The standard #ttrpg dungeon crawl is problematically colonial: "We want these treasures, and if the natives try to stop us, we'll just have to kill them in self defense."
How can the story be tweaked to avoid this, while maintaining the action/adventure idea of solving problems through personal violence?
I guess the obvious answer is to ally the player characters with the oppressed rather than with the empire. Perhaps more interesting would be to have them *start* allied with the empire, then slowly turn up the wrongness until they switch sides.
@peterdrake as a beginner player who didn't grow up with ttrpg, one thing that repeatedly struck me as odd is the fact that once combat is initiated, there's no going back. Like the phrase "roll initiative" is the very definition of "either you die or I die". There's no change of mind allowed, no going back allowed, no further negotiation allowed. (1/2)
@rosareven Huh. I see no reason why it HAS to be that way, although ttrpgs' roots in wargaming might make it the default. Either side could run away. Certainly it's common in movies for the fight to be interrupted and one side to learn things about the other before they meet again.
Of course, making peace is going to be difficult if you've been killing each others' loved ones...
@hishamzerriffi @peterdrake it's also very likely that my dms have not been great lol
@rosareven @peterdrake sorry to hear that. maybe a conversation they are willing to have? Or bring it up at session zero next time starting a new game?
@peterdrake @rosareven But it's also not just fight or run away. As a GM if a player wanted to use their turn to stop combat through negotiation or similar, I'd allow it with a role for persuasion or similar. DC could even be set based on what the player is using as an argument to end the combat. DC might end up being pretty high depending on circumstances but not necessarily impossible.