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Scarab Sages 2/5

Hypothetical Situation That Actually Happened But Didn't Really Happen:

Components
Maguffin
Player A (Faction A)
Player B (Faction B)

Synopsis
Player A's mission is to learn X. X is tangentially related to the maguffin, and handling the maguffin may help Player A learn X, but Player A's faction mission doesn't require the maguffin. Player A, acting in accord with good roleplaying and wanting to ensure his mission's success, claims the maguffin.

Player B's mission is to retrieve the maguffin. Thinking that his mission is being fulfilled by Player A's actions, Player B allows Player A to take the maguffin.

Because both players are roleplaying (meaning, they aren't spouting "my faction mission says to do this" and they're keeping secret their faction loyalties), Player B is losing out on his prestige award.

Discuss. (How would you handle it?)

Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

I appreciate the generic case - but I think it would depend on the specific situation how I would rule.

Example1: Players B would have to hand over an evil person to justice while Player A needs to find out information from the same person. In this case as long as Player A finds out the information and as long as the evil person isn't set free I would award PA for both.

Example2: Player A needs to find out information from an item while Player B needs to find out different information from the same item. Player A finds the item first, gets the information, keeps the item. Player B would be without his PA. This isn't exacyly the example above but was happening in one of my games.

In general - if a player thinks that he has fulfilled a missin through actions or roleplay but as a GM I feel he missed a bit - like in the above case - I give the player a nudge so that he is aware that he hasn't fulfilled the PA yet and might need to do a little bit more.

There is here a GM call I do. If a player is just oblivious to what he needs to do he will likely miss out - even if the group more or less has fullfilled the objective and all he needs to do is 'claim' it or do a single dice roll.

If the player just misinterprets the mission (and often this is not his own fault - some missions are written in a way that is different to the GM information) I'm not letting a player suddenly have a bad 'suprise'.

But as I said above - while it is good to have a generic case I feel it often boils down to specifics. After all - we are supposed as GM to rewards inventive roleplay (could look up the exact term from the rules). This also plays a role in my decision making. And I just can't phrase this in any generic terms here.

Thod

Grand Lodge 2/5

Thod wrote:


There is here a GM call I do. If a player is just oblivious to what he needs to do he will likely miss out - even if the group more or less has fullfilled the objective and all he needs to do is 'claim' it or do a single dice roll.

If the player just misinterprets the mission (and often this is not his own fault - some missions are written in a way that is different to the GM information) I'm not letting a player suddenly have a bad 'suprise'.

I think that Player B is just out of luck. It sounds like in this example both players are having fun and a good time role playing, the fact that they got some detail wrong to their detriment doesn't really diminish that fun. On occasion Player B will also fail a mission due to missing skill or bad roll so I don't think I'd treat it any differently. Additionally Player A is probably going to be personally motivated to help Player B in the future to complete a mission.

The Exchange 5/5

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

As a DM in this case I would say that Player B's mission is not successful. However also as a DM, I would tell Player B this just before the end of the module that their character "believes that they have unresolved business to attend to" or somesuch. If they don't take the hint and try to do more to complete their mission, then they would lose out on the PA.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

I agree with Alizor, in that I will often give PCs a reminder that there was "something" that they needed to do.

Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

Mark Garringer wrote:


I think that Player B is just out of luck. It sounds like in this example both players are having fun and a good time role playing, the fact that they got some detail wrong to their detriment doesn't really diminish that fun.

I've seen this happen at my table. Yes -the player is having fun - he even makes a tick mark next to his mission - 'mission accomplished' (at least that's what HE/SHE assumes.

For quite a few players the fun stops when he gets told afterwards that he 'unfortunately got a detail wrong' and lost his PA. Some even might feel cheated.

If the misinterpretation isn't due to the players fault I prefer to do it the way Alizor writes and give a hint of unfinished business. It's then up to the player to correct it.

Thod

Grand Lodge 2/5

Thod wrote:

If the misinterpretation isn't due to the players fault I prefer to do it the way Alizor writes and give a hint of unfinished business. It's then up to the player to correct it.

I forgot to mention that when they have earned their PA I also hold up a finger and go 'ding.'

No ding, no PA. :D

Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

Mark Garringer wrote:
Thod wrote:

If the misinterpretation isn't due to the players fault I prefer to do it the way Alizor writes and give a hint of unfinished business. It's then up to the player to correct it.

I forgot to mention that when they have earned their PA I also hold up a finger and go 'ding.'

No ding, no PA. :D

Good idea - yes - and in this case player B is out of luck.

I placed a lot of emphasis that player B thinks he fulfilled (but actually hasn't).

Othervice on second thoughts ...

How does player B know the 'ding' is for player A and not for him? And can you lose out a PA after a 'ding'? So for example the actions could be there is a 'ding' for B - he hands over the McGuffin - it's a 'ding' for A now but the 'ding' for A invalidates the 'ding' for B unless he hands the McGuffin back.

Is player B then out of luck and loses the PA? As this is how I interpret the original question.

Thod

edit: mixed up As and Bs ... hope it's correct now

Grand Lodge 2/5

Thod wrote:
How does player B know the 'ding' is for player A and not for him?

This one is easy, everyone gets a ding, so there should be two in that case, not just one. I also make eye contact with the player.

Quote:
And can you lose out a PA after a 'ding'?

I haven't run into any situations where that's happened, but I guess it's possible. I'd expect that I would inform them pretty directly if they did (or where going to do) something that 'undid' what they thought was 'mission complete.'

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