"I shoot the escape pod!!!"

[Markdoc]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

That was Cayenne on the herrings. Sigh.

 

Dude, we don't have any cayenne. I just used that old bottle for the dog's flea powder.

 

Cheers, Mark

[Pensativa]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

In a second edition AD&D game, one of the PC's got his action after the powerful evil wizard started to cast his wish spell but before he finished it.

 

He says, "I shove a pepper bomb up his nose."

 

He had pepper bombs on his equipment list. He made the hit, even with a called shot penalty.

 

The spell still went off, just not precisely how it was intended...

[Boll Weevil]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

In a second edition AD&D game, one of the PC's got his action after the powerful evil wizard started to cast his wish spell but before he finished it.

 

He says, "I shove a pepper bomb up his nose."

 

He had pepper bombs on his equipment list. He made the hit, even with a called shot penalty.

 

The spell still went off, just not precisely how it was intended...

Wait, did he unwittingly summon forth the Army of the Undead? I hate it when that happens!!!

[proditor]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

I had an old long running Champions campaign where I routinely would drop hooks for plots. A disturbance at the library, an old friend is in town, that sort of stuff. My players were usually REALLY good at picking up on them and investigating any leads very quickly, and it made a nice way to set up long term plots in between the "Stop bank robbery" quickies.

 

So one of the players in the game is playing Matrix, the lieutenant of...wow, I'm blanking...the big bad guy, Papa Blood (of "The Blood and Dr. McQuark" fame...). Anyway, he was part of the cabal that locked him up, but in so doing he was converted into pure mental energy living in a gem (The Matrix). Cenutries pass, some day some one drops the thing in a fountain, and it proceeds to make itself a new body out of water. He joins his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand nephew, Sabre Carstairs, on earth, and they proceed to fight crime. The PC comes to me with a plot idea...

 

Ole Unca Matrix wasn't wired 100% right after spending centuries in a gem, and now having a body made out of public fountain water. He starts going a little wacky, starts thinking maybe Papa Blood had the right idea and starts to test his powers by Mind Controlling small rural towns. The incident is marked by a giant blue wombat made of fire hovering over the town at the height of his success.

 

This happens 5 times over as many months. The locations getting progressively bigger as his control over people expands from small towns, to small cities, and eventually, big ones.

 

The players never look into it.

 

Giant blue flaming wombats start appearing over major metropolitan centers and they never look into it. They go "Huh, that's weird. Hey Matrix, why are clutching your head and drooling like that? Oh, excedrin headache?" I swear, the same group that picked up on nuanced clues that required turns of phrase didn't give a fig about the flaming wombats.

 

So we ramped it up. The Giant blue flaming wombats started showing up more, and over LARGER cities. Detroit, Cleveland, San Diego, each time growing and lasting longer. Nothing.

 

What finally happened is that Matrix took over the entire planet, decided it was entirely too much effort, and made everyone forget he did it while putting in new mental blocks to his own power.

 

The players started to figure out they'd missed something when about 3 months later, Matrix muttered "I should have just stayed emperor of the planet, none of this would have ever happened" during an alien invasion.

[Vondy]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

It happens - the trick is to act nonplussed and go bat-out-of-hell by the seat of your pants while looking extremely suave. It scares them and makes them think you are a genius.

[Vondy]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

I was running a story arc where Captain Nemo's grandson was in charge of the organization FATHOM - an eco-terrorist super-organization bent on driving man beneath the sea and into a socially engineered New Atlantis. The heroes got involved via a counterintelligence investigation at a navy research and development project and ended up cracking the thing in due order (I was pleased with them).

 

I figured the scenario would go like this: players either stow away on the uber-sub, get captured and taken to NEMO for the big villian diatribe, or locate FATHOMs secret base by following the sub (they had identified a method for tracking it). It all goes wrong. There were six players on hand. First, they split up. Three go to handle a loose end, three stake out the sub. I figure: play it out. So the sub prepares to depart as planned. At this point I had guessed correctly. Their plan was to track the sub.

