A little whipping?

[Bearcat]

>This question came up in our campaign concerning the Gorgon. Strictly by the
>rules of the game, Raesene used up his allotment of henchmen/lts. a long time
>ago. So far we've let it slide- "Hey, he's the Gorgon." But given his
>reputation- or should I say legendary status, why would anyone go to work for
>him? Knowing he'll kill you off in a decade or two would keep the pool of
>candidates very small.

I think that he may trainhis lieutenents from birth. He prolly
starts out with a hundred candidates for the position and then gradually
culls out the undesirably weak or good ones until he has his henchmen. This
would almost certainly ensure loyalty, and should produce competent henchmen
as well, after all that is their single purpose in life.

Bearcat
lcgm@elogica.com.br
Come visit Bearcat's Birthright Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6204

[ANOLESEN@aol.co]

I guess its time to break out the whip. I have a first time player (who has
only DMed) who wants to slit everyone's throat that dosen't have a Charisma of
14 or higher. I don't yet know how I will deal with that (but suggestions are
welcome) but he also doesn't like to negostiate. He (a Guildmaster in
Medeore? and Roesone), a NPC he thinks will become his wife (actually an evil
Azari derived person who wants to kill him and rule his guilds, Scott ( a
ruler of a custom-made domain encomassesing Medeore? and Ilien who can think
staight, and his closest personal bodyguard ( two Crossbowmen with battle Axes
and breastplates) were walking through that beutiful forest in souther anuire
( I can't spell it and don't want to go find out) and encournted four Orogs.
After slaying three and bringing one down to a single hit point the last orog
droped to his knees and started bowing to them. Scott was going to take it
prisioner and soon let it go but then HE (he will remain anymous) decied to
slay the poor beast. ( of course he got no XP for it). For this they'll get
to fight a group of NPCs who WILL NOT show any mercy until HE is at one HP (
He won't be able to run and Scott, his fiancee and anyothers will be away).
If you have any better or just plain cool ideas please write me.

[Daniel McSorley]

BAD PLAN ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>I guess its time to break out the whip.

OK, I can tell you are angry at this guy. If I couldn't tell that, I would
be stupid. But the plan you just described (get him down to one hp, etc),
sounds dangerously like dm-player competition/ animosity. If this guy is
your friend, DON'T DO IT! A player cannot win in this type of situation,
you just said it yourself, he _will_ be down to one hp, and the other guys
_will_ be away at the moment, and he _will not_ be able to run away. As a
DM, you can make this happen, sure, but this is s'posed to be about fun, not
settling a grudge. And if you do this, he most likely will not wish to play
with you again, so if he is your friend, I repeat DON'T DO IT!!!!
Now, I have had similar situations. My brother likes to kill stuff, so
I used this against him. :) He killed a NPC who happened to be a cousin of
the Prince of Avanil. Now he is exiled, but still wants to get into the
country to get his fiance (sp?) out.
Another plan, just as good, would be to have him meet some guys with
vital information, and if he kills them, one of his holdings is toast, like
they know of an immenent raid from the Spiderfell that will A) most likely
succeed, and B) reduce a province level in doing so, thus screwing over one
of his guilds. It has to be something important to him, this guy doesn't
seem the type to worry about much else.
If all else fails, sure his enemies would know that he shows no mercy,
and so let him know he can accept no quarter in return. Let people shun
this bloodthirsty monster. More popular guilders contest his holdings,
priests won't heal him, and little children run away as he walks by. He'll
get the picture. You said he was a DM. If so, he should have some idea how
these things work, unless all of his DMing consisted of "you turn the corner
(roll some dice) there's a big chest with some, uh, (more dice) orcs in
front of it." In that case, he wasn't a DM at all, he was a walking random
encounter table :)
Glad I got that off my chest :)
MY TotHW and BoP CAME IN TODAY!!! WHOOPEEEEEEEEE!
Daniel McSorley
mcsorley.1@osu.edu

[simong@mech.uwa.edu.au]

>I guess its time to break out the whip. I have a first time player (who has
>only DMed) who wants to slit everyone's throat that dosen't have a Charisma of
>14 or higher. I don't yet know how I will deal with that (but suggestions are
>welcome) but he also doesn't like to negostiate.

Okay, a suggestion for the first one. The player needs to learn that all of
his actions *will* have repercussions, be that good or bad. The easiest way
to do this, in my experience, has been to severely incapacitate (or even
kill off) a character - basically give them something to think about that
they will have to deal with for several game sessions. Of course, this
assumes that you are really, really running out of other options (or maybe
they are simply playing their character like they envisage them). My
character was a dissillusioned elf (Tolkein elf), who was somewhat of an
assassin (quite good at it I might add). After playing around Middle Earth
for a while, our GM got the Thieves World expansions and we ended up there.
This was a big city, where my character could no longer escape from his
'punishments'. He was hired (blackmailed is closer to the truth) to
assassinate one of the most influential people in the city. I later found
out he was also one of the most powerful, but... Anyway, the assassination
attempt miraculously worked (I think this was one of my best gaming nights,
statistics-wise - the dice were really on my side that night), but when
there is powerful magic around, it's difficult to hide. My character was
caught, and by all rights the GM should have had my character killed. But
he was kind that night, he only chopped off one of my characters arms, and
cauterised his eyes. Now when you have a warrior type character who relies
on his senses, it kind of stops him short. Anyone who knows Rolemaster well
will know that fixing a missing limb is not too hard, if you have the money
and can find a reasonably high-level healer. But the eyes are another
matter - this requires a *very* high level spell. So, for my troubles, I
sat out a single gaming session for the arm. But the eyes remained (not :)
) with me for a long time. Luckily my character had some ability with SLA,
a skill in RM that allows you to feel the 'force' or the 'way' or whatever
you want to call it. This character ended up being blind through at least 3
adventures, before the eyes were fixed properly. He also changed (big time)
a lot as a result of the incident. He became battle-hardened, almost going
into another world during combat. He became overly protective of
companions, a result of looking back at a life of loneliness. He started
working to *foil* assassination plots, trying to right the wrongs. He was
severely scarred (my GM wouldn't let this heal up as a reminder), and
basically I never got to forget the incident. It was a reminder of two
things - even thought the PCs are the 'heroes', their actions still have
repercussions, and my GM was willing to deal with things (if players ever
get the hint the GM doesn't like to harm them...). In this case, the GM
made the right call in not killing off my character. He developed into
probably one of the favourite characters of any of our games. I guess the
(long-winded) message here is - do something (NOT nothing). Start small
(ie. the punishment is not too bad), then get big if necessary. But be
prepared to really punish the character if they do something mightily
stupid.

