D&D Court Cases!

Honorable judges Murphy and Tanner, that other guy, and the beloved and respected headmistress in the school of multiclass and exceptional roleplay Emily Axford: I’m the newest player in a long-running group that I found online. I’m a 15-year-old Half-Elf Runechild Sorcerer named Villicent Beaudunor-Mar’kael. Villie for short. She was sheltered in a small elven village with her parents for most of her life, until the orcish deity Gruumsh possessed the druids of that village, including Villie’s mother, decimating it. Villie only survived through her father, who had anticipated the attack and orchestrated a spell that would trap his daughter in her own arcane focus, a ring. An awesome, emotionally wrenching backstory from my one-on-one session zero with the DM. 200 planar years later, Villie is released from the ring to join the existing party. Slowly but surely, I gained the trust of most of the party. But there’s one guy Karl who, weirdly, feels like he as a person (i.e. not his character) has decided to not like me as a person and has just gone out of his way to make Villie scared and uncomfortable. Sometimes, slipping in my own name (“I’m just pissed at what Tess is doing so I’m going to do this”) seemingly out of character and when I’m character, shaming Villie for not buffing him with her abilities and threatening to put her back into the ring. I’ve been in campaigns where my character didn’t get along with another, but it’s well understood after a session that as players we are cool. With this group, since it’s online and essentially with strangers, it feels so weirdly hostile. I was originally brought into this group because the DM wanted more role player types so I don’t know what to do. I have crafted a few ways for my character to reach out to his, but every session he ends up doing or saying something hostile and it just wouldn’t make sense for my character to, for example, show his Wizard character that she has a magical portal key to her Wizard father’s library around her neck, which the DM has even confirmed for me would allow Karl’s character to get a new spell or ability improvement. I am really perplexed by this because I love Villie and want to stay in this campaign, but I’m also the newest player in a group that’s not used to roleplay with a voice and motivations that might even deviate from the “smart” thing because she cares about what she cares about. I’m starting to feel like I’m pushing my roleplay on other people. I’ve opened up to my DM about this, and we both agree that players should play in the way that is fun for them, but both of us are perplexed on how to handle this situation when those things that are fun can be so different person-to-person. Can roleplayers and non roleplayers really coexist in a campaign without one of them having to “win” out over the other? Is this a conversation the DM, Karl, and I should all have together? How would you guys handle it?

Pearl of a Girl Nursery

Honorable judges and most honorable bailiff. I have recently learned how to DM. Is there any helpful advice that you would give a new DM on how to bring the pain to their PCs? I want to make my gameplay smooth and fun at the same time. Yours truly, New and confused DM

May it please the court--that being the honourable justices Murphy, Axeford, and Tanner along with slightly less honourable bailiff Jake--I present the case of Player vs. DM. We were in the midst of a deadly encounter with a group of pirates hell-bent on killing my character (for reasons). I was making death saves, and rolled a Nat20 on my wonderful BLM dice (thank you Heartbeat Dice and Headgum cohorts at 3BH) but to my dismay, the DM announced that I only had 2 successes instead of the Rules-As-Written 1HP regained. It would have meant the beginning of my turn and the ability to save my party member's brother, who died on the next turn (sparking another big event that is irrelevant to this case). While it's totally normal to have homebrew rules, we had a session zero when we talked about this stuff and that never came up. I pleaded my case, and the DM, in fairness, did apologize, but I still feel robbed especially since it was such a crucial moment. I survived, but I'm worried this might happen with something else important down the line as well. My party and I await your endless wisdom. Signed, Concerned Reborn Bard (AKA Adam Elias "Riverboat" Reid)

TheBrunchGuild

May it please the court, and the esteemed justices Murphy, Axeford, and tanner, and to the ascended bailiff Jake. I present to you, the case of the DM versus the party of new players. Session 1, I started the party off by explaining that their characters had been on a wagon which fell into a cave, where they found an overturned cart and a door. After investigating the cart and finding rope, a living person entrapped in the cart, and some silver, the party decided to try and use the rope to climb back out of the hole they had fallen into. After several sleight of hand, strength checks from the party I had one of the players trip over a candle, lighting the cart on fire. With the man in the cart screaming, the party decided that it is now urgent they exit the cave, and ignore the door and cart. After additional attempts, the players tied a rock to the rope, and got it around a tree. I let them climb out. I made the players roll a pure luck check, to see if they would fall into any additional traps, to which they rolled a natural 1. As I did not really have anything else planned, the natural one made them fall into a trap, leading into the room that door opened too. Surrounding them by several goblins. The players still are mad at me for not allowing them to exit the cave, and have more of a free world adventure. Was I wrong to not let them roam free in the world I made? I await your decisions humbly.

