Those moments...
Tetsubo
a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
I can think of two right off the bat...
The first was a 1E AD&D campaign where the party was in Gamma World.
The group is in a bar trying to figure out where the heck they were and
how to get home. A local drunk gets mouthy. And after a few verbal
exchanges he stands up and swings his metal stein at one of the PCs. He
scores a solid hit and energizes the stein with an electrical mutation.
Does a rather high amount of damage. The player has his warrior draw his
sword from it's shoulder scabbard and makes a single swing in one fluid
motion. He roles a 20 with a vorpal sword. The drunks head goes one way
and his body goes another. The player flicks off the blood, resheaths
the sword, drops some gold on the floor and apologizes to the barkeep
with the classic line, "Sorry about the mess."
The second was a 2E Forgotten Realms campaign. It was set in Cormyr and
I was using firearms. The party half-elven mage/fighter is walking
towards a noble's coach. The noble doesn't want to speak to him. The
noble orders his driver to shoot the PC. The driver fires and hits. He
rolls maximum damage which means he can roll a second damage die. The PC
makes his knockback roll and keeps walking. The driver fires his second
and last pistol. Another hit and another maximum die plus a second roll.
The PC makes the second knockback roll and keeps walking towards the
coach. He finally approaches the coach that has a now terrified driver.
He calmly suggests that the noble either apologizes for a slight against
him or be prepared to duel. The noble apologizes. The PC walks away and
barely survives. But he became a legend.
What are yours?
--
Tetsubo
Deviant Art: http://ironstaff.deviantart.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57
Seebs
> Have you ever had one of those moments that just stick in your mind as
> a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
Oh, definitely.
> What are yours?
I had an adventure I ran once based off an idle comment Bradd made once,
basically, the theme was that a banshee was wailing to warn people of an
impending death... and the underlying plot turned out to be that someone
had about three days to own up to some Dark Past before it became too late
for him to do so. Long story short, the Lord Mayor of a largeish town is
about to die, without heir, but it turns out he has a bastard son whom he's
never acknowledged.
Anyway, the party are exploring, and I can't tell how much of it they've
figured out, but they round up the son's mother, and drag her to his mansion
"on suspicion of theft". (I'm pretty much befuddled by this.) They get
to the mayor's room, where he's lying sick in bed, and the party bard says:
I have brought you here on suspicion of theft of a valuable item.
In front of these witnesses, I accuse you of theft! The item is
the Lord Mayor's heart; do you have it in your possession?
There was NO way that they could both have made good enough bluff rolls to
avoid giving it away. So he came clean, and the various townsfolk who'd
snubbed her as a "slut" ended up looking pretty bad, etcetera.
Ooh, found my notes! Here's the notes I ran the game from. You'll notice
that essentially no one has classes or levels. I think I posted this once
before, but it's long enough ago that people may not have it handy.
BTW, this will scale fine to pretty much any edition, and any level as long
as players can't just scry/ESP/etc. to find out what's happening. Should be
good for a longish evening of play, depending on how much attention your
players pay, and how much they care.
---
Wail of the Banshee
Summary: A banshee's wail is a portent of death... and a chance for
redemption.
(Original concept: Bradd Szoyne)
Background:
20 years ago, the local lord's wife died in childbirth. He was stricken
by grief. A young woman gave him comfort, and they became lovers. She
got pregnant. He was afraid of what would happen to his reputation if it
were discovered that he had taken a commoner as a lover, especially since
he was still in a culturally-mandated period of mourning. He broke off his
relationship with her, but he has made sure she has the money to take care
of the child.
He has no heirs, and he is old, and may die soon. Ideally, he would recognize
his bastard heir, accept the social repercussions, and pass his estate on
smoothly. He is too afraid to do this.
The banshee gives him three days of warning that his time is almost up,
and he has to right these wrongs. He won't do it unless someone confronts
him with the truth.
