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View Full Version : DM Help Help with Party Unity



Zuladel
2018-07-13, 12:16 PM
I recently started a new campaign with my gaming group. I've run for these guys before and have mostly had success but I'm at a loss now on how to fix a problem I inadvertently caused.

Game one the party got a standard quest to go save a town from goblins that had besieged it. No one in the party knew each other at this point and were railroaded into the quest. I basically told them this is how the party is getting together you can figure out why and how you would be in town when this guy comes looking for people and the why you would accept the mission but you all must go on this mission. Well they all accepted and headed out to do some old fashioned goblin slaying.

The game it took them to get to the town being attacked went really well. The party was working together and I thought bonding pretty well for a game one and two. It is here things started to take a turn for the worse.

You see I tend to not run straight up stories every thing has its twist things are almost never what they seem. The Goblins in question worshiped the worlds god of inquisition and punishment. They had been tracking and hunting a rogue goblin who had contracted lycanthropy or moon disease as they called it. This Goblin had run into the town to hide and try to "recruit/create" allies. Now the reason he chose this town is he used to be married to the town priestess 10 years ago. She had taken their kid and ran away after he was infected she paid for a permanent polymorph spell to turn her and the kid into a human to hide from him. It had taken him 10 years but he had finally tracked them down. Sneaking into town he kidnapped his/her kid and used the kid as leverage to get the priestess to accept the curse herself and to help him to spread the curse around town. He forced her to cause a normal disease to spread to hide the symptoms of the lycanthrop curse as well. Now it should be noted this priestess had done her best to turn over a new leaf she is legitimately a chaotic good person now trying her best to help this town survive but driven into a corner by her ex husband. She used to be a thief and murderer using her skills to enrich herself and her husband. That basically covers the backstory of it.

The party threw some good OOC diplomacy and IC rolls with a goblin patrol learned the goblins have no desire to wipe out the town though are perfectly willing to do so if needed. All they want to do is cleanse the lycanthrop curse. They promised the party that if the town will parade out in front of them with the citizens carrying silver upon them to prove they are not infected they will spare the town only killing the infected parties. Well the party goes into town on a lycanthrop hunt. Their first stop was the Church to talk to the town priestess to recruit her help.

Walking into the church they find a note saying the priestess has gone on her rounds to care for the sick in town. Exploring the Church they find 3 sick individuals in the back room. While waiting for the priestess to return they decide before talking to her they need to make sure she isnt a wererat. As soon as she walks in they tell her the story about possible wererats in town and ask her to prove she isnt one by holding silver. She agrees to take their test as soon as she check on her patients in the back. This somehow makes the party very suspicious and they refuse to let her leave their sight insisting on going with her to treat her sick. While treating the sick one of them decides to test them to see if they are infected. Taking silver and poking them with it one of them screams in agony recoiling from the silver. The priestess runs in to see what they are doing to her patient palming a dagger as she goes in case things go bad. None of them notice the dagger and as she is stepping between them and her patients demanding an explanation they throw silver dust in her eyes. She flinches back clawing at her eyes dropping her dagger in the process.

Having dust in her eyes and reacting to it plus having dropped a dagger they take as proof that she means them harm and is proof that she is a wererat. I dont follow their chain of logic but it so happens in this case they were right. She casts a sleep spell on the party and the man in agony from the silver touch and attempts to run. She makes it outside and tries to get to the street before the party tackles her and drags her back into the church. They start poking her with their silver coated sharpened sticks trying to kill her. She finally after 3 rounds of trying to escape transforms into a rat and bites one of them. The original goblin wererat had been hiding in the church hoping to remain unseen but with his wife about to die jumps out and tries to kill the party he crit fails his hide check and misses his attack before the party barbarian crits him knocking him out in one mighty blow lol.

Well now the party is split and conflicted the lady claims to be innocent and willing to leave town if need be. She is a good person who has been cursed and wishes to go out and seek a cure. Half the party agrees she should be let go. The other half see all were creatures as evil dont believe her story and wish to slay her they found some of her old poison vials from her adventuring days to lend credence to their argument.

Now I am at a loss on how to salvage this party and get them unified when they are on such diametrically opposed goals.

Koo Rehtorb
2018-07-13, 12:31 PM
Maintaining party unity isn't really your job in the first place. This is a player problem to solve.

If you want to give them a little helping hand, another imminent threat which needs all of them is always useful.

MrSandman
2018-07-13, 12:31 PM
Isn't that something that your players should talk through? I mean, it's their call, you, as a game master, have (or should have) no power to affect their decisions (unless you manage to get some NPCs to mind-control them, but that's besides the point).

