Friendship is Dragons
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Page 531 - Confidential Informant
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Twilight's player may not be perceptive, but she definitely is insightful. Well, like the one in the show, actuually. That wasn't a very original thought...
Hey, Rarity's back!
I may not have ever actively turned on a supporter, but I recently played a never-know-who-to-trust political machinations game. At one point we received the advice, "Pick a side. Or you'll end up fighting everyone." Of course, the hard part was figuring out the right side. Seems like Rarity's feeling that way right now.
I may not have ever actively turned on a supporter, but I recently played a never-know-who-to-trust political machinations game. At one point we received the advice, "Pick a side. Or you'll end up fighting everyone." Of course, the hard part was figuring out the right side. Seems like Rarity's feeling that way right now.
It only sounds complicated. Really, the "right side" is whatever side you choose, and if you don't like how the leaders of that side handle their business, you replace them....with you.
This holds true whether you're a team of murder hobos or a well thought out group of roleplayers. The management can always change to your liking.
This holds true whether you're a team of murder hobos or a well thought out group of roleplayers. The management can always change to your liking.
You want to know what the right side to choose is? Simple! Just hold both of your hands and the one that makes a backward L is on the right side.
Old game I GM for had a slightly annoying player who had made his backstory as a henchman for the main evil villain. He went and was tried to get a trap set up for the villains by telling me one thing and conversing with the players about the counter plan.
He left the building and rung the bell waiting for his trap to be sprung only for the inn the rest of the team was staying at to explode as they fell into a trap.
One party member trapped on the second floor closest due to no floor outside of it. one stuck outside with the rest having taken minor fall damage with the villains ready to attack.
The team thought their player "ally" had just stabbed them in the back. He tried to figure out what just happened and I explained to him. His character was a coward and they didn't exactly fully trust him. Since he said back stabbing was common I just had them stab him in the back first.
Icing on top of it all. He had a anger croc that was warlock's pet outside ready to attack him if he "helped" his teammates. So he was stuck between pretending to help the bad guys to not be attacked by anger croc or helping his allies and trying to avoid being eaten by said croc.
So his choices of being loyal to which group became conflicted. It didn't help that one of the teammates wanted to attack him because he thought it was on purpose.
It ended with a lot of bloodshed. Two PC deaths and having to be saved by the town's guards. I gave them all a good amount of EXP for roleplaying their characters during the moment.
He left the building and rung the bell waiting for his trap to be sprung only for the inn the rest of the team was staying at to explode as they fell into a trap.
One party member trapped on the second floor closest due to no floor outside of it. one stuck outside with the rest having taken minor fall damage with the villains ready to attack.
The team thought their player "ally" had just stabbed them in the back. He tried to figure out what just happened and I explained to him. His character was a coward and they didn't exactly fully trust him. Since he said back stabbing was common I just had them stab him in the back first.
Icing on top of it all. He had a anger croc that was warlock's pet outside ready to attack him if he "helped" his teammates. So he was stuck between pretending to help the bad guys to not be attacked by anger croc or helping his allies and trying to avoid being eaten by said croc.
So his choices of being loyal to which group became conflicted. It didn't help that one of the teammates wanted to attack him because he thought it was on purpose.
It ended with a lot of bloodshed. Two PC deaths and having to be saved by the town's guards. I gave them all a good amount of EXP for roleplaying their characters during the moment.
Ick, I hate those kind of Shadowrun games, the ones that every mission is about either the PCs getting stabbed in the back or the PCs totally (and unprofessionally) turn on their Johnson.
I'm with Digo. Shadowruns like that, or where everyone is 100% military and jerks about it, are boring. That's why one of my favorite characters is a heavily-cybered Troll Rocker that has been carried forward through multiple editions.
* Warning: Coffee Mug may or may not be the Holy Grail in disguise. We have trouble keeping track of it since it shapeshifts and teleports. If you are vulnerable to holy artifacts use mug with caution for first 72 hours. If not Holy Grail, may** contain lead paint.
** Yes
*Tosses away coffee mug*
I want to run a Paranoia game where the big twist, and the reason everyone is in danger, is that the PCs are working together. Secretly.
