Discussion Thread: Anything Topic
Attention D&D junkies! Tired of checking the blog only to find there are no new posts. Well, here it is—The Anything Topic comment collection:
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COMMENT BELOW:
posted by The Dungeon Master | 11:00 AM
4 Comments:
Things that really suck for me as a DM:
1.Bane (We've already established this one)
2.Ghandi scenes (Think of the movie, there were thousands of 'extras'. City adventures are always a challenge in this regard.
3.Trying to get players to express their secret disappointments about the game.
4.Fighting against the 'adversarial DM' model that some might be accustomed to. (Vs. the Collaborative Model where the more the DM knows, the better the 'play.')
5.Watching the clock, time is my enemy.
Things that are awesome for me as a DM:
1.Outstanding and dynamic group of players.
2.Improvised player-character roleplaying scenes with brilliant expressive dialog and action.
3.After 10 years of not DMing, using rules that are new to me, using a setting that I was unfamiliar with, and bringing it to life.
4.Having made new friends.
5.Overcoming fears, personal growth and development as a DM; learning new things.
6.Mark's willingness to host the game each week.
7.Chips humor & RP, Thom's creativity & RP, Mark's passion, dedication, RP & good intentions for everyone, John's understanding & RP, Paul's genuine love for the game & RP, Scott's consistant willingness and RP growth over the weeks.
First I would subscribe an extreme case of evil alignment as one where..... someone who acts knowingly against the law purposefully for primarily their own advancement, usually in wealth, whereby virtually no other would benefit, and good will is typically not shown.
Now onto create an assassin with a good alignment.
Someone who would kill the above described evil alignment could be doing so for primarily for personal gain or to usurp the present power, regardless of law or wrongdoing. Such an example would be an evil assassin, or at absolute best, a neutral assassin.
Someone who would kill the above described evil alignment for the benefit of a much larger group, for little to no personal gain, operating either within the law or as a vehicle of the law could easily be considered a good alignment, not lilly white good, but not neccesarily evil or neutral. Other outside actions would hold substaintial sway.
Assassins typically either work alone, or with a group of other assassins of similar alliances. Assassins by true nature want to keep their identities unknown, and would likely pose as something other than what they are if working with non-assassins. An assassin whose identy is known is likely to be in a pine box. Therefore, a playable good alignment PC assassin would likely only have limited duration contact with a party of non-assassins. Ergo, possible to play short term or under very special circumstances but nearly impossible to play without compromising the validity of character integrity (mostly of the assassin's cohorts) in a longhaul general campaign.
Things I like....
When I know that people have read what I have taken the time to write on the blog. It could be a quick little note on the blog, a comment in person about something from the blog or if suitable character knowledge some little side comment during game sessions. I try to write her scribings in a manner that the reader can identify with Kelestri's position or viewpoint, to gleen an understanding of why she is the way she is, why she just acts upon certain situations and tries to plan for other situations. I like to know that my audience is getting that, not getting that, or if they don't give a damn.
I like when my roleplay (particularly if it is character knowledge vs: player knowledge) is so convincing that players start to debrief ME as if I've missed a scene or nuance of a situation.
Comments on the adversarial DM.....
For me being a DM is like being omniscient narrator, which can be very amusing at times like when a party is walking obliviously into a trap that they should have know about, or have gained much more of an upper hand they they realise, when the party cannot instantly assess the extent of their advantages and disadvantages. It does however create a condition where you miss the suspense of not knowing what MIGHT be lurking around next corner. When players spring certain actions, plots, ideas on a DM it does not allow a DM to time to prepare NPC characters, extras, a valid storyline, or substantial plot modification, but it DOES give the DM a little bit of a chance to be on the fat-dumb-and-happy side of the table. I would NOT encourage witholding information from a DM as a general rule, but occaisionally, dropping one on them can be fun. When I PC for a long time I get the itch to DM, when I DM for a long time I get the itch to PC. As a DM I have never liked to kill characters (some PLAYERS get really torqued about it) and have fudged damage rolls or adversary morale checks to keep characters alive. I've watered down a few dumb luck results but I would kill a PC if situation truely dictated it. I loathe the concept of making the plausiblity of the storyline/plot suspect due to carelessness of the characters. As a player I am not a fan of a DM who can't or won't kill a character and a character that walks away from certain death more than once or twice compromises the belief of risk reward.
Comments on bringing your character to the next level....
No I'm not talking about getting your 3/3 sorc/thief to 3/4, I'm talking about their actions that make for a memorable story, something that gets you off of the bottom right hand corner of page 8 in the "In other news" category and gets you the front page headline with full color photos and memorable quotes. People who in real life make it big do so many times because they were willing to put every thing they owned on the line. The problem with real life is that for every success story there many more failure storys. One of the neat things about D&D is that you have a DM who can help make your story a success story. This is where having a collabrative DM is really nice. I have already covered the discussion of risk/reward, doing a lot of highly risky things with your characters life could result in your characters death, you may get to go out in a blazing glory of death but you better buy the jumbo pack of character sheets. Doing some moderately risky and a few highly risky things with your characters life can make for a edge of the seat ride and a rich story. The characters assets and holdings are one of the most overlooked risk reward sources available to a player. Are you willing to put up the family fortune?, to buy up a commodity to corner the market?, to sell off all that you found/looted/earned from the last 8 gaming sessions?, to buy that rare one of a kind item or map?, to payoff someone so well that you know what color of rabbit fur underwear they have on?
It is much easier to come up with a plausible response to those as a DM. You save town and it repays your family fortune, the market due to the sudden buy up increases your commodities value, or now the bad guys can't make make quigebo potions because they're missing that one item that you just bought up, those magic beans you bought just saved your sorry butts because they explode when thrown (funny that the merchant didn't mention that when you bought them), who would have know that for only 1000 gold the apothecary had keys to the bad guys mansion and could tell you that they'll be out and about for the next two hours?
Now here's the real kicker.... if nothing comes of your bold actions with your characters assets, you now have a pile of exotic turtle feathers, beans that make a mean ham and bean soup but nothing more, that Gem of Wonderous Wonders is glass junk and remind me to kick the crap out of THAT merchant if we see him again, the apothecary that forgot to mention the guard dogs inside the mansion. So if nothing comes from your bold actions, your character now has even more reason to keep being an adventurer, to keep going on quests, to find that next big score.....yeah now there is a really BIG problem.
(please, please, please note the sarcasim of that last statement)
... Good assassin
very much like chip said, but i think they could interact with non-assassins if s/he where to.. not use but persuade the group to help him in his quest.. sometimes it is easier for 1 man to get into a place and get the guy thats in charge thats causing all the evil things to happen..
assassins that are lawful or good are normaly just sent to take out "big wigs" silently and discreatly..but there is anouther twist
an assassin that doesnt kill but kidnaps.. to attempt to let said napped person to seek redemption.. this assassin type NEEDS others..for it is harder to kidnap a man when its 1-1..but if its 1-5 its a piece of cake
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