The woman still cares for him too much to reveal her secret. She is aware
that people think she must be a prostitute (since they can't figure out how
she gets her money), and she is too proud to deny their rumors.
The son is a bit rakeish, but he has a strong instinct for command, and
is fascinated by the workings of the city council. He would make an
excellent mayor.
Cast of Characters:
Key characters:
Basmar, Lord Mayor of Restinford
Age 65. Our un-hero. Nice, but lacks the committment
to accept responsibilities.
Occasionally gives money to Rillis; has slept with her
on occasion since Philmar's birth, but only rarely. He
feels awful about this, only because it reminds him that
he could acknowledge her.
Has a beautiful wool cloak, missing one gold button. (He
rarely wears it since he lost the button.)
Rillis
(Maybe 38?) His lover, and the mother of Philmar. Rillis
is a seamstress by trade. She has more money than a
seamstress should, leading many to accuse her of prostitution.
She actually gets "child support" from Basmar. She has
often thought of settling down with Alister, but as long
as Basmar lives, she will hold out hope that he will come
back to her.
Owns a piece of jewelry given to her by Basmar; she keeps it
secret, and only a few people know about it. It's a gold and
silver pendant in the form of a sun and moon, with faces on
them. The moon's eye is a sapphire, the sun's is an emerald.
Probably worth 600gp.
Philmar
(Age 18) Rakish boy who has been subtly groomed for power
by his mother. Exceptionally well-educated for a street
urchin. No visible means of support. (In fact, he plays
cards for money, being careful not to overdo it. He doesn't
cheat, he's just got a way with people. He plays skill
games, not chance games.)
Won a gold button gambling; this is the button from Basmar's
cloak. (Small town -> small world).
Concil members:
Harmin
Penny-wise, pound-foolish. Treasurer of the town council.
Believes that "investment" means burying your money
*carefully*.
Will react with scorn, derision, and a little disgust to
allegations that Basmar has a bastard. If he finds out it's
true, he'll splutter, fuss... and apologize for the hurtful
things he previously said.
Not a bad man, just not very thoughtful.
Phyllis
Old wise woman. She knows something is up with Basmar, and
guesses that he may have a bastard child; she knows no
details, and has carefully avoided saying anything.
Likely to know about the implications of a banshee.
Arness
Younger woman. Seeks power for herself, but not overtly.
She is hoping to replace the Lord Mayor with just the council
when he dies. Believes the banshee indicates that the old
fool is finally on his way out. She will have no part of
"fighting fate".
Hestal
Older man. A druid, he tries to act as a moderating influence
on the town council. He is not opposed to agriculture, but
he worries about the effects of his people on the woods around
them.
Basmar has come to him in the past with concerns about
something that troubles him. Hestal knows that Basmar
has a lover, and believes there's more to it, but has no
idea what.
Other Characters
Arthur
The miller. Arthur desperately needs a loan of some
substantial money (perhaps a few thousand gold pieces?)
for repairs to his mill. He is confident that he can pay
such a loan back, and is almost certainly right.
He knows that Basmar spent some time with a young lady
perhaps twenty years ago, but doesn't know whom. If pressed,
he might think her name sounded sort of like a flower.
Gets along well with Philmar, and says the boy has a heart
of gold under that rough exterior.
Alister
Retired mercenary. Has sought an "understanding" with Rillis,
and been rebuffed. He respects her too much to be offended.
He knows that she loves another, but doesn't know whom. He
suspects it's the father of her child. Alister has gotten
into more than one scrap defending her honor, when people
make accusations about her sources of income. He knows her
well enough to know nothing of the sort could be true.
Thinks the banshee is a monster out for the kill, or possibly
a ruse by clever thieves. (Will eventually conclude the
latter unless persuaded otherwise.)
Lothar
Butler in Basmar's estate. Knows about Rillis; will admit
nothing, but he desperately wants Basmar to acknowledge his
heir, because he thinks it would be best for everyone.
