Let’s talk about consequences.
Last night’s session with my group was a dumpster fire that culminated with the team getting into a super messy gunfight inside a Vory bar. Ultimately, the dice rolls were some of the worst in any game I’ve ever seen and definitely the reason things went the way they did, but I’m wondering if I was too severe with the NPC actions. It was one 6- after another and I felt I had no course of action but to escalate the consequences.
Fictionally, the team was in pursuit of a group of thieves who had killed an executive and taken an ancient ceremonial katana that had been intended as a gift for the CEO of a major defense firm that the Exec’s company had recently merged with. While learning the location of the thieves, they had hardballed a hotel maid that was in on the heist and the ramification of that was that she tipped the thieves off. From there, the team headed to the bar the thieves operated out of, and found them there celebrating their score. Several failed social rolls later, one of the team tips off to the bartender that he’s interested in learning “what’s up with those guys”. At this point, the team and the thieves and the bartender were the only people left in here. The thieves hear this, and approach to confront the team. Another failed roll later, and the thieves are absolutely sure these are the guys asking about the murder/theft and things escalate.
Long story short, our party Killer has taken 5 harm, the Hacker has taken 3 harm, the Infiltrator is dragging him out of the bar, and the Tech is pinned down behind a table.
After talking with one of my players this morning, and being reminded that we lost a PC last mission, I’m second guessing myself.
Do you guys tend to run a lethal game of The Sprawl where bad choices are punished with severe consequences?
To briefly answer your question, the more MC moves I make, generally to more I escalate. Especially if the 6- dice rolls are happening in the same scene. I run Tje Sprawl as a dangerous place, and you’re going to acquire that agricultural property real fast if you don’t take precautions.
That being said, this is a game and the point is to have fun. Instead of second guessing yourself, sit down with your players and ask them about the session.
Chris Stone-Bush Thanks for the feedback, Chris. Sounds like we’re on the same page and I’ve already reached out to my players this morning with my thoughts, so the open dialogue is there. I actually had a conversation with one of my players where he suggested that I might reach out to the G+ community here and I told him…
“I can almost guarantee that the responses I’ll get from the thread will be “depends on your group” and “the sprawl is a deadly game” and “if your players aren’t having fun, maybe ease up a bit””
Hahaha
So yeah, I was mostly just wanting to get the opinions of other folks who had their own experiences running The Sprawl (none of my players do), and to also get some feedback from folks who aren’t players in my game as there’s always the concern when you’re running a game for friends that they might hold back on critiquing things as to not come across being judgmental. It’s that whole “do these pants make me look fat” scenario. 😉
Chris Stone-Bush nailed exactly what I would have said, so QFT: “That being said, this is a game and the point is to have fun. Instead of second guessing yourself, sit down with your players and ask them about the session.”
Is the mission now over, or did you break towards the end of the combat with the Tech still pinned down? It could be interesting to have the thieves take the Tech prisoner and demand the rest of the team do a job in exchange for their release. Escalation of 6- results might result in the team having to make harder and harder choices rather than suffer more and more violence.
Hamish Cameron The Tech and the Killer are both in a bad position and we left off with the bad guys closing in.
I like the idea of taking one of the PCs hostage. Problem is, the job they were hired to do is to locate a sword and return it to their employers. The sword was sold by these thieves to a Vory lieutenant and it’s currently being held in his office inside a meat packing plant, but the players don’t yet know this. It these thieves have the upper hand with their hostage, I see no reason for them to reveal the location of the sword, unless the players make some other moves to obtain the info.
The Action/Legwork clock are both sky high right now and the players think they’re in the action phase of the game, but they don’t realize that these thieves no longer possess the sword and I think they’ve been playing with a certain reckless abandon because of this.
I guess it’s just easier, when I’m put on the spot, to answer failed rolls with violence (assuming it’s fictionally appropriate). It’s definitely more challenging in those instances to come up with something more complicated and interesting, but with everything else I’m keeping track of I often reach for the low hanging fruit, but I’m working on that!
I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes it’s best to take a short break and regather your thoughts and your prep… that’s easy to say from my computer chair though!
In this situation, I would quickly wrap up this fight. Aim MC moves at seizing characters and making the others flee or surrender. When one is captured, have them overhear the thieves talking about selling the sword to the Vory, and have the team do an unrelated mission for the thieves in exchange for the prisoner release. That mission could either not threaten the main mission clock (maybe there’s a separate threat clock you could make for it… and for the thieves for that matter!) then they run a very careful mission against the meat packing plant.
The trick in both cases is to prep so that you give yourself ways to apply pressure and tension without going straight to the Mission Clocks.
Hamish Cameron Great advice as always, Hamish. Thanks again!