Getting the players more involved.

[gaghiel42]

So, I'm working on my current campaign, and as is typical with games I run, my players are all geared for war and not as much the finer points in Spycraft (i.e. hacking, research, that sort of stuff). 

I've been trying to get them to appreciate their agency and actually work with the company instead of just being freelancers who get paid to be there, but the efforts are slow going.  The campaign setting is basically somewhat Occult based although it has more of a Sci-Fi feel than world of darkness sorta stuff. 

My question for the collective is how can I get them to appreciate the people they work for and not want to just go out and become mercs who'll work for the highest bidder?  I've tried making them have personal investments in the agency (the team member with max lifestyle owns the office building they work from, etc) but that just makes them feel like they need the Agency even less.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Agent 333]

In the long run, some players are just impossible to motivate. Let them become mercs for the highest bidder, then have agency assassins take them out. Not that will help any....

[iconoplast]

I've been trying to get them to appreciate their agency and actually work with the company instead of just being freelancers who get paid to be there

...

 I've tried making them have personal investments in the agency (the team member with max lifestyle owns the office building they work from, etc) but that just makes them feel like they need the Agency even less.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm having a similar problem, having failed to communicate to my players what I meant by "Spy Thriller" - The votes ( by character concept) seem to be:

1 vote for Espionage = Tom Clancy.  Tactics, Planning, and .50 caliber sniper rifles.
2 for Espionage = Army of Two.  Black Ops Military Operations.  Blowing stuff up in countries we aren't at war with.
1 for Espionage = Mission Impossible (TV not film) - Fast cars, shady deals, gambling and betrayal.
1 for Espionage = Mission Impossible (First Movie) - Burglary and martial arts.

So, my advice is this: forget whatever it is you think they should be doing and just try to figure out what they think they're doing.  It's more difficult (I mean... christ, what are those five people even doing together?), but at least you get out of the adversarial "You powergaming twinks are ruining my campaign!" vs. "Your stupid diplomatic railroad plot is boring so we're shooting your precious Mary Sues and going on a crime spree!"

[gaghiel42]

Yeah, so far my team consists of:

-Faceman with Max Lifestyle, a horrible fear of fighting, and no respect for laws or regulations
-Soldier Viking wielding a battle ax that claims he met Thor once
-Wheelman Grizzled old Helicopter pilot with ties back to Magestic and Area 51(who also tries to be Tony Jaa)
-Pointman/Scientist who's failed a few too many Sanity checks
-Explorer wanna be Indiana Jones

There are a few guest stars, but thats pretty much the team.  All of them going their separate ways most of the time.

[Crafty_Alex]

You guys are describing my groups to a T. My solution: run the campaign the players want. I have been running a 2 year 2.0 campaign/playtest game that has hopped between settings at the players' request so as to keep their characters growing. So I used a time travel them (in many ways, my game inspired the Signs and Portents article on the Chasm group), and tried to run in different settings and times. The players didn't respond immediately. Finally I sat them down and asked, ' do you want a game with narrative consistency and time in each setting or do you want total chaos - pirate monkeys with grenade launchers?'

Overwhelmingly, they chose the monkeys. So I made my game a temporal gumbo, challenging the players by having each mission in a different time and culture, fighting time traveling Chinese wizards and Cthulhu critters summoned by Nazis in occupied Manchuria. They loved it, and the game was better - story be damned.

Without the players, the game won't work, and I find casting down your buckets where you are is sometimes the best play of all.

[Desertpuma]

That sounds like a really fun but weird game....

[MugMug]

Finally I sat them down and asked, ' do you want a game with narrative consistency and time in each setting or do you want total chaos - pirate monkeys with grenade launchers?'

If that's how you ask the question, I'm not sure any group would select differently. I mean, the only way a pirate monkey game could get any better would be to add tactical weapons.

Walter

[LordKruelos]

Perhaps, to get back to the OP, since we're talking semi-Culty, start thinking about what might happen to the PCs without the agency -- maybe the Agency really IS what's preventing Nasty Happening X from occurring. 

Let them be the Mercs for hire for a couple sessions unrelated to the Big Nasty, then have them stumble over Agents of the Big Nasty (AOBN) and get pummeled because they aren't prepared... and the Agency's people arrive in time to pull them away -- and now comes the recruiting pitch.

Because the Agency has been taking steady losses and needs people badly, or else the fight is a war of attrition with them on the wrong side. Let the PCs see what will happen without intervention. If they're wanting to blow stuff up, there's not much you as a GM will be able to do to change how they play -- but you might be able to get them to buy into the cause...

[elpolloguerrillero]

-Faceman with Max Lifestyle, a horrible fear of fighting, and no respect for laws or regulations
-Soldier Viking wielding a battle ax that claims he met Thor once
-Wheelman Grizzled old Helicopter pilot with ties back to Magestic and Area 51(who also tries to be Tony Jaa)
-Pointman/Scientist who's failed a few too many Sanity checks
-Explorer wanna be Indiana Jones

Uff... if you are a serious "plot-designer" your are in troubles... lol.
Your players need more enemies, they don't need allies. Interesting enemies and masterminds are going to be they best friends. Try it.

Design a unique mastermind, an assassin, a free-lance merc. (or a small team of them)

Put him in the oposition side. The enemy agency / organization.. etc.

Put him in a position that don't interact with players. This special NPC attack the player's agency with a clever strike. This NPC ridiculize the player's agency in some way. Extracting an important operative, infiltrating in  the main base.. etc. Important to ridiculize the agency here!!.

