OOC/banter/questions, slings and arrows for the GM

[Zhym]

No, not at all. Just your character. Er, your character's character.

I figure most elves are stuck-up elitists who think the other races are sub-sentient animals who can barely clothe and feed themselves. I can totally see Ilfrien betting that no one would notice if some of the gold disappeared.

[Keehnelf]

I don't know that Ilfrien quite fits into the stuck-up elitist camp, but it's clear that she miscalculated somewhere along the line.

[MonkeyWrench]

Since it's OOC, I'll post.

Korok, as a character, fully believes Ilfrien took the gold, She isn't a good liar; At least not for him.

But he also doesn't care about the missing gold, whole point I was making by having him look her in the eyes and then nonchalantly agree with her is that he has her back. He doesn't care about what people do to get a little bit ahead in life, the world is deadly enough without having to resort to handicaps like petty morals.

Ilfrien fought with him, had his back, so he will have hers. That was also why I had him standing with her while people were accusing her, he may not have said anything but his presence basically said "If shit hits the fan I'm here."

And in the end, that's really all Korok cares about, he knows how little everything means in the grand scheme of life. Survival means everything because if you aren't dead you can always bounce back.

[Keehnelf]

1200platinum reward? That works out to 1,000 platinum each if I'm doing my math right.

...too soon?

[Zhym]

We didn't have to wait long to find an opportunity to dock 200 gp from Ilfrien's share, did we?

[tkrexx]

Korok, as a character, fully believes Ilfrien took the gold, She isn't a good liar; At least not for him.

But he also doesn't care about the missing gold, whole point I was making by having him look her in the eyes and then nonchalantly agree with her is that he has her back. He doesn't care about what people do to get a little bit ahead in life, the world is deadly enough without having to resort to handicaps like petty morals.

Ilfrien fought with him, had his back, so he will have hers. That was also why I had him standing with her while people were accusing her, he may not have said anything but his presence basically said "If shit hits the fan I'm here."

And in the end, that's really all Korok cares about, he knows how little everything means in the grand scheme of life. Survival means everything because if you aren't dead you can always bounce back.

+1

[Marullus]

Korok, as a character, fully believes Ilfrien took the gold, She isn't a good liar; At least not for him.

But he also doesn't care about the missing gold, whole point I was making by having him look her in the eyes and then nonchalantly agree with her is that he has her back. He doesn't care about what people do to get a little bit ahead in life, the world is deadly enough without having to resort to handicaps like petty morals.

Ilfrien fought with him, had his back, so he will have hers. That was also why I had him standing with her while people were accusing her, he may not have said anything but his presence basically said "If shit hits the fan I'm here."

And in the end, that's really all Korok cares about, he knows how little everything means in the grand scheme of life. Survival means everything because if you aren't dead you can always bounce back.

+1

+2

I have the same issue but a different perspective... Stealing isn't as bad as lying about it, here. That is why Hellebore gave her the route to back out, which she didn't take. The blow to group-trust is far more severe.

I regret that it moved on without that resolution.

That said, intra-party conflict is my least favorite RP. I am willing to brush it under the rug just to allow us to continue on. I am uneasy that it is condoned in the game, and wrankled by Ilfirien continuing to push it after the GM moved the scene on. But... I will run with just about anything.

[Keehnelf]

Sorry if the comment rankled. I was just indicating that Ilfrien harbors at least a superficial grudge over her (well deserved) "ill treatment".

My endgame with her is to explore whether someone who is selfish and impulsive can find a reason to become a better person in a more general way while living this kind of lifestyle. That's been my interest in her from the beginning, as AB can attest from our initial conversations about her. In fact, when she realized that Hellebore was lumping Korok into the same camp as Ilfrien at the start of the encounter, she actually considered her actions in a different light for the first time. If he had responded with scorn or concern, it might have tipped her. As it is, he earned himself some pretty fierce loyalty--not because he "covered for her", but because he was in the line of fire too and stood shoulder to shoulder with her.

Just to lay it all out there on the table. Personally, I'm interested in this character and seeing where it goes. But if all or some of you think she's TOO disruptive, I'm happy to shelve her for something that will enhance party synergy more

[Zorroroaster]

That's twice in a week we've had a player beg the indulgence of the others in case their PC was too disruptive.

We must be hitting the sweet spot soon.

Personally, I won't let you shelve Ilfrien, she's Arnulf's nemesis. He'd be lost without her.

[tkrexx]

DON'T change a thing!

[Marullus]

Oh, no worries... the IC is fine. I also enjoyed using Ilfirien as a foil, and I like seeing character growth.

I usually see one of three methods:
* Players agree characters won't have party conflict
* Players agree characters may IC conflict, but have OOC transparency
* Players agree characters may IC conflict, and GM arbitrates the secrets

This unfolded as #3, which I don't see often. I went OOC first, aiming for #2. This OOC conversation helps move from #3 to #2 which already increases comfort level. If I understand the direction and goal of a player for a character, I am happy to help reach that RP goal.

[Keehnelf]

I don't want to be TOO transparent, otherwise fewer surprises and more enabling of bad behavior under the guise of OOC cooperation. Part of why I kept opaque at first was because one of Ilfrien's initial goals was to see exactly how much she could get away with while being given the benefit of the doubt that "there must be reasons."

AleBelly initially asked me if it made sense to make her an evil alignment, but she's not evil, she's just heedlessly selfish and pretty thoroughly broken.

[AleBelly]

+2

I have the same issue but a different perspective... Stealing isn't as bad as lying about it, here. That is why Hellebore gave her the route to back out, which she didn't take. The blow to group-trust is far more severe.

I think it will be interesting to see how characters treat her going forward. I have been informed that Chet will help her last for a very long while after this episode.

I regret that it moved on without that resolution.

That wasn't my intention. Sometimes I have to make judgement calls to move the game along, and I thought this went as far as it was going to go. It's perfectly fine to bring it up again.

That said, intra-party conflict is my least favorite RP. I am willing to brush it under the rug just to allow us to continue on. I am uneasy that it is condoned in the game, and wrankled by Ilfirien continuing to push it after the GM moved the scene on. But... I will run with just about anything.

Part of what we should be doing in the OOC thread is deciding what kind of game we want to play collectively. Personally, I look at sandbox-type campaigns differently than module-based adventures. I intend to run this game for a good long while, and that give us opportunities to explore different aspects of characters and watch them develop. I think you all have done a really nice job with that and it's been fun to watch. As such, it's likely that characters will clash from time to time, and they may even break off from time to time (as they've already done).

Modules are different, however, in that all objectives are aligned and in those instances I would expect no IC conflict. I'm more tolerant of it here, as I see it as a natural part of 8-10 adventurers from wildly different backgrounds forced to spend a whole lot of time together.

All that said, I would strongly prefer that IC conflict not be a major theme of the game. This recent episode has taught many a lot about Ilfrien's character. It is interesting to see how others react...and will react.

Finally, I'm glad Zhym didn't play a paladin. Although not necessarily evil, Ilfrien's actions were certainly not lawful good by any stretch of the imagination...precluding a paladin from adventuring with her in the future.