Last week: Role playing games
Sep. 20th, 2023 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornSaturday before last we played the New San Francisco Chronicles WoD-Crossover, and managed to direct a fight with zombie-like vampires into a location so advantageous for us that the actual fight was narrated and not played. Our suspicion that some Anarchs were using un-raised Sabbat candidates to prank a Camarilla/Independent domain turned out true.
Monday I finally resolved the painted-into-a-corner adventure in a fantasy setting, the one where I still wonder how my clever and ingenious players can occasionally act as dumb as a box of hammers with all the smart hammers taken out. To recap, they were sent to buy a valuable horse for a client, got scammed by the sellers, and could not decide on their priorities: The money, the horse, understanding what was going on, or bloody revenge.
I had hinted that the scammers had also been acting as someone's agents, and that they were very unhappy (read: bloody furious) with their client, another horse breeder, who just could. not. stick. to any, damned. plan. (Which was already damaging his business, leading to desperate and stupid actions on his side.)
The scammers -- a group of amoral adventurers (a rogue, a magician, a fighter, and one more guy -- the PCs never interacted with the latter) -- wanted to get paid, wanted to keep the money they made when improvising because of lack of directions, and wanted to get away before the law caught wind of their shenanigans. Their client wanted the money they had made on the side and would not let them leave his fortified farm, expecting that when the ground was getting too hot for them, they would fork over their ill-gotten gains (which they had given to their fighter to take it to safety -- it was more than their pay!)
While the players, unknowingly, had created a very nice (for them) hostage situation: By taking the fighter captive, they had not only recovered their money, but also alerted their opponents: Their captive was wearing a magical alarm and locator, so the scammers' magician knew there was trouble. Which made the situation on the stud farm come to a boil very quickly.
So a brawl and then a fight at the client's stud farm happened quite naturally, things caught fire, all hands were called inside to fight the fire, and while the scammers darted out, the PCs ran in, joined the brawl, secured their prize horse, tried to keep their opponents from getting away (damaging at least their dignity a lot) and fled on some horses that no one was watching too closely in the ruckus.
They did lose their captive, but they still ended up with a satisfied client, a big bonus (they were honest and gave the money they had recovered back to their client), sufficient loot, and the contentment of a job well done.
The GM (that's me) ended up very relieved that it was over.
Monday I finally resolved the painted-into-a-corner adventure in a fantasy setting, the one where I still wonder how my clever and ingenious players can occasionally act as dumb as a box of hammers with all the smart hammers taken out. To recap, they were sent to buy a valuable horse for a client, got scammed by the sellers, and could not decide on their priorities: The money, the horse, understanding what was going on, or bloody revenge.
I had hinted that the scammers had also been acting as someone's agents, and that they were very unhappy (read: bloody furious) with their client, another horse breeder, who just could. not. stick. to any, damned. plan. (Which was already damaging his business, leading to desperate and stupid actions on his side.)
The scammers -- a group of amoral adventurers (a rogue, a magician, a fighter, and one more guy -- the PCs never interacted with the latter) -- wanted to get paid, wanted to keep the money they made when improvising because of lack of directions, and wanted to get away before the law caught wind of their shenanigans. Their client wanted the money they had made on the side and would not let them leave his fortified farm, expecting that when the ground was getting too hot for them, they would fork over their ill-gotten gains (which they had given to their fighter to take it to safety -- it was more than their pay!)
While the players, unknowingly, had created a very nice (for them) hostage situation: By taking the fighter captive, they had not only recovered their money, but also alerted their opponents: Their captive was wearing a magical alarm and locator, so the scammers' magician knew there was trouble. Which made the situation on the stud farm come to a boil very quickly.
So a brawl and then a fight at the client's stud farm happened quite naturally, things caught fire, all hands were called inside to fight the fire, and while the scammers darted out, the PCs ran in, joined the brawl, secured their prize horse, tried to keep their opponents from getting away (damaging at least their dignity a lot) and fled on some horses that no one was watching too closely in the ruckus.
They did lose their captive, but they still ended up with a satisfied client, a big bonus (they were honest and gave the money they had recovered back to their client), sufficient loot, and the contentment of a job well done.
The GM (that's me) ended up very relieved that it was over.
