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WarKitty
2010-09-11, 06:07 PM
I'm currently playing a high-wisdom character. Calm, slow to react, carefully judges her words, etc. I put a fair bit of effort in-game to making her judge her words and actions carefully.

So in RL I am, well, none of those? A bit hot-tempered and prone to wasting words and actions trying to change people that don't want to. So I'm sort of half thinking D&D and half about an altercation I got into. And somehow I started thinking...how would my character react to that? The answer being "a lot better than I did." Followed by "hey if I can make a calm careful ingame character maybe I can do it in RL!"

So, any stories?

oxybe
2010-09-11, 06:19 PM
-spiders are jerks and deserve to die in the most horrific way possible.
-fire solves all problems. if problem not solved, use more fire. repeat until solved
-always keep a backpack full of random junk on you at all times. you never know when duct tape, a mini-maglight, a towel, a lighter, etc... can come in handy

gallagher
2010-09-11, 07:20 PM
well once i got in a fight. i learned that my barbarian is much better at hitting than i am.

therefor, due to my personal low BAB and poor decision making, i must be a low-INT wizard that cant cast a cantrip

Gaiwecoor
2010-09-11, 08:25 PM
... i must be a low-INT wizard that cant cast a cantrip

You mean a Commoner? :smalltongue:

Foryn Gilnith
2010-09-11, 08:32 PM
Not D&D, but I've learned that the only reliable way to prevent being murdered is to launch pre-emptive strikes. If you're looking to murder people, you'll notice when there are circumstances conducive to committing/covering up a murder. Those are when people will strike at you - but not if you take the opportunity first.

Of course, in this day and age, the way murder is conducted is much different (plus we have a thing called "morality"), which makes this lesson not very useful.

Snake-Aes
2010-09-11, 08:35 PM
know when duct tape, a mini-maglight, a towel, a lighter, etc... can come in handy

I learned this one from douglas adams. My best date this year was earned thanks to carrying a towel on towel day.

Demons_eye
2010-09-11, 08:38 PM
Prolonged exposure to friends shenanigans literally drive me crazy.

shadow_archmagi
2010-09-11, 08:40 PM
Prolonged exposure to friends shenanigans literally drive me crazy.

Oh come on, we weren't THAT accident prone.

Well, except for gilbert, but that's his charm!

Crossblade
2010-09-11, 09:22 PM
-fire solves all problems. if problem not solved, use more fire. repeat until solved
"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero" - Vaarsuvius, OotS #696

Lessons:
Wine bottles make excellent improvised weapons.
Helping big strong guys out of jail while escaping yourself is the easiest way to result in them dying and you surviving because they're clearly more of a threat than me.
I'm clearly better than the average person (commoner 1) because I can out match a common house cat.
Life gets better the more you move about/change residences.
Your life is easier when someone else is stronger than you and another someone else is smarter and/or wiser than you.

Snake-Aes
2010-09-11, 09:39 PM
Oo! Another good one!

- Being the party face means you get stabbed first.
- But it also means you get the good stuff first. But that tends to lead to more stabbing, with interchangeable sides.

SirLagsalot
2010-09-11, 10:20 PM
Pointy end towards enemy
Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.
It's not the one with your name on it, it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" that you have to worry about.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything.

Marillion
2010-09-11, 10:50 PM
-That creepy house on the hill? Leave it alone.
-That pretty girl who was raised with you and you kinda wanna ask out? She's related.
-Don't like the color scheme on your new mode of transport? Complaining will make the person who provided it for you make it worse.
-Your friend needs help doing something? Kill him yourself and save the bad guy the trouble.
-Being the straight man means you know exactly how much trouble you're getting into and that you're likely going to die. But you're gonna do it anyway, and be miserable the whole time.

Toric
2010-09-12, 01:44 AM
Any problem can be solved with adequate amounts of rock-hard bread. And a smile.

Treasure your new friends as much as your old ones. You never know when one will buy property for you.

Nobody follows, knows, or likely even cares about the rules set down in A Young Dwarf's Guide to Courtship and Procreation. Attempting to alleviate this just gets you funny looks and chuckles.

