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24

The Campaign: Guilt Trip

May 22, 2023 by Tim


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Nono
Nono
1 year ago

You’d think Three would have figured out by now how to design a campaign that can motivate this specific audience.

Colin
Colin
1 year ago
Reply to  Nono

This is a DM desperately trying to get his original game of taking all the money off the party back on track

Whatever
Whatever
1 year ago
Reply to  Colin

I think maybe you might be onto something. He could have just allowed one of the good street vendors to take pity on the groups plight, and resurrect him for a nominal fee.

Rolando
Rolando
1 year ago
Reply to  Whatever

Too easy and boring.

That Other Guy
That Other Guy
1 year ago
Reply to  Whatever

I think it’s less about specifically taking all their gold and more about making a believable and balanced world. It makes no logical sense for something as powerful as bringing the dead back to be easy or cheap, and if he did make it something easy to accomplish just to get them rolling again, then the stakes of any fight greatly drop, because they know there’s an easy way to bring back any losses afterward.

Helldemon
Helldemon
1 year ago
Reply to  That Other Guy

Then why not have them find someone that’s willing to do it slightly cheaper than the first guy, their problem seemed to be that it would take every single gold they had just gotten, which makes all the time they spent on that quest feel meaningless.

Last edited 1 year ago by Helldemon
Vedrit
Vedrit
1 year ago
Reply to  That Other Guy

Depends. I made a world where resurrection was as common as Sunday Service, but that resurrection had a time limit and didn’t always succeed, resulting in a sort of undead – the body was whole and functioning, but the spirit was foreign and poorly attached. Even put the party in an abandoned town filled with these undead. Kind of a horror situation.
Even still, they avoided death to the best of their abilities, opting to run when a fight got too tough.

Ben
Ben
1 year ago
Reply to  Whatever

I assume he did that the last 3 times and is tired of them pulling this crap.

Bett Me
Bett Me
1 year ago
Reply to  Whatever

You do get that this is a comic making fun of tropes and funny DD themes, and not an actual campaign?

docfuturity
docfuturity
1 year ago
Reply to  Bett Me

Yep, I think we all do, but it is fun (especially if bored and killing time) to muse on what hypothetically would be going on if this were a real campaign.

Rolando
Rolando
1 year ago
Reply to  Nono

The ultimate DM achievement, is not motivating them. But making them an offer they can’t refuse. And he’s getting closer 😉

Arcatus
Arcatus
1 year ago
Reply to  Nono

Kind of weird this isn’t it? This “Let’s get the quest going prologue” is just a formality. The DM has a specific quest planned for the session, but the players are like. “Meh, do we have to do something today”

Bloof
Bloof
1 year ago
Reply to  Arcatus

It is kind of amazing that players-who are playing a game for action fantasy heroism- will so often try so hard to flub things so that their heros can be lazy.

I have seen it a lot in rpgs. I think players must like they idea of winning at cheating, and very much dislike the idea of taking straight what is set before them.

Tim Tucker
Tim Tucker
1 year ago
Reply to  Bloof

A big way people learn is through testing boundaries. You see this type of stuff play out all the time when kids play pretend: “I’m going to shoot you with my fire power!” “I’m going to block you with my ice power!” “Well, my invincibility power overpowers your ice power!” “Wait — no one is allowed to have invincibility power, that’s not fair!” “Oh… well I attack you with bears instead!” It’s not at all surprising that adults put in a gaming situation would gravitate towards similar exploration of what’s possible or what they can get away with. Arguably, true… Read more »

GeorgeV
GeorgeV
1 year ago
Reply to  Arcatus

I doubt there is a fixed quest planned, if there was he wouldn’t have given them the option to simply buy a resurrection (and for a gold amount they definitely have available even). The session plan is to get Tobyn resurrected and there’s plenty of ways to do that, but there has to be some cost involved. (Pay gold, sacrifice something in return, do quest/work…)

But when your party is too greedy to pay and too selfish to do anything that doesn’t bring them direct profit…

Gonfrask
Gonfrask
1 year ago

Nice try to save his hands and pick the barbarian’s ones instead (reverse card played).
But as said previously, no.side.quest ??