However, that argument played out ten years ago and more,
and now he serves his lord with devotion. However, he might
drop a hint to an interested party.
Believes the banshee is a last warning.
Tesh
Local ruffian. Casts aspersions on Philmar. Sees the banshee
thing as a chance to possibly break in and get some loot.
Believes that Rillis is a prostitute, and Philmar evidence
that she's a careless one. Will be first up against the
wall when the revolution comes; no one really likes him.
He has seen someone sneak into the house Rillis stays in at
night, and assumes it was a customer. Could describe the
guy as "medium height, wearing a cloak". Found a gold button
at the scene, which he sold long ago.
Priska
Innkeep. She runs a clean house. Rillis is only allowed
in the common room; Priska has heard of her wanton ways
(falsely) and will have none of it. Customers pay in
advance. 2sp per day for common quarters, 5sp per day for
a private room. She has six private rooms, and two common
rooms each capable of holding six people comfortably. An
amazing storehouse of local gossip, but sometimes forgets
that it can't all be true. Will cheerfully tell you mutually
exclusive rumors; she doesn't put them together much.
If she finds out about Rillis and Basmar, she is likely to
burst into tears. She will apologize profusely for giving
credit to such dreadful rumors.
Priska and Rillis were friends growing up, and have grown
apart because of the rumors of prostitution. Priska is
too polite to bring the issue up directly with her old
friend. Priska is aware that Philmar is the child of a
relationship, not a customer, but is not clever enough to
have put these together. She doesn't know who the father
is, although she believes he's wealthy and lives far away.
She knows that Rillis owns a piece of jewelry given to her
by Philmar's father.
Ohlatta
Priestess of Pelor, she tries to keep the town on the right
path. She has tried to subtly hint to people that ostracising
Rillis is the wrong thing to do. She knows Rillis isn't a
prostitute, because Rillis has confessed to her. (She doesn't
know who the lover is, but she knows there is one.)
Has occasionally tried to hint to Rillis that, if she's in
trouble, the Church would be willing to help her. Has urged
Rillis to marry her lover. Believes the lover may be
Philmar's father, but can't guess who it would be.
Gelmark
Ohlatta's husband, he tends the temple grounds, and does
odd jobs around town. He is suspicious of Rillis, but his
wife reminds him to be charitable. He considers Philmar
to be like the son he and his wife have never had, and
is grudgingly impressed by how well Rillis has raised him.
Clues that can be found:
* The gold button could be traced around.
* It is likely that players could establish that Rillis has
a lover, and a secret one.
* Basmar may be seen looking wistfully at Rillis, if necessary.
* Hestal could mention that Basmar has concerns still burdening him.
* Various pursuit of Philmar's history, if it comes up.
* Lothar might casually mention that Rillis has always been aloof
from companionship, almost as though she has a mate, and isn't
saying anything.
* Rillis, confronted with her lover's impending death, may try
to talk to the players.
* Tesh might steal an identical sun/moon pendant from the manor
house, then get accused of stealing it from Rillis.
Other sub-plots:
Arthur wants a new millstone, and he wants to expand the mill so he
can use the old one for less precise work.
Tesh might get in trouble.
Philmar will probably try to gamble with the characters, given a
chance.
If Tesh steals something, Priska may accuse the characters, or may
at least ask pointed questions. (This can be a lead-in to finding
out about Tesh)
Gossip about Rillis.
Timeline:
Day 0:
6PM: Party arrives in town.
7-9PM: Possibility for some minor RP in the inn.
Midnight: Banshee howls on manor roof.
[everyone runs about for an hour or so]
Day 1:
9AM: Gossip about banshee.
1PM: Large argument about mill wheel in tavern.
7-9PM: More minor RP.
Midnight: Banshee howls on roof of building mayor is in.
[everyone runs about]
Tesh tries to break into manor house. Depending, he may or may
not succeed.
