... what should the GM do?

As people can see from my posted campaign page (which must have been boring since no-one commented on it), my group's characters are deep in the poo.

• Raimundo is on the run, wanted for resisting arrest (1 count), escaping police custody (1 count), and grevious bodily harm of a police officer (2 counts); this came about from the first session where his Rage Stimulus against "dictators" kicked in and he smacked over two cops.
• Erica has been released on bail for resisting arrest (1 count) and assaulting a police officer (1 count) this came about from her supporting Raimundo.
• Edward is currently without charges, but is cautioned to remain in the territory as he'll be wanted as a material witness in probably two trials.
• Cadel is currently without charges, but if identified by the police, will be up for escaping police custody (1 count), tampering with a crime scene (1 count), possession of a stolen item (1 count), possession of an unregistered firearm (1 count), and possession of a firearm without a licence (1 count).

Next they went to visit the suposed killer (Edward Seaton). While there they threatened him, pushed him around, and stole his journal and spare magazine. So if he complains that's for each of them making threats (1 count), theft (1 count), and assault (1 count).

Then they wiped the journal (from Seaton) and murder weapon (from the crime scene) down of everyone's prints, and mailed it to the cop Martin. So that's a possible charge of tampering with evidence (1 count).

Then they decided to go and visit Seaton again, dragged him off the street, beat the shit out of him and tossed him in the skip bin. They also swiped his mobile phone and wacky weed. Presumably he won't report the theft of wacky weed, but the rest he might decide to report to his father, Detective Constable Seaton of the Armed Offender's Squad (yes the PCs knew Seaton's dad was a cop when they beat him up and tossed him in the skip bin. So that's possible charges of kidnapping (1 count - how far you drag the victim isn't a factor in these things), grevious bodily harm (1 count each), and theft (1 count). Since Cadel ran interference and chatted up the waitresses walking past to work to distract them, he and Edward (who agreed he should do so), that's another for each of them of conspiracy to conceal a kidnapping (1 count).

Ho hum.

What now? I already twisted the game world's reality by not having the cops just go around asking other students who were Edward and Erica's friends (Cadel and Raimundo) so they didn't have to get caught if they laid low. It might be twisting it a bit much for Ed Seaton not to report his being horribly assaulted to his father the detective. Normally he might just wander off and "magick" himself better, but since he's already under a coud of being accused by the PCs of murdering his girlfriend Lucinda... I mean, their assaults on him causing his confession might be just what he needs in court to bring in that good old "reasonable doubt." He has a Mind score of 70, is that enough for him to be that cunning?

Anyway, they have fucked up big time, and it looks like the rest of the campaign will be less underground and more Oz, or if we're lucky, Prison Break. What do you do when the PCs really fuck themselves up? Some GMs like to teach their players a lesson, I don't, I like them to have fun. But I like to have fun, too, which means keeping the game world plausible and more or less sane. What do you reckon?

Sounds like you need to have one of those talks.

I say as a GM you're perfectly within your rights to bring down the law. But you know, your players will probably enjoy it.

On the one hand, players sometimes don't realize that PC actions will have consequences. On the other hand, I think your list of charges might be overblown. There are a few that you could let slide or ignore.

But definitely, bring it. Bring the law. Give them a sliver of a chance to work their way out of it, but BRING IT!

I tried to have "one of those talks" with a couple of my players in a Traveller game once.  They were a pair of free-wheeling nobles with a ship of their own who thought they could get away with anything.  One of the player's character had accidentally beaten the other's girlfriend to death with a bag of rocks (no, please, don't ask), and I had somehow managed to let that one slide (yes, I'm ashamed of that now).  But the two of them liked to start rollicking brawls in starport bars, and as long as they kept things silly, I had no problem with it.  However, on this one occasion, the already-unconvincted murderer decided to pick up a chair and break it over the back of an already-downed Imperial Navy officer.  The roll was completely random -- broken neck.  So, the law came down on him hard, and there was just no getting around it.

This is where I tried to have "one of those talks" with them.  One character had committed a cut-and-dried homicide.  The other was an accessory to the crime.  Both of them had accumulated a laundry list of other violations ranging from the serious to the sublime.  They were going to prison, and there was no doubt about that.  Now, I could make the Prison Planet adventure pretty cool, but...

...They'd have none of it.  They declared that they would sooner quit the game than suffer the indignity of playing their characters' prison sentence out.  Furthermore, they blamed me for spoiling their fun and expressed their opinion that I was taking it all too seriously.

I liked the game, I liked the campaign, I was young.  I helped the other players in the campaign (who had not been involved in the brawl) work out a jail-break, which turned the two nobles into fugitives (along with their otherwise innocent shipmates).  This was acceptable by the players as a group, and I got over it with a sigh of relief.

Incidentally, the two players in question were two of my best friends at the time.  Within five years we'd suffered a couple of serious fallings-out and are no longer friends by any stretch of the imagination (though -- and this is kind of creepy -- those two are still thick as thieves).

!i!

Get them off the hook but at a price.

Bring down the law, JimBob.  Otherwise you lose control of any in game consequences short of bigger magic than theirs - which isn't really what UA is about.  
Just give them a chance to get out of it.  What I'd do is have the schmuck they kidnapped, complain to his father but not tell the whole truth.  So they get a high up copper "interested" in them but not in an official way - yet.

