Jump to content

Ctrl+V


Ragitsu

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 15.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Ragitsu

    9683

  • Certified

    2512

  • tkdguy

    1156

  • Clonus

    825

Re: Ctrl+V

 

dimly recall a GURPS campaign from several years back, set in a slightly futuristic modern-world-with-fantasy setting. We were all playing police officers; mine was a shape-changing elf (yes, yes, I know), and I don't really recall the rest.

 

There was a particular detective on the same police force who was set up as our long-time antagonist. It was standard, reasonably enjoyable fist-shaking rivalry, where he tried to steal the credit for our cases and we tried to keep them out of his hands. We disliked him enough that some of our characters at least entertained the thoughts of arranging his murder, but "playing police officers" generally won out over annoyance.

 

In one particular case, we spend several sessions carefully setting up a particular event--I believe it was the arrest of a particular character--in such a way that this detective couldn't steal the credit. We went into long, detailed discussions of how to account for various loopholes, how to make sure this was foolproof, and so forth. With the GM fully aware of all of it, of course; these were largely in-character discussions, not out of character ones.

 

The session with the big arrest arrives. We put our plan into action, everything works perfectly--and the ******* detective walks up, cites some common regulation that none of us had known about OOC (none of us being police officers IRL) but that any cop should have known IC, and walks off with the credit and the arrest.

 

The game immediately ground to a halt as several of us asked the GM why the hell our characters wouldn't have known that. Why, in fact, he hadn't told us about this very obvious clause that our characters would know, all of them having the appropriate skills at high levels and above-average intelligence in general. Shouldn't someone, in all this planning, have been asked to make a skill roll and gone "Wait, there is this blatantly obvious flaw in our plan that will render everything we've done invalid!"?

 

The GM shrugs and points out that, hey, we did it wrong. We didn't account for that clause.

 

We point out that this is because we don't have the knowledge OOC that our characters do IC, and we were never given a chance to acquire it.

 

GM shrugs, says that it's not his fault if our plans aren't good enough, now let's continue, as ******* detective walks away with the credit for our arrest...

 

I don't remember how many of us left that game. At least two of us, and I made it pointedly clear on my way out that my character was leaving the force after that fiasco to take up his secondary hobby of demon-summoning for fun and profit as a long-term career.

 

Only campaign I ever walked out of, and I still get pissed off about it. If my character's IC knowledge is going to be purely limited by my OOC knowledge, having stats on the sheet for things like "Yes, he totally knows all police regulations" is kinda pointless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...