Important Decisions
RPGs are made of out decisions. Do we forge ahead or do we rest? Should I heal myself or the fighter? Will I buy the +2 longbow or the +1 flaming version? All of these decisions can reflect character. The can have important repercussions in the game. However, I think that there are some decisions that matter more than others.
In Cleric’s case, we’ve got a conflict buried deep within his character. Is the history of his people more important than their present ambitions? Do we honor the memory of our ancestors or do we preserve our people’s well-being (in the form of a robust alcohol-based export economy)? Somewhere just off-panel, our resident drama-obsessed Wizard is wringing his hands with excitement.
In my mind, these kinds of big character choices are the ones that only come around once or twice a campaign. Do I study necromancy or shun the dark arts? Should I allow the wrath of nature to wipe out the decadent city? Is it worth losing my paladinhood to avenge my father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate? While every decision, both major and minor, can reveal something about character, there are only a few that allow you to really plant that flag and show the world what your PC is made of.
It can be tough giving up the ambiguity. The tension of the big question (What will I do when the time comes?) is a lot of fun to noodle with. But recognizing your climactic moment is important too. When the filth elemental hits the rotating blade trap, you’ll have to decide: do you start hauling ale or artifacts? There’s no time to sit there and say “umm.”
Question of the day then. What was a “big decision” that your character had to make? Was it the right one? Let’s hear it in the comments!
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With me, I leave said decisions up to a “morality roll.” Do I stay for the fight, or do I run for the money? *Roll* Do I care that the party wants to do such and such, potentially tipping their moral compasses? *Roll* Are the antics of one such oddball character starting to get on my nerves? *Roll for every time they do something*
When leaving things up to the dice, you never know what the result will be.
You do you broseph, but I’m sitting here making frowny face.
Speaking personally, that method is the opposite of what I want from a game. I like that the dice are there to add a chaotic element to play. You might remember my write-up on the subject back here:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/wild-magic
So yeah, I agree that the unexpected is exciting, and I think that random chance has its place. But when it comes to big deal character moments, I believe it’s my job as a player to make that choice. What my character does and doesn’t do is my one real tie to the game world. It’s how I get to shape the story. For me, giving that up is an abdication of responsibility.
Only three days ago I left a big decision to the dice (basically fight or fly, but characterbased: my goblin monk was torn between duty (class, lg) and selfpreservation (ancestry, cn). I really did not know what to do and didn´t want to slow the fight by pondering the possibilities. In hindsight the choice was clear, but I am a bad tactician – just got lucky…
I gather that the dice decided you were a big damn hero?
Nah, got to chose tactical retreat and using the environment for a war of atrition. If the dice made me be the big damn hero, my poor PC would be now a smear on a tile (he´s just level 2). Of course then I could blame it on the dice, not on my poor choices: “I valiantly tried, but fate decided against me!” (smoothly ignoring the fact that mathematically my chances of success were next to nothing.) But again, this is all hindsight. In the spur of the moment I was, well, deer, headlights and just dumb luck. So once letting the die decide worked out for me.
My best “big decision” moment was with the two halflings that became skeletons. I was so torn between remaining mortal but risking death, and taking the curse and likely surviving. I asked the group if we could take a short break to think about it.
End the end, I took the curse and I did survive, but as it turns out, I likely needn’t have. There were several paths to power that became available that I could have taken, many of which would have had a “better” outcome in some way. Still, my twin/familiar didn’t have that option, so this was more personal to the character and was definitely the right way to go.
The campaign ended recently, by the way. My main PC, Fenny, committed a lot of terrible deeds on the island in the name of survival (lies, using Jinx as a test subject, murder, more murder, what could arguably be called genocide…) and was determined to atone for that in her future actions and deeds. She, Jinx, and her unborn son (she managed to get pregnant as a skeleton using Alter Self, yes the child is a skeleton too) went back to their homelands and lived on the very periphery of society, wearing masks and cloaks to hide their skeletal forms and protecting the ghostwise clans of travelers and nomads in secret. Only occasionally would their presence be noticed, leaving only scattered and uncorroborated reports of mysterious and possibly skeletal protectors in the forest that would eventually grow into halfling folklore.
Skeleton Gets Boned. News at 11:00.
That’s the key right. You don’t make these decisions to gain mechanical advantages or the “least bad” outcome. You do it because it makes sense for the character. I think that these moments represent the best application of the phrase “it’s what my character would do.” For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOUksDJCijw&t=86m15s
Ah, I want to watch this whole movie. I watched the first one with a friend and had a blast, but the sequel wasn’t out at that point and I kinda forgot about it.
Here’s a picture I drew of pregnant Fenny. 🙂
https://i.imgur.com/ScbBtVq.png
Oh dude… Yeah watch that! The production company explicitly allows their stuff on YouTube, so it’s crazy easy to find. That one (The Gamers: Dorkness Rising) is easily my favorite, but the third is worthwhile as well. I mean come on. It’s fall. It’s Friday. Grab yourself a hot cup of whatever and a laptop and treat yo self, girl!
Also, Fenny is adorable.
Let’s see…in one game my character rejected the temptations of dark sorcery, until his sworn brother was possessed by a demon of the sand wastes, so I summoned a nameless god of death and madness and made a deal to rid him of the evil spirit.
Raistlin is best wizard. Plus sand demon powers are pretty dang sweet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ersxqFwDkWA
Solid move all the way around. 🙂
Oh boy, I get to tell a story about the buddy cop adventure that I haven’t yet!
