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I like how often I hear about gms banning asian themed characters in rise of the runelords... You don't get to do that when I have the option of picking a campaign trait that lets me choose to be a very trusted friend of a family named the kaijutsus.
I did not realize that Amekio had all of Min Kai inside her inn in Sandpoint.
I like how often I hear about gms banning asian themed characters in rise of the runelords... You don't get to do that when I have the option of picking a campaign trait that lets me choose to be a very trusted friend of a family named the kaijutsus.I did not realize that Amekio had all of Min Kai inside her inn in Sandpoint.
Well of course she does, it a happening place, you've never been there?
Oh, you said her Inn! my mistake:-)| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I like how often I hear about gms banning asian themed characters in rise of the runelords... You don't get to do that when I have the option of picking a campaign trait that lets me choose to be a very trusted friend of a family named the kaijutsus.I did not realize that Amekio had all of Min Kai inside her inn in Sandpoint.Well of course she does, it a happening place, you've never been there?
Oh, you said her Inn! my mistake:-)
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Players who cannot even give their class a through reading for the first 2 or 3 levels when they are told we will begin the campaign at said levels. These ate not even completely new players who may have first read 11 class descriptions first, then settled for one and got tired reading.
It is very disrespectful when people leave your campaign and don't even bother to tell you. So you and the rest of the table wait for an extended time to begin, maybe if you are lucky you eventually get through to them in a hour on the phone and learn you wasted an hour. Other times you cannot reach them on the.phone that day and you end up worried for someone who did not even have the common cutesy of telling you they have to withdraw from the group. Even worse when you had to tell another they could not join because your table was full.
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Dr. Deth, quick question, what do you mean each paladin should have a Phylactery? Not sure how that would be useful/reasonable/logical…probably being dense here ,but please enlighten me…sorry to derail ya'll
I believe he means this:
Aura faint divination; CL 1st
Slot headband; Price 1,000 gp; Weight —
Description
This item is a tiny box containing religious scripture. The box is affixed to a leather cord and tied around the forehead, worn so that the box sits upon the wearer's brow. There is no mundane way to determine what function this religious item performs until it is worn. The wearer of a phylactery of faithfulness is aware of any action or item that could adversely affect his alignment and his standing with his deity, including magical effects. He acquires this information prior to performing such an action or becoming associated with such an item if he takes a moment to contemplate the act.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law; Cost 500 gp
It gives the GM the opportunity to say, "Hey jerk-face the button on your shirt is pulsing red hot. Almost like it is trying to tell you something."
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I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.
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Got to say that Chaos always trips people up. Our Drizzt clone in our Runelords game used to pick pockets at random in the market but claims that his character is chaotic good because he dumps the coin he gets in the donation box at temple.
LOL
The temple must really appreciate his help; given that they're so overworked, running soup kitchens to feed all the families that are destitute...because their main wage-earners lost just lost their wages to a pickpocket...<derp>
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I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.
That used to bother me more than it does now. I have to admit, that over the years I have grown tired of and rarely choose human, half-elf, or half-orc as the race for my PC. I’ve just done it so many times that I am usually not captured by the possibilities.
However, I will still always try to have an interesting personality, unusual style of play, and weird goals. And I fully expect that Joe-Normal will not instantly like and trust me. In fact I would expect most of them to run screaming from my nagaji or immediately assume my wayang is the criminal. Not a problem. I am well aware that is part of playing the race.
I know a guy that always wants to play a drow. But then gets upset with the GM whenever anyone doesn’t trust him, has any kind of negative reaction to him, or is suspicious of him because he is drow. “Dude, you’re a Drow. The race that only gets its powers from worshiping foul demons.”
“Yeah, but Drizz’t…”
That bugs me.
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I played a fair amount of 4th ed, to give it a fair crack of the whip. One of the (many!) things that bugged me was character race.
My first character was a human. The most common race, right? In my entire time of playing in the club there was only ever one other human PC! Every other race was chosen for the stat bonuses matching the prime stats of the class. It got so that you could guess a PC's class as soon as you knew the race.
I'd also compain about the absurdity of parties composed of esoteric races, but realism wasn't a design parameter for 4th ed. : /
My first character was a human. The most common race, right? In my entire time of playing in the club there was only ever one other human PC! Every other race was chosen for the stat bonuses matching the prime stats of the class. It got so that you could guess a PC's class as soon as you knew the race.
Totally agreed. I've been seeing that since 3e came out, honestly. "I want to play a rogue. What race gives me a Dex bonus?" I've only ever seen one small Barbarian, and she was deliberately unoptimized (she wanted to play in hard mode). It's gotten to the point where I'm pretty sure that in my next campaign I'm just letting people add 2 to any stat, no minus, no matter what race they take.
