Aggressive Players at the Funeral (spoiler)

I'm starting this campaign on Wednesday and i'm worried about an aggressive munchkin player not mixing too well with the first encounter (at the funeral).

As soon as the angry mob get in the way, he'll have only one response. BOOM! (and he's the sort of player that takes a sadistic joy out of it too)

In my chronic insecurity, I have visions of a downward spiral that might look similar to this:
-When Father Grimbarrow arrives he'll obviously be horrified, and will argue with the party. BOOM!
-Kendra will probably freak out at that point. BOOM!
-When the sheriff hears, he'll want to question the party. BOOM!

Being the Alpha-munchkin of the group, the rest of the party will probably just go along with him, and within half an hour they'll be run out of town and have no reason to visit Harrowstone. (EDIT: or they might TPK as Grimbarrow is 7th level)

Any advice?

Hmm.

When the character decides to start BOOM:ing innocent NPC:s, dont ask him to roll dice. Tell him that his victim was taken out and lawkeepers catch him on the scene and take him in to jail. Rest of the party continues the story and problem maker is has some idle time to following the events of rest of the part. Next morning he is freed with some heavy fines. He was lucky that Father Grimbarrow survived his serious wounds.

Maybe that teaches him to think his acts. At least rest of the party can have social encounters without a massacre.

Yeah, he will probably feel ye take the right to defend himself with Rollplaying, but Roleplaying is teamwork, not selfish acts.

Goodluck!

This is the wrong campaign for your group.

This isn't unique to the funeral: this sort of situation will keep coming up over and over again in the campaign.

Why did you pick Carrion Crown? It seems very much not a sound pick for your group. Just because you like it as GM doesn't mean it's a good idea to run.

I would explain to your PCs that you made a mistake in selecting the campaign, that this week is movienight/boardgamenight, and next week you'll start up something else. Perhaps Legacy of Fire or Serpent's Skull.

If, for some reason, you insist on running the campaign anyway, then you have to take drastic action. Force the Alpha-Min-Maxer to play a Lawfully-aligned character (who would never murder someone without due court process), or a social character (who is minmaxed around Diplomacy), or else he can't play in your game. If you're not willing to reign him in, you are dooming yourself and your entire party to misery. Don't ruin the rest of your friends' night. Make the changes.

This is the wrong campaign for your group.

This isn't unique to the funeral: this sort of situation will keep coming up over and over again in the campaign.

Why did you pick Carrion Crown? It seems very much not a sound pick for your group. Just because you like it as GM doesn't mean it's a good idea to run.

I would explain to your PCs that you made a mistake in selecting the campaign, that this week is movienight/boardgamenight, and next week you'll start up something else. Perhaps Legacy of Fire or Serpent's Skull.

If, for some reason, you insist on running the campaign anyway, then you have to take drastic action. Force the Alpha-Min-Maxer to play a Lawfully-aligned character (who would never murder someone without due court process), or a social character (who is minmaxed around Diplomacy), or else he can't play in your game. If you're not willing to reign him in, you are dooming yourself and your entire party to misery. Don't ruin the rest of your friends' night. Make the changes.

It's too late to turn back now, and he was the one that asked for CC in first place.

Asking him to play a good character is a good idea though, and I think he'll do it too (since he owes me big-time for multiple TPKs that he inflicted on us when HE tried to run a game)

It's too late to turn back now, and he was the one that asked for CC in first place.

Asking him to play a good character is a good idea though, and I think he'll do it too (since he owes me big-time for multiple TPKs that he inflicted on us when HE tried to run a game)

Its not too late. You are potentially ruining this AP for the others if this guy goes all nutso on this AP.

If you are still set to play? Tell the players but ESPECIALLY the head hack-slash that:

"YOU asked me to run this campaign path, its an investment of time/money for me. This is an AP that relies on some thought, some investigation and using smarts rather than to hit rolls to complete.

If you burn this AP to the ground by being dicks or sociopaths then I'll just walk away and stop running it... to that end, I have some requirements for some of you in terms of character choices and alignments - you may rile against it and say I am using a strait jacket, I am not - see it as a tool to keep you within the story... if you want to go outside the story then let me run something for you freestyle rather than a structured AP".

I'm starting this campaign on Wednesday and i'm worried about an aggressive munchkin player not mixing too well with the first encounter (at the funeral).

As soon as the angry mob get in the way, he'll have only one response. BOOM! (and he's the sort of player that takes a sadistic joy out of it too)

In my chronic insecurity, I have visions of a downward spiral that might look similar to this:
-When Father Grimbarrow arrives he'll obviously be horrified, and will argue with the party. BOOM!
-Kendra will probably freak out at that point. BOOM!
-When the sheriff hears, he'll want to question the party. BOOM!

Being the Alpha-munchkin of the group, the rest of the party will probably just go along with him, and within half an hour they'll be run out of town and have no reason to visit Harrowstone. (EDIT: or they might TPK as Grimbarrow is 7th level)

Any advice?

Most players that do things like this only do so because they expect things to be overlooked. They don't think they will be thrown in jail and/or executed. They don't think the obviously powerful NPC will retaliate if they keep pushing his buttons, or if he does fight back the GM really won't let them die.

I have a little blurb in my GM guide about being held responsible for your actions. <---That is all the warning they get. For your group I would shoot them an email or something to let them know what happens if they decide to be silly. If they choose to test you that is on them.

