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Bren
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 Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Zarm R'keeg wrote: | | You think this is a false assumption? |
I think you may be giving the psychopath too much credit and making his investigation too easy. Sort of like in the movie when the hero is running from the crazy killer and ducks down an alley, enters a room, goes left at a fork...some how the crazy killer always pauses and knows which way the hero went. Bugs me in the movies. No reason to assume it in an RPG. Make the NPC work for his clues....which will take time. Also, if the group leaves the planet there is a good chance he will know they left. Rather than spending time tracking down old leads on the planet they left (and eventually finding the guy in the hospital) he should pursue them, especially if he is really mad and mad at them.
Another option if he can find the guy in the hospital. Why kill him? That makes no sense. He should watch him. Eventually the guy in the hospital will lead him to the rest of the group - or they will show up to check up on their convalescing friend. |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:39 am Post subject: |
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| Downstrike wrote: | Contagion. The bounty hunter has something like HIV or cancer which is being treated with a cocktail. Unlike HIV or cancer, the disease is airborne without the drugs that keep the bounty hunter working. You start off with some coughing and an obvious fever. It grows into something more horrible. The up side is the players all have it now. Give one a cough and another a mild fever. The bounty hunter goes into a coma before the players find out what he has. The doctors are speechless because it is a wholly uncommon disease.
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I love this one.. His psychopathy was some how linked to the disease he had, and if he ever got cured he would not be so deranged..
Another option.. Someone he works for gets to the pcs before they decide to release him. BUT he acquires a promise (that djak) keeps to lay off them for at least a month, year or some other long time frame (djak only does it cause he knows what pain will come if he breaks his oath)..
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Zarm R'keeg
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Orion wrote: | | Zarm R'keeg wrote: | Ironically, the former owner of their droid is the guy that hired them, and the prior ship owner is Crutag.  |
Was the guy that hired them the original owner? Perhaps part of the reason that he passed ownership of the droid to the PC's is that he found out someone was hunting for it. Likewise with the ship, was Cutag the original owner, under what circumstances did he acquire the ship? |
No, the guy that hired the hunters was just the most recent owner (before the PCs) who traced the droid's history to the original ownder and discovered that a valuable datachip had been hidden inside it, which is why he hired hunters to retreive the droid (unaware it had already been destroyed). The fellow (from the No Disintegrations module) is a little hunter-happy; it's more or less his first call in any given situation. That part of the story has been resolved (with the glit-user dying and the NPC getting mortally wounded in the process of attacking the guy's bodyguards)- Djas has been sedated the whole time- but that won't last much longer, and they have no Medical specialist to mix more of the sedative...
Crutag... I assume was the original owner. It's a ship based out of his culture (of hunters), customized to him, so while DOE doesn't specify, that's the assumption I made.
| Downstrike wrote: | | Contagion. The bounty hunter has something like HIV or cancer which is being treated with a cocktail. Unlike HIV or cancer, the disease is airborne without the drugs that keep the bounty hunter working. |
Oh, that's insidious... 
| Bren wrote: | | Zarm R'keeg wrote: | | You think this is a false assumption? |
I think you may be giving the psychopath too much credit and making his investigation too easy. Sort of like in the movie when the hero is running from the crazy killer and ducks down an alley, enters a room, goes left at a fork...some how the crazy killer always pauses and knows which way the hero went. Bugs me in the movies. No reason to assume it in an RPG. Make the NPC work for his clues....which will take time. Also, if the group leaves the planet there is a good chance he will know they left. Rather than spending time tracking down old leads on the planet they left (and eventually finding the guy in the hospital) he should pursue them, especially if he is really mad and mad at them.
Another option if he can find the guy in the hospital. Why kill him? That makes no sense. He should watch him. Eventually the guy in the hospital will lead him to the rest of the group - or they will show up to check up on their convalescing friend. |
I suppose that may be true; it just seems to me that if they go off the grid ("Starfall" is next), Djas will be able to find the NPC sooner than he'll be able to find them, one way or another- and I don't think that it'd take him as long as it would take them to return to the rebel base, get their assignment, go on the mission, and return (and they have had no problems leaving a PC in a hospital unguarded for months at a time before...)
But- you make a good point; if he's wise enough, he may consider using the NPC to find everyone else sooner than take out his immediate rage on the poor fellow; I hadn't considered that.
