carborundum RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 |
An interesting thing happened in our game last week. I gave the players a nasty choice - you know, heads you lose, tails I win... and now I want to see what naughtiness I can let arise from the consequences.
They crash-landed on the Isle of Dread. The player of the Vow of Poverty Druid (all exalted and good) was fed up running a cohort cleric as well as his complicated character and asked me to kill him off. I had his body not appear at the crash-site. They were left with a few families and a wrecked ship, but did NOT want to set off on foot - they didn't want to lose more civilians.
They repaired the ship as best they can with all sorts of clever uses of spells so I said it might just make it most of the way to Farshore. Every day, the wizard with permanent Arcane Sight flew over the trees looking for signs of the cleric or his items, so I decided to use this.
I've decided that Olangru has the poor little LG halfling priest in his clutches. (Urol got killed by the party during the Gibbering Mouther incident.) I've also decided that Olangru has seen and recognized the Arcane Sight eyes.
The wizard found poor Timothy's nailless hand, impaled on his wand of cure light wounds, on a bush on a rock stack - where he could never ever have wasshed up or climbed, and where he could only be found on a flying wizard with arcane sight's search pattern. Reincarnate didn't work, since he's still alive.
Their choice is - go find him quickly or save the civilians first. They're leaving him in Olangru's clutches until they can deliver the families to (relative) safety. Their rationale? He's an adventurer and chose the risks.
My question:
a) Should I have him get so twisted by the torture that he turns bad and wants revenge?
b) Should I let him get rescued and retire him gracefully?
c) None of the above, something cooler?
carborundum RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 |
Troy Pacelli |
Carb, are you drawing inspiration from my campaign? If not, why not?
At the end of our last game secession, Viselys discovered that “Diamondback” was actually Rowyn, returned as a revenant (thank you, Luna) who had set up the real Diamondback (romantically linked to Viselys) and another NPC (Viselys’ brother) in a Dark Knight inspired - “you can’t save them both/you have to choose” situation.
However, more in line with exactly what you are talking about, as you know form reading our blog, Urol and Diamondback were captured by Olangru and, instead of going into the shrine to rescue them, the party decided to “rest and recoup” for the night. I had Olangru make sure his prisoners were aware that their friends had made this choice and then he spent that night torturing them. He was particularly hard on Diamondback (who may now be with demon seed, I haven’t decided yet).
My point for you: I think it is crucial that the party’s decisions have consequences. It’s coming up a lot in my campaign and it really forces the players to think and not take anything for granted.