Day 2:
If Tesh broke into manor house, missing valuables are noted.
Alister blames the banshee on Tesh.
7-9PM: Rillis tries to contact PC's, expresses concerns. Suggests
they talk to a priest about the banshee.
Midnight: Banshee howls.
Day 3:
6PM: Mayor dies.
-s
--
Copyright 2009, all wrongs reversed. Peter Seebach / usenet...@seebs.net
http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology) <-- get educated!
Will in New Haven
One of my favorites, that I had hoped for but hadn't planned, exactly.
Play character A was Sir Dennis, a knight and son of the local Baron.
Player character B was Dennis Greenwood, a forester, a bastard son of
the same Baron. In the course of a very long campaign the two young
men become friends and allies. Their relationship becomes known to
both of them shortly after Dennis Greenwood is knighted (a very rare
event for a commoner to be knighted in Glowyn) for bravery and for
saving several important lives.
When the two of them meet some important strangers, Dennis says "I am
Sir Dennis and this is my brother Sir Dennis."
--
Will in New Haven
Hadsil
paladin. We were trading blows and spells. We kept making our saving
throws. I couldn't get past the balor's spell resistance. We were
battling for several rounds. I lost count. Finally the paladin
failed a save and was panicked away. It was my turn. Do I cast a
spell or just attack with my mace? Knowing my spells have already
proved useless because of his spell resistance, I decided to attack.
I hit. I do damage. The balor dies. The paladin player and I
literally jumped for joy and hugged.
2E game, same cleric but many levels earlier. The party was captured
by merrow (water-based ogres). All our gear was taken away. As we
made our escape we were seen by a few merrow and attacked. I had
nothing. I had no weapon. I couldn't cast spells. There was nothing
for me to do. To heck with it I tried an unarmed punch. I rolled a
natural 20. House Rules had you roll again to determine how well the
critical hit was. I rolled another natural 20. I rolled again. I
got a 5. Didn't matter, the DM ruled I knocked out the merrow with
the one punch. From that moment on my character would never show fear
in any combat again regardless of the circumstances.
These incidents happened about 20 years ago. That I still fondly
remember them means a lot.
Oh, there was one flat-out funny joke back from those days I still
remember, not by me. We were playing a Dragonlance campaign, and
there was this player who played a Kender beautifully. He was a
Kender, but he wasn't annoying about it. He had the Taunt ability as
per the 2E spell which caused an enemy to want to fight you in hand-to-
hand combat, ignoring all other enemies as well as any spellcasting.
He just wants to pummel you. It's an effective tactic. However, as a
roleplay thing the DM wants the player to come up with insults/
taunts. We were fighting a young dragon. The Kender taunted. His
insult: "Your mother was a spell component!" We all cracked up.
Gerald Katz
D.J.
wrote:
> Have you ever had one of those moments that just stick in your mind as
>a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
I don't now if you would call this a role playing moment or not.
1E, my players were in a bad situation. In the heat of combat, one of
them forgot saying 'I Wish' is the same as a god call if they don't
have the means to cast Wish.
A random deity replies if the god call makes. We both roll percentile
dice, they have to roll within a certain percentage to me.
The deity that heard was one that was antitheses to the player
character's deity.
In order to survive this encounter, they had to roll below what I
rolled on percentile dice. More to determine the deity's attitude
towards them than anything. They had interrupted a strip poker
scenario between the evil deity and some of its maidens. Upset evil
deity.
They player's wanted me to roll out in the open. I did, and rolled 2
percent.
it got very quiet at the game table, all of us, including me, are
barely breathing.
The player whose character got them into this fix says, "No problem.
Watch this.".
No problem ?!
And rolls one percent. The only possible roll that would have saved
them.
I roll response dice for the evil deity. It is so impressed it
apologizes to the player characters, and states it would apologize to
the player character's deity soon.
