Unfashionable
If you enjoyed the Handbook’s last team up with Hypertellurians, then you’re in luck! The same folks that brought us that madcap science fantasy romp are back at it. And let me tell you: having scoured the pages of my advance copy of Capes & Cloaks & Cowls and a Park, this is hands-down the most gonzo, pants-on-head crazy adventure I’ve ever beheld. While the basic pitch of ‘floating theme park contained inside an unraveling magic cloak’ was bonkers enough to catch my interest, it was the unconventional fashion theme that captured my imagination. Just see for yourself at the project’s Kickstarter.
While Wizard and Barbarian contend with the clockwork courtier Mustafo (proprietor of a replica wizard’s tower at the park’s Welcominarium), what do you say the rest of us talk shop about all things unfair and unjust? And in particular, why those can be desirable qualities in an NPC.
We’ll begin by bastardizing Sir. Isaac Newton. I propose the following law: “For every PC action, there should be an equal and opposite reaction from the game world.” This is the basic formula for giving your players a sense of agency. When they take an action, the world acts back at them.
What does this have to do with today’s robotic fashion designer and his preference for size-zero models? Simply this. The imposing Barbarian and the physically frail Wizard have a different presence in the game world. Their stat differences clearly reflect that reality. But those differences ought to be reflected in the game’s social reality as well. The old fantasy standbys of race or class work with this principle, but those tropes can feel stale. For my money it’s more interesting if your get a ± 2 to Diplomancy checks for being fashionable; for showing kindness to the woodland creatures; actually speaking the local language; being a noble; knowing thieves cant; employing flattery; cheering for the right sports team; or simply kicking gratuitous amounts of ass in the last combat encounter. All of these examples reflect NPCs who have biases, opinions, and preferences beyond “did you hit my base Persuasion DC.”
In today’s example, Barbarian may feel unjustly singled out for her failure to conform to the unrealistic standards that the elven beauty industry places on humans. But I bet she’s going to feel a lot better when she climbs out of that pit and gives Mustafo the old rapid disassembly. In other words, the world reacted to her character specifically rather than treating her like “generic adventurer #2.” And if it’s me in that situation, I’m happy for the RP hook.
What about the rest of you GMs? Do you make sure to create NPCs with idiosyncratic tastes? What interesting biases could you give to salty sailors, refined nobility, or magical talking animals? And perhaps just as important, when is it better to treat PCs as fully equivalent? Sound off with tales of your own quirky characters and snobby constructs down in the comments!
This system-agnostic, self-contained adventure is from the same folks that brought you Hypertellurians. It comes as a lush hardcover A5 book with over 100 pages, featuring (in no particular order), themed islands floating in a golden sky, killer kittens, Giant Flying Galapagos Turtles, haute couture magic items, and enough creepy singing animatronic animals to fit in a small, small world. Check out the Kickstarter today!
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Hmm, they should have hired the Inqusitor to take Barbarians place. I don’t peoples fascination to elves. they are almost universally these snobby, better than you, posh twats that deserve to be taken down a peg. But to each on their own I quess, as long as I can play big human man with thing for shrap blades or heavy blunt objects… or just any proper weapon, I’m good to go.
If nothing else, Inquisitor can probably climb in heels better.
Well heels are a improvised dagger, pickaxe and high ground. Can’t see why not.
Anakin should have worn heels on Mustafar.
There’s a reason the shoes are called stilettos.
I had a very situtation recently in Blades in the Dark, where the Crew were attempting to opening negotiations with the head of a local cafe-salon that also served as an informant to a rival gang. The plan was to offer a superior service to try and convince them to change sides.
The proprietress made things very clear early on that she was only interested in talking to the noble-born members of the crew, distinctly ignoring the Leech and Spider and referring to them constantly as ‘the help’. This incensed the party’s noble Slide who became terse and defended the roles of her comrades, but in turn losing the biased favour with their mark.
And so things whittled down to the noble Lurk who fortunately kept his cool and leant into the target’s bias with flattery, wit and making the compelling argument that their Crew still had more noble agents than the proprietress’ current employer. It would be a sure-fire step up in the world to work as Junior-Partners to aristoracts instead.
