Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
The idea here is that if a player announces he's going to start a fight at the Emperor's Birthday, the GM normally *shouldn't roll*. Every player, whether he has Common Sense or not, should be told that's a stupid idea.
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Well, that's one way to handle it.
What I did was a bit different. One of the waiters came over and politely asked if he could be of any assistance, with one of those looks that translates as "Do we have to escort you to Imperial Security and detain you?"
And the PC was in the succession. So the day after the incident, he was requested and required to come to the palace, and the emperor explained to him that, were he on the throne, he could beat the other man to death with his bare hands, and for the other man to hit back would be treason. This made the prospect of his ascending to the throne one the emperor found alarming. The player took the point (I don't think he had figured it out before then).
If possible, I give my players free will to do even really clueless things. But they have to make a point of it.
On the other hand, one of my players tells the story of the time he was GMing Traveller. The PCs were tramp merchants. So he told them that there was a holdup in the clearance for their ship to take off, expecting a session of comedy about bureaucratic screwups. And one of the PCs went to the office at the spaceport that issued permits, and threw in a grenade. . . .