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Hello, I'm a relatively new GM and am running through the Reign of Winter adventure path. I had an encounter where I had an ettin named Gurragurra and she was a witch. I made it to where one head was smart, and the other retarded.
I played it out to where a small pig named Bekkin (players kept calling him bacon) was picked up by the retarded head and was petting it and playing with it, while the other did negotiations with the PCs.
Naturally, it evolved into combat and a Worg named Korj decided to attack and kill the pig. This evoked a sad response from both me and the other players.
I have no idea how I did it, but I want to do it again with other emotions. Was it because the players could relate to it in real life? Or was it because the character was so believable that they could only feel sad that the Worg killed the pig? Perhaps both?
How could I get the same emotional reaction again?
Thank you!
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You might try having some goblins sneak up on sleeping gnome children and murder them. Perhaps one of the goblins could even be an evil Cleric who casts Murderous Command to make a gnome girl kill her little brother with a scythe. This happened in one of our games and upset several players, especially the one who suggested killing the gnomes to avoid being caught while raiding their farm. The goblins were our PCs, you see. This was in our "We Be Goblins" inspired prequel, and it left at least one of the players pretty troubled and regretful.
I guess that bad things happening to young/cute/harmless characters can make folks sad, but it might be best to use stuff like that in moderation. Maybe you could go for a different emotion next time, disgust should be easy but is also negative. Maybe something positive would be nice, like giving the players a chance to help save an NPC they like. For the best results perhaps the NPC could be an effective one who is actually kind of helping the PCs out rather than just another wimp who needs to be saved. If the NPC has to be wimpy maybe you could make it an old grandma and she could be useful to the party in other ways such as baking magic cookies, being a sage with a lot of Knowledge skills, etc.
Depending on how experienced your players are, you may have to get creative in order to have reactions. For instance, one of the best reaction from our group came from having a frost giantess giving birth in the middle of a fight.
Still, it's hard to make your players care about an NPC or a situation every single time, just be ready to understand when they do. Sometime the NPC you tought they were totally going to like simply fails to impress, and the NPC which you came up on the spot is the one which is remembered: simply work with he flow.
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It's called, good role-playing, and you clearly have it Mr Nevada. Just keep it up.
Pettable animals, young children and sexy people. Anything featuring one or more of these will evoke an emotional response.
Tell them that what they thought was going to be a free return sea voyage turns out to be a working as unskilled sailors voyage, swabbing decks and peeling potatoes etc. That's what our GM did to us last session.
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I've had success with inspiring anger and vengefulness, in Vampire the Masquerade. In that game, killing other vampires is a significant taboo, but humiliating them, cutting off an arm, burying alive for a few days... that's all allowed. And the players want to get even.
It might be harder to translate this to PF, if your players have a "no enemy escapes" mindset, but it can work if they're not allowed by their superiors to kill some enemy, and the enemy taunts them. For example, in court in front of the king.
Besides injuring their pride, you can probably also do the reverse. When the PCs are taveling somewhere, talk about how the rain soaks them through. Then when they finally reach the tavern, they're treated to warm blankets and hot cocoa, while the townsfolk want to hear about their adventures. Including small human details helps here.
After they have played their characters for about a year, start sundering their equipment or killing their characters when they are too broke to raise them. Players can get pretty emotional.
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Pathfinder Ogres are just so foul and heinous, that they just demand an emotional response.
Massive inbred rapist, who literally worship a god of rape and inbreeding, the sake their lust upon any humanoid they can get their hands on, living or dead.
They are like the inbred hillbillys from Deliverance, given massive strong bodies, and the minds of cruel children.
Done right, they can truly horrify players.
Tell them that what they thought was going to be a free return sea voyage turns out to be a working as unskilled sailors voyage, swabbing decks and peeling potatoes etc. That's what our GM did to us last session.Like the British Navy did.
Except you didn't so much think it was a free voyage as were kidnapped from outside a pub in the dead of night...
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Except you didn't so much think it was a free voyage as were kidnapped from outside a pub in the dead of night...Tell them that what they thought was going to be a free return sea voyage turns out to be a working as unskilled sailors voyage, swabbing decks and peeling potatoes etc. That's what our GM did to us last session.Like the British Navy did.
Both tactics were used.
Oh I know, I just find the kidnapping more horrible/unsettlingly amusing.
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Humor could be a pretty feasible candidate, if that's an emotion you'd consider trying to illicit. Inject just enough realism when players expect serious fantasy and they'll probably appreciate the humor. Timing is key here. You want them to kick in the door expecting the BBEG, to instead find the janitor who honestly has no idea what goes on there, he just cleans up after hours.