Drakevarg
2010-09-12, 02:28 AM
- Never carry just one weapon. There's nothing worse than breaking your naginata upside the head of a Purple Worm and having nothing but a stick left between you and more teeth than are strictly nessicary.
- If you are the son of a god, zombie bites are nothing worth fretting over.
- Only use your single-use item of unknown function if the alternative is death. If you use it now, it will inherently have been more useful in the encounter immediately after that.
- Never allow a Madcoil to get loose unless you can assure that it won't be anywhere near you.
- Fire Trap everything.
- Beware the caretakers. They weren't given the job for being pushovers.
- Intelligent items are powerful, but rarely worth the company.
- Find the right path, then go in the other direction. You won't get anywhere, but the treasure on the correct path is always less than the treasure on the correct path PLUS the treasure on the wrong path.

Zaydos
2010-09-12, 02:35 AM
Do not talk to the hobgoblins. They are hungry, and you look tasty.
A completely mutilated body can be repaired in a matter of moments.
Even if my brain tastes bad I am still a valid target for cerebromorphosis.
My pixie can in fact drive other Players insane; not just their characters.

Volthawk
2010-09-12, 02:51 AM
I learned this one from douglas adams. My best date this year was earned thanks to carrying a towel on towel day.

Wait...towel day?

Thespianus
2010-09-12, 04:35 AM
Wait...towel day?

Towel Day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day

FelixG
2010-09-12, 05:05 AM
If you absolutely have to get your point across, aim at the youngest child in your immediate area first. That way those you are REALLY dealing with know you are not messing around (Learned from Fallout RPG)

Scarey Nerd
2010-09-12, 06:49 AM
- If you are a member of an enemy nation, don't run around your enemy's cities with a big axe. (Was a half-orc in an elf city during a war. Never started a fight, but they picked them with me.)

- If at first you don't succeed, blame the Paladin.

- Travelling without rope is like jumping off a bridge: Stupid, reckless, and rope would help the situation.

Malfunctioned
2010-09-12, 06:54 AM
Headbutts solve everything.

My naive cabin-boy Lem Catfooted in a Sot7S won almost every fight with a headbutt, even when he had his signature slungshot on his person almost every time. Headbutts can also double for identification, money and distractions. Then again, everyone in that campaign was badass when the captain dual-wielded his pistol in one hand and the skyship in the other.

jpreem
2010-09-12, 07:23 AM
Killing a lot makes you better at everything.

oxybe
2010-09-12, 11:11 AM
I learned this one from douglas adams. My best date this year was earned thanks to carrying a towel on towel day.

heh. while credit goes to Adams for bringing to light the usefullness of a towel (and it's true that a simple body-length of terry-cloth is extremely useful), it's really surprising to see the look on people's faces when you mcguyver a fix using twine, an exacto-knife, duct tape, an empty can of Dr.Pepper & some random bits and bobs found nearby.

i grew up in a situation where we didn't have much spending money. we weren't poor or left wanting, but we didn't have anything fancier then dad's pickup truck. so when something broke, rather then replace it i watched my dad go downstairs into the basement, grab a hammer, a plank & some nails (maybe glue & tape depending) and fix it. it wasn't always pretty and sometimes it was deserving of a spot on thereifixedit.failblog.org but a fresh coat of paint generally made it better. on the plus side, i don't need to check the instructions when building a shelf.

this methodology kind of shows itself in my playstyle, where i like having multiple tools to work with, since tools=options and options=better equipped to handle various situations. i would rather have a wide variety of tools with multiple uses rather then be forced to treat every problem like a nail since i only have a hammer (and one of those crappy ball peen hammers at that, not an awesome claw hammer). suffice it to say, i prefer casters. even the few times i don't play a caster, or even an average intelligence character, they tend to have multiple tools on them.

i'll rarely play a fighter type, but when i do i'll never play one that doesn't carry around a shovel, pickaxe, drill, saw, marbles, collapsable gaff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_gaff), crowbar, hammer, pitons, rope, chalk, a few candles, etc... on the off-chance that a "a would be really nice right now" situation occurs, which oddly enough happens far too often at the lower levels. at the early-mid-levels when bags of holding or handy haversacks are readily available, [I]all my characters carry a small Canadian Tire's worth of stuff on them, especially magical versions.

