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View Full Version : DMing after a long time, need advice



Sining
2012-03-04, 10:40 PM
Hi, I've gotten back into DMing after a few years but I was just wondering if I may or may not have committed any faux pas in my recent sessions with people. Previously I DMed Cthulhu which was basically brutal and players really had to investigate. Right now I'm DMing SW SAGA edition for some people and I'm wondering how to deal with this 1 player. Basically he's a soldier(fighter) with high stats and his background is that he was an clone trooper that refused to obey order 66 and kill off the jedi. Instead, he killed off his platoon and escaped

So my scenario was this , it's 7 years after episode 3 and the party is on alderaan and they've been tasked to find out who's responsible for a series of terrorists bombings on Alderaan businesses that have done business with the Empire. They've chased down the suspect who seems to be in charge of a resistance group and they finally meet the Jedi face to face. Now at this point, they know a few things

a) the Jedi is probably responsible for the bombings
b) the bombings have claimed a lot of civilian lifes
c) the clone trooper explained order 66 to the rest of the party

Now in my scenario notes, I had noted that the party could do a diplo check to talk the Jedi down from carrying any further bombings BUT if anyone mentioned one of them was a clone trooper, the Jedi would go berserk and start trying to kill the clone trooper.

Guess what the clone trooper did?He said he was a clone trooper at which point the Jedi flipped out and started attacking him. On his turn he tried to say he defied order 66 etc to calm the jedi down but failed his diplo rolls while the rest of the party failed their diplo rolls as well. All the while, the soldier player is muttering what nonsense this was and how he was a good clone trooper.

The question is whether or not I should have given him a better chance to survive? I mean, it is in my scenario notes that the Jedi will try to kill the clone trooper if anyone mentions he's one and I thought it would have been fairly obvious not to mention you're part of the fraternity that killed off most of the seemingly terrorist/dark jedi's adoptive family/friends/etc. Plus for some reason, he seems to think failed diplo rolls should lower the DC for future diplo rolls.

Zorg
2012-03-04, 11:38 PM
I can see why the Clone would be somewhat miffed - it sounds like he wants to be a 'good' clone trooper so he can have all the fun of being a clone but still go against the Empire.
If this was the first time they'd met a Jedi I could understand that to him it'd look like his background is being ignored or pointless.

Maybe next time if he says anything have the Jedi say something like "I'd heard some troopers had defied the order" or the like, and maybe say out of game to the character that the Jedi was crazy or on the edge - he is bombing places after all.

I really don't see how a failed diplomacy check should make later ones easier. If anythign it should make them harder.

Sining
2012-03-05, 12:25 AM
It was the first time in the game scenario where they had met the jedi but the clone trooper had served alongside jedis before during the war.

And I wasn't ignoring his background, my notes stated that he could mention he was a clone trooper IF they managed to talk the Jedi down first(and back to the light) but if they mentioned it before, when the Jedi is still in 'lets bomb the empire and everyone for vengeance' mode, it's not going to be very conducive to future talks with the Jedi.

Not that it matters, the Jedi died anyway to a Sith after they failed to save her.

Zorg
2012-03-05, 12:45 AM
And I wasn't ignoring his background, my notes stated that he could mention he was a clone trooper IF they managed to talk the Jedi down first(and back to the light) but if they mentioned it before, when the Jedi is still in 'lets bomb the empire and everyone for vengeance' mode, it's not going to be very conducive to future talks with the Jedi.

But the player doesn't know what's in your notes - all he knows is he tried to utilise his background and it backfired. Was his move the smartest? No, but rather than just having the Jedi flip out on a new group have them say "a likely trick!" or something. Then give them another diplomacy roll to recover the situation, and see where they go.
That way they know it's not a smart idea to reveal things right off the bat like that, but they're not just put in a totally buggered up situation automatically for what might be a clash in player / GM style (no idea how new this group is).

Sining
2012-03-05, 01:00 AM
they're fairly experienced players, having played cthulhu, pathfinder and dark heresy before.

I'll make sure to include more clues next time to the state of things but they seem to ignore a lot of clues I lay down. I'm not really sure how I could make them more blatantly obvious.

ClothedInVelvet
2012-03-05, 02:19 AM
I don't think you're being unfair, but I also don't think it revolves around what's in your notes.

1) It is extremely reasonable that a crazy jedi would have a bad reaction to learning he's talking to a clone trooper. Unless the guy has been doing the talk show circuit about how much he's changed, it's unlikely anyone would enter the conversation with the idea that a clone trooper might be a good guy. So it's perfectly reasonable that someone who obviously hates the Empire (a lot) will react violently to a clone trooper.

2) However, it's important to be able to put down your notes at some point and adjust for changing circumstances. There could be a lot of factors in the situation that make it more than a black/white decision. For example, if the character started talking about having heard of some troopers who defied Order 66, and convinced the jedi of that, the jedi might not go berserk when the clone trooper claims to be one of those. Despite what it says in your notes.

Sining
2012-03-05, 08:19 AM
2) I do go according to the situation but when the clone trooper, on their first meeting with the Jedi and in an attempt to get the Jedi to stop bombing buildings, says "I know how you feel, I'm a clone trooper -" gets cut off by Jedi flipping out. Although the real issue might be the clone trooper was the one speaking instead of the noble ie. the person with decent diplomacy/persuasion bonuses

Bagelson
2012-03-05, 09:07 AM
Settingwise, it's not a very good Jedi that flips out at the slightest provocation. The way of flipping out leads only to the Dark Side. I'd say the players would be justified in putting him down; a Force-wielding dog is the Republic's best friend, but a rabid beast is no friend at all.

GMwise, I prefer to write up NPCs with roughly goals and motivations. It's impossible to cover everything the players might do, so one might as well wing it. If that means the players poke the bear they also get to face down the angry animal. But hard-coding NPC reactions into my notes makes for a static and dull game.

That said I don't think characters should get killed unless they do something obviously stupid even to the players. In this case the player of the trooper probably thought it would be cool if he could use the shared history to talk down the Jedi. Unless you've foreshadowed that Jedi will go berzerk at the mere mention of a clone trooper, it shouldn't get the character killed to try something cool.

There could still be ways to salvage the situation in a reasonable way. The Jedi is obviously distraught, so he could also be exhausted and easily subdued. Either of the parties could be tracked by imperial troopers who decide that moment is as good as any to bust in on the action.

Sining
2012-03-05, 09:31 AM
It's been 7 years after episode 3 where almost all the Jedi were killed by clone troopers with order 66. The party knows this because the clone trooper explained this to them. They also know the Jedi has been behind terrorist bombings which have targeted businesses that deal with the empire and has also killed civilians. It was sorta hinted the Jedi is on the way to the dark side, although the PCs can talk her back to the light side.

Plus, republic? What Republic? It's the time of the Empire.

I did have a backstory for the Jedi planned. She was taken in by the Jedi temple, viewed her master as a parent, was maybe in love with another padawan but then during the time of order 66, she was saved only because she felt her loves death through the force and was able to react in time to save her own life from the clone troopers she originally trusted. Even then, she barely escaped with her life and was severely scarred. Since then she's spent 7 years evading the empire and darth vader while a need for vengeance stewed in her until she became a terrorist, lashing out at any people she deemed as helping the empire, including innocent businesses that had dealings with empire (and considering the empire is a universe-wide organisation, that's a lot of businesses).

But as they say, backstory doesn't matter when they're dead -_- All that backstory....wasted. I even made sure to have her say with her dying breath 'tell XXX I'm sorry' to one of the PCs where XXX would have been a force user that would show up later, but none of them even took note. Including the PC I was looking at and speaking to >_<