Testing the alignment of my player's character...
Feb 19, 2016 23:50:01 GMT
joatmoniac and lasersniper like this
Post by grakarg on Feb 19, 2016 23:50:01 GMT
Hello everyone! Long time DM, but first time poster here. Glad to find a space to share DM ideas with fellow creators!
I truly love being a DM and creating interesting situations and scenarios for my players. In my current campaign, the players have arrived in a remote colony and are exploring their surroundings, getting their bearings about town, etc. We play online, and between sessions we email downtime activities back and forth.
I had so much fun presenting this most recent set of options to one of my players, I just had to share it with some fellow DM's.
The player's character, Eiz'ln is a CN Lizardfolk fighter, and the player has defined his character as having the flaw: Eizl'n is slow to trust members of other races, tribes, and societies.
My Player sent me the following message for his character's downtime activity:
For downtime, Eizl'n intuited that the temperature and conditions of the docks were perfect for breeding bivalves, and as luck would have it, he found the beginnings of an oyster colony clinging to the beams supporting an especially old, unused dock. He's going to work on getting the supplies to create long stretches of netting, and hang them under a calm alcove a short distance from the boat landings. That should, weather permitting, kick off a thriving oyster colony that can be harvested by the townsfolk. Best part is that the whole system would be reusable.
A small boy in the town has taken an interest in Eizl'n, probably due to his race being rather exotic for the region. He's been watching Eisl'yn work on his ropes from a distance, though not as stealthily as he might imagine.
Eisl'yn has also taken a keen interest in sailing, and is slowly coming out of his shell thanks to some of the ship's crew being eager mentors.
Nice! The player has his character doing something useful, and has introduced an NPC for me to have interact with him. I'll definately "Yes, And" that. However, his character is a big scary (erratic) lizardman. So I remind him of this in the options I sent him:
1) While the local fishermen are bit standoffish to strangers, Eizl'n earns some bemused curiosity from them and they watch him work with interest. Time will tell if his efforts are successful. Eizl'n is fairly certain it will work, as his tribe created similar nets back home. (DM rolls a Tool use check, Weaving/Dex: 1d20+0.... 19!) Eizl'n is very confident he's done a good job crafting his oyster nets and that they'll stand up to the ocean's waves, his tribe's weavers would be proud. Crafting the nets takes one week, but does not cost him any coin in supplies as he managed to repurpose local supplies and scrap nets.
2) A small boy in the town has taken an interest in Eisl'yn, probably due to his race being rather exotic for the region. He's been watching Eisl'yn work on his ropes from a distance, though not as stealthily as he might imagine.
The boy is young, 7 years old, perhaps 8. Its hard to tell with these soft skins. It wears torn linen breeches and a worn tunic that looks too big for its scrawny frame. It has no foot-clothes the humans call shoes. While scrawny, it doesn't appear to be starving.
Eizl'n is initially suspicious and untrusting of the child. Is he attempting to sneak up and steal something? Or maybe he's been dared to pull a prank by other local children? Maybe sent to spy on him by the local fishermen? Hopefully its just a curious human child. Would they miss it if Eizl'n ate it? Or maybe he could teach it his tribe's ways and it will become a powerful warrior in his service. Or maybe make a slave out of it. Eizl'n considers his options. Perhaps he should try driving the human boy thing away with a couple of swift kicks, but that might disturb the young one's elder, or make the townsfolk angry and less hospitable. Its hard to say how they would react. Maybe he should try to befriend the boy-human and see what it wants, it could be useful.
What does Eizl'n do?
Kill the child. Eating or hiding the body. (Roll to hit, AC 10. Eizl'n wins initiative and gains surprise, if you miss with the first attack you can make a second one if desired.)
Send the child on its way with a few sharp kicks and a snarl. (Intimidate check. Eizl'n is much larger and would look scary- you have advantage.)
Lure the child in with something and trap it, then decide what to do with it. (Survival check. Decide what you use to lure in the child. To trap it you use a net.)
Confront the child and ask it what it wants. (no skill roll needed. Child makes a reaction check instead, modified by what Eizl'n says)
Show that you notice the child by looking directly at it, but do nothing- returning to your work on the nets. Watching to see what the child does.
Openly greet the child and offer it some of your lunch. Fresh fish, straight from the sea! Yum! Wait... do humans always cook their fish?
Try to befriend the child (Persuasion check. Describe how you do this and what you say)
3) Eizl'n has taken a keen interest in sailing. The large ships are quite impressive, you could put lots of lizardfolk in them. Even the smaller boats of the local fishermen seem well crafted and exceptionally nimble on the water. He considers learning everything he can about them. (Vehicle Proficiency: Water) As per the PHB, page 187, Eizl'n can learn this proficiency through training during downtime between adventures. He will need to train for a total of 240 days to gain it.
Yep. I just gave one of my players the opportunity to kill and eat a human child. I'm fairly certain he's not going to do that, but hey... he IS chaotic neutral, and a lizardman. Who knows? Oh D&D, good times, good times.
