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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 1305177" data-attributes="member: 7464">This story doesn't exactly fit this thread, but it's close enough that I thought I'd toss it into the mix. Many of my players are smart. Damn smart. When I DM, I often feel that they're outsmarting me at every turn, figuring out conspiracies and extended plotlines from the scantiest of clues, etc... This doesn't quite work, since their characters are probably not as smart as they are, and the NPC organizations of the world should be able to out-think them more often than they do. Here is one instance where such an organization out-thought the PCs (or, more accurately, I out-thought the players). The situation: The party has been adventuring on an island and collected a great number of magical items they want to sell. They are sailing in an ex-pirate ship they captured while at sea with a band of very loyal sailors. They return to the main port of their home kingdom - a wretched hive of scum and villany more or less ruled by the Thieves Guild. They have had run-ins with the guild before, and are not on good terms with them. The party figures - quite accurately - that the guild will attempt to steal the magic items before they are sold. The party's plan: Auction off the items on their ship. One of the items is a Sword of Truth (no, not like in the novels. This sword, when drawn and leveled at somebody within 5', will quiver if they tell a lie) and they plan to ask each person boarding the ship "are you either a member of the Thieves Guild or part of a plan to steal our items?" I forget the exact phrasing, but needless to say, nobody who wasn't legitamatly trying to bid on the items was going to make it onto that ship. The party plans to ambush the thieves before they can be themselves ambushed. They have their wizard in the loft, doing Detect Magic to spot illusions or misdirections. It was all rather neat. The ship's crew will be standing around holding weapons and looking like tough goons. What happened: I literally had five minutes to prepare this encounter. I ran into the other room where there was a computer loaded with an NPC generator. I randomly generated 12 rogues of 5th-6th level who were going to be the task force assigned to get the magic items. I looked at their (more or less random) skills and abilities and hatched a plot while the players were in the other room hatching theirs. The encounter: Various wealthy merchants and nobles of the city have arrived at the ship - by boat - in the middle of the harbor - to take part in the auction. One of them has a couple guards who register as evil when the cleric specifically checks them. Figuring they're part of the plot, the whole party focuses on them. They were indeed part of the plot - a distraction. The real rogues have slipped aboard the ship while the characters were in town advertising the auction and slaughtered the ships crew. One of the rogues had a really high disguise modifier and disguised his team to look like the crew. Mundane disguises - no magic to detect. The party never questioned, detected, or payed any attention to their crew whatsoever, which is why they were so shocked when their fiercely loyal crew simultaniously sneak attacked every member of the party half-way through the auction. The poor wizard was in the crows nest with 2 backstabbing rogues and only survived 'cause she had featherfall memorized and jumped out. I rolled up the whole surprise round while the auction was going on, damage, ACs, etc..., and just declared the results suddenly, out of the blue, "Ok, the +1 longsword sells for 2145gp. Canter, you have been sneak attacked for 12 damage. Serena, you have been sneak attacked for 23 points of damage...." finished off with, "You all turn in shock to see the members of your crew with bloody weapons." At this point, the player who is arguably one of the smartest and who had been largely in charge of the party's plan actually pounded his fist on the table, "DAMMIT! It's the crew! Our own crew! The BASTARDS!" He was so angry at being out-thought in what was essentially an equal and fair battle of wits. The party went on to wipe the floor with the rogues, but still treated the whole encounter as though they had failed miserably. It was a shining moment, and still lives on in infamy at our table.</blockquote>

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