So I am doing a japanese themed game, aaand things are getting a big fugged up, like... Way more bleak than I intended.
Dark.. Dark Story.. First and foremost, i cant imagine a more evil villain, the guy is a rapist a killer and has this ideology that the strong must live to bring more suffering and than people can only achieve true greatness through suffering and pain... To the point where its fetishistic, he wont kill anyone who can fight back instead prefering to slaughter the weak and helpless or make the strong kill the weak. The players are like grains of sand to this guy he barely acknowlages them. Shimaru Ideology "Only through pain can ones true potential be reached... I do you a favour removing the things from your life that make you soft, see how powerful you have become in your efforts to rivel me"
Why he is so strong? now the next part He has a shinigami following him which is suppose to be the big hook to his power? Like he is a talented mage yes but his health is relitively low ( for a final boss big bad antagonist that is ) If they sneak up on em they might get em. but he Has this God of death lingering over him all the time and if it knows your name it can just use powerword kill. and topple you over ( I do allow death saves after it though so its not like they are outright dead dead, just get med attention fast levels of dead ) But it does make him rather untouchable.
Now the knowing names thing is pretty handy but like.. already all the players pretty much gave all there personal information including addresses, names and there mothers names to a single ninja masquerading as a little old man. So he can just go visit and kill there moms and dads and wait for them there.
Ontop of all that he is conniving... So one of my players wanted his family taken years ago by Shimaru's Oni general... so his whole plot has been to save them. Well he had these twin girls and they killed one of our players already, that player decided to play his characters sister who wants vengence.. well these twin girls are actually Daimons kids who have been brain washed and raised by shimaru... So now one player wants revenge against another players kids, so thats gunna end in a fight. Ontop of that If he isnt very careful Shimaru has a kill switch on his daughters as they are sustained by his magic which i thought was clever moral "Do i defeat the evil and risk the lives of my kids?" Hard choices.
Now thats fine and all creates a complicated dynamic but his wife who I on a whim decided should be coerced into being a concubine of Shimaru for the garentee of the safety of her kids was on a timer, when she gave birth it would kill her, well the players didnt catch up with ehr so a Jorogumo ( spider yokai ) is wearing her skin.. Now he thought he saved his wife, little victories yes? well no I thought he would figure out it wasnt his wife when she literally knew nothing about him but he made his relationship so obvious within the first few sentences she has been able to cold read him and piece together everything without answering any questions and is now sending a letter to shimaru about everything the party does before luring him into a cavern to drink him dry.. Now granted i think he will get out of it fine physically but.. god that poor man... Like it is genuinely hard for me to do this reveal now cause he just seems so happy!
Also he adopted a stray baby of a mother he accidently got killed i had no idea that was coming but... as you might know the big harry barbarian cannot breast feed so he has to basically go around begging new mothers to breast feed his baby for him... he is just such a sad broken man... Koodos to the player playing him though, its hard to protray a man that universally screwed and screwed up...
Anyway i guess i just wanted to get that off my chest and inquire if any of this is too much? The game is intended to be hard as nails and seem daunting and impossible at times. I will admit though as my players get stronger it becomes harder to challange them at this same level. Do you think iv gone too far or?
I'd say that, if the players are enjoying playing in this setting, knowing what the BBEG is all about and how effed-up everything is, it "should" be fine. I mean, it's gonna wreck the character even further, but the player will probably love it. Maybe take into consideration giving him something in return, mechanically, since it seems he will roleplay the everliving sh*t out of this outcome, something like a further bonus when he rages or something along those lines (as far as I got the character is a Barbarian, correct?).
Btw:
The game is intended to be hard as nails and seem daunting and impossible at times. I will admit though as my players get stronger it becomes harder to challange them at this same level.
Seems like you have been applying the same base philosophy of your BBEG to your players' characters, I am sure you'll find ways to screw with them as they proceed, at least until they face the BBEG ;P
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
They certainly are enjoying it. Iv a feeling if it were not for Chidori they would be much worse off, she is this Miko Shrine maiden about 14 years old and cute as heck, they all take turns fathering her... to the point where she took her first hit the other day.. at level 7 she had never been hit until that point cause they protected her so well but when she fell down they all gasped and panicked.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So I am doing a japanese themed game, aaand things are getting a big fugged up, like... Way more bleak than I intended.
