*BEFORE you read this any further, be aware that this post contains reference to rape themes. In no way are they described or detailed, but they are a central part to the story. Oh boy, here we go….

After the first game I joined ended for me (The First Red Flags), I returned to /lfg searching to fill the void. My desires were still picky, searching for a game that matched exactly what I was looking for, when I came across T’s game. Homebrew world driven by player actions, check. Player backstories integrated into the main themes, check. Looking for roleplayers to explore a living world, check. Ticked my boxes, so off went the application.

Character creation went smoothly, promising a good game ahead. T was a helpful GM and gave me faith in his game to come, expressing many ideals that I myself subscribe to when it comes to running a game. We all discussed our classes in Discord and the party was formed, consisting of;

Skrapple the half-orc barbarian, hailing from a tribe who deemed him unworthy (I think?).

Alpip the gnome wizard who loved narcotics and spoke like a surfer.

Allana the half-elf bard who took to playing the flute to escape a town of thugs and rapists.

Monk (can’t remember the character name), a human from a monastery that tracks down rogue wizards.

Rogue whose people lived in a mountain and had left to explore the outside.

Vera the human cleric (me), who suffered from hypochondria due to almost dying from disease.

Even without the disclaimer I don’t think you need a hint to see who this one will be about.

The other girl in the group was playing Allana that bard. T sent me the backstory, trying to think what to make of it as a fellow GM. I believe I have the whole thing laying around here somewhere, but let me paraphrase for your sanity.

Allana’s mother was an elf who was raped by a human man and became pregnant. The other elves she lived with were disgusted by her being the victim of rape and kicked her out of the village. The mother moved to a human town and had the child, Allana.

The mother couldn’t stand the child and left it to be raised by a seamstress, though she still remained in town. The seamstress raised her, teaching her the trade. When Allana was in her teens she worked hard for a noble and was granted a flute for reward.

The people in town hated her for being different, so she escaped by playing music. She soon got jobs at the tavern and became a regular favourite (but the townspeople still hated her (I am not making this up)). Most nights on her way home thugs would try to rape her (still not making this up). Eventually she packed her bags and left town.

Ok. T wasn’t sure what to do with this and as a fellow GM I can feel his pain. A game driven by character stories makes it hard when you make your whole background circle around rapists, unless you’re playing a particularly grim setting and all the players are aware of that. He decided to leave it and see how things played out in game.

Now for context it is important to mention that Vera (my character) had a healthy dislike of elves. Her backstory revolved around an elven man bringing an unknown disease to her town that killed 99% of the occupants and almost killed her too. Since then she had become paranoid and fearful of just about everything that she could contract sickness from. This obviously included the party. She never liked to touch them without gloves and if in the case of when she had to I had already planned around it by buying soap with my starter money. Lots of soap. Literally as much soap as she could carry before becoming encumbered. Lucky soap is cheap.

So the game started the usual way, characters meet at a crossroads in life and band together to earn some money, though the half-orc barb hadn’t joined us yet as he had to miss the first two sessions. Straight off the bat it is clear Allana’s player is not really playing a character, more that she is just playing herself in a fantasy world. This started out fine, but over the course of six sessions the problems got worse and worse.

Session one was pretty standard, everyone getting to know each other. Vera expressed her dislike of germs loudly and often told the half-elf not to stand near her. The replies I got back I enjoyed as I thought it was a character replying and not a personal issue. Allana was playing the nice, friendly, smile at everyone girl. Not the personality I was expecting with the backstory, which combined with other hints, confirmed for T and I that she was just being a form of herself. Ok, can roll with that.

Session two found us travelling to a desolate town, a lone survivor telling us it had fallen to a terrible disease. We arrived to find it wasn’t so much a disease but a demon of disease. We killed the minor demon who gave us a foreboding story about demon princes or some such. Back to town.

Vera expressed concern that the survivor was one of the demons, her paranoia about how he even escaped pushing her to condemn the man. Allana decide to question the man via flirting with him.

Soon after a powerful story npc arrived and destroyed the disguised demon. On introductions Allana again began to flirt with him. I could understand this one, he was a very impressive man after all right?

We talk with the npc he tells us about an apocalypse or some such, receive directions to speak to someone who knows more. Enter session three.

The half-orc arrives in town, a very naive and friendly man. Upon meeting him Allana again flirts with him for a couple of minutes. This just confirms the future of this party for me, it was a roving tour of Allana and her harem building.

For the next three sessions the games progress like this, Allana flirting with every npc that T brought in and with the party members. No matter what was going on she’d always find a way to be a part of it. One scene in particular comes to mind. For context, Skrapple avoided most of her flirting by deciding that Vera had in some way committed a marriage custom of his people and so they were betrothed. This was amusing for our players, since Vera was too disgusted by the green barbarian to even stand near him in fear of germs. This particular scene takes place in a market, the party had all split into groups to buy things and get things done. Allana, Alpip and rogue had just finished their scene of buying magical scrolls (they unfortunately didn’t get a discount even with all Allana’s winking and pouting). Vera is looking for cloth in order to make bandages and protective wrappings, demons of disease and all. Skrapple accompanies her.

