Post/Author/DateTime	Post
AtogEd 05-20-07, 04:12 AM	Ok here's the deal, I was in a campaign and my original character died (Paladin, disentegrate, OW) so I rolled a new one. I decided to make a nice little mix of Warlock, Ur-Priest, Eldritch Disciple (Oked it with DM first). Well the problem is that the DM introduced my guy as a fugitive hiding from Devils that he renegged (sp?) on a deal with and the Devil coerces the party to track him down. Unfortunately when they do, they decided they couldn't trust my guy and threatened to kill him (right after rescuing him from WTF?). So things got a bit heated and the session ended with everyone all ****** off. Well I thought that since my team mate was being a jerk about just letting my guy join the party (It was "good role-playing" for him), I would figure it out. So I decided to buy a contract of nepthas and have the party all agree to get along and such under the penalty of severe suckyness. Well it worked, sort of, the party demanded that I could not break the law, ever, do "evil" (This is Eberron lots of gray areas) things, or "mess with" future or current business partners (We own a city and manage a lot of the day to day things). Well I didn't think too much on it and agreed. Then the DM decided the contract penalty wasn't bad enough, forget the fact that in eberron a cleric that is high enough level to remove curse is pretty much considered a living legend and decided that if you break the contract you die. I was pretty apprehensive about this at first, seeing as I spent a nice chunk of my starting gold on this item just to find an excuse my guy could party together, I didn't think the contract would be a main-stay and have everyone take it so seriously. Now I feel it is constricting my character. I built my guy to be the face of the party, lots of charisma, social skills, a few charm abilities. Unfortunately whenever I want to talk my way out of a situation, be it diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, whatever, I keep getting the contract thrown into my face. Granted there are some allignment differences, Im neutral evil, we got a LG Ninja and CG Fighter, but unfortunately I don't feel I deserve all the brunt of the contract when the other players have broken it in the past without any penalties, just making up excuses as to why it didn't break the contract. Basically, I want to weasel out of this contract, I think it's rediculous that my character seems to be the only one that gets threatened with it no matter what I do. Also I think it is really lame they decided death was the only good penalty for the contract. So what do I do? Start calling the others when they break it and demand the DM go through with his own decisions? Or do I point out how restricting it is and hope the others finally see it as the little plot device it was and move on? Granted my guy IS evil, he has probably done a lot less evil (or stupid) things than the other characters. Hell, the LG Ninja wanted to give this doomsday device that had the power to take out an ENTIRE COUNTRY to this organization simply because they told her to. THat does not seem LG to me, seems Lawful Stupid...
draco1119 05-20-07, 06:56 AM	Ok here's the deal, I was in a campaign and my original character died (Paladin, disentegrate, OW) so I rolled a new one. I decided to make a nice little mix of Warlock, Ur-Priest, Eldritch Disciple (Oked it with DM first). Well the problem is that the DM introduced my guy as a fugitive hiding from Devils that he renegged (sp?) on a deal with and the Devil coerces the party to track him down. Unfortunately when they do, they decided they couldn't trust my guy and threatened to kill him (right after rescuing him from WTF?). So things got a bit heated and the session ended with everyone all ****** off. Well I thought that since my team mate was being a jerk about just letting my guy join the party (It was "good role-playing" for him), I would figure it out. So I decided to buy a contract of nepthas and have the party all agree to get along and such under the penalty of severe suckyness. Well it worked, sort of, the party demanded that I could not break the law, ever, do "evil" (This is Eberron lots of gray areas) things, or "mess with" future or current business partners (We own a city and manage a lot of the day to day things). Well I didn't think too much on it and agreed. Then the DM decided the contract penalty wasn't bad enough, forget the fact that in eberron a cleric that is high enough level to remove curse is pretty much considered a living legend and decided that if you break the contract you die. I was pretty apprehensive about this at first, seeing as I spent a nice chunk of my starting gold on this item just to find an excuse my guy could party together, I didn't think the contract would be a main-stay and have everyone take it so seriously. Now I feel it is constricting my character. I built my guy to be the face of the party, lots of charisma, social skills, a few charm abilities. Unfortunately whenever I want to talk my way out of a situation, be it diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, whatever, I keep getting the contract thrown into my face. Granted there are some allignment differences, Im neutral evil, we got a LG Ninja and CG Fighter, but unfortunately I don't feel I deserve all the brunt of the contract when the other players have broken it in the past without any penalties, just making up excuses as to why it didn't break the contract. Basically, I want to weasel out of this contract, I think it's rediculous that my character seems to be the only one that gets threatened with it no matter what I do. Also I think it is really lame they decided death was the only good penalty for the contract. So what do I do? Start calling the others when they break it and demand the DM go through with his own decisions? Or do I point out how restricting it is and hope the others finally see it as the little plot device it was and move on? Granted my guy IS evil, he has probably done a lot less evil (or stupid) things than the other characters. Hell, the LG Ninja wanted to give this doomsday device that had the power to take out an ENTIRE COUNTRY to this organization simply because they told her to. THat does not seem LG to me, seems Lawful Stupid... Your DM's right. Death isn't enough of a penalty. I think it needs to be an Empowered Maximized Delayed Blast Fireball that goes off, centered on you, when everyone else is asleep. Then you can make characters that get along. You REALLY shouldn't make an evil characetr in a good group. Your Ninja must have an Int of 2, and the rest of the PCs must be anthropomorphic sheep. :P Serious;y, if you're not having fun, have your character sneak off in the middle of the night, and bring one in that fits in with the rest of the party. If you're STILL not having fun, maybe you should leave the group. *shrugs*
pmurray@bigpond.com 05-21-07, 01:52 AM	Im neutral evil, we got a LG Ninja and CG Fighter, You idiot. Kill off the warlock, and replace him with a TN clone. You can make this work, especially in Eberron where - as you rightly point out - there are moral gray areas. But not, by the sound of it, in the group you are playing with.
