Role-playing Log, Rend-fol, April 4, 2009

Summary:

Rend-fol and Str8 Rippin' plunged deeper into Ne'ral's nest. The party first battled an iron construct guarding bronze double doors. Floating orbs on either side of the room arced lightning across the expanse as the party struggled to fell the massive golem. Rend got hit by the room lightning twice, each bolt dealing no damage but rendering the victim "dazed." Normally, a toon can take three actions during their turn: a standard, a move, and minor. But when dazed, a toon can only take ONE of those actions. It can be any of the three, but only one. Spending the ENTIRE fight with only one action per turn rendered Rend the metaphorical equivalent of a hero in a wheel chair, veinly spinning his wheels and contributing as much effort to the fight as a bare-legged, black-socked senior citizen.

Role-playing Quantity: Low

Precious little opportunity to role-play. And Rend squandered the only real chance he had to reassert his true nature.

Role-playing Quality: Low

Rhogar, the party's resident dragonborn barbarian plunged himself down a 100 foot deep fang-shaped chasm. Rend pushed a pair of sandstone doors open and, without looking before he leaped, Rhogar rushed past him into a dark abyss. Rhogar didn't die from the fall (close though). And contrary to every fiber of his being, I had Rend leap over the bridge (that Rhogar did not narrowly miss) in a heroic gesture of sacrifice and rescue.

Wrong!

Rend should have pointed down the chasm and laughed. In hindsight, it turned out Rhogar didn't need anyone to help him. The dragonborn dispatched the minion insects that quickly surrounded him. Since the fall didn't kill him and the monsters waiting at the bottom didn't either, Rend could have had a memorable role-playing moment, worthy of his back story, character, and semi-evil intent. Instead, I panicked. I abandoned role-playing, meta-gamed, and calculated that Rhogar would likely die if too few of Str8 Rippin' came to his aid.

Lesson learned.