Re: (TFT) I knew this guy

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/5/2003 11:42:50 PM Central Standard Time, 
david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com writes:


>    Well Shawn leans forward and gives me this pained expression.  "Out of 
> ALL the patrons in this bar.  Why did the monster come after ME?"  Shawn 
> gets very impassioned about it, standing up and gesturing with his arms.  "I 
> 
> mean what is it?  Is it this BIG RED letter 'P' on my fore head that stands 
> for player character?"  He points to his own forehead.  "Is that why I'm 
> being attacked and no one else.  Not the two people sitting next to him"  
> Shawn indicates the two NPC's on the battle map.  "No.  It goes around them, 
> 
> and comes straight at me?!"
>     I can see the other players grinning, waiting to see what my reaction 
> will be.  Apparently they have played with this guy before.  And they want 
> to know how I'm going to handle him.  So I say...  "Uh, yeah.  In fact all 
> the characters notice for the first time, that they all have big red 'P's on 
> 
> their foreheads."

I never used anything like this in a TFT game (the idea just doesn't fit in 
Etan) but I did have a "PCs are marked by the tatoo of a blue rose" house rule 
in a D&D3e game that never got off the ground. I was inspired in this by a 
post in rec.games.frp.advocacy: 

#I GM a D&D campaign where player attendance is not always certain. I
#came up with the idea of having a powerful and inscrutable mage always
#teleporting PCs back and forth, for his own strange and mysterious
#reasons.
#
#So if Jack is a no-show, his character will just - pop! - be
#teleported to the back room of the Hobbit's Armpit, the absolutely
#worst inn in the campaign world.
#
#The opposite is also true; If Jill suddenly shows up unexpectedly -
#pop! - the party will be reinforced as her heroine teleports to her
#friends.
#
#To facilitate this magic, the mage has tatooed each of the characters
#with a neat magical sigil. (BTW, don't bother actually creating this
#mage; he's just a plot device. Give him a name and a look, and you're
#set to go.)
#
#A few general points and observations:
#
# - Don't use the mage as a patron or an employer. For his own reasons,
#he teleports people randomly back and forth, all the time, without
#ever telling them _why_. He does not dispense clues. He does not heal
#them. He does not task them with quests. He does his own thing. He is
#the plot device that rationalizes how it just so happens that the
#characters of the people around the table always meet up _no matter
#where they are_, period.
#
# - Hang the major plot hooks on the players with the best attendance.
#This is a bit unfair to the other players, but it will keep those
#"how-do-I-keep-the-plot-moving-now?" moments to a minimum.
#
# - Ensure that low attendance players have smaller sub-plot hooks,
#resolvable in a single session, to offset the fact that they have
#lesser "main plot time".
#
# - Ensure that low-attendance characters (LACs) don't seem _too_
#wimpy. We found that granting half experience for absent LACs ensured
#that they were capable, without demoralizing the regular players.
#
# - Have the players come up with an explanation for _why_ they let a
#very powerful, weird sorcerer tatoo a magical rune on their arm.
#
# - Actually that tatoo turned out to be a good way to integrate new
#characters into the party. Newcomers tend to roll up their sleeves to
#show the rune, and say words to the effect of "as you can see, I'm
#tough enough to hang out with you guys, so let's get cracking". They
#often refer to themselves as the "Tatoo Crew", and that moniker has
#become an informal party name.
#
# - This probably won't work well for an epic quest-type campaign, but
#it's great for a mercenary-, rogues-, or wandering do-gooder-type
#campaign.
#
# - Powergamer

-- 
Erol K. Bayburt
ErolB1@aol.com 
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