How to GM An Enemy

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by tjbuege

Good point. If I were to ask the player to remove Enemy, do you have any suggestions for balancing out the sudden 15 point gain?

I believe something suggested earlier was a negative Reputation. If that isn't enough, perhaps just a Social Stigma? Considering the player was booted from the militia, the two could be combined and related; layering a Social Stigma and Bad Reputation based on (a not necessarily true) reason for the PC having been booted?

Though given his Disadvantage list, I favor using the anthill scenario from earlier; give him a Reputation for being insane and a Stigma for being what in modern times would be a dishonorable discharge. If that militia is at all important to the campaign setting, you can probably get the numbers to work out.

I'll add... are there any Disadvantages he has displayed during play? In 3rd Edition I thought that was an option to encourage appropriate play - if you demonstrate behavior indicative of a disadvantage, the GM can rule you've got it. Even if that was a gross misunderstanding of the rules, in this situation he may have indicated at least a leaning towards a few appropriate ones.

[tjbuege]

Originally Posted by whswhs

[...]if what he wants is someone who is still seeking him or persecuting him, that's worth points for having a current Enemy. He gets to tell the story, but you have to judge the point value of what he wants—and work with him if what he wants leads to an unacceptable point value.

This second variation is in line with the background story the player presented me. What he wants is definitely worth points as an enemy--I don't think that is in question. What I need to decide is if I, as an out of practice, rusty, mostly inexperienced GM, want the distraction of writing his enemy into my campaign. If I can figure out how to comfortably work it into my developing story, then I'll leave it as is. Remember, my original question is how to GM an enemy. :)

Believe me, I'm definitely giving this a lot of thought, considering the great ideas that you all have shared with me. My adventure story is anything but finalized. Much closer to "make it up as I go." I'm trying very hard to develop a story plot that's coherant and makes sense, and if I add this enemy in, it will blend into that story.

[tjbuege]

Originally Posted by Otaku

give him a Reputation for being insane and a Stigma for being what in modern times would be a dishonorable discharge. If that militia is at all important to the campaign setting, you can probably get the numbers to work out.

That's just the thing...the town he comes from probably won't play a part in this adventure (I haven't even developed enough of the map to know where that town is or what it's name is!), so I can't really allow him points for disadvantages that won't enter into the story.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

I also want to say that I've had a lot of luck in my own games with reducing the disadvantage limit from 'half point total' to just 50 and simply increasing the positive point total by the like amount of 25. Characters have the same level of competency and aren't quite so mentally broken.

This is a perfectly valid tactic. There's also a related half-measure: The GM can declare a total Disadvantage cap of say -75 and then add eg: "But no more than -30 points of crazy, please," if -75 points all dumped into Mental Disadvantages is too much for a campaign concept that can more-easily accommodate enemies, negative reputation, poor wealth, a missing limb, etc.

[tjbuege]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

The GM can declare a total Disadvantage cap of say -75 and then add eg: "But no more than -30 points of crazy, please," if -75 points all dumped into Mental Disadvantages is too much for a campaign concept that can more-easily accommodate enemies, negative reputation, poor wealth, a missing limb, etc.

Where were you guys with your ideas two weeks ago? ;)

I bet most new GMs and players go through this sort of thing. We are two sessions into the campaign, but would it be ok to make this level of change to characters, having already started play? If there is something I can do to prevent headaches down the road, I think now is probably the time to do it. Has anyone else done this before? Changing character sheets after starting, that is?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by tjbuege

Where were you guys with your ideas two weeks ago? ;)

Heh.

Originally Posted by tjbuege

I bet most new GMs and players go through this sort of thing. We are two sessions into the campaign, but would it be ok to make this level of change to characters, having already started play? If there is something I can do to prevent headaches down the road, I think now is probably the time to do it. Has anyone else done this before? Changing character sheets after starting, that is?

I always allow the players to re-write their character sheet within the first five sessions of a new campaign. I require it if its' a new or unfamiliar system. Just don't let them change their characters in such a way that the stuff they already did isn't possible anymore; that way lays madness. ;)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by tjbuege

This second variation is in line with the background story the player presented me. What he wants is definitely worth points as an enemy--I don't think that is in question. What I need to decide is if I, as an out of practice, rusty, mostly inexperienced GM, want the distraction of writing his enemy into my campaign. If I can figure out how to comfortably work it into my developing story, then I'll leave it as is. Remember, my original question is how to GM an enemy.

My first guideline for this would be to ignore the dice rolling aspect. I've had characters with all of those social relationship traits, and rolling the dice is (a) usually too much of a pain and (b) likely to lead to my current situation being derailed. Use the numbers as a guideline to how often you bring the Enemy or whatever in: almost every session for a 15-, three-quarters of the time for a 12-, one-third of the time for a 9-, or one session in ten for a 6-. Then think about how to fit them into your scenarios.

One of my best campaigns—not a GURPS one, so it didn't have formal relationship disadvantages—was driven largely by things in various PCs' biographies. One of them had the duty of taking part in the regular quarterly rituals that kept their island of order safe from the surrounding chaos, but in fact had not learned the full, accurate version from his father, so the enchantment was decaying over time; one came from a house into which a mysterious child of unknown parentage had been born; one was secretly in love with an older man who, unknown to her, had been her mother's lover for some years. . . . I managed to keep the campaign going with the majority of the larger plot material simply taken from what the players had handed me. So one option is to look at this Enemy trait and see if you can make it be a source of situations you can use. It doesn't have to be an intrusion from outside; you can try to make it a way to reveal aspects of your setting, by asking what resources would be available for the Enemy to use. And the PCs need never know which troubles come from the Enemy and which are just random.

Bill Stoddard

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Does the setting have insane asylums? If it does, that easily explains a Hunter who genuinely tries to act in the PC's best interests.

I was going to make that point. I'm reading Wen Spencer's 8 Million Gods, and the character's mother is the hunter and keeps trying to get her committed. The character ran away to Japan, but I don't think it's far enough...

[tjbuege]

No insane asylums in this story. Interesting idea, though.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by tjbuege

No, I have not had a chance to talk with him yet. I'm first trying to solidify my thoughts on the issue. I understand what you are saying about meeting half way. We've already met halfway/partway, if you saw my comment earlier regarding what his initial character backstory was. Who knows, he may be ok with giving up the enemy thing all together. Stay tuned... I will let you all know what the solution turns out to be.

Since he doesn't know it's a real enemy, perhaps it could be reduced to a small delusion that he has an enemy. Perhaps a quirk. His other disadvantages would be enough to get him fired from the guard by themselves.