You are DMing a scene and a player asks if there can not be a giant spider since they have arachnophobia
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How would you react in this situation?
You are DMing a scene and a player asks if there can not be a giant spider since they have arachnophobia
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Tell them it's a good thing their character doesn't.
>it's a good thing their character doesn't.
Did you just assume their character's phobia?
If it's not on the sheet, they don't have it.
You disgust me.
Oh shit they are? Sorry I didn't realise, my bad.
Roll a will save DC 15 or become frightened.
Thank you, I gave my character a fear of fire and had to remind the DM what I should be making a role like this. whenever fire came up, he also would forget I couldn't fire in direct sunlight with disadvantage (but I also would forget that too)
I won't remove it, but I will describe it in less detail. If he doesn't want to listen to the description of how the spider walks, saves me the effort.
Well, the system I'm running has phobias as a specific drawback, so yes.
Tell them fine, instead they're attacked by ten million little spiders. Then start tickling them.
>Then start tickling them.
...
Or we can use real spiders. You're the one who signed the immersion waiver.
I add more spiders. This is now a horror game.
Replace enemy second in command with sexually aggressive drider witch.
How many spiders does she have in her vegana?
Can someone post that gif of the cute girl with a tarantula in her mouth?
My ip is banned from posting images.
We all know the one and are seeing it in our heads, at least.
17, but they're very small
I have crippling arachnophobia too. But if I put spiders in my games, nobody has to look at them. Nobody has to be around them. I don't even need to describe them since "giant spider" tends to be perfectly descriptive enough. If anything, I find that if a GM inserts a phobia of theirs into a game, those sessions are usually really good horror crawls.
I don't use giant spiders they're almost as tired as orcs and goblins
Nothing a long rest wouldn't fix.
No joke, each and every time we've had to deal with a spider, whatever wounds it caused was always gone because the bard insisted on long rest.
I would already have known about that, because I only game with people I know well. That being so, I wouldn't have included them.
>Doesn't use his players weaknesses against them.
Coward.
Cool. It's a Giant Centipede now. I use the same statblock and we move on. I refuse to believe this is a thing anyone is actually worried about.
No one has a phobia of centipedes, it's entirely rational
>Cool. It's a Giant Centipede now.
Auigh! That's so much worse!
fun fact, there's a species of centipede in Vietnam that lives and hunts in the water. They're excelent swimmers
I hate you.
Jesus frick, those things look like they crawled out of one of Lovecraft's nightmares. Nothing that hideous should be allowed to live.
Have you seen that website of the millipede mother coiled around a seething clutch of what looks like hundreds of babies?
It's pretty gross.
My dad got bit by a centipede like this and said it was one of the most painful things he had ever experienced.
They have big-ass jaws on them and pretty potent venom. Centipedes don't frick around.
arachnophobe here.
Send them a picture of an ogre spider and the close of a brown recluse's face
then remind them that there are cellar spiders in their house right now, crawling around in the corners of the house
then pause look around them like you see something on them because their skin will be crawling,
centipedes are bros man, house centipedes never bother me, they do spook me when i go to the washroom though.
One centipede is 12 and a half spiders btw
THIS IS FRICKING WORSE
Well now at least everyone is fricking panicing
You don't know arachnaphobics huh
@OP, the ground crumbles beneath your feet and you all wake in the underdark surrounded by lollth-worshipping formics and its breeding season for their herd of giant spiders. Roll to see who gets thrown into the giant spider pit and cocooned first.
Tell them that they turn into a giant spider.
I replace the spider with a scorpion and ask if thats okay.
Pull off my mask and reveal that I am, in fact, a medium sized spider.
I'm laffin
I'm, not sure if this is a reference but I'm laffin
A giant bird eats the spider, now you have to fight a swarm of medium sized insects.