Skrapple “Are you looking for a wedding dress my beloved? This is much nicer cloth than from my home!”

Vera “What? No! I am not your beloved nor are we getting married. I need to find some suitable cloth for my work. I also need soap, as do you by the look of it.”

Skrapple “Oh. Well… Hey look, this one is nice! It’d make a great dress!”

Allana types that she has been behind us listening to our conversation then says “Skrapple, you need to get some finer cloth so Vera can wear some sexy lingerie on your wedding night. I can show you if you like.”

This was followed by my character awkwardly trying to get things back on track for the game. Now you can understand why, if my frustration was a graph, it’d show as hitting all time highs.

I expressed my distaste for it to T who also assured me he didn’t much like it either. He promised to talk to her and have it sorted. I left it with him and hoped next week would be better. The next week was my last.

The straw that broke me was a scene in an inn. The characters are sitting together discussing what to do next. Allana comes and sits next to Vera and puts her arm around her, knowing full well Vera doesn’t like to be touched let alone by an elf. This is what followed.

Vera stands up, scrambling away from the elf in panic “Don’t touch me you filthy creature! You lot carry the disease and I won’t catch it again! I don’t want to die like the rest of them!”

Allana stands and angrily shouts back “I am not dirty! You lot are the ones who raped my mother and tried to rape me! Humans are rapists!”

This shut down the character interactions or developments pretty quickly, the subject a touchy one in calm times let alone a player yelling it at another. With an exasperated sigh I sat back and didn’t much engage with the rest of the session. After the game was done I spoke to T and let him know that I couldn’t continue with Allana’s countryside tour of flirtation. Enough was enough for me. So ended my second /lfg journey.

Saving Throws

T was a great GM. His world was thoughtful, his npcs relatable and believable. He used voices, shifted his speech or accents to give each of them their own sound to distinguish them apart. We all can’t be voice actors, but giving npcs their own style of talking or voice is a very easy way to set them apart and give personality. This makes them a person for your players, not just an info board, and helps cement their immersion in the world they are playing.

T also rewarded us for thinking outside the box, which is a great GM trait. One mini boss we killed without rolling initiative, simply because we created and cultivated an excellent plan. As a GM you’re always thinking of things to throw at your players, you’ve made you bad guy, he’s got his own plans in motion and he’s there to cause terror for your PCs. It’s easy to forget that the PCs are there to play the story, to defeat the bad guys, and sometimes they do it in ways that you don’t expect. Don’t punish them for it, reward them. It makes the game much funner for them and creates something they will remember as badass forever after.

Where do I start.

Character backstories can mean as little as a reasonable “why” to your character or they can be a plot story to shape campaigns. When writing a good backstory you should always keep the game in mind. What kind of theme are you joining? Is it high fantasy, low, grimm dark? Make your character fit the world. From there build some plot hooks for the GM. Who are you, who are your friends and family, who is your enemy, why are you here and not at home? Every little plot hook, even one as small as mentioning your childhood friend was Joe, can be used by the GM to give some meaning for your character. Every small piece of information helps.

When you write certainties and dead ends it makes it much harder for the GM to use. Including darker themes, such as rape, into games isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a theme you have to be careful about, especially if you’re doing so for a brand new group you’ve just met. Make sure the GM oks it, but also have other things about your character that define them.

When you’re in a roleplay focused game, you have to make sure you have a good idea of your character. Your character can be based on you or parts of you, that’s fine, but you have to be able to draw the line between yourself and your character. Characters often have disagreements or dislikes of each other, it creates drama and story, but you have to be able to separate a character talking distastefully to your character and not a player to player. A lot of drama I see or hear about games is when this line gets fuzzy and people take IC events personally. Every player has a responsibility to both understand when something is IC it is not a personal attack, and to be able to asses if the things they are doing are going to be taken negatively in more than just the IC game. Remember, this is a game, it is about having fun, and that fun is dependant on each other.

Flirting in game is fine, it can be fun, it can be silly. It is not a bad thing, until you make it uncomfortable for any other player. It has a time and a place. If that time and place is every time you talk to anyone IC, then that’s probably not a good thing. I strongly believe romantic relations between characters and npcs/pcs is a good thing, again giving them immersion to the world and connection to important things for their character, but the moment it’s awkward for anyone, player or GM, it should be discouraged, skipped or faded to black. Fade to black is a GMs best friend, don’t feel like you can’t use it whenever things are out of hand or uncomfortable.

So that’s all for the second Dungeon Disaster. Have you ever experienced anything similar? If so, what do you think are the best ways of dealing with this, as a player or GM? As always, I love to hear similar thoughts and stories and look forward to them!