This...
Especially if bbeg is a wizard and the 'janitor' is a mouse (ratfolk) that is using mass prestidigination to make mops and brooms clean on their own ...
Both tactics were used.Except you didn't so much think it was a free voyage as were kidnapped from outside a pub in the dead of night...Tell them that what they thought was going to be a free return sea voyage turns out to be a working as unskilled sailors voyage, swabbing decks and peeling potatoes etc. That's what our GM did to us last session.Like the British Navy did.
What was even more funny was that the local pathfinder Captain thought that our int 8 barbar was the leader of our group and let him sign us up for an archaeological dig in Rahadoum, without checking with us first. Our party consists of the barbar, myself as a rogue with arcane dabbling and a very devout, very anti-slavery cleric..... For those that know the Rahadoum setting, you will understand how much fun we had roleplaying telling our cleric the details after we were on the boat and in open water :-)
I have had some succes with making friends for the PCs like the innkeeper on there favorite stop on the mountain route or two of the local guards men. And then putting these friends in danger or ketting them die. But this is more than killing cure things in a imaginary World. You made a good build up and that is the art here. The releasen dosent have to be someone dying if you just kill small things you will quickly brutalize your players and that part of the magic will be hard to Recreate.
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I'm reminded of the scene in Machete where the protagonist is infiltrating the home of the bad guy. The security guards recognize him and just say "I quit", refusing to fight him. They know when they're outmatched. Smart henchmen; it was a big surprise. I say "pleasant surprise" is an emotion you can aim for.
Also, stupid goblins, in huge (CR++++) hordes that end up massacring each other through clumsiness, and inflicting lots of big environmental things that make the combat more like a comedy of errors.
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I don't know about provoking emotion....it can get carried away.
Once I had a player who got into an argument with the DM (his sister). In true Knights of the Dinner Table fashion his character was Lawful Good but his action was anything but. They got into a huge argument about how his deity penalized him for alignment infractions (he was a fighter,not a cleric or paladin). He cursed his god and she ruled that the deity struck him dead on the spot. He was sitting in his seat, throwing a tantrum with tears streaming down his face...
I was like...this is supposed to be just a game....!
Humans tend to connect well with human-like behavior. A city was sacked and I described the atmosphere as various folks still mourned and held vigils weeks after the initial attack. The table was silent, maybe even somber, for the next few minutes of real time. It's all in how you present your environments and people. The interesting thing I've found while GMing is that players make a conscious decision to put their emotional state in your hands even if they don't realize that's what they're doing. It's not all that hard to illicit particular emotions with just a few words.
Both tactics were used.Except you didn't so much think it was a free voyage as were kidnapped from outside a pub in the dead of night...Tell them that what they thought was going to be a free return sea voyage turns out to be a working as unskilled sailors voyage, swabbing decks and peeling potatoes etc. That's what our GM did to us last session.Like the British Navy did.
Ironic, considering that any slave stepping aboard a Royal Navy vessel was immediately considered a free man.
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itt the only way to get emotions are through murder and terrible things that are mostly like murder
Really! just Zap! dead!? I think I would argue as well, a cleric or paladin... maybe... if their actions were truely, truely heinous, like genocide or something. But a fighter? We don't know the whole story, but it sounds like bad GMing.I don't know about provoking emotion....it can get carried away.
Once I had a player who got into an argument with the DM (his sister). In true Knights of the Dinner Table fashion his character was Lawful Good but his action was anything but. They got into a huge argument about how his deity penalized him for alignment infractions (he was a fighter,not a cleric or paladin). He cursed his god and she ruled that the deity struck him dead on the spot. He was sitting in his seat, throwing a tantrum with tears streaming down his face...
I was like...this is supposed to be just a game....!
Actually I was the original DM and I was so tired of this guy calling himself Lawful good but not acting like it that I had his deity placed him on "probation" by having a couatl to watch over him (which pissed him off as the winged snake only observe and will not help in fights). His sister wanted to be DM for awhile so I wind up playing her character. During the game (we played Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, and this was way back in the days of AD&D), they got into an argument. I forgot the exact circumstances which lead to it but I still vividly recall how after he yelled that he cursed his god, she declared that "Your god strikes you dead!!!!" Boom! Zeus would've been proud.
Of course, she ruled that the god resurrects him but he loses 1 Con pt and 1 level...which may be restore if he behaves.
Looking back I thought it was pretty wild....
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Pettable animals, young children and sexy people. Anything featuring one or more of these will evoke an emotional response.
Warning: it's much harder to evoke sympathy using attractive victims in a non-visual medium. Describing the beauty of the captured princess does not provoke the same visceral response as seeing a beautiful princess in a movie.