AffableDoomwalker 05-21-07, 05:50 AM	Wow, great answers guys, I mean really, you both did so much to help the man out. [/sarcasm concerning "help me please"-"no u die" stupidity] I say you make an ultra-call-out type move. You cannot tolerate that kind of behavior in that establishment. If your character knows that the others have violated the contract, and he has at least a 10 intelligence, then he obviously knows that the contract is either: Not functioning properly. Which means it is null and void since he signed under specific conditions. Not functioning at all. Which means it is null and void since he signed under specific conditions, but then again, the damn thing is broken so it doesn't matter. Not functioning in the way he agreed that it should function when he signed/notarized/whatevered it, which means he is barred from any repercussions breaking contract may have. Go over it in-character. Explain how certain people should be dead, maybe twice now. Then explain that if supposedly "good" people somehow altered or jerry-rigged a contract to cheat him, that must mean they aren't "good." Then go on to point out the fact that you're gonna do what you want and they can best deal with it by crying you a river, building a bridge, and getting over it. Remember, in-character. Then, once the players and DM start to get the idea, bring it to their attention out-of-character. Then explain how your character is getting the short end of the stick. Then explain that you just offered them three viable possibilities in-game that would explain why the contract was/is not functioning properly, or at all. Give them their pick, of a, b, or c. Then game on fellow gamer, game on. Edit: if they refuse to accept the reality of their own "lol wut" universe: don't game with them, they're morons.
Neutronium_Dragon 05-21-07, 06:39 AM	>> Im neutral evil, we got a LG Ninja and CG Fighter, > You idiot. Talking to yourself? ;) Having a mix of evil and good characters isn't really a problem in Eberron, as long as you don't run into specific code of conduct issues such as with the paladin. The setting is deliberately gray and upholds the idea of antiheroes as a viable part of even a generally good-aligned team, so as long as it's a type of evil character who isn't arbitrarily disruptive, they should be fine.
AtogEd 05-21-07, 07:52 AM	THANK YOU. Also the reason I needed an evil allignment was for the levels in Ur-Priest. GOtta be evil for the prereq, and I thought a character who wasn't so much cruel, but just incredibly self-motivated to self-preservation wouldn't be TOO bad. Oddly enough the LG Ninja has done more evil things than my guy has.
green_yawgmoth 05-21-07, 10:14 AM	Smack your fellow players around a bit. Not the characters, the players. Tell them that if they don't stop being idiots and start learning that unnecessary conflict and backbiting does NOT equal good roleplaying, each of them is going to have a personal meeting with mr. sack of oranges. Also, give your DM a good shot of hammergun for [a] enforcing alignment requirements on ur-priest in Eberron (where not even clerics have to follow alignment requirements!) and [b] making the penalty for anything "death", especially in Eberron. After all, there's like what, 4 people in Khorvaire that could cast slay living? All around dumb-assery. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/yawgmoth/kittyjig.gif
AffableDoomwalker 05-22-07, 05:51 AM	THANK YOU. We do what we can. Updates on the situation por favor?
AtogEd 05-22-07, 08:20 PM	Well I talked it out to the group giving in game and OOG reasons, the CG Fighter said he'd think about it, and the Ninja actually agreed with me, our 4th player just joined as is new to the game so I don't think he cares either way.