When you play Good Cop, Bad cop.. and the bad cop is the Le' Resistance Cannon

[TheTSKoala]

Soooo.. my players blow up Toronto.  Or at least, they got suckered into it.  We get back together... ...and they're still brooding.  Damn the bad guys, to hell with the good guys, they're going to save the planet on their own and to hell with anyone who gets in their way.

(The inner GC in me is going.. uh oh.)

So, they start firing off things they have to do.  They hit the streets for diplomacy, bluffs, street intel.  They find out who suckered them.  A french woman named "Michelle Trueduex."  Who works in the higher management of the evil corporation.  My players sit their.. and try to understand why a higher up who is trying to "fix" the planet.. blew up the planet.

Dumb struck.  Score one for a plot twist. 

My players try to hatch a way to get to her, but can't.  Too well guarded and her guards are aliens who use rocket grenades like they were pistols. (They tower around 8 feet tall. If you played GOW, Boomers, but slightly shorter.)  But.. she has a husband. 

They hatch a plan.  The abduct the husband.  Get insanely banged up by the ONE Boomer guard, but they get away with the husband.  So, here I'm sitting here wondering what skill checks they're going to use.. what dramatic conflicts.. etc.  I was wrong.  So, very very very wrong.

They state they time him to a chair.  I nod.  No surprise there.  Then, the soldier and wheelman drag him over to the back of the Truck.  I quirk an eyebrow... the wheelman opens the bed of the truck, loads a spear, points it at the husband and tells him that he's going to tell them everything they want to know, or he's going to be harpooned like a dead whale...

...I look around.  Whhhhhhhhaaaa?  So, they ask him a simple question.  "What's your name?"  And.. in his french accent, he tells my players to go hell.  ....and my wheelman announces that he presses the fire key.

*thump*  My jaw drops.  In my stunned state, they drop the speared human (Who has a spear right into and out of the center of his torso) at the foot of the woman's door step and drive away.

....I sat there.  Befuddled.  I still am.

[Bill Whitmore]

...huh...

[nfactor13]

With a stunningly ironic note attached saying, "we do not negotiate with terrorists"?

[Krensky]

Did they even bother to read the exposure rules?  Or the series concept that lists them as the heroes?  Or that they're not supposed to be sloppy, disorganized sociopaths cum ineffective terrorists?

Sheesh.

[TheTSKoala]

Did they even bother to read the exposure rules?  Or the series concept that lists them as the heroes?  Or that they're not supposed to be sloppy, disorganized sociopaths cum ineffective terrorists?

Sheesh.

I think they actually want a bit of exposure.  Still not sure on their whole plan... as for "Heroes".. I guess every resistance has its dark side.. but yeah... yikessssss.  Oh.. and all XP rewards were "operationally suspended" until they completed this mission.  Killing the guy does not complete a mission when you're after the lady. 

[Mister Andersen]

Don't they realise that you're meant to gut the corpse, stuff the body cavity with explosives, and detonate when the grieving partner stoops over the body in horror?

[Antilles]

I guess they want payback... any kind of payback. Oh well, sounds like your campaign is going in new, exciting directions!

[Gatac]

Oh, that warms my heart! Reminds me of a few "No, screw you!" gaming moments I've had. It gets you in a boatload of trouble, but sometimes it's worth it just to tell the world that you're done getting shoved around.

Gatac

[Merxiless]

I suggested as much last week, that these guys are not heroic types.

I suggest going for the big police showdown, kill 'em all off.

[waterdhavian]

I dont know, I see these guys being pushed to their limit.  They are resorting to these tactics since they have no where else to go or more precisely they dont know where to go.

[Mister Andersen]

I think losing a husband is getting off lightly.

[famine]

I dont know, I see these guys being pushed to their limit.  They are resorting to these tactics since they have no where else to go or more precisely they dont know where to go.

Well put!  Their backs are against the wall.  If people are going to use them to take out an entire city, they're going to have to get rough to get to the bottom of it.  And if they throw a wrench in the GC's plans, things could turn out even better than the plan in the long run.

[Gatac]

From my recent playing experience: Stargate-ish game, encountered alien empire, negotiations broke down due to them trying to doublecross us (twice!), we lost a total of fifty guys (soldiers all) and they forced my character to shoot one of his own soldiers to prevent him from slowly dying of vacuum exposure.

A rational person might say: Okay, we've taken a beating from this Jade Imperium of a Thousand Worlds, let's bury the gate and forget this happened.

We said: Thousand worlds? That's a lot of crap to blow up.

Cue commando-style operations, reverse-engineering alien tech and working to start a full-scale rebellion against the Imperium. There's only one opinion in the group - burn it to the ground! -, though with varying ideas on what we use for kindling, so to speak.

So, messily killing one guy? For all the evil alien invaders have done to your guys? That's not even close to vindictive.

Gatac

[Maldroth]

Not as bad as a former player I had. He relished in the opportunity to use torture to get information.

"if you give them enough rope they will hang themselves".

Yep that phrase is so true. They get the information they think they want and it doesn't help them. Sloppy ops will just get you spinning your wheels. So you know the player's motives now and an idea of how far they are willing to go, question is are you alright with that or do you want to try to steer them back to the original plan you had?

[VisualStatic]

First off, wow.  I thought what you had done to them was great, but this...   just wow.

Don't they realise that you're meant to gut the corpse, stuff the body cavity with explosives, and detonate when the grieving partner stoops over the body in horror?

Second, MrA you officially scare me.... kinda....

Last, the question of exposure can go both ways.  Maybe this lady doesn't want anyone snooping around, having police asking questions, maybe sniffing too deep, making connections to Toronto, etc...
Plus, it does open up an opportunity for IDin' the guy, since the ME will have to make an identification, the team now has some hacking to do.  That is if the woman even owns up to the guy on the steps is her husband.  I'd be watching the news for the next few days and hacking the morge and police computers.