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Bren
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Zarm R'keeg wrote: | | ...if he's wise enough, he may consider using the NPC to find everyone else sooner than take out his immediate rage on the poor fellow; I hadn't considered that. |
Right. Either he has good impulse control and is able to delay or conceal his homicidal, psychopathic behavior and tendencies or he doesn't have good impulse control in which case Streetwise or something should allow people to know of his reputation for violence, cruelty, or whatever.
Basically as the GM decide is he more about the mental game - controlling or predicting his enemies and making them dance to his tune - in which case he may have better impulse control and be able to play a waiting game; or is he more about the physical act itself - the thrill of the kill rather than the thrill of the chase - in which case he probably has poor impulse control and may kill the hospitalized character or just as likely rashly chase after the PCs without doing any investigation on the planet they just left. |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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But then again if he has that poor of a level of impulse control, he would definitely have a massive criminal record/bounties ON HIM.. wouldn't he?
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Bren
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | But then again if he has that poor of a level of impulse control, he would definitely have a massive criminal record/bounties ON HIM.. wouldn't he? |
Maybe. Then again you've got the "No Disintegrations"? line in ESB which argues that the Empire allows some bounty hunters some pretty wide latitude on their behavior - especially if they are hunting down enemies of the State. It seems like the Empire treats bounty hunters more like the Wild West of the Spaghetti Westerns rather than how you would be treated in if you acted like that in the US of today.
Also, probably depends on where someone acts homicidal. Hutt Space, Wild Space, parts of the Outer Rim - meh the Empire doesn't care. On Corsucant - they probably get a little more put out. |
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Zarm R'keeg
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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Per Wars lore, Djas frequents Tatoonie, and works often for Jabba... so presumably, he does tend towards the more lawless parts of space.
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Zarm R'keeg
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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I appreciate all of the input- working on final deliberations now. I am curious, though- it seems there were a lot of thoughts on Djas, but not so many on Crutag- which in some ways might be the more sensitive situation, considering the Jedi Code/ethics issues, the potential of options/rewards, and what is right/wrong in that scenario- plus the difficulty of trying to defuse a raging man that's been driven half-mad by extended exile on a hellhole...  Any thoughts there?
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Bren
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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How did the Jedi think that Crutag would escape being tied up and survive while marooned? Leaving someone to a painful death (eaten by wild beasts, dying from fever or complications from the broken leg, or dying of starvation by not being able to find food and potable water) doesn’t seem very Jedi like. Did the Jedi get a DSP for the initial stranding?
For Crutag’s reaction I would probably do one of two ways – (1) since he is “ready to do anything to get off-planet” he may make nice with the characters so that they rescue him and take him off planet, all the while plotting a later revenge or (2) think Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan with Crutag as Khan, marooned by the PCs. If the Jedi was unaware that Crutag was marooned and left for dead you could have some fun with Crutag telling the Jedi his version of the tale of his stranding.
As far as a reward goes, I’m thinking of something less mechanical. I think the Jedi succeeding in “saving” Crutag might count as one of the Jedi Trials that a Padawan needs to pass to reach Knighthood. If I was going to add something from a mechanics standpoint I might go with giving an increase in Willpower or Jedi Lore rather than increasing Force skills. This seems like an opportunity to learn about the wise or right use of power not about how to be more powerful. |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting point.. How did the jedi react to the initial stranding of Crutag.. Was any warnings issued?
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Zarm R'keeg
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | How did the Jedi think that Crutag would escape being tied up and survive while marooned? Leaving someone to a painful death (eaten by wild beasts, dying from fever or complications from the broken leg, or dying of starvation by not being able to find food and potable water) doesn’t seem very Jedi like. Did the Jedi get a DSP for the initial stranding? |
The Jedi wasn't involved. Well, tangentially- he was a part of the group, but not the leader or decision-maker, and hadn't yet bought Force Sensitivity (in game terms, it was probably the climax of that adventure- more or less after the stranding- that planted or stirred the seed of sensitivity with him, and a recent encounter with the Verpine hive mind that really started awakening his perception to it- but that's all retcon to justify his purchase of Force Sensitivity. ).
At the time, Crutag was hunting the group. After a confrontation, he was injured, and bound to imobilize him (he was still violent)- shortly after, as the PCs had gone some distance away to confer out of earshot, the Dark Side monsoon hit. The characters had to make it across to the tree, the tests, Ventnor- by the time they made it through all of the immediate difficulties, Crutag was either forgotten or presumed by the characters to have perished in the tidal wave. There probably should have been a DSP for leaving him/leaving the planet without looking fr him at the time, but it wasn't really as thought through as it should have been.  A brief epilogue was thrown in after the adventure ended of Crutag watching his former ship diwndling to a point in the sky and swearing revenge, but that was more for humorous/catharsis emphasis to wrap up the adventure than anything.
