Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Other TTRPGs

[Totenkindly]

SUPPORT HIM AGAIN! ON THE OTHER CHEEK THIS TIME!

 

[The Cat]

I gotta confess, that scene was gold. Here I am picturing this grizzled fighting vet on their last pick up a kid and shake them out of depseration and then *Bardic Slap* I imagine little anime kanji ala prestidigtaion literally making sparks fly from the smack, and as the growing handprint blossoms upon a grizzled face, d6 inspiration. :laughing:

 

[Earl Grey]

On another note I am so tired of people who think Chaotics are mindless idiots who mindlessly rebel and say no to everything just because. NO

"My cleric is a Chaotic Neutral."
"Omg I don't wanna play with you then you're not going to heal me"

??? NO

Patient: I've got the plague??
my chaotic cleric House: Don't worry, it's treatable. Being a bitch, though- nothing we can do about that.

 

[The Cat]

On another note I am so tired of people who think Chaotics are mindless idiots who mindlessly rebel and say no to everything just because. NO

"My cleric is a Chaotic Neutral."
"Omg I don't wanna play with you then you're not going to heal me"

??? NO

Patient: I've got the plague??
my chaotic cleric House: Don't worry, it's treatable. Being a bitch, though- nothing we can do about that.

Yeah, that annoys the fuck out of me too. Chaotic Neutral does not mean chaotic stupid. It doesnt mean omgsorandomyouguyssrsly I tend to play chaotic neutral like Mad Max in the Road Warrior.

I played in one campaign as Neutral Evil, but I asked the DM when getting approval if I could keep my alignment secret from the party cause they were all playing "chaotic good" (Murder Hoboes leaning more towards theivery and maiming than outright slaying) A rascist gnome rogue assassin and a human cleric trickery domain, part of the Xantathar's guild, I was a pact of the tome warlock with a Great Old One patron. wo'd stumbled into the party outside a castle gate, dressed from outside time and outside their mind. It was a high level campaign. so we were all level 16. First the party was ready to kill me for "clearly being crazy and as such probably dangerous." I avoided death. And throughout the adventure, I was the party face, I spend a great deal of personal gold on making friends not enemies of npcs. The DM was loving this. Finally when it was the end of the campaign and there was an "alignment lock" on the final room they started stressing out because shit where are we going to find an evil character we've killed everyone who we even suspected might be evil (it was a high irony low perception party) until my character steps onto the evil lock and the door opened. They looked at the DM and the DM was like yeah. You're more destructive than the evil guy.

 

[Lark]

You can get chaotic stupid and you can get lawful stupid.

Although true chaotic or chaotic neutral the same as true lawful or lawful neutral are most likely to be like that as they do not have the good or evil alignments to create a rudder of sorts.

Chaotic does not mean consistent though or long lasting. The best definitions I ever read in relation to the same were in relation to descriptions of settlement, ie lawful castles (whether good or evil) versus chaotic caravans (whether good or evil)

 

[The Cat]

You can get chaotic stupid and you can get lawful stupid.

Although true chaotic or chaotic neutral the same as true lawful or lawful neutral are most likely to be like that as they do not have the good or evil alignments to create a rudder of sorts.

Chaotic does not mean consistent though or long lasting. The best definitions I ever read in relation to the same were in relation to descriptions of settlement, ie lawful castles (whether good or evil) versus chaotic caravans (whether good or evil)

You'll probably like this vid

I'd enjoy hearing your perspective on some of the questions they discuss in the vid if you care to go into any detail?

 

[Totenkindly]

I played in one campaign as Neutral Evil, but I asked the DM when getting approval if I could keep my alignment secret from the party cause they were all playing "chaotic good" (Murder Hoboes leaning more towards theivery and maiming than outright slaying) A rascist gnome rogue assassin and a human cleric trickery domain, part of the Xantathar's guild, I was a pact of the tome warlock with a Great Old One patron. wo'd stumbled into the party outside a castle gate, dressed from outside time and outside their mind. It was a high level campaign. so we were all level 16. First the party was ready to kill me for "clearly being crazy and as such probably dangerous." I avoided death. And throughout the adventure, I was the party face, I spend a great deal of personal gold on making friends not enemies of npcs. The DM was loving this. Finally when it was the end of the campaign and there was an "alignment lock" on the final room they started stressing out because shit where are we going to find an evil character we've killed everyone who we even suspected might be evil (it was a high irony low perception party) until my character steps onto the evil lock and the door opened. They looked at the DM and the DM was like yeah. You're more destructive than the evil guy.

