This is my first real experience with D&D. After listening to lots of incredible stories being told (Critical Role, TAZ, The Official D&D Podcast, Harmonquest, etc) and a long history reading these kind of adventures (David Eddings, Redwall, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, etc.), I decided that it was kind of a good idea to tell my own story with the help of some of my friends. Yay!
So, our first session we talked about what we wanted. We came up with two rules: 1) The tone is to be generally goofy and light-hearted. 2) I, as the DM, am not going to play the game with the tiers of gods and divine intervention. Sorry, dude. I just can't seriously create interesting problems for the group to solve, if I know there's always a common solution: "I ask for my all powerful best friend to give me the answer." Also, words have meanings, and the idea of worshiping gods we don't believe in makes me uncomfortable (even in the context of a game where everything is made up). This is my peccadillo, and my crew had to accept that, so they did.
So we did a couple sessions. They had a night out on the city, saved people from a burning warehouse, got into some trouble and were arrested by the police. Cool cool cool, everyone says they are having fun and enjoying it. "Oh, a friend of mine wants to come see what this is about. Can he join?" So we get another player for a session. He's a fellow prisoner, and they all break out together. He's enthusiastic, creative, and kind of a time sink, but clearly having fun. Cool, cool, cool. He asks to join for another session. I legitimately don't care about another character, so he comes in when he can (about once a month). We have established a D&D Group!
I started caring about him coming last session. He wants a god to grant him power. My response: if that's where your character thinks their power comes from, good for him. His response: my god is now at war with some other church. Woah woah woah! That's not a thing I want in my world. I don't want to have gods be a focus, or for religion to be a point of conflict. I allowed him to have his little deity, but now his god is causing me problems. How do I address this?
TLDR: I have a guy who wants to force deities into my heathen game. How do I get him to stop?
Steps Taken: I explained to him why I have a "no gods" policy. I told him that his idea might be a good one, but it's not one that I'm interested in pursuing.
Reaction: His character is preaching in the streets, declaring how his god will triumph over a different church. Neither of which I introduced into this world.
Well you are the DM and you are the one who decides what is and is not in your world. You could simply tell the player that they don't have the power to add an opposing church that they are fighting against, that would be up to you not them.
My suggestion is everyone starts treating him as a total crackpot anytime he starts spouting off about his 'god' Because those deities don't even exist so he must be sick in the head, maybe even have some pity him for his feeble mind. That might be a bit passive aggressive but legitimately none of the people that hear him have ever heard of these beings and would immediately dismiss him as a fool. If he continues with it make there be negative repercussions, the constabulary gets involved for him disturbing the peace, people throw food at him when he soapboxes. If NPCs may have heard of his preaching they will be disinclined to listen to anything he says dismissing him as cracked in the head.
After theat if he still pushes the envelope tell him in no uncertain words that bads things will happen to him ingame if he continues this behavior with a culmination of you are no longer welcome if you can't get on board with what you the DM are comfortable with playing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Just to be clear, you have no Clerics or Paladins or Warlocks..?
In the end, it's your game. Since his god doesn't exist, people will ignore or shun him if he make loud public statements. If he wants to proclaim a "war" against another church, let him. A member of that church can have a peaceful discussion with him, and then go from there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Just to be clear, you have no Clerics or Paladins or Warlocks..?
I don't think that's what the OP is saying. Those classes exist as classes. The concept of divine and internal power exists, but for reasons of personal taste and belief, those powers will not be interventionist nor will the concept of cults or religions be a major element or theme within this game. None of those classes' rule sets actually require that any entity even exist, let alone that it have a name or personality or any material effect on the world (possible exception of high level cleric, but even then the intervention need not be very personalised, just once every 7 days that character can attempt to call for a very high level spell effect).
