That Went Well

It is currently September 26 as I write this, but it probably won't be published to post for like a week. That said, I gamed yesterday with the group I GM for (and I game with my other group tonight! So much gaming!). Once again, my players have amazed me with their forethought and planning. They did good. The mission was to kidnap a big bruiser of a dude that practiced sorcery. They very neatly and intelligently sidestepped the inherent dangers of such a task.

I had planned, and when I say planned I mean I had assumed, on them just storming the guy's house and beating him into unconsciousness. I tend to plan my scenarios based on the most straightforward route to completion. In the past, that is generally how the group has done things. Lately they've been surprising me though, and I really enjoy that.

Anyway, what they did was scout the tower (a little four story stone thing), once they determined it wasn't bustling with activity they tried to find and disable any sorcerous protections the guy had. They were very concerned about taking him alive and without any sort of bloodshed, good on them, the mission was to kidnap the guy but make it look like he just up and left and not like he was taken by a band of banditos in the night. They almost left his sword behind though, heh.

Anyway, they ended up using stealth and Gaseous Form to infiltrate the tower and ended up drugging the target with the most potent transcutaneous paralytic agent they could find. Eric even had Xein make a Heal check to see if he could use his Craft (Alchemy) to alter the chemical composition of the poison so it would have greater potency against their target's race. He ended up making it easier to resist by getting a 1 on his Craft (Alchemy) check, heh. Such are the vagaries of fate.

There were a few things I wish they would have done. They did figure out that it seems like reavers have been leaving the city they were in, which is important. But I don't know if they understood that Nakmander's operation was a one night only thing and he isn't responsible for all the other reavers that have been leaving the city for the past few weeks. They also didn't grill Nakmander too hard on why they were kidnapping reavers and why he was collecting them in his basement. Some missed opportunities there for getting a view of the wider picture.

That said, I really had a lot of fun watching them do their thing. They were on the ball last night. Everyone contributing and going about things as a team. I even stopped in the midst of everything to say that this is what I love about GMing. I really liked just watching them work, and it wasn't the counter-productive running in circles planning they ran into in previous scenarios. They came up with a few plans, settled on one that seemed promising, and got shit done. It was great. I loved hearing them reason and plan things out.

Eric got super frustrated about the money issue and everyone not caring, but the role-playing went well, although I don't think he would agree with that statement. Jeremy and Fred played their characters fairly true to the material though. The missing money will never be resolved at this point I think. Spineplate felt he was entitled to his full share, he never wastes group funds on food, drink, clothes, or booze, and he usually gets pretty beat up in fights. D'alton just doesn't care. Again, good on everyone for playing their characters right during the conversation.

The little Gonigi Montoya thing went well, I was hoping they would be more concerned about what he was up to, but I think Derf's actions were kind of distracting. It went well though.

Overall, I was pleased with everything that went down. Good job gentlemen.

I asked the players for a bit of info about Tesla's Boil and the staff there and a little bit about their (the players) personalities and how much they know about each other. Got some useful information for a later date. Heh. Xein will apparently be adding caffeinated beer to the Boil's stable of booze. I have ideas for that.

We also discussed some of my plans for the next campaign. Fred thought they (my plans) were stupid and that they (the group) should never sit down and make plans for what they want to do. Fred is dumb though and we forgive him. I kid. The way I think it will end up going is that we have scheduled planning sessions where there is a scenario going on, but the majority of it will be role-playing or jotting out goals. Then they assign levels of importance to said goals, and I do the GM thing and make their goals reality. We play a few scenarios, see where we are, then we have another planning session. I envision the planning sessions as relatively relaxed, we hang out and bullshit, jot down a couple ideas, bullshit some more, watch a Youtube video, plan more, call Eric a bitch, then call it a night.

Fred seemed slightly more open to that idea, but I sensed hesitation. We'll see how it goes. I'm just sick of having to have Bob Quest Giver on hand and trying to find ways to get the players to associated with him and do things for him in a reasonably believable fashion. I'd like it more if the players were working for themselves and making their own decisions about their own goals. My main goal is for us all to have fun, but I want them to get invested in the world and the characters they are playing.

Then, once they "care" about their characters and the world, I want to have Rhetkhan Kannunn burn everything to cinders and make my players cry. Heh

Edit After The Fact: Apparently I missed it when the players asked why they were going after this particular reaver. What I would have told the players if I had been paying attention would be that Cenn is taking his reavers out of Hell for his own reasons and he and Nakmander have made an agreement where Nakmander will remove those reavers unwilling to leave the city without killing them. Nakmander will then be allowed to capitalize on the weakened government of Hell.