I can understand a counter-offer. But every time? Dang, no honor among thieves with the group you played with. O_O
My rocker couldn't get away with that. His bandmates are all NPCs, but they're in tight with the same people who know the shadow scene. His rep is the band's rep, and he really doesn't want to tarnish the band's rep.
His campaigns typically come down to him picking one family over the other. Split loyalties can only be maintained for so long. Better playability means that he almost always chooses the PC runners over the NPC rockers.
His campaigns typically come down to him picking one family over the other. Split loyalties can only be maintained for so long. Better playability means that he almost always chooses the PC runners over the NPC rockers.
I'll just say I love how campaign comics, especially this one, manage to twist their stories to meet the needs of a campaign. A major component of humor is surprise, and this series has steadily surprised me -- not least with how it's gotten me into a tv show that before I wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot-pole. Eight or nine episodes down, well over a hundred to go!
Yeah, I saw this comic linked... somewhere one day (my first comic was one with Steven Magnet, if I remember correctly) having never even heard of FIM, and two or so years later I'm sitting here in my Luna shirt... This comic got me into the show and a truly great fandom.
I may have mentioned this, but there was the time the party was fetching pieces of an infernal artifact for an aasimar. Sadly, the campaign fell apart due to scheduling conflicts before they found out that said aasimar was an antipaladin.
A very old D&D campaign long ago, the PCs were on retainer by the prince of this kingdom that was undergoing a civil war. The king had died, and the country was split on who to put on the throne between the Prince or the now widowed Queen.
I set up the campaign to give the PCs three choices-- 1. Continue to serve the prince and assassinate the queen, 2. Stab the prince in the back and serve the queen, or 3. Flip both off and leave them hanging. The players took Option 3, turning against their long-standing employer and leaving with some important NPCs that both sides needed to win the civil war.
Now what makes the campaign a bit memorable later on, was that the PCs eventually found out that the queen struck a contract with an avatar of Tiamat. This meant that a lot of towns were destroyed by dragons, including many places the PCs called home. Oops. Grudgingly the PCs went back to the prince (who was surprisingly above telling them 'I told you so') and they managed to end the civil war in favor of the prince.
Sometimes going against your employer turns out pretty bad. Like, as in now you're burying your relatives bad. But hey, it wasn't the prince who killed them. :)
I set up the campaign to give the PCs three choices-- 1. Continue to serve the prince and assassinate the queen, 2. Stab the prince in the back and serve the queen, or 3. Flip both off and leave them hanging. The players took Option 3, turning against their long-standing employer and leaving with some important NPCs that both sides needed to win the civil war.
Now what makes the campaign a bit memorable later on, was that the PCs eventually found out that the queen struck a contract with an avatar of Tiamat. This meant that a lot of towns were destroyed by dragons, including many places the PCs called home. Oops. Grudgingly the PCs went back to the prince (who was surprisingly above telling them 'I told you so') and they managed to end the civil war in favor of the prince.
Sometimes going against your employer turns out pretty bad. Like, as in now you're burying your relatives bad. But hey, it wasn't the prince who killed them. :)
So I was a Lawful Evil Vampire Bard, working with a Neutral Evil Druid (basically Fluttershy if she fed peeps to her army of carnivorous rabbits and squirrels) to pretty much run this small town we'd stumbled across. I used my charisma to sell my act as a priest of Holo the Goddess of Fertility and Wheat, basically sprinkling pure virgin's blood onto a field at sunset, then having the druid come by in the middle of the night and make the fields flourish.
That got the townsfolk to believe my claims (they apparently hadn't heard of druids, but they did know of priests, gods, and Paladins and their ilk), and nearly half the virginal females were inducted as nuns in the church, meaning I had a fresh supply of virgin's blood daily, letting me sate my thirst and perform the almost nightly blessing of a field.
We were part of a dual campaign, with two DMs working together, with the two of us playing the BBEGs, and the Hero's DM decided to have us meet. Of course, we'd heard rumor of these Heroes, and when we met I'd been on nothing but a pure-blood diet, and was surrounded by the purity of more than 30 virgins, making their paladin unable to Detect Evil on me, while the Druid could explain away the evil smell as she was the undertaker, "burying" the town's dead (in actuality, feeding and growing her army of evil cuteness).
