Threatening Party Members

Last night we had an odd session that involved a shopping encounter.  It was very much needed and a great way for the GM to allow us to resupply without having to retrace our steps and restart.  The merchants were goblin, fey goblins who seem to ply their trade with anyone they can get to sign a 600 page agreement.  Since we still considered ourselves individuals and haven't conglomerated into single entity we each needed to chose to sign.   Half the party did.  Dante and my guy Adzeer chose not to, although I was tempted to.

When our party's thief started paying for things I discovered he'd been stashing money from the rest of us.  Adzeer, knew a little of what was going on, but didn't say much at the time.  Last night when he saw Luven shilling out more coin than he should have Adzeer threatened him.  The typical measuring of members followed, "Luven, if you keep stealing from us I might forget which way my healing spells work."  "Oh yeah, well maybe we'll be some place dark and you won't be able to cover your back all the time."  It was a short exchange, but enough I think to make the others uncomfortable out of game.  That was not my intent.  Just some harsh RPing.  

Even though there was nothing personal about it, I didn't like the way it came off.  I will blame it on my inability to put the bad work day in my back pocket.  How I wish it came off is with a bit of humor and without the threat.  Next time. 

I was thinking about when party members get on the opposite ends of a dispute.  It happens.  I kinda should happen.  Most of the time it adds and interesting element to the party dynamic.  Years ago I ran an adventure where everyone was the member of a thieves guild, they were to sneak into nobleman's home, but that's where their common cause ended.  Each had a goal and they conflicted with the other thieves' goals.  It was a lot of fun.

Last night I failed my good player roll.  Next time a conflict comes up I hope to handle it better and more in line with the fun we are trying to have. 

My Styles of GMing

My GMing style is casual, rules loose and usually I go for extremes in campaign theme.  First off the casual and rules loose.  I don't fret over the rules all that much, besides with the guys I play with they have them memorized or the book opened to to the right page.  I am one that just says 'Roll, let's see what happens'.  Now I admit that my rules loose approach can create some inconsistent rulings, but if the players remind me of what I did before I correct it.  Since we are playing GURPS sometimes the rules can get persnickety and I just want to keep the action going.

Second my extreme campaign themes.  I like either to have an epic/heroic story going for the players or a down a dirty, gritty scraping for every farthing campaign.  The one I am currently running is epic.  Already they have fought a medusa vampire and mana titan in only four sessions.  One player was promoted to master in the guild and another has witnessed a god battle.  This campaign I don't see being all that long, but I want to keep it intense and fasted pace.  So am I going to worry about money for trinkets?  Nope.  Pretty much these guys have the means and connections to get pretty much what they want.  Only something out of the ordinary would cause me to have them check the contents of their wallets. 

I am a wing it GM.  I find my stories are much more interesting when I use a loose structure.  The last adventure when they encountered the mana titan I did not sit down and stat it out.  Really there was no way to and plus when I do that I find the encounter restrained and not as cool as I wanted it to be.  I wanted these guys to know they were battling something very powerful, very potent and world altering.  And the battle was all that and two bags of chips.  Even though they won the battle the players could easily see how this creature could wipe out and army with very little effort.

I'm not sure exactly where this campaign will go or how long it will last, but I plan to just make up stuff that I find a lot of fun, keep a continuing storyline weaved through it and roll a ton of dice.  I want to roll until my Game Science dice go round.