However, with the group's return, the potential is there to possibly right the wrong, and test the Force-sensitive (not a Jedi yet- nor even posessing any dice in Control, Sense, or Alter- just a newly-sensitive in search of a master who will just have been introduced to the tennets of the Jedi Code by Ventor's spirit, then dispatched to find a master) on his reactions to the situation- especially in the moral grey area of an angry, violent opponent driven by a somewhat righteous anger over being legitmately wronged by the group. (Plus more than a little unreasonable and possibly not fully in his right mind after his long barely-surviving exile.) In other words, a threat- but also sort of a victim.
| Bren wrote: | | As far as a reward goes, I’m thinking of something less mechanical. I think the Jedi succeeding in “saving” Crutag might count as one of the Jedi Trials that a Padawan needs to pass to reach Knighthood. If I was going to add something from a mechanics standpoint I might go with giving an increase in Willpower or Jedi Lore rather than increasing Force skills. This seems like an opportunity to learn about the wise or right use of power not about how to be more powerful. |
Hmmmm. I wasn't really thinking of anything so... Prequel. The trials, padawanhood, knighthood... I don't know that the PC or the Master is looking for anything so strictly 'formal' in terms of official Jedi ranking. Yes, there will be training, and probably a graduating 'test' as Luke... kinda... had in order to become a true Jedi; but I'm not sure that this is necessarily the PC's ambition- and I feel that, narratively, such a test should probably be the culmination of the training, rather than preceeding it. Which is why I wanted to potentially give some small boon that may help him in the interim while he searches for a Master, but doesn't affect his training overall (unless he gets a DSP from it).
In mechnical terms, I like that- Willpower or Jedi Lore. (Especially the former, based on my recent reading of the Jedi Ethics thread, and the notion of having the player roll willpower in situations where he may intend to act with dispassion but his character would be emotionally struggling, to see if he can act from peace rather than from anger- having Willpower as a foundational skill for this- especially in his formative days- may be a very useful trait and one that helps him to avoid DSPs more effectively in future.)
That said, the Kahn characterization is a brilliant idea- I am absolutely going to use that. 
"Burried alive..."
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Raven Redstar
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Hmmmm. I wasn't really thinking of anything so... Prequel. Wink The trials, padawanhood, knighthood... I don't know that the PC or the Master is looking for anything so strictly 'formal' in terms of official Jedi ranking. Yes, there will be training, and probably a graduating 'test' as Luke... kinda... had in order to become a true Jedi; but I'm not sure that this is necessarily the PC's ambition- and I feel that, narratively, such a test should probably be the culmination of the training, rather than preceeding it. Which is why I wanted to potentially give some small boon that may help him in the interim while he searches for a Master, but doesn't affect his training overall (unless he gets a DSP from it).
In mechnical terms, I like that- Willpower or Jedi Lore. (Especially the former, based on my recent reading of the Jedi Ethics thread, and the notion of having the player roll willpower in situations where he may intend to act with dispassion but his character would be emotionally struggling, to see if he can act from peace rather than from anger- having Willpower as a foundational skill for this- especially in his formative days- may be a very useful trait and one that helps him to avoid DSPs more effectively in future.)
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If you don't want to have it be some test of knighthood, setting things right with Crutag could be a test placed on the force sensitive to see if he has the pure of heart enough to become a Jedi in these dark times. Perhaps he finds the master, and the master sees the scar of careless disregard for life on the character. The Master then farsees to when they left Crutag marooned, and says that if he wishes to learn the way of the Jedi, then he will have to right his wrongs. It adds in some extra adventure requirements for the player to become a force user. I love these kinds of scenarios, they don't often get to get used, but perhaps the player may have to confront someone who wants him dead that he wishes no ill will toward. Does he fight back when Crutag attacks him? Does he manage to calm Crutag down and explain that they never meant to leave him, and that he and his crew made a mistake when they tried to escape from the monsoon without freeing him first.
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Raven Redstar
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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What if he kills Crutag in self defense? How will the master take that failure of his potential student? Will he still train him to teach him the error of his ways? Does he accept the fact that "he tried his best?" Just some fun questions to think about.
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garhkal
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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It might be viewed by the master as a set back, and he issues a new challenge. Though i do remember by the rules if a master trains a pupil who has a DSP, he also gains one..
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Raven Redstar
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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I recall reading the same thing garhkal.
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