In the moment I will do this
>Spider? Oh sorry, I meant to say Giant Rat
but after the session I'll pull that person aside and say
>hey in the moment I made a change so the game could continue to run smoothly. We discussed limits in session 0 and you never mentioned your arachnophobia. If you cannot deal with imagining a spider my campaign will not be ideal for you moving forward. If you feel that strongly about something in the future I hope you will use those emotions to fuel your role play and create a more interesting situation for everyone at the table. I hope I don't have to have this conversation again.
dude that's frickin gay
>It might be "gay" but it was irresponsible for you to not outline your limits when I asked for them in session 0.
This is a mature way to handle things and solves the problem. But we both know that's not the way OP and the rest of the nogame drama queens want to have happen.
It's kind of unreasonable to assert you had a session 0 where the spider issue wasn't brought up just so you can imagine a scenario where you can be both patronising and objectively right.
I'd say the sort of person who writse in the way
did is the sort of person who would have had a session 0 to discuss just this sort of thing making the assertion is entirely reasonable
I think that my favorite thing about this is that by C convention
(bool) true = 1
bool_v3::true = 0
so it gives the wrong values in all cases anyways.
Being autistic about the game running smoothly is way worse
>whatever happens, keep the game moving! No you're not allowed to stop and think to improve it. Can't make sure you're using the rules correctly either
I've set aside time to game while we're in the game. Discussing rules and homebrewing can happen after the session, I don't have the time or energy for things to screech to a halt repeatedly.
This but without changing it in the moment.
If I gave you the fricking chance to bring up your issues beforehand, you better do it then before they're brought up in session.
Full on weaponized autism
>t. nogaems
>session 0
Only söyfricks do session zero.
made me reply
We don't do them, either. We just talk about what we want to do over text and then frickin wing it when we get to the table.
Session 0 is also good for creating characters and determining their roles. Intraparty drama, especially ooc intraparty drama, doesn't make for a good game. As a g/dm I'd expect a player to come to me with any issues, including a neurotic fear of spiders, that will cause major problems for you or the table at large. For minor arachnophobia like most "arachnophobes" I'd expect you to suck it up.
I know a guy who punched a fellow player for doing the "Spider on the neck" trick with his fingers
Arachnophobes are psychotic
seems to me the dude stood up for himself
>Arachnophobes are psychotic
I would say that it would've been more appropriate to bring this up ahead of time but also that anyway giant spiders are so passé.
>Uh, shit sorry dude
>Ummm hang on a minute guys
>*fumbling with CR tables, checking statblocks*
>Just, uh, give me a sec
>Ohhhhhkay sorry about that, uh, its not a spider its a... [CR EQUIVALENT MONSTER]
>haha man you shoulda told me you were scared of spiders dude. Shouldn't be a problem now though
>Anyone else scared of shit? Anon? You scared of clowns or something you little b***h?
And thats how a normal group handles it
How a normal group of pussies and women handle it maybe. A normal group of actual roleplayers would tell the absolute pantywaist who can't handle the *concept* of a spider in an entirely fictional scenario to either suck it up or make themselves useful and suck everyone else's dick for the rest of the session while the people with some semblance of a fricking spine enjoy their game.
I might, *might* make the effort to go easy on certain concepts if a player brought up their aversion *before the campaign starts* and aren't a complete sandy c**ted little b***h about it, but if you expect me to completely exclude an entire branch of the fricking animal kingdom from the campaign you better have some horrifying traumatizing backstory to that fear or you can frick right off. Like I'm talking "please don't include rapes in the game DManon, I was literally raped by a dozen men once"-tier trauma here, not "oh noes, a spidey-widey, a heckin eight-eggo-weggo-leggo crawlerino, they make me have uncomfies and wibbly-wobblies!" homosexualry.
You sit at a table playing make believe with a bunch of virgins. You are not even a fraction as badass or cool as you think you are.
I personally think he is badass
>A normal group of actual roleplayers would tell the absolute pantywaist who can't handle the *concept* of a spider in an entirely fictional scenario to either suck it up or make themselves useful and suck everyone else's dick for the rest of the session while the people with some semblance of a fricking spine enjoy their game.