I also have the negotiation problem in my current (finishing) campaign. The
PC's simply don't want to negotiate. No matter what they are threatened
with, bribed with, etc, they will not listen to the NPC regents. All they
want to do is kill the other regents. It makes the whole thing very
difficult for the GM. Even the thought of getting Avanil, Diemed and Ghoere
offside doesn't seem to bring any results. One of the PC's is the ruler of
Medoere, and has lost one of his provinces already to Diemed
(instigated/backed by Guilder Kalien, whom the PC *really* annoyed), and is
on the way to losing his kingdom. This is one of the reasons why this
campaign is finishing up. I plan to start a new campaign with the PC's as
wandering (blooded) adventurers, with the plan of getting them to become
regents at about 3rd-4th level. I was looking at having them become regents
of the same domain (or regent/court wizard type deal) as this looks like a
good way of getting them to work together. Has anyone got any experience of
how this arrangement works? I was looking at introducing them to a domain
kind-of like Stjordvik - falling (fallen?) apart, and needs to be re-united
before they can become effective rulers.

Simon

[roger whelan]

> Now, I have had similar situations. My brother likes to kill stuff,
so
> I used this against him. :) He killed a NPC who happened to be a cousin
of
> the Prince of Avanil. Now he is exiled, but still wants to get into the
> country to get his fiance (sp?) out.

I agree. I think that the best way of dealing with a PC like that is to
set him up to kill someone, and then it comes back to haunt him. Say
having him kill a NPC. The PC then starts to have nightmares about the
killing, and him being "haunted" and then have then PC run into the killed
NPC as a ghost. One or tow of those type situation and he better get the
message, or he'll end up someone else's victim.

[Espen Andre Johnsen]

>
> I guess its time to break out the whip. I have a first time player (who has
> only DMed) who wants to slit everyone's throat that dosen't have a Charisma of
> 14 or higher. I don't yet know how I will deal with that (but suggestions are
> welcome) but he also doesn't like to negostiate. He (a Guildmaster in
> Medeore? and Roesone), a NPC he thinks will become his wife (actually an evil
> Azari derived person who wants to kill him and rule his guilds, Scott ( a
> ruler of a custom-made domain encomassesing Medeore? and Ilien who can think
> staight, and his closest personal bodyguard ( two Crossbowmen with battle Axes
> and breastplates) were walking through that beutiful forest in souther anuire
> ( I can't spell it and don't want to go find out) and encournted four Orogs.
> After slaying three and bringing one down to a single hit point the last orog
> droped to his knees and started bowing to them. Scott was going to take it
> prisioner and soon let it go but then HE (he will remain anymous) decied to
> slay the poor beast. ( of course he got no XP for it). For this they'll get
> to fight a group of NPCs who WILL NOT show any mercy until HE is at one HP (
> He won't be able to run and Scott, his fiancee and anyothers will be away).
> If you have any better or just plain cool ideas please write me.
>

Won't be able to run...let him run, you know the saing " You can run,
but you can't hide". Let him run, but make sure that the NPCs have prepaired for
that event, he will be running in every direction and hitting every wall. this
way he thinks he has a chance, but as time goes on he will be to occupied by
surviving to see what you are doing ( He can't say he didn't have a chance if
you make it seem that he had, players who feel badly treated tend to play
badly). Stressed players tend to make many mistakes.

Just my 2000gp.

Espen A. J.

[Sythryc@aol.co]

try a nightmare or dream showing the slain orog as a guide to lost treasure,
whatever he wanted most. as in - the wounded orog, barely alive, expressed
his thanks and led them or HIM to an ancient Diemed/Roesone/whatever relic of
magical power that could have been his if HE had only shown some compassion.
you could really play it up by having priests talk about a vision they all
received about the ancient relic. word eventually reaches HIM and only HE
knows that it could have been his. otherwise tell the dude he won't have many
allies if his own followers take time out and realize that they may suffer the
same fate one day. i sure wouldn't want to follow HIM by the actions you have
described. what is HIS reasoning for his actions?

[prtr02@scorpion.nspco.co]

It was written, concerning mercy for surrendering enemies:


otherwise tell the dude he won't have many
> allies if his own followers take time out and realize that they may suffer the
> same fate one day. i sure wouldn't want to follow HIM by the actions you have
> described. what is HIS reasoning for his actions?

This question came up in our campaign concerning the Gorgon. Strictly by the
rules of the game, Raesene used up his allotment of henchmen/lts. a long time
ago. So far we've let it slide- "Hey, he's the Gorgon." But given his
reputation- or should I say legendary status, why would anyone go to work for
him? Knowing he'll kill you off in a decade or two would keep the pool of
candidates very small.

Randax