled a player whose hindrances were that he was incredibly filthy with no sense of hygiene what so ever. He got swallowed by a Mojave rattler and I didn't want him to die, so instead the rattler spit him out because he tasted so bad.

fbmf wrote:I never ride in modified vehicles in STAR WARS D6...

That's not superstition, that's rational behavior. The ship modification rules in that game are ludicrously brutal. I've never seen another game where adding a bit more armor will periodically cause a TPK via hull breach.

What's weird is that right after the completely stupid rules for hotrodding your ship, they have replacement systems that a) won't malfunction and kill everyone and b) don't really cost more. They do take up a small amount of cargo space, but compared to the terrible modification rules, it's pretty irrelevant.

For example, SW d6 hyperdrive speed is expressed in a multiplier of 'standard travel times', so x1 ships are twice as fast as x2. Yes, really. Anyway, if you have an x2 hyperdrive and you want an x1, you can spend 15k for the drive, another 5-6k for the installation (or do it yourself), and 3 tons of cargo space (of your 100-200), and that's it.

But let's say you've been eating paint your whole life, and you want to hotrod your x2 hyperdrive into an x1 instead of replacing it. This will cost you 25k+ for the parts and more like 8-10k for the installation. Now, 1/6 of your jumps will have a drive malfunction. How bad are we talking? Well, every ~43 jumps your hyperdrive will be destroyed entirely. Every 72 jumps, your whole ship will be lost.

The whole section really should have read: "Starship Modification Rules: You can't."[/i]

RadiantPhoenix wrote:It sounds like you might appreciate my Adventurer Class.

I remember that class, it was pretty cool. One game I never got around to running was going to limit PC classes to that and Mage

TheNotoriousAMP wrote:

erik wrote:All my characters have a fear of snakes. I think this started as a gag where all my deadlands characters had that as a hindrance... one almost had a heart attack on the scairt table when we encountered a Mojave Rattler.

Dear God that sounds like it must have been an awesome moment. I once marshalled a player whose hindrances were that he was incredibly filthy with no sense of hygiene what so ever. He got swallowed by a Mojave rattler and I didn't want him to die, so instead the rattler spit him out because he tasted so bad.

It was extra great because it was a one-shot adventure where we each made the most unfair starting characters we could and then put them in a pile and randomly drew characters so it wasn't even me playing him. He was a fairly durable harrowed blessed buddhist monk with an effective size of like 8 or 9.

I am honestly flattered that the Mage almost made it into an actual game.

ALWAYS PUT RANKS INTO SENSE MOTIVE. ALWAYS...

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Never have sex in a game. It doesn't matter how potentially awesome, advantageous, or offscreen it is. Unless your DM is explicitly requiring you to do so to enjoy the Nymph's Kiss feat, keep your pants fastened and your belt tightened. There are so many ways it can go wrong.

In my current game, the players have almost instituted a shoot-on-sight policy for women. Almost.

This hasn't really affected me so much as me getting the gist from reading WoD and 2E/3E D&D roleplay logs, but another one of my superstitions is to NEVER take up a job that involves sabotage, unwilling item or person retrieval, and/or murder without making sure that everything is on the level the best you can -- including being ready to just ditch the job if anything seems fishy.

I mean, it's not just to avoid complications or plot twists. I love complications and plot twists. Realizing that you just robbed the Yakuza is one of the best moments of a story. The reason for doing that is to avoid the whole Chrono Cross-ish 'ha! Because your party didn't do its due diligence, you're SECRETLY EVIL!' crap for something like killing bandits or retrieving a stolen magical item or setting fire to a fort. You'd be surprised at how many creepy witches volunteer at the local orphanage 10 miles away and because you killed her a whole bunch of kids are going to go hungry and sick you jerk.

Hicks wrote:I am honestly flattered that the Mage almost made it into an actual game.

Hah. I play one in Maxus' campaign in my channel. I solve problems by throwing money at them (I love glyph of warding), among other things. Pretty fun class in some ways.

As for myself... I tend to have my characters be equipped with assorted non-magical gear. My friends have joked about me being a Boy Scout enough times, and they have a point.

//

Edit: Derp

Anyways, my characters don't have a policy so much as I do:

The second a DM starts persecuting a single character, I quit.

Longsword? It's those canned orcs with falchions that are brutal (avg 18 dmg on 18-20/crit!).

Orcs and ghouls are fucking PK machines at level 1.

One PTSD I have from D&D is always assume a group of zombies contains some fucking ghouls acting like zombies as a surprise.