Very nice! Speaking as an American, I know I bridle whenever I encounter snooty nobles in fiction. The knee-jerk reaction of sticking it to the aristocrats (and their toadies) is understandable. But I admire the player that can get what they want even through a face full of arrogant NPC.
Hmm, no alt-text Colin? Now that IS unfashionable!
So gauche! So minimalist! I am AGHAST, I say!
My shame… It immense.
As a GM bonuses for speaking the local language or otherwise making an effort to show respect for the NPC’s culture is pretty common.
Similarly a significant percentage of my high status NPC’s are pretty easy to convince/manipulate into what the PC’s want, if they are willing to play along with the idea that their higher status means they are better than you.
I think that’s perhaps only adjacent to what you are talking about, rather than the thing itself, more about interacting with the world on the worlds terms rather than a character beat as such. (through being willing, or not, to do that does obviously say something about your character).
I also like to have characters whose religion is important to them, clear co-religionists can get favored treatment, or people demonstrating virtues according to their belief system. For instance in my Kingmaker game the local priests of Gorum was willing to go along with a lot of stuff from the PC druid high priest after she Shillelagh’ed her club and beat the snot out of him in a duel. He wouldn’t have been willing to do the same for the PC Sorcerer through, because from his point of view mind-control/save-or-suck, summoning or blasting spells would have been cheating in a way that self-buffs wasn’t.
Meeting your enemy face to face (or even better weapon to face), strength to strength was in his eyes worthy of respect, while taking away their strength wasn’t.
Once upon a time, I had a full-blood orc PC who cooked a bunch of dead human bodies and fed ’em to a local nunnery. He specifically said he wasn’t being subtle about it. No wanting to quash my quest hook (since the nuns’ abbess was a primary quest giver), I decided that the nuns failed to notice the “funny meat.”
The orc in question was disappointed. He’d played his character to the hilt, but the world failed to notice or react.
So when your Gorum respects strength or your aristocrats need to be flattered, it winds up reflecting PC choices rather than ignoring them. That’s not tangential. That’s *exactly* what I’m talking about. Great examples!
A society of Ratfolk where ones worth and position in society is measured entirely in how amazing your hat is. The hatless are treated as though nude in public.
Ratfolk village… Who ever heard of such a thing?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/unrewarding
Only thing missing from this comic is Thief’s reaction to Wizards outfit. Alternatively, her own outfit for this challenge (you’d think she’s better suited for Dexterity/Cha checks).
Also, is that a reprise of Barb’s fancy outfit?
This fancy outfit?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/intriguing
I don’t think so.
In my campaigns, NPC halfling communities are frequently bucolic, friendly, egalitarian utopias to contrast with my own PC, a halfling Rogue who automatically sees all elves as elitist, all gnomes as insane, half-orcs as monsters, and assumes that all “twicelings” discriminate on the basis of height. In his view, only halflings (including him) are non-biased. (He’s level 15 and has no ranks in Diplomacy but believes he’s naturally charming.)
In another campaign, there were three elves in the party: two were tall with blond hair and blue eyes and looked as though they just left Lothlorien, the third was textbook-D&D PH description– short, dark hair, dark eyes. Whenever players or NPCs referred to “the elves,” they were inevitably referring only to the blond cousins– to the constant irritation of the player of the “urban elf.” “What am *I*, yesterday’s lembas!!!”
PCs like to feel special. Highlighting outsider status is a solid move. Good show!
As with all gaming laws, this is one that depends on the gaming group. If half your group wants to turn their brains off and mess around, imposing consequences for how they mess around probably won’t be appreciated.
Incidentally, most of my gaming peers tend towards the “turn off their brains” end of the spectrum. So no gaming stories from me today.
You’re suggesting that PCs who like to mess around prefer it when NPCs ignore their antics? See further up the thread for my cannibal orc comment.
I think you’re hearing “punish the PCs,” but what I’m suggesting is “acknowledge the PCs’ unique qualities and actions.”
I’ve talked a lot about War For The Crown here, but it has, by far, the best paizo has ever done about this kind of thing- their Social Combat system.
In social combat, every npc has a Strength, a Weakness, and Applicable Skills.
