So guys, help me figure out this thing. The fighter gathered up some coin and like an 8-year-old she said “I wanna buy a magic item!” I asked her “well, what kind of magic item?” she replied “I don’t know, just any magic item is fine!” and I said “well, we’re in an Azer underground secret settlement with a planar market, chances are this time you can actually buy magic items for coin. Let’s roll supply!” dang-she missed the roll. I described her buying a “magic axe” that would “slay any dragon with one hit” from a skinny, roughed up Azer that strangely disappeared suddenly after the trade. Needless to say, the axe melted down a few minutes later. [edit: here I stopped my description of the miss] She then asked around about that particular Azer and people there laughed and gave her his name, although they also said she probably would never see him again. She made peace with herself and we went on. But I sort of feel that it was too much of a hard move by my side. I mean, I basically described a whole scene all by myself. Is this correct?
So guys, help me figure out this thing.
So guys, help me figure out this thing.
You did one of many possible things there. The axe could have been purely mundane, the axe could have turned her into a dragon at the first taste of dragon blood, the axe could have worked as promised but raised the same dragon as a dracolich at the next moon rise, the axe could have done what it said on the tin but be useless against anything else, the axe could have killed any dragon but informed it’s family who the killer was. The option you took was not the cruelest path nor the kindest, just one of many, many.
The only thing I would add is that you may have missed an opportunity to move the fiction forward by having her find a lead on the Azer, however how small. Then the missed roll and blown money could turn into a chasing down a thieving ne’er-do-well and shaking her coin out of his overheated pockets.
Of course, you could still do that.
Josh Mannon so it’s ok for me to grab a seemingly-larger-than-usual authority if it’s appropriate when describing a miss. I don’t know why, I felt uncomfortable when I was just telling the whole story without any possible interruption from the players until the axe faded.
Roane Beard actually, I gave her his name, and the settlement is very small! I was expecting from her to go and find out the con man, and I was ready to make up magical Azer forgerers-thieves and whatnot, but instead she said “c’est la vie” and lost interest in him! Maybe during the next session she will show some interest of sort and then I will push things in that direction.
I would have probably stopped in there somewhere and asked what the players were doing.
I likely would have stopped right after describing the axe melting, but I definitely don’t think you did wrong. You should see how much I end up narrating in Mouse Guard GM’s Turns 😉
You can always bring him back later as a recurring character. In fact, the situation almost demands that he make another appearance.
There are lots of fun and interesting ways to introduce your con-man into the game. The players see him peddling his wares in another city or the same one later, they have to seek him out for information, or because they need a foger, or the find him captured and tied up in their travels, his luck finally run out!
Aaron Friesen re-reading it, it wasn’t clear in my first post, but indeed I stopped right after the axe melted!
Mad Adric if the players do something to give importance to the guy, sure!