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We've attempted to play the scenario Mutiny at Warp from the Lure of the Expanse book as a means of getting the players to become a bit more familiar with their characters, to get them to act more in character and to see if they could deal with situations in a more creative way other than charging in like idiots.

The briefing, which I planned on distributing to them through a .pdf file on handheld devices, only they were too lazy to bring them along:

Security update: A rise in instances of insubordination has been reported, and there appear to have been far more fights than normal in areas below decks. This state of affairs has reached a point where it must be dealt with, or the performance and safety of the entire vessel may suffer.

Urgent: A mutinous bilge-rat by the name of Krooker has been preaching rebellion amongst the plasma conduit crews for several days, and only a few hours ago murdered a crew chief and captured one of the ship’s senior Tech-Adepts. Although this Adept is not irreplaceable, if word reached the Cult Mechanicus that one of their number has been abandoned to the likes of Krooker, the flotilla might find itself bereft of the support of the Adeptus Mechanicus, an extremely problematic situation.

Current situation: Krooker demands that the flotilla returns to Footfall immediately, and those crews wishing to depart be allowed to do so. He claims that the laws of the void have been broken in that the flotilla is setting course for the limits of the Expanse, and that any obligations the press-ganged crew had to its master are now invalidated. Unless their demands are met Krooker threatens to kill the Adept.

Complications: A large group of mutineers have managed to break into a secondary arms locker, equipping their selves with low-tier emergency arms. <contents listed below>

Proposed solution: Dispatch a security detail at once and see to it that the situation is dealt with any way possible, preferably without loss of the senior Tech-Adept.

Objectives:
1. Rescue senior tech-adept
2. Capture or kill the ringleader named “Krooker”
3. Clear the area of remaining mutineers

Known opposition: Between a dozen to twenty mutineers, armed with emergency weaponry procured from a broken into secondary arms locker. Armaments include shotguns, stub pistols and shock-staffs.

Support: NONE.

Mission specific equipment: The team has access to any resources they might require. NOTE: high explosive and other high yield weapons that could cause damage to the infrastructure and plasma vents are barred from entering the mission zone. There is an 80% chance of catastrophic failure should a stray shot puncture vital machinery.

So in short: Grab the hostage, keep collateral damage to a minimum and take care of the upstarts. The game was played across six AT-43 tiles arrayed 2 wide and three long providing me with plenty of rooms and walls to use for hidden deployments and stuff.

Long story short, they part-sneaked, part-blasted their way through, ending the scenario with a well-placed, if very questionable pistol shot that was not up for debate by the shootist, nor could it be fudged or addled with in any way as I was disbarred from rolling behind the GM screen. They were left with a rescued adept, several prisoners and a tiny XP reward.

The good:
- When they were thinking they acted competent enough, checking corners for foes and making use of flash grenades to stun groups of NPC's before charging them or gunning them down.
- They were also mindful of taking a prisoner at the outset, however..

The bad:
- When they took a half-dead man prisoner they weren't exactly coherent or thoughtful in their line of questioning. Instead of gathering info they asked for the contents of his pockets and what his name was.
- Team play vanished the moment the tech adept charged into a mob of foes, blocking the carefully set up firing lanes provided by the Arch Militant and Seneschal, whom were both range attack oriented and not that stellar in close combat.
- At the end they started an argument over who would kill the prisoners and tally them to their kill scores, something I have pointed out as being a pointless gesture, seeing as random opponents are not bags of XP and exposition.

The ugly:
- My GM screen was pulled aside because I was accused to fudging all my rolls, also exposing my notes and small map on enemy placement, which sucked a lot of what I planned out of the session.
- The participants were more interested in the XP reward at the end than the official debriefing.

So yeah, there we have it. There's more, but I don't really feel like recounting the foul glares and dickery I got.

This post comes across as mildly passive-aggressive, like you are trying to send a message to the players via the forum.

As the GM you need to make the players aware of certain things before the game begins. One of them is: It doesn't matter what you are rolling behind the screen. What you say you rolled is what you rolled, even if you don't have any dice behind the screen. If a player pulls down the screen, eject them from the game. You are the GM. If players don't want to play in the game you run, that's fine. If they want to 'GM from below', you thank them for their time and ask them to come back when they want to be players.

