Scenario help - got a problem? Lets talk it out!

[Daerke]

Hey everyone, this is a great community full of lots of experienced players and GMs so I thought I would come here for some help in writing a scenario. I don't want to make a thread just for me though, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a topic where we can all share and discuss problems we are having with our games/campaigns from a writing standpoint.

My problem at the moment is that in the last session of my Dark Heresy campaign I'm currently running, the players violently murdered a minor antagonist. while this in itself is no big deal, there are extenuating circumstances which I am having trouble dealing with.

The first issue is that this antagonist they killed was a very powerful person who was not a 'bad guy', he was an Inquisitor who had a personal grudge against the player's Inquisitor (for those not familiar with Dark Heresy, the players all work for an Inquisitor - a figure with carte blanche to operate how they see fit in ridding the galaxy of threats of corruption). In setting, there is no way anyone would get away with killing someone with so much power without any negative repercussions.

Second issue is they killed this guy in front of a Judge (think Judge Dredd) and the captain of a spaceship (these guys are a BIG deal in Dark Heresy). While the standard operating procedure would be for the Judge to put a bullet in the player's skulls for this it would mean a very abrupt and unfulfilled ending to the campaign.

What I'd like to know from you intelligent people is: have you ever written yourselves into a corner and/or had your players throw you a curve ball you haven't been able to deal with straight away and if so, how have you handled it? I know getting advice for this particular problem with what little I've written above is a lot to ask; I'd just like to know if anyone has successfully dealt with similar situations in their own games.

We have a great community here - it would be a shame not to use it to make our games better

[Cthuluzord]

What if the Captain and the Judge both wanted to deal with the issue in a different way? I know nothing about Warhammer 40k, but inter-departmental squabbling is multi-universal.

Perhaps the players could exploit the confusion or somehow manipulate the situation to escape.

[clockworkjoe]

Deus Ex Machina: Ship is attacked by warp demons and cultists! Everyone but the PCs die! They crash land on a dangerous planet and must go through hell to survive

Deus Ex Machina: All players burn off ALL of their remaining Fate points! Hey that guy you just shot? Totally a chaos cultist! Good job!

Deus Ex Machina: All players burn off ALL of their remaining Fate points! Captain and Judge both hated that guy anyway! Good job!

Deus Ex Machina: All players burn off ALL of their remaining Fate points! PCs are arrested but given a suicide mission to redeem themselves - good luck!

[Daerke]

fortunately for me, the players have to go and do a Dead Space style thing - but with DAEMONS - so that is an easy way to throw in some Deus Ex Machina if need be.

The inter-departmental stuff is a good angle. The whole reason they killed this guy in the first place is because of internal politics within the Inquisition so I can build on that.

Thanks for the help guys!

I also decided after listening to your latest Night Black Agents game to have my players each write a separate report explaining their actions. I'm going to throw in some game theory, a.k.a if a player blames another person in the group they won't get punished but if they stick together they all will.

[Tim]

One possible option is the 'all actions have consequences' route and the Captain or the Judge protects them but for their own reason and now they are that persons beck and call because he/she can end them at any moment. Gives you leverage in the future to jerk them around and also give them plot nuggets if they stray so the person becomes a patron of sorts, although again on that could end them at any moment. Depending on how the relationship plays out it could also spawn a series of missions to try and torpedo their 'benefactor' to get free.

In addition there is always the threat that the Inquisition is going to find out what really happened (it always was suspicions that the Inquisitor fell on those bullets so many times) and come after the players. This could be driven by the patron that no longer has a use for them or the other person who was in the room who knows the truth of what happened.

[robotkarateman]

Yeah, I would go the "shit looks bad, then full tilt" route. Have the party arrested, threatened with execution as soon as the judge files his report, etc. Then BAM, something terrible happens while they're in their cells, the whole ship is put in danger, and the judge and captain get toasted before they can file reports on what they saw. Maybe down the line another witness shows up who begins blackmailing them.

But I also like Ross' idea of using the built-in game mechanics as an immediate cost to the party. Systems that offer those kinds of mechanics usually play better if you turn to those mechanics first. I would personally put it up to the party, "OK, you guys know your characters are now in deep shit. I'll offer you an out if you burn all of your Fate points, or we can play through the terrible shit you brought down on yourselves."

[clockworkjoe]

Alternate solution: next time, force the players to play a variant of Everyone is John http://wso.williams.edu/~msulliva/campaigns/john/ - they are playing the various personalities of the judge at the trial of the player characters. Each personality will want to free his character, but set it up so that at least one person has to be executed for the murder. Turn all the PCs against each other.

[Quiet side]

You might want to consider how the Judge and the Captain view the Inquisition as well. While either of the aforementioned NPCs can order the party gakked, do they want to make an enemy of the players' patron and/or the inquisition itself? After all, it would serve either (or both) of them very well to do the Inquisitor a solid by returning their acolytes in more or less one piece, or they could look to gain favour by turning them over to an enemy, the 'everyone's a cultist' option. Or they could decide to turn the party over to a third inquisitor (the 'Fuck it, I don't want to get involved in the internal politics of an incredibly powerful secret society' option) who might then have his/her/its own plans for a group of wayward acolytes. For example:

Judge and Captain confer, relate to the acolytes that they will be turned over to Inquisitor Lucrezia, who is conveniently located 'nearby'. From there the players can attempt an escape, be 'rescued' by their patron or they might find themselves running an errand for a Xanthian inquisitor: "Here, hold this daemonic artifact while I take notes. Please describe the experience and remember: this is for posterity, so try to speak clearly between shrieks."

my 2 cents.