Last friday, something came up in D&D that I think is really important, both an a player side and on the DM side, and that’s the position of Party Leader…

Just as a note before I begin: I was the secondary party involved in the mentioned DnD scuffle. I play Salih, the vampire who does what is right (usually within the confines of what she recognizes as law).

Now in Vampire (Vetala) culture in this world everything is heavily laid on tradition. Rules set forth from the beginning sway the decisions you make now because that is what is expected. It’s very much built on a “listen to your elders” and “seek guidance from the teachings of Darah” ((Goddess and creator of the Vetala)) sort of thing.

Now, none of us are really sure, but we think Salih might be the oldest member of the party. We’re not sure mainly because I feel like Vetala have a sixth sense about one’s age relative to their own but they do not keep track after they have grown out of their child state. Salih, more than likely, could not tell you her age but could tell you that she is older than you are. Because of this, she sort of just demands respect.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about, is while Vetala take a major issue with water*, there are still jobs that require the nearby rivers to be traversed. Before settling in as a Wizard, Salih spent her time as a Merchant, often traveling on Vetalan vessels down the river to important destinations for trade. Jobs like hers were seen as incredibly dangerous and also demand a large amount of respect.

However, Salih is not a leader by nature; that is, she’s not one to give direct orders. She makes suggestions she believes hold great weight due to her personal status which get pooled with other, similarly weighted suggestions. From those, with a bigger picture exposed, she will pick one and go with it. In this particular case, she was not able to express her suggestion and thus, the action that occurred was disagreeable and the person who made the poor decision was informed of their grievous error.

But wait, there’s more! Salih would have dropped it at that point. “You made a mistake, I disagree with the decision you made, and you are an idiot for it,” is about the most you will get from a Vetala with nothing personal involved in your decision. Of course, this particular decision ended in a boatload of people exploding (attack on virtue = compassion ((good))) so there was much more screaming involved.

And then Katar went in to hit her.

Let’s be frank. When you are a creature with 10 damage reduction who heals 5 hitpoints every turn you are not afraid of the fishboy and his wooden katana, no matter how many Sla’ad you’ve seen him murder. When you can bend the very reality of the world to your will a man with a wooden sword, an Ikanian no less (Ikanians and Vetala have past grudges), you don’t even flinch. Unless he made a real effort to harm her (-cough- water -cough-) Salih would have stood there and waited for him to tire out. She wouldn’t waste her time on him there.

In her defense, she did end up apologizing. She doesn’t know much about the culture of Ikanians because her people share so little in common with them that, to her, they don’t amount to much. She respects them for their sea-faring abilities to a lesser extent than her own people because Ikanians are just “fish with legs” (and don’t die when they fall overboard).

Part of the point of all of this is that Salih doesn’t recognize Katar as the party leader. Of the party: Katar’s, Rhomadon’s (a Sphinx), and her own opinions and ideas and suggestions all carry weight ((Raj, the centaur’s do not)). She will consider ideas and suggestions thrown out by the two of them; but no one person leads this group brought together only by necessity.

That’s all I wanted to add.

*Like traditional Vampires, Vetala cannot cross running water. Unlike traditional Vampires, Vetala can’t even be on the water without special circumstances. Vetala also treat rain as though it were sunlight for the purposes of weakness. Water in any large amount will kill a Vetala, for Ikan is angry with them (and is a huge jerk). They also hate mirrors.

You know what the chain of command is?