Zuladel
2018-07-13, 02:02 PM
Isn't that something that your players should talk through? I mean, it's their call, you, as a game master, have (or should have) no power to affect their decisions (unless you manage to get some NPCs to mind-control them, but that's besides the point).

Right Right sorry..... I guess I wasn't clear enough I'm not worried about them all coming to a consensus on this particular problem but with it being a new game a new group trying to give them a reason to travel with people that they didn't agree with in a big way the first time they came to a crisis. With out any history to link them together I'm trying to give them a reason to group up.

MoiMagnus
2018-07-13, 02:09 PM
Here is the solution that my DM use in those kind of situation (that he really likes to put us in front of)

1) He let the characters debate. Either the character agrees, so it is good, eitehr they are splited in two groups (or more, because there is usually more than 2 choices)
2) He ask the PLAYERS to vote on "which choice do you want personnaly to be the choice made by the team". Like a TV show could ask "what character do you want to win" to the public, and adapt the end of the show depending on the answer.
=> This is usually easier for the players to agree on a solution or a compromise than the characters. Moreover, additionnal solutions that characters cannot suggest can be found by the players (Example : the character get killed by another ennemy)
3) Make sure the players agree with the solution chosen, even if the characters don't. It is completely possible that one of the character will forever remember this moment as "a bad choice from the team", but as long as the player behind is not ressentful against the other players, that's not really a problem. You just need to make sure that the next scenario will create a bond between the characters big enough so that this event is no longer the most important things that happened.

Lunali
2018-07-14, 05:13 AM
3) Make sure the players agree with the solution chosen, even if the characters don't. It is completely possible that one of the character will forever remember this moment as "a bad choice from the team", but as long as the player behind is not ressentful against the other players, that's not really a problem. You just need to make sure that the next scenario will create a bond between the characters big enough so that this event is no longer the most important things that happened.

The problem with this part is that there won't be a next scenario. The characters in question don't have a pre-existing bond, being on opposite sides of their first major event should cause the characters to part ways.

If you want to start a campaign without a bond already formed between the players, you have to force the characters together for long enough that such a bond can form. Relying on the players' desire to play together can work, but it will result in great difficulty for any actual role playing as the characters will be doing things that they don't have motivation to do.


Out of curiosity, what do the players that want to kill the priestess intend to do with the rest of the infected? The town guard could show up to find them either rescuing the priestess and wounded from the dangerous goblin wererat, though not before they got infected, or trying to murder several citizens of the town, depending on how you want it to go down or on how the priestess decides to spin it.

Quertus
2018-07-14, 07:32 AM
The problem with this part is that there won't be a next scenario. The characters in question don't have a pre-existing bond, being on opposite sides of their first major event should cause the characters to part ways.

If you want to start a campaign without a bond already formed between the players, you have to force the characters together for long enough that such a bond can form. Relying on the players' desire to play together can work, but it will result in great difficulty for any actual role playing as the characters will be doing things that they don't have motivation to do.


Out of curiosity, what do the players that want to kill the priestess intend to do with the rest of the infected? The town guard could show up to find them either rescuing the priestess and wounded from the dangerous goblin wererat, though not before they got infected, or trying to murder several citizens of the town, depending on how you want it to go down or on how the priestess decides to spin it.

Yup. This was a practice run. Those whose characters wouldn't go along with the majority vote should bring new characters who are comparable with the party morality.

Pleh
2018-07-14, 09:06 AM
Out of curiosity, what do the players that want to kill the priestess intend to do with the rest of the infected?

There. A potential solution.

Priestess wants to go and find a cure. Town also needs curing. Party needs combined objective to unite them.

So the priestess atones for her part in the crimes by helping the heroes seek a cure for the town (and her as well).

The goblin inquisitors remain behind to enforce quarantine on the village and keep the lycanthropy from spreading. Before the heroes embark, the village can use the original silver test to sort the uninfected out so they can be evacuated.

The heroes will have time in traveling with the priestess to see her character as lady with noble aspirations and rethink their position.

Quest to unite the party is almost visibly symbolized in the act of curing and reuniting the village.

Zuladel
2018-07-14, 01:07 PM
There. A potential solution.

Priestess wants to go and find a cure. Town also needs curing. Party needs combined objective to unite them.

So the priestess atones for her part in the crimes by helping the heroes seek a cure for the town (and her as well).

The goblin inquisitors remain behind to enforce quarantine on the village and keep the lycanthropy from spreading. Before the heroes embark, the village can use the original silver test to sort the uninfected out so they can be evacuated.

The heroes will have time in traveling with the priestess to see her character as lady with noble aspirations and rethink their position.

Quest to unite the party is almost visibly symbolized in the act of curing and reuniting the village.

Ooohhh I love this we will see if we can pull it off.