I've played both a Neutral Evil character, and 2 Chaotic Neutral characters.

My NE character was essentially just an amoral pragmatist and mainly Tit for Tat. There was no "moral content" of actions, it was simply about what you needed at the time to accomplish your will. She generally exhibited restraint (because it would not create unnecessary opposition) and could even be very charming in terms of her ultra-rationality; however, she had no qualms about doing something that most would consider evil (killing someone, stealing something, etc.) if it served her purposes. Likewise, she typically didn't randomly hurt or kill others; but if someone did something to HER (thus making them her enemy), she would carefully plot an equal act of revenged if not their destruction.

This did not mean she wasn't without merit. One thing she loved was knowledge, and that coupled with her desire for respect from others (to be seen as a brilliant authority) led her to create her own cult with a main focus on building libraries in various large town to both serve her purposes and expand knowledge.

My first CN character was mostly just a hot mess character. In general, she wanted to be good, but ultimately it all came down to self-indulgence. She wouldn't hurt other people on purpose, but ultimately she was just a slave to her own desires regardless of other people's needs. She'd be fine with giving someone one of her healing potions if they were going to die, and esp if they were on the same team; but she'd rag on them later if they seemed unappreciative and didn't return the favor. True altruism was kind of a mottled grey to her, even when she meant well. So her "chaos" was very UN-self-aware. In fact, she had a rosy picture of herself regardless of her actual behavior.

My current character is CN, but she's more rational and arrogant. She again tends to be more self-focused. She does good things if they seem useful but doesn't hurt others on purpose. The "good/evil" end of things doesn't much matter to her; she just consciously insists on being completely liberated from outside stricture, a force of nature. This one has no pretenses about herself.

All of these characters could be trusted to do "good" things -- you just had to understand what circumstances would help them make that kind of choice.


I think in general I've played more Neutral Good.

 

[The Cat]

I've played both a Neutral Evil character, and 2 Chaotic Neutral characters.

My NE character was essentially just an amoral pragmatist and mainly Tit for Tat. There was no "moral content" of actions, it was simply about what you needed at the time to accomplish your will. She generally exhibited restraint (because it would not create unnecessary opposition) and could even be very charming in terms of her ultra-rationality; however, she had no qualms about doing something that most would consider evil (killing someone, stealing something, etc.) if it served her purposes. Likewise, she typically didn't randomly hurt or kill others; but if someone did something to HER (thus making them her enemy), she would carefully plot an equal act of revenged if not their destruction.

This did not mean she wasn't without merit. One thing she loved was knowledge, and that coupled with her desire for respect from others (to be seen as a brilliant authority) led her to create her own cult with a main focus on building libraries in various large town to both serve her purposes and expand knowledge.

My first CN character was mostly just a hot mess character. In general, she wanted to be good, but ultimately it all came down to self-indulgence. She wouldn't hurt other people on purpose, but ultimately she was just a slave to her own desires regardless of other people's needs. She'd be fine with giving someone one of her healing potions if they were going to die, and esp if they were on the same team; but she'd rag on them later if they seemed unappreciative and didn't return the favor. True altruism was kind of a mottled grey to her, even when she meant well. So her "chaos" was very UN-self-aware. In fact, she had a rosy picture of herself regardless of her actual behavior.

My current character is CN, but she's more rational and arrogant. She again tends to be more self-focused. She does good things if they seem useful but doesn't hurt others on purpose. The "good/evil" end of things doesn't much matter to her; she just consciously insists on being completely liberated from outside stricture, a force of nature. This one has no pretenses about herself.

All of these characters could be trusted to do "good" things -- you just had to understand what circumstances would help them make that kind of choice.


I think in general I've played more Neutral Good.