This, minus the weird, latent homosexual desires.
>"another spider crawls out behind the first."
If its a real phobia, then ill concede. Ill swap it out with some other creature. Whats important is that we as players enjoy the game together. The game is a means to an end (fun with friends) not the end itself.
The last time someone confided in me that they suffered from terrible arachnophobia I went out and bought 100 of those plastic spider rings, cut all of the rings off them to get 100 plastic spiders, snuck into their bedroom while they weren't home (his brother let me in), pulled back his bedsheets, and filled his bed with plastic spiders.
When he got home from work he was surprised to see me, said he was too tired to hang out, and I said "Cool" and pretended like I was leaving. Then I waited by his front door until I heard him scream and started running for home.
He chased me four blocks before he finally gave up. When I talked to him the next week he was still pissed, but had to admit it was a great prank.
No one in my group would reveal that they're a b***h like that.
One of the girls told us she had arachnophobia when she first joined up and I think we were still fricking with her three years later.
>Hiding toy spiders in her bag
>Hiding toy spiders in her clothes
>Hiding toy spiders in her bed
>Hiding finding a guy who bred tarantulas so we could buy their moulted skins and hide it in her fridge/bathroom/on top of the ceiling fan so it flew off towards her when she turned the fan on
>Changing her laptop screensaver to a HD animation of a funnel web rearing up and biting
>Installing an app on her phone so a spider would periodically run across her screen
>Surprising her with our giant spider costumes for halloween
One of the guys said he was scared of heights and we planned a whole camping trip just so we could throw him off a waterfall.
Based.
You do know you're a sociopath right?
Nah, the whole group was in on it. What're the chances we're all sociopaths?
It was just friendly bants bro, she could've stopped playing with us/sleeping with me at any point if it bothered her that much.
one of my closest friends has a serious thing about bodies of water that he can't see the bottom of, especially the ocean because its where all the big stuff is, to the point that he has difficulty going out on a boat. we've been friends for over 10 years, have been in a near fatal car accident together, lived together for a couple years, and in a couple months we're probably going to be moving back in together because we're both sick of our current living situations
anyway, sometimes i like to send him this link, especially if we're hanging out together and he's taking a shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWSUN3LhODI
>one of my closest friends has a serious thing about bodies of water that he can't see the bottom of
Am I your closest friend? Because that's my phobia too. Only time I've ever had a panic attack I was in tiny rowboat in deep water known for the pods of killer whale.
>anyway, sometimes i like to send him this link
No one has ever sent that link, which, btw, totally justifies my phobia, so I must not be your closest friend.
is now spiderman
I make them fight a medium sized spider
I would rather fight a giant spider that’s like 50 times the size of me than fight a medium sized spider that’s kinda big
because spider 50 times the size of you would immediatelly crumble under its own weight?
Yes but also medium sized spider are more scary to me
Giant spider can't crawl up my leg and bite my wiener without me noticing.
I laugh, stand up, start shanking them with the improvised shiv I made out of my own thigh bone
I would chastise them for waiting this long to bring it up. I have, presumably, been up front with my players that I won't include disturbing content because we're here to have fun, all they had to do was say.
And to get to this point, the party would have had to be passing clues as to what is ahead, stuff like dessicated corpses, empty egg sacs, and giant friggin webs.
This fricking spaghet appears to have waited until there was a giant spider right in front of them to give voice to his needs.
No, he can go wait outside until the party finishes the encounter. I won't use spiders in the future, but in doing less than the bare minimum he has earned missing out.
Sucks to suck.
"This is why you believe me when I tell you Bird Eating Spiders are real, Joey. And not fricking google them."
worst thing about bird eaters is the hairs, they potent
>You are DMing a scene and a player asks if there can not be a giant spider since they have arachnophobia
Sure
It's a giant scorpion
scorpions are still arachnids!
Nah scorpions are reptiles, scientifically speaking
Tell them to suck it up, I've had to fight giant spiders as a player before and I'm a huge arachnaphobe, I just know how to separate reality from fiction.
