Originally shared by Aaron Berger
In a game I run the players have chosen to be Cultists. Before character creation we were reminiscing about our last game of Soth which probably influenced all the ideas we used to generate this campaign. Anyways these cultist have a vague endgame of bringing about Ragnorok. With the idea that if they succeed there will be no retiring, this mind set has lead to a laissez-faire approach to subtlety. The crew has some traditional characters, there’s a slide and a lurk who are pretty by the book. But then we have the stand out characters, like the explosive happy Leech and the serial killer Cutter. To sum it up these cultist have been acting more like a terrorist cell than anything. For people with experience in thiefy type games, I’m curious other people’s reactions when the scoundrels refuse to play coy.
I’m having no problem escalating the threats arranged against them. The blue coats are carrying more than clubs, and an inspector has arrived from out of town who has a nose for conspiracies. The spirit wardens have set up a command tent in Silkshore since they’ve been called there so often, and the Gondoliers have attained Carte Blanche to let loose in the streets if they see the need. They players see the escalation of danger but they keep pressing forward as the scoundrels they are.
Where I’m less sure of myself is how to handle the complete lack of diplomacy or tact. Alliances are held toeghether by paper thin lies. The constant collateral damage has rubbed everyone they come into contact with the wrong way. The citizens of Silkshore are on the brink of finding the crew completely repungant and going to war with them. Increasing the danger of even walking down the street.
It has felt for a while that the cult has been digging themselves into a ditch. A hole so deep it might soon be impossible to climb out of. Last night while the crew was conducting a kidnapping operation in the much beloved Red Lantern Brothel the question came up as to whether they should use a terrorizing ghost to cover their escape, and I ended up coaching them against it. The brothel was busy and crowded, the ghost would of been major headlines news. The crew was mostly in the clear but the cutter wanted to double back to retrieve a claymore that had gotten stuck when it cleaved into a goon. It felt like low stakes to waste the last remnants of good will they had left. The crew agreed after some discussion not to use a ghost. The Cutter went back for the sword anyway and retrieved it but got a trauma for his trouble.
After the session thinking about it, I felt bad about the back seat gaming. It wasn’t me showing them other options but more me warding them away from a path I felt unprepared for. Its hard for me to envision the game where the crew is so much at war with the entire city. Or not hard to envision, but I foresee it leading to the downfall of the entire organization. But maybe that’s okay?
Maybe what the players want to do is lay their part of a doomed terrorist cell, and I should try my best to lead a interesting conversation around that. Who knows maybe the players find a way to navigate through this quagmire. Maybe they’ll survive long enough to resurrect their forgotten god. Next session should involve some inter crew discussion. They have just kidnapped the daughter of Lord Strangford, who appears to be some sort of conduit to their god, due to her exposure to a spirit well. yeah there should be plenty of interesting things to talk about.
I have been in lots of games where the players wanted something different out of the game than I did. I see three broad avenues for going forward in a context like the one you describe.
1. This is not what I signed on for. I don’t want to be the babysitter for a Lord of the Flies Tarantino movie where violent whims are satisfied and the gutters fill with gore. Play if you can find a different GM, I’m out.
2. How could this work? Spend some time reframing, stepping out of my preconceived ideas, and looking for what ideas I might have missed. Okay so we’re not going to do a stealthy behind the scenes game, but can I work in some Mad Max action I’ve been wanting to do by giving them some louder anti-heroes to hit and moving to the Deathlands? Could another group wrangle them in and deploy them as a suicide squad until they squirm loose and retaliate? Is this my cue to break them into the world of demons fighting by proxy? etc. What else would be fun for me and also cater to the play style they are going for?
3. You want it, you got it. They want to play chicken with the rest of the city, well, that’s why you get 4 Trauma instead of 1 trip to 0 hit points. Let’s do this. Better to burn out than fade away. As a GM I’m thinking about what factions want to protect the city and what factions want to burn it down, and align them around this new disruptive influence. Paint a big sloppy sexy bulls eye on everything and burn it down. Blow up bridges. Kill immortals. Tear a hole in the Ghost Field when a spirit well gets hit with a whisper nuke. The snow is still pretty even when it’s ashes. Doskvol has sopped up 3 Trauma and these are the end times.
It should be okay! But they should all be on board with it being okay. There can be great pleasure in watching a joint creative endeavor crash and burn, moreso when you’re at the wheel. I think Blades is set up in some ways to run like longform Fiasco — a downward spiral into disaster.
Just be clear with them (if you haven’t already) about how bad things are, how they’re likely to get worse, and how that can be great fun if everyone has the right attitude. The question is not “Will they succeed?” but “In what specific and entertaining fashion will they fail?”
I mean they’re a bunch of mad cultists. That never, ever ends well.
Andrew Shields I really like your option #3 for this game. Aaron Berger , let them burn down the world. Let the world try and stop them, of course, but accept it as an option. And yes, the Citizenry may rise up to stop them – good! Let them try and continue their crusade while on the run. I think it could make an epic story.
Honestly, given the course of things as you’ve described it, these guys should be public enemy #1, and unless they behave a lot smarter than you’ve been describing (” the complete lack of diplomacy or tact”), they’d be dead meat in my game ages ago. No moral judgment over whether their goals or approaches are “nice” or “safe”- this is an adult roleplaying game about criminals, FFS. Actions -> consequences: what does being a tiny minority with a hostile agenda and no allies (and worse, allies that you betray) lead to? It usually leads to you getting wiped out. It’s a reason why there’s no “Super Adventure Club” (South Park reference) faction in Doskvol. Even the damn Billhooks would probably wipe them out overnight.
I say give your players logical, measured consequences to their choices, and everything will sort itself out. It’s worked for me for 20+ years.
Talk with your group, find out what game they want to play. If it’s one you want to run, crack on.
If you think that people don’t like them because of their actions are you using clocks to let them know when things are going to get worse?
The moment they do something that will upset someone put it on a clock like, “the citizens of silk shore hunt down the cult”, it’s a great way to disclaim responsibility and let them know that it is their action that caused it.
Also, it is perfectly OK to step outside the fiction for a second and say “this is what you guys are doing, are you on board with the ramifications of that?”
Clocks are a great way to do that. It makes the situation clear and puts a countdown in play, and if the players choose to ignore it that’s their choice. It feels less like killer GM and more, “hey, you knew this was coming.”
I do think I will step out of the fiction and see which direction they want to go. As for Andrew Shields options i think it will be either 2 or 3. I’m still having fun with the system and enjoying the flexibility it shows with handling all sorts of encounters. I also think a year or two ago I might be freaking out, but nowadays I’m more conscious of my goals with play. It’ll be great to do a check in, and see which way the players want to go.
I think I may have oversold their bravado. The group does have a Slide, a secret non-believer, who has been trying to play the intrigue game. An ego centric Little Finger type who has made a few deals to keep the wolves at bay. The cultists first few jobs were for Bazso Baz, and though they were loud and messy they got the job done. The cultists killed a gondolier but were able to frame the murder on the Fog Hounds, which ended up wiping the smugglers out and putting them on good footing with the Gondoliers. Both of these relationships are on thin ice. If the Gondoliers ever found out what the cultists were truly up to it be war. Bazso Baz is a secret Illuminati type who sees the cultists more as tools than equals. Once it becomes clear that they are worshipping different gods, I expect that relationship to blow up.
Part of it might be I’m trying not to cover every single faction. With the starting situation I had Fog Hounds, Vultures, Lamp Blacks and Gondoliers. One is dead and two are happy, so maybe they are okay. But then the Leech uses a grenade to clear up a street brawl and oh boy.