I'd also compain about the absurdity of parties composed of esoteric races, but realism wasn't a design parameter for 4th ed. : /
I've always encouraged oddball races in my games. I like the variety, and we can pretend the races are more common than the book tells us. I don't think it breaks anything. My current Legacy of Fire game is an Ifrit, a Sylph (yeah I snorted at Calvinball's example upthread), an Aasimar (who can rarely attend the game, unfortunately), two humans and an elf. I'm playing in a piratey game with a couple oddballs. My character is human, but as a synthesist summoner, he spends more time in his Shark-man form, so he kinda looks like a rare race.
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Yeah I can't sympathize with people who dislike rare/exotic races, considering I've designed my own homebrew world to encourage things besides the Standard Seven. It probably helps, thankfully, that I've never had to deal with someone using their race as a crutch; the person who was notorious for playing bland, featureless characters in my groups was also the one who refused to play anything but humans.
Honestly I run into "I need to be human because I need that bonus feat" more than "I am playing X class, what race gives +Y to stat Z?". Far, far more often.
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I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.
We started as a party of 6. Three humans, an ifrit, a sylph, and a drow (our very own drizzt clone). But the three non-humans are the ones than have interesting personality and like RP as much or more than combat. sandpint loves us, except.cor Vinder, who wants to kill Drizzt 274853 for defiling his daughter.
I laughed hysterically when I saw your post.
Qakisst Vishtani
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Got to say that Chaos always trips people up. Our Drizzt clone in our Runelords game used to pick pockets at random in the market but claims that his character is chaotic good because he dumps the coin he gets in the donation box at temple.LOL
The temple must really appreciate his help; given that they're so overworked, running soup kitchens to feed all the families that are destitute...because their main wage-earners lost just lost their wages to a pickpocket...
<derp>
(Let me swap skins for a while) I imagine so. I shall have to ask Father Zantus if I ever find out in character. Drizzt 274853 can be so clueless at times.
Yeah I can't sympathize with people who dislike rare/exotic races, considering I've designed my own homebrew world to encourage things besides the Standard Seven. It probably helps, thankfully, that I've never had to deal with someone using their race as a crutch; the person who was notorious for playing bland, featureless characters in my groups was also the one who refused to play anything but humans.
Honestly I run into "I need to be human because I need that bonus feat" more than "I am playing X class, what race gives +Y to stat Z?". Far, far more often.
This as been my experience as well. The only race I ever see as much as human are aasimar and tiefling, if you open up the every flavor options from blood of angels/fiends. But mostly it is human for that bonus feat.
I had a kitsune barbarian once, but that game didn't last more than 2 sessions. I will play a dwarf or half-orc, if made to choose core only. I don't think I have ever played a human since 3rd edition came out.
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Considering that humans get a +2 on the stat of their choice, that isn't why people want to play something else. I play Qakisst for the challenge of having to deal with his differences. I have even complained to the GM that he's too easy on me. We're in Magnimar and though its going to suck, I fully expect to get treated like a felborn bastard (tiefling) caught sneaking into your daughter's room by half the people. Not every NPC should be treating us like the Guardians of Sandpoint. I'm hoping the GM doesn't go overboard though. I hate pitchfork parades & bonfire farewells.
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I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.
We started as a party of 6. Three humans, an ifrit, a sylph, and a drow (out very own drizzt clone). But the three non-humans are the ones than have interesting personality and like RP as much or more than combat. sandpint loves us, except.cor Vinder, who wants to kill Drizzt 274853 for defiling his daughter.
I laughed hysterically when I saw your post.
About the same here.
My Kingmaker party is an aranea, two homebrew fey races, a homebrew Naga, a homebrew dragon, and a fetchling. (Granted a lot of that is due to reincarnate roulette.) Everyone except the dragon is a thorough, enjoyable character who is a blast to GM for.
Our Age of Worms group is two fey (the two same races as the KM group, actually), a fetchling, and an orc. The orc is easily the most boring and flat of the four, and he's still quite a character and fun to have in the group. Also playing fey in a setting where people know of fey weaknesses (revulsion to mismatched clothing, hurt by loud bells, blocked by salt and cold iron, etc. etc. etc.) is a blast and surprisingly challenging.
Our Council of Thieves and Runelords games have equally varied parties, as have our past games, and really I can't say in any way that these two most recent are a change from the norm for us.
Things like this are the reason why I can't ever agree with those who look down on unusual races as an RP crutch, because while I have no doubts that there are those out there who use them as such, I have far less experience with them doing so.
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I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.
We started as a party of 6. Three humans, an ifrit, a sylph, and a drow (our very own drizzt clone). But the three non-humans are the ones than have interesting personality and like RP as much or more than combat. sandpint loves us, except.cor Vinder, who wants to kill Drizzt 274853 for defiling his daughter.
I laughed hysterically when I saw your post.
