Ok, I'm playing in a dnd 4th edition game, and uhm, I need some help with something that's going to come up shortly in the campaign.

So you know, this group is...mostly evil. And now, mostly undead. To start with, we weren't evil to begin with, we turned as such cause two people in the group were evil, since no one talks over these things before making characters >:( But, anyway.

We have one undead sea lich who wants to dispose of the old god of death, and take her place.

We have a death paladin.

A...tree...wraith...thing.

New kid, who is a were shark, and this is important, still living.

And me, who was until currently, the only living creature in the group. I'm a cleric. I also happen to think I am my god, that I'm the god of nature, not just a worshipper of her, but an actual avatar of her, who will one day take over her place. It's sort of complicated. But, I'm still alive. On a ship of...dead creatures.

Shark boy there, well, we picked him up working for the opposite side in a pirate war. He was, sorta sucking at combat with bad rolls, which in character, made it seem like he was pulling his punches against his old boss. Old boss doesn't pull punches, kid dies (which is hard to do, with me there! He got hit, went down, boss guy went before me, helpless target dies. Cause otherwise, he would have been very, very healthy. I have no combat skills. Just healing)

So, kid has two options. He either becomes an undead were-shark controlled by sea lich, orrrr, he gets brought back to life by me, as a normal living person. I just need to be really convincing of the fact that one, I own his soul now, two, I own his soul now, and two, he still has to listen to the paladin and the lich, mostly cause they are...uhm, yeah, sort of pushy in the game. But anyway. I've been trying to figure out to be convincing, but I'm not.

In technical terms, it's not hard. I have a bluff so high, it's astronomical (the gm gave us templates, and bonuses, and it's all awesome. no worry about the bluff). But really, this is something that needs to be roleplayed out.

So, there's my weird rpg story...thing.

I can try to be of some assistance... considering I'm currently DMing a campaign myself (3.5 though, but eh).

In the short of it I see two obvious options:
1) Play up the fact that under you, while you technically hold their soul, they would have a great deal more freedom than they would as a servitor of a lich (even if not true in this case, it will be with Bluff ).
2) Play to the alive angle, that while they are effectively yours in death (and by various degrees in life), they still don't end up being an undead abomination (Either in terms of "Woot Nature is Good" or "Go Team Breathing").

I could probably come up with more given time.
Also... random question... does "The Board" mean anything to you?

Uhm, I don't think that means anything to me, no.

See, a major aspect of the character here is she is actually becoming an avatar of nature (I get bonus to different things depending on where I am, from become, well...nature itself). Old goddess of nature = a...spring aspect? Maybe summer, at the least, good. This aspect if going for the whole, nature red in tooth and claw thing going on. Another reason she wants to have a widdle were-shark minion.

In regards to that last reason, who doesn't love having minions?

Anyway, then perhaps you can play up a sort of reawakening into the primal nature of self for them (i.e. embrace your inner Were-). Offer in terms of this being a step towards greater things for the character (while perhaps downplaying the whole 'soul is mine angle' and playing up the 'Death is Stagnation' angle).

All in all, if you are going for the violence of nature aspect of it, then definitely play to the idea of their innate animalistic nature.

Ok, I think I have a...rough outline for the chat.

Greetings soul. You are at an important crossroads right now, in that you have a choice to make. You can either be an undead abomination, under the complete control on a sea-lich, or you can be alive, under my control, and trust me, you'd have a lot more freedom under me.

Staying dead isn't really an option here, see? You can't just choose to stay dead, by the way. If you haven't figured it out by now, we are not just some petty pirate gang. We are gods among men. Well, I am a god, the others are just...trying to join me there. A change of the guards, if you will. And trust me, you want to be on the good side of either me or the sea-lich when this happens, because there's going to be...turmoil, to say the least.

Working for the sea-lich, you'll be little more than a pawn, you see. Not even a well liked pawn, mind you. Working for me, you'll become the very embodiment of sharkness, the ideal of nature red in tooth and claw. You will become an exemplar in combat, ruthless, and deadly. And you will be honoured for that, if just by me, on this....ship of the dead we have here.

Of course, you will still have to listen to the sea-lich, and maybe the paladin. But if they start to try and go too far, I'll figure out something.

So there's your choice. Soul owned by an undead sea-lich who could care less what happens to you...or soul owned by me, to be raised to the highest of the heavens, an exemplar of violence and nature at its finest. Your choice, soul. But you don't have very long.

- It could be better, I know.

And you likely won't end up sticking to the script anyway (or at least in my experience few people do). In any case its a good start and given any dissent from the player/character in question, I imagine you'll be able to think of a few further lines of thought to pressure them into being your minion

Man, we should run a campaign for Lusty players. I'd sign onto that in a heartbeat.

It'd have to be over skype or something. Because play by post isnt very fun at all imo.

^

I know SOMEONE was going to do a game that was all Lusty players, but it didn't take off. It was going to be done over some mapping thing he had me download.

I would play. You would just have to teach me how.

Pick class
Pick race
-Roll dice-
Put numbers into stats
Pick spells (if caster)
Pick feats
Have fun.

The best way to start playing is to download the free trial of the D&D character builder on the WoTC site. Mess around with that for a while.

(Without starting an Edition War) D&D 4e is very similar to World of Warcraft in concept (Tank grabs aggro, etc.) but I find the classes really do have a lot of variety.

Also I would totally run a Dark Sun campaign. Dying is fun!

I thought for awhile about running a game online, but right now, theres the current game, mentioned above, and a game of deadlands/wasted west happening saturdays, and I just got roped into running a game of Deathwatch, so a little busy now.

Deadlands! <3 Hucksters for the win.

Gods no >:( Our huckster casts way too much, backlashes on both jokers, and is so very overpowered now, it's not freaking funny. I'll stick with my Blessed, who's only slightly overpowered, thank you

Thankfully im rather lucky with cards. I drew a full house my first cast and wrecked a boss. Plus it's fun playing a fast-talking bostonian snake-oil salesman/huckster.

No fast talking from this one But we'll be going into Hell on Earth soon, so, that'll be good. I'mma being a Librarian! Glee.

I've never played Deadlands, but it looks interesting.

The old system, it's quite awesome. Don't try the d20 system, it's stupid. Classic is the best way, with the cards and everything.

>.>