Changing Focus

[5 day lifespan]

Say I have a dwarf, and my dwarf has a happy life trying to be the best little dwarvish farmer he can be.  He grows tubers, he grows roots, and they grow big and strong under his tender care.  Now imagine that some Allanaki soldiers come through and burn out his farm, killing his (somewhat neglected due to his farming obsession) family, and leave him for dead.  He survives.  Is it plausible for him to shift his focus to this new horrible thing that has befallen him, or will he pick himself up, dust himself off, and get back to work?

A. Damned soldiers!  I'll kill them all!  KILL THEM ALL!!!
B. Damned soldiers!  My garden will never be safe while these particular ones draw breath.  Once they are dead, my garden will grow anew!
C. Damned soldiers!  Oh well, back to work.  I'll make it bigger this time!  Oh!  Dead family makes great fertilizer!

Would such a shift in focus cause a mental strain?  Are more subtle shifts in focus more plausible?  "I will be the best warrior EVAR! :discovers magickal ability: i will be the best warrior EVAR, with MAGICK!"

[SMuz]

I don't think so. Dwarves will still focus. He'll be traumatized, sure and as pissed as a human who's family was killed. He'll probably be angry enough to kill the next soldiers he sees. Hire guards, whatever. But revenge will be like.. a hobby instead of a focus.

Not really ABC there. He'll see himself as nothing more than a farmer, perhaps and he would love to kill them, but farming is what he was put on this world for. Unless becomes a the best little dwarvish farmer, his family will have died for nothing, they will be embarrassed with him, he will be embarrassed with himself, etc.

I'd imagine that he might actually pursue revenge for a moment. But something - maybe a dead weed, maybe losing in a duel, will remind him that his true cause is farming.

IMO.

[staggerlee]

Say I have a dwarf, and my dwarf has a happy life trying to be the best little dwarvish farmer he can be.  He grows tubers, he grows roots, and they grow big and strong under his tender care.  Now imagine that some Allanaki soldiers come through and burn out his farm, killing his (somewhat neglected due to his farming obsession) family, and leave him for dead.  He survives.  Is it plausible for him to shift his focus to this new horrible thing that has befallen him, or will he pick himself up, dust himself off, and get back to work?

A. Damned soldiers!  I'll kill them all!  KILL THEM ALL!!!
B. Damned soldiers!  My garden will never be safe while these particular ones draw breath.  Once they are dead, my garden will grow anew!
C. Damned soldiers!  Oh well, back to work.  I'll make it bigger this time!  Oh!  Dead family makes great fertilizer!

Would such a shift in focus cause a mental strain?  Are more subtle shifts in focus more plausible?  "I will be the best warrior EVAR! :discovers magickal ability: i will be the best warrior EVAR, with MAGICK!"

I think that your average dwarf would realize that trying to kill every soldier in the world would either get him killed, or distract him from his focus. If he felt that there wsa a particular mastermind behind the attack he might kill them to prevent future attacks, but his goal here is completing that damn farm.

A is not conducive to the success of his focus. B might be, and C certainly is.  Rather than pick a fight he can't win though, the dwarf might relocate, bribe the soldiers, or somethign else.

Remember... your number one goal is completing that farm. Vengeance is fine if it's going to assist that goal, but there's also bribery, relocation, tenacity. Going on some vengeance induced rampage would be very out of character for a dwarf with a focus like that.

I don't think so. Dwarves will still focus. He'll be traumatized, sure and as pissed as a human who's family was killed. He'll probably be angry enough to kill the next soldiers he sees. Hire guards, whatever. But revenge will be like.. a hobby instead of a focus.

I'd imagine that he might actually pursue revenge for a moment. But something - maybe a dead weed, maybe losing in a duel, will remind him that his true cause is farming.

IMO.

Only if vengeance will not conflict with his focus. If it puts his life at risk... then he probably wouldn't go for vengeance.
I know that dwarves aren't logical automatons, which is why I if it DOES NOT conflict, the dwarf might beat up a soldier or too. (Though that's hard to imagine.)

More likely that grief is going to get channelled into gardening.

[5 day lifespan]

So far more likely that this is one of those short term foci that have been discussed in other threads.  For instance "As soon as this farm is up and running again, I could sell some of the crops and hire an assassin!"

[staggerlee]

So far more likely that this is one of those short term foci that have been discussed in other threads.  For instance "As soon as this farm is up and running again, I could sell some of the crops and hire an assassin!"

Don't think of it as a short term focus, think of it as a step toward your goal.
If somehow selling crops and hiring an assassin is going to work toward being the perfect farmer, then you can do it without having to "change focus" or construct a "short term focus." If doing that does not help you to become a perfect farmer, then just don't do it.

Dwarves have one focus. That focus should not change or be supplemented by other focuses. Every choice you make should be an attempt to move closer to the completion of that focus.

The key is to pick a good focus in the first place.

[SMuz]

Dwarves are damn tricky to roleplay. I'd assume they have emotions too, including anger, lust, jealousy, etc. I highly doubt a dwarf would use their family as fertilizer, even if it were to aid his focus. Of course, a dwarf would never do anything to harm his focus, including getting into fights, but out of a sudden loss of sanity, might accidentally do so. Depending on circumstances, personality, etc, of course.

I don't think it's too bad to hire an assassin - just as long as the money loss doesn't hurt your farming plans and the time it takes to find an assassin doesn't take too long. But suddenly deciding that your main focus has suddenly shifted to become a stepping stone for another focus (i.e. from farming to hiring an assassin) - that doesn't sound very dwarflike, IMO. They'd likely stick to the first focus until it's done.

Honestly, I find that asking the staff with the request tool can be a great deal of help when it comes to dwarf foci, because there's a lot of things they know about your character which others don't and they'd be able to give more suitable and insightful advice. A lot of which I got was conflicting with what the other players on the GDB would suggest, but only because different dwarf personalities and sekrit foci can't explain everything. Staff are awesome