This precicely. I have always had a soft spot for the "Nothing personal kid, just the cost of doing business" type of characters, it feels real, genuine to me. I really like Ra'as Al'Ghul in the Arrowverse because I felt like he had that kind of purity to him. The Gotham Version was good too, but felt more actively sinister in tone which I equate more to Lawful evil.

 

[Earl Grey]

I've played both a Neutral Evil character, and 2 Chaotic Neutral characters.

My NE character was essentially just an amoral pragmatist and mainly Tit for Tat. There was no "moral content" of actions, it was simply about what you needed at the time to accomplish your will. She generally exhibited restraint (because it would not create unnecessary opposition) and could even be very charming in terms of her ultra-rationality; however, she had no qualms about doing something that most would consider evil (killing someone, stealing something, etc.) if it served her purposes. Likewise, she typically didn't randomly hurt or kill others; but if someone did something to HER (thus making them her enemy), she would carefully plot an equal act of revenged if not their destruction.

This did not mean she wasn't without merit. One thing she loved was knowledge, and that coupled with her desire for respect from others (to be seen as a brilliant authority) led her to create her own cult with a main focus on building libraries in various large town to both serve her purposes and expand knowledge.

My first CN character was mostly just a hot mess character. In general, she wanted to be good, but ultimately it all came down to self-indulgence. She wouldn't hurt other people on purpose, but ultimately she was just a slave to her own desires regardless of other people's needs. She'd be fine with giving someone one of her healing potions if they were going to die, and esp if they were on the same team; but she'd rag on them later if they seemed unappreciative and didn't return the favor. True altruism was kind of a mottled grey to her, even when she meant well. So her "chaos" was very UN-self-aware. In fact, she had a rosy picture of herself regardless of her actual behavior.

My current character is CN, but she's more rational and arrogant. She again tends to be more self-focused. She does good things if they seem useful but doesn't hurt others on purpose. The "good/evil" end of things doesn't much matter to her; she just consciously insists on being completely liberated from outside stricture, a force of nature. This one has no pretenses about herself.

All of these characters could be trusted to do "good" things -- you just had to understand what circumstances would help them make that kind of choice.


I think in general I've played more Neutral Good.

I have a character who has traits like your NE and your CN, but he's CN- borderline CE now. Mainly self-serving, quite pragmatic, and amoral- his decisions aren't based off morality. Usually whatever he does that looks Good/Evil are side effects to whatever it is he was trying to accomplish. He'd definitely not give away anything of his for free- time, potions, money, whatever it is, and is okay with letting the person die if they can't pay up. That's why he's a cleric (5e clerics can have a faith other than in gods)- it gives him that power over others. Cough up the gold, or die. Have my potion, but now you owe me a favour.

"All of these characters could be trusted to do "good" things -- you just had to understand what circumstances would help them make that kind of choice."

Basically. On one side he has no qualms knocking prison guards out or killing them to escape "This isn't what I intended and I don't do this for its own sake, you just happen to be in the way," or walking past a dying child on the street, but he was also mistaken as 'Good' because of how fiercely protective he is of his teammates. It's just a pragmatic choice- he knows that there is strength in numbers, if he tags along he gets to do the things he wants more easily, etc, etc.

People who don't understand that and think he is Good aligned are in for a surprise once whatever the reason he is sticking with them for is gone and he packs and leaves, and people who think he is Evil aligned are surprised with how 'cooperative' he can be. If getting what he wants involves saving 20 kids from dying on the way, he'd do it. Unlike say an NE or LE, you can never be sure where his loyalties lie, but he's good at making it look like you have it. End justifies the means.

 

[The Cat]

I have a character who has traits like your NE and your CN, but he's CN- borderline CE now. Mainly self-serving, quite pragmatic, and amoral- his decisions aren't based off morality. Usually whatever he does that looks Good/Evil are side effects to whatever it is he was trying to accomplish. He'd definitely not give away anything of his for free- time, potions, money, whatever it is, and is okay with letting the person die if they can't pay up. That's why he's a cleric (5e clerics can have a faith other than in gods)- it gives him that power over others. Cough up the gold, or die. Have my potion, but now you owe me a favour.