I have a little blurb in my GM guide about being held responsible for your actions. <---That is all the warning they get. For your group I would shoot them an email or something to let them know what happens if they decide to be silly. If they choose to test you that is on them.

Thats a good idea.

May I suggest running a Pre-Adventure? One of the weaknesses of the CC is that the players don't get to 'connect' to the Professor.

Run a pre-mission as a flashback to when Lorrimor is alive and test them. If they fluff it, and butcher a bunch of ppl, then Lorrimor can bail them out and give them a warning... (this doesn't derail the adventure - the prof may well approve of homicidal manics to protect his daughter, just add a personal note to the party as part of the will) and if they don't go nuts you know they are going to be ok.

Some metagame warnings as well aren't a bad idea from time to time as well.

I would let the initial encounter be a test to the kind of game they want to play.

If the whole group WANTS to play in a game where it is acceptable to just blow things up that annoy you, then you would be doing them a disservice and running (for them) a bad game.

Likewise, if it just this one guy and the others would all have more fun if there were consequences than that is fine to.

If they do kill off people at first sight, they aren't likely to win. As you mentioned the cleric is a lvl 7 character and it likely to be able to take them out. Try to have him do so non-lethally. Put them through a trial and then as punishment they are dropped into the prison and have to survive somehow.

Honestly, if they just want a dungeon crawl that is what you should give them.

That said, after using the dungeon in the first adventure you probably should move on to some just big dungeon thing... RP isn't their thing.

All of this does assume that you would still have fun running a dungeon game, I suppose... would bore the heck out of me after a few levels I would suspect.

Sean Mahoney

I would let the initial encounter be a test to the kind of game they want to play.......

If they do kill off people at first sight, they aren't likely to win......

Honestly, if they just want a dungeon crawl that is what you should give them....

Sean Mahoney

@ the OP:

I would let the initial encounter be a test to the kind of game they want to play.

If the whole group WANTS to play in a game where it is acceptable to just blow things up that annoy you, then you would be doing them a disservice and running (for them) a bad game.

Likewise, if it just this one guy and the others would all have more fun if there were consequences than that is fine to.

I agree with this. Slightly OT, but years ago I created an awesome Cyberpunk adventure with lots of roleplaying, intrigue and political scheming. My players turned up with (literally) a truck load of guns and just started shooting from the first encounter. It all ended horribly (with shouting) and afterwards I berated the players for their lack of guile and charm.

"But we WANTED a shoot-em-up!" they said.

The movie must fit the audience.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, i'm taking them all into consideration.

We got together last night, but we just did characters then played Chrononaughts for an hour. We start in earnest next Wednesday.

I have high hopes so far. I explained that evilness & aggressiveness aren't really ideal for this campaign so the munchkin player is going to be a Neutral Good Human Fighter. Everyone is pumped up and excited about the game, which is good :)

(if you're interested, the other party members are an Aasamar Barbarian, Tiefling Sorcereress, and a Cleric (undecided race at present, but probably another Aasamar).

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, i'm taking them all into consideration.

We got together last night, but we just did characters then played Chrononaughts for an hour. We start in earnest next Wednesday.

I have high hopes so far. I explained that evilness & aggressiveness aren't really ideal for this campaign so the munchkin player is going to be a Neutral Good Human Fighter. Everyone is pumped up and excited about the game, which is good :)

(if you're interested, the other party members are an Aasamar Barbarian, Tiefling Sorcereress, and a Cleric (undecided race at present, but probably another Aasamar).

High component of outsider types... that may or may not be a problem for the paranoid and suspicious Ustalavians.

Good luck - I just finished the first part as an online campaign and it was a blast.

Take care in the introduction to stress that the group should work together with Ravengro and even has to win the hearts of the people.

The opening of the testament is unfortunatelly after the burial. But you can gather the whole group ahead of the burial for a cup of tea while waiting for the funeral cermony.

While the group gathers in the living room of Kendra Lorrimor you notice a sealed envelop on a drawer. This seems to be the testament. Next to it you notice an open letter to Kendra.

"Dear Kendra

If you read this, then something bad has happened. I have asked some old friends to take care of you and protect you. Please make them aware of the following. Ravengro people are good people - but they often distrust strangers. Protecting you at times might be difficult as the local people might blame you for anything bad.
You know that this has happened to us and it has taken years to just get the trust of the majority of people in town. So ensure they don't judge them too early before tehy found time to better understand them.

In Love

Your Father"

Adding this should set the tone and should help to avoid a derailing of the whole plot in the first encounter. Yes - ideally a group shouldn't need such 'help' but in your case it might be useful just to add it to the official AP to smooth over the first encounter.

If they still attack - well - then the AP is likely not for the group. But your group likely needs a little bit of help ahead of the first encounter - how to behave at the funeral.

Having a good experience there with not fighting (and stress the Trust they earned) should help to ease any further encounters.

Oh - and ensure the bomber gets something to bomb early on - be it just a random encounter with a screaming villager from Ravengro running into the town square and talking about a few risen skeletons in the cemetry and all towns people cowering in fear while the sheriff is elsewhere.

Minor bits like this will help the group to ensure there enemy isn't Ravengro - even if they hardly can expect help from them.