 

However, one of them gets a been in his bonnet and announces: we must not let that sub escape. As such, the three players on hand decide to seize the sub by force. The other three all have "they what?!" expressions glued on. I shrug and tell myself "play it out." They knock out three crewmen, put on their uniforms, and manage to get aboard. The sub goes DEEP. They make their move. The fights in the bridge and weapons room go SMOOTH. The fight in the engine room doesn't. The player [the one who inexplicably made the announcement that the sub must not escape, incidentally] had cold dice and found himself faced with concerted resistance. All of a sudden: "I blast the reactor!"

 

I'm dumbfounded. The players whose characters were not aboard were dumbfounded. The players with characters on the sub yell NO YOU DONT!!! He just looks at them and says "the sub must not escape." He's calm, and scary-dead-serious. Its like he's had a sudden psychotic break with reality. I ask: "are you sure?" The three non present players are laughing nervous-like and scratching their heads - the other two: NO HE'S NOT!!! He says: "we're heroes; its our job; our country is at risk - THE SUB MUST NOT ESCAPE."

 

The sub did not escape.

 

The [surviving] heroes had no way to find Fathom's base.

 

Fathom had no way to carry through on its threats.

 

The Freedom Patrol put three stars for the fallen on its wall of honor.

 

The reports never identified exactly what happened down there.

 

Wreckage indicated a "reactor accident."

 

"Reactor Accident" became slang for "inexplicably bad judgement."

 

The campaign recovered nicely.

 

The player never lived it down.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

So one of the players in the game is playing Matrix, the lieutenant of...wow, I'm blanking...the big bad guy, Papa Blood (of "The Blood and Dr. McQuark" fame...).

 

Azor

 

(Champions trivia 15-)

[proditor]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

Azor

 

(Champions trivia 15-)

 

Yeah, it hit me during dinner last night. I was sitting there with the girlfriend, we're talking about our days and I blurted out "AZOR!" She blinked, and said "Bless you?"

[Alibear]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

In one fantasy scenario I ran I had planned for the characters to storm an evil tower, kill the magician and save the kidnapped kids. The usual fare. A doppleganger was in the mix somehow, I can't remember why. I had planned for the d.ganger to disguise himself as a kid and mix in with the hostages and bump off the party one by one, starting with the NPCs of course.

 

Anyway one player encountered the 'kid' on the stair and not locked up, suspected foul play, and lopped it's head off.

 

Cue me needing to design another scenario for next week's game...

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: "I shoot the escape pod!!!"

 

In one fantasy scenario I ran I had planned for the characters to storm an evil tower, kill the magician and save the kidnapped kids. The usual fare. A doppleganger was in the mix somehow, I can't remember why. I had planned for the d.ganger to disguise himself as a kid and mix in with the hostages and bump off the party one by one, starting with the NPCs of course.

 

Anyway one player encountered the 'kid' on the stair and not locked up, suspected foul play, and lopped it's head off.

 

Cue me needing to design another scenario for next week's game...

 

Well, an easy scenario would be the city guard, seeing these armed adventurers head into town, suspect criminal intent and rouse the entire city watch to dispatch the miscreants before trouble can start. The PC's actions seem to indicate lethal preemptive strikes based solely on suspicion are a reasonably common tactic, so run with it.

[Alibear]

Well, in response to that and other acts of pro-active violence I set up a scenario where the PC's bloodthirtiness played against them.

 

 

Deep in a swamp the evil sorcerer is sacraficing the young virgin to ressurect the father of necromancy, the original vampyr lord.

 

The PC's sneak up and fill the poor Necromancer full of arrows before he can complete the spell.

 

They are all congratulating themselves on a job well done when they notice the blood from the necromancer is not staining the ground... or his robes or even the dead body he was trying to bring back to life. They squirmed when they noticed that the Vampyr Lord was starting to stir...his corpse is starting to fill out and they realise thier stupidity.

 

They realise too late, far too late that sacraficing the Necromancer was not the best option...