>A rival party that is much more efficient at getting shit done than your group is stealing all your work
>They are always there before you, citizens and important folk alike say "Sorry, those other chaps already took the quest..."
>You arrive at lairs, dungeons and tombs, only to find them already cleared out
>The BBEG was killed months ago
What does your party do? How would they likely react? How would you deal with the competition?
>>43890564
Be glad that they're so efficient, settle down and tell the GM to call us back if some other big bad shows up and kills this super efficient party.
>>43890598
Let's say the objective of the game/campaign is for you to deal with your competitors.
How would you go about it?
>>43890649
That's a really fucking vague question.
I deal with it in whatever way is most appropriate for the situation.
Move to another region.
>>43891651
Pretty much this. Give up on adventuring and fighting and just go explore some shit.
If they are mercenary types, you start hiring them for jobs, just enough to get them to trust you until you lead them into a death trap of your own making.
If they are do gooder types, find a village to terrorize and they will come fight you on their own
>>43890649
I go into the forest and grind on Boars until I hit level cap.
>>43890564
In our campaign there was a a better party then us running about in the background.
A portion of the campaign was them stalking us trying to work out if they sould stop us or not.
Turns out they had a mage who could tell the future that was the source of much of their success.
However, it became a lot harder to tell the future as of late and we became active at about the same time for related reasons. They were somewhat convinced we were the cause of it all and that we would destroy the future they had all been fighting to bring about.
We now have an uneasy truce going since despite everything and all evidence pointing to us being at fault, they have a very strong moral code which includes no attacking fellow heroes of the people.
>>43890564
Take more minor quests, or focus on personal goals instead.
>>43890649
>talky guy spreads rumors about all the ways these guys are assholes
>sneaky guy steals important things from them, sabotages their missions
>magicky guy (or alternatively sneaky guy again) disguises/polymorphs/whatevers himself to look like various rival party members, commits crimes, frames them for them
IDK just ruin their lives as best you can and hope it works out well for you. That's what I'd do.
>>43890564
>>43891720
>Pretty much this. Give up on adventuring and fighting and just go explore some shit.
>you arrive in the new land
>plants and animals the likes of which you've never imagined before
>amazing landscapes more beautiful than you can describe
>some natives swim out to meet you and bring you back to their village
>they already know your language because the other party discovered this place first
>>43890564
>>43890598
>not killing said party yourselves
then again I always play as morally ambiguous mercenaries
>>43890564
Have our forger make some wanted posters about the rival party to show the druids that they are wanted for crimes against the enviroment, baby seals, endangered species and some major underwater enviroments.
Try to get a cult of undeads going, engaging the rival party to go gather unholy artifacts so that you have evidence for the local paladins and clergy that the rival group has been working for an evil organization.
Infiltrate their base, if they have one, bribing the people if you have to... then organize with some of the less loyal servants to set it all ablaze and/or blow it sky-fucking-high.
Or, for a faaaar more cliche'd thing...
Kill a pretty renowned ruler and get some dooming and framing evidence that it was their doing. (make sure that the ruler was well-liked by the people who hold the power. Be it other nobles or the peasants. The more people you can get against the rival group, the better.)
>>43890564
>The BBEG was killed months ago
>The game was over before it began
Um... move on and find adventure elsewhere. Unless this rival group seems shady or something.
Was in a similar situation, though the rival group was on even footing rather than outright better than us, and plenty of times we competed against them in the same job or quest at the same time and even place.
We tried to play it nice but eventually the ambushed us in a dungeon, killed several characters and even took a prisoner and raped another.
>>43890564
We're obviously the B-team. We'll handle the lower-level threats that are beneath a party this capable and deal with what we can handle at the more local level.
Twist: the party is the Avatars of the pure paragon forms of the party. As the party is perceived by legend and story and belief and perception in the real world, their Avatars behave.
I dunno, start a clinic or a shop or something. Keep trying to get jobs, move to a different area maybe. It's annoying as hell that they're basically taking all of the adventuring jobs and leaving nothing for your party, but unless they're some kind of legitimate and verifiable threat to the people I'm not going to hurt them or be a dick or anything. Might try and push myself to become better than them and get into fierce competition with them, etc, but it's kinda hard when nobody's hiring because they've magically already done everything.
>>43890564
i accidentally cause the end of the world
>>43891936
I would punch the GM in the face. When he asks why I'll tell him I just had to make sure the other party wouldn't beat us to it.
>>43890564
My DM did some pretty fucked up shit similar to this.
>one of our first adventures is in a goblin cave
>pretty standard faire, except it turns out the original leader built the place as a place to keep away from humans
>we end up freeing the leader, who's kind of a bro, rides a miniature pig into battle alongside us as we fight to give him back his "throne"
>we convince him to try and open trade with some human settlements nearby
>visit him from time to time to see his goblin town prospering
>then we come back one day
>everything's quiet
>there's a fire started somewhere in the cavern
>bunch of adventurers gathered around a campfire
>smug fucks tell us they got here first
>they're eating pork
>they killed goblin bro's mount and ate it
>they impaled his head on a pike
>"Cowards didn't even want to fight at first! Damn goblins!"
