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Post by bradscott on Jul 2, 2013 17:32:53 GMT -8
Ok so I am running a Game set in the Stargate universe post cannon, using GURPS. My PC's make up two 4 Man SG Teams and once a month I run a session with both teams and once I month I run a session with each team (I run 3 out of 4 weeks but each player only plays twice in that period)
So anyway a few sessions ago after the game had wrapped up I pulled one of the PC's aside and run a quick conversation with an NPC. The conversation was fairly much in passing but the NPC mentioned a phenomenon would to that PC would just seem a bit odd, but to the other PC's would be a fairly major hook that they would want to investigate because they have encountered it before (in a session that PC Missed) I assumed that the PC would mention the conversation to his Team Leader (who would jump at because the player who plays the Team Leader wants to know everything and gets frustrated that I won't let him know anything his character doesn't learn) at the very least if not the whole group. However the PC has not mentioned it at all to anyone.
Now I chose that PC for two reasons, 1 it made the most sense because that PC and NPC are in the same line of work at the SGC, have the same specialty, background and skill set and would work together when they are not off world. 2. the Player has been a little less active in the campaign and I wanted to put some spotlight on that player.
So I figure there are two reasons why the PC hasn't mentioned the conversation to anyone, either he is waiting for something to come up and then produce the piece of information at that key point in time when it is extremely valuable or the player has simple forgotten about it.
Now if I remind the player about it I'm basically jumping up and down saying "hey this is important do something about it" and blowing away the subtle nature of the clue I had in place, but if I don't saying anything it may just be forgotten about entirely.
Thoughts?
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Jul 2, 2013 18:42:39 GMT -8
Find some way to present the clue again.
Maybe to someone else - if the character mentions that they saw/heard about it before then they are likely to get chewed out (in character) for not telling anyone.
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Post by Kainguru on Jul 3, 2013 5:43:49 GMT -8
Post a Spoilers alert and give some specifics - especially the NPC PC conversation. That'll make cooking up a workable solution easier. Aaron
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Post by Stu Venable on Jul 3, 2013 6:49:00 GMT -8
I've had this exact thing happen in my games! It's a risk you run when you rely on a single player to communicate story information. It's wonderful and terrifying all at once.
Will the player just flake and forget to mention it? Will they have an in-character reason to keep it to themselves? Will they misinterpret or misremember what they saw and convey it wrong?
My suggestion is to progress the story some before you drop the clue again. Better yet, perhaps you can drop another, different clue about the NPC the player had the original conversation with. That might jog the player's memory, and he'll say, "hey, you know, so-and-so mentioned something about X to me a while ago..."
If you can have it happen organically, it'll be more satisfying.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2013 7:26:08 GMT -8
Certainly spread out some additional clues, but these situations can make for fun scenarios. A PC choosing to withhold or misinterpret information can lead to fun RP moments between characters: "You mean you KNEW the giants were going to raid the village last night and you didn't SAY anything?"
This, of course, relies on the fact that the event is going to affect the characters whether they share the knowledge or not. If it is something more esoteric (telling one PC about a meeting where a merchant is going to sell a sword that another PC wants) where the other PC(s) would be robbed of a fun opportunity should the first PC fail to share is unfair and you should find ways to hit the other players with the "Clue-by-4" as well.
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Jul 3, 2013 7:34:18 GMT -8
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mrcj
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Post by mrcj on Jul 4, 2013 7:21:52 GMT -8
That always happen when I tell just one player something. Then they forget and I need to find a new way to re-itroduce the clue. If you pop that clue to a different play a the beginnig of the session...or use a prop to keep it memorable then you will be golden.
