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PDFRonson writes:
Six or more tragic background stories to be revealed when the PC’s have just victimized a hitherto faceless, nameless NPC (inadvertently or otherwise), which will force the PC’s to act either heartbroken and repentant or cruel and callous. (Or maybe just emotionally dead)
Ok, so your PC’s have been dicks to someone. How are you going to make them feel like crap for it? I’ve posted some below, but I gotta say there’s a good chance your players will just fall over laughing…
Hob was bringing that herbal concoction to his sick daughter when you crowded past him and pushed him over the edge fo the cliff.
Bram was born blind, but his eyesight was restored to him just this morning. He was travelling back to his village to see his wife for the first time when you allowed that band of goblins to take him hostage and behead him.
Helgan’s virginity was pledged to the Count in exchange for the release of a brother from debtor’s prison. Now you’ve ruined that plan.
Marianne had caught the Vizier’s eye and had his trust. She had the poison from the assassin’s guild and knew how to administer just enough to kill him and avid suspicion. Now that you have killed her, her daughter will be a ward of the Caliphate, under the supervision of the Vizier…
That was Tig’s dog you ate. Tig is seven and was born the same day as that dog.
Half-glove was a lieutenant in the guard for thirty years. He was going to retire in six days.
Luthien was an elf. He was eight-hundred-years old. He had travelled the length and breadth of this continent, had seen the most beautiful sights, could recite poems not heard in centuries, cook recipes once reserved for kings with ingredients found in any peasant’s cupboard, play the harp to make a demon weep, knew treatments for the worst ailments known to man, the location of lost kingdoms, supported the orphans of anyone who he’d known to die in battle and, in short, knew the secrets to worldly contentment and equanimity, held the keys to peace and was a treasure to any who had met him. Until you killed him for his horse.
[Look, I don’t really think any of these will work but if they do, be sure to tell me.]
Also: a note to orsobuffo: I have been working on your request. It’s taking a bit longer than I want but you are not forgotten. I am going to do a few more requests before posting yours in the interests of not losing steam. The results will be either spectacular or craptacular.
No related posts.
I find just having an NPC’s companion go “Frederick! Nooooo!” does do a bit more than you;d expect.
Brilliant, thanks! I really wasn’t sure if my request made sense, but I think you pulled it off with flying colors. I’ll make sure to report when I’ve tried a few (and Zak’s, as a kind of control group).
Keep a tally of all the NPCs the party kill, make up a short & simple but sad story for each, then next time a witch curses the PCs take the opportunity to haunt them with the ghosts of everyone they have ever unjustly slain.
I think one of the potential pitfalls of using the above is ‘moral railroading’ the party into behaving as heroes. I think a light touch is probably better, as Zak suggests. Bad deeds make for good anti-heroes, at least in books and on TV.
It’s the accumulated karma over many play sessions that should lead to some sort of karmic comeuppance and that has to happen within the boundaries already established in the world. I firmly believe in karma, but I think it’s rare that you can draw a dotted line. In most cases, it’s more like: the more you pollute, the more likely you will be poisoned by pollution. I think the latter touch is probably more appropriate.
I’d like to hear what others think about karma in games and moral ‘nudges’.
Just this past session, our DM pulled this on us.
We killed an owlbear in a cave. The actual reasons are long and irrelevant, but mostly it was an owlbear, so we didn’t care.
A little later, we came across the owlbear’s mate and their cubs. Being owlbears, they all attacked us. Our mage glitterdusted the lot, blinding the cubs. The barbarian did the whole mighty blow thing, putting down mama owlbear. We’re feeling pretty good at this point.
Until the goddamned DM starts having one of the cubs running pitifully into the wall because it’s blind. The other surviving cub (we’d already killed one) found its mama and started crying for her to get up.
Holy crap, did we feel super evil. It didn’t even matter that we didn’t really have a choice, because a mama owlbear wasn’t going to just let us walk away.
The barbarian forced me, the cleric, to heal the injured cub. He then adopted the two cubs. He’s going to try and raise them. This should be…interesting.