Ivellius
2011-06-06, 01:22 PM
I tried to think of a succinct title for this, but I'm looking for advice
I recently moved to a new town where an old friend of mine (let's call him "Josh") has been running a Star Wars SE campaign set more or less in the "Dark Times" era. He'd started D&D in the same campaign I did, so it was natural that he'd invite me to join. The party would normally number five players (not including me), but with it being summer vacation in a college town I think two of them are gone until the fall. All of these players except one were new to RPGs when they started, and the other seems only to have played a slight bit with family years ago.
Josh had told me that he was looking forward to me joining the campaign because I'm a more seasoned player and he felt that I would bring a measure of role-playing and immersion to my role. (He also wanted me to play the Noble class because everyone always wants "Jedi," but that's not all that important.) He had also, a time or two, asked how I deal with players who act...well, I'd say chaotic stupid evil. The party has killed a fair share of Corellian security officers and stormtroopers in previous sessions, though I don't know much of the details. They wiped out a whole prison garrison trying to break one of their characters out (incidentally the only more-or-less good character in the whole group)--while they were successful, it seemed as though the players found the attacks tiresome, judging from their direct comments. I had been warned by Josh that the CSE PC ("Jonathan") pretty much dominated the group, and Jonathan himself had asked how my new character would get along with his ("He's a giant douchebag" was the player's own description).
This is where my character, a Bothan doctor who had been imprisoned because his clinic was suspected of treating Rebel spies, entered. I figured I'd play him more good than not, though his past hints at some questionable activity while working as a freighter's doctor. He likes keeping people alive, and the Noble class makes for a pretty good medic (which they didn't have). Our first (and so-far only) session saw me being freed from prison along with their captive teammate--but only 2 other players were able to come. One was Jonathan, and the other was a Mon Calamari Jedi (let's call him "Tim") that pretty much goes along with whatever he does. As we escaped the prison 4 more stormtroopers arrived and were fairly promptly cut down. Jonathan used Force Lightning on the last one remaining before stripping the body of its armor and clothes. I had offered to treat the formerly imprisoned character as gratitude for their help, and we bunkered down in a seedy hotel hoping to escape notice.
When morning arrived, Jonathan tried talking me into helping them with their overall mission. They wanted to assassinate some sort of businessman (I think he had wronged them in the past) and asked me to go into the building and find his office (being that I wasn't a notorious criminal, at least) so they could kill him. It was quite that blunt. My character was shocked and refused. Josh tried to smooth things over by pointing out, via one of the missing PCs, that he was an evil guy and needed killing. In-character Jonathan acted disappointed that they actually had a reason to kill him. Trying to keep the session going, I agreed and found the office easily enough. The rest of the group had a cop try to arrest them for driving a stolen landspeeder, so Jonathan blasted him with Force Lightning and they ran off (also leaving me behind). After a long battle with some bounty hunters in the city, I was able to reach him on commlink, where he told me they'd nearly been arrested for the stolen landspeeder and killed some people who tried to bring them in. Cue end of session.
So here's what my character knows:
He has fallen in with a band of murderous hobos, one of whom has no qualms about using Force Lightning and then stripping the charred corpse for kicks
These murderous hobos are wanted for the deaths of stormtroopers, Corsec officers, and a prison break (I made a 35 Gather Info roll to research them after we reached the hotel)
These murderous hobos are now plotting another murder and have tried to bring my doctor into it as an accomplice
They were driving a stolen landspeeder and had no qualms about resisting the law and killing more people to keep from justice
Actually, the last one doesn't sound nearly as bad in comparison to the rest.
So I'm thinking...my character has no good reason to help these people and should actually be horrorstruck by the non-chalance of Jonathan's CSE-ness. He's such a monster that I'm pretty sure he'd make an Imperial imprisonment look downright pleasant (he tried threatening to turn me in when I wouldn't help them, to which I pointed out he'd just as assuredly be arrested. He just shrugged it off). I'm essentially unarmed, having left my blaster in the now-ditched landspeeder, and standing outside the office. I want to run back inside and warn the guy that the murderous hobos are on their way, then call the cops and get as safe as I can from this wannabe Sith lord. I'm pretty sure that makes sense in-character.
Josh seems fine with that decision, actually. I talked to him a little bit yesterday over a lunch with our wives and informed him of my intent. He said we could see how that would go. A little later he asked how I handle PCs dying in my campaigns. I'm of the cruel "let-the-dice-fall-where-they-may" category and pretty much told him exactly that. He seems to feel that he's gone too easy on them in the past. Apparently Jonathan told him before the campaign started that he "always plays evil." As we were leaving Josh said we might talk about it later.
One additional complication is that I also started an adventure with Jonathan, Tim, and another of the SW group a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan's character there is an unintelligent repulsive totemist whose most notable act was eating a crippled fox with his bare hands and teeth while the group's elven ranger wanted to save it. Moradin's beard, I think this is a thing with him.
I didn't realize how monstrous Jonathan's character was before getting started, and I feel like Josh has let things get a bit out of hand. I think he feels it a little, too, based on his conversation with me. Should my good doctor be the one to bring this band of murderous hobos to justice? I'm pretty sure the answer's a yes, but I figured I'd consult the wisdom of the world-wide web just to be safe.
