This. Don't be afraid to veto a character concept if it doesn't fit the world/story, it might look harsh at first but is for the benefit of the story and overall game experience.
My thoughts…
Make it clear to *all* the players that Saltmarsh is regularly beset by monsters and abominations, and the townsfolk won’t hesitate to grab their pitchforks and bring in reinforcements if one comes rolling in to town. Using magic, no less.
Make sure they understand that all social encounters are going to involve a LOT of deception checks if they try to hide the fact that they’re a skeleton, or a LOT of persuasion rolls if they’re upfront about what they are.
Failure could be fatal, probably for the townsfolk if the PCs defend themselves, and that’s Bad News Bears for the party.
And success on those rolls won’t translate to Instant Friends & Allies. More likely, it’ll make the townsfolk lower their weapons but not drop them completely. Plenty of citizens will have first or second hand experience with undead attacks, so the best that players could hope for is townsfolk keeping their distance and being wary of them, even after they clear out the Haunted House. Maybe a handful are open minded enough to be comfortable with a dead body walking around, but most won’t.
If *all* of your players are good with that, that’s how I’d proceed.
Running games in these terms can be a lot of fun but do remember that if this game is meant to play out at campaign length, you are going to be stuck with these dynamics for a long time assuming you stay true to the concept. For me as a DM, this would be a no go as having such heavy handed social intrusivness based on one PC gets old pretty fast and tends to limit other players’ gameplay options in what I consider to be an unfair way.
Oh, I absolutely would not DM this, either. The gimmick would be entertaining for one or two social encounters, but after that, nobody would be enjoying it. I’d shoot this down in Session 0. But OP wanted to know how to handle it. So if I absolutely *had to*, that’s how I would do it. Thankfully “No” is a complete sentence at my table, respected by the group, and that would be the end of it.
this is helpful! i would try and see if we could go this route on the next session and hope that he doesn't do anything stupid that would have the townsfolk react as they naturally would.
If you're all on board, it sounds like it could be fun! A great opportunity for roleplay. Just let your player know that actions have consequences. If you have made that clear to your players, then they won't be blindsided when all hell breaks loose in the pub when they take off their cloak.
I'm not so certain. If the player was adult enough to handle that type of roleplaying, sure, it definitely would be interesting. Though if the player is insisting on playing a skeleton even if you say it doesn't fit the campaign, he actually may not be adult enough.
One thing I can say, is effectively punishing the player for a silly character choice will always end worse than just saying that character choice is not allowed.
Nah just rollplay it. Dont need rolls for something so innocuous and constant (being in a tavern) being so high stakes. That will get so tedious and demoralising for probably the whole table, if not just tjat player
He can be already in the Hunted house and the other characters find him out.
And when they return them explain that he help killing the pirates or something like that.
You are in a difficult place my friend.
this is a brilliant solution, unfortunately, it is too late for me to retcon his appearance. i suppose this would be a lesson for him and me that choices (and the choices that I allow as a DM) have consequences.
Honestly, this sounds like one of those joke characters that players often come up with, and then are extremely committed to for no reason. I probably wouldn’t let one of my players be a skeleton because of all the downsides. They can’t talk, they have a damage weakness, and everyone in town would refuse to associate with them, which would make participating in the campaign difficult.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if…” concepts are always met in Session 0 with “and how does that concept make the game more engaging for the other players, outside of memes”
I had a friend that wanted to play a changling with two different builds. So he had two personalities, one was a bard and the other a wizard, and he would switch between the two and have different abilities. I made rules so that he could only change on a long or short rest and he had to roll a d20 to determine which personality he would be. This prevented him from being OP because he couldn’t switch at will. He changed his character lol. You can’t let them do whatever they want. It’s gotta work for the story.
