Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

Last night, Sneppers ran his Kobold game. We've been tasked by our new Dragon to steal a magical item from Grimmerauld the Green called the Squeamous Sextant. Once we have it, we give it to our nemesis Glenn Goodhope so HE can find a third dragon and fight them. After the fight, we kobolds take out the weakened victor.

But there's a wrinkle: my warlock Kosk is now a true follower of the Green Lord after being saved from the afterlife by his Patron, and the Green Lord says that Grimmerauld is an imminent threat to the Balance. If Kosk accepted the Dragon's offer to become a part of her cult, he would be cut off from his power entirely.

From Kosk's perspective, it's not enough to steal something out of a Dragon's Hoard right out from under her nose -- he has to uncover and expose her Big Secret. But for a kobold who already died once -- and whose packmates seem to be on their own journeys -- Kosk knows better than to come at this half-cocked.

It *feels* like the consensus around the table is that the characters are a bit stuck, but I'm not sure how much of that view is shared among the players. To me it feels like we're still feeling a lot of things out for a few reasons.

First, we're in the hostile territory of a very powerful enemy who seems to be all about control. The cult members we've seen have been earnest and devout, which means it's quite unlikely we'll find a willing accomplice among them. We don't know what Grimmerauld is seeing or hearing, so we have to be extra-careful about what we say or do. That's not something we're used to doing as chaos goblins.

At least, from my POV, I could easily see us getting into a situation where five kobolds are split between two (or more) locations that aren't easy to get to at combat speed, then having a suspicious exchange escalate to a combat scene. Since all members of Grimmerauld's cult have Eye tattoos, does that mean she could immediately see through the tattoos to know immediately what's going on? How far does her reach extend? Could she like, control the bodies of her cult members -- especially if they're willing? What kind of traps or arcane landmines are around? We could so, so easily end up isolated against overwhelming numbers AND Lair surprises. The cost of error is soooo high, and it feels so easy to make a mistake that might kill the whole party.

Second, significant and direct information feels locked behind a "paywall" -- but this is a totally logical thing I'm not sure there's an easy fix for? Our pack is viewed with everything from hostile suspicion to friendly bemusement, but we can't *learn* anything unless we "take the Eye" and join Grimmerauld's cult. THAT feels like a decision you can't cross your fingers behind your back for, and in Kosk's mind it will literally lead to abandonment from his Patron. After being given up by Kurtlemauk in the afterlife so willingly, Kosk has no illusions about how dragons feel about kobolds. He has no interest in wasting his loyalty on someone who treats it like it's worthless.

So even without the threat of powerlessness, teaming with Grimmerauld is a non-starter. So it puts this...distance between him and everyone he meets, knowing that they're effectively enemies until he can expose Grimmerauld and break whatever hold she has over them. And that kinda sucks, because a lot of these NPCs are pretty cool.

So...we can't piss off the NPCs because that might draw an alarm, but we can't befriend or convert the NPCs (presumably) because there are no cracks in their alliance, they're true believers. It takes some very deft social engineering to extract delicate information from relative strangers in a suspicious, tightly-controlled culture. Geeks...are not great with this. :)

Third, I think the party dynamics have eroded to the point we're not thinking about how to collaborate with each other. Two players went through what sounds like an intense and ugly breakup that's still not..."resolved", and they're only together when they play this game. One of those players, perhaps as a way to assert a demand for respect in the wake of this, took advantage of some REAL luck through the Deck of Many Things to do things that would make the game more fun for him and shake up his character significantly.

This directly ran against the sensibilities of a third player, who felt his character had been made redundant while introducing elements into the game he really didn't want to be there (while most of the rest of the table doesn't mind as much). The third player is introducing a different character to resolve this, we just have to...tidy up this story before we can introduce them.

But overall I'm not sure the inherent tension between these two players is ever going to go away through the campaign. That makes them play a bit tighter, which has ripple effects across the party. Before there was this sense of "we rag on each other ALL DAY, but I'll die for you" and now there's...not that. There are real bruised feelings underneath the surface that have no outlet because there's no in-game analog. I think our "Deck of Many Things" ex-kobold/now-dragonborn rogue got the change he needed to feel comfortable being more assertive, but his RL ex (and our in-game bard) is doing their best to find ways to avoid interacting. Even if they do find a new dynamic that works for them, I'm not sure it'll have that 'family' feel of yesteryear.

So: players sensitive about their situation in ways there's no immediate way to address, characters unmoored by a new pack dynamic in a hostile environment that works by unknown rules, where mistakes might mean complete mission failure at any moment. That's a lot to fight through to be a fearless chaos gremlin.

And here's the thing: Sneppers has made a legitimately great scenario that we would have found seven ways to dismantle. And this game, we've made real progress! I'm rather proud of the decision I ultimately came to for Kosk (which will hopefully resolve next session) and our bard had an MVP session patching up her relationship with a gnome so he could pickpocket her vault key AND learn her secret password. The ball's starting to roll downhill.

And I don't think any of these factors would have the same impact in isolation. But stacked on top of one another, I could see how it would make players kinda grind to a halt as they tried to navigate this social minefield with characters who are not used to doing so.

I personally think this has been an interesting challenge that...while it took time...plugged me back into a core concept for Kosk. He's *supposed* to be this weird little kobold, strangely charismatic and persuasive, who leaves people with this unsettled feeling though they can never remember why. That didn't survive play at the table, but now might be a good time to revisit this and see what I can do with it.

On the player side, it feels like the best play is to treat the players as the people they wish to be. I've been trying to position Kosk as a potential confidant and advisor to our rogue, and it's actually easy to be the hype-man for our bard; he's hilarious. If I can pull off the "uncanny face" bit, maybe this could be a stealth way to flex presentation and project-management muscles. It IS a low-key dream to be able to plan a heist one day. >.>

Anyway, just thoughts. The game is really fun, even now, but I'm worried about this fundamental shift between our players. I don't want to lose either of them, but I don't know what sort of dynamic we could get to that would be comfortable for both of them. I guess the only thing *I* can do is make the environment as welcoming for them as possible, give them permission to open up and explore again.