/endblog
I recently moved to a new town where an old friend of mine (let's call him "Josh") has been running a Star Wars SE campaign set more or less in the "Dark Times" era. He'd started D&D in the same campaign I did, so it was natural that he'd invite me to join. The party would normally number five players (not including me), but with it being summer vacation in a college town I think two of them are gone until the fall. All of these players except one were new to RPGs when they started, and the other seems only to have played a slight bit with family years ago.
Josh had told me that he was looking forward to me joining the campaign because I'm a more seasoned player and he felt that I would bring a measure of role-playing and immersion to my role. (He also wanted me to play the Noble class because everyone always wants "Jedi," but that's not all that important.) He had also, a time or two, asked how I deal with players who act...well, I'd say chaotic stupid evil. The party has killed a fair share of Corellian security officers and stormtroopers in previous sessions, though I don't know much of the details. They wiped out a whole prison garrison trying to break one of their characters out (incidentally the only more-or-less good character in the whole group)--while they were successful, it seemed as though the players found the attacks tiresome, judging from their direct comments. I had been warned by Josh that the CSE PC ("Jonathan") pretty much dominated the group, and Jonathan himself had asked how my new character would get along with his ("He's a giant douchebag" was the player's own description).
This is where my character, a Bothan doctor who had been imprisoned because his clinic was suspected of treating Rebel spies, entered. I figured I'd play him more good than not, though his past hints at some questionable activity while working as a freighter's doctor. He likes keeping people alive, and the Noble class makes for a pretty good medic (which they didn't have). Our first (and so-far only) session saw me being freed from prison along with their captive teammate--but only 2 other players were able to come. One was Jonathan, and the other was a Mon Calamari Jedi (let's call him "Tim") that pretty much goes along with whatever he does. As we escaped the prison 4 more stormtroopers arrived and were fairly promptly cut down. Jonathan used Force Lightning on the last one remaining before stripping the body of its armor and clothes. I had offered to treat the formerly imprisoned character as gratitude for their help, and we bunkered down in a seedy hotel hoping to escape notice.
When morning arrived, Jonathan tried talking me into helping them with their overall mission. They wanted to assassinate some sort of businessman (I think he had wronged them in the past) and asked me to go into the building and find his office (being that I wasn't a notorious criminal, at least) so they could kill him. It was quite that blunt. My character was shocked and refused. Josh tried to smooth things over by pointing out, via one of the missing PCs, that he was an evil guy and needed killing. In-character Jonathan acted disappointed that they actually had a reason to kill him. Trying to keep the session going, I agreed and found the office easily enough. The rest of the group had a cop try to arrest them for driving a stolen landspeeder, so Jonathan blasted him with Force Lightning and they ran off (also leaving me behind). After a long battle with some bounty hunters in the city, I was able to reach him on commlink, where he told me they'd nearly been arrested for the stolen landspeeder and killed some people who tried to bring them in. Cue end of session.
So here's what my character knows:
He has fallen in with a band of murderous hobos, one of whom has no qualms about using Force Lightning and then stripping the charred corpse for kicks
These murderous hobos are wanted for the deaths of stormtroopers, Corsec officers, and a prison break (I made a 35 Gather Info roll to research them after we reached the hotel)
These murderous hobos are now plotting another murder and have tried to bring my doctor into it as an accomplice
They were driving a stolen landspeeder and had no qualms about resisting the law and killing more people to keep from justice
Actually, the last one doesn't sound nearly as bad in comparison to the rest.
So I'm thinking...my character has no good reason to help these people and should actually be horrorstruck by the non-chalance of Jonathan's CSE-ness. He's such a monster that I'm pretty sure he'd make an Imperial imprisonment look downright pleasant (he tried threatening to turn me in when I wouldn't help them, to which I pointed out he'd just as assuredly be arrested. He just shrugged it off). I'm essentially unarmed, having left my blaster in the now-ditched landspeeder, and standing outside the office. I want to run back inside and warn the guy that the murderous hobos are on their way, then call the cops and get as safe as I can from this wannabe Sith lord. I'm pretty sure that makes sense in-character.
Josh seems fine with that decision, actually. I talked to him a little bit yesterday over a lunch with our wives and informed him of my intent. He said we could see how that would go. A little later he asked how I handle PCs dying in my campaigns. I'm of the cruel "let-the-dice-fall-where-they-may" category and pretty much told him exactly that. He seems to feel that he's gone too easy on them in the past. Apparently Jonathan told him before the campaign started that he "always plays evil." As we were leaving Josh said we might talk about it later.
One additional complication is that I also started an adventure with Jonathan, Tim, and another of the SW group a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan's character there is an unintelligent repulsive totemist whose most notable act was eating a crippled fox with his bare hands and teeth while the group's elven ranger wanted to save it. Moradin's beard, I think this is a thing with him.
I didn't realize how monstrous Jonathan's character was before getting started, and I feel like Josh has let things get a bit out of hand. I think he feels it a little, too, based on his conversation with me. Should my good doctor be the one to bring this band of murderous hobos to justice? I'm pretty sure the answer's a yes, but I figured I'd consult the wisdom of the world-wide web just to be safe.
/endblog