Alex Gibson

May it please the court, the honorable justices and the lowly bailiff Jake. Recently I had a player who used dimension door to go 300ft in the air above an enemy and then attempt to pile drive down on an enemy. Their goal was to land on top claiming that they wouldn’t take fall damage since the cushion of the mages curves would “cushion their tushion” and instead the mage would take the falling damage. I ruled they both would and allowed for this weird combat maneuver just because it sounded cool but the player insists they should’ve been at least able to try to save to avoid. How do you rule? Does landing on something softer than ground prevent fall damage? Would the person getting landed on also take the falling damage? I await your sentence.

Meghan

Exalted justices and lowly peasant bailiff ja- huh? It's Emily? Oh... Equally exalted bailiff Axford. may it please the court, I bring forth the case of old DM vs new DM. I was running a campaign for some friends when life got busy and my schedule stopped allowing for the hours of session making and world building I was doing. So rather than break up the party I reached out to a friend and fellow DM asking if she would be interested in taking over the campaign from me. She was and we agreed my character would be a collage or lore bard so that any extra in site I had into the world would be justified. She was excited by the setting and premise I had already set and said she couldn't wait to keep this story rolling. Cut to 2 weeks later where the party arrives, only to find out that our high fantasy setting has been changed to a Sci fi one, and "The One Tree", the source of all magic on the planet, has been chopped down. I ask, fair judges, am I being too precious over the campaign and should I just let it go, as I have passed over the story righting to her, or am I right to question why we didn't just start a whole new story, if it was going to be this drastically different? I await punishment, if not for the acts stated above, then for my terrible terrible spelling

If it's just the biology that made you uncomfortable, I present the Tieflings Exist defense, which is that devils and humanoids have absolutely had sex before because that is how tieflings exist.

Whitney Ahn

May it please the esteemed court and the humble bailiff, I present the case of the back to back three-ways. I've been playing DnD for about 5 years. I've been a DM for about half that time. This case transpired a few years ago (pre-covid). I was DMing for a group of people from university. I was a new-ish DM running a game for mostly new players. We had a session 0 which was mostly character creation and introduction to the mechanical rules of 5e. We didn't really get into red lines and/or stricktly off topic areas of RP. The incident in question happened when more than half of the play group (3 out of 5) couldn't make the session. I was so excited to play that I did not care that the session was smaller than planned. I had the two players who could make it meet a super cool and hot sorcerer NPC. He gave them a mission and I expected the session to unfold with them following up on the mission he gave them. I made a mistake. My NPC was too hot. The newer player, a fiend patron warlock rolled super high on a seduction roll and the more experienced player went along with it. They all hooked up in a near-by alley. It was fun. After a fade to black, we got back to the game. No problem. Later that same session, the warlock wanted to seduce the tiny devil that was a messenger from his patron. He rolled high, the other PC didn't object and a second three-way happened at the table. I was uncomfortable because I described the devil as somewhat beastial and probably not compatable with the PC's biology (the devil had a scorpion tail and gross little wings) but the warlock didn't care. The session ended shortly after another fade to black. That play group crumbled soon after (probably for the best). To this day, I feel like I could have handled the situation better. Should I have set clearer boundaries in session 0 or should the player have read the subtext that I didn't want them the have sex with an actual devil? I prostrate myself before the court awaiting judgment.