"Sorry, did I say 1 spider? It's actually 100 spiders."
Sure, no problem. It's now a giant poisonous web spinning puppy that can walk on walls and ceilings.
In an effort to help the player getting rid of his phobia I empty my huge box of tarantula molts over his head when he isn't looking. Exposure therapy, simple as.
>Exposure therapy, simple as.
SINK OR SWIM, MOTHERFRICKER
>tarantula molts
I think I would kill myself
Nice one, a true classic.
I would punch you in the neck so fricking hard you would start singing Wo alle Straßen enden.
Tarantula hair irritates the skin and causes rashes though, don’t you have any normal dead spiders or something instead?
I break out my 12 inch base Kaiju Tarantula figure
Also my 4 pet Tarantulas and the spider farm
I actually have a player with arachnophobia and I did throw a giant spider against him. He ended up bashing it with his mace till it was dead. Another time the party was exploring a tunnel and they heard chittering coming from it and that player convinced the others to skip that tunnel. He was right to do so as wel because there was a nest of giant spiders there.
Show them the door and have a good laugh about what a b***h they were afterwards.
I do the Skyrim thing and change it to a Direbear
That's cool, but I've done all this session around a spider cult. Hop to it and you can be interrupting their summoning ritual instead of dealing with the monster they summon!
After the session I just say "Hey we had to change plans a bit there, sorry that made you uncomfortable but I didn't know. Is there anything else that'd set you off, just so I know?"
You're the one who signed up for an underdark game, spiders are part of the package. You're free to go find a different group and campaign more to your liking, or try running something yourself.
The spider isn't real, anon. I've got arachnophobia too, it won't stop me imagining one for a game.
>you should had said that before i prepared the war against spider mountain's spider demons (featuring spiders) now with 200% extra spiders in it module
>having a panic attack instead of sharing your favorite arachnophobic slurs with your friends while you roll to hit
I don't understand kids these days
No worries, it's not really a spider, it's a Chwidencha. Here, let me show you a picture:
Thanks, I hate it.
Tell them no because I have arachnophilia and its important to the story.
I still put one in because another player has a "giant spider raping her full of eggs" fetish. But I can make it a solifugid so it's not a real spider and now it has pincers to pin the pervert girl's arms so she can struggle instead of just being immobile/paralyzed while magical realming.
WHAT THE FRICK
I WOULD PISS MYSELF AND RUN
I keep a tarantula in a bottle in anticipation of this ever occuring.
I ask my players in session 0 if there's anything they DON'T want to see in the game, in addition to stuff they DO want to see in the game. If they don't tell me about their arachnophobia, it's on them. Same way a chef isn't liable for an allergy if the dumb patrons don't read the menu.
It's now a giant scorpion with reduced health. When they kill it the thing bursts open to reveal it's filled with thousands of smaller spiders
Ok there will not be a giant spider, singular. there will be several of them,, and when you hit one, all of it's babies will burst out and spray all over you. In your mouth, your eyes, your hair. Swarming, crawling, looking for dark warm nooks and crannys. If your character is downed, they won't die, they'll be paralyzed. After the fight is over they will be bound in webs and consumed, slowly, over days, paralyzed but aware and awake the entire time.
There isnt a spider there
There are multiple
Phobias aren't real.
Why would you play with people you hate enough to be a dick to?
since you didn't say pic unrelated he's also pointing two guns at me, so I calmly explain there's no spiders in the game or anywhere nearby and ask him to lower the guns and generally keep him talking calmly until he puts the guns down or away
or I panic and get shot, it's really 50/50
No. I, the questioner, am pointing guns at you so I get an answer
>DM introduces a gay character
>ask if they can remove it because I have homophobia
Damn son that is great.
>You're not Arachnophobic. Arachnophobes are frightened of the appearance of spiders. There are no images of spiders right now. Even if there was, you should learn to suck it up, like I did. Now I'm only spooked by a spider if it's real and sprinting aggressively at me.
