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[Jimmy]

Yep, you gotta be careful about any chaotic neutral characters you see submitted as a DM. It often means the character actually wants to play neutral evil, or at least chaotic stupid.

Regarding backgrounds, I actually give my players two extra skill ranks per level to spend on skills that represent their character's non-adventuring life. It's a good variant of the Pathfinder skill system that lets you flesh out your character. So far one of my players has invested into craft skills for her character working as a seamstress, another has ranks as a professional soldier, and the greedy gnome has invested heavily into his skill at appraising valuables. Plus everyone loves getting a new language each level.

Background Skills

[Harry Baldman]

DM said it's the most roleplay-heavy adventure he's seen. And absolutely everyone must participate in these events.

It is Hell's Rebels, for those wondering, which is an official Paizo book. I've been told it gets less roleplay-heavy after the third or fourth book.

The first banquet is for getting a nearby city to agree to help you in your rebellion. The second banquet is held by the big-bad. The first banquet's consequences either result in the noble happily joining you to dominating or outright killing the party and taking control of the rebellion herself. We don't know what the second banquet's point system does yet.

Both of those sound like rather excellent opportunities for roleplaying that somebody has taken the effort to suck all the fun out of.

I mean, from what I understand of the path, the big bad is at least a devil of some kind, so having a shitty party makes some sense there (since a devil is essentially the worst boss you've ever had, but with all the worst bits turned malignant and cancerous). But why the hell would a noblewoman decide to help you based on whether or not you know how to eat oysters properly?

Ideally when you have a goal for a heavy RP section, you want to let players roam free and have fun while edging them toward the actual point of the section, letting them get there in any number of ways that fit their characters, not arbitrary crap like this.

Thankfully our Orc player/Problem Player is gone. He has been purposely fucking up every social encounter we've had. He claimed to be Chaotic Neutral, but has literally been a typical Chaotic Evil "Murder, Pillage, and Rape" type Orc. The nicest thing the Orc's done is spit on our Swashbuckler, who went to say hi when we met him. Attacked random people just for getting too close to him, and has literally sexually assaulted every female NPC we come across. And random wildlife when we were camping in the wilderness. Made jokes about how he spent each night jerking off to the campfire and wearing chipmunks as nipple-clamps.

Goodness, that doesn't sound like a thing a person would play unless they were taking revenge on you for some perceived slight.

[BlackFlyme]

I mean, from what I understand of the path, the big bad is at least a devil of some kind, so having a shitty party makes some sense there (since a devil is essentially the worst boss you've ever had, but with all the worst bits turned malignant and cancerous). But why the hell would a noblewoman decide to help you based on whether or not you know how to eat oysters properly?

He's part of the ruling family of the country of Cheliax, who made a deal with Devils in return for a ton of power. Again, no idea what the points are for here. Maybe to influence the nobles that were attending? I don't know what I can or can't mention about this banquet without it being spoiler-territory. The only free-roaming is done by a no-name NPC from your rebellion who manages to sneak in as a guard, and help out a tiny bit. The DM allowed our Rogue to do this instead, as the NPC was several levels lower than we were, and wouldn't actually be able to help. But if a player poses as a guard, they can't do any eating or dancing or mingling.

The noble-woman already likes the rebellion, but believes that a rebellion should be led by those with tact and grace, and if the players don't demonstrate that, she'll step in to lead the rebellion herself.

The Problem-Player comes up a lot in this topic. Always the asshole meta-min-maxed, super optimized, who's just "doing what their character would do" while trying to dominate the game and stand in the spotlight, or fulfilling a power-fantasy if they are the DM, with a meta-min-maxed, super optimized DMPC, who's just "doing what their character would do" while trying to dominate the game and stand in the spotlight.

[Cthulufaic]

why is this thread so far back
I'm going to my first real session at college tomorrow.  The DM hasn't done this before, and it seems like he's following the rulebooks verbatim which worries me just a bit.  Any tips before I head off?
This is 5e in case that matters.

[MrWiggles]

why is this thread so far back
I'm going to my first real session at college tomorrow.  The DM hasn't done this before, and it seems like he's following the rulebooks verbatim which worries me just a bit.  Any tips before I head off?
This is 5e in case that matters.

Why does it worry you that their following RAW?

As for tips.Ya'll gonna get the rules wrong, and ya'll made your character wrong. And ya'll dont know how they work. Thats fine. Just be relax about it. And remember that the GM is the arbiter. If they say 'thats how it works' then just move on, and only nudge the GM if they arent constiant. Do rule changes between games not during games.  Playing the rpg is generally an excuse to go hang out and be social. So chat with the other players.

[TheBiggerFish]

Rules as Written is kinda the point, really.  Houserules come later, when they're sure they know how to break them.

[sjm9876]

why is this thread so far back
I'm going to my first real session at college tomorrow.  The DM hasn't done this before, and it seems like he's following the rulebooks verbatim which worries me just a bit.  Any tips before I head off?
This is 5e in case that matters.

With 5e going by the book verbatim still leaves loads of room for cool stuff, unless you mean they're only letting you do things specifically mentioned in the book. But yeah, first session, all will go to hell, but just try not to get too concerned and just enjoy it, and it should pick up soon enough.

[Cthulufaic]

-snop-

...unless you mean they're only letting you do things specifically mentioned in the book...

Yea thats what I'm worried about, just considering how we did character creation.

[SOLDIER First]

Just found out one of my old friends from our school's drama club is running a Pathfinder campaign at the school. He's thinking of bringing people to the Board Room, this board game cafe in the local town. I'm really excited to make another character

[Jimmy]

After pursuing the idea of raiding a necromancer's abandoned tower for the last four sessions, the group abandoned their quest when they found out the area was off limits by royal decree. Bah, all that prep work wasted!

[SOLDIER First]

Nothing's against loyal decree if you aren't all LG / there's no guards around.

[Harry Baldman]

After pursuing the idea of raiding a necromancer's abandoned tower for the last four sessions, the group abandoned their quest when they found out the area was off limits by royal decree. Bah, all that prep work wasted!

Theft, manslaughter, littering, riding under the influence and sorcery without a license, those are perfectly fine, but trespassing? We're not monsters, man.

[Flying Dice]

Yep, you gotta be careful about any chaotic neutral characters you see submitted as a DM. It often means the character actually wants to play neutral evil, or at least chaotic stupid.

The saddest thing is that CN is pretty much spot-on for rogues, barbarians, and similar played straight, but it's practically in the pit next to CE thanks to murderhobo fetishists.

[Neonivek]

Yep, you gotta be careful about any chaotic neutral characters you see submitted as a DM. It often means the character actually wants to play neutral evil, or at least chaotic stupid.

The saddest thing is that CN is pretty much spot-on for rogues, barbarians, and similar played straight, but it's practically in the pit next to CE thanks to murderhobo fetishists.

You can't blame them.

If he told his story on the internet you would be praising him for playing the game hilariously! then boasting how next time you will be playing Murder Hobo... and BOY do I wish I was joking...

And people wonder why I hate troll stories.

[MrWiggles]

-snop-

...unless you mean they're only letting you do things specifically mentioned in the book...

Yea thats what I'm worried about, just considering how we did character creation.

So just so I understand you're new to this game, the gm is new to this game, you're annoyed that he wasnt letting you make dnd jedi  for the first session?