Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Karon_the_Orange 01-23-08, 01:52 PM	I'm sure this has been mentioned or thought of before. Has anyone ran a mystery adventure in which Warforged are being murdered for body parts for grafts on the black market? If you ran something like this can you give any advice? Any details on how it worked out or how you were able to get across how horrific this truly is? Most players I have come across kinda see Warforged as robots and not as "real" people.
Cloud Divider 01-23-08, 04:54 PM	I'm sure this has been mentioned or thought of before. Has anyone ran a mystery adventure in which Warforged are being murdered for body parts for grafts on the black market? I've been entertaining the notion of a similar mini-arc for some time. I've not yet fleshed it out into a complete story, just yet. If you ran something like this can you give any advice? Any details on how it worked out or how you were able to get across how horrific this truly is? Most players I have come across kinda see Warforged as robots and not as "real" people. I'd probably go with a two-pronged approach. If the PC's don't have a Warforged among their number, providing a sympathetic Warforged NPC would help, basically giving that portion of the narrative a distinct "voice". He doesn't necessarily need to be eloquent, but he would be the one to ask the "obvious" questions like "Do flesh beings steal body parts from other flesh beings?", if none of the PC's bothered. Then, for the opposition, dial up their contrast a bit (perhaps not quite so much that they become characatures) - they're clearly racist, and either treat Warforged as mere objects/property, if they bother to acknowledge them at all. The more "genteel" among them may basically act something like old Southern slave-owners (with all the well-reasoned speeches to explain their position); the "working class" ones would be much more straightforward, using epithets and the like (ie "Tin Men," or whatever). And in both cases, doing everything they can to dehumanize the Warforged. Then, as the PC's are infiltrating one of the organ-legging sites, they get to stumble across a room full of Warforged victims - still clearly alive, congealed puddles of whatever ichor Warforged bleed, and severed limbs (maybe some have stumps from their elbows/knees down, others are missing everything from the hip/shoulder down, etc). Dial up the personal horror aspects - what's been done has been completely without regard for their suffering. One question you'll probably need to decide on, is whether a simple Repair roll would be able to heal a severed limb on a Warforged. It falls into the grey area of un-specified differences between Living Constructs and regular organisms. Obviously, it fits the story if they end up needing the same kinds of serious magic (Greater Restoration? I forget...) a normal creature would need to heal a severed limb. Naturally, you'd also want to throw in a love-to-hate NPC villain - maybe he's a veeery arrogant nobleman's son, who's the recipient of one of these grafts. Regardless, you want this guy to really be someone the PC's will enjoy taking out. Oh, and you might want to have this guy be the one that takes out the Warforged NPC. Ultimately, the drama here comes from trying to find an answer to the Big Philosophical Question you're asking - whether or not Warforged are "alive" in the same sense that a human or elf is. It's a debate that's ongoing in the setting.
naturax 01-23-08, 05:42 PM	Make sure you set this in Sharn and use Councilor Nolan Toranak as the bad guy.