The mess of my game!

[cranewings]

So, some fresh advice. This is something I've struggled with for a long time.

A little back ground. The party had a wishing stone. They used it. Flush with power, they immediately picked a fight with a village, which they lost.

After being sold into slavery, they were released by a powerful wizard. This wizard knew they couldn't use the wishing stone again, so she wanted their help retrieving it. At the same time, the wishing stone was used to produce an army which was used to take over their nation (Rokugan).

One of the PCs is the son of a Daimyo. He returned with the party to his homeland where he successfully ended the Mirumoto civil war between his father and uncle, rallied the clan over about 2-3 months of real time, weekly gaming, and had them ready to march to the emerald city in the spring (it was january). The invading army was so strong because they had a great worm red dragon, however it was hoped that if the Dragon Clan came, Kami Togashi would appear.

Well, after some time, when things were on the up and up, the Daimyo nixed the PC's plans, claiming they were too dangerous to the clan (they were -- the party wanted to make a deal with an extraplanar creature who said he would trade soldiers for artists). The PCs, not having it, tried to kill him and take over. They DID kill the Daimyo, but two of them died in the process (leaving the PC's uncle as the sole surviving ruler of the family).

Skip ahead, the war is won, the red dragon is dead, and the party managed to wish their friends back to life before the gemstone was wished into non-existence.

I left for the night after the last game, though I guess everyone else stayed and RPed for an hour. I called a couple of people to hear the story, and learned that the next thing on their agenda was to go into the capitol, use the prestige of their pet dragon, and reclaim rulership of the clan (along with all their missing magic items).

I feel like I've been kicking puppies all week. "You guys are well known to have murdered the Daimyo, thought to have been killed and burned, and now you show up 3 months later AFTER the big battle no one knew you were at, demanding things, of your Uncle who by all accounts lead the Dragon Army to assist the other clans, who was first into the emerald city, captured it, and returned it the same day to the Emperor. To top it off, yes you have a very young storm dragon and the prestige it carries, but your uncle, Mirumoto Hikaru, just took the Emerald City with the help of Kali Togashi. You don't have a leg to stand on. You will be lucky if he doesn't kill you, thinking you are Oni sense everyone saw you dead and burnt."

The consolation prize is this: the PC summoner is a servant of the wizard that got the party working on all this, The Phoenix Clan Master of Void. She plans to be gone for a long time, letting the PC take her seat on the counsel of elemental masters. In time, he might be able to take her seat permanently (when she travels on). The PC who WAS on the path to taking over the Mirumoto still has the loyalty of the Warrior Monk orders, and the peasantry. With the Phoenix's help, later, he may be able to take over again.

I explained that, but they still feel screwed. They probably feel bad because the whole mess with the army was because they stole, and then lost in a pointless fight that they started, the wishing gem. Then right at the end after months of kicking but, they got greedy and threw it away.

I would feel better about all this, because lets face it, this is cool as anything I ever ran, but it is a total downer for the players to lose their authority. I just really, really can't let them back in the Mirumoto without feeling like the internal logic of it all isn't worth anything.

[Daniel Moyer]

cranewings wrote:

Then right at the end after months of kicking but, they got greedy and threw it away.

Like MC Hammer! :D

On a more serious note...
What about a grand distraction? Something (or Someone) like Siege Perilous (LINK), an alternate dimension where things might be slightly or drastically different. (I was a big fan of the X-Men, they did this a LOT back when I collected it.)

A reality where they might eventually be pitted against themselves, ya know, the ones that didn't throw it all away.

- OR -

A completely different environment, they don't have much for gear anyway, toss them into a savage land... 1 million years in the past! Fighting dinosaurs, figuring out which faction of monstrous humanoids are "good" and which are "bad". The stereotype being, the more friendly a race LOOKS, the worse it is. Humans could be cannibalistic neanderthals, with maybe a few exceptions. No one speaks common.