Well, I guess the players thought "Nobels" meant "Above the law" which, in all fairness it often does.

As an alternative to having "the law" come down on some pompous asses like that, you could have had the comrades of the naval officer they'd murdered work to craft their doom. That might have been realistic, hard working military personell seeing a spoiled nobel brat get away with killing a man they respect would make a fine plot.

Quote from: JimBobOzAnyway, they have fucked up big time, and it looks like the rest of the campaign will be less underground and more Oz, or if we're lucky, Prison Break.

Depends on just how high-conspiracy your world is.

They get caught.  They're going to trial...

...And a talent-finder in the prosecutor's office offers them a deal, with the full understanding that they're a pack of scum-sucking psychopaths - exactly what he needs for this particular job.

Something very, very deadly.  Meaning that rather than purchasing boredom for their character, they've raised the sakes and purchased a big sign that reads "expendable and dangerous cannon fodder".

This, of course, only works if the game is camp enough for it to fit.

Well it seems to me your players are really pushing the limits of versimilitude Besides havin' the talk - where I'd ask them exactly what they think the tone of this campaign is - I'm thinking if they are playing interesting characters and seem to be having loads of fun, I'd work with what they are giving me.

Underground...Oz...Prison Break...maybe the reason the cops are not all over them like flies on shit, is because Ed's father (who I don't know if he's a potential BigBad) plans to round them up, and place them in an underground detention/lab where the inmates are subjected (without them knowing it off course to some sort of bizarre Darwinian experiments...kind of like Peter Hoeg's novel (if I'm remember correctly) only more extreme...and it's a fight to get out ) Just thinking out aloud.

I always make sure, my players are all on the same page as to the tone of the campaign before we begin play. These kinds of fuck ups rarely happen, and if they do, I try to work them into the campaign.

Regards,
David R

Sounds to me like your players are idiots, or really good players playing idiotic characters.  If they are already in this much trouble why don't they just kill Seaton off and be done with it.

I'm not a UA player, but it sounds to me that the characters arent the type whod be up to organising and carrying out a jailbreak if one of their number got caught.
If I was GMing, I'd be tempted to involk some handwavium in the shape of Secret Agent Man, who'd turn up and ward off the Police so the characters could go deal with the conspiracy for him.
Of course if the players screw up your games like this on a regular basis, I'd be tempted to let them get caught and do porridge

I'd bring the law on.  Make it possible for the group to get out of it, but they'll end up owing someone something for getting them to a safehouse or whatnot.

My first impulse is to squash them like bugs (I have the same kind of players... le sigh), but I think Levi is onto something. That is essentially the setup to "La Femme Nikita": a violent, incorrigible criminal is given one last chance. If they blow that chance... well, as far as the rest of the world knows, they're already dead.

It might be the best way to salvage the game, without simply turning it into a session of "Grand Theft Auto".

JimBob:  What sort of stuff would you and the players like their characters to be involved in?

I think the answer here is to give them more positive opportunities to concentrate on, not merely to work on handling the problems, but until I know what sort of positive opportunities would be cool it's hard to give any more specific recommendations.

The charges aren't overblown at all. They're a minimum.

The nature of a legal system is that they'll let little things slide if they've got big things to worry about, but if they're getting you for a big thing, they'll lump the little things in, too.

So suppose for example that someone does a home invasion on you, and you pull out an unregistered prohibited automatic weapon and try to blow him away. Against his attempted murder, your unregistered prohibited weapon is no big deal and they'll drop it, just confiscating the weapon. But suppose that this guy does the home invasion, sees your gun, then runs away, and you chase him down the street blazing away, and in the process get both him, and some poor sod crossing the street. Well then they're going to throw the book at you, and charge you with everything they can think of.

In movies and stories, we're used to the Good Guys vs the Bad Guys, and one side is entirely good, and the other side entirely bad, and if anyone ends up in jail, it's the bad guys. However, the law is quite capable of taking two people slugging it out and jailing both of them.

My players aren't idiots. They just got carried away with the moment, as lots of people do in game sessions. Also, they're not used to modern settings, where there's an organised legal system. That's why I've not gone all Law & Order on their arses.

It's a matter of mindset. Normally in an rpg scenario, like in an epsiode of CSI or Space: Above and Beyond, the PCs are the only ones who'll do anything, everyone else is unwilling or unable to act. In a realistic scenario, this isn't so - each does their part, and then hands over to the next lot. When you're used to the usual scenarios where the fate of the world is in your character's hands, it can be difficult to get into the mindset that sometimes you should just let things be; or if you do interfere, be cautious and subtle about it.

The other aspect is that when people are keen on gaming and have just one session a week, they can be eager for action. They don't take a cautious and sensible approach, because that's not as exciting as just walking in and smacking someone over, and they want to make the most of their game session

In truth, the only thing holding back the law right now is the thought of one of the players, the only one who'd take it personally. That was the player who had their character insist on bringing a lawsuit for wrongful arrest, insisting even though they were told that the lawsuit would fail, and in any case would happen only after the campaign was over. The other players are good sports. Hell, one didn't even complain when the lawsuit-player accidentally blurted out info so the cops could track him down.

Aside from the law, what other aspects could I bring in?