Dealing with Player Curveballs

This week I ran my first session of Night's Black Agents (and GUMSHOE in general). My players seem to have found it to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next week's session but things went seriously off track. Here is how I dealt with the player curveballs and some lessons learned.

The Setup

Warning Spoilers ahead!!

Since this was just a filler for the 2 month break in our Apocalypse World game, I decided to run the introductory adventure (S)Entries with some alterations to limit the work I needed to do. Of course this being me, I then built a website, two possible vampire conspiracies, a second city for further action and lots of twists and excitement.

That was probably my mistake.

(S)Entries starts off slow with the PCs getting hired for a black bag job, working out how to steal an item and then getting to the real action.

Boring.

I added a chase scene and started the game in media res with them racing through the Serbian mountains hunted by a motorcycle gang.

Why a motorcycle gang? Well...I made some changes to the target, Lennart, so that he isn't as innocent as written. The theft trips some alarm bells and the conspiracy mobilizes the bikers (the wonderfully named Night Wolves) to retrieve it.

Anyway this caused the players to decide the meet site wasn't safe (which it wasn't but for different reasons). They call the Belgrade number with an alternate pickup location.

Well there went the main antagonist's (Anton) plan and mucks up the Paymaster's schemes (who in my story is betraying part of the conspiracy to enrich themselves).

Action/Reaction

So what now? Well at this point my excess prep came in handy. I know for instance from my work (and material in the adventure) that the Paymaster will clean up his/her handiwork once the job is completed, using supernatural resources if need be. Since the PCs called, they know about the trouble and would logically try to wipe everyone out to cover their own tracks.

Meanwhile there is no reason not have Anton be at the scene as well since it just makes clean up quicker. so they send him the details and he tries to put his ambush into play there.

Of course the players use Preparedness to set up a safehouse with surveillance equipment near the new meet site. This plus their surveillance expert helps them spot Anton, his thugs, and his sniper. A quick Infiltration and Chokehold later and the PCs have the only sniper in town. The team leader sneaks into Anton's BMW and catches him unawares. They uncover his double cross and seem to have everything tied up. Anton mentions the vampires and they laugh.

We are now 30 minutes to the end of the session so I unleash the werewolf minions of the Paymaster. The laughter dies quick. A brutal battle later we have two members of the team racing through Belgrade in a stolen convertible while the heavily injured analyst keeps a gun trained on Anton.

Lessons

So what can we learn from this?

First use your prep. I try to keep my NPCs' motivations and resources clear. I knew what the characters wanted and the connections between them so when things went sideways, I just looked at what would logically follow. Anton wants the laptop because he needs it to make his deal and not die of liver disease. He will go to whatever lengths to grab it. He has to move quick and hope the PCs are dumb. His attempt to set up the ambush wasn't terrible, it was just that he didn't have the home turf advantage

I also knew the paymaster intended to cut off all ties to the theft once they had the laptop; thus wiping out Anton and the PCs in one go made sense, especially with the rest of the conspiracy on the hunt.

Second, don't be afraid to take breaks. This is straight from Apocalypse World. Sometimes you just have to pause while you work through the implications of what just happened. You have to trust that players won't be bored while you react to their awesome plan. Actually I think my players love seeing me thrown for a loop. Or at least my wife does.

Third, be willing to use what your players give you. Don't shut down their ideas but trust them to add to the game. They want to jump on a pursuing motorcycle, kick off the rider and commandeer the bike? Awesome. They want to have a past with the villain including an incident with a dislocated thumb? Cool.

I already have a host of ideas for the next session. Putting the wounded (and relatively weak) analyst in charge of Anton gives him another chance at betrayal. The team leader left burner cell number with their ditched Jeep Cherokee for their pursuers. Someone is going to give her a call.

The lesson is to be flexible and use the best of what you and your players can bring to the table.