RE: [DL] Getting a player dead

["Matthew M. DeForrest" <mmdeforrest@worldnet.att.net>]

-----Original Message-----
> The first bit of advice I would offer would be to make certain you don't
> descend into a PC v  DM type of mentality.  This is not the same thing as
> challenging a player, which I suspect you are trying to do, but the slope
> can be a slippery one.

Ah, yes the slope is a slippery one. Since no one around here knows much
about me, it was a safe assumption to make that I might cross that line.
--------------------------

Not just you, Ben, but all of us who wear the Marshal's star.  When I create
adventures for my particular posse (sadly on hiatus, pending some other
projects), I try to make sure that there is a particular moment that every
player can shine.  I can't remember where I picked up the advice, but it has
always sounded good to me.  To use my own (beginning) posse as an example (I
say beginning because we added an Explorer Society Monster Hunter and two
Martial Artists later):

1 Scout/Outrider (being watched by the Texas Rangers for possible
recruitment)
1 Saloon Singer with lots of interpersonal skills
1 Mad Scientist who has invented independent suspension and an electrostatic
gun
1 discharged Union Doctor with a fascination with the Tombstone Epitaph
(Conspiracy Theorist)


Potential Spoilers -- I want to try to get this one published




One adventure centered on a alchemist who was using prairie ticks to purify
blood for alchemical purposes.  The adventure begins with them entering town
and discovering the infestation.  They need to find out what's going on (The
Saloon Singer gets to talk to the townspeople and gain their trust, learning
that stocking up on Castor Oil is a good idea.  Thus, the Doctor doesn't
need to make a roll to find this out.).  Next, they face the prairie
ticks -- lost of gunplay for the Outrider.  After this, they make their way
up to the alchemist's cabin (Did I forget to mention that, as an accidental
result of his experiments, he has transformed himself into a prairie
tick-human hybrid?  Silly me.).  There, the Mad Scientist and the Doctor can
piece together what happened to the Alchemist from his notes.  Then, all of
them fight the big baddie.

Now, not everyone's chance to shine was equal, but it tends to balance
itself out over time.  For example, in another adventure, when the hint to
the ID of the monster is an old English ballad (John Barleycorn Must Die),
the Saloon Singer is the one who finds the big important clue.

Here's where it gets tricky, though.  If I want to give the PCs a chance to
shine, I have to challenge each of them.  In doing so, however, I can't
single any one of them out for a rough time.  The Mad Scientist is a
Doubting Thomas, for example. It's interesting to confront him with the
supernatural and make him try to rationalize it.  In the case above, the
transformation could follow some kind of rational, scientific law --
addiction to the 'purified' blood, etc.  To have him strapped down to a
table and fed upon by a vampire who transforms from a bat shape to human
before him is not challenging him.  At that point, it's a player v. Marshal
thing.

I hope this helps explain my point.  Take care.

Matt