Comments on: Shades of Gray in D&D

By: reveal

reveal — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:15:09 +0000

@Mike – That’s one of the reasons I really got a kick out of Eberron when it came out.

By: Mike Kenyon

Mike Kenyon — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:47:55 +0000

I have always played with Shades of Gray in my games. Since I have had the pleasure of indoctrinating all of my former and current players to the game, they do too!

The reason behind this is that I started playing RPGs in D&D’s Eberron. The entire world is based on the idea that nothing is as it seems. Gray adds that extra level of involvement, and thus fun, to the game.

By: kaeosdad

kaeosdad — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:31:27 +0000

Challenge? Man, when I got back into DnD (I used to play when I was a kid and when 3rd edition came out I started playing again) it took forever for me to get over the stereotype races presented in DnD.

These were my solutions when dealing with races.

1. throw alignment out the window, races are never inherently evil. There may be evil groups, but not races.

2. Never segregate races and always create factions. The first part of the rule gets broken when those in power are in fact evil and commit evil acts on a regular basis.

3. come up with plausible reasons why someone would attack to kill the PCs or why they would go out of there way to help the PCs. Most people wouldn’t go out of there way to help a complete stranger, even less would attack on sight without reason.

By: Elton

Elton — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:31:28 +0000

Yes, I am a real person. Jeeze . . . .

Anyhow, I haven’t been able to DM for a while now. But I see the point in both articles and your commentary.

Elton´s last blog post..Shaper

By: Anarkeith

Anarkeith — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:15:02 +0000

I had a whole dungeon full of Drow, basically peacefully existing under a human city. Then the PCs showed up, found their way underground, and over the next several months proceeded to start a war.

They were warned, passively resisted, tricked, and finally when the Drow body count got too high, the party was attacked.

On several occasions the Drow tried to communicate with the party (there was a language barrier to overcome, but there are spells for this in 3e.) I left it up to the party and they decided Drow were “evil” and should all be killed.

By: TheLemming

TheLemming — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:21:07 +0000

Very interesting post, I fully agree and would actively recommend every dungeonmaster to try putting a few orcs (or the like) into the right light. Make them a special hero, I mean things might be a bit harder if your group has a few dwarves or other creatures in it that have some innate hatred – but how will they react if some orcs actually help them or save them…I am afraid that’s a lesson most players learn the hard way – but it ‘s a really important one -
I still remember my players faces from probably around 8-9 years ago, when they slaughtered the warriors of an orcish tribe without real motivation – and faced the utter silence of two rather beautiful women whom they knew pretty well – they faced the faces of orcish families (ok I was really a pain that session) – but ever since those players ( i guess ) have changed their general approach and senseless slaughter wasn’t all that much fun all of a sudden .

I think one highest arts of dungeon-mastering is the point when you stop worrying for the things you’ve prepared because your players either kill it or ignore it and I think it goes together pretty well with the “playing monsters in different ways” for me. The more often I read the article of WorldofAlidor the more I hope I’ll make the next adventure with it in mind. It’s unfortunately one of the things I tend to forget every now and then…

TheLemming´s last blog post..epic preparation – p9 – Conclusions