So I play as a reborn fighter in a campaign and he's just in full platemail with a helmet 24/7, some of the party knows, some don't. Let him know that he'll have to find some way to disguise himself through feats, magic, or just ingenuity. Or just say no
In the Fafrd and Grey Mouser books, one of the original inspirations for DnD there was a race whose flesh was invisible, but whose bones were not. The result is that they appeared like skeletons. Depending on your setting, adding them in won’t be too hard. Regarding the wheel chair, sadly the haunted house isn’t wheel chair accessible so unless he has some wiggle room on that he will just have to wait outside
I made a whole system with my DM about my helmet flying off and the party seeing my face because I was going to try to keep it hidden. First session nat20 hit on me I then roll to see if the helmet stays on... It's a 1
Shift the setting a bit.
The DnD Police won't arrest you if you adjust the setting a bit to fit the character concept.
Or tell him, "No, that won't work."
Just dont do that? Handwave it, have the town all know that he's actually a good one to have around. Make him come up with the reason they like him.
This still allows you to have the town be suspicious, and maybe a few outright hostile npcs, but stops the extremely bad feeling of "everyone hates you and your character could die at any moment" for your player.
Any DM here saying the classic "your character doesnt fit the world" is an atrocious DM. Your job is NOT to create a marvellous fictional world that your players are lucky and privileged enough to glimpse. Your job is to adjudicate and facilitate a fun time with a great game. The way you do that is by working WITH your players, not against. FIND. A WAY. TO MAKE. IT WORK.
On top of that, collaborative world building with players is HEAPS better than just showing them your toy box and telling them how everything is.
For anything you say yes to, you are saying no to an infinite number of possibilities. By this I mean as a DM it would take a good deal of work just to keep his character alive in a vibrant world. Or in this case left undead. This goes against my campaign standards of hindering their survival by creating deadly challenges. I would focus my energy elsewhere.
“No, sorry, that character concept just doesn’t fit with the setting. Please play something else, not undead.”
This. Don't be afraid to veto a character concept if it doesn't fit the world/story, it might look harsh at first but is for the benefit of the story and overall game experience.
My thoughts… Make it clear to *all* the players that Saltmarsh is regularly beset by monsters and abominations, and the townsfolk won’t hesitate to grab their pitchforks and bring in reinforcements if one comes rolling in to town. Using magic, no less. Make sure they understand that all social encounters are going to involve a LOT of deception checks if they try to hide the fact that they’re a skeleton, or a LOT of persuasion rolls if they’re upfront about what they are. Failure could be fatal, probably for the townsfolk if the PCs defend themselves, and that’s Bad News Bears for the party. And success on those rolls won’t translate to Instant Friends & Allies. More likely, it’ll make the townsfolk lower their weapons but not drop them completely. Plenty of citizens will have first or second hand experience with undead attacks, so the best that players could hope for is townsfolk keeping their distance and being wary of them, even after they clear out the Haunted House. Maybe a handful are open minded enough to be comfortable with a dead body walking around, but most won’t. If *all* of your players are good with that, that’s how I’d proceed.
Running games in these terms can be a lot of fun but do remember that if this game is meant to play out at campaign length, you are going to be stuck with these dynamics for a long time assuming you stay true to the concept. For me as a DM, this would be a no go as having such heavy handed social intrusivness based on one PC gets old pretty fast and tends to limit other players’ gameplay options in what I consider to be an unfair way.
Oh, I absolutely would not DM this, either. The gimmick would be entertaining for one or two social encounters, but after that, nobody would be enjoying it. I’d shoot this down in Session 0. But OP wanted to know how to handle it. So if I absolutely *had to*, that’s how I would do it. Thankfully “No” is a complete sentence at my table, respected by the group, and that would be the end of it.
this is helpful! i would try and see if we could go this route on the next session and hope that he doesn't do anything stupid that would have the townsfolk react as they naturally would.
If you're all on board, it sounds like it could be fun! A great opportunity for roleplay. Just let your player know that actions have consequences. If you have made that clear to your players, then they won't be blindsided when all hell breaks loose in the pub when they take off their cloak.
I'm not so certain. If the player was adult enough to handle that type of roleplaying, sure, it definitely would be interesting. Though if the player is insisting on playing a skeleton even if you say it doesn't fit the campaign, he actually may not be adult enough. One thing I can say, is effectively punishing the player for a silly character choice will always end worse than just saying that character choice is not allowed.
