Enemies + High frequency of appearance + 6 players

[reverse_atomic_roger]

Hi all.

Does anyone else have a problem with enemies bought as disadvantages taking over the game?

There are 7 of us in my group (GM + 6 players). Last time I ran gurps, I had a couple of players who wanted their characters to have frequently occurring personal enemies. We ended up spending half our time dealing with the personal enemies of two PCs.

I tried a couple of things, rolling for the first six sessions at once so I could plan how they'd come and go, and trying to have a link between their enemies and my plot. But I still felt that I could have handled it better - I'm just not sure how.

I don't want to stop my PCs having enemies completely, especially if they've got a really strong concept, but I would like to at least have the ability to pull the players focus back to the "main plot" if I want or need to. At the moment I don't feel that I have that as a GM (at least not without breaking the mood and saying "right, ignore that guy, back to the main plot")

Any ideas?

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by reverse_atomic_roger

Hi all.

Does anyone else have a problem with enemies bought as disadvantages taking over the game?

There are 7 of us in my group (GM + 6 players). Last time I ran gurps, I had a couple of players who wanted their characters to have frequently occurring personal enemies. We ended up spending half our time dealing with the personal enemies of two PCs.

I tried a couple of things, rolling for the first six sessions at once so I could plan how they'd come and go, and trying to have a link between their enemies and my plot. But I still felt that I could have handled it better - I'm just not sure how.

I don't want to stop my PCs having enemies completely, especially if they've got a really strong concept, but I would like to at least have the ability to pull the players focus back to the "main plot" if I want or need to. At the moment I don't feel that I have that as a GM (at least not without breaking the mood and saying "right, ignore that guy, back to the main plot")

Any ideas?

I roll all enemies, allys and patrons in the begining of any adventure of mine (+-10 sessions each) and them I adjust the plot to put the results.

[Lamech]

Have them provide free help to the baddies. If someone has a watcher, the watcher will feed info to the baddies. (Or to the general public and the baddies will see it.) If the PC has a hunter they will show up in combat. If the PC has a rival, they'll make existing problems tougher. ("Oh, I already gave all the evidence to that other police officer.")

Make them amplify existing problems.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by reverse_atomic_roger

I tried a couple of things, rolling for the first six sessions at once so I could plan how they'd come and go, and trying to have a link between their enemies and my plot. But I still felt that I could have handled it better - I'm just not sure how.

There are at least two aspects to this:

As GM, you do not have to roll. You are entirely at liberty to have the enemies show up when it suits you, and not when it does not. You should be guided to some degree by the frequency that the PCs took, for their enemies, but you do not have to disrupt your story for random dice rolls.

Second, you don't have to let PCs take disadvantages that will disrupt the campaign or won't work with it. Frequently-occurring opponents are a Supers kind of thing: they don't work in games where most opponents end up dead or prisoners, or where the characters travel so widely that the enemies would have serious trouble finding them. If you aren't happy with Enemies, you donlt have to make them available. Changing them on existing characters would be disruptive ... but think about it next time.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Frequently-occurring opponents are a Supers kind of thing: .

Robin Hood begs to disagree. Robin Hood also points out the obvious, which is that if opponents are that frequent, it's a good idea for the whole party to get the same Enemy.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by johndallman

As GM, you do not have to roll. You are entirely at liberty to have the enemies show up when it suits you, and not when it does not. You should be guided to some degree by the frequency that the PCs took, for their enemies, but you do not have to disrupt your story for random dice rolls.

Or, as an option, if you want to do stuff without the Enemy appearing, roll to see if they would show up anyway, and make a note of it, for each session where you explicitly don't want to have to think of ways to fit the Enemy into the session.

Then, when you feel like the Enemy would be welcome or at least not disruptive or awkward, roll for appearance that session. If the roll says they don't show up, you can just subtract from your previous tally of successful Enemy appearance rolls from the times when you didn't have them appear anyway.

That's what I do, and I like the way it works for my group.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Second, you don't have to let PCs take disadvantages that will disrupt the campaign or won't work with it.

That would be my first advice. It depends heavily on the campaign. Super heroes are going to be facing one or more of the enemies in their rogues gallery nearly every adventure. If you've got any kind of story arc in mind, it would be disruptive to have every session be about some unrelated enemy of one of the PCs.

For most campaigns, I would simply use the same rule RPK lists on his MyGURPS page: Dependents and Enemies...may be only taken with a Frequency of "6 or less" or "9 or less" without special GM permission. For a particularly large group, I might even require permission for a "9 or less" Frequency. In a high story game (like overthrowing the empire, as opposed to an adventure-of-the-week style of game), I'd require the enemy be tied to the story to get said permission.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by RyanW

That would be my first advice. It depends heavily on the campaign.

For most campaigns, I would simply use the same rule RPK lists on his MyGURPS page: Dependents and Enemies...may be only taken with a Frequency of "6 or less" or "9 or less" without special GM permission. For a particularly large group, I might even require permission for a "9 or less" Frequency.

Yes. A 9 or less has the enemy fails to show up 62.5% of the time; with six players, you will have a session with no enemy only 5.96% of the time. Essentially, your scenario becomes driven by the archnemesis of the week. That only works for certain campaigns.

Bill Stoddard

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Yes. A 9 or less has the enemy fails to show up 62.5% of the time; with six players, you will have a session with no enemy only 5.96% of the time. Essentially, your scenario becomes driven by the archnemesis of the week.

Or the bizarre teamup of two or three Archnemeses :)

Originally Posted by whswhs

That only works for certain campaigns.

A boon to the cinematic supers GM who needs a inspirational nudge for the next adventure... Or in a game about hyper-complex political machinations (V:tM springs to mind for nearly-as-bizarre alliances). A headache to a GM who already had a plan for some NPCs doing some things that are suddenly thrown all askew by Enemies.

[schmeelke]

How about a finer resolution to the FoA roll? (I have to go to work now, but I'll be back...)