A quick Mission XP reward Question.

[TheTSKoala]

Okay.  I need a clarification on some XP reward for a Mission.

Background:

Little Susie Thompson, a 6 year old at a local elementary school, brings home from school one day with a DVD to hand to her parents.  On the DVDs black, bootleg style DVD case was a note written in a red flood, "An important message for the parents of Little Susie Thompson."  Her parents, thinking it was a joke from a class mate, watch the DVD.  Onto the screen is a Clown in Priest garnments.  The priest, calling himself Father Blinko, the Mesodic Cathewish Clown Saint, lays out in exact detail that he, and his 'followers' have been hired by the great Circus Spirit to punish the land for their sins.  He follows with how not every good deed helps good people, and not every sin is accomplished by evil.  To that end, he and his followers have installed 1 ton of Plastique Explosive throughout the city.  Some 'may be schools, may be strip clubs!  Maybe even the sidewalk under your feet!'.  The clown finishes his rant with.. for 60 seconds, every hour, there are 200 various remote switches, no where near the actual explosives, who, when pressed within that 60 seconds, will detonate it's designated charge.

So.. if you do the math... you have a mad man, who sent personalized DVDs home with a young child, who is threatening that he has 200 switches, each rigged with 10 pounds of C4, hidden throughout the city.  At the end of the video, the Clown priest gives his first clue.  Tells them the first place they should search is a warehouse down by the peir.

Terrified, the parents call Police.  ...only to find out, the police have recieved 24 other such complaints.  The children were from all walks of life.  Strippers, hookers, engineers, the mayor, a pastor, etc.  The police rush to the warehouse... and find 47 dead bodies.  Upon further investigation, each body has had a conviction for B&E, grand theft, etc.  Then, the police are greeted with an echoing laugh, followed by a taped recording.  "Awwww.  You found my work crew!  Looks like no more clues for you!  Find the big red button, save the city.  Save the city, and maybe.. just maybe.. I'll give you some peanuts!  Let the game... BEGIN! HUAH!"

That's when the team is called in.  Their objectives are:

- Locate and disarm the explosives (if possible.)
- Bring Order back to the City.
- Find and apprehend the Mad man.
- (Found out via game story) Locate and Rescue Hostage Scientist and her child.

So.. I handed the mission (I don't have my book with me, bare with.) a Defend V objective reward (Defend on a Single, hard to protect, mostly defenseless target) thinking that'd cover an entire city.  Thoughts?  There are other rewards for XP Objectives.. this was the only one I was debating. 

[Psion]

"Defend" sounds more like a combat thing.

I'd be more likely to the "find several hard to find objects" or "critical skill check" (complex challenge with whatever investigative skills apply).

Course, the XP tally isn't likely to be that different.

[TheTSKoala]

Well.. my whole idea was... beat the clock before an explosive goes off, you win.  Go boom, no XP!

[Krensky]

I would either break it down into smaller objectives, or just ad hoc it at whatever brought the XP for the mission up to what I felt appropriate for the mission as a whole.

[MugMug]

That's... gruesome. Just to make sure you know what you're up against as GC, the group will pretty much have to split up in order to catch one trigger per hour. Urban travel time alone requires this. And you're looking at 200 triggers; how will those be handled?

The other option for the team is to call in reinforcements (e.g. the local police). The problems with that are two-fold: 1) lack of communication (e.g. the local police, if called in, aren't likely to share the next clue with the team); and 2) unwanted attention on the team (e.g. in the local police scenario, the police will likely spend as much effort trying to find this group that seems to know so much about trigger locations as they will disarming the triggers themselves).

Out of curiosity, how will you be handling the mechanical effects of 8-9 days of constant stress (1 trigger per hour * 200 triggers = 200 hours) without reprieve?

**********

On to your question, I'd give partial credit. Each explosion prevented avoids damage to the city/people/morale, and should be worth something. However, I'd give a fat bonus to the team if they entirely avoid collateral damage (i.e. prevent all explosions without themselves causing too much havoc in the city). I'd go 80/20 on this, largely because 80% is conveniently divisible by 200.

Walter

[TheTSKoala]

Essentially, every hour of game time, I roll a D100.  On a 1-2, something explodes.  Following the 1-2, D20 roll.  On a 1-3, civilians were involved.  Following that, it's a 1-2.  1 being a "good citizen" place and a 2 being a "Sleeze spot".  Now, discovered via investigation, the triggers all feed back to a single routing device which then detonates the explosive via a separate signal.  They sleuth quick enough, discover and disarm the routing device, they essentially turn off all the explosives.  Do it fast enough, they're risking a 10% (5 hours) of explosion and casualty. 

Oh, and if 8 or 9 days go past, they've failed and the Clown has a back-up plan.

[MugMug]

Each hour has only a 2% chance of explosion, with only 15% of those explosions involving casualties (whether sleaze or square)? That works out to a 0.6% chance of casualties (again, whether slease or square) even assuming complete incompetence on the part of the team. If your measure of competence (5 hours) is attained, that works out to a 0.015% chance of casualties. I take it the clown is more interested in jerking the figurative chain of the team than inflicting damage?

With chance playing such a big part in whether casualties (or explosions at all) occur, I'd knock the "no collateral damage" bonus down to something small -- maybe 50xp (two AD equivalent).

Walter

[TheTSKoala]

Yes.  The clown is more about fear and proving "how smart he is" opposed to just picking up an AK-47 and mowing down a mall.  The two key elements is:  My players don't know their odds or the motivation behind the madman.  He's also gearing the team towards a small "big reveal".  When a new multi-conglamerate multi-billion dollar company rises out of nowhere with inventions and treatments for alot of 'bad stuff'.  (Read: Cancer, 60MPG cars, Slowing global warming.) ...and somehow, the clown is tied to the corporation.

But, yeah.  I like that idea now that I look at just how small the % is of people actually dying.

[MugMug]

Yes.  The clown is more about fear and proving "how smart he is"

Be careful with that. The original post in the thread described the clown's rant as discussing each trigger "will detonate it's designated charge." If only 2% of those actually detonate, the party may very well assume the clown is kinda slow.

Walter

[TheTSKoala]

*laughs*  Oh, it'll be great if they under-estimate him.  The climax is a boss fight in a tricked out Burned out school who has been converted into a Carnival Fun House.  Complete with... fully lethal Plastic Green Army Men.  Wavy mirrors that induce Dazed and Stunned tags.  Moving floors.. that move into 400F painted pink ovens, with locked latches.