The issue here is a mismatch of expectation, and a player overstepping the mark when it comes to contribution to world-building. I don't think any in game punishment or reaction from NPCs is going to fix the problem though. This will require an out of game chat, awkward perhaps since it involves a friend of a friend, but necessary. Just a quick thing before the next session "by the way, before you got here we kinda decided that gods and religions are not really a theme for this game. Would you mind toning down the whole religious war thing? Would you mind instead if we shift it into a conflict between rival powerful houses or something to keep the drama but without the heresy?". I think the player just wants drama, give them some but on your own terms.
I asked because if the offending character is a cleric, the DM has a choice of whether to allow him to have spells - your god doesn't exist so you have no power.
Your god is offended because you're causing a ruckus - no spells.
Your god is YOUR god. he is insanely jealous and only has ONE worshiper. Spreading word of him is against the rules unless you want to pass power to another.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Sure, but all those actions require the DM to play the role of a god, and take action in the world to smite its worshippers. That is exactly what the OP is very uncomfortable with and would like to avoid entirely. This is why I've suggested that this issue has to be addressed out of game, and out of character, but with an alternative dramatic situation to replace the religious strife rather than just shutting the player down entirely.
The issue here is a mismatch of expectation, and a player overstepping the mark when it comes to contribution to world-building. I don't think any in game punishment or reaction from NPCs is going to fix the problem though. This will require an out of game chat, awkward perhaps since it involves a friend of a friend, but necessary. Just a quick thing before the next session "by the way, before you got here we kinda decided that gods and religions are not really a theme for this game. Would you mind toning down the whole religious war thing? Would you mind instead if we shift it into a conflict between rival powerful houses or something to keep the drama but without the heresy?". I think the player just wants drama, give them some but on your own terms.
I think this is the play I need to take. Thank you. We just need to decide a different conflict for him to be in the center of.
There are clerics and paladins, but I was hoping the “god” would be replaced with emotions such as hope, love, revenge, anger or whatever. Their objective is to spread that motion or to protect that emotion. These emotions might come a central power or whatever, but they are inherint to the character and not an external force they can appeal to.
There are angels and demons. But they don’t represent good or evil, they just represent order and chaos. They live on the edges, trying to influence and counter things on a long term scale, not worrying about short term consequences.
I don’t have a problem with the character believing in an external force. I believe that can be explained by the character personifying some emotion or need they have. But it doesn’t feel right having him name that force and putting it up against another force (creating a seperation that I can’t justify).
Hello all,
This is my first real experience with D&D. After listening to lots of incredible stories being told (Critical Role, TAZ, The Official D&D Podcast, Harmonquest, etc) and a long history reading these kind of adventures (David Eddings, Redwall, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, etc.), I decided that it was kind of a good idea to tell my own story with the help of some of my friends. Yay!
So, our first session we talked about what we wanted. We came up with two rules: 1) The tone is to be generally goofy and light-hearted. 2) I, as the DM, am not going to play the game with the tiers of gods and divine intervention. Sorry, dude. I just can't seriously create interesting problems for the group to solve, if I know there's always a common solution: "I ask for my all powerful best friend to give me the answer." Also, words have meanings, and the idea of worshiping gods we don't believe in makes me uncomfortable (even in the context of a game where everything is made up). This is my peccadillo, and my crew had to accept that, so they did.
So we did a couple sessions. They had a night out on the city, saved people from a burning warehouse, got into some trouble and were arrested by the police. Cool cool cool, everyone says they are having fun and enjoying it. "Oh, a friend of mine wants to come see what this is about. Can he join?" So we get another player for a session. He's a fellow prisoner, and they all break out together. He's enthusiastic, creative, and kind of a time sink, but clearly having fun. Cool, cool, cool. He asks to join for another session. I legitimately don't care about another character, so he comes in when he can (about once a month). We have established a D&D Group!
I started caring about him coming last session. He wants a god to grant him power. My response: if that's where your character thinks their power comes from, good for him. His response: my god is now at war with some other church. Woah woah woah! That's not a thing I want in my world. I don't want to have gods be a focus, or for religion to be a point of conflict. I allowed him to have his little deity, but now his god is causing me problems. How do I address this?
