Our Natural Enemy
One standard roleplaying group dynamic pivots upon a player's moment of weakness, a moment in which they reveal a chink in their chutzpah, a target spot that the other players can home in on with black-arrow precision whenever they sense that the guard is down.
The Feyteam campaign had one such moment early-on when Mike Fehlauer decided to start using an ancient AD&D drow as the figure for his drow assassin, Rinaldo. The first session that the tiny little half-pint miniature was on the table, back in the days the PCs were fighting kobolds and orcs, the other PCs kept trying to attack Rinaldo. "Can I catch this guy in the blast?" asked the wizard. "That's me," said Mike. A few minutes later the swordmage said, "Well, it looks like I can mark all three of these guys and hit this one with the attack." "That's me, guys! That's Rinaldo, OK?!"
When it happened again by accident Mike's irritation flared brighter. A comedy trope was born. We couldn't go to the well every round, or even every other round, but at least twice a night someone was sure to pick Rinaldo's half-size drow out as an enemy. If the players had forgotten to target him, I'd eventually get around to suggesting it: "Y'know, if you center the blast on that square instead you'd be able to catch *that* guy in the blast, too." "And he's an enemy!" chimed the chorus.
The trope finally fell away without anyone noticing. We've been playing sporadically, so that probably hurt our continuity of aggression. And now that the archvillains, the mothers of the two Wraithheart half-brother player characters managed to turn one of the brothers to evil and slay the other brother by teleporting him into the path of the rampaging Cringe (Torog's ex-exarch trying to follow his god up from the Underdark), well, now there is a PC mini that represents a true honest-to-devils enemy. No need need to joke about Rinaldo now that Sithys Wraithheart has stepped up as nemesis.
The Feyteam campaign had one such moment early-on when Mike Fehlauer decided to start using an ancient AD&D drow as the figure for his drow assassin, Rinaldo. The first session that the tiny little half-pint miniature was on the table, back in the days the PCs were fighting kobolds and orcs, the other PCs kept trying to attack Rinaldo. "Can I catch this guy in the blast?" asked the wizard. "That's me," said Mike. A few minutes later the swordmage said, "Well, it looks like I can mark all three of these guys and hit this one with the attack." "That's me, guys! That's Rinaldo, OK?!"
When it happened again by accident Mike's irritation flared brighter. A comedy trope was born. We couldn't go to the well every round, or even every other round, but at least twice a night someone was sure to pick Rinaldo's half-size drow out as an enemy. If the players had forgotten to target him, I'd eventually get around to suggesting it: "Y'know, if you center the blast on that square instead you'd be able to catch *that* guy in the blast, too." "And he's an enemy!" chimed the chorus.
The trope finally fell away without anyone noticing. We've been playing sporadically, so that probably hurt our continuity of aggression. And now that the archvillains, the mothers of the two Wraithheart half-brother player characters managed to turn one of the brothers to evil and slay the other brother by teleporting him into the path of the rampaging Cringe (Torog's ex-exarch trying to follow his god up from the Underdark), well, now there is a PC mini that represents a true honest-to-devils enemy. No need need to joke about Rinaldo now that Sithys Wraithheart has stepped up as nemesis.