Edit: Hopefully it was obvious, but yes, this was an April Fool's joke.
I don't usually do two posts in one week these days, but the first of April happens to by d20 Despot's one year anniversary! So to commemorate this auspicious occasion, I'm writing on an important topic that I see pop up pretty frequently on internet discussions of GMing: how to GM with your significant other in the group.
The general sense I get from these anecdotes and horror stories is that GMs tend to give preferential treatment to their boyfriends or girlfriends, and let them get away with anything, to the point where it harms the experience of the other players. This is really bad practice and it can lead to the disintegration of your gaming group.
To demonstrate how to do this right, I'll run through my girlfriend's character sheet from our last campaign and pull out some examples. And be on the lookout for some of my signature homebrewed magic items!
Name: The Lost Empress A'larїa Hytheri'a (Her character was the long lost heir to the Throne of the World, but she was orphaned when her parents were assassinated, so she was raised by elves in the eternal Feyrealm)
Race: Human
Class: Paladin 5/Sorceress 7 (The rest of the party was a few levels lower, but we did a lot of one-on-one side quests)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (Her character is a free spirit)
Stats: Str 15, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 22 (She put her +2 human bonus into Charisma, but I changed it into a +4 because you need a lot of Charisma to be the Lost Empress)
AC: 27 (+4 Dex, +1 Dodge, +12 Elven Mithral Guard Mecha)
Alright, some of you might have caught that mention of an Elven Mithral Guard Mecha and you're probably wondering what it is. Well, here are the stats so you can use one in your own campaign:
Elven Mithral Guard Mecha
Aura strong abjuration and transmutation; CL 20th; Weight 750 lbs.; Price 250,000 gp
Description
This Large-sized mithral steam robot is fashioned in the shape of a beautiful elven hero of ancient times. At your touch, a cavity just large enough for a human opens in its chest. It can be piloted from within, and provides protection as a set of +3 mithral full plate, except with an armor check penalty of 0, a max Dex bonus of +8, and an Arcane Spell Failure chance of 0%. The mecha allows the wearer to fight as a Large-sized creature, and grants a +8 bonus to Strength.
As a free action, once per day, the wearer can cause the Elven Mithral Guard Mecha to grow to Huge size for up to 2 hours.
Construction Requirements
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Construct, bull's strength, enlarge person; creator must be an elf.
So that might seem a bit out of place in your campaign setting, but in mine it makes perfect sense, from a worldbuilding perspective. See, the elves were created to guard the Throne of the World in the time before the gods, so they have created the best magical technologies to fulfill their oath-bound duty. The party fighter tried to get in the Mecha first, but unfortunately the Elven Mithral Guard Mecha only responds to the touch of one of Imperial blood, so it went to A'larїa.
Anyways, on to my girlfriend's character's offensive capabilities.
She had the Spellbook of Alu-Kazzar, which allowed her to channel powerful arcane energies (essentially letting her cast a 9th level spell once per combat).
Her weapons were:
+2 Mithral dagger, +14 (1d4+4 (+8 with Mecha)/ 19-20/x2)
Masterwork darkwood quarterstaff, +13 (1d6+2 (+6 with Mecha)/ x2)
+5 Vorpal Gatling Gun, +18 (4d12/ 18-20/x4)
Masterwork sling, +13 (1d4+2/ x2)
I know the vorpal gatling gun is a little above the power level of the rest of the party, but it was really core to her character concept; what kind of GM would I be if I discouraged rolepalying? Anyways, she could carry it because it was mounted on the shoulder of her Elven Mithral Guard Mecha, and she controlled it as a free action with her psionic powers.
~~~~~~~~~~~
So I hope that shows you that, yes, it is possible to GM for your girlfriend while treating her like any other player, and it doesn't have to break up your gaming group. This campaign kinda petered out before the rest of the group reached 4th level because they all got pretty busy, but I'm looking forward to getting everyone back together again to conclude the saga of the Lost Empress of the Throne of the World.
I know this post was a little shorter than usual, but I hope you found it informative nonetheless. Thank you all for 1 year of readership; here's to another one!
-your April-Foolish d20 despot
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