"All of these characters could be trusted to do "good" things -- you just had to understand what circumstances would help them make that kind of choice."

Basically. On one side he has no qualms knocking prison guards out or killing them to escape "This isn't what I intended and I don't do this for its own sake, you just happen to be in the way," or walking past a dying child on the street, but he was also mistaken as 'Good' because of how fiercely protective he is of his teammates. It's just a pragmatic choice- he knows that there is strength in numbers, if he tags along he gets to do the things he wants more easily, etc, etc.

People who don't understand that and think he is Good aligned are in for a surprise once whatever the reason he is sticking with them for is gone and he packs and leaves, and people who think he is Evil aligned are surprised with how 'cooperative' he can be. If getting what he wants involves saving 20 kids from dying on the way, he'd do it. Unlike say an NE or LE, you can never be sure where his loyalties lie, but he's good at making it look like you have it.

 

[Earl Grey]

One of the earliest indications of my CN cleric's alignment (surprise surprise this cleric isn't Lawful Good) is when they were going through a small village with missing people reports and the most recent missing person is this guy's wife who was a potionmaker. The storekeeper offers his wares to the party, but doesn't know what the potions do- his wife was the one in charge of them. He goes into a spiel of how his wife is a brilliant potionsmaker but has been missing for a while, woe is me, and he begins crying- and my cleric nearly drags the entire party out of the place.

"This is a sales scam, he's just trying to get us to buy his stuff," until a party member does an Insight check and determines that the storekeeper was telling the truth. My cleric then proceeds to talk his way into getting the potions for free, "Down payment for looking for your wife," he says.

"He's grieving! Cut it out!" a party member says in a hushed, angry whisper, "No," he cuts in, "Can't you see? The more desperate he is, the more he'll be willing to pay us. Look, I've gotten us two great potions for free."

 

[Earl Grey]

Adventure ad: a mysterious pyramid begins emitting strange magic and harming the surroundings, mutating the animals around it and causing general chao-
Party of 8 idiot spellcasters: none, literally not a Single One of us high INT high WIS geniuses, prepared/had dispel/detect magic. the dm was so... the face he made... was... something.

We finished a 5h adventure in 8 hours. Mostly because we got stuck in situations like getting stuck in a magical misty hallway of many doors and not being able to tell which is the important one BECAUSE NOT ONE OF US PREPARED DETECT MAGIC. Imagine an 8 STR mage lamely rolling STR checks, swinging a longsword (AT DISADVANTAGE) at a door to bust it down.

DM: You miss. You miss. You miss. IT HITS! It's still standing. You miss. You miss. THE DOOR IS STILL STANDING! You miss. You miss. You miss. You miss. IT SOUNDS LIKE IT'S ON ITS HINGES! FOR TWO MINUTES (literally, we had a timer and all) HE HAS BEEN POUNDING ON THIS DOOR WITH HIS LONGSWORD! And with that, the door opens. The door opens- NO, THE DOOR ACTUALLY BREAKS INTO PIECES, and you see nothing but cobwebs. You swung at the door 18 times*. It has taken you almost 2 minutes of clanging to bash a door down. What, you want to search the room? I'll do you a favour and tell you there's nothing here. Good job. What, you think there is something magical hidden here? Oh I don't know, maybe if someone had DETECT MAGIC

*basically, he rolled the dice 36 times. Once to hit, and once for damage.

 

[Totenkindly]

Adventure ad: a mysterious pyramid begins emitting strange magic and harming the surroundings, mutating the animals around it and causing general chao-
Party of 8 idiot spellcasters: none, literally not a Single One of us high INT high WIS geniuses, prepared/had dispel/detect magic. the dm was so... the face he made... was... something.

Usually we have 1-2 people who can cast Identify (usually as a ritual in 5e) and 1-2 people with Detect Magic (same). Our current problem is that apparently no one took Mage Hand... although that's not as big a deal.

Our issue as of the last campaign or two was not having front-line engagers. Especially in the current campaign, almost everyone started as a ranged / spell character, so we had two players choose more head-on engagers + when someone died, they came back as a barb. Currently we don't really have healers, we've used cheap potions and short rests as much as heal spells.

