If you had a player trying to smash his way through a temple specifically designed to test his honour and civility, and he rolled a successful Volley of a brick at a window, am I a bad DM for wanting to turn that move back on him, and have the deity smash him with the damage instead?
I considered just letting him smash through but this is a divine test…surely the gods wouldn’t tolerate the sacrilege?
Did you already have something in mind for a failed test? Why is he rolling to throw a brick through a window – is the temple the embodiment of this deity?
Is it a stained-glass window? Maybe he could have a harrowing vision as the pieces shatter and fall in slow motion, and he realizes that the window (when whole) was a harmonious image representing a future of good fortune, which is now literally come crashing down around him. “Reveal an unwelcome truth,” I guess.
Stained-glass-shard golem? 🙂
Michael Greene Honestly, I didn’t expect the approach at all, so I am trying to find the balance between being a fan and responding realistically.
I probably shouldn’t’ve asked him to roll, but I was momentarily tempted to go along with the madness and use the damage in reverse.
Now I feel guilty.
(I haven’t taken any action yet, this is a game via Hangouts chat)
I see some Apostasy in the future or he could be trying to get all Martin Luther on Mother Church. You could ask the character his intentions.
I think that would be totally fine.
Ben Jarvis His intentions are more about just trying to dominate with martial abilities than contemplate why he is here, and what the god expects of him. I don’t think it’s actually occurred to him that this is a divine test. Hmm.
If the move was to smash a window, that doesn’t mean he passes the gods’ test. You could say that by tempting their wrath, he just gave you a golden opportunity to follow up with another move. Use that however you will, so long as it works within the fiction.
Robert Ruthven OH I THINK I HAVE IT NOW YESSSSSS
Being a fan doesn’t mean the PCs always win. As a fan of Harry Dresden I want to see him get in the deepest put he can dig himself into. That just makes him crawling out the sweeter.
I managed to convey the displeasure of the god without hurting him. Phew.
If the purpose of the temple has not been revealed in the fiction, punishing the breaking of a window may not follow from the fiction. Consider revealing the purpose of the dungeon (and maybe how they’ve already botched the test) as a GM move.
Marshall Miller it was revealed but not explicitly. Some players grasped it, others less so.
I’m with Marshall Miller – softs before hards.
I’m guessing, but if this is a kind of thing where the character needs concentration to accomplish an escape I’d use the broken window as either a new challenge or a reskinning of one I had planned. As an example, if interpreting a holy script to appease the church’s deity would get them out, wind could begin blowing through the hole stirring pages occasionally and making a whistling noise. If they stripped naked, closed their eyes, and began humming a tune their mother sang when they were a child, “symbolically harmonizing myself and preparing for rebirth,” and walked blindly towards the doors, I’d give them a CON Defy to avoid losing their focus/harmony when they shove a shard of stained glass into their sole. (Fighter, right? So high CON anyway, falls under being a fan)