The NPC’S Strength is something that increases the DC of whatever you’re trying to do. They either don’t like to, or don’t want to, talk about it- Like asking a cleric of the god of law about tax evasion techniques.
The NPC’s Weakness is something they LIKE to talk about, decreasing the DC- like asking a painter about their art, or that same law cleric about the realm’s more obscure laws and codes.
Finally, applicable skills are skills that npc has an interest in, which can be used to influence them instead of Diplomacy- and with a different dc based on how interested in that skill they are. So, for an example, a noble with an interest in constructs can be influenced with Knowledge; Engineering, Knowledge: Nobility, Diplomacy, while a wizard who focuses on illusions might be able to be influenced with Knowledge: Arcana or even Perception. It’s a fantastic improvement over the standard social system used in most rpg games and I’ve honestly considered porting it to everything I run.
Have you got a link to the rules? Are you talking about the stuff on this page?
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/social-conflicts/
I tend to resist formal “social combat” systems, as they seem to transform rules-light improvised conversation into slow-paced dice fests. I’m mostly thinking of Exalted 2e and its social combat system here, which has always been generally ignored at my tables.
Paizo tends not to actually put campaign-specific gimmicks like WFTC’s particular social intrigue in other books, so I don’t *think* there’s a formal webpage for it (as wftc itself is under copyright) but if I can find it I’ll definitely reply to this comment with a link.
There is the potential for a slow-paced dice fest to come out of it, but when you reward good rp by lowering dcs further, players, at least, in my experience, will make the effort to actually rp still.
> When you reward good rp by lowering dcs further, players, at least, in my experience, will make the effort to actually rp still
Now this I can get behind. I prefer the blunt instrument of ± 2 to 5 or Advantage/Disadvantage rather than a complex system, but the basic principle of “your approach matters” is there.
I very much enjoy trying to figure out what NPCs want and react to. It’s very rare for me to create a character that doesn’t have at least a +1 to charisma.
But one of them is my winged tiefling, Sweetbriar. She wound up the only non-human in the party, and the DM is having fun with it. (We did talk it over first and I agreed to this.) Taverns ‘forget’ to bring her food out, shopkeepers get on her case for touching merchandise, etc. It’s starting to become a subtle competition within the party to see who can leap to her defense fastest. But in the poorer areas of the city, and with people used to adventurers, she doesn’t get racial prejudice, but ageism. The adventurers’ guild, especially, tends to overlook her and the knight in favor of the older three in the party.
In another group, we were tomb-raiding an ancient dwarven city – but with the permission of its descendants, to recover an artifact lost to time. The entombed king was, understandably, furious about us looting his remains, and not at all impressed by the lack of true dwarves among us. My aasimar bard has a courtly background, with some training in diplomacy. They knelt in front of the king, and in Dwarven addressed the king by full title, introduced themself by full title, and explained their party’s presence. (And mentally prepared to cast Shield, because that was a biiiiiiig axe!) Turns out that when you address a king like a king, in his own language, you get advantage on rolls to convince him to talk to you. Quinn went from ‘dishonorable non-dwarven tomb raider’ to ‘respectable foreign diplomat’ on the strength of that roll, and we did not have to fight a very angry, very powerful ghost.
> Quinn went from ‘dishonorable non-dwarven tomb raider’ to ‘respectable foreign diplomat’ on the strength of that roll
This is the way.
My old “Gather Information” comic remains one of the more controversial on this site:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/gather-information
But when I talk about ‘social tactics,’ getting advantage on that roll is exactly what I mean.
Here:https://www.chapelcomic.com/80/
Have your NPCs with idiosyncratic tastes 😛
Wat.
No need to thank me 😀
At least with this combination, I’m not luring foreigners to court for a date with a pair of scissors.
Byzantine 😀
Some years ago and with a previous gaming group, we were in a city with some strong prejudices regarding elves… and our party had a couple of them. My half-elf didn’t get too much of a hard time, but the full-elven bard ended up being the focus of unwanted attention on more than a few occasions.
Though that of course turned out to be quite useful… bards are always a good distraction anyway, and when there’s a riot in the street, nobody is watching the rogue on the rooftop.
> a city with some strong prejudices regarding elves…
Hey, if it’s good enough for Dragon Age….