(3.5) Freaking PCs Doing Things They Shouldn't...

[Deth Muncher]

So, here's the deal. One of my PCs is one of those Dragon Elf things from Dragon Magic.

So what did he do? Well, in the middle of the trade district in a town in Eberron, he goes off and sprouts dragon wings, a la some ritual in that book. This obviously causes an uproar, since, y'know, dragons don't play nice with others. I did the easiest thing I could think of to get rid of the problem: I had him Ploteleported off to a dark room where the elves of Valenar are questioning him about what the hell he is and why he has dragon powers. (If you don't remember from other posts of mine, the PCs aren't actually from Eberron, but from the Prime Material.)

So...frick. Just what am I supposed to do? This kind of derailed everything that was supposed to be happening, and now I'm lost. :/

[onthetown]

Go with the flow and don't railroad your PCs? They'll do anything and everything that messes up your plans.

I guess find a way to get him out of the questioning. They decide he's innocent or something. He can go back to the city as long as he keeps his dragon powers hidden. Things continue as normal.

[Myou]

He explains that he's not a dragon, they let him go.

[shadow_archmagi]

So what did he do? Well, in the middle of the trade district in a town in Eberron, he goes off and sprouts dragon wings, a la some ritual in that book.

It sounds to me like you've made the mistake of allowing players to use material you're not completely familiar with!

Anyway, I'd just have him tell people he's a half-dragon. Or was working under a wizard who was trying to invent a permanent flying spell and things went awry... there are probably a billion reasons why he has dragon wings.

Really, having wings isn't going to really DESTROY anything or derail your entire campaign. (unless you were counting on terrain based obstacles for something?) Just have people shrug it off, since having him constantly be treated wierd by everyone is going to get old fast.

I don't mean to sound judgmental but you overreacted a bit.

[Deth Muncher]

Go with the flow and don't railroad your PCs? They'll do anything and everything that messes up your plans.

I guess find a way to get him out of the questioning. They decide he's innocent or something. He can go back to the city as long as he keeps his dragon powers hidden. Things continue as normal.

I wasn't necessarily trying to railroad, but I was kinda startled by the fact that he would do something so...er, spectacular as to use a power so strange in the middle of town. Just because it's a fantasy setting doesn't mean people always expect strange things to be happening.

He explains that he's not a dragon, they let him go.

Point.

It sounds to me like you've made the mistake of allowing players to use material you're not completely familiar with!

Anyway, I'd just have him tell people he's a half-dragon. Or was working under a wizard who was trying to invent a permanent flying spell and things went awry... there are probably a billion reasons why he has dragon wings.

Really, having wings isn't going to really DESTROY anything or derail your entire campaign. (unless you were counting on terrain based obstacles for something?) Just have people shrug it off, since having him constantly be treated wierd by everyone is going to get old fast.

I don't mean to sound judgmental but you overreacted a bit.

I think it's more of a temporary wing thing, not a permanent thing. He said it works like Wildshape, I'm going to investigate now. Because you're right, I've only glanced over that book. I looked at the ritual when he got it, but it's been a good two months since then and I completely forgot what it does.

[Thurbane]

Go with the flow and don't railroad your PCs?

I wouldn't view the OPs example as railroading - he's just playing the city/NPCs with a realistic reaction to a public PC action...

[onthetown]

It wasn't mean't as a blatant accusation, it's just the way I took the post... sounded a lot like he was getting on those tracks.

[Justin B.]

Turn it into a sidequest, the Elves hold an extensive trial, the other PC's are brought in as a part of it. Their actions as a group are now being judged by a high authority. Some of the things they've done might bring suspicion, or they could be judged as good and innocent characters.

Either way, it drives the point home that people notice things, and it will cause your PC's to really examine their own actions, past and present, while providing for a decent roleplaying session or two.

[Toliudar]

This is the Eberron of entire teams of artificers, magic trains, and dinosaurs, right? Sure, the wings are going to be unusual, perhaps even noteworthy, but seem unlikely to get him burned at the stake. It sounds likely that the wings are going to cause some consternation when he uses them, but that'll fade after the first few times.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I've always found that the best way to design a plot is to simply create the major characters (PC's not included, of course) including their motivations and plans, and for the truly important characters enough backstory to justify those goals and motivations, and then just have them act naturally from there, both toward each other and toward the PC's. For when the PC's interact with a minor character, I have a batch of generic character archetypes set up, and I usually just wing-it for their personality ie: they go to a local smith to get the dings buffed out of their weapons/ armor, and they decide to chat him up for a while, or the party face decides he'd like to role-play a meeting with a contact while he gathers info. Usually just Experts, Aristocrats, Adepts, and Mage-Wrights, with the occasionally PC classed character if the situation demands it. It probably doesn't hurt that I've developed an uncanny knack for anticipating my players though

[Jimp]

People of the city don't like half dragony things. Guards/adventurers attack PC. PC may or may not survive. Actions have consequences.
For a nicer approach, have the guys question him and release him with a stern warning and go back to whatever quest they were on/

[nhbdy]

honestly ebberon is supposed to be high magic, so i don't see why wings would be uncommon, i mean wings of flying in sharn must be a popular passtime for the wealthy

[Temotei]

Have a dragon come in to mate with the elf and accidentally deal damage every time... Umm...yeah.

