Breaking Missions

[Tahlorn]

Hey all. I was wonderding how you guys make sure that your players don't go down a COMPLETELY different path than you intended (switching sides for a better offer, etc.), while still not greatly restricting thier options. I've found that making sure that the reward is better than what the other party is willnig to offer helps, as well as making the target NPCs (the ones that the GM pits the players against) aer unlikeable. I have had players pitch a job because they like thier targets. Also, I try to make the players have some sort of personal connection with what is happening, so they have a sense of personal duty.

If you'd like, also post an example of a broken-mission which you had, just to keep things entertaining. My example:

My character was sent after a bounty. Apparently the guy had just stolen a bunch of money, 50 million credits (the GM just made up the number when I asked), from a crime boss. After a bunch of hell, I found him. So I walked up to him, angry weapon in hand, and said "Where's the money?" At this point the GM's head hit the table as his NPC handed over the credit chip with 49,000,001 credits. I booked a flight on the first large frieghter out of there, laundered the money, and ditched the second half of the mission (the hardest part). The GM scowled at me for the rest of the other-player's missions (we were doing individual missions to develop characters).

~Tahlorn

[entropy]

I don't mind it when my players break missions. In fact, if they do something in character and crazy enough to work, I will let them make major changes to a storyline. I just had a D&D group do that to me 2 weeks ago and I rewarded them for it.

One of my favorites as a player was a mission where we were supposed to go to an imperial facility to reclaim our NPC jedi who the Emporer was trying to turn. The special forces guy, Nigel, decided that blowing up the facility would be a good idea, since we were here anyway. Just as he finished setting a charge and was walking away, Vader comes down the hall. Nigel runs and Vader pursues. Nigel decides that he's not going to get a better chance than this, and detonates the explosives (designed to take down a hardened military structure) while they're both standing in the hall. Vader is blasted into Nigel, and while we're rolling up damage, we suddenly remember that Nigel was carrying 3 kilos of thermite gel in his backpack.

Both of them were reduced to charred splatters on the floor and walls, most of the building came down with the party still inside it, and our NPC Jedi (whose name was K Feldspar) turned dark, and we wound up killing him in a later adventure. While the GM didn't specifically say we had left the plotline, I have a feeling Vader wasn't supposed to die there. I think every one of us had fun that adventure, especially the guy who got to kill Vader.

[Jedi Skyler]

Well, who WOULDN'T have fun being the one to take out Vader? I mean, it's VADER for cryin' out loud!

It was his destiny to go up in a funeral pyre; nothing said he had to be dead at the time...

[Boomer]

This is why I have at least 5 adventures ready to go, and I intend to use every one of them or make up more on the fly as things go on.

Your solution to the bounty problem, oik, so the guy stole 50 million credits... how much was the bounty? Has it not been mentioned that you are now technically the stealer of the money and the bounty is going to be on your head.

Besides... I hardly ever have a high robbery like that involve actual money. Long, LONG discussion about futuristic economics in a computer driven world, but basically, only thugs steal cash, electronic credits can be cancelled the moment they reach your hands if you are not supposed to have them.

Oi... I think I hate your GM, really.
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My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Endwyn]

There is still hard currency in star wars, but most people wouldn't bother carring it. That's the direction our world is headed too - most people carry the debit card (cred stick) with them and don't have cash on them. Others do have cash, but it's typiclly only small amounts (less than one hundred), or been specificly taken for a specific purchase. The older generations are still cash / check driven, but in star wars no one remembers the days before cred sticks. So hard cash is something crooks, thiefs, and paranoid or cautious people use. Even in a galaxy far, far away there's gotta be someone who doesn't trust the bank more than his matress.
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Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[Boomer]

Exactly, and paper money is just plain stupid. The money has to be a hard, valuable material, a material with actual value.

If you steal a computer chip with any amount registered on it, the bank will just cancel it.

But hard materials, gems, equipment. Bank can't cancel that. You take it, it is gone, and people are going to want it back.

Talhorn, absolutely everything about the bounty your character went on... you handled it correctly, your GM is a moron.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Tahlorn]

[garhkal]

[Jedi Skyler]

[K_Feldspar]

I allow my PCs to break anything they can. It's in our nature. I set up my campaigns so that there's a basic story arc that runs behind the character's everyday missions. At certain points I allow them to be able to interact with the story arc. At these points I am prepared to alter even the arc according to how the PCs act.

Yes I have a preference for how I want them to act, and so I try to make it an obvious choice with good rewards or super-injust circumstances they must correct. I don't always do a very good job of that though. So sometimes they get way off track.

When they break an episode I take it as a challenge, and then I plan how the rest of the story arc changes based on their choices. For example in a campaign someone blew up vader. Big hurt for the empire. So when the rebellion showed up at Endor (many real-time months later) at my campaign conclusion there were a bunch more rebellion cruisers, and the Death Star wasn't operational. More of an even slugging match.

[Jedi Skyler]

[K_Feldspar]

Awww shux... Thanks!

[Jedi Skyler]

No problem. Nothing in the gaming world pleases me more than to see a GM who knows how to roll with the punches and keep the game exciting. That's what it's all about!

[Darius]

Sometimes its hard to remember how much money is worth in the Star wars universe. For instance, $100,000 dollars doesnt neccesarily sound like a large amount of money. But the Death Star plans were sold for 100,000 credits. So comparitively, 100,000 credits is probably equivalent of $1 million or maybe even $10 million dollars. A lot of books and movies have large sums like those I have mentioned passing hands for secret plans or secret recipes and the like. Just to give some perspective. lol.
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oops - i didnt mean to make it go off

[Darius]

And you could have had Vader survive. Most of the sourcebooks list Vader and Palpatine force powers and mention that those are the KNOWN powers that they had. They could also have other more unusual powers that would allow them to survive such a catastrophe. Mind you with the levels of his force skills, Vader should have had a good dice pool to soak with Absorb/dissipate energy.
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oops - i didnt mean to make it go off