So we, like good "NPCs," each asked them to get something for us. I wanted a "holy relic that had been stolen and mistreated long ago (therefore explaining why it might seem evil)," while the druid asked for something along the lines of some herbs from the more dangerous part of the forest (where her army was growing, and a place she frequented regularly).
So her babies got to fight the Heroes, I got my MacGuffin of Evil, and lo and behold, their Paladin was down for the count! They brought him to the small, simple church I'd set up as there wasn't a cleric, and they didn't fancy giving him to the undertaker (lest he be exhumed or something), so I was the obvious choice. I offered to do the healing for free, and said to leave him with me for the night.
Using my vampiricness, I quickly realized he was in good health, just lacking in blood, but not to worry, I had virgin's blood for days! I could just syphon out all but a few drops of his own blood, start Turning him, and then pump him full of the purest blood possible (bloodtype of course not mattering in the game)!
Thus, I set him up for turning into a Vampire (which was doubly funny, as apparently he'd become a Paladin to hunt vampires), and the DMs both agreed he'd have to take Constitution checks every now and then against Turning, without actually telling him the reason (he ended up assuming he'd gotten rabies from a wild dog or something that had bit him), and it wasn't until the Final Battle, when we were once more reunited, that I completed the Turning, and set him to fight his old comrades. It made for a dramatic ending, as I think he finally got a Nat 20 on his Will check, and managed to stake himself through the heart, after only killing one of his teammates. 'Twas beautiful. ;u;
Currently playing a Kingmaker game with a rogue/swashbuckler who happens to be the bastard of the neighboring ruling family. He just lost his bid for outright ruler of our fledgling nation, and though he's a fairly good person his relations aren't. He's been contacted by "somoeone" (cough*) indicating the country could be better managed and that blood ties aren't easily broken (wink*). Bottom line is that he's going to be straddling the lines of loyalty and either choosing the party or his family.
Fun times.
Fun times.
Good comic. Bad topic.
It's easy to see a lot of similarities when you have back stabbing moments.
Then again the same could be same for having Players go up against their old PCs.
It's easy to see a lot of similarities when you have back stabbing moments.
Then again the same could be same for having Players go up against their old PCs.
Perhaps, as a secondary story prompt, the other way around? When given the option to betray your partners, you don't? I wonder if that's also a terrible topic for the opposite reason.
I've never betrayed my fellow PCs. The offer to betray is so mind-numbingly dumb that the villain offering it wouldn't take it himself. Guess my past GMs weren't very creative or some such. Or maybe they never seriously wanted me to betray my team. If the latter though, why bother? :)
I should play Paranoia sometime to branch out into backstabbing.
The leader himself was a were-rat who was a complete coward but masked that with ridiculous charisma and a healthy dose of paranoia. He didn't trust the PCs and hated the magocracy that had attempted to wipe out the guild in an attempt to show their superiority, which the mage of the group exploited to get the leader to reveal that the magocracy was making a portal and going to evacuate themselves out of the city they knew they couldn't keep.
The PCs then weighed their options. On the one hand, they had been hired to eliminate threats that would risk them getting slaughtered by the blood thirsty orcs outside by the all powerful magocracy and this was the thieves guild that was in the practice of killing anyone that entered into their part of the sewers. On the other hand though, they remembered their messenger being nervous and wondered if he had known about the magocracy abandoning the people to their very bloody fate. It made even more sense since the mages kept bragging about being able to keep the city safe and yet they had to hire random groups of people to go make sure things were safe in the city.
I should probably reveal at this point that my planning for the campaign basically ended here. I had planned this to be open ended, with some idea as to a few endings that the players could end up with, so I was a little bit prepared to wing it if I needed to. However I hadn't actually planned for them to have a conversation with the thieves guild leader nor had I really provided them any reason to trust either faction outside of "you were employed by the magocracy." Still it was fun watching the players basically use what scant little information I provided them through the leader (who was less trying to convince them to his side and more just ranting about his hatred for the mages and his desire to escape....W-With everyone else in the city, of course!) and watched as they basically turned themselves against their employer (who happened to be the rightful rulers of the city) and a plan was conceived.