Have a dragon come in to mate with the elf, and fail to see enough dragon in the elf, so the dragon gets angry.

[nhbdy]

Have a dragon come in to mate with the elf and accidentally deal damage every time... Umm...yeah.

Have a dragon come in to mate with the elf, and fail to see enough dragon in the elf, so the dragon gets angry.

... spouse beatings!?!?!?

[shadow_archmagi]

This is the Eberron of entire teams of artificers, magic trains, and dinosaurs, right? Sure, the wings are going to be unusual, perhaps even noteworthy, but seem unlikely to get him burned at the stake. It sounds likely that the wings are going to cause some consternation when he uses them, but that'll fade after the first few times.

This.

In the games that I run, players and NPCs alike tend to react sort of like stoners. They'll say "Like, whoa man! That's some craaaazy glowing you have there." but not really react significantly.

[Jarrick]

See now, your first mistake was letting someone use the dragon magic book at all. Next to Complete psionic, it has got to be the worst sourcebook I've ever seen.

Your second mistake was using dragon magic in eberron. While this isn't inherently a problem, it must be used carefully. Dragons in eberron aren't like dragons elsewhere. They care more about social reform and following the prophesy than plundering villages and the like and are thus much harder to find and befriend than in other settings. So unless the char is from the seren islands or a follower of the prophesy, it probably wouldn't be a dragon mage.

But that's just my opinion. I like a certain continuity among my fellows, not PCs who pop out of nowhere with powers they can't explain ooc and no support for their background story. Granted I'm ignoring the fact that they came from some other campaign setting, but that's another issue entirely.

Wow, did that sound really anal? It must be getting late. Sorry. I don't mean to sound rude, but that member of your group reminds me of some members of my group. They never feel like their chars belong, so they switch chars every other session and hurt the continuity of the whole party. This is primarily because they build stat blocks rather than characters.

[Deth Muncher]

See now, your first mistake was letting someone use the dragon magic book at all. Next to Complete psionic, it has got to be the worst sourcebook I've ever seen.

Your second mistake was using dragon magic in eberron. While this isn't inherently a problem, it must be used carefully. Dragons in eberron aren't like dragons elsewhere. They care more about social reform and following the prophesy than plundering villages and the like and are thus much harder to find and befriend than in other settings. So unless the char is from the seren islands or a follower of the prophesy, it probably wouldn't be a dragon mage.

But that's just my opinion. I like a certain continuity among my fellows, not PCs who pop out of nowhere with powers they can't explain ooc and no support for their background story. Granted I'm ignoring the fact that they came from some other campaign setting, but that's another issue entirely.

Wow, did that sound really anal? It must be getting late. Sorry. I don't mean to sound rude, but that member of your group reminds me of some members of my group. They never feel like their chars belong, so they switch chars every other session and hurt the continuity of the whole party. This is primarily because they build stat blocks rather than characters.

Yeah, see, it's kinda that. They started out in the Prime Material, and they got shifted to Eberron. They'll hit the Forgotten Realms too. In a nutshell (for those who haven't been keeping up with my threads over the past few months), the PCs are basically playing an adventure of Xaiolin Showdown, except that instead of the hilarious Jack Spicer as an enemy, they have an ages old Drow Sorceror who may or may not be a vampire and/or a lich, and need to get as many artifacts as possible before he goes and destroys all of existence forever. So, returning back to what I bolded, yeah, he's not supposed to have dragon powers in Eberron, which is why I had the elves kidnap him. They'd obviously be suspicious of someone having dragon power, since, y'know, dragons are kind of jerkbags.

The PC, however, told the elves that he's A-not from this plane and B-is looking for a drow sorceror. So I dunno, might even have them help him out or something.

[Fishy]

For those of you unfamiliar with the details of the Eberron Setting, Dragons are essentially Cthulu. They spend their time contemplating cosmic mysteries and the Draconic Prophesy, and when they do interact with the real world, it's generally because they are destroying a continent with epic magic.

The first and last time the Dragons ever encountered a Half-Dragon, they decided she was an abomination, annihilated her entire family, and erased the incident from history.

So... don't tell people you're a half-dragon.

