Game Dream #2

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #2

One of my favorite plot complications that I like to introduce as a GM is to create an environment where the players are forced to deal with unsavory characters that they would otherwise destroy. From either a player or GM/ST point of view, what is your most vivid recollection of this occuring in your games?

I have never successfully introduced this as a GM. The players always seem to have baulked at the idea, or purposefully failed at tasks.

In a very short campaign run by a friend of mine. I was playing a very opportunistic bard, and along with a fighter from the group we hired on to transport some merchandise from our current location to an outpost some three days away. The packages were quite small and we were paid quite well. We jumped at the job.

Now, on to the out of character information that I knew but Belak (the bard) did not. The rest of the party (a druid, a paladin, a fighter, and a cleric) had hired on to patrol the trail between the town and an outpost three days away. They were charged with the capture and return of any persons who were caught smuggling. The bard and the fighter dutifully went along to help our friends, all the while they were actually looking for us.

As time went on we discovered that the smugglers were actually transporting ingredients for potions. These potions were used to free slaves. I (not my character) later found out that the disreputable characters were assisting the freedom fighters, and the "good" characters were hunting down people for the slave traders. I thought it was a brilliant plot twist. The game came to an unfortunate halt before the rest of the party caught on to the smugglers in thier midst.