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Is Someone Kicking a Puppy Over There?!


I sat down to write this post over an hour ago, and my mind drew a blank. What to write about? What to discuss? Writer's block had set in. My decision was made for me about ten minutes ago, when my wife, our housemate, and myself decided that if the dog across the street kept yelping like someone was murdering it, we were going to go investigate.

Our party waited and watched out the window, straining our ears to hear the sounds of the poor pooch in distress. Sure enough, the barking started again, and we gathered ourselves, preparing for a possibly hostile encounter, and ventured forth. We walked over to the neighbor's house and knocked on the door. Initiative had been rolled. My wife has the highest Charisma, so naturally she was our face.

The door opened, and a familiar face popped out from behind it. Standing before us was a woman we recognized from walking her dog around the complex. She had always been friendly and loved letting her dog play with ours. We were a bit surprised that this was the house the pitiable pup was apparently in. As we spoke to her, asking her if everything was okay with her dog, she remained smiling and assuring us everything was okay. We remained unconvinced, as we could hear the dog yelping in the room upstairs.

Our Insight checks and Persuasion rolls eventually resulted in her telling us that the dog had just peed on the carpet and was being punished by being left alone in the upstairs bedroom. She went upstairs and brought him down, to show us that he was okay. As soon as the dog saw us, he immediately began trying to squirm out of our neighbor's arms and run and play with us; she held him firm, but we all took turns petting him and cooing at him. (We all have advantage on Animal Handling checks.) We bid them goodnight and went on our way, returning to our home a bit deflated.

We know that this woman is a nice person. We know that she loves her dog. We know that she is not actively trying to harm him. That does not change the fact that each of us would love nothing more than to sneak into her house and take him and bring him home to us, where peeing on the carpet does not equal exile for a nervous dog.

I'm not sure how this relates to D&D, other than that, sometimes your party will encounter circumstances in which there is no clear victory. Sometimes, the smiling lady who you've befriended will end up being the bad guy, even if in a relatively small way. Sometimes, people just don't know any better. Be careful about imposing your own knowledge and values onto other people, in life and in the game.

D&D, like life, is made of nuance. Don't take everything at face value. Question, probe, prod, investigate, but when you find what you're looking for, it might not always be rewarding. You know what, though? As I type this, I realize something: The barking has stopped.

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