What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

[The Suave]

The roleplaying group goes on a mission with them, and kills the only enemy informant they had access to.

 

 

Long story short:

 

My group (I'm GMing this Mutant-based DC game) got picked up by an underground mutant organization after being pretty much screwed over by a government-duping corporation.

 

Either way, The Saints (the underground group) were going after this guy David Wash in a "move up the food chain" type operation to get at the real bad guys. There was a meeting to be had at an illegal blood match for an equally illegal mutant fight-ring, and the plan was to take out David Wash's bodyguards and take him alive for questioning.

 

One of my players, knowingly, obviously, after every bodyguard was down, shot David Wash twice and killed him.

 

 

So what would YOUR poor, underequipped, government\corporate fighting organization do if this happened to them?

 

Thank you for any insight,

Suave

 

P.S. If this whole post is entirely vague, feel free to ask questions of your own.

[OzMike]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Tell the PC character to fix it, find someone else up the food chain to use as a new lead, find out useful information, and give them a deadline ("You've got one week"). Otherwise:

 

"You'll go out for pizza or something, and when you get back, we'll be gone and you'll be on your own. We won't call the pigs down on you, but don't come looking to us for favors. 'Cos you deliberately f***ed it up. This is your one chance - you fix it."

[Shaft]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Did the player give any reason for not following orders, or was he just deliberately trying to railroad your plot?

 

What are the consequences of not having this lead to follow? I say act it out and let the PC live (or not) with the consequences of not having the info.

 

Another option is that Wash has regenerative/resurrection abilities (or duplication) and will want revenge. Now the PC has an enemy that he apparently can't kill.

[Twilight]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

I agree with OzMike. If there's no way to save Wash's life, make the PC in question fix the problem. If he refuses to do it then he's a liability, PC gets off.

 

As for the player, if it was just a misunderstanding or somesuch then "no cookie, be more careful next time." If he's deliberately trying to eff up your plot: first offence ban him from snacks for a certain period, second offence he's out of the game.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Well, my campaigns play pretty gritty, but if the other players actually allow the idiot to live (because a screw-up will also rat you out eventually), he's also going to come to the attention of the big baddies the target was working for -- so will the other characters, for that matter. And being my usual nasty self, I'd make the screw-up priority target number one for a kidnapping and telepathic probe (interrogation, mind sifter test subject, etc.) for all the information he has on the rest of the group.

 

Of course, I'd give the rest of the characters the option of attempting a rescue -- but said screw-up is going to be on the sidelines for most of the adventure, which should teach him a lesson about going rogue in the future. Plus, I would have one of the interrogation staff have all of the information I wanted my original NPC to impart to the characters in the first place. Thus, two problems fixed, though the plot's timeline steps up considerably, unless the characters have the good sense to lay low for a while to let the bad guys think they've scattered rather than regrouped...

 

Hope things work out for you and yours -- but yeah, I probably would've slapped this moron after he gleefully wastes a major plot element of mine.

 

Matt "Anger-Management-Candidate" Frisbee

[Comic]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

If this were a grim and gritty WWII flick, your screw-up would be shaved bald, put on trial by his cell, and put before a firing squad, more or less simultaneously.

 

But your cell are NPCs. PCs are the stars of the series. How you and the others decide to go forward, up to you.

 

I'm still curious about the player's rationale for choosing his character's actions.

 

It sounds a little like the PC who, upon meeting the king after the low-level D20 party raided the dungeon and rousted the orc threat slipped a dagger out of her sleeve and backstabbed him. "Why'd you do that?" asked the group, including the GM. "Because it's on my character sheet!" her player replied. "No, no, not _that_ character sheet, the one you all see. This one," drawing a sheet none of the players (or GM) had been shown. "See, she's really a ninja pirate assassin princess who's been in deep cover until she could get close to the monarch."

 

So.. Is your player a NPAP in deep cover?

[input.jack]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Tell the PC character to fix it, find someone else up the food chain to use as a new lead, find out useful information, and give them a deadline ("You've got one week"). Otherwise:

 

"You'll go out for pizza or something, and when you get back, we'll be gone and you'll be on your own. We won't call the pigs down on you, but don't come looking to us for favors. 'Cos you deliberately f***ed it up. This is your one chance - you fix it."

 

Thats perfect.

 

That, or the underground mutant organization decides that that particular character must have done what he did to "shut the informant up"...so they conclude that he must be an enemy agent.

 

With all that that implies.

[The Suave]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

To clarify:

 

When gently reminded that "Remember you're supposed to take this guy alive." after declaring his intent, the character said to me only: "I just want to tag the guy."

 

Then, without declaring any specific hit locations, or even hit location areas: he shot the guy.

 

This same character has also taken it upon himself to build a version of the "Brotherhood of Mutants" with all that that implies. If you're not familiar, the BoM was Magneto's group that decided that Mutants were a new, superior race, and that Humans needd to be shown that: through violence. So this player has explained to me some of his future plans, all of which seem to be terrorist actions.

 

This new human inferiority idea of his was created all on his own, with no GM or world input, and no character backstory to go along with it.

 

Thanks for all the help, guys, I'm really appreciating the input.

[bwdemon]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

The roleplaying group goes on a mission with them' date=' and kills the only enemy informant they had access to. One of my players, knowingly, obviously, after every bodyguard was down, shot David Wash twice and killed him. So what would YOUR poor, underequipped, government\corporate fighting organization do if this happened to them?[/quote']

 

This sounds like a fairly dark game, so my reply goes along those lines...