Qakisst Vishtani
What!!!! I'm Drizzt 274853, not you!
I don't mind you copying Drizzt, but how dare you copy me!
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Considering that humans get a +2 on the stat of their choice, that isn't why people want to play something else. I play Qakisst for the challenge of having to deal with his differences. I have even complained to the GM that he's too easy on me. We're in Magnimar and though its going to suck, I fully expect to get treated like a felborn bastard (tiefling) caught sneaking into your daughter's room by half the people. Not every NPC should be treating us like the Guardians of Sandpoint. I'm hoping the GM doesn't go overboard though. I hate pitchfork parades & bonfire farewells.
That's actually pretty much how I wanted to play my drow oracle for Runelords.
Basically, I'm anticipating that the townsfolk of Sandpoint will end up panicking if word gets out about who my character really is, no matter what she's done to keep the town safe. To counteract this, she never goes out dressed in anything less than full scale mail that keeps her face and body concealed.
And even though she's Chaotic Neutral, she has a very good reason to help Sheriff Hemlock and the people of Sandpoint with their problems: if she manages to earn the trust of the town, she can possibly take her helmet off without causing a panic.
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I'll flip our Drizzt copy over and check his limited edition print number when I get a chance.
Dragoncat, yours is a drow I would love to see played. Ours wears a mask, but constantly complains that we don't trust him while doing things that show that we can't trust him. Shalelu has never seen him without his mask, but the mayor and sheriff make him take it off when they're around now. Justice Ironbriar has seen him without his mask though, and he's an elf. So I'm not sure what's going on (OoC). In character none of us PCs know about the drow.
But apparently my cohort Dahlia does. She just hasn't said anything.
Edit: swapped skins again. I'm starting to confuse myself. If anybody has not figured it out I usually post as Usual Suspect, and only post as Qakisst when talking about him.
I'll flip our Drizzt copy over and check his limited edition print number when I get a chance.
Dragoncat, yours is a drow I would love to see played. Ours wears a mask, but constantly complains that we don't trust him while doing things that show that we can't trust him. Shalelu has never seen him without his mask, but the mayor and sheriff make him take it off when they're around now. Justice Ironbriar has seen him without his mask though, and he's an elf. So I'm not sure what's going on (OoC). In character none of us PCs know about the drow.
But apparently my cohort Dahlia does. She just hasn't said anything.
:D Thanks.
Well, to be honest, the other party members figured out something was up with her when they managed to catch glimpses of her face while she was having breakfast (curse their high Perception rolls and my low Disguise rolls! XD). In the end, she showed her face to them in private on the grounds that they'd eventually find out anyway, and she would rather reveal her identity to them on her terms.
As it turns out, having Gorum as a patron deity has its perks (and drawbacks)--she can go around wearing enough armour to make half a car in public and nobody would find it too unusual. Well, any more so than a typical adventurer walking about in full armour would, anyway.
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I'm Drizzt 274853 and so's my wife!
Okay, just to clear things up, my bad. Our Drizzt is # 254875.9. I had to role him over and get his id number off his backside. He hates it when I do things like that. Probably should have let Dahlia do that, but she's part elven. Though I've no idea where she got the mismatched eyes. They're so cool.
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The easiest way I've found to get folks to stop playing drizzt clones is to tell them that in your version of the setting, all drow talk with an appalachian accent. Even the one's that have spent their entire lives away from other members of their race still sound like they're from north carolina. The entire available spectrum is somewhere between R Lee Ermey and Fix it Felix.
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I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet. The player who wants to play a existing race without the prejudice other members of the race receive. A player in one of my friends games wanted to play a Drow. The dm allowed it. With the warning that he would have to make a name for himself. Not ride on the coattails of Drizzt. The game was set in Faerun. The player at the time seemed to understand. In play not so much. He expected that every npc would accpet him because he would say that he is not a evil Drow. His favorite phrase "I'm like Drizzt". Even with Drizzt fame most people policy is to shoot questions first ask question later when it comes to them. Even then he just never understood or pretended not understand why he scare the average person.
Not the dm was not being a bad one. He was more than willing to allow the player to become respected and even possibly liked. Not automatically at first level. Both the dm and the player had a big following out. As the player accused the dm of being racist. The player was African American. The dm was anything but. THe Dm
is gay. Of all the things to accuse the dm of being it's racist. The player was banned and we stopped hanging out with the guy. Not just because of what happened in the game. Just personality issues in and out of it.
Another pet peeve. Is members of the community are shocked and surprised when either here or another forum. Obscure rpg # 123123 is not being talked about. It maybe the best thing since sliced bread in the rpg world. If the company that publishes has no advertising I'm not going to know about it. Nor is it a bad thing that I don't
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Drow are very evil, so are killed on sight. Wait, one of them isn't, so we stop shooting drow on sight and wait and see if they're evil?
