Behind the Screen: Suspending the rules for reasons of plot...

One of the other difficulties with running a campaign with high level player characters is how to control plot related elements when those characters can make saves or take actions that would fundamentally disrupt your encounters.

The Arguments

In our current campaign, there have been a few times when effects occur to our players that they did not get a saving throw for. A specific instance of this was when our party encountered an evil goddess who froze them in their tracks in order to give a chilling speech about how the party fouled up her best laid plans and they would pay dearly.... essentially a slight plot advancement wrapped in some color.

Most of our players didn't seem to mind not getting a saving throw to be frozen in place, however you will find that all groups contain That One Person that wanted an opportunity to try the throw anyway. I feel like those people are perfectly justified in wanting the saving throw, however in this particular case I was able to explain it away due to the fact it was a lesser goddess that they encountered.

That begs the question: how do you handle this when lesser characters or forces are involved that the players should get a saving throw for, but in succeeding could handicap or seriously disrupt your plans for the session on that given night?

A Solution in Pieces

In the vein of full disclosure, I will go ahead and state out loud that I don't have a solution for this problem, and I consider it one of the fundamental difficulties of playing a high or epic level campaign. It seems under the current rule system, you can no longer necessarily revert back to some classic D&D encounters that the players could easily dissuade with their skills. You lose some of the ability to tell a story in a cutscene fashion, or using underpowered, crafty NPCs to add some interest.

I say this because as a DM I really don't like overly suspending the rules in cases where they are warranted. For example, if a nimble thief picks Bat Loaf's pocket and he is dexterous enough to give chase and catch him instead of leading you into the Elite Thieves Guild plotline you had laid out, that kind've rules out being able to do that without submitting yourself to a "shoot off the cuff" night.

When you're dealing in a mode of co-DMing like we are, the difficulty of just ad-libbing like mad on the spot becomes more great since both DMs should have some say in how things progress in a given situation (at least, that is how we've been running it to this point).

I know there are seasoned professionals in our midst that do well in a high or epic level setting, so please give me a temporary +2 to WIS here!

Resurrection in D&D: Don't Fear the Reaper?

I've been having some discussions recently with my cohorts about the concept of resurrection in D&D. Two of the guys in our gaming group, Sirgeekelot and Kanati, have vehemently argued that it is incredibly broken as it works now. Why?

Why resurrection Sucks

The primary complaint I hear on why resurrection sucks in D&D is that the players no longer fear death. This poses two problems. First, a player is far more apt to do things that may result in their death if they're pretty sure they're just going to get brought back to life after it's all over. They might just charge recklessly into battle, they may intentionally sacrifice their lives heroically, or they may just be more prone to taking big risks. In gameplay terms, no fear of death means players won't think so hard about smarter ways to fight something -- which means it's much more appealing to (as Kanati puts it) "swing your sword over your head and re-enact a scene from Braveheart".

The other problem with no fear of death is that it greatly sucks the drama out of a situation. You're going to be very, very interested in what's going on if your 18th level character you've raised from a puppy is near death and there's no bringing him back. Happy? Probably not -- unless, of course, he wins and continues to live! Drama is exciting. Fear of character death gives players a vested interest in not doing stupid things, and when the party does overcome the big baddie at the end of the dungeon against incredible odds it's like winning the Super Bowl. (Only better, and the rings give +2 to all saves.)

Why resurrection Might Not Be So Bad

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've played a lot of videogame RPGs in my day. In most of those games, if a PC dies, you can get them ressurected somewhere for a steep fee, or carry magic items to do it, or use magic. Just like in D&D. The only way the game ends is if the whole party croaks. But in videogames, you can typically restart at the last save point.

When you start getting into higher levels in both genres, they commonly start throwing enemies at you with abilities that can kill a character in one shot. The counter to that is to ressurect the dead PC. It's a gameplay mechanic, the antidote to the poison of death. Sure, this kind of approach to individual character death is about as dramatic as an oatmeal breakfast WITH EXCITING PEACH SLICES. I get that. To a player, the thought of their PC dying is more frustrating than it is sad or traumatic.

However, if the whole party bites it in D&D, there's no save. If the battle is close or going poorly for the group, it's dramatic. The players are all worried about dying then. They're all engaged. They all want to find some way to defeat the enemy and rise to victory. They could even engage in (gasp) team play in order to keep everybody alive.

Does It Blend?

In the end, I personally think resurrection fits the way D&D works currently simply because it's a needed gameplay element. I don't think it's necessarily bad, just different than the real world. It does take away from the drama of combat in some ways and it prevents certain story plots from occurring, but in my tiny little simulationist brain it fits the world around it. (I tend to think of it as fantasy healthcare for the rich and powerful.)

As I said before, even in our gaming group there's greatly differing opinions on this topic, so I'd love to hear yours. Please commence gentlemanly melee combat in our comments section if you so desire.

No matter how you feel on the topic -- as roleplayers, I would heartily suggest that you do not simply take your PC's lives for granted. Remember, you may not stay dead, but dying HURTS REALLY BAD!