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Post by bradscott on Jul 5, 2013 18:56:06 GMT -8
Post a Spoilers alert and give some specifics - especially the NPC PC conversation. That'll make cooking up a workable solution easier. Aaron Ok pretty sure my players won't read this anyway Part 1 a few sessions in to the campaign the two teams (SG34 & SG35) explored a pair of ships (one team one that had crashed, the other one is space) that belong to an alien race (Xanindi)I created to be an Ally to Earth. These ships had a kind of cloaking field that projected a bubble around the ship which none of the Earth Tech could see into or getting any readings out and no Earth Based Technology would work in. Part 2, A couple of Sessions Later SG35 go on a routine mission to lend a hand to a Science Team in setting up an off world UAV to help explore the planet and find valuable mineral deposits. One of the members of SG35 is LT. Anderson who is a UAV specialist, however the player who plays was unavailable at short notice so I sent an NPC UAV specialist (LT. Hines) with the rest of the team While they are there a Xanindi escape pod crashes to the planet being chased by the Campaign Bad Guys (Humans who are trying to take over the galaxy by stealing alien Tech from other worlds, basically a post cannon Goa'uld equivalent). They get to base camp to find Science team members missing. They go looking, this is where they encounter the Xanindi, I had the encounter set up so it could have looked like they was attacking one of the missing team members but was actually helping. Anaywya they Team up and defeat the bad guys, mission over. What they didn't do is investigate the crashed pod, and they basically came to the conclusion that the Xanindi was native to the planet, despite intel saying there was no intelligent life. Part 3, LT Anderson is headed for his office when he runs into LT Hines who is clearly annoyed and muttering. Quick Conversation later and LT Anderson learns that LT Hines just wasted the last few days traveling back to that same planet to look at the UAV because the Science team keeping seeing a blank spot. LT Hines Found nothing wrong with the UAV. So far LT Anderson has made no mention of this blank spot to any of the other PCs
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Jul 7, 2013 6:28:20 GMT -8
Bradscott, thanks for spelling out the situation! That makes it a lot easier to offer suggestions.
Off the top of my head, it seems like the easy solution is just to bring back Lt. Hines and have him (her?) talk to one of the other PCs. Maybe Hines is becoming semi-obsessed with figuring out what's up with that blank spot and insists on having a team come along to investigate further.
Or if Hines won't work, maybe one of the Science Team could be introduced to fill that role. Maybe they think the blank spot means something completely different from what it actually is, and maybe what they think is the explanation could be something that would get the attention of the PCs' superiors so that they'd order a team to check it out.
Basically, find some NPC who Just Won't Let It Go and have them get the leverage to involve the PCs. Whenever there's a briefing about it, you could also try having the brief-er ask the teams straight out if they've ever seen anything like this. It might jog their memories.
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Post by guitarspider on Jul 7, 2013 7:52:00 GMT -8
If it's really bad have Hines be so obsessed with it that he neglects other stuff the pcs rely on.
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Post by bradscott on Aug 13, 2013 19:31:44 GMT -8
An update for those following along at home
Following advice I decided I would have Hines drop the clue again to a different PC and so when the Team was about to head off World to an Italian(-ish) Speaking civilization I decided Hines could speak Italian and could go along in case they needed someone who could translate.
So naturally the PC's split up,got into a fight they shouldn't have and then employed terrible tactics and both Hines and the Team Leader were killed with the other 2 PC's being captured to be tried and executed later.
Seriously if you are being charged by Cavalry 400 meters away (a quarter mile for you Imperialist)and you have a Grenade Launcher attachment on your assault rifle, why do you wait until they are 100 meters away and then open fire (aiming for the Horses) with your Wraith Stunner Pistol...
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Post by Kainguru on Aug 13, 2013 20:27:43 GMT -8
Sounds like "being too clever" with your players might be an unavoidable occupational hazard. Aaron
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Post by jazzisblues on Aug 14, 2013 11:07:20 GMT -8
I too have had the exact same thing happen. Years ago in 2nd Edition game one character is a rock stupid fighter (Int 6 I think) in any case the character could not read. I had a critical clue on a piece of paper and who should happen to find it? Why that character of course. She looked at it, asked me what it said. Remembering that the character couldn't read I said it's just a bunch of squiggles. Her response, "I throw it back down." To this day I'm not entirely sure if it was a decision made because the character wasn't very bright or the player.
JiB
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Aug 14, 2013 13:51:18 GMT -8
I think the important thing here is that the consequences of not picking up that hook should now play out.
Players need to know that their choices are meaningful - don't rule out the possibility of them seeing the clue and either ignoring it or prioritizing differently than you expected.
They also might just want to know what happens or just think it would be cool if that thread is left alone.
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Post by bradscott on Aug 14, 2013 15:55:13 GMT -8
The problem this has now left me with is the original problem again,
If the original Player who had the Clue has just forgotten about it, as opposed to intentionally ignoring it or dismissing it as irrelevant, then do I remind him of it or just let it play out?
In case case the consequence of not following up is that Earth Doesn't get a powerful ally which they will need because the PC have now alerted the Wraith to the location of Earth.
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