Payback

Another quick message from Blackjack:

NightLife’s guest hosting continues this week thus enabling me to utilize my newly found free time for noble purposes such as taking naps and watching John Woo movies. I’ll be back next week, however, with an essay devoted to character creation followed by an amusing look at what NPCs do while the PCs aren’t looking.

Hello once again. Take note as I, NightLife, take over the corner to bring to you more fine and politically incorrect gaming ravings and advice. If you have any comment you can direct them to myself at the following address (habenir@ucunix.san.uc.edu).

As to whether or not I can get to them promptly depends on my current workload and the mood at the given moment.

This week’s article is a continuation of the previous one. I think a good title for this little ditty could be summed up in one word: “PAYBACK”. Now I don’t mean petty little squabbles which can add to the flavor of the game. I mean the type of scuffle which interferes with the game. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.

I started a new campaign about a year ago and set up several concepts which were supposed to be basic to the game. But I digress into something for another time and place. This problem to which I’m alluding started not too long after the game began and a new player had just joined the crew. For the sake of privacy I’ll just use character names to protect the guilty. The new guy had decided to play your basic combat mage. Going by the name Krueger, he began the game with the best of intentions and right now is one of my best players, but again I digress. Krueger has an extensive history and background having emigrated from Britain. During one particular session dealing with downtime, he called his parents back in Britain. While talking to them over the phone one of the other players, Sam, decided to do something funny. From the background he shouted “Honey came back to bed” in the best flaming (pardon me for the moment) voice he could summon. His parents who heard this clearly over the phone asked what was going on. Then another member of the party joined in, this one being the decker, Scandal. Once again with the flaming voice: “Honey come back to bed. I not finished with you, you being hunk of man you.” By this time the mage was red in the face and mortified, he desperately started to explain to his mother that he wasn’t gay. Well, I won’t go into the details of what happened after that, but that was an hour and a half of what later would turn into utter agony for me to listen to again and again. This line of comedy continued for many a gaming session. With the offhanded comment flying continuously. The moment of payback was close at hand.

Enter the Omni Hotel in the French Quarter in New Orleans. The decker has just woken up to a phone call from his resident girlfriend down there, and was dealing with a bout of alcohol poisoning from drinking himself silly after a failed run. Now, in the fifteen minutes he had, he had to get rid of the alcohol, sober up, and try to present himself in a better manner than he was really in. She came up to the room and found the PC in the situation he was in, and you guessed it came to the pretty obvious conclusion that he was drunk, again. But it gets better, the payback is coming just you wait. In the confusion the decker went to get cleaned up. The resident Sammy decided to be a good guy and smooth things over, trying a charisma test to see what would happen, rolled a 1, 1, 2. Can you say Oops! (Or as the peanut gallery put it “Yo’ bitch come here.”). Can you smell the revenge coming, just wait a moment. The decker and his girlfriend start to argue, which led to a battle that I won’t go into, needless to say someone got their butt kicked.

Flash forward to Chicago at a later time. The group came back and life resumed as normal, or as close to normal as it was ever going to get. They had just come off a run against the Brotherhood and had won, but as usual gotten their rears handed to them. Retreating back to the truck, they put back their equipment and headed to the decker’s apartment with the unconscious cat burglar. When they got back, Scandal’s girlfriend had dropped in to see him. I think hell broke loose at this point and each decided to go its separate little way. The Cat Burglar’s girlfriend was there along with the decker’s girl. They both decide to grill the decker to see what had happened. I won’t go into that, but let’s just say the decker had to leave his own apartment and spend the night in a hotel. The next day. Enter the mage having decided to come over to see if he could help the CB get back on his feet. Entering the apartment he met Amber, the decker’s woman, in an unusual way. Walking into the apartment and crossing into the living room he was greeted with a Colt Manhunter put to the back of his skull. Amber asked who he was and he introduced himself. After finding out that she was with Scandal, he probably decided “PAYBACK TIME”. It went something like this:

“Oh, you must be Samantha?” (Krueger)

No. (Amber)

Crystal? (Krueger)

No. (Amber)

Linda, the girl from the French Quarter back in New Orleans? (K)

No. (A)

Oh that’s right, Michelle. (K)

No. (A)

I give up, which one are you? (K)

I’m Amber, his soon to be ex-girlfriend (A)

I guess I’ll be going now. You have a nice day. (K)

Needless to say, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And it took three gaming sessions to put that relationship back together with a whole lot of ass kissing and money being shelled out by the decker. This was the retribution paid to the decker for his part in the phone call, as for what is coming to the Sam, both the mage and the decker have started to collaborate on what his fate shall hold.

I guess the moral of the story is the same as my last tip in the last article, which is to expect to be treated the way you treat other people. And remember, payback is always a bitch. Now, for all of you GM’s trying to deal with situations like this, here are a few tips:

If at all possible, try to nip these things in the bud if they seem like they could snowball out of control. While some of these jokes can be amusing for a while, they quickly turn ugly. Even this problem started out being humorous, but it nearly ended in disaster because it went too far. Knowing when to step in isn’t always easy, but situations do present themselves for intervention. Remember, this is all for fun, but the end result isn’t always funny. Luckily, this stopped before it was too late.
When the payback starts to get in the way of the game, let your players know. With any luck, they’ll be mature enough to see the problem and will stop it from going any further than it has. But be discreet when doing this, don’t come across as though you’re lecturing them.
And if all else fails, remember high explosives. As I’ve done many times, start blowing stuff up, this will distract the PC from their feud forcing them to concentrate on survival. Or in BJ’s case, cows from the sky work just as well. Unless you like pink bunnies like somebody I know, but I’ll slam him another day.

Branson Hagerty (bhagerty@thunder.temple.edu)