If you really want to engage in some "unspeakable acts" I suggest reflecting upon the paralysis ability of ghouls. Paralyzed victims can be raped, eaten alive, or both at the same time. You might evoke the emotion that the GM is a sicko, but people will probably notice. Applying such tortures to PCs abducted by ghouls is probably going a step too far for most campaigns, but it could produce a strong reaction. Players generally hate it when their PCs are imprisoned and or shamed.
You also might try describing the sounds of terrible things happening in other rooms before the players get there, the sound of chewing is easy to recognize, but the sound of wood slapping against the wall or a liquid drip, drip, dripping onto a hard surface might not be obvious until the players stumble upon the terrible scene you have prepared for them. Imp poison can also reduce somebody to Dex 0, leaving them effectively paralyzed to be questioned with telepathy.
Really some positive emotions could be nice too though. Perhaps a Bard recognizes the PCs and sings a song about them. Maybe it becomes a local hit. On the flip side of this, maybe it encourages other adventurers to come after them, such as a Samurai or Gunslinger getting challenged to a duel or a young Rogue trying to show up or frame a Rogue PC with a daring heist. I guess such brats might become allies or even cohorts later on.
Rust Monsters.
Rusting away hard earned equipment is enough to make a strong adventure weep.
Is it true that in foruth edition D&D, your equipment become "unrust" after a certain amount of time?
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Is it true that in fourth edition D&D, your equipment become "unrust" after a certain amount of time?Rust Monsters.
Rusting away hard earned equipment is enough to make a strong adventure weep.
Please, do not bring up 4E here.
Unless, you are trying to provoke emotion here, on the boards.
Is it true that in fourth edition D&D, your equipment become "unrust" after a certain amount of time?Rust Monsters.
Rusting away hard earned equipment is enough to make a strong adventure weep.
Please, do not bring up 4E here.
Unless, you are trying to provoke emotion here, on the boards.
Emotions are irelevant! :-p
But really, I heard about it and wondering if this was true...
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Devilkiller's right - paralysis can really be horrifying if you do it right. Combination of helplessness and awareness of your fate.
But really, I heard about it and wondering if this was true...
According to The Alexandrian...
Devilkiller's right - paralysis can really be horrifying if you do it right. Combination of helplessness and awareness of your fate.
But really, I heard about it and wondering if this was true...According to The Alexandrian...
I am gagging....are they for real? What were they thinking...!!???
I guess to the designers of 4E, any form of realism is irrelevant.I know...this is veering off topic...if only Winston didn't mention rust monsters...
The emotional reaction of players attacked by rust monsters too often might be anger, but rust monsters who don't rust your equipment and eat it just seem vaguely annoying. That said, I'm glad that they just damage iron golems in Pathfinder rather than outright destroy them. I could never understand why somebody would spend all that gold on a golem which could be killed in one shot by a low level monster (stone golem seemed like a safer investment)
On a bit of a rust monster tangent, there's an old Dungeon adventure (Final Resting Place, issue 122) which includes some vivisected monsters such as a giant mantis with umber hulk mandibles and troglodytes with various attachments like suckers for climbing, giant frog or cricket legs for leaping, etc. Putting rust monster antennae on other creatures can result in a pretty terrifying foe. Tying back to the original discussion, I'd think that a Vivisectionist and his or her experiments could elicit reactions ranging from disgust to pity and maybe once in a while romance (perhaps with a panther girl)
The emotional reaction of players attacked by rust monsters too often might be anger, but rust monsters who don't rust your equipment and eat it just seem vaguely annoying. That said, I'm glad that they just damage iron golems in Pathfinder rather than outright destroy them. I could never understand why somebody would spend all that gold on a golem which could be killed in one shot by a low level monster (stone golem seemed like a safer investment)
One can argue that magical metal items are more sturdy from rust (if they rust at all....) than their mundane cousins.
Still....fourth edition rust monsters take the proverbial cake.
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itt the only way to get emotions are through murder and terrible things that are mostly like murder
Really think building up emotional investment is a healthier approach than emotional attacks. More long-term payoff too.
That's not to say there's no place for tragedy and horror, but if the players are just constantly beaten over the head with it, they're more likely to want to just stop playing. Kinda like darkness-induced audience apathy, more or less.
Or those folks that have all their PCs be orphans with no connections because their GMs only used NPC attachments to attack them. Which makes it really frustrating for GMs that don't do that sort of thing and have to work at getting those players to come back out of their shells. :(
You keep bringing up 4E.
Please stop.
Abandon your troll emotions! Can't you see they are the cause of your pain!