GM Partiality. To be, or not to be...

[RivetGeekWil]

THere are many ways to play to find out - not all have an (IMO Unhealthy) fixation on everything being subject to players and/or dice.
Especially when emulating certain genera.

It's not about having everything decided by the players or the dice, it's the principle that the GM doesn't know what will happen the same as the players because the GM is a player too. Once the GM has decided that an event will happen regardless of how the game plays out, player agency or the dice don't matter anymore. When I'm running a game I may think about a few contingencies based on a situation. If it's a game where I need to, I might throw together some stats or consider how it might go down mechanically. But I won't ever decide that this one thing has to happen no matter what. The players one shot my BBEG? They likely worked for that outcome beforehand because of the games I play and how I run them. I'm not going to decide that fight should take x rounds. Similarly, I'm not going to fudge rolls because the BBEG is winning. I run games where the players have options to decide how much they want to put on the line or sacrifice to win when things get tough.

 

[amethal]

I agree with pretty much everyone else in that I think you made the right decision.

My only query is whether the Travellers were sufficiently aware of the likely consequences if they did stop the ship in-system, so they could at least consider temporarily letting it get away so they could deal with it in more private surroundings.

Even then, I'm not sure if they could have taken that chance - I don't know a lot about Traveller, but following a ship that has "Jumped" is presumably not that easy?

 

[payn]

I agree with pretty much everyone else in that I think you made the right decision.

My only query is whether the Travellers were sufficiently aware of the likely consequences if they did stop the ship in-system, so they could at least consider temporarily letting it get away so they could deal with it in more private surroundings.

Yes, this was my biggest concern. It was mentioned several times, and the Travellers knew to stay under the radar, but during the chase it didnt really come up until the ship was disabled.

Even then, I'm not sure if they could have taken that chance - I don't know a lot about Traveller, but following a ship that has "Jumped" is presumably not that easy?

Right. There were at least 5 different systems to jump to. Thats unusually high in Traveller but thats where this story took place. Their choice then would be jump and take a risk at finding her, or instead heading for whatever her likely final destination would be and waiting.