The Ugly, the Bad and the Good
Ok, don't read too much into the title...
Ok, so my character died last session and has reasonable odds of being raised, but isn't going to happen this time. So, I really shouldn't kvetch about being given a missing player's character to play for the evening. But I'm going to, since that is what my LJ is for. Hopefully, the DM will read the whole post... ;-)
So, I get to run a druid which, although currently only third level, is focused on fighting. I get to run her in a city adventure, which already makes her conflicted. But it is not my character, so I haven't built up any direct concern for her development. But it is a friend's character, so I want to play it right.
Add to this the mission: Rescue/retrieve a friend from his family's heavily guarded fort inside a walled city while at the same time trying to beg a raise dead spell out of the same family. (Druid, of course, has no social skills.) Where as normally, I do ok with keeping with the character and suspend belief where necessary. But 1) the DM has said my original character will get back, 2) if we rescue our friend and leave there won't be a such a spell, 3) therefore not only does rescuing our friend look nigh impossible but it cannot succeed. And I don't want it to succeed, since I really like my original character.
Anyway, not the DM's fault, just the way things worked out. The need for a raise dead was not part of the original story. And I did get to be the main component in the rescue-which-succeeded-until-it-did-not.
As an aside, we ended up collecting components to make a really fancy, shiny raise dead scroll. Which, if anyone but our party was wandering around the city with it, would make a great Dashiell Hammett plot line, with various people trying kill other people to get this valuable scroll which only the corrupt clergy of this world can use.
Anyway, besides a, um, less that exciting session, the campaign is pretty cool. Part of it is that I am running a different type of character than my norm, which just happens to fit pretty well with the campaign. But alot has to do with the world itself. Almost totally city adventuring, more of a gritty feel. Also, maliszew has been talking recently about the original D&D where there were more home brewed worlds and how that had a different feel. And you see that here. Part of it is just that feels different, but part is that the DM has more of an emotional stake in the world. It has been a real nice change of pace.
Ok, so my character died last session and has reasonable odds of being raised, but isn't going to happen this time. So, I really shouldn't kvetch about being given a missing player's character to play for the evening. But I'm going to, since that is what my LJ is for. Hopefully, the DM will read the whole post... ;-)
So, I get to run a druid which, although currently only third level, is focused on fighting. I get to run her in a city adventure, which already makes her conflicted. But it is not my character, so I haven't built up any direct concern for her development. But it is a friend's character, so I want to play it right.
Add to this the mission: Rescue/retrieve a friend from his family's heavily guarded fort inside a walled city while at the same time trying to beg a raise dead spell out of the same family. (Druid, of course, has no social skills.) Where as normally, I do ok with keeping with the character and suspend belief where necessary. But 1) the DM has said my original character will get back, 2) if we rescue our friend and leave there won't be a such a spell, 3) therefore not only does rescuing our friend look nigh impossible but it cannot succeed. And I don't want it to succeed, since I really like my original character.
Anyway, not the DM's fault, just the way things worked out. The need for a raise dead was not part of the original story. And I did get to be the main component in the rescue-which-succeeded-until-it-did-not.
As an aside, we ended up collecting components to make a really fancy, shiny raise dead scroll. Which, if anyone but our party was wandering around the city with it, would make a great Dashiell Hammett plot line, with various people trying kill other people to get this valuable scroll which only the corrupt clergy of this world can use.
Anyway, besides a, um, less that exciting session, the campaign is pretty cool. Part of it is that I am running a different type of character than my norm, which just happens to fit pretty well with the campaign. But alot has to do with the world itself. Almost totally city adventuring, more of a gritty feel. Also, maliszew has been talking recently about the original D&D where there were more home brewed worlds and how that had a different feel. And you see that here. Part of it is just that feels different, but part is that the DM has more of an emotional stake in the world. It has been a real nice change of pace.