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Either way is fine.

These types of campaigns usually end abruptly when all the unmanaged consequences of their actions finally catch up with them, so if you can handle it, you might just want to let it run its course.

Personally, I like campaigns that are largely driven by the players (for better or for worse), but it can be extremely difficult for the GM since you can't really plan ahead very far.

--flatline

I say let the wanton bloodshed continue. Eventually, one of the players is going to kill or torture someone who has contacts in really high (or low) places, and the PCs will pay for their actions.

Sounds like your group has an idea what they want to do. So I say run with it and allow it to be fun. You can still challenge the group by throwing tough good guys at them trying to stop them. It's something different than most campaigns. One thing you may want to do is make a shop owner tougher than them in your next session. Also give the guy back ups not far away to battle your group.

Severus Snape wrote:I say let the wanton bloodshed continue. Eventually, one of the players is going to kill or torture someone who has contacts in really high (or low) places, and the PCs will pay for their actions.

they should start paying the cost right now in that people are "looking for" the missing people. Or that their rep will start getting them to have to pay more credits for things cause people figure they have the money to pay more.

FQScout wrote:This week i started a rifts game that quickly turned from what i thought was going to be a group of heroes to well; some of the most ruthless bandito's ive ever met. Killing shop owners, lawmen, stealing; the list goes on and one. But i expressed a sense of wanting to change the partys direction to the "lead" of the team and he thinks its a good idea. Now How should i go about taking the most ruthless psychics ive ever met who have the tundra rangers, coalition and mindwerks after them; to heroes for the meek and downtrodden. Or should i let bloodshed continue. Any thoughts?

Honestly I find myself wondering how it managed to go from a 'group of heroes' into 'the most ruthless banditos' you ever met? What kind of alignments did everybody start with because if this did start out as a group of heroes, either you're letting them run rampant with little to no consequences for their actions or there were some pretty serious alignment changes occurring. Stealing, I can see coming from any selfish or evil alignment. Killing Lawmen is circumstantial based on the viewpoints of the characters versus the actual status of the lawman in question... was he a corrupt cop or a paragon of justice? Were the players defending themselves or was it outright murder? etc., etc.... and The killing of shop owners? Again, much depends on the circumstances and viewpoints, but it still boils down to cold murder in the end with this one because regardless of all of it, a shop owner is still an innocent (at least relatively) civilian...
It sounds to me like you either have a bunch of players with Anarchist, Miscreant or even Diabolic alignments, or a bunch of guys playing something other than those 3 alignments and not quite understanding exactly what it means to 'play in character'. Is there anyone in the group with a Good alignment? Even Unprincipled? Because the wanton bloodshed and acts of murder going on here would be rather offensive to anyone with these alignments and action of some kind woulod be taken. Even something as simple as just going to the authorities and giving an anonymous tip would be acceptable if not just outright stepping up and saying "Hey, we're not supposed to be the BAD guys here!".
If, however, you have a gang of cutthroat bandits and criminals for a group... let them run around as they will... in time, they'll frak somebody off that will come back for blood and heads. Given their apparent penchant for killing shop owners, the group could see businesses closing up tight the moment they walk into town as the owners scramble for their lives. And the Black Market, the Naruni, the Splugorth and other very large, very powerful, very dangerous merchant empires could have a hand in somebody's pocket as well. And they don't appreciate their profits getting cut into by a bunch of murderous thugs with a wild hair up the wazoo and may take a particularly keen interest in someone killing off their 'employees'. So they've slaughtered the law in the town they were in? I guess that means the towsfolk have no other choice but to make that call to the CS outpost for help with the 'dangerous criminals terrorizing their poor little village that will do anything... including join the CS... to be safe...'. Bonus points are scored on this one if anyone in the group happens to be a mage or D-Bee... oh wait... they're Psychics?! Do I hear a few CS Dog Packs baying in the distance with a squad of Psi-Stalkers holding the leashes? Why yes... I believe I do.
And if they do manage to turn over a new leaf and begin living and acting like heroes... don't think for a SECOND that it'll make all these past deeds just go away... quite the contrary... it will make their lives even rougher. Word spreads fast about people doing things like what they've done. Even if they live the lives of saints from the first moment on, very few will trust them if their previous reputation is known. They will be distrusted, ostracized, even attacked and/or run out of town just for showing up regardless of what they say or do to convince the people otherwise because 'We already heard about your murderin' thugs! We don't want yer kind causin' no trouble!' It's easy to be a bad guy... it's near impossible to change to a good guy, at least in the eyes of another.
However it goes, keep us posted... I know I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out.