Devils are evil, and good folk shoot them on sight. Once upon a time, someone slapped a helm of opposite alignment on a devil and turned it good. Now, every time you see a devil, don't shoot it in case it's a good one?
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Drow are very evil, so are killed on sight. Wait, one of them isn't, so we stop shooting drow on sight and wait and see if they're evil?
Which was told to the player who ran the Drow. It would not have been so bad if he had not accused the dm of racism. The dm is about as non-racist as one can get. It's not like he would have not a chance to get at least as well known as Drizzt. The player expected instant recognition just by saying he was not evil and like Drizzt.
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I freely admit that the drow prejudice is a bad one; but it is an in game fact and part of the balance of the overpowered drow. To solve the problem in games I run, there are no drow. There are evil elves, but they look just like any other elf. There is no mark of Cain crap like the drow curse of dark skin. Elves might be light skinned or dark skinned, but that is not what marks them as evil. The evil dark elven society is just a society of evil elves that are no more powerful than other elves. They look just like any other elf, send spies into the outside world, infiltrate good elven society, and are harder to deal with because you can't tell who's a bad guy by the color of their skin.
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I freely admit that the drow prejudice is a bad one; but it is an in game fact and part of the balance of the overpowered drow. To solve the problem in games I run, there are no drow. There are evil elves, but they look just like any other elf. There is no mark of Cain crap like the drow curse of dark skin. Elves might be light skinned or dark skinned, but that is not what marks them as evil. The evil dark elven society is just a society of evil elves that are no more powerful than other elves. They look just like any other elf, send spies into the outside world, infiltrate good elven society, and are harder to deal with because you can't tell who's a bad guy by the color of their skin.
If I ever run a homebrew setting I may do the same. It did annoy in Faerun that their just had to be a evil faction of surface elves. And eco-terrorists to boot. I wish devs would understand that not every nook, cranny or underside of a rock needs to hide a evil enemy. I think they either borrowed the Drow from another source. or gave them the mark of Cain because they wanted to keep the elves at least n pre-third edition as Tolkien as possible.
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Gygax brought a lot of the Mormon Church's old prejudices into the game without really intending too or thinking about it. The tendency of creatures with dark skin or visually unappealing features (being what we call ugly) being evil is a bit ridiculous.
Ugly = Evil has been a fantasy trope for a while. Runs rampant in Disney, for example.
Why not?
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Ugly = evil there...
With which I am perfectly fine though.
I'm not. I've met enough many beautiful yet downright nasty people not to judge a book by its cover.
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That's another of my pet peeves. Enemy races. Except for a few rare cases (drow, for instance), ALL enemy races are tribal in society, while the ally races (the core races) have civilization and cities. A large portion of enemy races are also dumber than a sack of rocks. And you can always tell who you should kill by looking at them, as well as it being fine and dandy to attempt genocide upon them.
Well, it's not so much a pet peeve, as a gaming hatred.
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The idea of "always evil" for a race is definitely one of my pet peeves. One of the best campaigns my group ran, we found a tribe of mostly-neutral orcs and successfully convinced them to aid us against a demon army by ambushing the demons from behind.
Another one? When people try to get out of the results of their roll via roleplaying. But, then, that's not how I was taught to roleplay; I was taught to roll it, then roleplay the result. If I rolled a 1 on diplomacy, my character was going to say something insanely stupid, even if it is normally out of character (even the best diplomats in the world occasionally flub is my thinking).
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Players getting extremely upset and moody the minute they fail a roll or don't play "optimally". Yes, you rolled a natural one. It's dissapointing, but you do not need to rant on for five minutes about advanced dice physics or be a grumpy iguana about it.
Also players who come up with asinine plans and are upset that they don't happen.
Player: "I use ice and fire as a wizard to make this metal door brittle.
Me: No.
Player: why not? According to metallurgy...
Cue rant about the properties of metal and its relation to cold and hot temperatures. Still won't fly. That is not going to open up a gigantic metal door, especially since they're cantrips and thus low level.
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Players getting extremely upset and moody the minute they fail a roll or don't play "optimally". Yes, you rolled a natural one. It's dissapointing, but you do not need to rant on for five minutes about advanced dice physics or be a grumpy iguana about it.
Also players who come up with asinine plans and are upset that they don't happen.
Player: "I use ice and fire as a wizard to make this metal door brittle.
Me: No.
Player: why not? According to metallurgy...
Cue rant about the properties of metal and its relation to cold and hot temperatures. Still won't fly. That is not going to open up a gigantic metal door, especially since they're cantrips and thus low level.
I've been known to allow creative use of cantrips like ray of frost to make locks brittle, but it's generally only for very basic poorly made locks. Anything decent, yeah, that ain't going to fly.