Something I hated in our last campaign was our halfling cleric -- she had a 24 WIS due to her a headband + ability score... but the player she belonged to literally made the most unwise choices out of everyone in the party. I remember getting super frustrated because of all the literally dumb decisions the player made, when those of us with 10 WIS were more prudent. (I can't remember the specifics without looking back through my notes.... but I remember trying to deal with it by pretending she was SO much wiser than the rest of us that her decisions made no sense to us. Or maybe the thing about common sense is that it's not really that common?) She eventually ended up getting herself perma-killed through yet another unwise decision while the rest of us wiser folk scattered and ran like hell. Just desserts?

I am a big fan of playing your character, warts and all -- so if you have a crappy INT or WIS score, then you lean into it and find other ways to jolt the party so the smart or wise people make good decisions. (My current character has an 8 WIS, and so I made her kind of brash and unconcerned about fallout -- instead of making Persuasion or Deception rolls, she is trained in Intimidation even with just a CHA of 10, and hilariously she's actually bullied people to spectacular results.)

 

[Andy]

Adventure ad: a mysterious pyramid begins emitting strange magic and harming the surroundings, mutating the animals around it and causing general chao-
Party of 8 idiot spellcasters: none, literally not a Single One of us high INT high WIS geniuses, prepared/had dispel/detect magic. the dm was so... the face he made... was... something.

We finished a 5h adventure in 8 hours. Mostly because we got stuck in situations like getting stuck in a magical misty hallway of many doors and not being able to tell which is the important one BECAUSE NOT ONE OF US PREPARED DETECT MAGIC. Imagine an 8 STR mage lamely rolling STR checks, swinging a longsword (AT DISADVANTAGE) at a door to bust it down.

DM: You miss. You miss. You miss. IT HITS! It's still standing. You miss. You miss. THE DOOR IS STILL STANDING! You miss. You miss. You miss. You miss. IT SOUNDS LIKE IT'S ON ITS HINGES! FOR TWO MINUTES (literally, we had a timer and all) HE HAS BEEN POUNDING ON THIS DOOR WITH HIS LONGSWORD! And with that, the door opens. The door opens- NO, THE DOOR ACTUALLY BREAKS INTO PIECES, and you see nothing but cobwebs. You swung at the door 18 times*. It has taken you almost 2 minutes of clanging to bash a door down. What, you want to search the room? I'll do you a favour and tell you there's nothing here. Good job. What, you think there is something magical hidden here? Oh I don't know, maybe if someone had DETECT MAGIC

*basically, he rolled the dice 36 times. Once to hit, and once for damage.

That's bad GMing - if there was no time limit on bashing down the door, the GM should have told the player that they spend x amount of time smashing in the door, making a dreadful noise and wearing themselves out in the process. Making everyone sit there a watch the player make 36 rolls was pointless. If they kept on doing it, the GM should have asked for Con rolls until they became too exhausted to break down any more doors.

 

[Earl Grey]

That's bad GMing - if there was no time limit on bashing down the door, the GM should have told the player that they spend x amount of time smashing in the door, making a dreadful noise and wearing themselves out in the process. Making everyone sit there a watch the player make 36 rolls was pointless. If they kept on doing it, the GM should have asked for Con rolls until they became too exhausted to break down any more doors.

No, we actually gave the guy a choice. We + he himself wanted to roll, because seeing someone roll on disadvantage (fog/obscured sight, plus the fact he was a WIZ who has no business holding a longsword to begin with) over and over again was hilarious. That's why we had a timer on + counted the number of rolls.

EDIT: oh and as for why he was the only one in there instead of a Cleric with a longsword, he was the only guy who succeeded the CON check to pass through the initial nauseating fog. My cleric is a CN bastard who just outright refused, "AND IF I DIE, WHO'S GONNA HEAL Y'ALL, HUH, HUH???"

 

[Earl Grey]

Do you guys incorporate music in your DND sessions? It can be done offline / online. One of my DMs asked us to submit 'character songs' (lyricless) to be played for certain scenarios, such as winning/landing a huge hit/racking up kills, if the character is in a dangerous situation, etc.

