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So I'm reading about the roadside cockfight, and I see that "If the PCs’ chosen bird wins, Rickets flushes with anger and throws a fit in front of everyone." and "If the PCs lose the cockfight...he greedily demands more money than they originally bet."
I can see the occasional outburst at losing a particularly costly bet, or occasionally overcharging rubes, but his actions as written just don't seem to make sense. It seems to be an attempt to manufacture drama where there really isn't any.
Of course PCs are known to insert drama all on their own, and that's fine if they decide to do so, by using magic to cheat or trying to welch on a bet, or any number of other shenanigans. I don't like the way this encounter is written to make sure that drama happens, however.
How have others handled this encounter? Exactly as written or if you've made changes, what did you do?
I was prepared to run the encounter as written though I had my suspicions that the party's druid wouldn't take cockfights too kindly. Things turned out kind of different. Here's what happened in my group:
The group arrived and was kindly invited to stay with the rest of the caravan for the "safety of numbers" and soon found out about the cockfighting. Nkechi had to cool down the druid, convincing him that the fights are not to the death and so not too cruel but more like a natural selection kind of thing. Our gnome sorcerer was quickly fascinated by the colorful animals and the excited atmosphere and couldn't wait to get in on the action. He was warned about not trying to do any "fancy magicks" in favor of his chosen animal but didn't really listen. The group's ranger bet on the other animal (might be a little metagaming here).
When the fight started, the gnome tried to cast a spell but was caught red-handed, the fight was aborted and the culprit taken before Rickets, alone. Rickets demanded compensation and asked for 10 times the original bet. After some physical persuasion by his thugs the gnome agreed and paid him.
Another cockfight started, this time without arcane interference, and the ranger's bird won. When he tried to cash out though, Rickets refused to give him his money, stating that "he's an associate of the cheater and thus his winnings will be considered compensation for all the trouble he and his friend have caused". A brawl ensued between the ranger, the sorcerer and the group's barbarian on one side, Ricket's thugs on the other. The PCs didn't want to kill anyone so for a few rounds it was PC Intimidate vs. Rickets' Intimidate with the thugs caught in the middle until the gnome successfully cast Hideous Laughter and Cause Fear thus dissolving the problem.
When Rickets laughing fit stopped, he showed his true colors and, scared to the bone, finallys paid up. He then returned to his tent and wasn't seen for the rest of the evening.
The rest of the caravan was quite enjoying the brawl (much like written) and after everything was said and done congratulated the PCs on "finally showing that smug wanna-be what's what". Dinner party (roasted chicken) and the end.
I don't know it that is going to help you but I think it goes to show that it depends very much on what kind of characters you have in your group and how likely they are to give Rickets any reason to refuse payment. Also, they are strangers after all and claiming that the guys who just arrived, bet a substantial sum on a bird and just happened to win are cheaters doesn't sound like a long shot.
Well done Null, perfectly handled.
I just played it that if the PCs didn't any casting or interfering than Rickets and his thugs would fire up. The PCs didn't do anything, lost and paid up and that was the end of that. My guys bought the losing bird and sort of adopted it for awhile. They really seemed to like the cockfight so I added another travelling merchant group to go up against them. PCs lost again and paid up again.
Thanks. The fight with the thugs was great fun especially for the barbarian. His usual action in combat is "move in and swing double axe" but in this fight he got a chance to show off and used his turns to liven up the crowd.
My approach was to play it like Rickets just misjudges the PCs as easy marks for a swindle. The PCs are not merchants, they're strangers, outsiders, so Rickets figures they can be cheated without messing up his rep with the caravans, as long as he can hold up some pretext of being in the right, no matter how flimsy. The carrying on is for the benefit of the other merchants - So, if the PCs win, "it's because they cheated". If they lose, they're "welchers trying to get off with paying less than their wager". The other merchants understand the game he's playing, and since the PCs actually are outsiders, are content to let him play it... while they bet among themselves on the outcome.
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Oh Gods... This encounter. I was going to make a thread about it after our next session to see how things wrapped up but I guess I'll give a short summery of what went wrong.
Basically, the party went in the caravan. I gave it a gp limit of 1000 so the players could buy some new gear and rest. The CN female fighter went shopping while the N half-orc ranger placed a bet as well as the LE female summoner. The rest of the party CG fighter and CG oracle decided they didn't agree with the animal cruelty and that it needed to be stopped... Long story short the CG fighter is a few miles off with Rickets' cart; which he wrecked. Most of the chickens are dead. Rickets and his men are coming back for him and are going to kill him. The rest of the party is about to be kicked out of the caravan for causing so much trouble and the oracle is in disguise and is avoiding the party at the moment.
The only reason the party is getting off so easy is that they said they had nothing to do with his plan and their going to allow the caravan to do whatever they want to the fighter (Flog him, take his valuables, and all of his money). That is if Rickets and his men don't get to him first.