TLDR: I have a guy who wants to force deities into my heathen game. How do I get him to stop?
Steps Taken: I explained to him why I have a "no gods" policy. I told him that his idea might be a good one, but it's not one that I'm interested in pursuing.
Reaction: His character is preaching in the streets, declaring how his god will triumph over a different church. Neither of which I introduced into this world.
Well you are the DM and you are the one who decides what is and is not in your world. You could simply tell the player that they don't have the power to add an opposing church that they are fighting against, that would be up to you not them.
My suggestion is everyone starts treating him as a total crackpot anytime he starts spouting off about his 'god' Because those deities don't even exist so he must be sick in the head, maybe even have some pity him for his feeble mind. That might be a bit passive aggressive but legitimately none of the people that hear him have ever heard of these beings and would immediately dismiss him as a fool. If he continues with it make there be negative repercussions, the constabulary gets involved for him disturbing the peace, people throw food at him when he soapboxes. If NPCs may have heard of his preaching they will be disinclined to listen to anything he says dismissing him as cracked in the head.
After theat if he still pushes the envelope tell him in no uncertain words that bads things will happen to him ingame if he continues this behavior with a culmination of you are no longer welcome if you can't get on board with what you the DM are comfortable with playing.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Just to be clear, you have no Clerics or Paladins or Warlocks..?
In the end, it's your game. Since his god doesn't exist, people will ignore or shun him if he make loud public statements. If he wants to proclaim a "war" against another church, let him. A member of that church can have a peaceful discussion with him, and then go from there.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I don't think that's what the OP is saying. Those classes exist as classes. The concept of divine and internal power exists, but for reasons of personal taste and belief, those powers will not be interventionist nor will the concept of cults or religions be a major element or theme within this game. None of those classes' rule sets actually require that any entity even exist, let alone that it have a name or personality or any material effect on the world (possible exception of high level cleric, but even then the intervention need not be very personalised, just once every 7 days that character can attempt to call for a very high level spell effect).
The issue here is a mismatch of expectation, and a player overstepping the mark when it comes to contribution to world-building. I don't think any in game punishment or reaction from NPCs is going to fix the problem though. This will require an out of game chat, awkward perhaps since it involves a friend of a friend, but necessary. Just a quick thing before the next session "by the way, before you got here we kinda decided that gods and religions are not really a theme for this game. Would you mind toning down the whole religious war thing? Would you mind instead if we shift it into a conflict between rival powerful houses or something to keep the drama but without the heresy?". I think the player just wants drama, give them some but on your own terms.
I asked because if the offending character is a cleric, the DM has a choice of whether to allow him to have spells - your god doesn't exist so you have no power.
Your god is offended because you're causing a ruckus - no spells.
Your god is YOUR god. he is insanely jealous and only has ONE worshiper. Spreading word of him is against the rules unless you want to pass power to another.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Sure, but all those actions require the DM to play the role of a god, and take action in the world to smite its worshippers. That is exactly what the OP is very uncomfortable with and would like to avoid entirely. This is why I've suggested that this issue has to be addressed out of game, and out of character, but with an alternative dramatic situation to replace the religious strife rather than just shutting the player down entirely.
I would instead have him preach that there actually is a god. Then people could throw rotten tomatoes at him or something.
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Sorry for the double post.
I think this is the play I need to take. Thank you. We just need to decide a different conflict for him to be in the center of.
There are clerics and paladins, but I was hoping the “god” would be replaced with emotions such as hope, love, revenge, anger or whatever. Their objective is to spread that motion or to protect that emotion. These emotions might come a central power or whatever, but they are inherint to the character and not an external force they can appeal to.
There are angels and demons. But they don’t represent good or evil, they just represent order and chaos. They live on the edges, trying to influence and counter things on a long term scale, not worrying about short term consequences.
I don’t have a problem with the character believing in an external force. I believe that can be explained by the character personifying some emotion or need they have. But it doesn’t feel right having him name that force and putting it up against another force (creating a seperation that I can’t justify).