Re: (TFT) re: SOLO II

["David Michael Grouchy II" <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

> From: "David Michael Grouchy II"
>
>      If you got very lucky, and actually got away then just before you
> reached the Garden behind The Cathedral, one of the youths with a heavy
> crossbow uses a wish to shoot you for triple damage and kills you from
> extreme range.  No matter how well, or bad, the last fight went.
> Father Lubik is now dead and the monks got your body back to The
> Cathedral.


> From: "Neil Gilmore"
>
> Can't say as I like this. Never liked fiats: 'Doesn't matter what
> you do, you die, because otherwise the plot goes to hell.' Average
> damage is meaningless, the real die rolls are what should determine
> damage.

Neil,
   Yes.
   That's the short answere anyway.  Here the long one.
   It's just a problem with the solo adventure format.  I would have 
arranged to have Father Lubik assassinated sooner or later.  With all the 
variable paths the adventure could take I could see no other way to handle 
it than to force the issue.
   The experience of being killed and raised from the dead is horrible, I 
know.  I have had GM's do this to me and I didn't enjoy it at all.  In fact 
on one occassion I became quite upset with the GM calling his adventure 
various names like stupid and pointless.

   Knowing that, and knowing I would have had to do some explaining in a 
face to face session so I wouldn't loose the players, I should give some of 
the larger picture of the adventure.

    The other part of the adventure I haven't posted yet, called "The 
vampire plantation" follows Father Lubik as a vampire priest out at The 
Myrtles plantation.  He is indoctrinated into the vampire ways and does 
battle with the wizard Omni and his apprentices.  In the course of that line 
of the adventure there are several ghosts involved which the vampires are 
using against the wizards.
    In each eddition of the solo adventure (SOLO I through SOLO IX) there 
will come a point with a major decision.  In the first one it was to join 
the vampires or not.  In this one it is to be raised from the dead or stay 
as a ghost.
    As a ghost the the player will get a closer look at the things the GM 
sees going on.  He will visit the ship that had left that morning with rats 
on it, find the secret attic where the real plan of the vampires is 
unfolding, and discovered how many highly intelligent nuns of the Ursulines 
convent have already been turned while no one was looking.
    As a ghost he will also continue to gain experience as he is still on 
the same mission and will still get to fight the vampires.  At the end he 
will be wished by to life in his still frozen body, and will keep the 
experience.  Also, if raised from the dead now or later they will summon 
five angels to restore the five character points one normally looses from 
being revived.
    I should mention the most important reason for all this unplesantness 
of being killed.  The underlying theme of the connected adventures is 
raising people from the dead.  In the first one the apprentices of Omni were 
overheard making comments on how vampires can raise themselves.  They are 
looking for a way to raise people who have been long dead.  Longer than an 
hour.  They think that the vampire disease holds the key, but they havn't 
figured out how to infect someone with it who is already dead.
    The theme of coming back from the beyond, ghosts, and greater spirits 
are touched on in TFT but are very limited.  I saw this as an opportunity 
for a player to look at things from a ghosts perspective, being a person who 
was killed in the middle of an important mission.  By the end of all the 
SOLOs I hope to have Father Lubik able to raise the dead from a one thousand 
year old bone fragment of arch villian and re-introduce them into society.  
As such I felt it was time to bring the issue a little closer to center 
stage.
    In closing I would like to say that I frequently put my players under 
great duress and emotional turmoil.  I intend no meaness by this.  I find 
that if players are willing to walk through the fire with me then the 
rewards gained on the other side are more valued and the whole experience 
becomes a more precious memory.
    I appologize for any sence of betrayal I may have caused in the 
readers.

    David Michael grouchy II

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