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JustIgnoreMe
2014-08-28, 03:14 PM
Hello playgrounders. I need your assistance.

I'm looking for an unwinnable scenario. Not a stat-based unbeatable boss-monster "rocks fall" scenario, but one where no matter what choice you make, you get the bad end. You know the Kobayashi Maru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru) test? I need something like that.

Ideally I'd like something like a choose-your-own-adventure where every option leads to a different bad ending.

Stats and system don't matter. Background can be assumed to be a generic fantasy world, the character's resources being human normal with limited magic (mostly blasting, no real healing or summoning).

The situations and choices can be moral, ethical, resource allocation, whatever: as long as whatever the choices made it ends in tragedy. Something like running a town and dealing with an outbreak of plague: do you shut the gates to refugees, do you set up field hospitals, what do you do when your healers get sick.

The reason for this is to see how a particular character copes with failure, or more particularly, how she copes with failure even when she did everything right. It's going to be presented to the character as a thought experiment, not an actual event, so it's not quite as mean as it sounds.

Any thoughts? Anyone know of anywhere I should be looking?

draken50
2014-08-28, 04:56 PM
Your plague idea is good.

Another might be a Trapped survivors thing. Waiting for rescue, that regardless of what they do will be too late. Some kind of natural disaster thing might work as well.

As I recall with the Kobuyahis Maru, regardless of what the captain and crew did, more reinforcements would show up to wipe them out. All the participants really get is to buy time, and maybe save a couple people. Maybe.

Kid Jake
2014-08-28, 05:06 PM
A loved one is possessed by a demon that's resistant to the point of immunity to exorcism. If you slay the demon then your loved one perishes, if you try to reason with the demon then it escapes and murders innocents until it's killed anyway, if you subdue and bind the loved one then they get to live out the rest of their life as a demon's meat puppet.

Good times all around.

bjoern
2014-08-28, 05:14 PM
I think something tragic. Along the lines of pulling any the heartstrings tragic.
Involving children usually does the trick (at least for me, I have kids, so bad things happening to children really hit me hard)

Say some intelligent monsters like orcs or something attack a farmstead, kill and eat the adults and run off with the kids.

The PC can either chase after them or ignore it. If she ignores it all the kids die. If she chases them and catches them, they have a stand off where an orc rips the throat of a child whilst her siblings cry and scream. The orc uses that as a warning. And agrees to let one child go but if the party pursues they'll kill the rest.

If the party pursues the orcs will slay the rest of the children. If they don't pursue, the orca escape and the children are sold into slavery and a fate worse than death.

The lone surviving child has no one left to take care of her and is an orphan . If left behind the PC will later find the child fell victim to something or another and is dead . If the PC takes the child with them to raise as their own, have the child be emotionally scarred an grow into a twisted, bitter, evil, hateful, etc NPC that causes more death and suffering than she would have if she had just died.

This will leave the PC second guessing all their choices after its all said and done. Nothing worse than living with doubt and the road not taken.

Brother Oni
2014-08-28, 06:20 PM
An orphanage is attacked by a monster that infects all the children with a disease that will slowly turn them into creatures like the original monster; there is no cure. PCs have a choice - either euthanise all the children or imprison all the children while they mutate in screaming agony into creatures.

Refugees are fleeing an invading army and the PCs are in charge of the city gates taking them in. The sheer number of refugees means that they will take hours to get through the gates to safety. They see the enemy army appear on the horizon and you know their main cavalry force will be at the gates within half an hour. When do the PCs shut the gates to make sure the enemy don't get in and take the city? How many refugees are they going to abandon outside the gates to be slaughtered by the army? Do the PCs ride out in a desperate delaying action, despite being outnumbered 100-1 - how will they get back inside the city in time?

Most last stands or rearguard actions often end up like this - who does the commander sacrifice to let the majority of his forces escape?

Slipperychicken
2014-08-28, 07:58 PM
You're working a job with long hours, living with your spouse and two kids at an apartment. You can barely make bills, and are the only source of income for your family, as your spouse must attend to the children at all times to care for them -otherwise they may endanger themselves or someone might hurt them. The government just came for back-taxes and fees you thought you paid (it was either lost in the mail or outright stolen), and now you can't make rent on your regular income. The landlord is notoriously strict, and will surely evict you the moment you miss a payment.

Your credit is terrible and no-one will lend you the money in time (even the loan-sharks would eat you for breakfast, since you can't hope to pay their extortionate and misleading interest rates). If he evicts you, you have no other relatives to live with and no social support systems to rely on: you and your family would surely be homeless, and you will surely be fired for coming to work unkempt for a whole month. The shelters are mostly filled up, meaning your family would sleep on the street most nights. Local orphanages are overcrowded, underfunded, and only slightly less dangerous than the street. The homeless are the most vulnerable people in society, invariably suffering all the worst kinds of abuse, up to and including atrocities like rape, murder, and abduction.

The labor market's tight and the chances of getting a new job are truly grim (you barely got into this one, and are barely holding onto it now), doubly so if you're homeless. While working you have no time to seek a new job or accommodations for your loved ones: your commute and work-schedule leave you barely enough time to get home, kiss your spouse, and sleep for 6 hours a night. Skipping sleep to look for work will risk your current employment. Trying to find a better job is laughable with your background and education level. Even finding a similar job would take months or years of looking.

However, you see an opportunity at work. Your manager left his fat wallet in a public place during lunch. It contains just enough money to let you scrape by and pay the rent. You don't think anyone's watching, and theft is common in this neighborhood, so few would question the disappearance of money. Your manager also has family to support, but he makes more than you, so while losing his wallet would hurt them greatly, they might survive the hit.


