Massive YGMV

[Joerg]

7 hours ago, soltakss said:

As a GM, I don't write scenarios specifically to penalise one Adventurer who has something that could cause problems. Instead, I like to make the Adventurer feel good for being able to overcome the obstacle.

I don't either, but mere walking would not be enough to reach such an item. Flying would be the very hard but very magical way to go about that, climbing and balancing the more mundane version.

Narratively, bringing the right tool should be rewarded with one spotlight scene. There might still be another point in the narrative where the bearer of such an immunity might be asked to lay it down for a challenge and/or reward. It all depends on how much weight you are giving to this achievement, and whether or rather how the achievement has long-term consequences.

 

Would you let your player characters experience something like antarctic expedition of Robert Falcon Scott, reaching a hard to reach place only to find some other party beat them to it?

[soltakss]

59 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Would you let your player characters experience something like antarctic expedition of Robert Falcon Scott, reaching a hard to reach place only to find some other party beat them to it?

Of course, I have used an Adventure Race several times in the past.

[Darius West]

16 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Well, as the OP noted, this was the Black Spear material, so Argrath is not exactly in normal state of mind, nor accompanied by any companions.

Still, he has at least 1 allied spirit to watch his back and heroic reaction speed, and Guided Teleport, plus any number of other answers to assassination.  Argrath has repeatedly defeated assassination attempts, his hatred for assassins is the only actual quote we have from him. I don't care how "out of it" he might be, he will still parry/riposte dead any damn healer in a heartbeat, or Thunderbolt them at SR1.

[Darius West]

19 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Er... I don't know where you got that from. "Removing bad thoughts" is not the same as "killing".

13 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

No, completely wrong.  It was the healer, all right.  Who healed both his body (that was the easy part) and his mind (which was the YGMV part).  And then they summoned him for Leika.

Ahh... Okay then.  That is a FAR more interesting problem.  I thought this was another "Let's murder a critical hero" issue.  I haven't played this scenario, but the potential here is very interesting.

So, what counts as a bad thought in this instance becomes the issue with which we must grapple.  Send in the Thought Police?

Now something with a name like the "Board of Nails" sounds like a rather severe "spanking" tool.  A heavy duty spanking tool used on wayward adults not children but which is supposed to help them mend their ways.

Honestly idk what Argrath was doing with a damaged body, he can call on so much power it is a bit ridiculous, but nvm.  What is at stake here is his mind, and what happens when he is "made good" apparently.

It might actually be a good thing that this happened.  As an illuminate Argrath has likely been tempted to stray from conventional morality on many occasions as the pragmatics of a situation cause him to take the easy but potentially corrupt way out.  It happens to non-illuminates too, but such dilemmas are basically "illuminate cancer", that puts them on the slippery slope to Chaos.  So lets imagine what would have happened if Arkat had been hit with the Board of Nails.  Imagine if Arkat stopped betraying people for expedient reasons.  Well, his campaign against Nysalor may have taken far longer, and he likely wouldn't have transitioned into a Troll and then a chaos creature, but in all likelihood he would still have destroyed Nysalor, as that was his fated destiny by this time.  So let's imagine giving Argrath a healthy ethics refresher...  He will likely become somewhat less manipulative in his sexual relationships, and less prone to use skullduggery to solve issues of state, and will become more reasonable in his demands upon his subjects.  He may even be willing to grant certain enemies more mercy than was previously in his nature.

I would not pretend that Argrath is a moral exemplar by Orlanthi standards, but the Board of Nails might help push him in that direction, potentially making him more selfless.  On the other hand, if anyone thinks that Argrath is suddenly going to abandon Sartar and become a Chalana Arroy pacifist, well, within a system of Orlanthi morality, that would be evil, given his personal situation, not good.

[Shiningbrow]

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

So, what counts as a bad thought in this instance becomes the issue with which we must grapple.  Send in the Thought Police?

I'd be inclined to think that one should look at the Passions - especially Loyalty (maybe Love). If the thoughts are going against the ideals of that Loyalty, then they are bad thoughts.