Ahdok @ ahdok @ttrpg.network Posts 121Comments 605Joined 2 yr. ago
I think I'll answer this in two separate answers, so as not to conflate in-game issues with real-world issues.
Let's talk a little about how real-world conspiracy theories work, and the dangers therein. I don't want to get too into this, because I don't think this is the right forum for such things, but there's some important things to consider.
- Nobody is a fully rational actor all the time. Regardless of how "easy" something is to debunk there's always going to be a few people here and there who hear it from a source they trust and believe it. It's incredibly wearing to have to independently check every single thing you hear to see if it's true.
- It's a widely known problem that when presented with a narrative about something they have no experience of, most humans will subscribe to the first viewpoint they're exposed to, and it's significantly harder to convince a person that they're wrong once they've formed an opinion - reason and logic be damned. Plenty of otherwise-rational people might subscribe to something that makes no sense if they've heard it a few times without any pushback.
- The idea that if it's "only a small number of people" it's not dangerous is a little flawed. Some conspiracies are silly and mostly harmless, and don't put other people in danger. However, conspiracies about a specific person or place can lead its subscribers to "take matters into their own hands", endangering those people or places. We've had plenty of examples of this that have cost lives.
- A lot of the time, it's less important how many people are subscribed to an irrational or easily debunked crackpot theory, but who those people are. We've seen examples in most developed nations of legislators up to the highest levels promoting baseless and dangerous rhetoric that influences a large number of people to action. Certain celebrities on social media are known for directly making baseless conspiratorial attacks on people, that drive their fans and supporters to take up those attacks as a cause.
I'm refraining from specific examples, because I don't want this to degenerate into an argument about specific examples, however I hope that this makes sense without the need for such.
I'm making comics as often as I can - this plotline has a fair few left to run.
Oh... these colours are... specific :)
I think I'll answer this in two separate answers, so as not to conflate in-game issues with real-world issues.
To address the issue in the game world,. it's not quite as easy as issuing a statement of support. After all, It's already known that the church supports Konsi, a lot of people won't see the statement, and nothing they could say would come close to measuring up to open recognition of her deeds by the Open Lord...
The issue isn't really about Konsi's character at all, the issue is that there's an opportunity for opponents of the church to run a smear campaign, and there's no shortage of people who might want to do that.
Agents of Beshaba will not care if the majority of people believe them, and won't be trying to convince everyone. They just want to publicly allege corruption, throw in some doubt and confusion. They want to give ammunition to those who want to be convinced that the church is bad to back up those views. Give them ammunition to reinforce their existing beliefs.
There are plenty of people who dislike how much power the Tower of Luck has, especially over the gambling industry in Waterdeep. Some people don't want to pay fees or employ members of the tower to oversee games, it's almost like guild dues. Some people want to run crooked games, but find it difficult to find marks when all the reputable games are sponsored by the church. Some people believe that it's not the place of the church to be doing any of this, the size and power of the Tower of Luck isn't at all consistent with how the faith is normally represented - there are theologians who argue that Waterdhavian Tymoran faith is a heretical sect.
Some of the nobles who lost in the tournament might have a bit of a bruised ego from "losing to a goblin" - if they can cause a controversy about the match, claim there was a fix they can convince people around them, and themselves that they didn't "really" lose.
And... of course, those people who just absolutely hate, hate, hate goblins (of which there are many) will be inclined to believe the worst, no matter what anyone says or does.
If such attacks were made, would it seriously damage the church? Probably not - but it'll cost them a few people here and there. Worse, it could form the foundation of a sustained assault on the position and power they hold in Waterdeep, and it's the job of the church's leaders to protect that.
I imagine, if anything does happen, there will be more specific details in future comics...
I shall mention it to my web admin
(Edit): Bot fight mode breaks wordpress' commenting system, which ideally I'd like to preserve.
I suppose as a coda... Real world conspiracy theories often take root more strongly when they don't make complete sense. They're often self-selecting for irrational actors.
If rational people are quick to point out flaws in your conspiracy theory, it feels more like there are powers trying to cover something up.
Well that, but also she's still a goblin. Religious institutions in the Forgotten Realms traditionally view goblins as less than worthless, and most people in Waterdeep think of Goblins the same way, regardless of the person's actual accomplishments.
Most people would assume that the church would be willing to abandon a goblin at a moment's notice to protect their reputation - especially if they're not familiar with the people involved, or the full extent of her deeds. Honestly, most people in Waterdeep think the church is tarnishing its reputation by having a goblin in their ranks in the first place.
those guys would probably like her :)
most of these AI scrapers don't respect robots.txt, so I'm not sure that really helps much, but... we have tried doing all of these things.
Yeah, I post to tumblr, extwitter, mastodon, and bluesky. https://linktr.ee/ahdok
We are already using cloudflare.
Some ideas for GMs of high level parties:
- Low level party seeks our your party for advice, or help with something outside of their abilities
- Newspaper reporter seeks interview for puff-piece about adventurer lifestyles
- Newspaper reporter seeks interview so they can write hit-piece on a party member
- Fans of the party's exploits show up and ask for autographs
- That play scene from Avatar the Last Airbender
- Merchants keep pitching increasingly plausible investment opportunities
- Party encounters someone dressed up as the most famous member of the party, using their identity to claim free drinks at the pub
- Unskilled squire requests to join party to help with their adventures
- Legendary Swordsman seeks out party member for a duel
- Everyone you meet asks for money
Here's a short little "meanwhile" comic as a bonus, since it's been a while.
Oh, apologies about my personal website. My hosting is done by a friend with a small server, and... well basically every wordpress site in existence is now under constant effective-DDoS by AI bots trying to scrape all the data. They're not subtle about it, and just try to download all the pictures simultaneously. My server is too small to handle that load, so just reboots when that happens (it's usually down for about a minute).
The fact that it's near constantly down is just a product of how often I'm getting these requests.
Tall Goblin is called a Verdan.
5e does use "racial traits" to define most of the characteristics of a species other than age, height and weight though, but... since this is about height and weight, let's work through what the rules actually say:
In current 5e, the current orc stats have this text under Height and Weight:
"Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. "
There isn't really anything, anywhere, in the orc kit that suggests they can't be skinny or lithe. In fact, the key art for the Orc race depicts quite a skinny orc.
Now, despite this, someone might want to use the rules text to say "orcs are massive" regardless. If you do want to make this argument, the only thing there that supports the statement is a racial trait. Specifically: the Powerful Build feature, which implies that orcs are bulky.
If you argue "traits don't define the characteristics of a species" then there's nothing at all to suggest orcs should be big. If you do accept "traits" as being able to define the characteristics of a species, then you can point to the powerful build trait as evidence, but that's all there is.
The joke in this post here is thus: If you were to take that feature out, you're just left describing human builds.
Now you can have any mental image you like, run your games how you want, use whatever interpretation you want... You can say "I know what orcs are like from other media experiences, and they're large. That's all fine.
Just remember that this post is just a joke. It's saying "look! they removed the only thing that says orcs are big, so here's what happens." That's all.
Yes.
5e very often puts caveats into the rules text for an item/spell/monster, and they very often don't match the "generic rule". The advantage here is that you shouldn't have to cross-reference stuff as often to know what's happening. The disadvantage is that, because you don't ever reference the generic rule, people often don't know it even exists.
In 5e it's quite hard to find the rules for "stat reduced to zero", however the only stat that causes instant death at zero is CON.
Eh, it's a playable fight in 4e. The biggest flaw there is it's not particularly exciting as an encounter.