We suck at breaking the cycle...

I was spending some time tonight thinking about all of the different gaming systems that I have been adjacent to over the years and how utterly terrible our group is at adapting to new campaign settings or rules systems.

The Great Resistance

For some reason, our group is change resistant. We have tried several different systems over the years and despite the different flavors and genres we keep coming back to traditional D&D.

The reasons for resistance have been varied and numerous. I wanted to give Deadlands a try, however the strange character generation rules and utter complexity to combat made it fizzle out after only a session or two. Kanati, my co-DM for our current D&D campaign, wanted to introduce us to Call of Cthulhu. It lasted several sessions, but for some reason running a roleplaying game in a modern setting just wasn't resonating with our crew. I actually liked the fear system and the ephemeral "X-Files" feel to the whole session, but I guess the rest of our crew wasn't really feeling it as much.

Does your group have a comfort zone?

We've tried limiting the number of sessions for a new game system or campaign setting, and it really hasn't helped the situation. It appears that our core group simply prefers the Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms classic D&D experience.

Does your gaming group have a comfort zone? Has anyone succeeded in breaking out of this comfort zone and trying some new things with any measure of success? Is there something (besides the obvious) wrong with us?

Lets hear it!!

Queen of Pork Belly Futures

There's a hilarious bit on the current Presidential candidates as D&D monsters over at Boing Boing this morning. As a person who has contemplated his own magic resistance, this RULED.

As an aside, I was trying to clean up a double-posted comment on Dante's post yesterday and apparently I was clicking like E. Honda because I have somehow managed to irreversibly delete both comments. Sorry 'bout that. We're not in the business of silencing people unless they're spamming or being abusive, so I just wanted to clear that up before someone called us evil Overlords or something.

Wait, if you feel like calling me that I totally did that on purpose.

Miscellanea

While I've never really penned these thoughts, there are a few things in the world that I have thought about creating. One day, maybe, I'll get ambitious and actually develop these. Or have a character create them. But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts for some miscellanea.

Pocket Cloaks - These plain-looking cloaks would come as a pair; they share the same astral pocket, so that an item placed in the pocket of one cloak could be retrieve from the second cloak.

Twisted-Bead Necklaces - These necklaces are simple in appearance, just strings of simple beads, all of the same color. The real power of these necklaces is revealed when two strings are combined; two strings twisted together unlock the power of each string. Most common among these strings of beads are those that improve abilities.

Brush of Vanity - This hairbrush is much sought after among performers; if a performer uses this brush before taking the stage s/he will experience a temporary charisma bonus.

The unabashed joy of returning home...

Over the weekend, I finally bowed to recent social pressures within our gaming group and purchased an Xbox 360 (My Gamertag: Dante8309). I have been without a console that could perform well for such heady endeavors as first person shooters, a genre that I enjoyed quite a bit in my high school and early college years. I even dabbled professionally with a game company you've probably heard of, but that's a story best left for another time.

The Oh-So-Verbose Setup

After firing up my new console and slapping in the Halo 3 disk, I was amazed how in a few short minutes several elements that I knew were on the fringes of technical possibility sprang to life in fully polished, amazingly high fidelity (pseudo) reality. It was as if I was frozen in one of those Walt Disney's head tubes and was revived hundreds of years in the future to play the games only dreamt about!

When I would wax nostalgic about these features being amazing and incredible some of my friends who had been gaming all throughout my "off years" would just pat me on the head and assure me that they've had that feature two games ago and its pretty commonplace now... and I'd be off to the next cool thing to enjoy, like a kid on Christmas.

Does this even relate to roleplaying?

You bet it does! I know there are many of you out there that used to play a certain campaign setting, system, or even entire genre that you've let get old and crusty just like I did for my first person shooters.

You can approach the solution to this in several ways. First off, if you're not into a lot of research or a lot of extra cash outlay just remember a few of the elements of those long-past games that you used to enjoy and weave them into your plotlines as you prepare your gaming session for this upcoming week. It doesn't take a lot to evoke the feeling of certain environment or setting (or even game type) and the natural reverence that you hold for the source material will probably come out in a satisfying way when you actually run your session.

If you are feeling a little more ambitious, pop open Google and see if that old setting or game system that you used to love has been updated to new versions or a newer rule system. If you're lucky, the new rule system may be the same one that you're running in today which can ease the argument to support a one-off nostalgia session for the rest of your adventuring companions.

It is fun to get back in the saddle!

Take it from me... getting back in the saddle and experiencing something you once loved through the new shiny lens of revisions and improvements can be a pretty wonderful thing. In fact, I think I have done myself a disservice by staying away from something that I once loved for so long.

There are those of you in the world (trust me, I'm thinking of one person specifically when I write this) that will argue that not all revisions to a gaming system are good. That's true, however you won't know what good or bad became of your old favorite until you check it out with your own eyes and roll some dice and kill some players... I mean... reward some experience points.