Thajocoth
2009-11-03, 10:53 PM
Long version:
So I'm DMing a game... And the 3 core players (who show up every session) pretty much decide what goes on. The other players show up every 1-2 months for a session each. The core 3 are:
Lawful Good (Leaning Neutral Good) Half-Elf Valorous Bard with insane Diplomacy and very good Bluff. He never deals lethal damage and prefers to talk his way through situations.
True Neutral (Leaning Neutral Evil) Tiefling Assault Swordmage. He's an atheist and generally out for himself.
Chaotic Neutral Minotaur Rageblood Barbarian. He's driven by two things: Heavy drinking, and hitting things with his axe. There are limits on what he'll hit with his axe though. While often a wildcard, it's usually when the other players are overthinking something simple that he charges in, and it's always been beneficial to the party for him to do so.
Situation: The party is hired by the city guard and investigating the central base of operations of an underground mafia run by a black dragon. They fight their way down, through duergar, undead, traps, and solving a puzzle... They reach a black dragon (son of the mob's boss.)
The dragon explains that they were expecting the party and that they're willing to hire the party, paying them better than the city guard does, to take positions that the party opened up. They also explain 2 scenarios:
Scenario 1: The mob fails to take over the city. By the command of him or his mother, or the lack of any commands at all, a few thousand people, all members of this mob launch a chaotic strike against various key locations throughout the city. All the murder, theft and whatnot would be on the player's conscience.
Scenario 2: The players help the mob take over the city by cleaner, more direct means, and as lords of the city wind up making most of the rules which may follow their own morality. He and his mother only want to rule the city as a form of wealth, really, and to increase their hoard.
The Barbarian's instinct was to just charge in (which would've saved everyone a lot of trouble), but the Bard and Swordmage both talked him down for conflicting reasons.
To tempt them, the dragon gives them 2000gp (the sum of the treasure parcels the party is supposed to get for the battles throughout the dungeon on their way there.) The Barbarian and Swordmage accept. The Bard bluffs to accept. The dragon puts the money on the Bard's Tenser's Floating Disk. They receive a mission to gather an artifact of power from the mountains to the north.
The Bard intends to bring this bribe to either the adviser to the city's king or the captain of the guard, both of whom they've received missions from before. He also intends to tell them everything.
Meanwhile, the Swordmage has switched sides. The Barbarian would go either way, really, but would be vehemently against giving away the gold.
Now, I'm ok with running an evil campaign, so long as no one's good. I also don't want evil characters in a good party and have said as much at character creation. They're roleplaying VERY well, but I think it's heading for a point where the Swordmage and Bard will wind up dueling to the death. Possibly while the Bard's asleep...
Short version:
After a convincing evil speech and a bribe, half the party joined the evil group, and the other half bluffed the bad guys into thinking they did. The one receiving the bribe plans on giving it to the good quest-giver instead of splitting it with the party, and telling the good quest-giver everything that's happened. I'm pretty sure somebody in the group will be dying in their sleep if I don't figure out how to fix this.
So I'm DMing a game... And the 3 core players (who show up every session) pretty much decide what goes on. The other players show up every 1-2 months for a session each. The core 3 are:
Lawful Good (Leaning Neutral Good) Half-Elf Valorous Bard with insane Diplomacy and very good Bluff. He never deals lethal damage and prefers to talk his way through situations.
True Neutral (Leaning Neutral Evil) Tiefling Assault Swordmage. He's an atheist and generally out for himself.
Chaotic Neutral Minotaur Rageblood Barbarian. He's driven by two things: Heavy drinking, and hitting things with his axe. There are limits on what he'll hit with his axe though. While often a wildcard, it's usually when the other players are overthinking something simple that he charges in, and it's always been beneficial to the party for him to do so.
Situation: The party is hired by the city guard and investigating the central base of operations of an underground mafia run by a black dragon. They fight their way down, through duergar, undead, traps, and solving a puzzle... They reach a black dragon (son of the mob's boss.)
The dragon explains that they were expecting the party and that they're willing to hire the party, paying them better than the city guard does, to take positions that the party opened up. They also explain 2 scenarios:
Scenario 1: The mob fails to take over the city. By the command of him or his mother, or the lack of any commands at all, a few thousand people, all members of this mob launch a chaotic strike against various key locations throughout the city. All the murder, theft and whatnot would be on the player's conscience.
Scenario 2: The players help the mob take over the city by cleaner, more direct means, and as lords of the city wind up making most of the rules which may follow their own morality. He and his mother only want to rule the city as a form of wealth, really, and to increase their hoard.
The Barbarian's instinct was to just charge in (which would've saved everyone a lot of trouble), but the Bard and Swordmage both talked him down for conflicting reasons.
To tempt them, the dragon gives them 2000gp (the sum of the treasure parcels the party is supposed to get for the battles throughout the dungeon on their way there.) The Barbarian and Swordmage accept. The Bard bluffs to accept. The dragon puts the money on the Bard's Tenser's Floating Disk. They receive a mission to gather an artifact of power from the mountains to the north.
The Bard intends to bring this bribe to either the adviser to the city's king or the captain of the guard, both of whom they've received missions from before. He also intends to tell them everything.
Meanwhile, the Swordmage has switched sides. The Barbarian would go either way, really, but would be vehemently against giving away the gold.
Now, I'm ok with running an evil campaign, so long as no one's good. I also don't want evil characters in a good party and have said as much at character creation. They're roleplaying VERY well, but I think it's heading for a point where the Swordmage and Bard will wind up dueling to the death. Possibly while the Bard's asleep...
Short version:
After a convincing evil speech and a bribe, half the party joined the evil group, and the other half bluffed the bad guys into thinking they did. The one receiving the bribe plans on giving it to the good quest-giver instead of splitting it with the party, and telling the good quest-giver everything that's happened. I'm pretty sure somebody in the group will be dying in their sleep if I don't figure out how to fix this.