Rival Adventurers

[CorpCommander]

This is perhaps one of the eviler things I've thought about doing to the party in my campaign but it needs some work.

Basically your typical adventure consists of a bad guy and his minions which the adventures seek out. They then stomp on the minions, stomp on the bad guy, steal his loot and take advantage of his women. Change the gender and wording as you like but that is basically what happens. Monster of the Week. (MotW)

OK. Now then lets take that to a higher level.

The party needs adventures to get loot to pay for stuff. The world is big so there are of course other adventuring parties. I propose creating one with a flamboyant leader who boasts of many great deeds. At first he will see a good friend of the party's - buying them drinks, paying them compliments. However, the party will soon learn that all the juicy jobs have been taken by this fellow and his band of so-called do-gooders. Should they even GET a contract they will enter the lair of the MotW only to find the place slick with the blood of dead minions. Every stone is unturned, every chest looted, every basket upended and every fabulous treasure taken. On the body of the bad guy is a note basically saying "when you mess with the best you die like the rest." and signed by that creepy do-gooding adventurer and his party!

What I am trying to figure out is what the party can do about this guy and get them to think along similar lines. For example I think they could find out about a fabulous mission he is going on and preparing for and try to get their first thus ensuing a RACE to kill the boss monster! No finesse, no attempt to be thorough in clearing the dungeon -- just a brutal hack and slash to get to the FINAL CHAMBER (there is always a final chamber!) and get the bad guy.

And then the evil GM in me says the following -- let there be a curse, retribution, something from the bad guy. Force the characters to form a temporary alliance just to get out of the dungeon alive! Make it ten times worse than what Indiana Jones had to go through in the first movie trying to get out with his not so trustworthy companion!

Oh its so evil I am giving myself an evil GM only hug! :D

So, what kind of dirty tricks can I/should I play? What do you think of the concept?

[lemming]

Aw. I thought you were running two groups of PCs.

[Old Man]

The rival party is such a good idea it should be mandatory for most campaigns. Nothing, and I mean nothing, enrages players like the idea that someone is competing with them for 'their' loot. It gets even better if the rivals show up immediately after a tough fight and relieve the PCs of all their good treasure. Hee hee!

The rival party also makes for an excellent push, forcing the PCs onto a timetable and preventing stupidity like "oh, we'll just camp out here for a couple weeks and go back into the dungeon when we're all healed up." Later you can turn the tables and force the PCs to catch up to the Evil Party. Rival adventurers also help with campaign continuity ("So, we meet again") and it's fun for the GM to advance the rivals in XP to match the PCs as the campaign progresses ("I see someone has taught you the sword.")

[Blue Jogger]

Under evil tricks can one play.

"The Head of Vecna"
http://www.threatofghouls.com/vecna.htm

[CorpCommander]

Originally posted by Blue Jogger
http://www.threatofghouls.com/vecna.htm

OMG is that funny! I've seen extremely large gaming groups (largest was at UCONN with 17 players and around 32 characters in 1985) and groups would infight all the time, but that story takes the cake!

[Captain Obvious]

The classic Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story "Stardock" has an interesting idea for you. You know how adventures always kick off when the characters find a mysterious map, right? Well, for some reason (it's part of a conspiracy), all these mysterious maps are uncovered at the same time, and everyone is racing to climb to the top of Stardock mountain first and win the fantastic treasures that are supposed to be there.

The spoiler comes here, so anyone who really wants to read the story should skip to the next post.











Okay, the maps were all planted by the king of a race of invisible people living on Stardock. He's decided that his race needs some new genes in the gene pool, and is using this race to get only the best. Fafhrd and the Mouser get started up the mountain at about the same time as another group (that they apparently know of, although they're not mentioned in any of the other stories). They can see the other group at times, and eventually get close enough for some minor skirmishing. The other group reaches the top of the mountain first, which is bad for them, because the king wants those genes, but doesn't want to let those guys sleep with his daughters. Fafhrd and the Mouser find the daughters' bedrooms before reaching the peak, and contribute to the gene pool the old fashioned way....

[Markdoc]

I've used the rival party gambit a lot in my game. It does several things - as pointed out, it gives the players some competition. If done well, they might dislike the other guys, but not to the point of attacking them, although I have had rival parties that are both not-so-friendly rivals and some the players would love to slay if they could do it without getting in trouble.

It adds some flavour to the game. Often it seems like the players are the only real people in a world populated by cardboard cutouts. Having a few recurring characters in the same line of work adds depth.

It allows you to throw them into the game when your players need a hand.

It gives you a tool to make the players hurry up when you want them to race after something

But one gambit I have used, which I absolutely love - ya just can't do it too often, alas - is to set up a rival party the players hate and put them in the same area. Usually it's a race to the treasure thing, and then force them to collaborate to survive.

cheers, Mark

[Citizen Keen]

What always works for me is this -

Have the rival party take credit for the PCs accomplishments. Have them get to the local tavern half an hour early and tell the tale of defeating Lord Reallyreallybad. The PCs get really angry when the rivals weren't even in the dungeon, or ran in fear. That's when it works best is if you have the rivals and the PCs encounter a nasty monster, and the PCs stay and the rivals run, and when the PCs get back the local town is lauding the rivals as heroes.

It works best if the rivals have a very competent bard in the party.