[D&D] Surprising Other Gamers

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  • #192367

    When my brother and some of his friends were talking about the last campaign they had just finished (and lost), I could not help but snicker.

     

    They asked if I could do better.

    I said, maybe.

    So I was invited from them as they created new characters for the “Dragon Mountain” campaign.

    They were still in the hack-n-slash mentality for playing RPGs.

    Me, I role played my PC.

    Mine was a cleric of Thoth (Knowledge).  They thought this was great, as I had learned all those healing spells as part of my PC.

     

    They spent most of their time killing monsters, while I defended myself when attacked, and healed those whom needed it.  I did not waste myself on those melee comflicts.

     

    So by the time we got to the main lair, most of the group were low on weapons especially magical weapons (broken over the campaign), and where on average between 3/4 to 4/5 of full hit points.  They thought since they were in a better position than the last time, they were ready.

    So while once they found/entered the lair, they all ran in to attack the dragon (to kill it – get its hoard).

    My Cleric, prostrated at the entrance to the lair, waited.

    So after the dragon finished off the group ONCE AGAIN, it approached my PC still in its submissive pose.

    The dragon spoke, “What trick is this?

    “Oh great lord,” my PC spoke, “may thy overwhelming majestic grant this insignificant permission to speak in thy presence.”

    The group looked at me in confusion.

    Talk instead of fighting?

     

    With having researched about dragonkind before setting out, my PC learned the biggest thing of a dragon is its ego.

    Defeat the ego, and you win without loss of life or limb(s).

     

    So by using flowery language, praises, and being as humble of its own accomplishments, my PC was able to leave the dragon’s lair not only fully intact, but an agreement to return annually to share knowledge and to research/answer what ever questions the dragon would ask.

     

    My cleric also got into an agreement that, since a dragon loves precious soft metal to lie down on (aka gold), that for a fair price, would exchange gold for those items the dragon might not wait/get rid of.  For example, all the armour of failed adventurers, artwork (from statues to ornate tables to pictures etc), to parchments, tombs, spellbooks, etc (since dragons learn magic differently).

     

    While I do enjoy the hack-n-slash of D&D, being able to win by role playing also is fun, if done right.

    Needless to so, they group did learn a thing or two about role playing.

    #192387

    2nd Ed Dragon Mountain boxed set is a massive campaign.

    Ive run it twice for different people.

    #193746

    NAB00001

    This is a first page of this PC’s character sheet.

    And if the other PC’s in our group (or NPCs) needed a spell, I also included on the main page how much each spell would cost them.

    Heck, if resting and them taking their own potions of healing/potions of extra-healing did not do the job, or they needed something directly from my PC, they would know what it would costs.

    #193747

    NAB00002

    As we had to keep track of things like charges, how many of such we had with us, we made it so that one could easily “X” off once one has been used.

    We also used things like “critical hits/misses” with damage points, so we had to for all things like weapons and armor, know what all it consisted of, incase a specific part was hit/damaged.

    Everything on this page is all the items my PC has ON-PERSON in the game.

    #193748

    NAB00003

    Items not ON-HAND during the module/campaign, we have a separate page(s) for.

    Since not every item is sold/traded between modules/campaigns, this is where they are listed.

    We did have a house rule that everything left “AT HOME” was 100% safe.

    No fire could destroy it.

    No looting/robbery can steal it.

    In other words, no DM can make these items disappear.

    #193751

    As you can see, even back then, after we had worn out the “official PC sheets” from all our updating/erasing, we (meaning me) started putting all PC stats into a spreadsheet format.

     

    This made updating easy, and printing out a new sheet after each campaign/module was a joy for all.

    #193769

    OH, and we also made it that TIME was apart of our games.

    We keep track of XP and weeks spent adventuring (which also include time to buy/sell/trade items, do training, etc.)

    I always hated the fact some games/groups I was in we could have a 17-year old 13th level wizard.

    So for every 1,000 XP earned = 1 week worth of time the PC needed to spend/live, plus whatever time was spent in the adventure.

    (For simplicity, we also had a house rule that 1 year = 50 weeks, regardless of world/setting we were adventuring in.)

     

    In this case, having an 54 year old 11th level cleric makes perfect sense.

     

     

    #193902

    One of the things I do as DM, I use Social Status, I also use titles and coat-of-arms.

    It adds to the character’s back story, as well as history (as one can get those during the game itself).

    #193903

    As part of the deal to seal the deal, in order for the fame and majesty of the dragon gets properly known, my PC had proposed a memoir of the dragon be made, as dictated by the ancient great wyrm sorcerous red dragon itself, so that all current and future generations will know how mighty and powerful it truly is.

     

    Needless to say, the ego of this dragon could not resist such an offer.

    Of course, it required some livestock before each “interview”, as well as a keg of beer (as it was dry talking so much from the dragon – or so it claims).

    Many many such months did this go on.

    It also did not help that after each session, the next was spent reading back to the dragon what was written down the last time.  Only when it was satisfied, would a new chapter be written.

    #193904
    KimberlyG
    Premium

      All this is great Legatus.   I love the style too.  I once did a “let everyone charge in to hack n slash.”  After healing who I could and getting them out of the lair,  I FED the creature (right now I forget what it was,  I think a large reptile creature) instead of just trying to kill it.  It was trapped, I think in a cave.   Feeding it granted me favor.  I got a magical sword from it!!  It also let me pass farther into the caverns for more loot.

      #194196

      While I do enjoy the meta hack-n-slash, I enjoy ROLE PLAYING too.

      One gets to be “more creative” role playing than hack-n-slashing your game away.

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