Consequences of Heroic Action

[SSquirrel]

Whats the actual goal of the GM here? Of the players? Are both satisfied?

the GM has basically turned the the PCs from heroes to zeroes. By virtue of DM fiat.

the players may have just wanted to do some good in a world where they can, and the DM not only thwarted it, is discouraging it.

So, while it may be realistic to determine that bringing in numerous refugees, mass amounts of gold will impact a society in a potentially devastating way, it's not very fun. And quite possibly not the kind of game your players want to play.

Or it's called a story arc. At the end of the Dark Knight, Batman is assumed to have killed Harvey Dent and is a wanted man, but will still be trying to do good. If storyline is DM fiat and that upsets you, then you should probably just not play.

Personally I roleplay to see what will happen when my character is challenged and what he can do with my group of friends. Will everything teh DM ever throws my way be something I enjoy? Well no, but then it would probably be boring if he was just pandering to us all the time. Showing back up in a town where you thought you had a bunch of friends and instead ending up held captive as the ruiners of the town is certainly an exciting roleplaying opportunity in my book.

Do we try and talk our way out of the situation? Do we decide it's just easier (and possibly more humane) to kill them and go on our way? Do we run away and do what we can to dodge any potential rewards and assassins? Do we run and try to clear our good name? Those are some very interesting options and even if it wouldn't be a typical campaign, well who the heck wants typical?

 

[Gilladian]

Personally, I think there's a fine line between challenging players and persecuting them. I think I'm going to be walking it in the next few sessions of my game. I hope I can stay on the "good" side of the line, and they'll enjoy the heck out of it. Since it IS the conclusion of the campaign...

Situation: PCs have a drug and crime lord of their city pissed at them. They've been gone for several weeks on an adventure, just after getting a bunch of his best thugs thrown in jail, and testifying against said thugs.

Crime lord's response: burn down their property, send his recruiter into "their" orphanage to recruit some of their kids into a life of crime, and sic the local building inspector on their newest home remodeling project to cause them a lot of head and heartache.

Probable PC response: kick some villain ass. But will they be able to figure out whose ass to kick? Will they rescue the kids? Will they be able to rely on their own allies to get their troubles with the government solved, or will one PC's bad relationship with her sister cause her even more grief? We'll see, as I try to wrap up a lot of loose threads.

The PCs have tried to be heroes all through this campaign, and I would like them to feel heroic, at the end, too. Instead, I could really batter them down, feed them nothing but betrayal and misery, and end things on a really sour note.

As DM, I have complete control over the mood of the game. There's no way they can fight it off if I decided to smash them. But why would I? Destroying their pleasure in being heroes by enforcing realistic fates on the orphans, having the city government shut down their business, and then letting their families betray them wouldn't give ME more pleasure. If it would, why was I DMing to begin with?