There's nothing like discussing strategies on the table then suddenly one of you is onto something then the DM just suddenly starts mysteriously playing your character's song. DM also has 'character songs' for certain big baddies, and I TELL YOU, it was AWESOME. Story time!

There is this BBEG that the party has no chance of defeating (basically if you see him- run, just run) and we had encountered him several times, tried to fight, no dice. Casualties happened, 1 party member died. Whole party is pretty shaken up because the one who died is one of the stronger ones (party has players of different levels for in-story reasons), we were scarred, tanked morale, a touching funeral happened, "YOU MUST STAY STRONG!" etc.

It was so cool. We were having long, drawn-out battles, and every other night our party convenes to discuss our military/fighting strategy (homnomnom my favourite) and we decided on a course of action, planned over several days, like what, 4-6 days? Which included moving the town's citizens in batches, rolling to intimidate/convince them into leaving their hometown. More difficult than you'd think. It was difficult, because there was the ideal course of action, VS only what the townspeople would be content with.

A doctor goes, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M GOING LAST! I'M A DOCTOR! I'M IMPORTANT! I GET TO BOOK IT FIRST!"
"I'm a politician. I am important, I COMMAND you to let me on the first carriage out of h- WHAT DO YOU MEAN I MUST SHARE THEM WITH THE COMMONFOLK?" then more wholesome ones, "I'm a politician. I am important. I must stay to promote morale- yes, I have a son and my son wants me to go, but the people need me,"
An injured goes "I'm injured anyway. Take the women, children, and able-bodied, just leave me for the last carriage on the last day."

Then there's us going,

"No! This has nothing to do with patriotism anymore! I get that this is your family home, but it's dangerous! You HAVE to go!"
"Please- a carpenter of your skill- you can help us build traps and temporary barracks, you have to stay longer,"
"You're missing a leg, but we need you. You're not getting on that carriage until the last of the other injured has left."

Politics, politics, more politics, and negotiations. Even the party could not agree with each other, moving pieces across the map and yelling late into the night. We were wasting time, but then finally agreed on who gets sent first. The military, who had lost their leader, delegated authority to us, so we had their help to round up hardheaded townsfolk.

The next day, the day of the first out of 3 (or 4? Can't remember) batches of carriages leaving town (because of certain things, we could only take several townsfolk a time, and they couldn't go on foot) we had an ambush from the opposing army. Not out of the ordinary. We were doing pretty well warding them off so that the carriage carrying the townsfolk could pass safely. Our character themes were played, as well as small winning jingles (like the FFIV theme) when we pulled off a particularly impressive maneuver/kill, it was tiresome but we were managing it, but then... Far into the battle, the music changed. We looked at the DM with eyes of horror, he was smiling.

It was the BBEG's theme.

We couldn't see where he was coming from, due to the tall literal wall of fire closing in on us. We were just screaming and losing our shit, yelling to a few soldiers "GO BACK! GO BACK! I DON'T CARE HOW MANY CARRIAGES ARE LEFT! BBEG IS HERE! EVERYONE HAS TO GO, NOW!!! SAVE WHO YOU CAN!!" "BUT WHAT ABOUT Y-" "WE'LL HOLD HIM BACK! GO, GO!!!"

How quickly our bravado was shattered! All that planning, all the wins, and suddenly...!

The party was literally screaming, we were running away, away from the wall of fire that the BBEG that emerged out of it like some devil. One of our party members almost died. The music really added to everything. It was RAD.

 

[The Cat]

Yeah. I use music and soundscapes.

 

[Earl Grey]

Yeah. I use music and soundscapes.

you are the best. have my ingame firstborn

 

[Lark]

I got the starter pack with the Stranger Things theme from my brother for Christmas, looking forward to playing it, disappointed that the whole Wizards of the Coast seems to be canon completely and utterly now, I like the TSR version 2 so, so much more/better, my appreciation is so much more literary than playing at this point but I just dont have the same liking for the later books or those that are definitely the Wizards iteration.

 

[Totenkindly]

Usually it is impromptu suggestions during play, and people will toss stuff up on YouTube.

One of the hilarious bits from a month or two back was this:

Another: