A reader responded to a post I made yesterday with a “Help My Game” plea. I deemed this topic and the example posed good enough for its own post. Without further ado, here is Kaliam’s original comment, followed by my reply:
I need help please! I’m running a campaign of a game I made with some of my friends, and one of the members never does anything without being paid enough. Right now I sent the party through a cave with a mage. The party is level 2 and the mage is the same level. He says theres no reason for him to keep the mage alive, but killing him would only help the adventure crumble. PLEASE help me out here! How can I be clever enough to stop him from killing the mage, and, in the future, take quests without getting that much money, if not none?
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The Mage Problem
In this case I would let the PC kill the mage. This doesn’t have to ruin your campaign, and can actually enhance it a great deal. One of the ways to make PCs buy into the campaign world is to ensure that their actions are meaningful to the world. To that end, you can make sure that killing the mage has consequences and let those play out in the game.
Some Examples:
- Someone in town has seen them with the mage and now the mage’s family is looking for him. If they don’t find him, the authorities might question or arrest the party for murder. At the very least they can be held for questioning and made uncomfortable, like having all of their possessions confiscated.
- The mage is not a singular enemy. Perhaps the mage has an acolyte/apprentice or maybe a child/children of his own. These individuals consider the mage their mentor – if the mage is killed, this person or persons, after they complete their studies and rise to power, will have revenge on their mind as a main driving force. (this is similar to the suggestion made by The Opportunist)
- If they kill the mage, perhaps they cannot finish the mission and this should cause a change in the world. If the mission was important to an influential faction in the world, and that group found out that the mission was aborted due to the death of the mage (purposefully killed by the party), that faction could become a big-time enemy of the party. The consequences for that could be major, for example:
- Shutting the party out of a merchant guild’s business would keep them from buying things at reasonable prices (if at all)
- The faction could have the ear of the local lord who determines tax collection in the region and the party’s actions may cause their taxes to be raised (or more likely, the taxes of their entire family)
- The faction could just be really pissed and decide to try and have the party assassinated or robbed
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The Money Problem
In terms of the money/fee issue – there should also be consequences for accepting high fees and carrying around all that money.
Some Examples:
- Word gets around and now people come to the party for loans and favors, knowing the party is rich. This should be very disruptive to the party.
- Since everyone in the region knows the party is rich, thieves are a constant bother to the party.
- Knowing that the party has a ton of money, new patrons that want jobs completed will hold that wealth against the party “you already have enough money to live well, we ask you to do this because it is the right thing to do.“
- If the party refuses to do something unless the fee is huge (e.g. they never do it because it is good and noble), then they may start to be approached by evil entities needing tasks done. This will pay very well, but the acts all turn out to be evil. If the party doesn’t want to do evil stuff they will find that they have some very bad enemies and they will have already made enemies of the good folk – so where does that leave them? That is for them to figure out.
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Some general advice:
- Try not to plan so strictly that a PC’s or Player’s bad behavior derails your whole campaign.
- If you are having issues with a player’s attitude or the their PC’s attitude, talk to them. RPGs are a team sport, so to speak, and it is never a bad idea to talk to your players and tell them what you think is going wrong. At the same time, ask them how they feel the game is going and if they have any suggestions to improve it. Be willing to listen to their responses and take their ideas into account.
- Keep in mind one of my cardinal rules: The game is supposed to be fun for everyone, including the DM (the DM is a player too). If you aren’t having fun in the game on a regular basis, see #2 above and ask your players to help fix the problem.
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Hopefully you find this advice helpful! Until next time, I wish you good gaming!
~DM Samuel
What’s the deal with the mage? If it’s an NPC, he can only kill it if the DM allows it. Don’t fall into the trap of engaging in regular combat with non-monsters. If he attacks the wizard, don’t involve dice.
@pdunwin I agree that he can only kill the mage if the DM allows it, but I think he SHOULD allow it. Then he can make the party see the consequences of their actions.
RE the no-dice version of Pc killing mage, I agree. If the battle is narrated and not just a way for the PC to show off his superior combat skills, it may take the fun out of the activity for that player.
Sure, consequences, just so long as they’re not just passive-aggressive ways of punishing player choice. Discus plausible & interesting consequences up front, not as a disincentive, but as a way of keeping the players engaged and finding out what every wants from the game.
Having a DM run NPC is just making life difficult for yourself and the soon The Mage dies the better.
The consequences are what is going to make your game play that much more colourful.
I agree totally with the post above, dont see it as a problem see its as a story written out for you by the players actions.
@pdunwin Exactly – the consequences I am talking about are meant to make the game more fun and interesting, not to meta-game a punishment on the player that is doing something the DM doesn’t like. Passive-Aggressive DMing is bad form. That is why I put in the final 3 suggestions, communication of expectations between DM and Players is key to the experience!
@symatt – yes, exactly – the consequences that the PCs face are meant to enrich the story and the side benefit of that enrichment is that the DM has less story prep, since the player’s actions determine much of the story itself.
Unless there’s more to the “mage in a cave” story than Kaliam has told us, this player is just being a dick. Sent through a cave with an NPC and the player decides to kill him for no appreciable reason? Seriously?
My usual recommended solution for those issues is “hit the player with the DMG and tell them to stop being a dick”. This is a meta problem and needs to be solved in the meta. An in-game solution of whatever nature only encourages the behaviour.
(Of course, is there is more to the story then I reserve the right to change my answer.)
I will also provide a bit of DM advice for the future. When desiging a scenario, remember the Gun Safety Rule: Never point your DMing gun at something that you aren’t prepared to kill.
Your mage appears central to the plot and its removal seems like it will derail everything. This is dangerous design. Even assuming the party doesn’t behave like jerks, what would happen if they simply failed and the mage was killed accidentally. If you put something in your game in danger, you have to be prepared to deal with the possibility that it won’t actually survive the danger.
I think the main issue is that there is a difference in how Kaliam wants to run the game and how the player wants the game run. The Meta solution may be more useful in finding an acceptable play style for the group. I’ve learned it’s good to get a pre-game consensus before rolling the first die. In fact, if the campaign is new they may want a reboot after they find a style. Better fix it now than have similar situations continuously crop up like a Knights of the Dinner Table strip.
Now if Kaliam just want to prevent the mage’s death, he can try offering more money. Even if they get a bigger pay, it doesn’t mean they get to keep it. He could also make non-monetary rewards more useful. The details should depend on the players.
Hmm what is it with Mages these days. :)
I think the DM should have a talk with the player before the next session. Tell him flat out. Your actions will have repercussions in this world, you can do what you want, but the game world will react in a way you (the DM) thinks is best.
While it is great that a DM has an adventure planned that he thinks the players can survive, it is even better when the players know if they go off the script, there can be greater rewards* and even greater danger.
JesterOC
* – Like magic daggers.