They found the messenger that had hired them and managed to convince him that they had a very important message to give to their employer. When they finally arrived at the main mage tower, they found out that there was indeed a portal leading to safety there. Go figure. Ironically, half the magocracy wanted to leave the city too and had just barely got the ancient rune portal activated when the PCs attacked. Probably didn't help that their leader was nuts and had planned on betraying all of them once the portal activated but the players didn't care and what should of been a solo encounter escalated into a pretty big battle. See, I have no clue how to build encounters and my big bad boss was wiping the floor with the party so I had to throw in some npcs to help them...then I had to keep throwing npcs in on both sides as I attempted to try and find a balance while the actual battle was going on.
In the end, the boss died, the city was evacuated, and, as we wrapped up, the PCs realized that they weren't going to get paid for any of this since it was revealed that they had killed their employer and, with news that the army was making an all out massive attack on the wall at that point, looting was the last thing on their minds at that moment.
So, in essence, I had the players turn themselves against the organization that legitimately ran the city. Kinda sad that it took a storytime to remind me of this point (since the final battle was really the only thing anyone remembered of that game) but whatever.
Normally, I don't do betrayal. I was with this one group, however, and one of the players was dead-set on screwing things up for the game.
I hate this btw, it's terribly disrespectful to both the GM who has put effort into running a game, and the players who make the time to play.
So anyway, our group had been tasked with getting a white dragon to leave the area. We were wholly underpowered for a straight fight, and so the plan was to bribe the dragon into leaving.
We approached the cave and began our negotiations, when the jackass (dwarf barbarian) shouted "Death before Dishonor!" and charged. Our rogue had apparently decided that this was a good time to go trying to loot the cave, and was trying to sneak inside.
I readied my weapon.....and then had a major case of Fukitoll. Using my shield as a sled I took off down the mountain with the one other player who wasn't an avowed idiot. First time (and really, only, since I exercise a great deal more quality control in my groups now) I ever abandoned the party.
Needless to say the campaign was also derailed with impunity
I hate this btw, it's terribly disrespectful to both the GM who has put effort into running a game, and the players who make the time to play.
So anyway, our group had been tasked with getting a white dragon to leave the area. We were wholly underpowered for a straight fight, and so the plan was to bribe the dragon into leaving.
We approached the cave and began our negotiations, when the jackass (dwarf barbarian) shouted "Death before Dishonor!" and charged. Our rogue had apparently decided that this was a good time to go trying to loot the cave, and was trying to sneak inside.
I readied my weapon.....and then had a major case of Fukitoll. Using my shield as a sled I took off down the mountain with the one other player who wasn't an avowed idiot. First time (and really, only, since I exercise a great deal more quality control in my groups now) I ever abandoned the party.
Needless to say the campaign was also derailed with impunity
Twilight is looking at Rainbow Dash with an awfully nervous look in the bottom left panel
Unknown to us, the player never betrayed the dark ponyhood because his character's family was (in a sense) being held hostage by the group, as they "nicely" asked him to do their bidding. In retro speck, it should have been pretty obvious there was a reason he didn't leave them after the "wedding crashers" fiasco, but during that time, we were as blunt as rocks.
It wasn't until another member of our group who was part of the thieves guild found about the hostage family through some really expensive contacts. We then commenced: Operation Smash, Grab, and run like Hell. This personal mission of ours went almost flawlessly, until our freelancer rogue got caught by guards and I was pushed off a cliff we were travelling through, by their lead hunter (I didn't fall alone however, hurray for massive grapple skills).
In the end, the dark ponyhood stopped going after our ex-assassin friend, and the rest of our team was able to rescue our rogue free from prison. Not a bad ending in hindsight.