Dark.. Dark Story..
First and foremost, i cant imagine a more evil villain, the guy is a rapist a killer and has this ideology that the strong must live to bring more suffering and than people can only achieve true greatness through suffering and pain... To the point where its fetishistic, he wont kill anyone who can fight back instead prefering to slaughter the weak and helpless or make the strong kill the weak. The players are like grains of sand to this guy he barely acknowlages them.
Shimaru Ideology "Only through pain can ones true potential be reached... I do you a favour removing the things from your life that make you soft, see how powerful you have become in your efforts to rivel me"
Why he is so strong?
now the next part He has a shinigami following him which is suppose to be the big hook to his power? Like he is a talented mage yes but his health is relitively low ( for a final boss big bad antagonist that is ) If they sneak up on em they might get em. but he Has this God of death lingering over him all the time and if it knows your name it can just use powerword kill. and topple you over ( I do allow death saves after it though so its not like they are outright dead dead, just get med attention fast levels of dead )
But it does make him rather untouchable.
Now the knowing names thing is pretty handy but like.. already all the players pretty much gave all there personal information including addresses, names and there mothers names to a single ninja masquerading as a little old man. So he can just go visit and kill there moms and dads and wait for them there.
Ontop of all that he is conniving...
So one of my players wanted his family taken years ago by Shimaru's Oni general... so his whole plot has been to save them. Well he had these twin girls and they killed one of our players already, that player decided to play his characters sister who wants vengence.. well these twin girls are actually Daimons kids who have been brain washed and raised by shimaru... So now one player wants revenge against another players kids, so thats gunna end in a fight.
Ontop of that If he isnt very careful Shimaru has a kill switch on his daughters as they are sustained by his magic which i thought was clever moral "Do i defeat the evil and risk the lives of my kids?" Hard choices.
Now thats fine and all creates a complicated dynamic but his wife who I on a whim decided should be coerced into being a concubine of Shimaru for the garentee of the safety of her kids was on a timer, when she gave birth it would kill her, well the players didnt catch up with ehr so a Jorogumo ( spider yokai ) is wearing her skin..
Now he thought he saved his wife, little victories yes? well no I thought he would figure out it wasnt his wife when she literally knew nothing about him but he made his relationship so obvious within the first few sentences she has been able to cold read him and piece together everything without answering any questions and is now sending a letter to shimaru about everything the party does before luring him into a cavern to drink him dry.. Now granted i think he will get out of it fine physically but.. god that poor man... Like it is genuinely hard for me to do this reveal now cause he just seems so happy!
Also he adopted a stray baby of a mother he accidently got killed i had no idea that was coming but... as you might know the big harry barbarian cannot breast feed so he has to basically go around begging new mothers to breast feed his baby for him... he is just such a sad broken man...
Koodos to the player playing him though, its hard to protray a man that universally screwed and screwed up...
Anyway i guess i just wanted to get that off my chest and inquire if any of this is too much? The game is intended to be hard as nails and seem daunting and impossible at times.
I will admit though as my players get stronger it becomes harder to challange them at this same level.
Do you think iv gone too far or?
Wow... that definitely is quite something...
I'd say that, if the players are enjoying playing in this setting, knowing what the BBEG is all about and how effed-up everything is, it "should" be fine.
I mean, it's gonna wreck the character even further, but the player will probably love it. Maybe take into consideration giving him something in return, mechanically, since it seems he will roleplay the everliving sh*t out of this outcome, something like a further bonus when he rages or something along those lines (as far as I got the character is a Barbarian, correct?).
Btw:
Seems like you have been applying the same base philosophy of your BBEG to your players' characters, I am sure you'll find ways to screw with them as they proceed, at least until they face the BBEG ;P
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
They certainly are enjoying it. Iv a feeling if it were not for Chidori they would be much worse off, she is this Miko Shrine maiden about 14 years old and cute as heck, they all take turns fathering her... to the point where she took her first hit the other day.. at level 7 she had never been hit until that point cause they protected her so well but when she fell down they all gasped and panicked.