Friday, December 20, 2019

Discussion: Your Favorite Bad Decision

We talked on Monday about how bad decisions can lead to fun moments and great RP. Today I want to ask, what is your favorite bad decision you've seen a player or a group of players make? Or, what is your favorite bad decision that you've made?

While I have a number of bad decisions I've made that I am fond of, my favorite 'bad' decision I have ever seen was how my players decided they were going to end a Lion Clan campaign I ran in L5R.

We were getting into the first major arc after doing some intro stuff and establishing all the PCs. The characters themselves had made it to rank 3 or so they were mid level ish (consider about level 7-9 in a D&D context.). The PCs were sent north in Lion lands when they came across an invading Dragon army. The idea was that the PCs would see the army, and head back to their commanding officer to report the incursion and thus would begin the war.

Only one problem.

The Dragon were going to hit a village before the Lion could muster any force to get there. Not a significant village. Not a large village. But it was Lion clan property and the PCs were not going to let it go without a fight. So they chose the fastest runner in their group and sent that person to go make the report. Then they took their group of 20 Lion samurai, and they attacked the Dragon.

They all died. All except the one PC who wasn't there that night and also had the misfortune of being the character who ran the fastest. The game ended. But everyone had a lot of fun and they knew going in what they were doing. They unanimously told me to roll openly, so I did. They wanted to see how far in they could get, and they got further than I expected.

A bad decision, but it made what otherwise was on track to be a fun but non-memorable campaign into one I still think of from time to time.

How about you?

No comments:

Post a Comment