And then said help actually CAME. And oh god, they're just the worst most annoying bunch of useless idiots ever. The ones who are competent enough to do anything about the baddies are taking orders from the ones that aren't, OR they're wrapped up in other stuff. The ones that AREN'T competent are more concerned with rooting out Anarach sympathizers in the city than with the bad guys. Later that night I had thrown in with the Anarchs, specifically offering to be their mole in the Camarilla because my character can't fight worth crap.
I loved VTM! I remember playing a Gagrel who was the body guard of the prince of the city. He had picked a fight with a bunch of werewolves, several fights, and one night at a party the wolves showed up and demanded we release the hostages he had taken.
We found out he had stolen 13 children from the Garou. He was standing at the top of the stairs of a grand ballroom and his player was giving a grans speech about vampire superiority.
I passed the GM a note that said, "While he's monologing I'm going to push him down the stairs." and the GM let me surprise attack him. He was a social tank and I was a physical killer so he went tumbling down the stairs into the middle of the pack of Garou.
Kathumpkathumpkathump then I ordered the release of the children and told the Garou, "Kill him. Only an honorless man uses children as a shield." We lived, he died and I accidentally earned their respect.
Later when they captured us in one of our warehouses, they said they were going to kill me quickly out of respect for my honor. I was touched, really, I almost felt bad about killing them. They weren't that bad really. They had more honor and were more reasonable than most of my fellow vampires.
We found out he had stolen 13 children from the Garou. He was standing at the top of the stairs of a grand ballroom and his player was giving a grans speech about vampire superiority.
I passed the GM a note that said, "While he's monologing I'm going to push him down the stairs." and the GM let me surprise attack him. He was a social tank and I was a physical killer so he went tumbling down the stairs into the middle of the pack of Garou.
Kathumpkathumpkathump then I ordered the release of the children and told the Garou, "Kill him. Only an honorless man uses children as a shield." We lived, he died and I accidentally earned their respect.
Later when they captured us in one of our warehouses, they said they were going to kill me quickly out of respect for my honor. I was touched, really, I almost felt bad about killing them. They weren't that bad really. They had more honor and were more reasonable than most of my fellow vampires.
I've been running a game that I've mentioned here before. There are enough factions running around that the party has good reason to have split allegiance. As it stands, one of them works for devils trying to retake the city (ought to be easier, now that it's been evacuated.) Another is on a quest for power, and has been drawing power off of a chaotic god...and conversing with the an epic-tier fire elemental. He's managed to drag another player with him, if partially by coincidence. And now, the bard has an Ancient Gold Dragon with her eye on him.
Chaos ensues!
Chaos ensues!
Bards are the usual reason for half-dragons, half-fiends, half-celestials, half-elves, half-lings, et cetera.
I'm not sure how this will turn out, but I can at least say the kids will be cute. Apparently fresh gold dragons are as cute as puppies. With a taste for fresh meat. This...caused some problems when they have a better understanding of "food" than "person."
Depending on the whims of your DM, they could be dragons, half-dragon humans, dragonborn, humans until puberty, or anything else like that. Maybe even some of different types in the same litter.
Closest I have to that type was recent. I remember it like it was yesterday. Which is odd because it was today. Our battlemage in our homebrew FE game had a bad habit of being a huge Bitch. She sometimes team attacked for therapy. Sadly that seemed to work. Alter got very pissed at her for attacking our Pegasus Midnight Shadow. One because she is a friend, two because she is dating his brother. So there was a confrontation, in which Fullsteel made the mistake of meeting Alter Ego's gaze. Alter is a White Necromancer in the sense he uses enemy souls for party revives. So basically he used Sombra esque magic and she fell over in nightmare. Wasn't exactly betrayal as much as us getting our shit together since the Enclave bioweapon was being released, which caused ponies to become zombies that exploded in blood. The plague spread through blood. Yeah... we should really focus on that.
On me being turned against the party, in a 3.5 setting I only have four words.
Vampire Paladin of Lathander.
Vampire Paladin of Lathander.
