How often do you let unintended consequences of your players’ actions drive a storyline?
I have had a player spitting with rage on behalf of their character as a result of an unintended consequence of something they did. It has also led to a running joke and one of the most memorable sessions of the campaign so far. And all because I spent five minutes between sessions thinking about how the NPCs might perceive what the character had done, and how they might react.
Background
Let me set the scene.
The characters found a set of title deeds in a box, and when they investigated, they discovered the corpse of the owner, along with a very confused ghost who didn’t realise he was dead.
One of the characters, Jinnie, a halfling rogue who grew up on the streets, took over the flat as her own (the others already had a place to stay, either in the temple or in the Adventurers’ Guild).
They were away, and returned to the flat, and discovered a shrivelled corpse of an intruder who had been aged by the ghost. So they arranged for a local temple to collect and bury the body.
Something came up (I don’t now remember what), so Jinnie asked the woman across the landing (who also ran the butcher shop just below) to let these people in. And then went off on her errand with the rest of the party and stayed away for the night.
The consequence
In some of the downtime after the session, I thought about what the woman would have seen, and how she might have reacted.
- She was asked to let these people in for a delivery
- When they came, she would have seen the dead body
- All the people knew was that they were collecting the body for disposal
- “Dead body? Jinnie didn’t tell me anything about that.”
- Jinnie then didn’t come home that night
- “Something seriously wrong here” she thought, and went to report it to the city watch next morning.
When they returned to the flat a couple of days later, they found it barred with nailed-on pieces of wood, and a sign with the city guard seal saying “Crime scene – do not enter”. This is where the player went ballistic and started bouncing with rage at the table. Jinnie (the character) tore off the wooden bars, discovered the locks had been changed, and the party broke into the flat again. After a check round, Jinnie took all her stuff out of concealment in the flat and they went out again, closing up as best they could.
They saw the woman leaving her flat, and chased after her to ask what it was about, one of the other characters (Gareth) catching up with her using Expeditious Retreat. Still spitting with rage, Jinnie shouted at the woman who, now even more convinced she was dealing with someone unstable and murderous, ran off.
Consequences continue
Jinnie spent the night with Gareth in the Adventurers’ Guild, and shortly afterwards he received news which led to the party heading out of town for the best part of a week.
So – the watch are already aware of the “crime scene”. Now the woman has been harassed again by the suspected criminal, who has subsequently completely disappeared. When the party return to town, they find wanted posters up for Jinnie and information leading to her arrest.
Over the next few sessions, Jinnie has been going around with her hood up, and using a mixture of Gareth’s disguise kit and prestidigitation to keep changing the colour of her flame-red hair. This has become wilder through the sessions – she started off going black, then blonde, then white, and I’m pretty sure we’ve also had blue and bubblegum pink.
It all comes to a head
In our session this week, I felt horribly unprepared. A bout of illness had cut into my preparation time and I hadn’t really had time to do anything except a little bit of thinking and prepping up a thug statblock.
In reviewing the previous session and pre-planning this session, the players decided resolving Jinnie’s arrest was the thing to focus on. We were also short a couple of players, so we didn’t really want to get into either of the larger encounters pending.
They finished the previous session just coming out of a shop, so I started this session with someone recognising Jinnie from the poster and then running off (to find a couple of mates to kidnap her and collect the reward). I gave him distinctive red hair and a forked beard.
One of the other characters noticed him looking and alerted the other two to his presence, so they headed off to try to find and accost him. I think they were suspecting him of being part of a gang they have history with.
Jinnie took advantage of her smaller size to nip ahead, and spotted him again. She saw him head round a corner into an alley so followed him…into an ambush. A sack was thrown over her head and she was pinioned with only her feet free. She tried to break free by running up a nearby wall, but the dice decreed that, while she managed to break the grapple, she missed the wall. His accomplice immediately pounced on her to grapple her, and managed to pick her up.
At that point the others came round the corner and saw what was going on. The cleric, Vars, immediately attacked with a guiding bolt, hitting the guy holding Jinnie. This gave Jinnie the chance to wriggle, and she managed to get free, falling to the ground, which knocked the breath out of her and left her stunned.
The guy who had been hit shouted “it’s not worth the money” and they scarpered, leaving Vars and Gergran with Jinnie in the bag. Vars picked her up, still in the sack, and of course she assumed she was being captured again, so started to wriggle, until her told her “it’s me”.
Once they removed the sack from her head, they decided it was definitely past time they went to the watch station to sort it all out. So they headed the couple of streets to the watch station. Jinnie hid up an alleyway opposite (inside an illusion of a barrel) while the other two went in.
They seemed to think just saying “it’s all a misunderstanding” would be enough, but the guard on duty was not convinced. He took that they knew her, and had been involved, to accuse them of being accomplices. Vars gave his real name, but Gergran did not. They showed their religious insignia and said they were known at the temple…but of course the guard wasn’t willing to take this at face value. They gave more details, including the ghost, which just made the guard more suspicious. He got someone else in to sketch their portraits while they continued talking. Everything they said just made things worse – made him more convinced they were suspicious and involved. Jinnie’s player was creased up laughing.
Eventually he conceded he had to let them go (otherwise the session would grind to a halt…DM), but he made them pay a bail of 10gp each and told them to report back next day once the guards had a chance to check their identity.
At this point they left and Jinnie cautiously rejoined them, hoping for good news, which they were cagey about. They had another lead on their investigations down at the docks, and this took them past Red Snappers Square where they have previous history, and a shop with obsidian busts, one of which resembled Jinnie, so they went in to negotiate. They agreed the 100gp for the bust, and then asked about delivery. At being told it would cost an extra 2gp, they decided to negotiate.
Jinnie, in her infinite wisdom, decided the best way to negotiate was to pull out the wanted poster and say “you don’t want to mess with me – I’m a known murderer”. We had established long ago in the campaign that there is a watch house just across the square, so rather than negotiate, the shopkeeper pulled out a police whistle, and several guards came across.
So now we have Jinnie in a cell with a drunkard, perfectly placed for “negotiation” with a well-connected NPC, and we have the other two characters also under suspicion…
Conclusion
So, a session which I felt horribly unprepared for ended up being one of the most memorable to date, and had one of the players in fits of laughter, all thanks to me reacting to the players’ characters actions.
Consequences make the world feel more real, and make the characters actions more significant. If the world reacts to them, they have to understand the world rules and how (or at least how much) to fit in with them. And it can lead to some very engaging storylines.
What have your players’ characters done recently that you can use to challenge them?
