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Through the Eyes of the Other Side: Part 1
Topic Started: Oct 9 2011, 07:39 AM (393 Views)
James Gatehouse
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Hello all,

Unbelievably, I am actually going to write something somewhat serious.... Who am I kidding? This is likely a disaster waiting to happen.

At any rate, for almost four years now, I have been working fairly consistently on an RPG (Role-playing Game for the uninitiated) system for the Warhammer Fantasy world. This system has seen many variations from the heady days of almost limitless power (cue flashback about a high elf who harassed an old woman on the streets of Altdorf so much that she fired a pistol at him through a door which missed and nailed a random passerby in the head) to the days of absolute drudgery. (cue flashback about a halfling farmer who spent years plowing his fields and reaping his crops only to be mercilessly killed by a random goblin archer)

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (seriously) the system finally became relatively stable. In comparison to the official Warhammer RPG (FFG's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) my system is even more lethal but at the same time has mechanics that encourage courageous play. Afterall, RPG's should be fun and there is little more fun than obtaining victory over impossible odds.

So my thinking is, this short series of articles might go through the ideas behind being a good Games Master. I like to think I am reasonably competent as one friend in particular (he knows who is) is constantly bugging me to play. Every night. For the past two and a half years.

Anyway, my first port of call was something that occurred fairly recently in my friend's game, something that all Games Masters will likely have to deal with at some time or another.
What do you do when your player does something stupid that works?

I'll spell it out for you.
Korlian Greatbow, a young Waywatcher from the Forest of Chalons in Bretonnia had recently been unwillingly forced into a pact with a Daemon Prince. This pact involved the Wood Elf being shunted halfway across the world to a forest on the eastern coast of Ind where he would encounter a dark elf camp.

My intentions here were that the Waywatcher would engage in guerilla skirmish warfare with the camp, picking them off one by one. To encourage this I made the situation rather difficult. I believe there was a knot of dark elf warriors and corsairs in the centre of the camp with some attendant witch elves. In addition to this there were several shades which had established a hidden picket line in the trees.

Tough odds even for a Waywatcher right? Not for this one. With excessive ease my player asked if there was a picket set and the dice roll came up showing that he had spotted the shades. With deplorable ease he picked off two in the space of ten seconds (a single round) before the alarm was sounded.

The astute amongst you may realise that this was my attempt to cause problems for him here. The mass of blood-mad dark elves (at least twenty) rushed at him. With supreme confidence, Korlian darted up into a nearby tree, effortlessly passing the dice roll and sending arrow after arrow into the onrushing elves. Eventually things were getting a little hectic as the witch elves surrounded the tree and were preparing to climb it to get to him.

What followed is what could potentially be one of the most amazingly stupid things I have ever been privileged to witness, followed by the most amazing dice rolls I have ever heard of.

Korlian leapt from the tree with his father's great axe swinging wildly about him, cleaving through two witch elves out of the dozen that surrounded him, avoiding all of their blades (which I was mean and ensured that all of those blades carried elfbane poison) and darting off into cover further down the heretofore unmentioned path.

He proceeded to pick off the elves that followed him but I'm just going to deconstruct the "leap of faith."

1. Passed an Agility test. (Under Agility 6 on D10)
2. The first round of combat. Four attacks needing 4's to hit on D6's. This round killed two of the witch elves.
3. Avoided any retaliatory strikes due to my own shocking rolls and a combination of a high Agility and decent Weapon Skill.
4. The second round of combat. Two attacks needing 4's to hit on D6's. No kills but it did force two of the witch elves back.
5. Avoided the return attacks again.
6. Passed a Speed test to get away from them as he ran. (Roll 2 D10's and add respective Speed value. The higher value escapes)
7. Passed a Concealment test (Against elves! Sure if anyone can do it, it's a Waywatcher but still)

So what happens when you're carefully constructed, tough, challenging and otherwise supposedly demoralising adventure goes all pear-shaped as a certain Wood Elf cleaves through masses of his dark kin with a gleaming great axe?

Laugh and congratulate the player. If he managed to pull something like that off, he deserves every piece of praise you can give him. (or her, I'm not sexist, just lazy)

But there are a few things you should refrain from doing:
1. Getting nasty by making up things just to put the player back in his place. As tempting as this is, RPG's should be fun, not confrontational.
2. Belittling the achievement. It has occurred to me recently that I am somewhat guilty of this. This same character later challenged and killed a Gorebull in single combat. It was a very close-run affair but when my player was basking in his moment of glory I couldn't help myself when I said, "But if that was a Doombull, you would have been screwed."
3. Gods-forbid, replaying the encounter because things didn't work out how you wanted. As the Games Master it is your duty to make sure that important stuff occurrs even if the players go off an a tangent. Replaying the encounter cheapens the experience for all involved.

I hope you enjoyed reading this somewhat longwinded and potentially rant-like article. I can also hope that perhaps someone may have been able to obtain some help from my rambling. I may be back next month to share more of my views on Games Mastering but only if people actually like this. I also encourage everyone to leave their own experiences in the Feedback as I am sure I would enjoy reading them and may even be able to work them into my next article.

Cheers,
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