Samuel

May it please the court and the extremely beautiful bailiff. We hear the case of PC vs. the rest of the party. In a lair of a Mindflayer, our party was clearly outmatched. As a group, we decided to flee with the last of our HP, as we were pretty low level. However, our fighter became stuck in the jaws of the Mindflayer AFTER the other two party members had already started to dash away (bad initiative). Instead of going back to help the poor fighter, our Druid decided to cast Spike Growth between the party and the Mindflayer, making it impossible for anyone to go back to help the fighter without going to 0 HP, but saying it would stop the Mindflayer from following the rest of the party. She did say “it might not be the right thing to do, but it’s what my character would do.” I just thought it was selfish. What say you? Was she playing her character and making a strategic move? Or was she being a selfish party member?

Happy Hoglidays and also may it please the court and the badass bailiff. I am stoked to have started the new campaign and am blessed with a great group of players and a wonderful DM. Starting as as a hobgoblin chronomancer I had a clear backstory in mind. At our first session, the DM narrated what I had included and added a bunch of other elements. I was excited but also a little intimidated to correct them because it seemed like they had done a lot of work. I’m not looking for punishment, but instead advice and a “gift” of a punishment. I want to be gracious to my new DM while also asserting myself about the correct backstory for my character.

May it please the highly coveted judges Caldwell and Murphy and the fallen Axeford. May it please the court. In our campaign, we were exploring and conquering a keep in a desolate land. In this keep, there were several different high level loot rooms. While waiting for everyone to show up so we could roll our finds in the treasure after killing a major boss last session, I jokingly said that I get I was going to pull a vorpal sword from the pile. Later rolling our d100s I rolled a 37. My dm after assumingly looking at what was on the table for that number, I was told to reroll mine since it was too strong. After finding out that it was the vorpal sword, I feel somewhat cheated but I understand it may be broken and that may not be the kind of game he may not want to run l. So i ask fair judges should he have honored the roll or should I accept this pettiness of mine and get over it.

May it please the court, the most esteemed judges Tanner and Murphy and Axford and the imposter judge Hurwitz, I present the case of the teenager meta-gamer. I run an isekai-style home game with my older brother, two of my best friends and one of their younger brothers where they all play themselves in a fantasy setting. We all played for the first time in months recently since we are on break from college, and an NPC, previously a DMPC who adventured with the party was polymorphed into a young red shadow dragon and forced to fight the party. He was killed in the fight and when my brother, who was closest to the NPC requested that the younger brother who was lord of the castle they were in, and has cleric levels, help him he said he wouldn't because "it's just an NPC," and "he was on my kill list anyway." My brother attacked him and put him down making death saves. He was quickly healed by an attendant, and the guards arrested my brother, but there was much argument at the table afterwards. The meta-gamer has expressed this kind of sentiment before, and claims that since he knows so much about 5e lore and mechanics, and I had intended for them to be able to make strategic use of that knowledge in game, then his reaction would be to treat anyone from this setting as a random NPC, since he would genuinely believe he is in some kind of game. How should I deal with this borderline psychopath at my table? I am definitely changing his alignment from Neutral good, but is there more I should do to prevent future arguments, or is he right as he claims to live as though he and anyone else is just a board game character?

Lo for justice hear me glorious officials and their humble servant Jjkae. This happened some time ago on an island off a tropical coast. My party and I decided to participate in an underground pit fight in an effort to earn enough scratch to repair our ship. I loved every second of it, the elaborate monster skeleton decorated colleseum, the epic personal music that played before my party mates' 1v1 brawls with four armed gorillas and massive snakes! It was a chance to see what they could do on their own and really made them pop as the individuals that make our party uniquely great...then my fight happened. Before rolling initiative in the arena, indeed as the gate opened to show my combatant, a thick cloud of green mist rolls to my character. A Con save of 10 and my monk is asleep on the sand, being automatically crit by the monster multiple times. 1 turn later my companions are leaping in to pull this gaseous snake leopard (Kamadan) off of my near-dead monk and the fight is over. My character who had a harsh God and meritocracy mindset was devastated and left the group ashamed. I have now been dating the DM of that session for over 4 years and still haven't let it go. So my question for the court is this, has the statue of limitations expired on this obvious crime and what is his punishment? Thanks love you judges!

Jordan Jenkins