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TheGinger
2020-05-26, 07:39 PM
Hoping for advice:

I'm looking at the next leg of our campaign being a "race for the MacGuffin" scenario. The PCs (Rolemaster) have been chasing an evil sorceress for a while now. I want to let them catch up but put them in a position where they can't actually kill her. I'm thinking she's working for the king or some other powerful figure and vengeance will be swift. Instead, they're given the opportunity to complete the job themselves. The employer doesn't give a crap who does it and doesn't care what happens to them afterwards (so maybe an underworld figure).

The problem: I've never run or even read an adventure like that. Can someone point me to some good resources? Advice from the geniuses here is considered good as well. :)

LordCdrMilitant
2020-06-07, 02:55 AM
Hoping for advice:

I'm looking at the next leg of our campaign being a "race for the MacGuffin" scenario. The PCs (Rolemaster) have been chasing an evil sorceress for a while now. I want to let them catch up but put them in a position where they can't actually kill her. I'm thinking she's working for the king or some other powerful figure and vengeance will be swift. Instead, they're given the opportunity to complete the job themselves. The employer doesn't give a crap who does it and doesn't care what happens to them afterwards (so maybe an underworld figure).

The problem: I've never run or even read an adventure like that. Can someone point me to some good resources? Advice from the geniuses here is considered good as well. :)

Is the sorceress a PC? If not, it's not any different from any other quest or normal game. Just give them a quest, and the GM decides at what point along the quest the opposed force is. For example, the party might find that some encounters have already been cleared with bodies left behind, indicating that they're falling behind and may need to find another route or pick up the pace, or may find that nobody's been here, indicating that they're ahead. Though be prepared for the party to not get the hint and/or refuse whatever quest an evil sorceress would be doing on moral grounds.

If there's multiple groups of PC's competing, I have some experience with this, having well, run Black Crusade and Dark Heresy/Wrath and Glory simultaneously in the same sector with them encountering each other several times. It's possible to have meeting encounters where both parties are assembled on one day to fact each other, but I don't think this works as well as doing it asynchronously. What I do is have them "leapfrog" chronologically, and run the other party as NPC's in the session doing what they did last session in the first part, and what I expect them to do in response in their next session in the second part. There's some points where they don't quite do the same thing, but if you know your parties well you can get close enough.

MoiMagnus
2020-06-07, 06:12 AM
I want to let them catch up but put them in a position where they can't actually kill her.

You might want to have a backup plan in case of her death (or be ready to improvise one). The easiest solution is for her to have the employment contract on her so that they understand the job when they loot her.


I'm thinking she's working for the king or some other powerful figure and vengeance will be swift.

Depending on who your players are, distant threats like "someone powerful will hate you" might not be very efficient. That's kind of the hero's job to be hated by evil kings anyway.



Instead, they're given the opportunity to complete the job themselves. The employer doesn't give a crap who does it and doesn't care what happens to them afterwards (so maybe an underworld figure).

Just to be sure, is the "competition" you're talking about a competition between the sorceress and the PCs, or do you plan to have multiple other groups of adventurers competing? (possibly other groups of PCs)?



The problem: I've never run or even read an adventure like that. Can someone point me to some good resources? Advice from the geniuses here is considered good as well. :)

Assuming the race is not against other players, but against NPCs, one important thing is to manage to communicate the level of urgency of the situation.
You need to have moments where the PCs feel like "every in-universe hour matter, no time for sleep or waiting" and times where the PCs actually have time to prepare, do research and investigations, rest. (Though no time to waste, because time is still ticking).
If the PCs are always in the former, they will feel like they have no choice but to follow the linear sequence of events you put in front of them. So even in a race, you need moments that are relatively calms where your players actually have to chose how to "optimise" the time they have.

el minster
2020-06-11, 12:26 AM
When I saw this thread I was like Head of Vecna but seriously consider minor and nondirect competition.