Irish Scion of The Morrigan raised by an orphanage, the streets of Dublin Ireland, and then the Irish army decided for a fun bit of character development to revive the Frost Titan Ymir slain by Odin which ended the Ice Age and ripped Ymir in half creating the North and South Poles if mythic memory serves. Keeps the head in a divine trophy room. He was going to become an Avatar of Frost (The Cold) and recruit Frost-associated Gods and Titanspawn to serve his needs as new Avatars (aspects, not to be confused with the Purview Avatars) so that Ymir could immediately join the Second Titanomachy at nearly full strength with Odin crushed and the Gods reeling from the attacks by the Band's Rival Scions (also serving various Titans). It was going to be Epic.
Then we did his Visitation Story which I was using to get my new players and their rookie Storyteller (me) used to Scion and its rules. He managed to fend off his God-Level Rival with enough 10's he could have killed a group of Giants single-handed. His Rival was awed by a mere Hero (mortal Scion) being able to fight her, chose to heal him of his injuries, and then left. Then his Mother appeared afterward, granting him the powers of his Divine Heritage along with some bonuses for being a total bad ass with NONE of that power going for him.
He was so in awe of his own heroic accomplishment that he couldn't bring himself to do the betrayal thing and went on to sacrifice himself to seal the Titans after rescuing his Rival from the Persian demon Ahriman, Titan of Time by stealing her Heart and giving that and her memories sealed within.
He resides in Tartarus chained to the Titans in a permanent Avatar of Earth form that none of the Titans have been able to slip away from or break free of.
So he was going to betray the group because it would be a fun plot twist, and then betrayed his own betrayal and became a champion for his Pantheon heralded as the greatest warrior. As his character was a major battle type and idolizes Thor (both in and out of character) I had the God of Thunder make an appearance at a monument in his name and applaud him as a Brother of the Aesir. It was a rather touching eulogy really. :D
I played a druid, my party kept giving me all the powerful magical items to hold because they knew that I was not going to play favorites or turn on them... or so they thought until they accepted a job to burn down an entire forest to eliminate a tribe of woodelves that were stealing from the King.
I asked them nicely not to and they refused. Then we traveled to the forest and again I asked them to reconsider and they refused, then they gathered all the oil they planned on using in wagon carts and started hooking them up to pump sprayers. I asked them a third time and they all said it had to be done.
I walked away from the group, turned and pointed at the oil barrels and told the GM. "I would like to use my ring on the caravan." and he said, "Ring? Which one?" my reply, "All of them." Fireballs, lightning bolts, summoned a water elemental, knocked a wagon over with the ring of the ram, Insect swarmed some of the king's men, then as they all lay burning, twitching or were running for their lives I used a rod of disintegration to destroy all but one of the wagons that hadn't exploded.
Finally I freed all the horses but the two I needed. Put my dead/injured friends on the last wagon and drove them to the temple for healing/resurrection.
After that they decided that they shouldn't let any one party member carry all the weapons of mass destruction.
I asked them nicely not to and they refused. Then we traveled to the forest and again I asked them to reconsider and they refused, then they gathered all the oil they planned on using in wagon carts and started hooking them up to pump sprayers. I asked them a third time and they all said it had to be done.
I walked away from the group, turned and pointed at the oil barrels and told the GM. "I would like to use my ring on the caravan." and he said, "Ring? Which one?" my reply, "All of them." Fireballs, lightning bolts, summoned a water elemental, knocked a wagon over with the ring of the ram, Insect swarmed some of the king's men, then as they all lay burning, twitching or were running for their lives I used a rod of disintegration to destroy all but one of the wagons that hadn't exploded.
Finally I freed all the horses but the two I needed. Put my dead/injured friends on the last wagon and drove them to the temple for healing/resurrection.
After that they decided that they shouldn't let any one party member carry all the weapons of mass destruction.
When regular kill isn't enough go for OVERKILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These are some of the things that individuals and even whole kingdoms must come to terms with when their very lives come into question. We all know what happens when people must choose as well; bonds broken, trust lost, kingdoms in flame, and others gone.
Those with the power of choice must choose wisely, though they may never win.
Simply said, to live with choice is hard, whether you're a rogue or king, and you will live with the choice no matter how it goes.
Any stories about being turned (or people trying to turn you) against the organization you worked for?