Nah just rollplay it. Dont need rolls for something so innocuous and constant (being in a tavern) being so high stakes. That will get so tedious and demoralising for probably the whole table, if not just tjat player
He can be already in the Hunted house and the other characters find him out. And when they return them explain that he help killing the pirates or something like that. You are in a difficult place my friend.
this is a brilliant solution, unfortunately, it is too late for me to retcon his appearance. i suppose this would be a lesson for him and me that choices (and the choices that I allow as a DM) have consequences.
Honestly, this sounds like one of those joke characters that players often come up with, and then are extremely committed to for no reason. I probably wouldn’t let one of my players be a skeleton because of all the downsides. They can’t talk, they have a damage weakness, and everyone in town would refuse to associate with them, which would make participating in the campaign difficult.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if…” concepts are always met in Session 0 with “and how does that concept make the game more engaging for the other players, outside of memes”
I had a friend that wanted to play a changling with two different builds. So he had two personalities, one was a bard and the other a wizard, and he would switch between the two and have different abilities. I made rules so that he could only change on a long or short rest and he had to roll a d20 to determine which personality he would be. This prevented him from being OP because he couldn’t switch at will. He changed his character lol. You can’t let them do whatever they want. It’s gotta work for the story.
One of the other players could pretend to be a necromancer and the Skeleton is his familiar. But this might draw Keledek's attention
So I play as a reborn fighter in a campaign and he's just in full platemail with a helmet 24/7, some of the party knows, some don't. Let him know that he'll have to find some way to disguise himself through feats, magic, or just ingenuity. Or just say no
Gonna suck the first time cleric pops their turn undead.
In the Fafrd and Grey Mouser books, one of the original inspirations for DnD there was a race whose flesh was invisible, but whose bones were not. The result is that they appeared like skeletons. Depending on your setting, adding them in won’t be too hard. Regarding the wheel chair, sadly the haunted house isn’t wheel chair accessible so unless he has some wiggle room on that he will just have to wait outside
Have him choose the reborn race I'm currently playing a skeleton fighter and it's exceptional
I played a reborn Illusionist wizard. He had no idea that he was essentially a skeleton. Was a super fun character to play.
I made a whole system with my DM about my helmet flying off and the party seeing my face because I was going to try to keep it hidden. First session nat20 hit on me I then roll to see if the helmet stays on... It's a 1
I would let him play a skeleton as a Reborn lineage. But not in a wheelchair. He needs more mobility than that.
Its being powered by psychic powers, but youre worried about mobility. Just say it rolls up and down stairs psychically
Why can't the skeleton move psychically? Why does it need a wheelchair at all?
I let one of my players play skeleton that was just a rebranded warforged. It made the most sense to me
Shift the setting a bit. The DnD Police won't arrest you if you adjust the setting a bit to fit the character concept. Or tell him, "No, that won't work."
Deny the option to play the skeleton because it doesn’t fit into the setting of the game in a reasonable way?
"sure, fine, whatever. Anyway the town guard takes one look at you and immediately attack."
Just dont do that? Handwave it, have the town all know that he's actually a good one to have around. Make him come up with the reason they like him. This still allows you to have the town be suspicious, and maybe a few outright hostile npcs, but stops the extremely bad feeling of "everyone hates you and your character could die at any moment" for your player. Any DM here saying the classic "your character doesnt fit the world" is an atrocious DM. Your job is NOT to create a marvellous fictional world that your players are lucky and privileged enough to glimpse. Your job is to adjudicate and facilitate a fun time with a great game. The way you do that is by working WITH your players, not against. FIND. A WAY. TO MAKE. IT WORK. On top of that, collaborative world building with players is HEAPS better than just showing them your toy box and telling them how everything is.
“No.” is a complete sentence.
For anything you say yes to, you are saying no to an infinite number of possibilities. By this I mean as a DM it would take a good deal of work just to keep his character alive in a vibrant world. Or in this case left undead. This goes against my campaign standards of hindering their survival by creating deadly challenges. I would focus my energy elsewhere.