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View Full Version : DM Help Inspiration for a PC?



StealthyRobot
2015-09-11, 10:41 PM
I've recently begun DM'ing my first campaign, we're two sessions in and I just revealed the main plot. One of my players doesn't feel like his character would go on this journey with these strangers he just randomly met.
His character is a shadow monk. His monestory believes in balance of good and evil, and a rival monastory worships an ancient dragon and believes in strength above all else. The dragon monks wiped out the shadow monks monastory. The monk met the rest of the party and happend to be in the right place at the right time to meet them and hear the plot, but the player has told me the monk would rather search for other survivors from his monestory and try to rebuild his clan and face down the dragon monks.
The main plot is to stop Lolth, spider godess of the drow. I've made some artifacts that will make this possible which are scattered throughout the land and will be gathered by the party. Lolth is trying to kill the Elven god pantheon. To me, this seems like a perfectly good reason for a monk who tries to keep balance in the world to help the party. The monk would rather try to help his monastory.
I don't want to say he finds his master in town and the master says "go help them". The player suggested that there be an artifact his monastory was protecting that the other monks stole. I do like this idea, and one of my artifacts allows someone to be in the direct presence o a god without having their brain melt. He said that artifact was lame. The party will eventually face the dragon monks and the dragon they worship as that artifact is a part of the dragons horde, and that gave me a fairly decent reason for it to be there, but coming up with a different reason for it being there is easy. The next session is in a week and the party will find out that the artifact is in the dragon monk's dragon's mountain, but I'm not sure if thats enough to keep the monk around. The player wants to care about why he is doing this, which i understand completely.
I just need help coming up with some ideas about how to get the monk to stay with the group. Anything is appreciated, new artifacts, NPCs, anything really. And I can explain anything people have questions on.

squab
2015-09-11, 11:16 PM
First off, someone linked to this (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/tll307KmEm4H9k6efFP.html) in another thread recently and it's great. The key line:
Try to never just say, "My character isn't interested in that adventure." A lot of people mistake this for good roleplaying, because you are asserting your character's personality. Wrong. Good roleplaying should never bring the game to a screeching halt. One of your jobs as a player is to come up with a reason why your character would be interested in a plot. After all, your personality is entirely in your hands, not the DM's. Come up with a reason why the adventure (or the reward) might appeal to you, no matter how esoteric or roundabout the reasoning.

Beyond that.... shadow monks keep balance, and their opposite is the dragon monks. Now that the dragon monks have wiped out the shadow monks, there's already unbalance. If you reveal to the character that the dragon monks destroyed the shadow monks on lolth's orders and that lolth's plan will bring unbalance, that seems like pretty good motivation. Revenge plus restoring the balance he's dedicated to protect. Perhaps he feels he can't safely rebuild the shadow monks unless the dragon monks are eliminated as well, and this leads to him feeling he can't rebuild the shadow monks until whatever is behind the dragon monks is also defeated.

Red Fel
2015-09-11, 11:22 PM
I just need help coming up with some ideas about how to get the monk to stay with the group. Anything is appreciated, new artifacts, NPCs, anything really. And I can explain anything people have questions on.

Let me see if I understand correctly. This player made the character himself? Is that right? He created the last survivor of a slaughtered monastery on a quest for vengeance? And now he refuses to join the party because their quest is going in a different direction?

Don't force him to stay with the party. If his character would walk, let him walk. And then let the player roll up a new character, one whose interests are designed to coincide with the party's.

As a rule, you shouldn't try to force all of the players into a boat together. This character doesn't mesh with the party, at least according to the player. If you're going to spend a bunch of time running herd and giving the guy reasons for his character to tag along, it's not worth it; let them part ways.

As an aside, it sounds like you're giving this player a little too much freedom. Some freedom is good; in fact, a lot of it is. But it sounds like this player is getting dangerously close to telling you how to run the game, and you're letting him. "I want these guys in my backstory. Make them part of the plot." "Your artifact idea is lame. Use one from my story instead." While I encourage DMs to take ideas from the players and work them into the story, this sounds less like he's offering suggestions and more like he's making demands. The former is admirable, the latter is upsetting. You need to be prepared to say, "No, this is the world I've designed. And these are the rest of the PCs. They like the story so far, they like their quest; if you don't, roll up a character who does."

You know the saying, you can't please all the people all the time? A lot of DMs try to. Some succeed. But this player sounds like, at least with regard to this character, he's going to make you work extra-hard for it. And I'm not convinced, from what you've told us, that it's worth it.

StealthyRobot
2015-09-12, 01:02 AM
If you reveal to the character that the dragon monks destroyed the shadow monks on lolth's orders and that lolth's plan will bring unbalance, that seems like pretty good motivation.
Thought about that, but Lolth is the godess of drow and spiders. And the dragon cultists probably wouldnt listen to her.


To Red Fel:
Thanks for the advice. I had already been thinking this and was offended when he said my artifact was lame. So I think I'm going to show him what you said about the player making his own personality, and let him choose between going with the group to retrieve thos artifact or he can go and make a new character. I do have a rule that if a character dies(or turns into an NPC) I get some say in making that character so the character will actually be involved with the story.
Thanks for the help. I'll let you know what he says.

Aetol
2015-09-12, 05:53 AM
It's basically what the other said, but :


One of my players doesn't feel like his character would go on this journey with these strangers he just randomly met.
<snip>
... the player has told me the monk would rather search for other survivors from his monestory and try to rebuild his clan and face down the dragon monks.

There's your problem. The players should not make characters who would not go on an adventure with strangers they just met for any reason, and you should not let them. So you ask him to alter his backstory/personality to fit in the campaign, or to roll a new character who would take part in the adventure.

Takewo
2015-09-12, 06:24 AM
Thought about that, but Lolth is the godess of drow and spiders. And the dragon cultists probably wouldnt listen to her.

Well, the dragon cultists not listening to Lolth doesn't mean that the character can't think that they listened to her, does it?


Besides that, I'm with squab and Red Fel. If he thinks his character wouldn't do that, ask him what would motivate him. If he can't find anything reasonable, let him roll another character.

StealthyRobot
2015-09-13, 05:33 AM
Thank you all for the help guys. I ended up giving him three options:
1. The artifact was stolen by the dragon monk raid
2. The dragon monks are just Jerks and killed his friends
3. He makes up whatever he wants and his character becomeset an npc to do his own thing.
The player decided to go with no artifact, but he felt like I was changing his back story without his say I it. And I was a little bit, but only because he would rather have me alter my world than him alter his character. In the end he said he still wants to play in my campaign but is unhappy about some decisions I've made. But that's okay. Can't please everyone.