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View Full Version : DM Help Tough situation for players, delicate situation for me.



MonkeySage
2014-09-23, 08:21 PM
Ok, so I am treading a very fine line right now and I do not want to do the wrong thing. My players are currently on the run, but have obtained cloaks to conceal their identity. The campaign set is set in a totalitarian regime, and last game my players discovered: 1) The empire has a secret police force. 2) They're wanted.

So they arrive in a walled in town, are suspiciously welcomed without question. They wanna leave as soon as they find a store. They've arrived just in time to witness a wizard being burned at the stake for unlicensed use of magic. Only high ranking imperial officers are permitted to use magic in the open, and using magic without a license is a capital crime, surprise surprise. Off to the back, they see a group of cloaked individuals, one of whom is their rogue (who had gone ahead of them by a few hours).

They split, two of the players following the cloaked figures into the slums, two looking for a store, and one went to the nearest bar.

The players heading into the merchant's district met a guy carrying a large clay jar, who just kind of dumped the jar in the wizard's arms and said "Can you deliver this to the guard with the poofy hat in the merchant's district? Tell him it's for Rosa. I'll pay you later, I gotta go." and left...

The wizard doesn't question it, takes it to a rather shifty looking man wearing a poofy hat and chainmail, tells him it's for "Rosa"... the guard takes the jar, thanks him, and walks off into a dark alley. Few minutes later, the wizard discovers that "Rosa" is the name of the wall between the merchant's district, and the aristocratic district...Several explosions go off in the direction of said wall. Now the town entrances are barred, and the players are trying to get out as fast as possible. Two of them can fly... with the help of illegal magic.


Thoughts on the above scenario? Mistakes I've made? If I have made mistakes, how might I correct them? I'm constantly trying to find the balance between total freedom and railroading.

How might you, my fellow DMs, proceed from here?

Sidmen
2014-09-23, 08:31 PM
How would I proceed?

Simple, first I'd set up three ways to escape the city (and be prepared to reward the PCs if they uncover another). Sure, the gates are barred, but what about the sewer system? Maybe it hasn't been closed off yet and the PCs can make it to the nearby river through it. What about the Aqueduct? Maybe they can crawl along it to reach the nearby mountains/hills. The main gates are probably well-guarded, but what about the smaller sally ports and side doors? One might only have a single guard (of dubious loyalty and ethics) guarding it. What time of day is it? At night a city wall is going to be way too huge to keep a very good eye on - a couple of rock-painted cloaks might let them scale it and repel down the other side.

Right now, you're fine. The players aided a terrorist act, but nobody really knows they did (except the terrorists). Sure, the secret police is "hunting" them, but unless they're already in the city, the local factors probably don't know to be on the look out for them (any more than the 100 other people they need to keep an eye out for).

Heck, if I were a PC, I'd go to the slums and lay low until the gates are open to travelers again. Shouldn't take that long (a few days at most).

Rhunder
2014-09-23, 09:08 PM
First off, intense scenario. Just reading it made me tense and fearful of what's next for your PCs. Good job.

I'd mostly be prepared for anything. As I have found PCs will do anything if they feel stuck or trapped. They could lie low, or ambush a large group of guards at the next chance. Just be prepared.

If you are wanting to help them some, the terrorist group or freedom fighters, whoever they might be, could recruit the PCs or vice versa creating a resistance to the government.

Overall, the situation isn't bad at all. Heck, I'd bet this group gets captured more than once. But always manages to escape. Good job.

jedipotter
2014-09-23, 10:34 PM
Thoughts on the above scenario? Mistakes I've made? If I have made mistakes, how might I correct them? I'm constantly trying to find the balance between total freedom and railroading.

How might you, my fellow DMs, proceed from here?

I don't see anything wrong or any mistakes. The bomb was a bit odd. Why did the character do it? And not even look in the clay pot?

I would have given the players more of a choice before having them ''join the rebels'', as I don't like to force players to do things.

Just don't make the city super cracked down. One tiny explosion does not really lock down a city in seconds...it would take like an hour, at least. And to round up everyone on the streets and close everything it would take even longer....and not really be worth the man power.

And if ''rebel terrorist attacks'' are common, the city goes not go all crazy.....they just round up The Usual Suspects.

Knaight
2014-09-23, 10:46 PM
This sounds like a fun game, I don't see any mistakes made. You'll want to establish a typical response and take into account response times, and the players can figure out how the PCs fit into all this. There are likely a number of ways out, particularly as the PCs are pretty likely to not be the suspects looked into first. A few questions:

What is the organization that planted the bomb wanting to do next?
What is the response of the authorities?
Who will try to opportunistically react to the chaos? How?
What resources does everyone involved how?
How sophisticated are the communication networks involved?
What will the effect of the panicked crowds have?

MonkeySage
2014-09-23, 11:21 PM
Great responses so far!

--The group responsible for the explosions hopes to use them as a distraction: They hope to sneak into the aristocratic district through the sewers, and are currently preparing their invasion force.
****Though most of the town appreciates the imperial presence, due to a number of reasons that might require an entirely new thread to get into, naturally there are quite a few people who were less than happy with the new regime- a few mages, prostitutes, thieves, halflings, half orcs, Heironyites, and other undesirables.

--The town guard have little experience with this sort of thing, so were not sure how to react. The imperial soldiers are highly trained and used to dealing with rebellion in various forms, but did not expect to find it here, and certainly not in a manner this flashy. But their immediate response(the imperial soldiers, who have a strong presence here) was to make sure no one could escape from the north east and south entrances. So far, they are busy trying to keep civilians calm.

--I haven't quite worked this part out yet, though I would imagine that some looting is going on.

--The rebels have access to pretty much anything they manage to steal/have stolen in the past. The jars were actually the work of a single alchemist, and this whole set up has taken a month to arrange(the last jar was supposed to be the one to trigger the others - each jar had the equivalent explosive power of a fireball). The town guards have limited access to magical equipment, a few clerics. The imperials are accompanied by mid level mages- the soldiers themselves are highly trained, and on the whole they are better armed than the rebels by far.

--On the part of the imperials, most of the mages are equipped with communication spells. Town guards use couriers. The rebels are the least able to communicate, naturally. Instead they depend on careful planning and signals.

--A few stores have been destroyed in the merchant's district, mostly thanks to the actions of panicked civilians instead of explosive jars.

Rhunder
2014-09-24, 01:08 AM
As far as the rebels go, they would probably be using guerrilla tactics once the fighting began. Surprising and murdering the guards and soldiers but avoiding the bulk of well trained soldiers.

As long as the PCs get a chance to realize what's going on, I expect this to be a lot of fun for them. I wouldn't have any citizens looting except in the poor district, most would just be wanting to be safe. The PCs might surprise you and help the citizens or maybe even the guards. But they are most likely going to help the rebels.

I can not stress enough to be ready for anything. PCs do nothing but surprise you. This does seem like a fun game that just hot a good swing in the action.

MonkeySage
2014-09-24, 08:49 PM
The players do have an ace in the hole: Their rogue arrived in town hours before the rest of the group, and was captured by the rebels. He'd walked in on one of their operations, and they didn't trust him. Now they sort of trust him, and are willing to set him free once he finds his friends.