>tried to convince us to fuck off by offering us some of the treasure
>we killed them all
Fuckers killed our goblin bro.
>>43890564
I sell my sword and start farming out of spite.
I'm sorry you're not having fun mr GM, but my wheat crops aren't growing fast enough.
>>43892929
You could've rezzed gobbro afterwards.
>>43890649
>Let's say the objective of the game/campaign is for you to deal with your competitors.
I tell the DM that my character would not wish to deal with the competitors because my character is not motivated by greed or fame.
Why the fuck would I break from character just because the DM threw a fastball at us?
>>43892974
Resurrection isn't that easy in this setting.
>>43892997
That explains it...
Well, since it seems as though gobbro was a bro, maybe he didn't end up in a Narak after all.
>>43890564
Shit like this happened to my group once, so we took it the only way our party knew how to: sic our CN barbarian at them and move in to "defend our brother in self defense". Thank the high heavens for our paladin that would be able to convince a cell door to open itself for biting the bitter end and be our lawyer (in character he didn't know what had happened, so he had utmost faith in us not being murderhobos).
>>43892444
>We tried to play it nice but eventually the ambushed us in a dungeon, killed several characters and even took a prisoner and raped another.
>Even took a prisoner and raped another
I want a story-time on this, anon. I want a story time that explains the build-up, the characters involved, and how you resolved what sounds like a clusterfuck TPK.
This sounds familiar...
>>43891955
> killing someone 'cause he's better than you in what you do
That's not really ambiguous, is it?
>>43893032
The build up is pretty mundane, just each time we went dungeon delving or following a trail in a city, we'd encounter the other group more or less doing the same thing. Sometimes we'd butt heads, other times we'd all camp together, but it was never particularly hostile even when they managed to complete the objective before us and get the reward. The same reaction was not returned though, and each time we managed to complete something instead of them, they got a little more bitter. I guess the best way of describing it is that we saw it as a friendly rivalry/competition, but they actually bore us animosity and started to hate us overtime.
It came to a head when we killed a hydra boss of a dungeon and did what we needed to, but were very nearly dead. Then they show up finding us like that, after having been working at that quest for longer than us and lost more time and effort over it, and when we asked them for help they turned hostile. I don't want to say they snapped since the animosity had been simmering for them for awhile, but they saw our situation and decided they weren't going to get a better chance. So they threatened us to hand over the macguffin to which we obviously refused, so some of them attacked. The fighter, paladin and wizard were killed without much trouble, the cleric was knocked out with the intent to take her prisoner. Me and the rogue tried to just not get involved after watching the paladin get killed so quickly, but their fighter and ranger came after us, not with an intent to kill rather than just rough us up and see what we had for taking but they ended up raping the rogue.
After that they left with the cleric and magically caved in the way we came into the dungeon, so me and the rogue had to find our way out of the place and through unfamiliar land to reach civilization.
>>43893854
And you kept playing? Why? They effortlessly slaughtered the group, defiled the rogue (and probably the Cleric) while leaving those left with hardly anything but a chance to hobble back to civilization.
>>43893854
>they ended up raping the rogue.
Remember anon, flanking grants sneak attack.
>>43893884
The rogue player wanted revenge.
>>43893924
Thanks, if I ever play a rogue I'll remember that.
>>43893932
>the rogue player wanted revenge
... And, did they get revenge or are in the process of getting it?
>>43894016
We did eventually get back at them, yes. Well, most of them.
>>43893854
Well...I guess if that works for you guys then that's cool, but personally I feel like there's too much that could go wrong when utilizing rape as a dramatic tool. Too heavy handed and it gets really angsty, too dismissive and it's not only pointless but kind of trivializes it, and beyond that you're running the very real risk of making everybody a bit too uncomfortable with it.
There's certainly nothing wrong with not shying away from uncomfortable topics, it just means you have to deal with them with finesse, a skill that takes practice and many people lack. Still, like I said, if you guys enjoyed the game then more power to you.
Slap the GM for his stupid bullshit. I'm there to play, not to watch the GM masturbate over his own power fantasy crap.
>>43891955
>"Let's try and kill these guys who are better at killing then us!"
That'll go swimmingly, I'm sure.
Become the BBEG
>>43894093
They are better at killing, but are they good at avoiding manure explosions?
I don't think so.
>>43891842
>talky guy gets called on his bullshit
>sneaky guy gets caught and turned to the authorities
>magicky guy's disguise dispels in front of everyone
>rival party's reputation stays clean
>your own party's reputation goes to hell and you're being hunted down for the crimes that you were committing against the true heroes of the kingdom
>>43894322
We ally ourselves with the BBEG, divided we may be weak but together we are strong.
Evil campaign begins.
If the GM continues the shit act we just beat him up and fuck his sister.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGx6K90TmCI
>>43890649
>Let's say the objective of the game/campaign is for you to deal with your competitors.
>How would you go about it?
Go somewhere they're not and set up shop. Bam, done. That took me, what, all of 5 seconds to figure out? You're a really dumb piece of shit if you couldn't figure that out on your own, OP.
>>43894024
>We did eventually get back at them, yes. Well, most of them.
Storytime? Revenge always makes the best stories.
