Hitting the Right Tone

So I wanted to bring up something that was bothering me during our game last Saturday. I was kind of confused in the beginning at the aggressive tone that our party adopted at the beginning of our mission. In previous conversations that I have had with Dean, he made it clear to me that Erathian is a pretty idyllic place, where things are relatively peaceful and prosperous and filled with folk who are more or less happy living under a benevolent dictatorship. I kind of had to modify my character concept to fit in with this because I had been assuming more of an "Evil Empire" scenario, which Dean explained was not really the case in this civilization.

But you church folk might have a different idea in mind as you play. Baern seems to have adopted an inquisitorial mindset, and as far as I can tell is planning on executing this missing Voice guy as soon as we find him. There's a lot of authoritarian ordering about, and Brak seems quite content to righteously slaughter everything in sight.

I don't necessarily have a problem with any of this, but it is pretty much at the opposite extreme of what I had pictured going into this. Which is why I was so shocked when Brak killed the captured gobbie. There's not really any good reason for me to be outraged--I mean, it's a goblin. Legolas and Gimli summarily executed goblins in LotR, and that's about as pristine black and white good as fantasy gets. It's just that I wasn't expecting it.

I think this is probably just because we are all working to imagine a world that we know very little about, and it is natural that we will make certain assumptions that others may not share. So I wanted to start a conversation about some of this before we go any further. In particular, I'm interested in Troy's view of the church's role and of Baern's attitude towards it; of Brak's views on the acceptable use of violence and how we are planning on using our power as "heroes"; and to what extent what has happened thus far fits in with Dean's ideas/intentions behind the world of Erathian.

Ok then, I guess we'll figure it out as we go along.

Guess they didn't want to talk about it, lol.

I will say for my part I was surprised at how it played out as well. But THAT is the essence of D&D to me, a bunch of people playing the characters as they see them and trying to make a party etc. Though I think it will get kind of tedious if we have the same kind of dysfunctional party we had the first session....but I chalk it up to breaking in new clothes or something just have to find the fit.

Sorry, I've been working 10-12 hrs per day this last week, plus I have Midterms so I've been too busy to check forums and I'm exhausted. Anyway, it's entirely possible that I got it all wrong and that I should rethink the whole tone, but I'm pretty sure I just responded to the tone of the letter I was given. Though I suppose if one priest is a grumpy ass bitch that doesn't exactly mean we all have to be, eh? The truth is I didn't put much thought into it, I was just being more reactionary...if that is even a word. Without asking for it, I was sort of put "in the lead" in a new setting, in a new and still-developing world and so odds are high that I would get it wrong.

Setting all of that aside though, despite whatever characters we play or what setting we play in, we are all the same people, just pulling different strings. So, it shouldn't be surprising if this group's tone is similar to the last group's tone, in some way.

Dean,

I'm sure your busy not working and playing WoW, but if you have a chance, can we hear more about the world we are playing in? I'd like to really try to work out this "right tone" thing. Maybe, if I get inspired and feel confident enough in the tone, I might even try to write up something about dwarves and how they fit into this place... hopefully that would help me work out Baern's tone.

Quote :

I'm sure your busy not working and playing WoW, but if you have a chance, can we hear more about the world we are playing in?

Sorry if that sounded assholish. I didn't mean for it to.

I am really not sure what else I could post at this point to help. I thought about this question last night and couldn't answer it. I would say email me a list of question maybe that you have on the world and I will answer them.

Keep in mind like any good book or story or movie every facet isn't dishing out in the opening scene or paragraph. My goal is to have the characters finding their place in the world not a book telling us what the players should think and act like. Like any society there will be issues and what some would call problems but I don't want to affect the players thinking about the world by giving information out I would rather it came out of play sessions and players own thoughts.

Maybe that doesn't make sense but I don't think it should be like Forgotten Realms that just lays out every detail possible for the sake of making a book big enough to sell for $30. Like there should not be a list of ok here is good here is bad. I think everything is more gray.

Like I said send me something like questions your character would ask or things you think they would know (but you dont yet).

Okay, in that case, I think I'll just go ahead and write something about the dwarves getting to this new world, and about their existance since. Then, I'll run it by you to see what you would like to change/edit, then I'll post it after the editing is worked out.

Yeah that would be cool, I would say maybe like their place in the world or like maybe a detailed family history instead of trying to figure out the whole races' mindset?

I think parts of it will come naturally and this is just the first session of the first adventure so people aren't sure of their guy and have to grow into it.

The Sarge wrote:

Keep in mind like any good book or story or movie every facet isn't dishing out in the opening scene or paragraph. My goal is to have the characters finding their place in the world not a book telling us what the players should think and act like. Like any society there will be issues and what some would call problems but I don't want to affect the players thinking about the world by giving information out I would rather it came out of play sessions and players own thoughts.

I get your point. But it is hard to fit in anywhere without knowing how it all works. For example, would you say it's common or rare for members of the church to conduct internal purges? If common, then Baern is totally mainstream. If rare, then we should at least know that before deciding if we want to scale it back, or cast ourselves as radical inquisitors in an otherwise chill religion. It's easier for us to situate ourselves and make character choices about our individual characteristics if we know what is "normal" in the culture/setting.

The other reason that I bring this up is more of a general request to the rest of y'all. I had fun with doomcock, but I'd kind of like to be more heroic this time around. Is that something that everyone is interested in?

Heroic in what way? Superhero heroic like superman? Out for our own glory like Beowulf? Overall good, but struggling with a dark side like Batman? Or, quiet kids that grow up to do great things like Bilbo or Frodo?

Baern wrote:

Heroic in what way? Superhero heroic like superman? Out for our own glory like Beowulf? Overall good, but struggling with a dark side like Batman? Or, quiet kids that grow up to do great things like Bilbo or Frodo?

Not like Beowulf; that's more like the whole doomcock thing. Not brooding dark like Batman. Not like Frodo, since as cool as he is he's pretty weak. More like the rest of the fellowship. Or Roland from the Dark Tower. Or the heroes from Dragonlance, if you remember them. Like Drizzt and company.

Or, yeah, the superhero thing works too. But not Superman. He's stupid. Let's say Captain America. Or Iron Man. Or, with the team flavor, the Avengers or X-Men. You know, people who fight the good fight because it's the right thing to do.

To answer the question about the Church, it is common for a purge and the like. Uh think of it like the "Red Scare" in America but not AS severe and public. The threat of magic corruption is always on the church's mind and frankly is one of its main reasons for existing. The church has it's reason for doing things and most people see it as something that is needed, to the commoner the thinking would be "If they church didn't do WHATEVER it is they do we would be in chaos" basically most commoners don't poke their head in church business but know that the church needs to do what they need to do.

As for being noble I think again you have to question what being a hero or being noble in a world with one faction in control is? Is it being a hero of Erathis and being the blade of the Church cutting a swath of light in the dark? Or would it be doing what the characters feel is "morally" right. Or is it in between? Like I mentioned to Matt these are the kind of things I want the players to decide (as a group or for their character). Sorry if all the details aren't in again, just ask and I will try and clarify as best I can.