Some courses of action:

Take the wallet (or turn to other crimes): Turns out someone was watching you after all. They call you out as a thief. If you resist, they report you to your boss, who promptly fires you and asks for the money back. If you don't return the money, you are also given a heavy fine and prison sentence. Your family goes homeless.
Return the money, but leave the wallet: You make this month's rent, but it turns out your manager wasn't doing as well as you thought: he goes under, and your employment goes with him (his replacement fires you). You and your family are now homeless.
Ask for extra income from the boss: He refuses, calls you greedy, and says you can leave if you don't like the pay here. He is not sympathetic about your situation, claiming your irresponsibility caused it. (Cruel DM mode: the boss fires you for your pretension and you go homeless)
Ask for leniency from your landlord: He refuses, calls you a layabout, and says he'll throw your family out on the streets if you miss a payment. He could not care less about your situation, and blames you for it. (Cruel DM mode: your landlord realizes you won't pay rent and evicts your family the next time you go to work, dumping your few belongings on the street)
Look for a better/closer job: Doing so means you either can't sleep or come in late to work, meaning you get fired. You miss rent and go homeless.
Look for another place to live: Everyone else wants the first month's rent upfront: you can't afford it, and they want money, not excuses.
Ask your spouse to work: The spouse accepts, grudgingly and with reservations about the kids' safety. This works out well for a time, you even scrape together enough money to make the payment! However, you come home to find that your spouse is sobbing and the kids are missing. You never see or hear from them again.
Look for someone to take care of the kids: Only one of the dangerous orphanages will take them. You have no money for day care, and no-one else will take them.
Bring the children to an orphanage despite the danger: The kids quickly disappear. You don't hear from them again.
Look for a loan: With your abysmal credit score, you can only get loans from loan-sharks.
Take a loan from the loan-sharks: They give you a reasonable-looking loan, but it's misleading -full of legalese terms and conditions you couldn't possibly understand. They eventually take what little money you have, and you can't make rent. You and your family go homeless.
Go homeless: You're homeless. You survive for a time, but one day find your spouse dead in a pool of blood. Torn clothing, bruises, and lacerations mean your spouse was probably beaten and sexually assaulted before death. The kids are missing and you don't hear from them again. The police couldn't care less about homeless people, and barely go through the motions of an investigation. You're also fired for coming to work depressed and unkempt.


Many of these can be broken down into decision-trees (i.e. Ask for extra income?(Yes)-> Take the wallet?(yes)-> Return the money?(No)->Go homeless(yes)). You can also impose a time limit: Rent is due at the end of the week, and you can only try a few options (only some of which are available at a given time) before time is up and you're evicted.

S@tanicoaldo
2014-08-29, 10:26 AM
Ok I have two:

The leech God: The players discover a strange forest in the search for an artifact to continue the quest. After they explore it a little they end up in a city that is pure perfection, everything in that place is bliss, jubilee and happiness. There is no violence, sadness or problems. They dedicated themselves to art, sports and overall happiness. There are no discrimination or segregation. They have the artifact necessary for the players to complete the ongoing quest and they hand it out with no problem.

After exploring a little more they soon find out(probably the spellcaster) that there are some strange magical "vibrations" around the place and that they feel like the ones from the illusion school. After some more investigation they are able to escape the city and find out it was all just a illusion and all the inhabitants of the place are actually under many illusions spells and used as food source for a huge leech like monster who keep them drugged and almost unable to survive outside the tentacles that barely feeds them. They are all underweight and with fragile health.

The players have two options. Kill the monsters and "free" the people but they will have to live in a sad and imperfect world and most will die in the psychic shock caused by the destruction of the illusory world. But they won't be food anymore and able to live a real life.

Or leave them in the illusory perfect world since they already have the artefact.

There is no way to just free some since you have to kill the creature. The players only got out since they were outsiders. Most were born like that. As cows from the farm to the slaughterhouse.

The white tree: A war between a city and druids. The humans from the city are suffering from a terrible plague and the only cure comes from the fruits of a white tree in the middle of the forest. Many are dying but the druids refuse to hand over the location, since the tree is sacred to them and they don't want the holy symbol of the druid order and their beliefs to be abused. Besides the white tree is only rare because the humans of that and many other cities that now lie dead because of the plague led the holy white tree to extinction.
Two sides, religious beliefs and humans lives. None is 100% correct. The players can only choose one.

JustIgnoreMe
2014-08-29, 06:32 PM
Great stuff so far guys and gals, keep it coming! More long chains please! So the White Tree example: once the druids are defeated and the plague cured, it turns out that the White Tree was vital for some other reason: maybe the pollen kept the local animals free from a particularly nasty parasite that now infects them all and leads to a famine: the meat from the animals can't be eaten, but the crops alone won't sustain people, so where can they get meat from?

I just remembered! This is a bit like the Neverending Story. In the book, Bastian keeps making changes where he thinks it will help but he never thinks it through and always ends up causing unwanted side-effects (the acid lake/caterpillars/butterflies thing).

LibraryOgre
2014-08-29, 09:31 PM
A runaway cart is about to run over two people. One is an old man, respected for his wisdom and generosity, and loved by community. The other is a child, a notorious brat, but with his life ahead of him. You have the time to save one of them. Which? Do you let the beloved old man die, or snuff out a life in its beginning?

On the White Tree kind of thing, I've suggested something similar before... instead of conflicts between good and evil, have conflicts between ostensibly good nations. The suggestion that started it was Cormyr wanting to drain the Vast Swamp, creating more farmland, but that putting them in conflict with the locals (whose way of life depends the swamp), and a number of druid groups (the Silvanians, who prefer the wild, and the Eldathyns, who value both peace and still pools of water).