am I right to feel disgruntled?

[geneweigel]

The player who buys a shit load of goats because tonight he will be "Gak of the Goats" is going to get farther than a carefully played but unremarkable paladin in my campaign!

Emphasis mine.

The key is "tonight". Okay, every now and then something like this fun and even clever play, but as a DM, would you actually enjoy the players replenishing their herd through every pissant village that they encounter? Monsters, wolves, disease, trap detection, undead shield or what-have-you wipes out a herd. So, the players go out and buy another herd, and that gets wiped out, so they buy another. Session after session after session. puhleeze.

Well, they'd have to figure out the logistics of it and if it fails, it fails. But characters that are persistent will find ways. Plus my campaign has people that are interested in money in little handfuls and big piles. This brings out all kinds of services for money-wielding adventurers. Jobs are invented around their whims sometimes.

Unfortunately I don't have goat-O-phile players but most of them seem to be big on dragons these days ever since hearing the Gygax "type A treasure hunt" tales (you'll have to ask Gary to elaborate on that. Sorry!)

[order99]

"Terry Pratchett players in an Anne Mcaffrey world.."

I am SO stealing that-describes my players to a T!!

Mind you, i'm no better...had a Dwarf for an entire campaign who wanted to fly-finally used a Boots of Levitation/Decanter of Endless Water Jetpack combo and augered himself fatally into a Mountainside that refused to yield Right of Way. Druid tried to Reincarnated the poor sap and guess what? EAGLE. Flew away and never came back.

[order99]

Oh, and if you think the Goats are a campaign derailer, watch my PC's try it with semi-trained BABOONS sometime...smart, trainable(especially with Charm Monster on the Alpha and Speak with Animals at hand) semi-opposable thumbs, able to battle a Hobgoblin or two apiece...

You get the picture-mobile Bersekers with climbing skills and limited Scouting. Pity they ran into an EHP with a Ring of Animal Control.

(and yes, that WAS a random Treasure roll)

A few adventures from now the replacement PCs will be mobilizing the Elven Garrison from a fast and deadly Baboon strikeforce...

"It's in the trees...it's coming..."

[Wheggi]

I only had a chance to skim the topic replies, so I apologize if I'm rehashing.

Players want to bring goats into the dungeon? Sure. Actually kind of a cool idea: I've done something like it before (about a half dozen sheep with a sheepdog to keep them in line). Makes for creative problem solving, esp. at low levels. I'd even encourage bringing a goat or a sheep into a megadungeon, simply for reasons of emergency rations or as a bait deterrant if the need to flee a monster arrives. Now mind you, the adventuring style will be different: sneaking around is a thing of the past, combat will be hampered when you have a bunch of paniked goats darting between your legs, and there will be places (such as pits, through underwater passageways and places containing supernatural evil) where it will be tough - if not impossible - to get the goats into. The goats will need to be fed or else they will start eating stuff like the m/u's spellbook, and a goatherd should be hired on to keep them in line while the party is doing adventurer-specific things, otherwise they'll be scattered all over the dungeon:

DM: "From some distant part of the dungeon you hear a sudden bleat, followed by what may have been an explosion."

Player One: (marking a sheet of paper) "Mmmkay . . . we're down to three sheep now."

These are all very logical problems that will arise with a small herd of animals. If the party is willing to deal with these then they are free to bring their goats, cows, chickens, alpaca, ostrich or whatever into the dungeon. My dungeon won't change to accomodate them, but it won't change to exclude them either. It is what it is: a monster infested, trap riddled, treasure strewn, character killing hell-hole. The players can do whatever they want within the parameters of their character's physical, mental, financial and magical abilities. After all, that's what true old-school AD&D is about, right?

- Wheggi

[JamesEightBitStar]

DM: "From some distant part of the dungeon you hear a sudden bleat, followed by what may have been an explosion."

Player One: (marking a sheet of paper) "Mmmkay . . . we're down to three sheep now."

That player could almost say "The DM got my goat!"

[AxeMental]

W: "The players can do whatever they want within the parameters of their character's physical, mental, financial and magical abilities. After all, that's what true old-school AD&D is about, right?"

Right on.

[Algolei]

a shit load of goats

My players like to give their adventuring parties names, like Operation: Smash 'Em or X -- We Mark the Spot or The Yellow Fairies. I think A Shit Load of Goats would have been one of their more clever names.

[Driver]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40091

[Geoffrey]

Hilarious thread! Next time I'm a player in an A/D&D game, I'm bringing a bunch of goats!

[order99]

Aak, look what we've done...it's spreading!

[Driver]

I've had players bring pigs into dungeons. They're about as smart as dogs and make tasty rations if something untoward happens to them.

[Algolei]

I've had players bring pigs into dungeons. They're about as smart as dogs and make tasty rations if something untoward happens to them.

So do dogs.