The player then stated that they were "also available for Birthday
Parties and Public Expositions.".
JimP.
--
Brushing aside the thorns so I can see the stars.
http://www.linuxgazette.net/ Linux Gazette
http://www.drivein-jim.net/ Drive-In movie theaters
http://poetry.drivein-jim.net/ Aug 26, 2009
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:hh8llv$ke9$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
> Have you ever had one of those moments that just stick in
> your mind as
> a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
>
> I can think of two right off the bat...
>
> The first was a 1E AD&D campaign where the party was in
> Gamma World.
> The group is in a bar trying to figure out where the heck they
> were and how to get home. A local drunk gets mouthy. And after a
> few verbal exchanges he stands up and swings his metal stein at
> one of the PCs. He scores a solid hit and energizes the stein
> with an electrical mutation. Does a rather high amount of
> damage. The player has his warrior draw his sword from it's
> shoulder scabbard and makes a single swing in one fluid motion.
> He roles a 20 with a vorpal sword. The drunks head goes one way
> and his body goes another. The player flicks off the blood,
> resheaths the sword, drops some gold on the floor and apologizes
> to the barkeep with the classic line, "Sorry about the mess."
We had the exact same thing happen in a Space Opera game once. With
a gauss pistol rather than a sword, though.
>
> The second was a 2E Forgotten Realms campaign. It was set
> in Cormyr and
> I was using firearms. The party half-elven mage/fighter is
> walking towards a noble's coach. The noble doesn't want to speak
> to him. The noble orders his driver to shoot the PC. The driver
> fires and hits. He rolls maximum damage which means he can roll
> a second damage die. The PC makes his knockback roll and keeps
> walking. The driver fires his second and last pistol. Another
> hit and another maximum die plus a second roll. The PC makes the
> second knockback roll and keeps walking towards the coach. He
> finally approaches the coach that has a now terrified driver.
> He calmly suggests that the noble either apologizes for a slight
> against him or be prepared to duel. The noble apologizes. The PC
> walks away and barely survives. But he became a legend.
>
> What are yours?
I recall a ghoul that has a red "S" on its chest in a Chivalry &
Sorcery game. Fight ended with one part member, the lowly friar (a
non-fighter) and the ghoul the last two standing. Both did more
damage than the other had left in hit points, but were rather more
likely to hit than not. The friar had the longer weapon and got to
go first.
--
Terry Austin
Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole. -
David Bilek
Yeah, I had Terry confused with Hannibal Lecter. - Mike Schilling
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:327d58a5-c7b9-4ea9...@n31g2000vbt.googlegroups.
com:
> 2E game, same cleric but many levels earlier. The party was
> captured by merrow (water-based ogres). All our gear was taken
> away. As we made our escape we were seen by a few merrow and
> attacked. I had nothing. I had no weapon. I couldn't cast
> spells. There was nothing for me to do. To heck with it I
> tried an unarmed punch. I rolled a natural 20. House Rules had
> you roll again to determine how well the critical hit was. I
> rolled another natural 20. I rolled again. I got a 5. Didn't
> matter, the DM ruled I knocked out the merrow with the one
> punch. From that moment on my character would never show fear
> in any combat again regardless of the circumstances.
>
I had a night like that in C&S once. The party had been captured by a
bunch of orcs, run by a balrog, unintentionally on the part of the
GM, who was trying to contrive a way for us to escape that wouldn't
look contrived. In a percentage game system where low numbers are
good, I had exactly two rolls all night that were over 20. Managed to
conceal lock picks well enough the orcs didn't find them, pick the
locks on my chains (which another character made an ungodly series of
rolls to break the magical chains long enough to be beaten
unconscious), escaped in to the tunnels in the commotion. Rummaged
arond in trash heaps until I found a rusty, bent dagger, went looking
for an orc with a better weapon. Blew the steal roll to sneak up
behind him, but when he turned around, I critted him in the throat so
he couldn't cry out. And on and on an on, all night.
