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View Full Version : PC's created artificial life through magic and don't want to take care of it



DontEatRawHagis
2015-09-02, 03:20 PM
Long story short, my players through a Frankenstein creature they killed into a portal that reincarnated it as an Elven Woman.

Yes probably not a proper ruling, but I thought it would be fun to throw a wrench into the player dynamic.

Typically they have been leaving her in the Inn when on dangerous missions, but the players a getting annoyed with her.

Correction 2 out of 4 players are annoyed with her. Originally she was going to be a call back to another character who was in our previous campaign and had their soul separated by a god/deck of many things. The soul was given to the soulless creature when it reincarnated because the portal was the God's. Players don't know this and I can't think of a way to without having the God say he did it.

She has become a bit of a conundrum storyline wise and hasn't really progressed besides learning to talk.

Advice? I'm planning on having her become the servant of the leader who they helped reclaim his throne just to do away with the story thread.

BootStrapTommy
2015-09-02, 03:37 PM
Turn her into the vengeful avatar of said god. That'll teach those lazy PCs.

Solaris
2015-09-02, 03:57 PM
If it's supposed to be a callback to another campaign the PCs couldn't know about, why not just tell the players themselves?

Half the group is annoyed with her. Why are they annoyed, and why are you pushing this NPC on them if it's annoying them?

Broken Crown
2015-09-02, 11:52 PM
It sounds as though you have a potential story line here. However, no good will come of forcing it on the players if they're not interested.

You say two of the four players are annoyed by her. That's enough to make me suggest pulling the plug unless the other two are really enthusiastic about keeping her around, and you can think of some way to get the first two interested. Do you have any important plot threads to tie to this NPC, or is she just sort of there? If you have plans for her, better set a few of them in motion quickly, before the players lose patience.

You say that she's the reincarnation of a character from an earlier campaign. Did this character have any distinctive traits or behaviours that the reincarnation can exhibit, to give the players a clue? Would this character's background matter at all to the current characters, if they did discover it? (For example, is the character from the previous campaign now famous in legend for her deeds? Does she have any enemies or descendants of enemies who would seek revenge if it were discovered that she were alive again?) If the current party wouldn't know or care who she is, then it doesn't really matter to the story, and you can drop it.

One way to test your players' buy-in: Since they've been leaving her at the inn, have the NPC wander off when they're away doing something else. If they care enough to try to get her back, have the pursuit lead them to an interesting plot thread so the annoyed players don't feel that finding her was a waste of time. If they don't go after her, then clearly the party isn't interested in keeping this NPC around, and you can drop her from the game without any fuss.

(Maybe she can show up again later in the service of the BBEG. Or as the BBEG....)

goto124
2015-09-03, 05:57 AM
Have the NPC leave the place.

Listen to what the players say when they find her missing.

Again. Don't force a storyline the players don't want. It's a collaborative story after all.

DontEatRawHagis
2015-09-04, 07:17 AM
Thank you all for the input. Based on the responses I realized I just need to remove her from the storyline until either I or the players care to do so.

Had the NPC leave the group to work for another NPC. The players who are playing evil PCs asked how this was different from selling her into slaver while the neutral guys talked about freedom of choice.

Maybe someday I'll bring her back.

FlumphPaladin
2015-09-04, 07:49 AM
reincarnated it as an Elven Woman.


throw a wrench into the player dynamic.

I read this twice before I realized you didn't say "throw a WENCH into the player dynamic."

And I would second the "mimic the old NPC's mannerisms" thing. If your players are astute, they'll notice. If not, make them notice by giving her an axe to grind.

Metaphorically or literally, your choice.

Nerd-o-rama
2015-09-04, 01:25 PM
Ever actually read Frankenstein?

That should give you a good idea of what happens when you create artificial life and then ignore/shun it.

sovin_ndore
2015-09-04, 02:09 PM
Ever actually read Frankenstein?

That should give you a good idea of what happens when you create artificial life and then ignore/shun it.It also makes for some great storytelling.

goto124
2015-09-05, 06:59 AM
Storytelling.

In a novel, the characters are imaginary constructs whose minds are for the author to bend freely to suit the story. Not living breathing people with their own feelings and preferences, and will thoroughly not enjoy it if the author GM forces them into situations.

If you don't want to read a story about the dire consequences of creating artifical life, you can just put the book down.

Guess what happens when the players don't want that kind of story in their game?

Oberon Kenobi
2015-09-05, 07:51 AM
The book analogy is a good one because most books have a brief plot summary on the jacket somewhere; ones that don't tend to stay on the store shelf.

So, you want the players to buy into the story, you need to let them know what kind of story you intend to tell. You keep that information hidden, nobody is going to come looking for it.

Glad that you and your table seem to have gotten on to the same page a bit. Learning to set things aside when nobody cares about them is a painful but very important skill to develop as a GM. :smallsmile:

Nerd-o-rama
2015-09-05, 03:10 PM
Storytelling.

In a novel, the characters are imaginary constructs whose minds are for the author to bend freely to suit the story.

You must have read some terribly boring novels. I do see your point, though, since D&D is collaborative whereas authorship is usually a solo effort, but that doesn't mean in-character actions shouldn't have in-character consequences (and hopefully, unlike Victor, PCs would learn from the results of their actions rather than continuously repeat them).

sovin_ndore
2015-09-14, 11:13 AM
Storytelling.

In a novel, the characters are imaginary constructs whose minds are for the author to bend freely to suit the story. Not living breathing people with their own feelings and preferences, and will thoroughly not enjoy it if the author GM forces them into situations.
I tend to think of gaming in the White Wolf sense of cooperative storytelling. The GM is the storyteller, guiding the setting and fleshing out the background of a setting for a troupe of players (the PCs) to interract and drive a narrative. They set up scenes for the PCs to interract in and generally help guide the story in a way that unguided RP would have difficulty progressing towards.

You don't need to impose what the players wish to explore in their story, but providing options is integral to the narrative. They may actually desire to explore themes of hubris or find it intriguing to understand how their creation could be driven to feelings of alienation. Works like Frankenstein are a wonderful resource for researching this type of story and it need not be run as a railroad.

ArcanaFire
2015-09-15, 08:19 PM
I'm curious as to why the PCs are annoyed with her in the first place. Is she useless, or a drag on the party's resources? You mentioned the only progress she'd made was learning to speak, so it's sounding a lot to me like she's just some helpless character that the PCs are supposed to take care of.

I'd have made her useful. If she's a reincarnated soul it's totally reasonable for her to start remembering some of the skills and information her previous life had in the first place. I'd have figured out something the party was lacking and let her fill that gap.

Say no one has the spell 'identify', let her know it and save them a few coins when they stop at towns. Say they need more DPS, have her figure out how to swing a sword.

When you have a sentient humanoid NPC that is less useful than your average dog and expect the party to keep them around, that's a problem.

Thrudd
2015-09-15, 08:52 PM
Not that it really matters, since you've moved on from it, but I'm confused about this whole scenario.
Did the characters create the monster originally, and then killed it and disposed of it? But you wanted them to have a dr frankenstein/playing god ethical dilemma, so you brought the creature back to life anyway?

Or it was just a monster they encountered, and you thought they would sympathize with it instead of killing it, so you brought it back to life in a more sympathetic body?

Why did you even bother contriving this whole unorthodox scenario (the reincarnation of a dead monster flung into another domension)? And why would you assume the players should bear any resonsibility for the creature, and how do you reason that they "created artificial life"?