See reactions. If they laught with the enemy sucess, they don't respect his own agency. In the next chapter try cross this NPC road with the players but dont let them kill him. If you put this NPC in front of the players they are going to shot him, no questions answers. If you overkill the players with this NPC they are going to hate him for his supperior abilities. You must be precise here, you need prepare this encounter in a neutral ground. Perhaps you must interrupt the inminent bloodbath with a third party. The players and the NPC cooperate to survive this encounter. But!! before the combat ends let this NPC escape.

Prepare the third encounter, in this encounter offer to players the posibility of work with this NPC, free-lance like him or recruited by the players own superiors.

If after the firts attack the players don't laugh: attack again, make this NPC a really badass. Then take a friendly NPC and let him die in one of this attacks. Not the target, important, not the target, this dead NPC is collateral damage. Make it personal. Perheps this help to involve players... perhaps.

Luck!

Sorry for my english. I hope you understand something!!
I can tell you the same in spanish if you understand it.

Regards

 

[gaghiel42]

Well, I think I got things shaping up well for their next encounter.  One of my players decided to sit down and go over his personal gear with a fine toothed comb.  He was bound and determined to min/max his armor and defenses, so I set him about creating Agency issue gear that the rest of the team can  update their personal pics with. 

Once they get all that sorted out, then I'm dropping them in a meat grinder as their agency gets assaulted while they are debriefing from their previous.  So, they gotta jump into things en medias res, and won't get to gear up.  Their home HQ is under siege, and they gotta save it and anyone left inside, and as it so happens the rest of downtown Chicago as well.   

Best case scenario, they get a better respect for what the agency is keeping them safe from.  Worst case scenario, they get eaten, and new characters are made to rectify the situation.  Should be fun...  *goes to read up on Fragile Minds*

[elpolloguerrillero]

Well, be prepared to the first players reaction:
RUN TO THE ARMORY AND TAKE THE BIGGER GUNS!! 

Then the second one: (2 options)
a) Try desperately to scape the home office before security collapses and a massacre occurs. Ignoring his comrades and allies dying around.
b) They fight back the agressors ignoring her allies dying around.

Bad news for you... I guess..

Perhaps I'm judging severely your players but I have similar experiences.

Maybe you can spice the defense of the home-office a little with things like this.

An automatic door begin to close, an NPC soldier interpose his body to force the door to remain open. He waits for the players and let the door close. He takes a weapon and help the players a little. Kill this NPC in the second combat encounter (not the first). Another one stop the players before an anemy ambush in a zone of the building.. He said the players, I think they are waiting us.. I eard something, be careful. Have you a gun?  This NPC is a non-combat NPC but helps the players in the ambush scene...

Perhaps this non-combatant NPC knows a pass-code to other restricted section of the home office and with his help can bypass another heavy armed enemy group. Kill him later  . (or look for a secure place for him and let the players continue alone...)

Another good option is that the players meet another team of agents just like them. Another badasses and cooperate to met one objetive. Find an elevator, destroy and enemy special unit, rescue a vital officer.. etc. When the sub-operation is done let the players continue alone.

I think you got the idea.

The players must see a living building with living people in it. Normal people, not superheroic people or a typical incompetent crying secretary.

I hope this ideas can help you a little.

Regards.



 

[gaghiel42]

Oh, you wont have to worry about them getting bigger guns, I planned for that.  But, Im also only gonna give them a couple.  The cool thing about being in a horror/sci fi game is that the baddies can do whatever I want them to.  Especially when they have had 12 hours to tool around inside the base and their own interdimensional portal to summon forth extra baddies.   

Ive got my cast of NPCs, I've got my unnnerving beasties, and Ive got an awesome rule book full of things that I can use.  Now... if only mongoose would hurry up with their shipping me my 3rd printing... 

Edit: Oh, the one thing that may be difficult is that most of downtown Chicago is covered in a thick oppressive mist/fog bank that hides all the beasties, and grants everything outside of 20 feet total concealment... mwahaha.   Hope they remember their thermal goggles...

[Merxiless]

My gut reaction is that all they care about is money.

Meaning that essentially, they are mercs, going to the highest bidder.

So play that out, have them contacted, and offer them a quarter mil to sell out their Handler.

Emphasize that this is some dirty nasty stuff to betray their employer. But hey, it's a lot of money.

If they go for it, they are told to meet at location X for the money pickup, out in the desert, at an old abandoned gas station, or something.

It turns out to be a deception  / loyalty op by their own agency (but you don't tell them that), when an apache-style helo gunship blows the crap out of the building that they are in.

Calls to the agency for help lead to the phone ringing...or disconnected.

Then they truly are freelance. Perhaps they get a false flag recruitment, working for "Mossad", when really they are working for "Pick your poison."

Keep it real, it's all espionage, subterfuge, dirty tricks, and paranoia.

[gaghiel42]

That is a really good idea.  If I was gonna keep doing things, and the party still needed some punishing, I would totally do that.

I ran the session, and the character that was the most problem wasn't there so the team got to play in crazy aliens/zerg/mist land for the session and saved the day.  I didn't have to hurt them too badly, as they all seemed to have a good time and appreciated all the little things that I did to make them feel like they belonged. 

I've got one more session left because the group wants me to run Godzilla DnD/Abberant so my friend is taking the helm of Spycraft. 

Now I have to make the badguys main HQ and pit them against their Nemesis in one last battle for the fate of humanity.  Should be fun