[Jarrick]

Ah, touche'. That makes a little more sense.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Hopping between material planes, eh? You're treading near dangerous water, my friend. If you don't listen to anything else anyone says about D&D ever, heed this advice: NEVER, EVER ALLOW TIME-TRAVEL TO BECOME INVOLVED IN YOUR GAME. No, not even then. It's nothing but trouble, especially if one of your players manages to set-up a grandfather paradox.

[Yukitsu]

I did something like that and it seemed to all work out well enough in the end. The grandfather paradox thing that is.

Time traveling enemy: "Ha! I'm went back in time and am your father!"
Me: "Ha-Hah! I went back in time and am both your father and your mother! And I switched the baby with your real kid and myself when I was born!"
Time traveling enemy: "Wait, you're what?"

[Narazil]

Hopping between material planes, eh? You're treading near dangerous water, my friend. If you don't listen to anything else anyone says about D&D ever, heed this advice: NEVER, EVER ALLOW TIME-TRAVEL TO BECOME INVOLVED IN YOUR GAME. No, not even then. It's nothing but trouble, especially if one of your players manages to set-up a grandfather paradox.

Wait, he mentioned time travel? I thought I only saw Spelljamming 'cross the universe.

[deuxhero]

I don't see what the PC did wrong (Unless there is someway in character he would have known that showing the wings off was a bad idea)

[dyslexicfaser]

I did something like that and it seemed to all work out well enough in the end. The grandfather paradox thing that is.

Time traveling enemy: "Ha! I'm went back in time and am your father!"
Me: "Ha-Hah! I went back in time and am both your father and your mother! And I switched the baby with your real kid and myself when I was born!"
Time traveling enemy: "Wait, you're what?"

*Immediately started thinking about how being both father and mother to someone would work in D&D*

EDIT: Anyway, you might get some interesting hooks that way. There're the elves who hate dragons, but then have some followers of the Prophecy break in and bust him out, maybe. Have the PCs cause a massive free-for-all with everyone trying to possess the out-of-towners for a perceived advantage or to kill them all to maintain the status quo.

[GAThraawn]

I did something like that and it seemed to all work out well enough in the end. The grandfather paradox thing that is.

Time traveling enemy: "Ha! I'm went back in time and am your father!"
Me: "Ha-Hah! I went back in time and am both your father and your mother! And I switched the baby with your real kid and myself when I was born!"
Time traveling enemy: "Wait, you're what?"

I see what you did there.

[Godskook]

From what I can tell, polymorph is at least as common in Eberon as skateboarding is in USA(Almost all statted NPCS I can find in ECS are ~7th level or above and most organizations seem to have 4-6th level followers as a minimum). This leads me to think that the NPCs of Eberon should be rather non-chalant about witnessing something that's got more in common with polymorph than it does actual dragons(hint: dragons aren't typically medium sized in dragon form). I'm going with Toliudar on this one.

[ZeroNumerous]

About Eberron:

Dragons in Eberron only show up when they come to destroy something(the giant civilization) or when someone screws up so badly that they need to be beaten down by 50 great wyrms. As such, people in Eberron are terrified of dragons, because most dragons don't give a flip one way or another about the younger races when they show up. Further, the actual dragons themselves have a very hardline "no-halfies ever at all" policy and generally destroy any half-dragons they find, plus the family of half-dragons or anyone who looks vaguely similar to the halfie. Naturally, all humans look alike to dragons so... Yeah.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Wait, he mentioned time travel? I thought I only saw Spelljamming 'cross the universe.

He didn't actually mention time-travel, but since the only way I know of to get from one material plane to another is through the deep shadow section of the shadow-plane, and the rules for that are in the same book as the temporal plane (Manual of the Planes,) I thought it might be a good idea to give him a preemptive warning. Time travel never makes anything better (except comedy, see Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.) Even though my one of my favorite novel trilogies, Dragonlance's Legends Trilogy, had time-travel as a major plot-point, I still immediately get a little twitch in my eye whenever time-travel comes up.

[kamikasei]

*Immediately started thinking about how being both father and mother to someone would work in D&D*

A Changeling could do it. Possibly without even any time travel. Why a Changeling would do it is another question...

OP: I'm not sure telling people "I'm actually not from this multiverse at all" is going to make them less interested in him. Eberron has an unusual planar cosmology and I would expect the likeliest reaction to "unknown entity with strange abilities saying it's from another plane outside our own" would be "AAARGH XORIAT SPAWN BLHHDHGHGH".

Honestly I'd be inclined to roll things back a bit, saying you overreacted, and just have people go "man what a freaky spell that was you cast!".

[Tyndmyr]

Belt of gender change and either a simulacrum or quintessence should take care of the how. Try not to think about the how in too much detail.

The why now...I dunno.