Good luck and great gaming!

Let it run it's course, but don't hold back on the punishment that others bring to bear. Don't make it inescapable though, allow them to work under the radar for some Cyber-Knights to show that they have truly changed their hearts, and when the Knights are finally convinced that they have truly changed their ways, set them up with new identities and stuff like that.

FQScout wrote:This week i started a rifts game that quickly turned from what i thought was going to be a group of heroes to well; some of the most ruthless bandito's ive ever met. Killing shop owners, lawmen, stealing; the list goes on and one. But i expressed a sense of wanting to change the partys direction to the "lead" of the team and he thinks its a good idea. Now How should i go about taking the most ruthless psychics ive ever met who have the tundra rangers, coalition and mindwerks after them; to heroes for the meek and downtrodden. Or should i let bloodshed continue. Any thoughts?

Well next time I court-martial some one don't let him break out of jail and a key problem would be gone.

JuliusCreed wrote:

FQScout wrote:This week i started a rifts game that quickly turned from what i thought was going to be a group of heroes to well; some of the most ruthless bandito's ive ever met. Killing shop owners, lawmen, stealing; the list goes on and one. But i expressed a sense of wanting to change the partys direction to the "lead" of the team and he thinks its a good idea. Now How should i go about taking the most ruthless psychics ive ever met who have the tundra rangers, coalition and mindwerks after them; to heroes for the meek and downtrodden. Or should i let bloodshed continue. Any thoughts?

Honestly I find myself wondering how it managed to go from a 'group of heroes' into 'the most ruthless banditos' you ever met? What kind of alignments did everybody start with because if this did start out as a group of heroes, either you're letting them run rampant with little to no consequences for their actions or there were some pretty serious alignment changes occurring. Stealing, I can see coming from any selfish or evil alignment. Killing Lawmen is circumstantial based on the viewpoints of the characters versus the actual status of the lawman in question... was he a corrupt cop or a paragon of justice? Were the players defending themselves or was it outright murder? etc., etc.... and The killing of shop owners? Again, much depends on the circumstances and viewpoints, but it still boils down to cold murder in the end with this one because regardless of all of it, a shop owner is still an innocent (at least relatively) civilian...
It sounds to me like you either have a bunch of players with Anarchist, Miscreant or even Diabolic alignments, or a bunch of guys playing something other than those 3 alignments and not quite understanding exactly what it means to 'play in character'. Is there anyone in the group with a Good alignment? Even Unprincipled? Because the wanton bloodshed and acts of murder going on here would be rather offensive to anyone with these alignments and action of some kind woulod be taken. Even something as simple as just going to the authorities and giving an anonymous tip would be acceptable if not just outright stepping up and saying "Hey, we're not supposed to be the BAD guys here!".
If, however, you have a gang of cutthroat bandits and criminals for a group... let them run around as they will... in time, they'll frak somebody off that will come back for blood and heads. Given their apparent penchant for killing shop owners, the group could see businesses closing up tight the moment they walk into town as the owners scramble for their lives. And the Black Market, the Naruni, the Splugorth and other very large, very powerful, very dangerous merchant empires could have a hand in somebody's pocket as well. And they don't appreciate their profits getting cut into by a bunch of murderous thugs with a wild hair up the wazoo and may take a particularly keen interest in someone killing off their 'employees'. So they've slaughtered the law in the town they were in? I guess that means the towsfolk have no other choice but to make that call to the CS outpost for help with the 'dangerous criminals terrorizing their poor little village that will do anything... including join the CS... to be safe...'. Bonus points are scored on this one if anyone in the group happens to be a mage or D-Bee... oh wait... they're Psychics?! Do I hear a few CS Dog Packs baying in the distance with a squad of Psi-Stalkers holding the leashes? Why yes... I believe I do.
And if they do manage to turn over a new leaf and begin living and acting like heroes... don't think for a SECOND that it'll make all these past deeds just go away... quite the contrary... it will make their lives even rougher. Word spreads fast about people doing things like what they've done. Even if they live the lives of saints from the first moment on, very few will trust them if their previous reputation is known. They will be distrusted, ostracized, even attacked and/or run out of town just for showing up regardless of what they say or do to convince the people otherwise because 'We already heard about your murderin' thugs! We don't want yer kind causin' no trouble!' It's easy to be a bad guy... it's near impossible to change to a good guy, at least in the eyes of another.
However it goes, keep us posted... I know I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out.