This is not to say you have to be a dick. You sound like a good GM with a lot of great ideas. Players hate feeling like they are not being played fairly. But if they are accusing you of faking die rolls, ask them to leave the game. They either trust you or they don't. If they don't, what's the point? Everyone is here for fun. Accusing the DM of fudging rolls is basically saying you're not having fun, but trying to be a dick of it. Ask them to shelve personal issues until after the game. If they didn't enjoy the session, they don't have to come back for another round. If you're a good GM then some will stay and they'll bring friends. There's no reason to let one or two donkey-caves ruin your session.

Aye, this place isn't the best place for a vent and I feel somewhat stupid for it.

The screen and my "cheating" was a huge issue to my brother, who behaves like a massive ass when he's playing games, for he MUST get the power up and win the game. Which are the kind of things that don't really apply to roleplaying games in my opinion.

Some stuff was cut from the mission because I got fed up with their horrible behaviour. I had planned for a boss battle of sorts where Krooker would give the old villain monologue out loud and summon his dragon to keep the PC's of his back. The dragon in this scenario being a deep space engineering suit with a heavy rivet gun and a welding unit converted into a flamethrower (Represented by an AT-43 Dragomirov Kolossus), which had the same stats as the regular hostiles, but with double the wounds, Unnatural Toughness (3), Unnatural Strength (3), power armour providing 9 AP to all locations (thus making it Hulking sized), a regular flamer and a rivet gun (Basically a bolter minus explosive and tearing qualities). I'm pretty sure that this would have given them something to worry about for a bit, maybe even show a bit more brain power than usual.

Live and learn, I'm sticking to scenario writing for others for now.

To be fair, I don't think Brook's group are really into the Role Playing aspect of Role Playing Games.

I'm sure it makes for very frustrating games at time, but I'm also guessing that his current group is also the only game in town...

I've been there!

I feel your pain!

Yeah, Brook's talked about this before - his group sound like a bunch of morons, and they make life difficult for him/push him around. Eventually you've got to push back though. Put your screen back up and tell them to STFU.

Seems like a great mission Brook. shame about the group. I know where your coming from.

The GMs lament. Seriously. Don't waste your effort on these jerks. From the amount of planning you seem to put in the game you should have players that want to put an equal amount of work. If you have to run games for them give them what they want. Just throw bad guyz and lootz. No reason needed.

Wish you could join our group Brook. I think you've got the right attitude for all of this.

You could take over from a member of our group who exited in a spectacular fashion.

Sucks to hear that you're playing with munchkins and douchebags, Brook. Try to keep at it, but don't be afraid to back out if you can't tolerate them any longer.

I think I'm done being a bitch, I mean GM. Maybe I'm just spoiled, or I shouldn't try to do this with a current gen bunch of gamers who aren't 40k savvy or willing to even try a proper roleplay of their characters.

Instead I'm going to stick to what I enjoy more. I've already cobbled together a really boring looking Warrant of Trade and am writing a fictional history to the dynasty.

BrookM wrote:I think I'm done being a bitch

Yeah! Next time you see your brother, punch him in the face. And if he asks why you just punched him in the face, punch him in the face again.

Ok... m... maybe I'm getting a little carried away. A little.

Okay, BrookM 101, the main reason I have a girly avatar is because I punch like a girl, throw like a girl and am often mistaken for one.

I thought you said you weren't a girl.

Last time I checked I still had working boy parts yes. But working in an environment with mostly female staff can do that to you I guess.

BrookM wrote:Last time I checked I still had working boy parts yes. But working in an environment with mostly female staff can do that to you I guess.

That just makes you a girly man, however, that gives you the element of surprise for when you punch your brother in the face. He won't be expecting it.

A punch to the face from a "Girly Man" is even better if it comes by surprise with a roll of nickles.

Not that I am advocating violence or anything but...

KNUCKLEDUSTERS!

Yes, I am kidding.

Finding a GOOD RPG group is very, very difficult.

I know because I'm still looking for one!

Good luck!