Breaking oaths and what happens...

[garhkal]

Ok lets say you have been building up a major baddie, and working into the story who he is, where he is etc, but for what ever reason the players go to battle him WAYYYY to early for them to have a chance of beating him.
They go there and get thourally trounced. BUT some of the pcs smarten up and surrender.

the baddie accepts their surrender with both a
tithe (all their cash and weapons) as well as an oath to not mess with him.

In the party are 2 force users (both trying to be jedi), 3 Force sensitives (none force users yet, but 1 is wanting to become one), and 2 non force sensitives..


While recouperating and handing over the 'swag' to said BBEG 2 or more of the party decide to try and hide/keep some of what they have, but it is noticed.

What would the reprocussions be??
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Ankhanu]

Obviously, unless the BBEG is fairly magnanimous or duplicitous, he's going to be pretty unhappy with them and probably dole out some punishment. How that punishment goes would depend on his nature; some might be inclined to have the offenders beaten, eaten, or what have you. Some might be inclined to punish the entire group, etc.

If the BBEG is particularly cunning, he may appear to take it in stride with some forgiveness for the trespass, only to use it as ammo for later encounters.

I assume from the post that you're wondering about the DSP situation, what with all the FS and FU players you have. I don't think it would be DSP worthy, though you could give a warning that their duplicitous actions are a step onto the slippery slope of the Dark Side of the Force, perhaps a queer feeling in their gut or something like that.

If the FU (and perhaps FS) characters later outright break their oath not to mess with the BBEG their outright lie could be construed as DSP worthy (in the flavour of the WEG rule set anyway). Of course, they COULD play wisely and still stop the BBEG through indirect means and be ok.
_________________
Hotaru no Hishou; a messageboard about games, friends and nothing at all.

Donate to Ankhanu Press

[YodaWI]

I like the idea of the baddie waiting for his revenge. Depending on his personality, he could even 'let them go' at some point, just for the fun of trying to track them down and beat up on them again.

The bad guy could even be a little emotionally unstable and create some sort of elaborate maze, trap, or gladiator style arena where the PC's have to fight each other. Then, they could find some way to narrowly escape, at which point the bad guy tries to track them down. It could lead to a great chase scene!
_________________
"May the Force Be With You."

[Sabre]

The situation doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

The bad guy is... bad. Allowing them to surrender is only going to be a ploy to get them unarmed so he can kill them or capture them so that he can (in theory) kill them later in a public demonstration/ritual/etc to make an example/complete some arcane objective/whatever.

Evil or powerful people don't care whether other people (including players) will ever mess with them again, they will crush such enemies anyway for ever having opposed them in the first place. Even normal people will step on those who try to mess with them, if they are able. Evil people are a thousand times more vengeful and petty.

If the bad guy does accept their surrender and allows them to leave, they have some other motive. That being the case, repercussions for holding something back would likely be limited to the villain letting the players know they know, possibly inflicting some pain without permanent damage.

[Yak Face]

It's hard to make a judgment without knowing the personality of the villain. There have been many stories with honorable villains - people on the "wrong side" who still held to a certain standard of decent conduct. I can easily imagine most of the Imperial officer class, and standard conscripted (non-clone) soldiers, falling into that catagory. If he's one of those, I would expect a stern bit of justice for the offender, which may or may not extend to the rest of the party.

If the bad guy is just a jerk or a psycho, then I think he'll probably either let them go so his alterior motive can be accomplished, or he'll just kill 'em. Either way, the players have no right to complain. A really evil crime boss or Imperial politician would probably be that sort.
_________________
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill

[PsiberDragon]

[YodaWI]

[Sabre]

To both of those replies, those fall under the bad guy has other motives and enforce the notion that it won't result in any further damage to the players.

If the bad guy is going to let the players go, either they're not so bad (the sort of villain Yak is describing) or they have something else in mind. Otherwise, if you mean to portray an evil character as an evil character, forgiveness is not on the menu unless there is something to be gained out of it.

[jrhughes3068]

The villian of the scene/story is allowed to have some honor
as far as villians go. An example would be an Imperial Officer
who is trained from the Academy to honor his word towards
others in the Empire. He would most likely extend this to any
captives that behave and respond to him in a respective way.

