Tabletop Roleplaying

[HairyHeretic]

A couple of the best I have come from running the City of Lies, a Legend of the Five Rings campaign. The players were a group of Imperial Magistrates, sent to this city to find out who killed the previous Magistrate, and to break up the illegal opium trade. The city in question is the center of both the legal and illegal opium trade.

One of the players was playing a Crane duelist (one of the finest sword schools in the empire, from the most courtly clan), acting as bodyguard to the Dragon Clan shukenja (magic user). They'd been invited to the Governers palace for a formal dinner. Now, the Governers daughter had been to marry the son of the local Unicorn clan leader, but the boy had apparently overdosed on opium. She was then to marry the brother of the guy that died.

At the dinner, the Crane starts off by expressing how sorry he was to have heard about the OD. Bringing this up was a fairly big faux pas .. you just don't do things like that. He then goes from bad to worse. "I hope that the upcoming wedding will restore honour to your family."

You can see the silence spreading outwards as people hear this. He effectively saying the city Governer and her family have no honour.

He was only saved from being turned into very small pieces (the Governers son commands the city military and guards, and had just suggested they go outside to discuss things) by the Governer declaring that he was obviously drunk, and should go for a long walk to clear his head.

She didn't want to see relations with the new Magistrates start on a sour note by having to kill one of their party. The Crane probably appreciated it too :)

The other story would take a little time to type out, so I'll leave it til the morning.

[Delta Echo]

I've never actually played an IRL game yet, done lots of PbP (primarily on Myth-Weavers) but need to get into the tabletop scene at some point.

Alas, Tallahassee doesn't have much in that regard. Ther was this one place in Gainesville though that looked great...

[HairyHeretic]

Ok, the other story, as promised.

There are three major families of the Scorpion clan that run the opium trade in the City of Lies, supplying medicinal opium to the Empire. The bulk of it is controlled by two of them, one of whom is the governing family.

Now, as the campaign has progressed, things have gone from bad to worse, and its getting close to all out war on the streets. In an effort to prevent this, the Magistrates has arranged a meeting in their residence for the heads of each of the three families. Given that they've so far dealt with notorious bandits, ninja, Oni (demons) and all sorts of other threats, they're got the power to ensure the three heads show.

Now, because of having to deal with about 3 different Oni, the Dragon shukenja had cast a spell around their house, that anything with the Shadowlands Taint (which Oni have) that crossed this line would burst into flames. It had proven its worth previously when they had to fight an Ogre and a horde of bakemono (goblins).

So, the three family heads turn up, with an escort of about 50 heavily armed and fairly twitch samurai between them. The deputy to one of the magistrates (an NPC) meets them at the gate, and while the nobles can come in, the guards stay where they are, with the magistrates pledging their own honour to ensure things at the meeting go smoothly.

Another of the deputies (a PC this time) is waiting just at the entrance of the house for the three to arrive, them walking up in reverse order of importance. As the least important is about to reach the house, the PC bows politely to her. She returns his bow, and explodes.

My entire gaming group goes "WHAT??????"

She went boom. Pillar of flame. Nothing left but a grease spot on the ground.

So, you have the city Governor and the second most powerful noble in the city a few steps back, 50 heavily armed samurai at the gates dropping their hands to their swords, the poor little NPC on the gate in need of a new kimono and the players still going "WHAT????"

The one on the door realises what has happened. The noble must have been tainted, and when she stepped over the line of the Evil Ward, she burst into flames. The dice mechanic on L5R is d10s, and if you roll a 10 on the dice, you roll again, add it to the total. If you keep rolling 10s, you keep adding them.

This was one of those occasions where the tens kept coming, and I rolled enough damage to kill the noble about 3 times over.

The PC on the door goes "Governor! There is an Evil Ward up around the house. She must have been Tainted, but we know you are not Tainted. Please, come in."

By putting that publically (so all the guards could hear) if she didn't cross the line, she'd lose a lot of face. It could still have gone horribly wrong, but they lucked out and swords were kept sheathed.

One of my players will still collapse in fits of the giggles if I use the line "She bows politely and explodes." :)

[Mnemaxa]

I ran a 10 year long game of Spelljammers, which is Dungeons and Dragons in space, on magical sailing ships, traveling between planets.  We actually changed rule sets during it, and I took them from level 1 to level 25.

About the middle of the game, i gave them a magic item.  Now, magic items are a staple of most roleplaying games, and they range in power from incredibly simple to majestically potent.  But this magic item was different.  It wasn't powerful - quite the opposite, it was a very simple item that didn't actually do much of anything as far as making the characters more powerful, difficult to beat, or protected.  Yet this one item was the one the players - not the characters, but the players - would fight over given half a chance. 

It was The Cloak of Death.  If you put it on, it made you look and sound like the classical specter of Death, black cowled robe and scythe (which was harmless, being an illusion), and with the ghostly voice of death.  And that is really all it did.  no magical death powers, no amazing defenses againsN weapons or magic....just...look and sound like death. 

And they loved it.  That was the most coveted magic item in a game that lasted ten long years of play.