Turning the weakest players character into a demi-god

[MADMANMIKE]

My weakest player has been going through some personal issues, and this led him to unfriend me on Facebook. When we game he's never strong on his rolls and doesn't see the value of his abilities in the game to the situations at hand.

He's playing a Psi-Mystic in Palladium Fantasy, and despite having some pretty decent stats never seems to get the rolls necessary to be on top of things.

So I've decided to drown his character. But when his character is at the end, he'll have a vision of Ippotomi who will explain that he is her son. He'll then rise to the surface, innately using the water elemental magic his heritage affords him.

I'm inclined to help him play the discovery of the character's abilities by not revealing them until he tries to use them. I'll give him the stats at that reveal moment, but the magic abilities will just come into play from my end and he can then make note of them for future reference.

I've had a few power gamers over the years I would never have let play a Demi-God even if they'd asked, but in this situation I think it will work out good.

I'm curious if anyone else has tried this..

[Soldier of Od]

Interesting. It shows great character to take a problem like this and try to solve it in a way that gives the player a big edge despite him unfriending you etc. I hope it works out!

I have no problem with a GM simply buffing a player's character if it works (or debuffing - ask Dark Elf about his multiple personalities!). I had a plan to kill off one of our players' characters (a preist of 10th level) only to have him resurrected by his pantheon as a kind of godling in appreciation for services rendered. However, that player no longer roleplays (no animosity, he just grew out of it. At 35!) so i never got to implement it. I also once gave a couple of my players' characters latent minor psionics without telling them (after a conversation where they said it would have been cool if they had such and such a power). It was interesting letting them see some invisible creatures etc., with them not knowing at first why it was happening.

I guess the only issue is if any of the other players resent this player being granted such a boon. I'm personally happy for another player to have a cool story like this going on and just playing may part until 'my bit', but some players might think they are being gypped in favour of the troublesome player. If he is a 'weak player' though, will he be able to handle all this power without it going to his head?

If the rest of your group are cool with it then go right ahead!

[grandmaster z0b]

I have a City Rat in my Rifts campaign who is a d-bee from unknown origin who will develop racial psychic powers overtime. The player is aware that of the idea but she doesn't know how it will play out. I plan to wait until they are in an almost doomed scenario and then she will suddenly find a new power and have to develop them from there.

To make it interesting the first power she will develop is a "psychic scream" that affects everyone in a 20 ft radius; those who fail to save are helpless for the rest of the round whilst they clutch their head in agony from the piercing scream (which is psychic and doesn't make any real sound). The downside is that it affects friends and enemies alike but as time goes on she'll learn to control it better (focus it into a cone and then later to target a specific individual).

The reason to introduce these powers is because she has some great hacking and streetwise skills but is fairly underpowered in combat. I wanted to give her something that not only gave her a bit of a combat boost but was interesting to role-play without making her too powerful.

[Alrik Vas]

While I think your idea can be a lot of fun, I find myself questioning your motives. Being that its stemming from something personal. I'd try to keep game consequences separated from real life actions, but that's just my opinion.

[ShadowLogan]

I'm not sure if turning their character into a demi-god will help here. You mention a few times that they basically have "bad dice rolls" a lot. I don't think going Demi-god will help in that respect. You might want to have them try out different dice, or setup some type of paired rolling where Person A rolls for Person B, or some other method to address the dice roll aspect as a DG doesn't do anything really about the consistent bad dice rolls.

[MADMANMIKE]

I have nothing personal against him, and what he has against me is in his head, a side-effect of his personal problems; His long time girlfriend cheated on him and she was the one who dumped him afterwards. So my motives are to help him start to have fun. I found out yesterday that during the last session he spent most of his time texting one of the other players about how bored he was.

I ran this by one of the other players who ran it by the other two regulars and none of them have a problem with it; they don't expect it to work and are prepared to quietly stop inviting him to the games if he doesn't straighten up, so for the most part, I'm the only guy in his corner. Perhaps it's more that I'm in his character's corner than his, and I'm just hoping to inspire the player to take enough interest in the character to actually play it.

As to the dice rolls, upping all his Attributes via Demi-God status will increase the bonuses to offset his rolls. He'll also get a holy weapon and some magic armor when he has the vision, but the spells will be in my court to use on his behalf when necessary. For example, if a teammate is in trouble and he says he wants to help them, I'll put the appropriate spell effect into place to do the save and then give him the stats on that spell after the fact.

[Alrik Vas]

Well, good luck. The escape of RPGs might so the trick if he has a few good sessions.

[Thinyser]

While I think your idea can be a lot of fun, I find myself questioning your motives. Being that its stemming from something personal. I'd try to keep game consequences separated from real life actions, but that's just my opinion.

Agreed. It almost seems as if the character is being rewarded for both ingame failure and the player's out of game personal attitude. Hope it works though. Never been cheated on (that I know anyhow) and I'm sure if it ever did I would not handle it well.

[The Dark Elf]

Interesting. It shows great character to take a problem like this and try to solve it in a way that gives the player a big edge despite him unfriending you etc. I hope it works out!

I have no problem with a GM simply buffing a player's character if it works (or debuffing - ask Dark Elf about his multiple personalities!)!

The in game ones? Hehe.

MMM I think its great of u to try and keep the guy interested! It's all about having fun and keeping the stories challenging which we know you are more than capable of. If the rest of the players are cool with it great and if it doesnt work out then its just not his thing...