Tag: Damian “LFGM” Jankowski

When is PvP not a dick move? It isn’t always a bad thing and has its place. Here are my thoughts.

In a game last night, a player and I exchanged blows. Here’s how it happened:

I came into the second session of a mini-campaign, where the party had rescued me from being sacrificed by a cultish group. Of course I had a reason to at least follow them around now, but no real connection. My character was the Master Minstrel, and a long past love had become, or was already secretly, a sorceress of some kind in a battle later in the session. In a heated exchange between our party and her minions/demons, I engaged her and attempted to have her take me back as her lover, pvertaken by my passionate personality and her being an old flame and all that.

Sparing the specific details, our fighter ended up injuring both of us with a significant spear attack. My character was distraught at the thought of this old flame being hurt, and so turned on the fighter at her command. Only one or two blows were exchanged, and this exchange caused my character to become confused on what he wanted, as love was affecting his morals and reason. The character finally realized what was most important here, and that love was blinding him. He finished off the sorceress and the party saw him as a traitor, somewhat. Something akin to a child that has disobeyed his or her parents, it felt like.

Here, though PvP had entered the session, it felt completely in place. My character had no allegiance or loyalty to the party, but it opened the door for two bonds to be created with players, where I now felt that I owed the party proof of his loyalty. This battle broke him down and drew him closer to his new party, teaching him how “love hurts” and what “true loyalty” is in the process.

Although it was an odd exchange while it was happening, it felt so right after it was all said and done, now that the battle was over and the party was off to their next adventure. Joicy Love was now a part of the group, but had a lot to prove.

What are your experiences or thoughts on PvP in your games? When did it work out for your party and the story?

Has anyone reduced the starting attributes for level 1 characters? I feel like, even at level 1, players are really quite powerful and I rarely ever have creatures that deal less than d6 damage – even then d6 does not happen often (not taking into account other aspects of the creatures that affect the battles).

I almost wish players started with +0 to all stats, and perhaps -1 to half of them. They would level up fast at the beginning due to more frequent failures, but they would actually feel like level 1 characters. Maybe 0 would be their high stat.

I would love to see what other random generating table people use with DW. What do you guys use in your games?