Rolando
Rolando
1 year ago

I love how he’s cornering them. Slowly. Soon enough, they’ll bite.

Saixak
Member
Saixak
1 year ago

When the players avoid quests and plotlines on purpose, just to bug the DM.

Dehnus
Dehnus
1 year ago

Are these folks forgetting he is their DM? At any moment he can kill their characters or give them all sandpaper gloves of eternal masturbation.

Vampyrr
Vampyrr
1 year ago
Reply to  Dehnus

Then there’s no game at all. And DMs who do things like that to punish players for not following what the DM wants instead of doing what the players want are terrible DMs.

Urazz
Urazz
1 year ago
Reply to  Vampyrr

And Player One is pretty much being the kind of player that takes the fun out of the game. The big thing is to know when to screw with the players and when to not.

Dehnus
Dehnus
1 year ago
Reply to  Vampyrr

Sorry, but no. Not being an asshole is goes both ways. If they go out of your way to make you feel like shit? Then a DM has every right to take out the “sandpaper gloves of eternal masturbation”.

Kix Acelot
Kix Acelot
1 year ago
Reply to  Dehnus

I don’t know why you’re getting all the hate with a comment that includes “sandpaper gloves of eternal masturbation.” That’s a cursed item that is absolutely entering our game next session.

Eric the White
Eric the White
1 year ago
Reply to  Kix Acelot

Because what he’s describing would be the worlds worst DM. Any DM that retaliates against the players for “going against him” needs to turn in their dice.

leduk
leduk
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric the White

well the comic is about the worst kind of players, so, fair enough

Dehnus
Dehnus
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric the White

Not saying you should go against your players, but they have been total assholes to him. So he has every right to pack up and leave or hand out a warning like that. You can go into any direction, but being an asshole is not one of them. This goes way before this event, they have been dicks to him for a while. And frankly? The funny is wearing thin. People forget how much time and preparation a DM spends on a session before it even starts. The least you can do is not be an asshole out of character.… Read more »

GeorgeV
GeorgeV
1 year ago
Reply to  Dehnus

Have you seen the rest of the comics with this group? Being comedy sociopaths against each other is one of their main traits. If anything them being cooperative in this campaign is out of character for them (pun intended).

Bett Me
Bett Me
1 year ago
Reply to  Kix Acelot

The best cursed item of all time

Crestlinger
Crestlinger
1 year ago
Reply to  Kix Acelot

Oo make them also give +5 to hit so no missing their target hur hur hur. And so the person thinks they are getting a good deal.

Bett Me
Bett Me
1 year ago
Reply to  Dehnus

Lol , everyone downvoting this are the same people who have commented elsewhere here with posts making it abundantly clear that everything they know about D&D is from some Reddit post

Kenju
Kenju
1 year ago

Who wants to bet the soul the vendor wants them to bring back is Strudel lol

Jere
Jere
1 year ago
Reply to  Kenju

hahaha, i don’t really believe it, but it would be awesome 😀

Joe
Joe
1 year ago

I kinda feel bad for player 3 his audience simply doesn’t care. On the other hand, theres a shortage of gamemasters, he could simply start his campaign somewhere else, and he shouldn’t be running a DMPC anyway.

Bloof
Bloof
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe

I think he runs the Dmpc rather well. I think its true that a Dmnpc is often a bad idea, but that can’t be every case.

-He’s providing a healer so the others can be more daring in classes they prefer to play.

– He follows his parties lead, without being a mindless formality.

Vedrit
Vedrit
1 year ago
Reply to  Bloof

Having run a DMPC, I do agree that it’s challenging to do right, but not something that shouldn’t be done.

Dolly
Dolly
1 year ago

Question for those who play D&D.
Can undead be clerics or a Healer class?

Joe
Joe
1 year ago
Reply to  Dolly

In the current edition AFAIK there’s no option for the players to be undead (the closest thing would be legacies from the Ravenloft book, but none of them strictly count as undead), and classes are only for players (again, in the current edition). There’s nothing strict preventing an undead (controlled by the dungeon master) to be a healer however.

