Putting Loved Ones In Jeopardy - Referee Question

[alex_greene]

Referees. I came upon an interesting situation recently, when I realised that I could not rely upon my usual tool of putting a player character's loved ones in jeopardy to raise the stakes in a game that was threatening to drag (it was getting all bogged down in trading this and brokering that, and I suddenly felt the need to pit them into some sort of action involving a narrow corridor in an abandoned hotel and the accompaniment of Bach's Sonata with Gunfire in Confined Spaces), because they hadn't actually created any significant NPCs to put in jeopardy.

How would you handle such an unconscionable situation in your games?

 

[Stainless]

Create a family for them! In my campaign, one of the characters will discover that in fact he was an "orphan" and that his real parents are nobles. He was sent to an alternative identity as a child in order to save his life as this particular noble family are being hunted. Now the cat is out of the bag, he's in danger, but he has a chance to clear his family once and for all.

 

[dreamingbadger]

or add an adorable oprhan/"target" who attaches themselves to one of the PC's... perhaps one of their trades wasn't so clever and it happend to be with someone who had stolen from "the Mob"/Keyser Soze or combine the two, the "orphan" is discovered in one of the crates that was stolen from the Mob

 

[rust]

If nothing else comes to mind, you can always have some stranger in
trouble shout "Help me, I am your brother !" and invent a story later. :lol:

 

[alex_greene]

I think I'll have someone deliver mail to the character, along the lines of the sister needing Cr. 5000 for medicines for the damplung, and oh by the way your mother's under arrest, or some such.

And give him a cunning knitted hat to wear.

But no bodies in coffins delivered through the mail.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Referees. I came upon an interesting situation recently, when I realised that I could not rely upon my usual tool of putting a player character's loved ones in jeopardy ... because they hadn't actually created any significant NPCs to put in jeopardy.

I suspect that's part of the problem right there. If you rely on using the PCs' family members as bait, then you're going to end up with an increasing number of orphans and amnesiacs as player characters. You may be overusing your usual tool.

(It's especially annoying when the _only_ time Uncle Bob or beloved sister Sarah shows up is when they're in peril.)

Give the PCs time to build up a few relationships (personal or business) that are wholly positive before threatening them. Have a family member show up and give the PCs a plot hook other than 'help I'm in jeopardy'. Maybe long-lost cousin Merl is now the mayor of a small colony on a newly-settled world, and offers the PCs a landholding in exchange for their help dealing with local wildlife or raiders. Have Granddad Moneybags kick the bucket, and let the PCs meet lots of relatives in a non-combat situation at the reading of the will.

Let your usual tool rest a bit. It'll be all the more effective when you bring it back.

 

[AndrewW]

You could have uncle Gar show up with a map showing the location of treasure planet.

Perhaps your niece Nancy shows up wanting you to teach her how to pilot a starship.

Your long lost brother Luke shows up and wants to go into business with you repairing landspeeders.

All sorts of possibilities for family other then just I'm in a jam help me out.

 

[The Chef]

if they are traders they would have regular haunts, give the players some time to get to know the locals, check their events from character creation, any contacts there you haven't mined?

or just they are the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time?

 

[Rex]

Yeah many of them SHOULD, have piles of Contacts and Allies. Those work just as well as loved ones.

I've also used the "6th Day" clause where I replace one of the party members with a Clone, and not tell that party member until I hand them a card for the big reveal, Now they have to do Bach's Sonata with Gunfire, while rescuing their Party Friend, with the help or not so much help of the clone pod person.

~Rex