a few examples of stuff i've carried before:
-a crowbar of shatter 1/day works surprisingly and thematically well when you want to enter something
-a stealthier version is a passe-partout (a blank key that can knock X times per day, or simply creating a wand of knock). especially since the key can be easily hidden in your keyring.
-a piton of explosive runes driven into a wall can potentially act like a C4 charge when you "accidentally" fail to dispel it, mostly due to the line "The object on which the explosive runes were written also takes full damage (no saving throw)" and when this object is driven into a wall and expels 6d6 worth of force damage for 10 ft in all directions....
-an adamantine arrow is both a half-arse backup weapon & cheap non-magical "lockpick" (by virtue of simply destroying/sawing the lock strait off. a typical lock has hardness 15 & 30 HP. even a 8 str wizard will deal 1.5 damage on average every round. 2 minutes after he started sawing the lock, he's able to open the door/chest/whatnot).
-an everburning torch + a cylindrical metal mapcase = flashlight (since you can simply put the top of the case on/off to stop the light)
-the "hand of the mage" item is a great backup amulet
-as is a "glove of pretidigitation"
-really, many cantrips are great targets for cheap, unlimited use items.

valadil
2010-09-12, 02:39 PM
Followed by "hey if I can make a calm careful ingame character maybe I can do it in RL!"


I had a similar experience the first time I LARPed. I was shy and full of low self esteem. My character was talkative and social. Once I got into character I acted more like him than myself. Afterwards I realized that I could act that way too, and never really took off that part of the character when I returned to myself.

JoshuaZ
2010-09-12, 04:31 PM
From D&D 3.5:
Even if you're necromancer has really high charisma, he's still not going to do well in most diplomatic situations when he has an undead raven sitting on his shoulder.
(ok not very applicable to real life)

From a homebrew scifi system that is very hard science and very deadly:
1) Charging at heavily armed marines will hurt even if you are space combat armor.
2) Swords don't hurt as much as guns.

I guess those last two are sort of applicable in real life although I hope I'm never in a situation where they become relevant.

big teej
2010-09-12, 05:03 PM
well, without going tooooo deep into an explanation, I learned a very important lesson from my barbarian...

use your head


I learned this lesson after, while enlarged, my barbarian tripped and smooshed a wizard with his forhead

killing the BBEG of the entire campaign..... in the first session.

Kurald Galain
2010-09-12, 05:24 PM
"Never ask a question if you don't want to hear the answer".

Bugbeartrap
2010-09-12, 05:43 PM
- Find the right path, then go in the other direction. You won't get anywhere, but the treasure on the correct path is always less than the treasure on the correct path PLUS the treasure on the wrong path.

+1 to THIS! This is the strategy I take with every RPG ever! Does the air smell less foul that way? Then go the other way, kill things, take their stuff, and then go the correct way!

Marillion
2010-09-12, 05:59 PM
-If you act like you know what you're doing, no one will ask for your credentials.
-It's still nice to have them though.
-If your mayor/senator/governor seems impersonal, ineffective, and mean, his heart's in the right place, he's just bad at his job. However, if the mayor/senator/governor seems competent, benevolent, and friendly, HE IS EVIL AND MUST BE TAKEN OUT. There is NO middle ground.

WeeFreeMen
2010-09-12, 06:11 PM
a very simple lesson I learned.
Look both ways.

In game, it was a d20 modern. My character recently got ran over because I didn't look both ways. Now normally, irl. Im a very careful guy, calm, etc.
In game I tend to make some over-the-top gun ho characters.

As I did in that game, long story short. He got ran over and that became the "LoLz" of the week.
We were speaking about it at dinner, at applebees, and when I left to walk home something just told me "look both ways"
Mind you, I was on a side-walk. however, a gas-powered golf-cart just wized by me as I literally dived for cover. (I think it was around 11.30pm)

So yes, that is my lesson learned (or rather, re-affirmed?).

DanReiv
2010-09-12, 07:53 PM
Oh I've got a few. Let's start with this D&D batch.