I usually just ignore them and put the stuff in my game anyways. When they try to bring it up I change the topic
Spiders are so cliche anyways. Try a mantis. Graceful and poised and made for violence in much the same horrifying way as a big cat.
I support mantises in everything.
Question for you guys: if I find giant spiders objectionable due to the square-cube law and the accompanying natural limits on arachnid size, rather than visceral fear, is that better or worse?
It's a fantasy or maybe a schlocky horror game. The square cube law can sit in it's shed like a good little cuck.
Better.
You're still getting them, though.
The spider has bones, as well as an exoskeleton. There, solved your stupid physics puzzle. Now go back in there and slay the giant spider moron.
I have thalassophobia but I'm not going to demand the GM removes the ocean in a viking game
If you sign up for a dungeon crawler and whine about snakes and spiders you're a fricking idiot
Tell them they're not Spiders, they're Spider-Like Giant Insects.
I tell them to frick off. If you wanted me to accommodate for such things you needed to tell me before the game started.
>You are DMing a scene and a player asks if there can not be a giant spider since they have arachnophobia
"All the more reason for you to kill it. Roll initiative."
note it down
take the opportunity to query other player if there's something else they prefer to avoid
avoid those things in the campaign (replace with nearest appropriate challenge equivalent when necessary)
leverage the knowledge of their weaknesses should the players ever try to leave my game
This tells me we are too far removed from a world war.
I tell them that the current encounter is already underway, and that the spider is a spider.
I then gauge their reaction to the encounter. Knowing that phobias are by their very nature irrational, if it is truly horrifying and uncomfortable for the player in question, I'll take it into account for future encounters, if possible.
If they cope well, it is unlikely that they have actual arachnophobia to any meaningful degree, and I'll pay it no mind.
The best answer, but also the most boring.
Of course, King. We all look to gaming as an escape from the real world after a long work-week and being confronted with phobias and bad memories would be detrimental to that.
I myself hate amputation and centipedes. Shonelle's brother died in a drive-by shooting so we don't represent gangland type violence. And Dave was abused by his stepdad so we avoid any kind of sex abuse or in-depth exploration of dysfunctional families.
>And then everyone clapped
There are now two giant spiders.
I hand the player a mirror and reveal to them they ARE a giant spider.
Plot twist of the year right there
"I actually got the idea of using spider as a monster because there is one crawling on your shoulder right now."
>It's okay, it doesn't look very realistic.
>What?
>Okay, we'll use a different token.
>What?
>Yes I know. Well. That's why it's in the game, to evoke fear.
>What?
>...... okay....... uh... roll intimidation. ah, a 4! the blaze of your torch scares the creature that has been haunting you far away, opposite the direction that you're going. the cave is quiet once again.
>frick
I don't know anyone who is such a pussy that even just the word "spider" evokes primal, phobic fear in them, sorry OP, can't answer your question since I don't have a frame of reference for anyone that mentally unwell
I have arachnophobia but it's an imaginary spider. Unless the DM starts throwing around tarantulas onto the table a hiding them in the bag of chips, i think you should just calm down.
Every time I ran into this with my group, I point out that the character who is being played by the b***h with the phobia has a weapon or spells. They usually figure out after a round they can solve the problem with violence.
>How would you react in this situation?
The spider attacks their character next.
>"OK, no giant spiders."
>"So, the colossal spider grabs you..."
>sorry I have all this already prepared. I will try to not use spiders after this encounter though.
Lol, what a pussy to be afraid of just a description.
And I'm slightly arachnophobic myself - larger spiders make me a little uneasy IRL and my first urge is to kill them. I've encountered giant spiders in my dreams sometimes - it was extremely disgusting, but destroying them was very fulfilling and pleasant.
>Makes you to ally with a party of lawful good giant spider paladins
No problems if it makes sense in the context of the story.
Have the giant black mtf spider rape his character and accuse him off being a homotransarachnophobic racist and that is not okay
My friends are straight white men so this never comes up.