Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ender_wiggin" data-source="post: 5707350" data-attributes="member: 21629">I think that in almost all ways, this was a perfectly executed scenario, and that Tanis's plan makes for a realistic gambit.The flaw that I see isn't the timing of the twist, nor the disputed lack of clues, but the fact that in "sophisticated" games, we want to reward players for finding meaning in the game, for substantiating themes, for creating metaphors, and in this case, finding dramatic irony. When the PCs connect the dots in the way that they did, adding depth to the game, they shouldn't have that turned on them. If that kind of play is negatively reinforced, players stop doing it. In this case, had the PCs used any other weapon, had Tanis died - I daresay the game would have been far less memorable. At the same time, villains _should_ get the best of the PCs (at least recurring ones), and at times the PCs should feel like they were bested. In that way, I would say that the way things turned out here were awkward, but if these were the kinds of problems I was having in my game, I'd be pretty damn proud.I think that the best next step is to make Tanis a worthy villain. Give her dimension, have her recur, make her important. Most importantly, reward the PCs with awesome roleplaying every time they encounter her from now on. Even if they hate her, make it fun hating her, and if that's what they want to do, don't give her any redeeming qualities.</blockquote>