Of course any underhandedness from the players would allow
BEBG to respond in manner that now tells him that his captives
have no honor and do not deserve to be treated as if they do.

And if the BEBG knows that there are Jedi in the party, he might
expect that they would temper their allies as a voice of reason
and keep the heroes honest. Because lies are the food and
drink of the Dark Side..

[garhkal]

Very true JR.. Which is partly why i was asking about any reprocussions for the jedi (or force users).. Would they garner a dsp for lying (if they gave their word to not mess with him and later did so)??
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[YodaWI]

Personally, if the Jedi are indeed good Jedi, I can't see them willingly agreeing to allow the bad guy to continue his evilness. There are countless examples from Star Wars in which a Jedi knows he is not going to survive a certain event, but accepts that in an effort to stop the bad guy. Obi-wan fighting Darth Vader on the Death Star to allow Luke to escape is a prime example of that. Obi-Wan knew he couldn't win that lightsaber battle, yet allowed himself to be killed so Luke would not try to run to his rescue.

Imagine a Jedi saying, "I know you are evil and as a Jedi, it is my duty to protect others, but if you let me live, I won't interfere when you continue to prey on the less fortunate." To me, that is more worthy of a dark side point.

Also, a situation could arise where a Jedi, despite having agreed to such a thing, is bound to break that oath because the bad guy needs to be stopped. For example, lets say the Jedi has agreed to leave the bad guy alone, then the bad guy decides to try to kill/wipe out an entire species with some new type of biological or super weapon, can the Jedi sit by and allow that to happen? Would that not also be worthy of a dark side point, if the Jedi says, "Yes, I know he is going to kill millions, but I promised him I would leave him alone"?[/i]
_________________
"May the Force Be With You."

[Ankhanu]

[ifurin]

i agree with Ankhanu. if the jedi does agree to the villains terms and then goes back on that oath there should be repressions. if the jedi keeps his/her word and allows the villain to do as they please that may be a DSP worthy inaction (depending on what is being done by the villain). this may be one of those times that the character has backed themselves into a corner and can't get out unscathed.

[garhkal]

Precicely. Do the honerable thing to stop the baddie and risk not only your own life, but those of your comrades. Or do the honerable thing to your comrade and risk others at a later date.. Some times you DO get into a situation where there is no other choice but to take the lesser of 2 evils...
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Hellcat]

I think it would depend on your BBEG and the circumstances. For instance, is the BBEG someone who might not immediately notice certain things for whatever the reason? Maybe they think folks would be too scared of the consequences or they have some underling collecting for them (or even counting for them). In that case the PCs might get away hiding some stuff and make good an escape before the BBEG knows better. This of course assumes the BBEG isn't holding them in some kind of prison but allows them to return to their ship to get everything for them (hey, you might leave some weapons on your ship and part or all of your credits). In this case the BBEG either sends some of their forces out to hunt down the PCs or they put a bounty on their heads. Probably bring them in alive so the BBEG can have the pleasure of killing the PCs themselves.

Or maybe the BBEG has no idea how many weapons and credits the PCs actually have. In this case the PCs could give the BBEG everything they known they have and get away with it.

Another option is the BBEG knows how much the PCs have, and knows right away if their holding out. They then choose to be magninimus, taking control of the PCs ship and forcing them to work for them for a set period of time. A period of time the PCs can never succeed at because the BBEG never gives them full details on their final assignment. It's always something like "Ok, I need you to bring the spice to Tatooine and deliver it to Jabba for me, bringing back the agreed upon payment" but they leave out that there was supposed to be two crates of spice or maybe they were supposed to bring back a fifty thousand credits and a crate of thermal dets and they only brought back twenty-five thousand credits. Or even the fact that they had to complete everything within a certain time limit.

Another option is the BBEG is furious with them but still magnanimus. In this case the PCs are tortured and badly injured, but allowed to live. The injuries could even include the loss of a finger, toe, arm, or leg. Or no loss just them having the living daylight beaten out of them so they can hardly walk and will need to spend time in a bacta tank to recover. All of which is simply meant to teach the PCs not to cross the BBEG again.

Of course the final option is that the BBEG is so terribly furious at the attempted doublecross that they kill one or more of the PCs.
_________________
FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster