Waterbrick Down

"Well if the gem's cut and clarity pleases ya, I think I could part with it fer, shall we say 75 Gold."

"Good day master Dwinlas. I'm lookin' at expandin' my gem collection and seem to be missin' a diamond, saphire, and garnet. I'd be willin' to trade fer one or even put down hard metal. The name's Skrall by the way." The ogre flashed a slight smile before bringing out his topaz for the elf's inspection.

Skrall spied a note on the board but couldn't determine who had wrote it. The ogre raised his voice slightly, "Someone lookin' for a Topaz?"

Whovian here and you've seen my set-building skills.

Just as a matter of opinion, a QM should never want their PC's to succeed or fail. To allow those feelings is to allow yourself to subconsciously allow a potential twist in a plot to fit your preconceived idea of success. If a narrative is going to proceed no matter what the PC's do or do not do, then in the end the choices they make really don't have a lasting influence. Most people come to role-playing because they want a sense of agency or meaning instilled in their actions. To know that the QM is on your side means that something beyond your choices is effecting the outcome of your choices. Now of course is impossible to completely remove yourself as a QM from what's going on and be completely neutral, but it should be striven after.Like Flipz said however, transparency is the key. If a QM decides that they'll be rooting for the PC's and will be willing to either fudge something or change an outcome or pull a Deus ex Machina to progress a certain plot line, then they should be up front about it, just as much as they should be up front about perma-KO's and perma-deaths.

"The stupid things folks will do fer love." Skrall turned and got a refill on his ale. "What about you, Guts? How did you first learn to end a life?"

Skrall sipped at his ale, "Well doesn't look like there's any new quests pressin' anyways." "It was many years ago, back in Ennon. Grew up the youngest of the bunch, most of the time we were on the move never stayin' in one place fer too long, folks in that part of the world not takin' too kindly to green skins. Well one day I was out and about, headin' to my favorite fishin' spot when I come across a woman. She's ballin' her eyes out next and raisin' a hell of a racket right next to my prime pond. Seems like her lover or somethin' had left her for another man and she'd ran into the woods to have a good cry and sod if she hadn't picked my hole to do it next to. Now I was a strappin' chap and knew I wouldn't have any trouble scarin' off any maiden, so I waltz in there lookin' as fierce as I can. She doesn't budge, sod she brakes down and cries even harder at the sight of me, big ol' tear drops disturbin' the quiet tranquility of my glen. At that moment I give off a roar and yell at the top of my lungs, 'Human, get yer swollen puffy eyed face out of here before I see ya out with a kick to the behind'. She cries even harder and pleads with me to eat her and put her out of her misery." Skrall took another long swig. "Now, ya've got to understand, Guts, while we green skins might be partial to the spillin' of blood, it requires some rare savagery to enjoy the taste of it. I wasn't too keen on the prospect of eatin' the poor thing so I just come right out and say it. 'Mam, sorry fer yer trouble, but eatin' ya is probably the last thing on my mind.' Well I only got as far as the 'eatin' ya' part when in to the glen comes chargin' a knight decked out in the most sorry array of armor I'd ever clapped eyes on. The lad looked like he had strapped every variety of kitchen cookery to himself and set off to be the laughing stock of his village. Well, in he comes a chargin' with a sharp axe yellin' something about how he'd returned for the maiden and would slay me to keep me from eatin' her. I won't say it was my finest moment, but as he came rushin' at me, I lay out one arm and clotheslined the baffoon with a single blow. Thing was, he didn't get back up. I looked at the maid. She looked at me. That was the end of the matter. I gathered up my rod and trodded off fer home, thoroughly put out fer the rest of the day." Skrall shrugged and finished his tankard.

Grrrr, stop stealing my secondary character ideas, Sandy.

"Aren't we all." Skrall quaffed another gulp from his tankard.

Has Atramor seen Heroica's racial make up? Speaking of which, what race is the scare-crow man supposed to be, Sandy?

"Seems like a quick job after all and since when have we ever had trouble with guilt over doing our job?"

Skrall passed a sack of 100 Gold to Guts. "Pleasure doin' business with ya. Weren't you just headin' out on a quest not too long ago?"

Skrall overhears the discussion of gem selling and calls over to Guts, "100 Gold if Stigveladi doesn't want it."

While I enjoy the enthusiasm, I'm not 100% sure as to what this brings to the RPG? We have quests which serve as stories in which players advance a narrative and then we have the fields in which players advance the stats of their characters. It's different from the fields, but it seems to serve the same purpose.

On the flipside, I don't think we've ever seen a group of guards that could trounce a group of Heroes...

I think Ulric has already stated that eventually the criminals are going to have to go, I think this law is pretty evident of that.

I don't think they're going to tax the poor, they just want them to listen to the rhetoric before they hand out the bread.

Have you decided on an advanced class?

"Inflictin' what exactly?"

"Aw, yer too kind. Can't say I envy you though, demons be the worst kind of devils to deal with. That's quite a club ya've got their Althior. Does it do anythin' special?"

"Harsh, perhaps not, but I'd rather not go into the details of some of our encounters in the fields. I will say the wiles of the harlot profession have just as much effect on the monsters there as they do the hearts in here. No clue why someone would want to entertain those types of situations, but youth these days do decide to pursue stranger things. By trainin' do ya mean some sort of match or were ya referin' to the aid of the Copper Fox? I ain't got any plans for pursuin' any other skills if that's what ya mean." The ogre acknowledged the regulator, "Ah Atramor, please join us. Last I saw Arthur was after our encounter with Wren, the experience was definitely jarring on him I'll say that at least. Perhaps both of them are dealin' with the trauma in their own ways."

"I know what ya mean. Seems like it was just yesterday we were chasin' down poachers in the Hinckwell's forests. Ran into yer late apprentice much? Alexis an' I were in the fields together, but she seemed rather quiet."

"I'll gladly take a drink with ya. I've been in the fields for a good 5 months, yerself?"

"Ah, Althior. It's been a while hasn't it?" Skrall produced a scythe and handed the weapon over for 115 Gold.

Knew something wasn't right. So there you go 1/36 chances of rolling special damage on lucky heroes, not very probable.