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Mazed posted:So, I actually do have a question, sort of unrelated to that. How do you feel about fudging the dice, so to speak, in favor of opponents that are intended to be recurring? You know the old story where the PCs meet the guy intended to be the main villain but outright kill him in the very first encounter, thus ruining the GM's brilliant plan. What this involves is rather than having the opponent die, let them escape, have them go I don't really GM at all so take this for what it's worth. If you put an antagonist NPC in the crosshairs of the players and then put that NPC in a position where the PCs can murder the poo poo out of him, you need to be completely open to the likelihood that your NPC is going to get the poo poo murdered out of him and plan accordingly. Okay, let me back up. The "fudging the dice" question is up to you and your group, really. If they're cool with you doing stuff like that then you should just watch yourself to make sure you aren't leaning too heavily on it because even a group that's cool with some dice fudging is probably going to get sick of an unkillable NPC. But the group you're playing with is going to make the biggest difference here, if you have a group of players who think recurring antagonists they get to fight multiple times is rad then they'll work with you to make that happen, if they prefer to take no prisoners then you need to keep that in mind when planning your games. Anyway, the problem with having a scenario where some bad guy gets beat up by the players but manages a clever escape so he can continue to be a thorn in their side is that most RPGs eschew any sort of narrative/dramatic/whatever you want to call it provisions for stuff like that. Basically what works out okay (but can still be cliched and contrived) in a story or a movie tends not to work in RPGs because a lot of RPGs are stuck in a "everyone fights until one side is completely annihilated" mindset. Which means that if you really want to do something like this then you're probably going to make some stuff up and see if the players are cool with it. Of course the obvious solution is "don't put the NPC in a position where he can get easily murdered if that's going to ruin your evil plan." NPCs don't have to conveniently leave themselves murderable if that would be bad for their plans and they should probably take some basic steps to avoid that anyway. But if you really, really want the PCs to fight Lord Darkbad and have him escape so they can fight him again, here are some suggestions: 1). FATE (and some similar games) actually does systemize this sort of thing in the form of concessions and compels. Essentially, as the GM you can do things like say that Lord Darkbad manages to make his escape, and the players get something (generally Fate Points or the like) to make up for it. This sort of dynamic seems like you should be able to adapt it to other games without too much hassle. 2). As the GM, you can pull any contrivance out of your rear end to let an NPC escape being murdered. Put a little thought into how Lord Darkbad is going to make his daring escape instead of just winging it, though, and you can play it into a plot hook. The teleporation amulet he uses is unique to this mage order, are they in league with him? You follow his escape glider into the nation of Over Yonder, which is having some troubles of its own, are they related to Lord Darkbad's plans? Etc. In other words don't just slam the door in the players' faces. Also don't rely on the players developing an all-consuming grudge against the NPC just because he escaped, they may honestly not care that much, but another plot hook to follow gives them something to investigate if they run out of stuff to do at least. 3). If the players simply manage to straight-up murder Lord Darkbad and you feel like they earned it and don't want to take it away from them, you can always play the "he was simply an agent of a much greater evil" card but you don't get to keep doing that without the players starting to roll their eyes so maybe take that one as a gimme and then plan better next time. 4). Always remember that there are a group of PCs and only one Lord Darkbad. If you try the whole "You can either kill me or you can stop the Orphanarium from exploding! Pick one!" gambit what'll happen is the PCs will split up, half of them will use some bullshit to stop the orphans from exploding and the other half will still murder Lord Darkbad and he'll deserve it for being an idiot. It is possible to get the players to break off from a fight in favor of something else but it relies on you, the GM, knowing what your players care about, whether it's another NPC they've adopted or a town they're irrationally devoted to or something, but it's never a sure thing. 5). If you absolutely have to have Lord Darkbad interact with the PCs face to face without things immediately turning into a Benny Hill sketch with swords, go with situations where out-and-out murder is frowned upon. Yes, players will do dumb poo poo regardless, but outside of catpiss stories most players who are even half on the ball will understand that shanking a dude during the King's banquet is bad form. And if they decide to try and assassinate him in his sleep or whatever, well, "a bunch of PCs attempt to assassinate a guest of the King" is practically a self-writing adventure.
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Apr 15, 2014 06:06
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I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME
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Comrade Gorbash posted:The first is that you expand on the NPCs who survive and that the player's respond to. Snipping this single sentence because I think this right here is clutch advice for NPCs in general. You can't ever completely predict how the PCs are going to respond to your NPCs. You can probably make some solid educated guesses, especially if you know what makes your players tick, but even so sometimes the PCs won't develop a grudge against the villain that you thought would have them up in arms and they'll rush to adopt a character that existed in your notes as a minor bit of background color. So always keep an eye out for who your players respond to and don't respond to, and be willing to adjust things accordingly. Old Kentucky Shark posted:One of the meanest things I ever did was have a villain invite the PC to a dinner party at his parents' house. That is a conflict scenario with no successful outcomes. Ettin posted:Stealing this. Thanks OKS, no really.
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Apr 16, 2014 05:41
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