Last night's game was strange, and I am second-guessing my decisions. Eventually I'll post the whole thing on my blog, but for the forum I'll keep it short (well, short-ish)
I wrote a quest that involved a small wing of a crime syndicate. This wing was using a farm compound, several hours outside of town, to breed weaponized plants for sale to an enemy state. They are trying to blend in with the community and make a tidy profit, basically operating in plain site thanks to clever subterfuge.
The quest starts with a safety incident. Some townspeople are mysteriously killed, the cause being, of course, some plant-weapons that got misplaced.
I left a breadcrumb trail for the party, leading to this compound. I expected the party to observe the compound, sneak in, get some evidence, sneak back out, and report back to the village elders. The PCs are all members of local law enforcement, and are all built for such missions. The party includes a very stealthy rogue, a semi-stealthy ranger, a bard built for persuasion and misdirection, and a utility wizard with plenty of intelligence-gathering spells.
I intentionally, and quite obviously, populated the compound with NPCs that would overpower the party. I expected the party to recognize that and take the stealth approach. Basically, I was all prepared to run that kind of game session.
Then, game day happened.
The party basically hopped on their wagon, rode right up to the gate, showed their "sheriff's badges" and questioned the crime syndicate. Well, I had definitely not thought of that. So much for the stealth approach.
Now, I don't improvise particularly well. I hope to get better but I'm still not very quick on my feet. I had to think quickly. I thought "well, if this crime syndicate wants to lay low and blend in, they won't have a battle with the law in broad daylight." I figured they'd try to bluff and/or intimidate their way out of it. So I role-played the Big Bad. He had all his guards come out (the show of strength), he denied any involvement in the accidental deaths, and then denied the party's authority over the affairs of private citizens. I waited for the party to start a fight, a fight they would probably lose.
The party simply turned their wagon around and left. Well, at least I wouldn't wipe the party.
The party heads back to town, and then says "we'll come back in the morning and sneak in." Yep, in broad daylight.
So now I think "well, this crime syndicate would probably pack up and leave that night." That's what stolen car chop-shops do when they think they've been made: they close up and move somewhere else. But I wanted to give the party another chance to confront the criminals. So I had the bad guys pack very slowly, so they'd still be doing it come morning.
This time, the party DID use stealth. The rogue decided to use his potion of invisibility, and with a lot of great stealth checks, managed to steal one of the poison plants and the enemy's ledger book! Then they sat back and watched the criminals load their wagons leave the compound.
So here's the scorecard for the night:
- my entire quest, all my finely-crafted NPCs, and all the work I put into it, basically voided (I've learned to accept that in general, it's a consequence of being a DM)
- a lot of skill checks
- not a single, solitary combat roll!
- the quest only half-fulfilled (evidence, but no arrest)
- and an empty compound to search next time
- but a lot of laughs and jokes and even compliments from players in the end!
Now I wonder: was I too much of a coward? Should I have thrown the full force of the crime syndicate against the party and risked killing them? Maybe I'm still afraid to kill PCs?
When you think about it, the NPCs actually won in a way: they think they got away scott-free! This is a crime syndicate, they don't want to have open combat. If they would have battled the PCs, that would have been out-of-character for them, and I'm pretty sure the players would have called me out on that.
The villains can live to fight another day. Maybe this will be an ongoing hook. I hadn't planned it that way, it was supposed to be a few game nights and done. So I guess ... opportunity??
I'm afraid the rogue got most of the cool action, and the other players basically sat around. I didn't sense that any were bored, however, they all seemed to be getting a kick out of what was going on. They all did participate in strategizing. I do have very cool players, I'm extremely lucky in that aspect.
I didn't railroad the players! This was all them.
I also thought they had some really clever and risky ideas, they were extremely lucky in critical skill checks.
I'm probably only going to give 1/2 xp on it, though (I give xp by goals met, not by killing monsters). They got evidence and a cryptic ledger, but they did let the bad guys get away without even learning their name.
This is only the eighth session I've run since I started DMing again (after a 20+ year break), and it's the only one that I'm really questioning my decisions and the outcome.
[Ugh, this was a LOT longer than I had hoped, sorry about that. Thanks for hanging in there if you've made it this far!]
Full XP. They won.
Look, you write your game, including goals and relevant obstacles. Then you let your players do their thing. What you DONT do (bc it's not your job) is write how the players will achieve the goal. That's their job.
