Flexibility and shotguns

Here's a little snippet from an RP I was doing last night, and I think a good example of flexibility.

The situation:

An investigator for the DoD (The story arc revolved around missing nuclear warheads) and a geologist (no relation, just a fun character) are going to the den of the town's local biker gang. They've been invited, with the promise of extra information in a seemingly impossible case. They know the bikers (The Flames) are involved, just not how much.

Once they arrive, they meet with the spiritual leader of the Flames, who just goes by Callahan. He runs his mouth for a little bit, then tells them he won't trust them until they do something for him- take a shotgun to the head of a crazy guy in the back room. Eric has been overtaken by Callahan's fiery oratory, and believes that he can only realize his full potential by "leaving this meat-sack of a body." Callahan thinks he's a lost cause, and want the players to mercy-kill him,"the way a true human would."

Callahan's a crazy, superstitious bastard.

The setup:

It's a test. The shotgun is loaded with a blank (the players never checked it), and Eric isn't actually crazy. What Eric is trying to do is goad the players into shooting him by acting wretched, depressed, and over eager for death. Callahan figures if the players actually shoot, it means they're willing to do "what's right," thus letting him trust them.

The complication:

Neither of the players wanted to kill Eric. The DoD agent already has too many ghosts, and can't justify killing to solve the case. The geologist has roughly the same reason, and is more interested in putting Eric through therapy.

As a last-ditch effort, Eric started to beg them to just bring the shotgun in, and let him do it himself. he offered the geologist some information she'd been looking for, in exchange for his own immortality (boom).

I admit, I did expect the players to eventually shoot Eric. I played him as hard as I could, and tried to get them into the idea of mercy-killing him. Wouldn't take. A bad GM would have tried to force the issue further, but I adapted.

The players were quite clever- they suggested Eric stay alive, so he can gather as much worldly information as possible while he's still human, and operating on a human level. Having no counter-point, I worked a solution.

The solution:

After about fifteen minutes (real life) of bullshit philosophy versus merciful intentions, Eric leaned against the wall, and checked his watch. "Good job, you passed. Shotgun shell is a blank, by the way." He mostly looked smug with himself, delivered some dialogue in a sane manner, and gave the geologist the information she wanted anyway.

They went to Callahan for their information, and he gave them this basic spiel: By choosing to reason with Eric, and keep him alive, they proved they're better than the average person, who would have just shot him. This dedication to human life (as well as some really good arguments) tells him they can be trusted as "real" humans, so he gives them the information.

But, he only does it after they promise him (as humans) that what happened in the building, stays in the building. He gives them everything they need to know, and his goons even hold the door open for them.

The icing on the cake:

On the drive back to town, the DoD agent remarked that Callahan is a complete asshole, and the whole thing was incredibly douche-baggy. Mission accomplished.


More thoughts:

This situation was designed to increase tension, and test player's morality. What are they willing to do to recover two (decommissioned) nuclear warheads? Will they kill in something other than self-defense?

If I was a really good GM, I might have been able to play Eric hard enough to get them to shoot him. But, I'm not perfect. So, I adapted. After the first three minutes of conversation, I was 90% sure they wouldn't kill him, so I was partially stalling for time. I had to figure out a good reason for Callahan to pass them for not killing. So, convenient character excuse: Make up some pseudo-religious crap, and keep going.

The message I'm trying to get across is: Be ready to adapt. If I'd railroaded them into shooting Eric, that wouldn't have been any fun whatsoever. But, I need to give Callahan a good reason for trusting them. I suppose I could have just had him remark that "life is sacred, and we should preserve what we can," but that's really unlike him. He's got more fire in his blood than that.

A good GM can react to just about anything and keep the story going- a great GM can make it look like that was part of the plan the whole time.