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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gilladian" data-source="post: 5696839" data-attributes="member: 2093">In the last campaign I ran (Ptolus), the PCs got hold of a house over a nice entrance to the sewers/dungeons. They rescued some folks from a necromancer, and kept several of them as personal retainers. They turned the house into their own personal residence and eventually a pretty substantially guarded manor. Several times I had "bad things" happen around/because of the house. Once, a petty villain who really disliked them spied on them. He got their alcoholic housekeeper drunk, bribed her to tell him lots of stories about the PCs, and then wrote really bad songs about the PCs (he was a bard/journalist). They got played in several local pubs, and drew much unwanted attention onto the PCs, including a break-in by some thieves. Later, a necromancer spied on them, and they had to chase him off several times; they had to be on watch for quite a while with that one. Even later still, a nasty rogue and his henchmen tried to break in, and did succeed in starting a fire in a secondary building; their watchman had been bribed to look the other way.In every case, the villains were responding to actions of the PCs. It was never the first move in their relationship. And they only exploited weaknesses that the PCs KNEW about. The drunk housekeeper was a problem they'd dealt with a couple times. She got pensioned off, finally. The bard eventually got run out of town and told never to come back on pain of death. The thieves who tried to burgle the house got lured into the hands of the city watch. Finally, the henchman who was bribed had several times been cowardly, had "failed" several earlier times to be observant and alert (was found asleep on the job once), etc... so they knew he was either incompetent or on the take. I believe in playing fair with the PCs. If you want to turn a child into a vampire, make SURE there's evidence that the vampires are interested in her. Give the PC's chances to stop it from happening. Don't spring it as a "done deal".Oh, another example; in my current campaign one PC owns a small farm. He has hired on tenants to run it while he adventures. One tenant family is a group of hobbyts. IMC many hobbyts are good folks, but a few turn to a life of crime. These are going to plant a field full of something similar to opium poppies in a back pasture. Since Jasper completely failed to make any attempt to screen or investigate the tenants he hired, I figure this is fair game. If he pays attention, he may be able to figure out who they'll be selling to - the local thieves' guild. He knows several of them, and one of them may even give him a warning that something's "going on"...Play fair, always give the PCs room to see that something's coming, and never do something just plain mean. Those are my rules!</blockquote>

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