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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BlueWizardGirl

    Join Date
    May 2020

    Default Looking for help: competition between adventuring groups

    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. :)

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    LordCdrMilitant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Inner Palace, Holy Terra
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: Looking for help: competition between adventuring groups

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGinger View Post
    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.
    Guardsmen, hear me! Cadia may lie in ruin, but her proud people do not! For each brother and sister who gave their lives to Him as martyrs, we will reap a vengeance fiftyfold! Cadia may be no more, but will never be forgotten; our foes shall tremble in fear at the name, for their doom shall come from the barrels of Cadian guns, fired by Cadian hands! Forward, for vengeance and retribution, in His name and the names of our fallen comrades!

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Planetar

    Join Date
    May 2018

    Default Re: Looking for help: competition between adventuring groups

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGinger View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGinger View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGinger View Post
    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)?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGinger View Post
    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.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Gender
    Male

    biggrin Re: Looking for help: competition between adventuring groups

    When I saw this thread I was like Head of Vecna but seriously consider minor and nondirect competition.
    Get your physics out of my D&D!

    Proudly Chaotic

    Optimism is delusion pessimism will save the world

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