Good luck and great gaming!

Oh and I agree with all this

Nice!

Nicely handled!

As long as they dont write in bright green font I think all crimes should be pardoned.

FQScout wrote:Well ive delt with the evil players problem ive been having. I placed them near a troubled town with slavery problem. Now they might have been evil; but they werent heartless. Once they three players deduced the slavery issue in the town they struck up a militia of shop owners and bar patrons, then assaulted the slave master who is also the leader of the town (who was a ultra crazy). After a length and risky battle they one the fight with no casualties from the party. As they were freeing the slaves some tundra rangers caught up to them,
and demanded they surrender. The most ruthless party member being a third level burster and who had the most bounty turned himself over and spared the rest of the party by offering a major artifact and identities of several pecos raiders who were his dire connections. The rangers excepted and the party members agreed that when they were able to meet again they would. It was a good session to GM i was glad to see things turn out the way they did. Well the next sessions in a couple days ill keep you all posted.

Thanks for reading.

Well done... and kudos to your Burster for taking the plunge on potential self sacrifice there with the Tundra Rangers... big bonuses there with the future dealings with various NPC's as well as a nice xp boost for giving up the artifact and contacts. But don't let up on them yet... one good deed and sacrifice to the authorities is a good step, but they still have quite a rep to live down still... I wonder if a dead shop owner has some family willing to hire a bounty hunter or 5 to get some old fashioned double barreled justice?
On a similar note to this whole thing... remember, the bad guys remember getting done wrong just as well as the innocents and good guys do... those contacts your Burster turned over are most likely gonna have a few friends that may start hunting for 'dat doity rat fink what toined 'em in'. Yeah, it puts the players in a 'Damned if you do damned if you don't' situation... But at least the Tundra Rangers may actually be a little more willing to help the players a bit rather than leave them to the wolves of the underworld.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted! Good luck and great gaming!

FQScout wrote:Well one of the players had a leap of absence this week due to transportation problems so i told the others PC's his Psi-Operator (who is the missing player) went to a nearby town to grab some supplies for the reconstruction of the towns electrical grid which was damaged in the fight against the Governors men. So it opened up with the player who is a telekinetic warrior (Ben)drinking in a bar wondering about his burster friend in jail and his other companion on the road and if hes safe. All of a sudden vampires attacked the town demanding slaves and threatening to kill those responsible for the missing slaves. The warrior Ben fuaght the vampires in the bar as best as he could and as he was about to lose the fight entirely a techno wizard (the PC's who was the bursters new character) and a Temporal Wizard bursted out of a portal and helped Ben fight off the vampire squad off. The Borgs Bar was burned to the ground in the fight. After meeting up with some locals and asking about the rest of the town the went back to Bens suite at the Harrison hotel to rest and plan. In the morning they went out to find the source of the vampires and destroy them. After buying a captures vampire that was onsale by a mad techno wizard shop owner they interrogated him in the suite room at the hotel and recovered the location of the vampires. After wich the set the vampire free as long as he vowed to help the town anyway he could. Riding out to the location they found a hidden old missle silo where the vampires were hiding out. The techno wizard found a computer lab inside and activated the sprinkler system destroy most of the vampires that were about in the below levels of the facility. Once they took the time to fight the other vampires in several risky battles they happened apon the true menace in the main missile bay. It was a Spatial wizard (a occ from The Rifter) who was using the vampires and the vampire intelligence as his own minions to construct a old world nuclear transcontinental missile to attack Chi-town with (this character was a old war hero from Tolkeen still very upset with how the war turned out and wanted vengeance.) Another battle began to stop the mad wizard from attack chi-town. With the missle set i limited the amount of rounds the battle could be before the missile launched. The Temporal Wizard and the Telekinetic distracted the mad mage while the techno wizard went about de-arming the missile. After a quick few round the missile was disarmed and the mad wizard tried to make a qet away through a portal; the temporal wizard cut his escape off by closing the portal. With defeat nearby for the spatial wizard he threatened is he lived he would attempt the event again. So they had no choice but to put him out of his misery. After they won the battle they were about to leave when the warrior got the idea to make the silo a mercenary hang out. We concluded the game session there.

Im glad to see this session turn out okay in the end. Im beginning to wonder how much the other characters alignment has changed. We will see and time will tell.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for sharing! Glad to see things are working out well