OHHHHHHHH
Who walks lands corrupted within and without?
Rhodon, Savrah!
The undine is graceful, the wizard’s a lout!
Rhodon, Savrah!
If blight, death, and fighting are something you seek,
Rhodon, Savrah!
You’re guaranteed plenty, at least once a week!
Rhodon, Savrah! (Let me hear you!)
Rhodon’s big choice came after the week long ghost trip he made through the Withering to town. He picked up a Chaotic Evil spiritual entity who kept urging him to accept his manifold gifts. Rhodon refused, clear on the fact that the first whiff of this that the Inquisition got, he and his family would be purged in totality. He ignored the spirit for quite some time, until he and Savrah got stuck in a dungeon with enemies behind and a foe actively kicking their asses.
At negative hit points, Ghileade (the spirit) had another chat with Rhodon and offered him another deal, a little less invasive and with more benefits. Given that he was already up the creek, Rhodon grudgingly accepted, for the reason that Savrah didn’t deserve to die in a pit like this even if he probably did, and without his magic, she’d get croaked within minutes.
So for a while, I got the Ridden template put on me. A few sessions pass, and the Inquisition -does- have reason to interrogate me (for something different, actually). Decision time is here, because at this point, Rhodon can see clearly that his personal power can grow immensely and suppress all others if he sticks with Ghileade, but his family is absolutely going to suffer big time if he goes on the lam. Savrah would probably follow anyway, given that mutated Undines aren’t particularly welcome if known. (Regular Undines are tolerated well enough) Choosing to be Lawful over Evil, Rhodon decides to come out with the fact that he’s currently Ridden. His lawyer immediately recommends a trip to the temple of the god he worships (Linium the Creator, appropriate for a conjurer) and he gets the Holy Sterilization treatment.
Later, as his soul is seared and purged of influence (with Rhodon alternating between intense pain and simple unconsciousness), Ghileade expresses his disappointment at Rhodon’s choice, but doesn’t seem to harbor particular ill will, just regretfully saying that ‘it comes along with the attempt…someone further ahead is usually going to step on you.’ Rhodon doesn’t have any idea for a while, as Ghil is talking significantly more cryptically than all that…but then he poses the rhetorical question, “Where do you think -your- God came from?”
Rhodon realizes that if he’d kept Ghileade along, he might have been on the path to deification himself, but he tossed it away for the ‘safe option.’ He immediately berates himself for being such a coward, then decides that the cowardice was necessary, given the innocence of his family (his wife and sons, who run the gamut of Good alignments). He tells himself that he’d have been playing second fiddle to Ghileade anyway, and as the godseed of the spirit smokes away into the aether, he decides that he’s going to give ascension a shot of his own, on his own, without anything steering him besides his own judgment. Heresy, if he spoke of it, but at this point Linium has tangibly become ‘an extremely powerful creature, far moreso than I’ rather than ‘an essential aspect of existence.’
It’s a pity that that adventure is currently on hold…I still possess my ambition, though. Plus I know the DM is skilled enough to handle an integral plot change like that. Having 2 people in the party does make it easier.
‘Rhodon, Lawful Evil God of Artifice’ has a certain allure, to envision it as an entry in a Player’s Handbook.
Hell yeah! That internal conflict is exactly what I want out of my BIG DECISIONS. The second guessing… The rationalization… It’s some of the best immersion when you and your character are both wrestling with the same question. Their struggle becomes yours, and that is a doorway straight into The Land of Adventure.
Hmmmm, I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to do too many of these sorts of major choices.
The one example I can think of is my Beguiler Miang (I’ve mentioned her before a few times I believe). The kingdom she was in didn’t support same sex marriages, especially not of nobility (which her partner was). It also didn’t really allow foreigners (which she was) to hold ownership of land on the level of a barony (which she technically did due to having gotten hold of the deed for the land). And it most certainly didn’t allow for the worship of Vecna (which she did because of an incident with a deck of many things and a sudden knowledge of the Wall of Souls).
Of course she could have chosen to not get married to her (capital L) Lady love, hide their relationship in some way, or run off together to her country where such things are perfectly fine (since it was a Magiocracy where the rule is if you CAN do something, then it’s allowed).
And she could have officially cut ties with her home nation or given up the deed to the land to her Lady.
And she could have decided to worship a more socially acceptable god than friggin Vecna.
But instead of choosing any of the A or B type options, she turned the land into an inter-planar trade hub, set up a temple for ALL the gods, and held the wedding on the lake (literally ON it) and inviting the King and the leader of her home nation to attend and making a proper international event and thus defying anyone to dare object and risk making a catastrophic incident that would probably end in at *least* one war (that any objecting parties would likely lose). Of course it didn’t hurt that she was a high level adventurer who was herself on the beginnings of the path to becoming a minor deity herself. (She had Divine Rank 0 due to weird stuff that happened and the power of this feature alone is why the character had to be retired since it was breaking the game.)
Basically the character deciding instead of choosing which mutually exclusive type things she wanted, that she would take both *and* eat the cake too.
I’m on the fence about Gordian knot cutting. I like the idea of outwitting the BIG QUESTION, but you also miss out on the opportunity to make a statement by sacrificing one thing in favor of the other.
Still, it sounds like your PC handled a delicate political situation deftly, and I think that’s its own reward. Besides, if you’re trying to retire a character, there’s no reason to continue with the drama. You just want to wrap up loose ends and move on, which is what it sounds like you did.