 

I'd take him down in a heartbeat, but make sure to keep him alive. Since he killed the informant when it wasn't even close to necessary, it's very likely that he's covering the enemies' tracks. That means he knows something or knows someone who knows something. Either way, he's now the best lead we've got.

 

When I've tortured him enough to either get the information I want or assure myself that I will never get it from him, then I'd kill him and dump him in the sewers. Given what he did, under those circumstances, there wouldn't be a question in my mind of who's side he's on.

 

If I am somehow convinced during the process that he doesn't know anything and was just a dangerous idiot, then I'd kill him and dump him in the sewers. This shows the rest of the group that I will not let anyone jeopardize the movement's agenda.

[Twilight]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

To clarify:

 

When gently reminded that "Remember you're supposed to take this guy alive." after declaring his intent, the character said to me only: "I just want to tag the guy."

 

Then, without declaring any specific hit locations, or even hit location areas: he shot the guy.

 

This same character has also taken it upon himself to build a version of the "Brotherhood of Mutants" with all that that implies. If you're not familiar, the BoM was Magneto's group that decided that Mutants were a new, superior race, and that Humans needd to be shown that: through violence. So this player has explained to me some of his future plans, all of which seem to be terrorist actions.

 

This new human inferiority idea of his was created all on his own, with no GM or world input, and no character backstory to go along with it.

 

Thanks for all the help, guys, I'm really appreciating the input.

 

Sounds like the guy is trying to be difficult on purpose. I mean from what it sounds like to me, and I admit I could be mistaken, it sounds like he really had no intention of playing the game you set up. It seems to me like he was only there to do his own little storyline no matter what you wanted.

[csyphrett]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Dude, you need to get an axe and grind it on your player's skull. He's going to be nothing but trouble if you don't. Every time you set up an adventure, he will mess it up because he's a ninja princess.

 

CES

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

To clarify:

 

When gently reminded that "Remember you're supposed to take this guy alive." after declaring his intent, the character said to me only: "I just want to tag the guy."

 

Then, without declaring any specific hit locations, or even hit location areas: he shot the guy.

 

This same character has also taken it upon himself to build a version of the "Brotherhood of Mutants" with all that that implies. So this player has explained to me some of his future plans, all of which seem to be terrorist actions.

 

This new human inferiority idea of his was created all on his own, with no GM or world input, and no character backstory to go along with it.

 

Okay -- this guy is going to be a royal pain in the @$$, since he seems intent on trashing your storyline and inserting his own. Short and sweet -- have the big baddies maul his personage badly enough to put him on the sidelines, then leave him as bait for a hardcore ambush if the rest of the team is stupid enough to walk into it. (If they're smart, they'll smell a trap and act accordingly.) While that is happening, have the baddies use the information they have gained from him to take down his "Brotherhood" while he's laid up. He gets to watch the action unfold around him rather than participate (much) which will hopefully inspire him to (1) respect party intent, (2) respect the effort you put into making a campaign plotline that includes all of the characters, and (3) quit trying to hog the spotlight.

 

Remember, if it's a dark and gritty world, nobody is playing by the rules -- feel free to be creatively sadistic to the screw-ups as a warning to the others as to what happens to somebody who gets on your bad side.

 

And good luck with the campaign, by the way...

 

Matt "Bonejack-the-cyberware-and-sell-the-entrails-to-Tasty-Ghoul" Frisbee

[lemming]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

The question is: Do you want to keep the player?

 

Gamewise: What's been said before is pretty good advice. If the PC was actually a NPC, the PCs would of thrown him in a sack and assumed he was an enemy agent.

[Tasha]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

The question is: Do you want to keep the player?

 

Gamewise: What's been said before is pretty good advice. If the PC was actually a NPC, the PCs would of thrown him in a sack and assumed he was an enemy agent.

 

It looks like the PC in question is trying to break into Super Villany. If he really thinks that normal humanity is cattle to be replaced by the master race and he's set to come up with an anti-humanity hate group. Then the character is working for the opposition.

 

Basically, it sounds like you need to have a talk with the player away from the rest of the group. You need to find out if he really wants to be part of the campaign or if he just misunderstood the intent of the campaign. You can then work on perhaps introducing new character who fits better (and possibly making his old PC a NPC who shows up later to cause trouble), or perhaps using this incident as an excuse to change the character's viewpoints to something more palatable for the campaign.

 

As for the plot, the UMO(Underground Mutant Org) will be very distrustful of the PC team. Perhaps even wanting to sever their relationship to the team. If you want to dial up the angst, you could have the contact really be an agent who worked for the UMO. Then the team would have to deal with family members and friends who are in the UMO. Perhaps a surprise like this will teach the PC to not shoot to kill. esp if the NPC turns out to be a minor mutant as well.

 

Basically it goes to show that no plotline really survives contact with PCs unchanged.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: What does YOUR underground mutant organization do when:

 

Sounds like:

 

"Wow, how's that price on your head feel?"

 

"Spiffy! A Death Warrant of your very own!"

 

"Cool! I bet you always wanted to be the first kid from your cell to get hung out to die!"

 

 

Actually OzMike has it right. Thats a good tact to take. The player wants to play hardball? Very well; he better be ready to catch it when it gets thrown back.