| ChrisMTS |
One of my favourite things a DM did (well, not so much, as it led to me leaving the group for RPing purposes) was try to tell me exactly how to roleplay my character and insisted I was playing him wrong. The reason for this being that the DM had worked himself into a corner and couldn't think of another way to get out of it.
So the scenario was that we were investigating goblin raids on a seaside town. During one such raid we took one of the goblins prisoner and interrogated him to find out the source of the attacks. The problem here is that the DM didn't want us to find out the information this way but couldn't come up with a reason why the goblin wouldn't know (presumably the 'goblin came from a staging area, not the main enemy base' option did not occur to him). So he urgently started looking for a way of killing off the goblin. Since I was playing a dwarf he hit upon my race's alleged hatred of goblins as a solution to the problem.
So he started asking me why I wasn't killing the goblin instantly. I pointed out that I wanted to complete our mission and earn our reward, so I was up for the interrogation option. He insisted that as a dwarf, I hated and loathed all goblins on sight and would want to kill them instantly. I pointed out that, during character creation, I had chosen (with his consent) orcs as my racial foe with a backstory reason for that hatred, not goblins. I also pointed out that my dwarf had an intelligence of 14 (well above average) and, even if moved to psychotic violence by the mere presence of goblins, would be able to override that in order to learn where more goblins were (and hence be able to kill more than just one).
In the end we had to end the session early as he would not accept he didn't have a leg to stand on. The sad thing was, I was coming up in my mind multiple reasons he could have turned the situation around (the staging post option, the goblin having conveniently suffered severe head trauma when we overpowered him etc) and none of them seemed to occur to him. Very...
I think there needs to be a little clarification to this, as this is not an entirely accurate recount of the evening in question.
Disclaimer : I was running this game.
The group was playing Rise of the Runelords - Burnt Offerings in a modified version of the New World of Darkness Storyteller system, as an experiment into more Story focused roleplaying.
The New World of Darkness Storyteller system has a morality system - which was expanded in our Pathfinder game to include morality based on race or religion. The decision was made to emphasize certain racial stereotypes in the rules in the system, whether this was a good or a bad decision wasn't really the issue as we never managed to finish our play testing.
Morality and any additions based your character choices were explained during character creation and the Dwarf racial bonuses were set as follows
Dwarf –
choice of +1 stamina or resolve.
Darkvision : Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet
Size 4. Speed Strength + Dexterity + 3
+1 to perception checks when stone is involved.
Specialisation Survival - Underground.
+1 magic resistance.
1 extra health box.
Not killing Goblins and Orc’s is a level 3 morality sin.
When Werthead wanted to spare one of the Goblin's, he was reminded that as part of his racial choice it was considered a sin for Dwarves above morality 3 (which he was at the time) and as such if he actively chose to spare the goblin then he would risk the loss of a single morality point.
Werthead refused to make the roll as said his character creation choices should not limit his roleplaying.
The group tried to explain how the Storyteller system works, that this system was designed to encourage roleplaying and provide some consequences for decisions, however he was unable or unwilling to grasp the concepts being explained.
There was no attempt to force the killing of these goblins - interrogation would have been handled very simply it is covered in the adventure path. The only issue was the lack of understanding of how the system works by a single player.
I believe the group as a whole tried their very best to explain the system and could not have done any better. It is unfortunate that this misunderstanding continues to this day and I'm quite saddened to read how convinced you are that I was struggling to force you into an action you did not want to take, not that I wanted to add to our roleplaying experience by adding layers of complexity to player choices.