It was magic.
Loren Pechtel
wrote:
> Have you ever had one of those moments that just stick in your mind as
>a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
Not really a great scene but it sticks in my mind:
1E, the era of dangerous fireballs:
The party is fighting this guy that keeps sniping from the shadows. A
wizard grows tired of this and takes a snapshot at where he thinks the
pest is.
Narrow corridors and he fired it blindly down a corridor into unknown
territory. Everyone immediately screamed at him not to but he had
already said his action, it was too late. Nice high damage roll and I
started counting off squares that it expanded into, when that was one
of the squares heading towards the party I described it as getting
closer.
It legitimately burned out right in front of the party. Had I taken
any longer on the counting I think some of the players would have been
turning blue.
It was distracting enough they puzzled over the burnt body they found
later--the pest the fireball had been aimed at. He was well away from
ground zero (he had moved out of the line of the fireball before it
arrived, the fireball had gone on past and burst on a wall, not that
the PC's knew that--had they actually hit him there was the potential
of a TPK.) but in the blast zone.
Tom Nolan
I'm sir Larry...this is my brother sir daryll...this is my other
brother sir daryll.
T
--
phy
news:00aa6c86$3$8087$c3e...@news.astraweb.com:
>
>> Have you ever had one of those moments that just stick in your
>> mind as
>>a great role-playing scene. It wasn't planned, it just happened.
Back in 1E there was a barbarian in our party and the elf king and queen
invited us to eat with them. The guy playing the barb was pantomining
chomping on a leg bone of some type and the charisma guy told him to mind
his manners. The guy stuck his pinkie fingers out and continued. Maybe you
had to be there, but we laughed our asses off. Too bad we were playing at
the library and the staff made us leave.
-phy
Keith Davies
For what it's worth, there were times and places in Europe (England
specifically) where it wasn't all that uncommon to have siblings with
the same name. It was entirely possible to have two "John"s or "Henry"s
in the same family.
Keith
--
Keith Davies "Do you know what is in beer? The strength
keith....@kjdavies.org to bear the things you can't change, and
keith....@gmail.com wisdom to ignore them and fsck off for
http://www.kjdavies.org/ another beer." -- Owen, discussing work
Tetsubo
> Tom Nolan <lcqu...@mchsi.com> wrote:
>
>>Will in New Haven wrote:
>>
>>
>>>One of my favorites, that I had hoped for but hadn't planned, exactly.
>>>Play character A was Sir Dennis, a knight and son of the local Baron.
>>>Player character B was Dennis Greenwood, a forester, a bastard son of
>>>the same Baron. In the course of a very long campaign the two young
>>>men become friends and allies. Their relationship becomes known to
>>>both of them shortly after Dennis Greenwood is knighted (a very rare
>>>event for a commoner to be knighted in Glowyn) for bravery and for
>>>saving several important lives.
>>>
>>>When the two of them meet some important strangers, Dennis says "I am
>>>Sir Dennis and this is my brother Sir Dennis."
>>
>>I'm sir Larry...this is my brother sir daryll...this is my other
>>brother sir daryll.
>
>
> For what it's worth, there were times and places in Europe (England
> specifically) where it wasn't all that uncommon to have siblings with
> the same name. It was entirely possible to have two "John"s or "Henry"s
> in the same family.
>
>
> Keith
I work with a guy from Africa. His Father has four wives. All of them
have sons named Ladule (La-dule-A).
Rick Pikul
> For what it's worth, there were times and places in Europe (England
> specifically) where it wasn't all that uncommon to have siblings with
> the same name. It was entirely possible to have two "John"s or "Henry"s
> in the same family.
I have two great aunts named Mary, and yes they are sisters.
However, there is a good reason for this: There are three names in Polish
that Anglify to Mary.
--
Chakat Firepaw - Inventor & Scientist (Mad)