Pauly
2022-09-02, 12:54 AM
Some time ago we finished one leg of a long running D&D campaign, so I volunteered to GM a film noir themed campaign using a home brew of Cyberpunk 2020, but with 1930s technology.
About 10 minutes into session 2 there was a TPK because the players forgot the difference in lethality between D&D and Cyberpunk and started a shootout at close range with no cover against bad guys who already had their guns drawn. I’m OK with this and tell the players to roll up new characters and I have an idea to keep the campaign going.
One of the PC’s motivation was to save enough money so he and his new wife could leave the city and start a new life in the country. He really liked his character and I said he could keep the character, but had to come up with a new backstory unrelated to his original character. Let’s call the first character Spade snd his clone Marlowe
So when the new characters are set up and in their PI’s office I send in Spade’s widow. I use a picture of Veronica Lake (I like using photos of old timey forgotten Hollywood stars for character portraits) to illustrate her. Marlowe is like “yeah my wife, well ex+character’s wife is HOT”. So she says her husband is missing and tasks the party to find out where her husband is. Another character tries to hit on her but she refuses, so now Marlowe is completely smitten and goes all in on the investigation.
After a session the party get enough information to say Spade got killed, but the widow insists that she has to see his body and to lay him to rest properly. Marlowe insists on getting the rest of the party to join in, for the good of the widow.
After another session the players organize a sit down between Spade’s widow and the BBEG whose goons whacked the first party. When Spades’s widow asks if she can at least recover the body, the BBEG is “Nope it’s been buried at sea”, she replies “I need a body to claim the insurance money and I wasted a year and a half of my life on that sucker” the look on Marlowe’s face was priceless and the other players started to laugh.
Then the BBEG says ‘Maybe I can help you with that, what did your husband look like?”
At which point I pull out Spade’s old character sheet from my file and start reading out his physical description,while looking directly at the Spade/Marlowe player. As the realization of just how badly he’s been set up starts to sink in, one of the other players, who by the way is the goody two shoes light Paladin in the D&D campaign, says “This guy only joined our agency 2 weeks ago, no one will miss him - what’s our cut if we turn him over?” At which point Spade/Marlowe goes into full carp out of water mode and is opening and closing his mouth unable to speak.
About 10 minutes into session 2 there was a TPK because the players forgot the difference in lethality between D&D and Cyberpunk and started a shootout at close range with no cover against bad guys who already had their guns drawn. I’m OK with this and tell the players to roll up new characters and I have an idea to keep the campaign going.
One of the PC’s motivation was to save enough money so he and his new wife could leave the city and start a new life in the country. He really liked his character and I said he could keep the character, but had to come up with a new backstory unrelated to his original character. Let’s call the first character Spade snd his clone Marlowe
So when the new characters are set up and in their PI’s office I send in Spade’s widow. I use a picture of Veronica Lake (I like using photos of old timey forgotten Hollywood stars for character portraits) to illustrate her. Marlowe is like “yeah my wife, well ex+character’s wife is HOT”. So she says her husband is missing and tasks the party to find out where her husband is. Another character tries to hit on her but she refuses, so now Marlowe is completely smitten and goes all in on the investigation.
After a session the party get enough information to say Spade got killed, but the widow insists that she has to see his body and to lay him to rest properly. Marlowe insists on getting the rest of the party to join in, for the good of the widow.
After another session the players organize a sit down between Spade’s widow and the BBEG whose goons whacked the first party. When Spades’s widow asks if she can at least recover the body, the BBEG is “Nope it’s been buried at sea”, she replies “I need a body to claim the insurance money and I wasted a year and a half of my life on that sucker” the look on Marlowe’s face was priceless and the other players started to laugh.
Then the BBEG says ‘Maybe I can help you with that, what did your husband look like?”
At which point I pull out Spade’s old character sheet from my file and start reading out his physical description,while looking directly at the Spade/Marlowe player. As the realization of just how badly he’s been set up starts to sink in, one of the other players, who by the way is the goody two shoes light Paladin in the D&D campaign, says “This guy only joined our agency 2 weeks ago, no one will miss him - what’s our cut if we turn him over?” At which point Spade/Marlowe goes into full carp out of water mode and is opening and closing his mouth unable to speak.