the underlying reference

[TheGrimace]

I'm sure you've seen these posts before.
Some adoring fan is going mad waiting for each post, so he comes up with some strange theory about elan/hayley/roy/plot/whoever else.

This is one of those.


I've heard folks complain that the references to DnD have gone stale, but here is my take on it. As a DM, Rich's most recent antics have taken us on an adventure I've been on hundreds of times. So here's what happened, in as metagame of words as I can put it.

One of the players drops out. So he and the DM arrange a heroic death. Then, in order to make resurrection impossible, the DM arranges a situation so that the heroes must flee immediately. That's how it should work.

but something always goes wrong.
The PC's, being sentient beings as they sometimes pretend to be, decide that they will save their beloved Roy, no matter how bad for the plot it might be. So now, they didn't flee when they needed to, and the party got split up.

The DM is having an ulcer, because he doesn't know how the heck to get them back together. Rich might have his thumb firmly on the pulse of the OOTS world, but if there is a DM to this story, he's the guy that really needs the break.

That kinda thing ever happen to anyone else?

[David Argall]

Our writer here has the opposite problem. Getting Roy raised is a rather trivial problem [We have probably suggested a dozen reasonable ways to get him to the ship and raised, and we have definitely suggested scores of unreasonable ways.], so he has to find ways to make it difficult and interesting.

[Porthos]

so he has to find ways to make it difficult and interesting.

Simplicity itself. :smallsmile: No one is willing/able to sell/give the OotS a valuable enough diamond for the spell to work.

Hinjo probably doesn't carry a spare diamond around him (and as a High Level NPC, more the fool he is :smallwink:). And the Nobles who might have booked out of town with said diamonds might be a tad unwilling to cough one up.

So it therefore comes down to the OotS "convincing" (i.e. beating-up/blackmailing) a Noble to cough one up. Unfortuantly for the OotS, the political realities of the situation might stop them from "persuading" a Noble to contribute to the Raise Roy Fund.

Sounds like a potential mini-arc (say 4-7 strips) to me. :smallwink:

BTW: As a General Aside, the above situation is why, when I'm running mid-high level PCs, I try to make sure that the party I'm in always has diamonds on hand. Just so I don't have to be held hostage to DM Fiat the whims of NPCs. :smallamused:

[Icewalker]

Well, I find this thread somewhat bothersome, as with most of this general opinion, and not exactly the one of your topic:

There is no evidence that there is a DM, or players. From what we have seen, there are not. The characters are simply the people a story revolves around in a world that works off of dnd rules. Just a bit of a pet peeve of mine on the forums.


I think David is probably right, Rich is going to find some ingenious way to make it interesting. Possibly the lack of diamond, possibly something else. I look forward to finding out. (Also, currently too tired to make guesses of my own).

[Alysar]

Lets all hope that Roy's player just went on vacation for a while or is otherwise occupied and can't make it to the game for the next few sessions.

Roy will be back.

[Kish]

However, Charles Phipps will be ecstatic when he sees this thread. Finally someone else who thinks Roy is meant to stay dead...

[Sir_Norbert]

Well, I find this thread somewhat bothersome, as with most of this general opinion, and not exactly the one of your topic:

There is no evidence that there is a DM, or players. From what we have seen, there are not. The characters are simply the people a story revolves around in a world that works off of dnd rules. Just a bit of a pet peeve of mine on the forums.
Yes, but it still might be a joke about this familiar situation, given how well it fits, mightn't it?

Meh, I don't know. This is one thing I just don't like about D&D. In my freeform games, dead is dead for ever.

[Kurald Galain]

That kinda thing ever happen to anyone else?

I've had the opposite happen, in fact. One of the player characters died; I don't recall the particular fashion, but it was some big combat that we barely won, IIRC. The player made a temporary other character (who, incidentally, was totally obnoxious) and the DM wrote a quest for us to resurrect the old character, and figured we'd take it. Us being level 6-7 at the time, raising him ourselves was not an option.

Only we didn't. Our characters, based upon backstory, had other places to go, so we ignored this quest. This got the DM upset, and he aborted the campaign shortly afterwards.

[boomwolf]

I've had the opposite happen, in fact. One of the player characters died; I don't recall the particular fashion, but it was some big combat that we barely won, IIRC. The player made a temporary other character (who, incidentally, was totally obnoxious) and the DM wrote a quest for us to resurrect the old character, and figured we'd take it. Us being level 6-7 at the time, raising him ourselves was not an option.

Only we didn't. Our characters, based upon backstory, had other places to go, so we ignored this quest. This got the DM upset, and he aborted the campaign shortly afterwards.

god...thats the most funny breakdown i have ever witnessed...

my groups usually brake down due to the fact we have overkill of good\evil lawful\chaotic conflicts...
so they start killing each other (usually the chaotic evil ones make first kills, then get killed, and all hell brakes free...)

[NerfTW]

If we're assuming players behind the characters, which has been stated by Rich not to be so, I don't think this is an example of a player quitting.

The battle is just ending now. This is more like "Oh crap, my character took too much damage and died, rez me after the battle."

Or do DM's normally call mulligans during life and death battles?

[Ertier]

I'd say somewhere in between The Abandonment and The Death of a Player's PC. I say that Roy's player was on vacation for a while (if not still) so he asked the DM to get him an exit so the game could go on while he's in the Bahamas. Voila, falling damage enters. When he gets back then he will be rezzed, or worse comes to worse, he plays as Hinjo for a while. Simple as that...:smallbiggrin:

[Accountant]

I don''t remember where or anything, but I specifically remember reading somewhere Rich saying that there aren't any player behind the PCs, or a DM or anything.

Might have been another forum member?