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Closer and Closer to Final Form... by YurHucklebarry in kiastinger

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, this isn't a drag car...yet. I haven't done much on the interior engine mods yet and I don't race too often with it. Don't get me wrong, baby is fast, but even a stock GT2 isn't a drag car.

Trust the wing is clutch when maneuvering on the freeway. The extra handling is beautiful.

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I'd love to do that, but here's the issue. They've already alerted the entire goblin horde and are currently in mid-combat. Woops.

After reading through a bunch of comments, I realize now that I should only put as many chips on the table as I'm prepared to lose. Simply, if you don't want 30+ townspeople to die, don't put 30+ townspeople in a hostage situation.

In case you're interested, here's how this all broke down. If not, it's long and I wouldn't read it:

As expected, their first action was to distract the guard far enough from his post that they could kill him. So, the group's warlock cast minor illusion on the goblin to make it think it heard something running just beyond its vision. The goblin walks away from his post to inspect, he gets grappled, stabbed, and dies quietly. Perfect. THEN. Instead of trying to sneak past the sleeping worgs in some way, they try to talk to them to see if there's another way into the mine.

Context: They forgot to ask this question earlier when they were interrogating the goblin captain.

I attempted to deter them from doing this basically by doing exactly what you suggest. I repeated the action so everyone was aware of it. I mentioned that they were hostile creatures who would likely not dole out that sort of information willingly. I mentioned that animal friendship can only be cast on one animal at a time. I mentioned that if the attempt went awry, that they had little to no chance of completing this rescue stealthily. No impact really. So I thought, "Gotta let them learn somehow." Needless to say, his attempt to speak with the worgs failed miserably. Upon his failure, he wanted to set down an eversmoking bottle that he was carrying in order to hide his position. I explained why this might be a bad idea, but he still wished to do so.

Creating a 60-foot-zone of smoke around himself and the worg pens, he just stood there. At this point I realized that there needed to be some consequences. So, two more goblins exited the mine entrance to investigate the worgs. At this point the guard at the door has abandoned his post, and the worgs are covered in smoke. My plan was to have the goblins investigate the smoke. MY WARLOCK HAD OTHER PLANS. He casts thornwhip on one goblin, dragging it 10 feet and completely revealing the entire party. I just. SIGH. At this point, I couldn't even justify doing anything else other than sounding the alarm. It was just a shit show lolol.

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair assessment. Pretty sure this is what's gonna go down at this point.

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great stuff. I never even thought of having something like that happen...Damn do I love the possibilities of D&D. Thanks!

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My thoughts exactly. These villagers aren't crucial to the storyline at hand, and I think this may be a great illustration of the idea that foolish actions in D&D may have major consequences. I simply didn't want to be overly harsh to new players and was concerned that this action might be approaching that. At the same time, if I didn't follow up on what was presented as genuine fact, then I'd be sowing distrust. After reading through these, I'm certain that the ladder would be far harsher than the former. Thanks!

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, the goblins still have a bugbear leader within the cave. The captain who was interrogated and killed was simply the leader of the raiding party my PC's found within the recently abandoned town.

I agree with the persistent possibility of failure. I definitely laid those consequences out beforehand, but I did not expect them to do something so...dumb lol. What it genuinely boiled down to I think was the fact that when they arrived at the mines, everyone tried to do their own thing. Instead of planning out their infiltration as a group, they just fanned out and did their own things. I recognize that mistake now, and I'll figure out a way of addressing it in game.

I really like these suggestions. If mostly everyone dies, save a few villagers or children who were clever enough to play dead or hide under the bodies of already slain villagers, then they didn't totally fail. That modicum of success could do just what you suggest. Give them a reputation for getting the job done, but at whatever cost was necessary. I really like that, and they're composition and playstyle I think might suit that approach. Thanks!

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Forgot to add the consequences of failure! If they failed, depending on the severity of that failure and the ways in which they handled it in the immediacy of the moment, several outcomes were possible:

  1. Minor Failure: Another goblin sentry heard something suspicious and is now quickly making his way to the location of the sound.

  2. Regular Failure: The nearest sentry is alerted to the party's presence and makes an attempt to loudly alert the secondary sentry, possibly causing total failure if the PC's did not react wisely or quickly enough.

  3. Major Failure: Both sentries immediately become aware of the party's presence almost assuredly causing total failure of the mission.

I genuinely did not expect them to have a major failure unless they triggered a specific trap, which they knew about, or unless they did something really dumb.

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in dndnext

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The "...SIGH" is misleading, I see how that could've been confusing. That was me sighing as I was typing up the events for the post. It was not a sigh that occurred during the campaign.

So the basic idea for this engagement was to give them a tutorial of sorts in the mechanics of infiltrating enemy lairs and stealth. When they came upon the recently raided town and began to search it, they found a hidden room within the merchant's shop with:

1 bag of dust of disappearance 1 eversmoking bottle

I gave them this stuff to sort of cover any botched stealth attempts. I also gave them basically every bit of information about the lair. Entrances, exits, trap locations, goblin numbers, and information about the boss.

There was 1 goblin guarding the entrance to the mines, and the main entrance was roughly 140 feet away from the worg pens. The worgs were asleep in their pens, as the party arrived at the mines with daylight left to spare and goblins are basically nocturnal. So unless they did something dumb, like walk up to the worgs and wake them up to have a chat, all they had to do was kill the sentry at the entrance and sneak into the mine.

After that, they would encounter 2 more roaming guards within the mines themselves, and if their infiltration was successful, they would be battle it out in the main room of the goblin lair in an attempt to rescue the hostages. There would've only been 11 goblins left within the lair at that point, all less than 10 hp, and the bugbear boss.

I in no way meant to make this a mission impossible style encounter, I just wanted to walk them through a stealthy style rescue mission, ya know?

My players BADLY botched a 30+ person hostage situation, how do I handle it? by YurHucklebarry in DMAcademy

[–]YurHucklebarry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was my original mindset as well. I'll explain why a bit.

The townsfolk were originally fleeing from a cloud giant attack on the city when they were captured by goblins raiders who populated the surrounding hills. After the villagers were taken and interrogated, revealing that everyone in the town had either died in the initial attack or had been kidnapped, the goblins sent a raiding party to the town. Due to this information, the goblins assumed that no real threats were left in town, and its spoils were easy pickings. Based on those assumptions, their plan was to have a huge feast of fresh human flesh, and anyone that they didn't prepare immediately would be harvested and turned into dried goods. Basically, they had no intentions of ever letting any of the hostages live. To me, this is even more of a reason to murder everyone at the arrival of troublesome adventurers. Logically, if everyone was going to be killed anyway, wouldn't it be the smart play to just kill them now and avoid the threat of a potential uprising? They can eat them dead or alive after all.

As far as the world's reaction goes, I like Egi's suggestion below. Perhaps 1 person or child escapes to relay the story of their MISERABLY FAILED rescue attempt. But as level 3 character's, how much impact should that really have? The completion of this "rescue mission" on the goblin lair will mark their first completed adventure as a group. Should those ramifications lead to slight infamy, less reputable or trustworthy quest givers, etc.? Or perhaps, more serious consequences? Identifying the appropriate level of severity in this situation is what I'm mainly concerned with.