The complaint about your prep is salient. When you prepare, emotionally ready yourself to burn all your notes. I have run games, excellent games, where I aimed them at target A and the GD players went after target Q. Sorry prep, you're either re-fluffed to fit Q, or you're useless.
Not a single combat... Ok again, you write some goals and some obstacles. It's up to them how they deal with that. Combat isn't an end. It's a means to an end. Thus if they elect NOT to fight, but to employ some other strategy, then that's what they do. You are not required to force a fight on them.
Lastly, mind your goals of play (check my blog for more on goals of play). If everyone had fun, you won. It sounds like they did. That's full XP and a pat on the back for you from me.
Good game
I agree, sounds like a great session. And don't worry about the prep. Just stick it all in a notebook or folder or whatever, and next time the party does something unexpected and deals with an NPC you didn't prepare anything for, you are covered, and the players might not even have a clue that they did something you weren't expecting.
Barky wrote:
Thanks folks, very helpful.
Full exp! You did great. Now you have a reason to bring the crime syndicate back later in the plot. I love it when villains act smart, and not like expendable canon fodder. As mentioned above, you can reuse the stats of npc's for other characters, so this isn't rendered void at all. Plus, the villains are still alive, so those stats will be of use the next time the players run into them.
Loose Ends... YAY LOOSE ENDS!!!
The only thing I may have done differently is taking longer to pack up, or not pack up at all. They may have used their 'town contacts' to see how bad it was before leaving. Or it may just take a long time to pack up a bunch of dangerous plants. But the way you did it is fine, just giving other options.
The reat question is 'now what?'
The PCs have info, so they take it to the local Baron/duke/king/OrderofGauntlet/whatever to give them the proof.
Perhsps they need to go an a quest to find someone/magic item that can break the ledger code.
They need to track (or track down) where the bad guys went. (and then get back up??)
the bad guys left behind some of the plants to 1) cause confusion, 2) they were too heavy 3) they were too dangerous 4) to take out the police 5) careless 6) who knows.... the PCs need to help clear out the area
The ledger has some info about who they sold plants to... leading to other 'bad guys' to search out.
The ledger has info on the 'parent organization'...leading to other bad guys to search out
The ledger has info indicating payments to the local Baron/Duke/whatever..... Do the PCs confront him? Is it actually the Baron, or just his assistant?
They discover that the poison doesn't respond to "Cure poison/Lay on Hands".... now they have to find out why, and if anything can be done.
Loose ends rock!!
No prep is ever wasted. The day will come when you are prepping for another game and saying "Wait, I need a bandit camp...oh look! The notes on the Crime Syndicate I never used!".
Recycle shamelessly. Players are like love interests in a comic book, throw a (metaphorical) tiny domino mask or eyeglasses on your NPCs and the players will never recognize them.
(Oh, and I agree with the others, sounds like a good game to me.)
@Barky
Sounds good to me!
- Party had fun.
- They achieved their goal(Even though it wasn't your intended goal).
- They learned to role-play better.(They used their heads to sneak in).
I say full exp for achieving their goal. Now it's time to plan how they are going to track down the criminals.
As for XP, it depends on what the goals where.
If they didnt meet the goals, partial XP
If they met the goals, but in a different way than anticipated. Full XP.
In addition to what others have said, if the group had fun it was a good session.
Did you really waste much prep time? The bad guys are still out there, and probably pretty upset about the fact that they had to abandon a profitable operation.
You now have a (possible) lead into the next adventure where the bad guys start hunting down the PCs. Maybe the bad guys take hostages setting up the "We know it's a trap but we're going in anyway" or the bad guys are desperate and try to pull off a heist the PCs have to try to stop or any number of other scenarios.
Whenever my group does something I don't expect (which happens on a pretty regular basis) I just think about how my protaganists are going to react and plan their next moves accordingly. Dangling plot threads are a good thing to have.
Your local crime lord now has a couple of officers' badge numbers who need to have an unfortunate accident.
YOU have a recurring villian.
Your PCs have an opportunity to intercept somebody else's Investigation check aimed at them.
That ledger does have Glyph of Warding on it, right? (Read spell description very carefully because it is another plot thread.)
This is all a good thing - the crime boss is not just another bad guy du jour, he is on the way to BBEG status. 
Now you and he need to get together and 