-The average city sewers are friggin' dangerous.
-Don't wander in the forest alone.
-All ponds may contain a mutant toad better than you at grappling.

MarkusWolfe
2010-09-12, 08:25 PM
Min max. And if that fails, find a gestalt campaign.

comicshorse
2010-09-12, 08:30 PM
Sometimes the best thing you can do is just keep your damn mouth shut

Traveler
2010-09-13, 07:48 AM
Always check the ceiling. Always.

Lhurgyof
2010-09-13, 08:05 AM
I'm currently playing a high-wisdom character. Calm, slow to react, carefully judges her words, etc. I put a fair bit of effort in-game to making her judge her words and actions carefully.

So in RL I am, well, none of those? A bit hot-tempered and prone to wasting words and actions trying to change people that don't want to. So I'm sort of half thinking D&D and half about an altercation I got into. And somehow I started thinking...how would my character react to that? The answer being "a lot better than I did." Followed by "hey if I can make a calm careful ingame character maybe I can do it in RL!"

So, any stories?

I had a character EXACTLY like that.

He was a monk, with a 9 cha, but was somehow the party face because nobody could choose their words wisely. :smallsigh:

Morph Bark
2010-09-13, 08:50 AM
Don't do something just because you can, rely on your best features.

AKA: Don't Sneak Attack just because you can, rely on your spellcasting. You became a Rogue//Wizard for a reason, dannit.

Eldariel
2010-09-13, 01:55 PM
I've played more than my share of high Charisma types. Turns out I'm not all that awkward as a leader as I'd always thought.

Ormagoden
2010-09-13, 02:45 PM
I've spoken of the term that's floated around my gaming groups for years:


Originally a response during a session of shadowrun after opening a steel shutter, a large undead dragon awakens and turns towards our delivery truck.


"Shut the door!"


"Shut the door!" has actually saved my life on one occasion. I inspected vehicles for a living at the DMV. After failing a car for its rear lights a man who was built like 26 year old lou farigno charged me while I was slapping the rejected sticker on his car. A large drawn out grappling fight ensued where the only way I won was slamming the door on his head. He was much easier to handle "punch drunk"

In my mind during the fight I heard a grizzled street samurai from 2054 yell out "Shut the door!" Problem solved!

Shenanigans
2010-09-13, 04:31 PM
I had a character EXACTLY like that.

He was a monk, with a 9 cha, but was somehow the party face because nobody could choose their words wisely. :smallsigh:

I had that happen also. At around 9th level we got a genie wish (by our DM, much better than the standard) I wished for ranks in Diplomacy and a decent Charisma, in order to actually have an in-game reason to do it. :)

Other rules earned from my (D&D) characters (more in-game applicable)
- Never split the party
- Protect the Cleric at all costs
- Geek the spellworm first (for those who don't Shadowrun - kill the wizard first)
- Never accept "free" spells
- The same goes for food, usually
- The dragon/lich/mind flayer/beholder/aboleth knows you're coming
- A single Bodak (CR 8) can keep an entire 14th level party at bay for a surprisingly long time
- A bag of tricks is more useful than you might think (setting off traps, dropping on besiegers)
- A single level of barbarian can make lots of monsters almost unfairly good

More to come...maybe

Dirty n Evil
2010-09-14, 02:47 AM
The more you threaten, the quieter you should become. An angry loud yell at being upset is understandable, and might have a passing glance cast your way but most people don't want to get involved. If you continue yelling about like a yutz, even if you're in the right you've attracted attention you don't want. (It's especially funny if you think of "other people" as "wandering monsters". :smallbiggrin:)

If there's trouble and you and your friends are outnumbered, remember to watch out for each other's backs. If you outnumber them, one of your should move around and flank 'em.

Taunting an opponent isn't just fun, it can be useful as well. Just make sure you haven't taunted someone who's tougher than you can handle... or who has a lot of friends.

Sometimes, even if the Princess is a hostage of an Ogre, she might not take a chance to run away when it's offered.

Knowledge in obscure pursuits might rarely come into play, but when they come up share what you know. Even if it isn't immediately helpful, your peers will be appreciative of your efforts.