Also I wonder how capable your Rogue Trader is of slaving in the big leagues, like if you're going to go down that road you better sail, get out or drown
That's what made tonight really special. I've got a dear friend playing who is also kind of....well, he's fairly critical on things like style and theme. Dislikes games that actively try to make him feel bad or expect too much emo RP like White Wolf and such. And tonight he said to me "Well, you wanted real feels out of me. You got em."
It was a radical change in tone from what the campaign had been shaping up to be. I signed up for what happened tonight by appointing a notoriously unpredictable player as captain. And we rolled with it. But as the session was closing and I sort of elaborated on the fate of those sold to the Stryxis (in addition to being sold to Orks, Dark Eldar, whoever, they're modified or just thrown into vats and dissolved into biomass to make more vat-grown slaves)....I think everyone took a good long look at what just happened, what they got out of it, what kind of trouble they could be in for....and a lot of them didn't like what they saw. It almost got too real when a player (who is still virtually new to roleplaying btw) was like "So should we let [the elite military of the ship]....you know....."
But for the most part everyone was really thinking about it from their character's perspective even as they tabled talked it out, and it may have been one of the more real, unplanned moments of gaming I've had. Players with basically unlimited power totally brutalized a helpless colony because their Captain decided, more or less unannounced, that he was going to pillage the place. And it's not like that's...unusual for 40k. Shit, if we'd been playing Black Crusade no one would have batted an eye at that. But the change in tone from heroic explorers on a quest for vengeance to petty slavers and brigands.....it really hit home for people. I mean, he's the Captain right? Gotta back his play, no matter how distasteful you find it at the moment. But give a body some time to think about it and....I can haz mutiny?
Next week should be quite interesting I think. No one will mutiny but I imagine people will be asking for "Permission to speak freely sir." As a GM I feel like I won tonight; primarily because the entire next plotted adventure I had is still an entire solar system away, ready for next week, because we rode out the wave that is player-driven craziness and it became something tangible and believable and made for a whole session. I didn't make my players grmdrk. They did it to themselves.
Now I just need to figure out how to wind down so I can get to work tomorrow.
And incidentally, yeah, the adventure would make for a great Dark Heresy setup. Too bad they committed their crimes outside of Imperial space. But I guess if they piss off enough people, it's somewhere for an Inquisitor to start looking. Did I mention the ship's pilot is an Eldar. He's an Eldar.
Plot hooks omnomnomnom.
Author
Topic: WH40K discussion thread: [loading grimdark, please wait] (Read 1051611 times)