- OR -

Do a complete reboot, give them some sort of dramatic finale, fade to black and start new characters in the current world, where they would have to in a sense 'suffer the consequences'. (Unless you think you can REALLY pull this off, I'd ask them hypothetically first, lol.)

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

I'd say that the best way out of this is for the wise and honorable uncle to consult the I Ching and inform them that while they have done some honorable things, they have also done some dishonorable things, and while the prestige of their young dragon is great, it may not be sufficient to satisfy the honor of the family or the people they rule. The only way to take away any stain is to journey to the west and there at the golden mountain retrieve the Stone of Peng-Lei, guarded by the Queen Mother of the West, and....

Basically, have the uncle set them off on an epic quest to redeem themselves, and have him backed up by soothsayers and oracles who say that this is the proper course of action.

And it is. The PCs really don't want to deal with administering stuff, and a quest is just their sort of thing. Whether the uncle is sending them to their doom or redemption or both is up to you as the GM, but it will continue the game without too much reward or punishment.

[Drejk]

Hmm, how much do you draw upon canon Rokugan background? If they are thought to be dead they might be welcomed as shadowspaned undead, gaki fleed from the Realm Of The Hungry Spirits (if anyone will think that they died dishonored... wait, you said they killed their daimyo? <evil grin>), spirits fleed from realm of slaughter (if they died in excessive combat). Oni masquarading as samuraii can happen too, if my memory serves me right.

If you want distraction, then shadowland invasion is always an option, especially if the Emerald Empire is weakened by infighting. Also other clans might be willing to sabotage their efforts politically to diminish power base of Dragon Clan (especially Lion and Pheonix, or Scorpion, the whole point of their existence is keeping other clans in line).

[Muttoneer]

Agreed - another quest is always the solution.
Maybe given their infamy and status as being thought dead, their uncle could use their services as more covert agents for a while. Doesnt have to be sneaky-type stuff, just wearing some sort of disguises.

Or if the concern that they might be oni is a real one, maybe a quest to a retrieve something from a holy site that only non-oni could enter.

[cranewings]

Thanks for the ideas.

There really isn't any way the Uncle can let them back. The party has a history of being really underhanded and evil whenever it suits them and they have killed a lot of people, (including the uncle's brother).

Drejk, I'm not familiar with that part of the setting. Assume that they can use the dragon to pull off the idea that they are honored spirits led back from the afterlife, what would that be called / entail?

[Phneri]

I'd give them exactly what they want.

They're welcomed with a fanfare and celebration. The uncle surrenders leadership to them. They're lavished with attnetion. Items of power are promised to be returned once they've been located.

This is when you reveal that something is very, very wrong. Sense motives start going off right and left, the people are all "happy" that you've returned but secretly terrified, etc.

Maybe the Daimyo was responsible for containing some ancient, incredibly powerful evil that's now been released and allowing it's rescuers some leisure while it inflicts horror and suffering on the world.

Maybe the consequences of the party's repeated wishes, chaotic acts, etc. have attracted the attention of something truly evil and chaotic that wants to play.

Maybe the uncle's set something rather mean-spirited in motion and wants someone else (the party) at the helm when it all goes south and consequences roll in.

Now the party has a chance to right past wrongs and prove that they're not what everyone expects them to be. It's just going to take some work.

[cranewings]

That's funny.

The uncle had used the portal as previously mentioned. He actually went through and took the imperial city of the Rakasha. The party knows that the king in that world was an all powerful wizard, what with casting permanency at will when they met him.

If he is dead (from being foolish enough to attack the Dragon Clan in their own city where their magic can't work) the Uncle would have inherited whatever problems the Rakasha version of Dr. Strange was dealing with.

[Goth Guru]

Siege Perilous, sounds like The Cleaves.
There is a furnace in one of the rooms where you throw in a magic item to power it and it gives you a magical mutation. You might think about running them through a Cleaves playtest, to make them stronger, or any other space dungeon.