Bloof
Bloof
1 year ago
Reply to  Dolly

Dnd is infinitly modifiable. Short answer- Yes, if the Dm’s world allows it. Long answer- it is not expressly forbidden in the base rules (of 5e), but there are also no options that I know of in the base rules for a player to become truly undead. There is both a Revenant and a Damphir heritage option I’ve seen- the revenant being a creature that is been brought back for a specific and usually vengeful purpose, but mostly functions as a living creature, in the damphir being a living half-vampire. I would not be surprised if the option does exist… Read more »

smiley
smiley
1 year ago
Reply to  Bloof

Would liches count? I’m sure it’s not impossible (just highly highly difficult) to become one in 5th ed

Halosty
Halosty
1 year ago
Reply to  Dolly

Depending on the edition, the magic used to heal living people would harm undead, but nothing usually stops them from casting it. They’d just have to have different magic if they wanted to also heal themselves.

Bobbobingtonthethird
Bobbobingtonthethird
1 year ago

Clearly the old, definitely not a necromancer, man should just kill one of them and then offer a bogo.

Bett Me
Bett Me
1 year ago

Wow, it is CRAZY how many of these comments make it clear that they have never played D&D despite having strong opinions to the contrary. Or at least they think they have but really they’ve just taken part in a few sessions online .

docfuturity
docfuturity
1 year ago

Wait! Three is both a player and the DM? I just realized this somehow, unless I am missing a 5 at the table. I mean, if that’s the case….he’s obstinately making it difficult for his own NPC to be resurrected then, right?

Vedrit
Vedrit
1 year ago
Reply to  docfuturity

He just doesn’t want to give the party a get-out-of-death-free card. Make death as punishing for the DMPC as it is for the rest of the party.

Joefuck
Joefuck
1 year ago
Reply to  Vedrit

Which would make sense if the party was actually interested in resurrecting the dmpc but as they seem to not care Three should really be letting them move on to something they’ll enjoy and not be emotionally manipulating them to do a quest they don’t care about.

Urazz
Urazz
1 year ago

One is just asking to have the GM kill off his character or something else bad. Sounds like he’s just wanting to get Three’s character rezzed for free pretty much and a good GM is not going to let that happen. They have to either pay the gold or do something for the guy that can do the ressurection.

Drakin
Drakin
1 year ago

This honestly the point where Three should pack it all up and say ‘ok, never mind the game. You lot can call me when you’re ready to stop being a-holes and actually play for real.’ And yes I know that sound immature, but come on! In any realistic meet up I’d buy them turning down the first offer, maybe the second. But after this many times in a row failing to get them to even begin a story I’d assume they were determined to just be jerks and tell them all to just get lost and come back when they’re… Read more »

Dehnus
Dehnus
1 year ago
Reply to  Drakin

Oh you are more a D&D DM than you think. First rule of D&D usually is: Do not piss off your DM 😛 .

Jayle
Jayle
1 year ago
Reply to  Dehnus

that’s not even in the top 10 of dnd rules, unless your table is full of toxic dweebs who could not describe grass to a sketch artist..

Xanthicirs
Xanthicirs
1 year ago

As a DM I can’t STAND players like this who just give up.

Sayer
Sayer
1 year ago

It’s weird to me how many people are acting as though D&D is some sort of esoteric art that you need years of experience in to be able comment on a bunch of fictional players being written as dickheads for the lulz. “Rocks fall, everyone dies!” shouldn’t be the only arrow in your quiver as DM, but horses for courses and specific situations require specific tools.

joefuck
joefuck
1 year ago

The point of this arc is to show that 3 is an awful DM right? Guilting his players into a quest they aren’t interested in doing so that he can keep his favourite NPC alive and then getting annoyed and emotionally manipulative when they don’t want to do what he wants them to do is kind of psychotic. This is coming from a DM by the way.

7eggert
7eggert
1 year ago
Reply to  joefuck

So what would you suggest besides being a “great” DM by handing out a get-resurrection-free tombola whenever someone dies, or even being a greater one by just copying his old sheet and changing the name to “Three the second”?

That might be OK for noobs and children.

Joefuck
Joefuck
1 year ago
Reply to  7eggert

Neither. The correct decision would be let your NPC be dead. If the players want to revive the NPC you can dangle a carrot and let them find a way but if they don’t care let them move on to a task they’re interested in and are going to enjoy.